World Sphere - 166 - Myththorne

Chapter 166 Myththorne

Gareth had been late for departure and ended up staying on the Princess’ skyship, Amelia’s Wings, for the journey.  Of his delve team, he only had Zayne and Tobias with him, so I was not sure how he would do any delving.  I had been looking forward to a few days to catch up with him.  He had become a fairly famous delver in Skyholme and had the respect of the local guilds.  He was also the most recognizable person on the islands with his massive frame.  Not that I was far behind, but I tried to keep a low profile outside of public healing.

Remy was in the pilot’s chair, talking away about what he had brought for trading opportunities.  I was only half listening and nodding when appropriate.  “Storme, did you fix the runes on the Bolt?”  Remy asked.

“What?” I was confused by the change of topic.

“The Bolt.  Did you fix the runes?”  He asked again.  The Bolt was the single-person skyship he had been working on for over a year.  The first iteration lacked safety features, and Remy had a bad crash, nearly getting himself killed.   I played a role in the second attempt at the tiny skyship.  The problem was that the smaller scale required much mithril to power the tier-six aether crystals.  Remy also had a new idea on how to improve it every week.

“The forward, wedge-shaped aether shielding?” I asked, and he nodded strongly.  “No.  I haven’t had the time,” I admitted.

His face dropped some.  He explained for the ninth or tenth time, “The shielding angle is important to minimize the effect of air resistance on the Bolt.  I should be able to sustain higher speeds for much longer.”

“Remind me when we get back,” I said, thinking the conversation was over.

Remy cracked a massive grin, “Well, the Bolt is actually in the hold.  So, I figured you could work on it during the trip.”

“I don’t have the time to write out the new runic patterns.  I am prepping the aether cannons for adamantine.”  My response had Remy frown as he tried to give me puppy dog eyes.

I wasn’t swayed, “If I am going after Black Maurader skyships, I need to finish the aether cannons.”  The truth was the aether cannons were both complete.  One was a disrupter cannon that disrupted aether flow through runes; the other was a powerful, tight beam with about a 1.5-kilometer range.  The problem was they could only be fired once before I needed to replenish the gold insulation in the runes, making them very inefficient.  One shot in combat was not very useful, especially with how difficult it was to hit another skyship.

Remy gave up trying to convince me and relinquished his pilot duties.  They were more involved as we had to stay matched with the Princess’ skyship, and although Amelia’s Wings speed was good at 950 mph, it fluctuated continuously.  I moved the Maelstrom high and aft to watch the other skyship.  Both Kiara and Adrial had fallen asleep in front of the viewing window.  They knew sometimes trips took time and there was no danger.

Adrial was turning into a real beast of a cat.  She was also ferocious in combat and fiercely protective.  The problem with her is she had trouble reading situations; twice in the past year, someone had yelled at me, and Adrial had instantly attacked them.  Kiara was much better at reading people and could understand body language.

Kiara had also mastered her two phantom whips and camouflage ability.  Her whips were extremely powerful as well, able to snap a normal steel blade.  I was hoping to find a Beast Tamer in Myththorne capable of inscribing another ability on her Beast core.

A few hours later, the proximity radar buzzed, and I studied it before angling the Maelstrom toward the disturbance.  I cast a telescopic eye and focused on three ships in the distance.  The spell has been invaluable since I learned it.  It was currently at level fourteen, and each evolution increased the magnification.  Currently, I could get one hundred and twenty-eight times zoom.  It was disorienting if I was not sitting still, though.

It looked like two slow-moving traders and an escort.  I ended the spell but kept an eye on the proximity radar in case they tried to intercept us.  They appeared too slow to catch us, and soon we had passed them.  Bleiz walked on the bridge, “Anything dangerous?”  He had heard the soft buzz from his cabin.

“Traders and an escort.  Doesn’t look like a threat.  Do you want the watch?”  I asked.  Bleiz had been given quite a few hours to practice flying the Maelstrom and the Sky Wraith.  He was now completely comfortable in the pilot’s chair.

“No, Neoma and Tibault wanted to practice in the cargo hold.  I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need me before joining them,” Bleiz said, giving me a toothy smile and leaving.

I pulled out my spellbook for Lightning Elemental and continued my study of the intensely complex spell.  I had spent months on it and still did not feel close.  Engrossed in the book, time passed until Adrial’s large, black, furry mass nuzzled me.

“Time to eat, is it?”  I scratched her ears and placed a large bowl of mixed raw meat on the floor for her.  I placed another bowl of raw liver and grilled chicken for Kiara.  Kiara didn’t move from the viewport; instead, she used her phantom limbs to draw the bowl toward her.  Adrial hissed in displeasure at her sister’s skill.  If Adrial tried that, she would have shattered her bowl.  The cooks at the Shiny Platinum now prepare the meals for both cats to their specifications, and I store a few dozen of each in my dimensional space. I probably had the most spoiled felines in the Sphere.

