World Sphere - 170 - Phantom Power

Chapter 170 Phantom Power

I was sleeping when my alarm spell went off on the stairs to the upper deck.  The image flashed in my head and showed me Gareth walking up the stairs with an elf woman.  I had only been asleep for a few hours and didn’t want to deal with this.  I was in my cabin, and the privacy spells had kept everything quiet.

I dropped the privacy spells and could hear Gareth in the hallway, “This is the fastest ship in the Sphere.  It helps us quickly get from dungeon to dungeon, but we mostly delve into the dungeons on the floating islands.”  His footsteps were headed toward the bridge, and I groaned as I rolled out of bed to deal with this.

Adrial and Kiara were alert and looking to me for direction as I left the cabin.  I gave the hand sign for them to follow.  I left Aelyn sleeping and went to the bridge to see what this was about.  Gareth was looking out the forward glass with a smaller elf woman.  She was just shy of 5’6” but had an experienced face.  “Gareth, what is going on?”  I asked, irritability.

A smiling Gareth introduced the woman, “This is Maerlyn, a silver card adventurer and a combat mage.  She is going to be joining Dungeon Heart.”  I might have remembered the woman at the auction below with Gareth, but I was not sure.  There had been hundreds of people in the bowl below the balconies.

Gareth was becoming a headache, but I remained calm.  I addressed Maerlyn, “Sorry to interrupt your tour.  This is my ship, and I didn’t give Gareth permission to bring others on board.  If you could make your way off the ship.”  My tone was respectful.

The elf looked impassive, and Gareth’s tongue was caught in his mouth.  The elf motioned behind me, “Are those phantom cats?”  Adrial and Kiara took up the entire corridor, blocking the exit from the bridge.

“They are.  They will let you pass,” I stepped aside.

Gareth regained enough of himself, “May I introduce High Mage Storme Hardlight.  He is my friend and one of the most powerful mages in the Skyholme Islands.  He is going into the Cavern of the Thunder Witch with us.”  Gareth’s eyes locked on mine and pleaded for assistance.  The problem with Gareth is that I could never tell if he was genuinely trying to recruit the elf mage or bed her.  She was attractive, but I couldn’t imagine her small frame and Gareth’s massive frame being intimate.

Maerlyn stepped forward, accessing me, “High mage and a beast tamer.  Impressive.  Well, I will see your skills tomorrow in the dungeon.”  The cats moved against the wall, allowing the elf to press between them.  The confident elf departed the ship, and I turned to Gareth.

“Tomorrow?”  I questioned Gareth.

“I assumed now that the auction was complete, we would go into the dungeon tomorrow. The auction was too bloody expensive, but at least a good chance to network,” Gareth said.

“Maybe I think in the evening.  Bleiz is searching the city for a beast tamer that might be able to answer some questions for me,” I let out a long sigh.  “Why are you bringing strangers onto the Maelstrom?  What if she was a pirate or some spy?”

“I met her in the Adventurer’s Hall.  She was being harassed, and I rescued her.”  He offered me his Gareth grin.  “She is most definitely not a spy, and she has never even been on a skyship.  Spent her whole life in Myththorne.”

“Gareth, I understand you are trying to recruit a new delve team, but please do not use me or the Maelstrom to do so,” I said patronly.  Gareth was still my friend, but since he didn’t want to come under the umbrella of Shiny Platinum Delving, I was not going to assist in growing his delve team.

Gareth winced, and I felt a little bad.  “You are still going to make good on the artificing?”  He reminded me of the coin he had given me for equipping his new members.

“Yes, when I have time.  Where are Zayne and Tobias?”  I asked, having not seen them in days.

“They are staying at the Adventurer’s Hall.  They didn’t like sharing the small room on the Maelstrom.  They like it there, besides, Zayne complaining about there being too many elves.  We have been waiting on you before entering the dungeon,” he stated, slightly accusatory.  “We need to get the ring for the Princess on the second level,” he reminded me.

“We can enter this afternoon, and no more guests on board the Maelstrom,” I stated firmly, dismissing Gareth and waving him off the bridge.

Gareth paused, “If Maerlyn signs on to Dungeon Heart, she can ride back with us to Skyholme?”

I thought about it.  “If she joins us on the delve, I will decide after getting a chance to meet her.  Pick up some guild quests for us in the first two levels of the dungeon.  I want to work on my adventurer’s card.”

Gareth grinned, “Already noted the repeatable harvest quests posted at the Guild Hall.  Hope your dimensional space is large enough for everything.”

“Go over them with Aelyn for equitable distribution as we discussed,” It was already weighted toward my flavor.  “And you adding more members to your team will not alter our prior agreement.  Gareth looked about to protest but wisely nodded and left the Maelstrom to catch up to the elf woman.

I was hoping the king would call on my artificing skills again.  He was paying a premium for my skills.  It was early, and I had time before Bleiz would return.  I made my way to the forward crawl space.  I had to move the Bolt, Remy’s small craft, to get into the space.  The two aether cannons were bolted in this small space.  They were functional, but due to the large amount of aether they channeled from the sextet of crystals, they burned off the gold insulator.

