Chapter 42

Now that Diya had his Slimeskin summons, he needed to focus on figuring out his deck’s composition. The journal’s blank slots needed attention, too. Since he’d reached tier-two, he could slot spells of the same level into the three spaces. Ideally, he would’ve liked to upgrade what he already had but lacked the runes or understanding to do so. He shared the process and function with Gwyneth, hoping she’d have ideas. Unfortunately, her expertise lay in souls, monster and spell cards, and their respective upgrades. However, the tier-one spells would suffice for the rest of the interval, so he set aside such concerns for later.

As a tier-two climber, he could now carry a tier-two card and two tier-one cards in his deck. While Gwyneth had five spaces in her deck—excluding the soul card—he only had four.

“What cards do you have in your deck?” Diya asked, hoping to build his set-up around hers.

“For my tier-ones, I’m carrying Wilderness Traversal and Distort Presence—”

“What’s that?”

“Distort Presence? It does what the name says. It’s an active spell. When I trigger it, the senses of anyone targeting me get muddled. They’ll smell, hear, and see me but not at the correct location or multiple at once. It’s a powerful card. The tier-one version only lasts for half a minute and can be used a couple of times a day, but it’s saved my life several times.”

“That’s a pretty powerful card,” Diya commented. If not for its limitations, he would’ve considered investing in something similar for his deck. “Once you get used to the staff, it won’t just be an escape too. You can use it to lure in a foe and then turn on them, too.”

“Let’s hope it never gets to that.” Gwyneth chuckled. “Besides those two, I have several cards that I cycle through the deck as needed. If you’re concerned about combat, I’ve got Mud Pit as a tier-zero. It should slow people in the affected area.”

After some thought, Diya handed her the Inkfire Smoke card. “Keep this in your deck, too. It stinks, burns the eyes, and should choke anyone that gets in the smoke cloud.” He paused for a moment, wondering whether giving her the card was a good idea. Gwyneth didn’t come across as a skilled combatant. “Thanks, Diya… What do I call you for the record? Your father calls you Udit, but you recognise yourself as Diya.”

He paused, glancing at his new climbing companion. “Don’t let Baba hear you calling me that,” Diya answered. “He hates it.”

“So it’s not your real name?”

“It’s what my brother used to call me. I’ve grown attached to the name.”

Gwyneth stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “What do you have in your deck?”

“Since I don’t have any tier-two cards, I’m using three tier-ones: Mole’s Claws, Ensnaring Vines, and Burst of Strength. For the tier-zero, I bought Marksmanship for fighting, Climbing for when we’re travelling.”

“Next time we’re in a hub, we should look into picking up a camping kit card,” Gwyneth said. “It’ll reduce the amount of junk you carry.”

“You know a lot about cards, don’t you?” Diya asked.

Gwyneth nodded. “My studies specialised in how keywords on monster cards react with a soul’s abilities, but I’ve researched spell cards, too.”

Diya fished Territorial Awareness out of his pocket and showed it to her. “I used this extensively on the first floor and even outside the tower, but it stopped working once I got to the second floor. Is there something I’m missing?”

“It’s an easy card to misinterpret,” Gwyneth replied. “Territory is defined as an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state. Territorial Awareness works in your direct vicinity as that is your space. However, when you enter an area controlled by something or someone else and they’re nearby, your space decreases in size. As a result, Territorial Awareness’s effects diminish, too.”

“It feels so obvious now that you’ve explained it.”

“There are several cards which seem generally useful but have very particular effects.”

“Can you tell me much about where we’re going?” Diya asked, checking the East India company’s handbook. Gwyneth had marked an area in the centre of the forest. The only notes beside it said: inhospitable, uninhabited terrain. “I’ve got decent experience as a scout and—”

“It’s dangerous, and you need to let me take the lead,” she answered. “You might be an expert tracker and better at covering rough terrain, but I know this floor better than you do.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to prepare. That’s all I’m saying.”

She’s hiding something.

After growing up around nobility, Diya learned how to study and observe people. Gwyneth didn’t feign ignorance. Instead, her back stiffened, and she kept her eyes on the glowing forest ahead. Diya used the time to prepare. Now that he had room for Ensnaring Vines in his deck, he removed its inkfire version from the journal. Instead, he slotted in Ink Vines and willed the spell into the gauntlet.

Diya’s heart pounded in his chest as he felt the familiar wild presence move from his pen into the launcher mechanism. Little Slimeskin creepers peeked out of the opening above his wrist. Meanwhile, Diya kept the fountain pen in his left hand. After a couple of hours of traversing through the glowing forest, they were finally leaving behind the populated grounds. Monstrous threats would now haunt their surroundings.

After the pair passed a cluster of six-foot-tall glowing mushrooms, Gwyneth manifested her soul and let it float ahead, and Diya finally summoned his coat. It was much more identifiable than the gauntlet, and Diya wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible. It wasn’t just the De Lawneys that concerned him, but the Boleyns, too.

Lord Graham Boleyn believed the first two intervals were a waste of time. The monsters were too weak, and too many richer parties hunted them. Instead, he had invested most of his assets in the fourth interval and used the third to train his Climbers. The Boleyn party were likely racing towards the tenth floor. The sooner they visited the house’s economic interests. The sooner Edgar could start preparing for his new role.

If Edgar finds out I’m climbing this quickly with a junk spirit, he might react negatively.

Baba claimed he’d become friends with the De Lawneys, too, making the need to stay ahead of them even greater. Until he learned to change the coat’s texture and colour, Diya wanted to ensure few people saw it.