I returned to studying but was shortly relieved by Remy.  He went to the wall charts to make sure our location was correct before taking the seat.  The cats followed me into my cabin, and they were really too big now.  “Have you been sleeping the entire flight?” I asked Aelyn, who stirred in the covers.  She threw a pillow at me that I caught.

“I was training with the Wolfsguard.  If you don’t want your sheets to smell like sweaty elf, then you better hit me with the cleanliness spell,” she said with a devious smile.

“Maybe I like sweaty elves,” I said, going into overdrive mode with the lightning reflexes spell.  She was under the covers, and I used them to pin her.  She hadn’t even tried to stop me.  She did smell fairly musky today.

“You do realize you are on the wrong side of the blankets to take advantage of me,” Aelyn said, relaxed and smiling.  I smiled back, too, and started to tickle her relentlessly while she thrashed around and begged me to stop while laughing uncontrollably.  The cats stood at the bed’s edge, twitching tails, and wanted to join.  That had not gone well last time, and they knew better now.

I finally stopped and kissed Aelyn passionately, used the cleanliness spell, and then dismounted her, releasing her from the sheets.  I moved to the small artificing desk in the cabin.  She came over and sat with me, seeing we were not going to continue foreplay.  “What are you working on?”

“Practicing working adamantine,” I held up the single black coin.  “It still takes much more effort than it should to shape.  When the Elven King tests me, I want to show him I can shift the metal easily.”

“I still don’t know why you just don’t make the adamantine yourself.  He may decide you are a curiosity and put you in a cage,” Aelyn said while sorting through the items on the desk.  Aelyn already had the best gear I could make her, and Remy would probably sell everything on the desk in Myththorne.

“I checked with the Adventurer’s Guild.  King Nirhaan is in good standing,” I said, shaping the coin into a ring and then back slowly.

Aelyn had stacked a dozen gold rings on top of each other, creating a tower.  “No one is trustworthy.  You remember the story I told you when I sold Heart Stone?”

Aelyn’s little adventure to sell the Skyholme’s Heart Stone almost got her, and the entire crew of the Prancing Eagle killed. After learning Skyholme was going to be attacked, she scraped her plans to steal the Prancing Eagle from Captain Hyperion. She had been working on gaining his trust and waiting for the opportunity to steal the skyship.

Instead, she felt guilty about having the Heart Stone and leaving Skyholme defenseless. Well, maybe not Skyholme, but Storme and his family. She contracted to sell the Heart Stone through the Adventurer’s Guild, but during the transaction, everything went to shit. The buyers refused to pay since the Prancing Eagle was registered with a pirate bounty.

The following fight was only won due to Hyperion’s overpowered ability. They took the coin and the Heart Stone. Not an hour later, a goldplate Adventurer tracked them down and let them keep the coin but required the Heart Stone to fulfill his contract. Happy to get away they fled, and Aelyn used the coin to buy off Hyperion’s debt and hire the rest of the pirate fleet mercenaries she brought to Skyholme to save Storme.

I had been worried about Hyperion and Aelyn’s relationship after the defense of Skyholme, but Hyperion was a weird character. Always happy and mostly unfocused on the task at hand, he was attracted to Aelyn but never pressured her. Even the fact she had used him and his crew had not soured their relationship. Figuring out Hyperion was a lost cause. He just seemed to do whatever he felt like at the moment. Everyone was shocked when he decided to remain in Skyholme and delve into the Progenitor Dungeon with Aelyn, Glint, Nisil, and Bleiz.

Thinking about Hyperion, I asked, “What will Hyperion be doing while you are gone?”

Aelyn’s tower of rings fell over at seventeen, “Damn. Uh, Hyperion? I think they are going to take the Dark Tide to Llorth and get some training with the Duskhunters. But he will likely spend his days drinking with Glint and the rest of the crew.”

“And you trust him with your skyship?” Aelyn knew Hyperion better than me, but he seemed like someone who could just decide to leave, taking what he could.

Aelyn looked thoughtful for a moment, “Trust him?  I guess so. It is just a skyship anyway.”

I shook my head and bit my tongue as I had spent hours refurbishing the Dark Tide for Aelyn and even invested about forty-thousand gold worth of mithril in the ship. In exchange the Dark Tide was to help defend the Black Spire if we were attacked again.

“I am done for now,” I said, putting down the adamantine coin. “What do you want for dinner?”

The trip to the Principality of Marstom’s borders turned out to be uneventful. We passed over a dozen skyships, but no one tried to intercept us. After the Black Mauraders had been thwarted, this entire region of the Sphere had been relatively calm of pirate activity.