I worked on the disrupter cannon first.  I had enough adamantine to coat the runes and the mithril feeds that went back to the crystals on the upper deck.  I had estimated I would need ten coins’ worth of adamantine, and I had earned twelve.  I ended up using all twelve just on the disrupter cannon.  Now, we could use the cannon repeatedly with about nine seconds between discharges, the time it took to saturate the runes.

The disrupter cannon was powerful, and it caused chaos on runes on opposing ships.  The effect prevented ships from changing course, firing aether cannons, and it could even force a ship out of the sky with multiple hits.

It took hours to force the difficult adamantine into a thin layer over the runes and remove the gold. But when I finished, I was happy with the work and excited to finally have a weapon on the Maelstrom. The sister cannon was going to take slightly less adamantine, maybe nine coins, since both cannons used the same feeds from the aether crystals, and the runes were not as complex on the powerful second cannon designed for range and damage.

I crawled out of the crawl space and found Bleiz entertaining a red-haired elf. Bleiz stood and introduced the guest, “Beast Tamer Ardendale. Over three hundred years experience and has knowledge of beast essences.”

The Beast Tamer’s eyes were focused behind me on the cats in appreciation. “Phantom cats, and it looks like one is an abnormality.

“So what can you tell me about beast essences?”  I asked the tamer.  I had a much better vibe from the tamer than the Lorae had found and summoned to Llorth.

The elf smiled, “I assume you were bidder 707 then?  Got yourself all three beast essences in the auction?”

“Yes, for the cats.  So, do you have anything useful to tell me?”  I asked patiently, expecting him to request some coin.

“I prefer to call them beast traits and not essences.  They are extremely rare in dungeons. They do manifest the beast aspect on your core if a person consumes them.  But on a beast core, they just metabolize the ability.” He waited for me to nod before he continued.

“A beast core can metabolize any number of them, but their beast core becomes unstable in the process.  You need to wait for it to stabilize before feeding it a second, or it will most assuredly die. Stabilization could take years.”

“How do you know when the beast core is stabilized again,” I inquired.  The red-haired elf seemed reluctant to continue.  Maybe because he was offering information for free, “Does the information have a price?”

Relief flooded his face for not having to ask. “Compensation would be appreciated.  I was uncertain what to ask since you appear to be a guest of the king,” the Beast Tamer answered candidly.

I pulled a large platinum coin and held it out, “Satisfactory?”

“Very,” he nodded, taking the coin worth a thousand gold value. “You need a reader that specializes in beast cores.”

“Are beast essences the same as imprinting abilities?” I inquired.

“Imprinting? Does one of your phantom cats have space on their beast core?” He realized he had not answered my question. “No, imprinting abilities and beast traits are different. Imprinting is similar to spell imprinting for you. Beasts do not have the capacity to imprint spells, so they are born with their spell matrix already filled with spell-like abilities. It just takes them time to figure out how to control their aether.”

I decided to let the Beast Tamer in on the cat’s aether core size, “The black one will have a core size of six when fully grown, and the white one will have a twenty-three.”

Ardendale looked at the two cats, “Phantom cats should have the tier two ability chameleon and phantom whip. So the black one will have a potential of two and the white a potential of nineteen.” His voice got softer as he realized it.

“Do you know anyone capable of imprinting?” I asked, hopeful.

The Beast Tamer was distracted, “Umm, yes. I have come across a few with the ability in my travels. No one in Myththorne, though. It would take a sum of coin to get them here, and they may need to purchase the ability to imprint at a library in one of the larger city archives. Also, beast cores have affinities which limit what can be inscribed.”

“I know. Both have air and illusion affinities. The white one also has mind magic affinities,” I informed him. His eyes couldn’t get any wider. I already knew from Timmer, the mind mage, that they were extremely valuable.

Ardendale nodded emphatically, “Just remarkable.”

“Can you arrange it? Get them here and ready to work on the phantom cat’s cores?”

“It would take a few months, and the cats must also be fully grown for their cores to be mature.  What abilities are you looking to have inscribed?” Ardendale asked intently.

“Tier two haste for the black one. For the white one, tier two haste, tier three mind bond, and tier four confusion. I have some ideas for the remaining five points, but it is too early to commit,” I informed him.

“That would be one of the scariest phantom cats I have ever seen. Confusion is a powerful stun ability,” I nodded at his comment. “I only know one person that can inscribe a tier four ability on a beast core. Now that I think about it, I am not even sure he is still alive. It will take me time to track him down. Do you wish to retain me?”

I considered the elf. He gave me a good vibe, unlike the last Beast Tamer. “I do.”

“One hundred gold a day. You can negotiate with the beast core inscriber separately when I bring him to you, but I will need to purchase the runes for the inscription. The tier-two quickness would just be twenty-five hundred gold, which is not unusual. Mind-link, the tier one version of mind bond, is just a thousand gold, but I can not guess what the tier three version would cost,” he rambled a bit.