Even though Gwyneth appeared comfortable on the fourth floor, Diya couldn’t help but feel on edge. The neverending night left him unnerved. The sky had no moon, and the varying shades of bioluminescence stressed the eyes. He focused on Gwyneth’s soul. Its blue light felt gentle on the eyes when compared to the rest.

Occasionally shrubbery rustled, and Diya heard movement in the canopy above. However, he rarely saw anything more than fleeting shadows out of the corners of his eyes. Seek Prime Beast didn’t glow or tingle under his right sleeve. Fortunately, the sensory overload had him in an alert state. So, when hostels did come for them, Diya was ready.

Gwyneth appeared oblivious as the forest fell silent. The luminous branches above ceased creaking, and the surrounding shrubbery no longer rustled. Keeping the coat and gauntlet manifested required Diya to have the pen summoned. He called on the Frozen Ink Lance straight away and hopped in front of Gwyneth, adopting a defensive stance.

The predators didn’t come from them straight away. Instead, the eyeless leathery creatures sat in the branches, their long triangular ears facing the duo. Empty eye sockets twitched, stretching all the way across their flat faces.

Instead of eyes, two giant holes extended from the middle of their leathery faces into long pointed ears. Below it sat a giant maw of toothy fangs and webbing connected their long limbs to the sides of their rounded torsos. At a glance, Diya guessed they were ambush hunters that dove from the canopy or glided above it, hunting for foes.

“Above,” Diya whispered, grabbing Gwyneth’s forearm and pulling her back before she could take another step forward. A clawed limb scythed through where she’d stood moments ago. Diya caught a follow-up attack on his gauntlet as they retreated to a patch with only skinny branches overhead.

Diya summoned the fountain pen in his right hand and released a trio of Seeking Inkfire Bolts. The bat-like creatures scattered, leaping to neighbouring trees. Meanwhile, Gwyneth awkwardly held her staff in both hands. Seeker’s Lantern floated to her left, emitting a brighter blue glow than its usual light. Strands of electricity arced off the metal shell.

“They’re too fast for me to hit,” she said as a trio of enormous specimens surrounded them.

“Me, too,” Diya said. The Marksmanship’s cards felt insufficient.

I’ll probably need more practice or a higher-tier version to compensate for my shit aim.

Instead, he called forth Frozen Ink Lance, sitting in the journal’s second blank slot. The pen grew into the six-foot-long weapon, and he successfully thrust the jagged head into a bat creature’s left limb.

An ear-piercing scream burst through the woods. Gwyneth winced, dropping her staff to cover her ears. The bats used the opportunity to attack. One member of the uninjured trio came for Diya. The other attacked Gwyneth. Seeker’s Lantern moved just in time to save her neck. Claws bounced off the metal, and lightning struck the attacking beast, drawing another ear-piercing screech.

Diya flinched but fought the urge to clamp his hands over his ears. Instead, he sidestepped his opponent and sliced the frozen spearhead across the bat’s torso. He failed to cut deep into the creature, but the cold made it recoil. Gwyneth tugged on his sleeve and yelled, but the words came out muted and unintelligible. A clawing dullness weighed on him, muddling the world’s sounds. Diya’s head throbbed, too, but he focused on his opponent.

A mental prod called Ensaring Vines forth, and they slithered like inky tentacles around the gauntlet’s barrel. Diya fired it up into the branches where two bats had retreated and fled towards Gwyneth. She still hadn’t recovered from the screeching attack, and Seeker’s Lantern swung into Diya. Strands of electricity struck his coat, sending a jolt through his body. The congealed ink absorbed the brunt of the attack. Gwyneth’s mouth moved, but he still didn’t hear her words.

The bat struck by Gwyneth’s lightning shakily rose to its feet. Before it could retreat or attack, Diya changed the grip on his pen-lance and threw it as he would a javelin. It was far bigger, but the weight matched. Several months had passed since he practised such a move. As a result, the weapon failed to pierce the bat’s chest as Diya had hoped. Instead, it hit the shoulder and threw the creature off balance.

A burning metallic smell filled Diya’s nostrils. When he spun around, Seeker’s Lantern hovered next to him, and another bat lay on the floor. He dove at the beast as it tried to rise and punched it with his gauntleted arm. The blow gave Diya enough of an opening to get his axe out and plant it in the monster’s face. The silver light of cards forming lit from the corpse. Before Diya could collect them, Gwyneth grabbed him by the collar and pulled him onto his feet.

Five shadowed figures stood before them, standing just outside the bioluminescence. Long cloaks covered them, but their skinny frames, lack of shoulders, and dome-shaped heads told Diya they weren’t human.

“More?” He grumbled.

The Frozen Ink Lance still lay ten feet away, planted in a now dead bat. When Diya held out his gauntleted hand, it disintegrated, and the fountain pen appeared in his grip.

I wish you kept the lance form.

Gwyneth placed a hand on his shoulder when he assumed a defensive stance. She spoke, but the words were still unintelligible.

“Talk later!” He said. “There’s more of them coming.”

Gwyneth pointed at them and shook her head, trying to pull Diya back, but he ignored her. He advanced toward the shadowed group, ready to continue the fight. The bats were down, and he had the ensnaring vines set up. Dancing around them would help deal with their greater numbers. Humanoid creatures typically had weapons and moderate martial skills, but he didn’t expect much of entities of the first interval.

Then he saw Seeker’s Lantern flash out of the corner of his eye. He felt a powerful jolt moments later. It felt as if all the bones in his spine and torso wanted to jump away from each other. The axe and pen slipped out of Diya’s fingers as his body went limp, and he collapsed. Darkness took him moments later.,