A Soldier's Life - 483 - Copper Veins, Scales, and Minatures

Chapter 483: Copper Veins, Scales, and Minatures

Maveith relented and let Evie open his chest. My thought was that his daughters would walk all over him. The chest was yellowed wood, circular, and I already knew what was inside from the last room’s reward. Evie removed the lid and looked extremely confused. “There is nothing in it?” she announced.

“There should be a checkered board in the bottom,” I said.

“Checkers?” Maveith said excitedly, looking over Evie’s shoulder.

“No, it is a ten-by-ten checkered board for the pieces I was awarded in the last chest. I don’t know how to play the game, but it is kind of like chess with the Titans on one side and elves, dwarves, and humans on the other,” I said, describing what little I knew of the reward.

Maveith grunted unhappily, “No goliaths?”

“The goliaths didn’t fight the titans in the Uprising War, Maveith,” I stated. The game seemed to be symbolic of the struggle to overthrow the tyranny of the Titans. Maveith nodded, removed the heavy game board, and handed it to me. It had a lustrous polish of dark, polished copper and silver for the squares. The board was solid metal and quite heavy. There was value in the copper and silver, as well as in the artistic nature of the board. The border had interesting images of creatures, titans, humans, elves, and dwarves.

The copper game pieces I had would snap into place to center themselves on the squares after being moved. I was reasonably sure neither the copper nor the silver was magnetic, so I wasn’t sure how the board functioned. There was no aetheric impression to my aether sight, so I discounted magic. The reference was very vague about this rare dungeon reward set, but First Citizens of the Empire prized the set as a status symbol. I doubted many knew how actually to play the game. I didn’t think I had any references to play the ancient game in the dreamscape, but I should be able to find it in one of the elven city’s libraries.

My companions looked to me as the board disappeared. “The final room is full of copper veins and loose ore. Avanti told you about the guardian?”

They all nodded, but I told them what I knew anyway. “It is a unique creature. A variant of an earth drake, called a copper drake. It consumes the copper ore, and its scales are metallic and almost as hard as a true dragon’s. Its body is only the size of a horse, but its jaws can still crush a man.” The scales were an alloy of copper and were usually melted down by the Empire for coinage. “I think if Baelira restrained it, it should be an easy fight.”

“I wish to challenge the drake alone,” Maveith said firmly as he activated his sentinel armor. “I will make a memento from the scales to send to my daughters,” he explained earnestly. Did Maveith think there was a chance he would not return to his family? No one objected, but Kyrenic and I decided we would go with him into the cooper mine in case he faced trouble.

The final room had tall, curved passages that snaked back on themselves, allowing the drake to circle behind delvers. The high ceilings also had numerous ledges it could retreat to for safety or attack from. The lighting in this last room came from only a few long torches staked in the ground that burned the same cold aether-fed fire found in the entry room. With so few torches, the chamber had numerous flickering shadows. Those torches were lootable, but once taken out of the dungeon, the flames died after a few days.

Once Maveith, Kyrenic, and I had stepped from the corridor into the vast mine, the entrance sealed behind us. Alhar was standing in front of the blocked corridor, looking bored. We hadn’t asked him to come along, but as long as he didn’t interfere with Maveith, I was okay with his presence. A hissing roar echoed and reached us, and Maveith stepped forward and took a defensive stance as the draconic roars grew closer.

The drake ran along the walls high of the floor, its scales reflecting the torchlight, making it look like fire was flowing down its body. This sight was something the dungeon entries in the dreamscape could not do justice. The drake's small size didn’t inspire fear in my group, but we were prepared to defend and aid Maveith if needed. Maveith, separated from us in his black sentinel armor, made an appealing target.

The drake used the ledge to launch itself toward Maveith who didn’t flinch. As the creature twisted in the air to bring its forelimbs and fangs into play, Maveith anchored his shield and activated its ability. The drake was at least twice the weight of Maveith, but the shield held as the drake slammed into it. A mighty thud reverberated through the chamber as the drake's body folded on itself, and its thick bones cracked in the metallic clang. It stumbled away, dazed and confused at its failure.

Maveith didn’t give it a chance to recover. Although the drake tried to crawl away, Maveith’s quick footwork brought him in range again and again. His hammer struck once, twice, and a third time before the skull finally caved in from his blows. It was a very unfair fight for the poor drake.

The entrance was instantly restored, and Baelira and Evie rushed inside. It had gone much quicker than even I expected. Maveith’s sentinel armor vanished, and he knelt to begin extracting the scales. My collector was on the drake as it still oozed blood from its mouth. I already knew what the essence was going to be, but I hoped it would be a major essence and not the minor essence described in the lore I had read.

The thick wisps of aether had flecked sparks of copper as it pulled them to the center of the artifact. I only saw them because my aether sight was active during the process, but it was a good sign. Using the convergence affinity yielded an even better result than expected, a solid golden apex sphere.

Alhar was the first one to ask, “What is it?”

The golden sphere had a very slight luminescence as I tossed it up and down in my hand, feeling its weight. “Materialism affinity,” I said, focused on the mesmerizing golden sphere. With this, I could raise my affinity in materialism past ten and learn a spell form. “Maveith, it was your kill, but can I trade you for it?”

Maveith looked over, his hands bloodied as he carefully cut each scale away from the fascia. “You can have it,” he said unselfishly.

“No, Maveith,” I reprimanded him for his generosity. “How about once your daughters are old enough, I give them each an apex affinity for one of their magic affinities?” I countered. A twinkle in Maveith’s eye told me I had finally found something he wanted. He wanted to give his daughters every advantage he could. He nodded vigorously before returning to work.