“Can you bring the inscriber to the Skyholme islands? I will have someone there that can contact me.” I was planning to make a pair of the adamantine communication rings for me and Freya. That way, she should be able to contact me if something is happening in Skyholme. I couldn’t imagine getting further away from Skyholme than 500,000 miles, but it was always possible.

“If you show me where in the Sphere it is, I think that is possible,” Ardendale said.

I nodded and asked him a question, “If I give the cats the beast essence now, can you give me an estimate of how long before they can use another?” He nodded. “Good. Is twenty-five thousand gold a good starting point for everything?”

Beast Tamer Ardendale considered, doing the math in his head, “I will estimate ten thousand for the core inscriptions. Five thousand to bring my acquaintance to Skyholme. Leaving ten thousand for a hundred days in your service.”

“Agreed,” I took out the bag of coins that Gareth had given me. I just hoped he had been accurate when he said twenty-five thousand gold was inside.

“Kiara, come here!” I commanded the white phantom cat. She rose, stretched, and sauntered over to stand before me. Her eyes told me she had an idea of what was going on. The clarity of sight essence appeared in my hand, and I cracked the seal. Adrial was immediately next to her, thinking they were getting treats. I opened Kiara’s mouth with one hand and poured the contents in with the other.

Kiara began to clean her teeth, tasting the unusual liquid that she somehow knew would make her stronger. Her red glowing eyes got slightly paler for just a moment before returning to normal. Ardendale inspected her. “When she is fully grown in a year, she should be able to take another beast trait. The time between traits will get longer and longer, though.”

“Thank you. Adrial, this one is yours,” the vial of primal strength appeared in my hand. I broke the seal and fed it to the cat. She enjoyed the contents much more than Kiara. Her muscles immediately began rippling. Her silky black coat seemed to expand slightly, muscles growing in seconds.”

The Beast Tamer noted, “She will want to eat more over the next week to metabolize that fully. That must have been the primal strength you purchased last night. She is going to be a dangerous kitty.” Kiara’s white head turned to the tamer, and her eyes narrowed. Kiara never liked it when others praised Adrial. Adrial was letting out deep, throaty purrs, realizing she had been given a gift. Kiara was going to be upset as Adrial had already bullied her when they play wrestled.

The Beast Tamer squinted, focusing on Adrial, “She is going to take longer. Maybe two or three years before she can metabolize another beast trait. Her core is not as strong as the white ones.”

“How long before you will be in Skyholme?” I asked Ardendale.

“If Keothi is where I left him a hundred years ago, I will be there in two months. If not, I will track him down to see if he is still alive and can not give you a timeline,” he answered honestly.

“When you get to Skyholme, go to Aegis City and the Shiny Platinum. They will contact me.  And you can stay there until I arrive,” I shook wrists with the Tamer, and he left with purpose.

“Bleiz, go and collect Aelyn. We are off to the Adventurer’s Hall and the Cavern of the Thunder Witch.”

It was not long before the five of us left the Maelstrom. I felt confident the cats would be fine in the dungeon. They had their shielding collars. I was a little shocked to find Captain Delilah waiting for me. Had she been out here the entire time?

“Are you taking your pets into the city?” she asked.

“Companions,” I stated.  “We are headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to pick up my friends and onto the dungeon.”

Captain Delilah nodded, “Very good.” She whistled, and four guards trotted over from the palace. “They will make sure no one bothers your companions.”

Before we left, I told Kiara, “Black coat.” She gave me a pitiful look as she hated matching her sister, but she obeyed and used her chameleon ability to make her coat black. Thye King’s guard did clear the streets, but most people stopped to stare. Phantom cats walking the streets was not the norm. In fact, I had never seen another phantom cat in the city.

We reached the massive Adventure’s Hall, the mismatched colored stones making it appear childlike in its construction. We entered the front instead of the back like we had at the auction. A massive room with a hive of activity spread out before us. The Cavern of the Thunder Witch was a massive dungeon; hundreds were drawn to explore and exploit it.

Kiara hissed loudly to our left, and Zayne appeared, his hands up in surrender. “How did she see me?” I think I could hear her hissing a laugh at the scout, her new ability already manifesting. Zayne shook his head, “Are you ready to go into the dungeon? Should I get the others?”

“Did Gareth recruit anyone beyond Maerlyn?” I asked.

“No, just the dangerous elf mage. I will go collect the crew and meet you at the dungeon entrance?” He asked.

Aelyn was impatient, “Yes.  Where is it?”

Zayne pointed, “Straight back. Head through the double doors and descend the staircase. A Guild Guard will be waiting for the cycles to send people in.”

“Cycles?” Bleiz asked.

“The entrance changes locations where you appear in the forest every hour. There are twenty-three different starting locations,” he explained.  Zayne was already rushing off to gather Tobias and Gareth.

We marched down the room, the two black phantom cats getting most of the attention. The doors swung, and a wide, rough stone staircase led underground. Flickering stones lined the walls for light as we took the twenty-eight steps. Groups of adventurers stood together at the bottom of the landing. It looks like there was a line to enter. Now, where was Gareth?