The rest of us walked the chamber, looking for the chest and picking up large chunks of splotchy green ore as we went. The town had a smelter and craftsmen who utilized the copper. We passed pools of water, but I assumed, given the copper concentration in the room, that they would be toxic. When I didn’t see any creatures for the drake to eat, I returned to the pools. Dropping a glowstone into the water, I watched it sink into the murky water until the light faded into nothing. The pools were extremely deep and may have had some fish, but we would not waste time fishing this deep.

I continued exploring the network of passages. We didn’t have picks to mine the copper veins, but when I passed a pure copper vein thicker than my finger in the wall, I moved as much as possible to my space for Vartaholme’s crafters. The chest was located at the very far end of the chamber, inside a smooth stone alcove. Baelira announced finding it to everyone.

The chest was entirely made of copper but had oxidized to a sea-foam green. It was fairly small, and Baelira carried it back to Maveith. “Eryk can open it,” Maveith said, indicating his bloody hands. With Baelira holding it, I flipped the lid. A pair of copper bracelets was inside, and there were no coins. Examining the reward, they looked ornamental, but runic script was on the inside, and a flame pattern circled the outside. 

“It is a good artifact,” I said as I studied the script. “You touch them together and channel aether into them to create a jet of aetheric flame. It will last for as long as you channel aether.” I immediately thought of Raelia with her fire affinity, but she was not here. “You do not need to have the fire affinity, but if you do have a fire affinity, the fire can be made more destructive. We should see how they work, and then we can figure out who can make the best use of them.”

I removed my Earth Drake bracers and slid on the bracelets. They slowly resized as I fed them aether individually. When they fit, they offered decent protection to the wrist. I locked my fingers together, extended my arms, and touched the bracelets together. Everyone stood behind me, and with some anticipation, I pushed aether into them. A flame erupted in a deep red river in the direction I was pointing. I angled it toward the wall twenty feet away and poured more aether into the bracelets. The stream widened and went from red to orange to yellow, the heat increasing with each stage.

My aether pool drained quickly from the greedy artifact, and I stopped before it was completely spent. My face felt red from the heat, but my hands remained unburned. The surface of the copper veins in the wall seemed to have become molten.

“I think I could make use of those,” Alhar’s monotone voice chimed in as everyone else was in awe at the display. Everyone looking dubiously at the elf assassin.

I ignored his comment, and Kyrenic shook his head in rejection of a claim on the artifact. “Baelira should get them,” Evie said in surprise. “I have my wind blades, but she doesn't have any way to attack at range, and she has a lot more aether.” No one disagreed, and the stunned elf Sentinel was given the bracers. I stored the oxidized copper chest, and we spent a little time collecting more ore before leaving.

When we exited the dungeon and returned to the Adventurers Guild. I left the slab of stone copper outside of town, figuring someone would stumble upon it eventually. They could wonder how it got there. We divided up the loot to carry into town. My attempts to conceal my space amused Alhar.

Avanti was treated to a cart full of ore and llama pelts. While we got the horses ready to ride, he calculated the reward for the copper and wool. Compared to the forty-two gold vouchers for the deep worms, the four gold, ninety silver was minimal.

“Can I convince you to stay another day?” the Guildmaster asked as he counted out the coins. “I ran into two of the deep worms when I went to confirm your kills. Your method to kill them was effective.”

“We have to save the world, but I might return after.” Materialism was a rare affinity, and finding a dungeon to source it was a lucky break. It seemed Fortuna was smiling on me once again, now that I had returned to the Empire.

Kyrenic added. “There might be a fissure to the south of the city. The fog appeared unnatural this morning.” Avanti, who was only the Guildmaster because he was the highest-ranked adventurer left, got a constipated look on his face. If there was a fissure to the Endless Dark, larger troubles could be forthcoming.

I turned Ginger and led us out of the city. I had us run the horses all morning to gain distance from the fields where we had slain the deep worms. I was not certain how far they had spread since coming to the surface six months ago, but I was not going to risk the horses. When we rested the horses, I walked and constantly pulsed earth speak.

We didn’t see many signs of life on the first day’s ride from Vartaholme. Maybe it had to do with the deep worms, but there could be other unknown dangers. We planned to make the city of Cawe in five days. We arrived midmorning on the sixth. Our only encounter was a wild Auroch bull protecting his harem. He gave us a parting gift of some steaks.

The city of Cawe closely resembled Vartaholme, as both were dungeon cities on the edge of the Empire. Cawe was much smaller and had less industry supplied by the dungeon. The dungeon itself was called the Emerald Dreams. A deceptive name, since the dungeon trees had translucent leaves and there was a constant breeze causing them to shimmer.

Not that we would be delving this dungeon. The town looked packed with people and soldiers. Outside the town were newly tilled fields and small flocks watched by shepherds. The strangest thing of it all was a tent set apart from the city. Two hobgoblins in black leather armor stood guard outside it.

Our approach from the south west was watched by the hobgoblins and others in the city. A soldier from the town came galloping out to meet us. The boy was very young but very comfortable in the saddle. “Adventurers?” he asked, appraising our group.

“We are,” I said with my guild medallion on display.

“Very good. The city of Cawe is open to you, and Count Gato welcomes you. Please leave the goblin envoy unmolested,” the soldier indicated to the tent.

“Goblin envoy?” Kyrenic asked, flummoxed.

“Yes, they are here to negotiate a peace. The Count hasn’t decided what to do yet and sent for an Imperial Magistrate,” the soldier reported and then rode away, his job done.

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