We docked with Amelia’s Wings to take on Gareth, Zayne, and Tobias. They quickly transferred, and the Princess continued home to show off her new skyship. Gareth had a massive grin on his face as he boarded, “Are the Principality and Skyholme going to war?” I asked after my friend.

Zayne answered for him, “No, our big guy did not plunder the Princess’ riches. Well, he did, but not in the way you are thinking, High Mage. But not for lack of effort, the good Princess was not charmed by his character or size.”

Gareth gave Zayne a light shove, and he stumbled away, “We contracted Dungeon Heart to work for the Princess.”

My eyes narrowed, “Why? I would have sponsored you, Gareth. Blazes, I practically already do since I artificed most of the gear your team wears.”

Gareth had a guilty look, “Yeah, about that. I might need to contract some more gear. Dungeon Heart is just us right now.”

I looked at my friend in shock, “And let me guess, all the weapons, rings, and armor I made the others—you let them keep it.”

Gareth blushed in embarrassment, and he had never been good with coin. Each person on his delve team probably had three to five thousand gold worth of gear I had made them. I even gave him a discount on Otto’s potions. “Yeah, Storme, I didn’t want to pressure anyone. But I have the coin to pay for new gear.” He handed me a bag, “Twenty-five thousand gold to run an account. I will let you know what I need after we find some replacements.”

I grimaced, “Gareth, I don’t have time. Just use the coin in Myththorne to buy your enchanted gear.”

Gareth put his arm around me, “Come on Stormy! Why would I go to anyone else when I am friends with the best artificer in the Sphere? Also, are you interested in a short delve with us? We have to get one little thing in the Cavern of the Thunder Witch for the Princess, do you want to join us?”

“I’m in,” Aelyn said from behind.

“Fantastic!” Gareth bellowed before I could change Aelyn’s mind. “Stormy, you are not gonna let your girlfriend brave an open dungeon alone, are you?”

I had actually been thinking of checking out the dungeon if I had time. “Okay, Aelyn and Bleiz, and I will go with you. Fifty-fifty split on value, and I will determine loot distribution.”

“Grrreow!” Kiara let out a long, growling meow.

“Okay, I am bringing Kiara and Adrial, so that makes it a 2 to 1 split in my favor.”  I challenged Gareth. Tobias looked ready to speak up about the unfairness of my loot distribution, but his healing skills really were not needed, and he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Gareth winced as he did the math in his head and reluctantly nodded at getting the short end of the stick. It was always best to keep the High Mage of Skyholme happy. “I have a delving guide for the Cavern of the Thunder Witch. Do you want to study it together?” Gareth had his sloppy grin.

I nodded, “We can all study it together. It should be only half a day to reach Myththorne.”

I made everyone some cutlet sandwiches and informed Bleiz we were planning to delve into the dungeon. I already knew he would want to join us, so I included him. We spent the next eight hours going through the first level of the dungeon. It was a massive, expansive forest with trees twenty feet in diameter and over four hundred feet in height. The forest was eight hundred square miles and had roaming giant elk, giant vultures, trap door spiders, and dozens of caves to explore. All the caves had a challenge monster, either a giant bear or a cyclops. And each cave gave access to the next level.

The second level was one of the most unusual dungeon levels I had ever heard about. It was a large grassy plane with seven walled forts on it. Various races ruled the cities and sent out patrols. In order to access the next level, you need to defeat a fort captain. What made it usual was that two of the forts were manned by humans. Dungeon created humans that fought like men. Each of these forts had about two hundred defenders and sent out patrols of seven. The patrols from the different forts also fought each other, so it seemed like chaos.

“Princess Amelia wants the emerald ring from the lizard man captain,” Gareth revealed. “It is almost always found in his reward chest.”

“What is special about it?” Aelyn said, leaning in.

Gareth paged to the back of the book to look it up. “It has restorative effects on the skin. Gives you a youthful appearance.”

“Storme, I want one,” Aelyn said, getting up and wrapping her arms around my neck.

“Uh, yeah. It might be a problem there. The fort captains take between three and seven to respawn. We are gonna have to camp the fort and perhaps compete with other delve teams for just the single ring.” Gareth closed the book.

“A week?! Bleiz said in disbelief.

Gareth shrugged, “It is how a lot of the larger open dungeons are: better rewards but fewer opportunities. Plus, the distances are not small, almost fifty miles between each of the forts.”

“Why not just buy the ring?” I asked, taking the book from Gareth to page through it.

“It is around seven thousand gold and can be found at the Myththorne auction. It just feels wrong not to attempt to get one from my own efforts,” Gareth admitted.

I paged through the entire book before handing it back. There were twenty levels to this dungeon.  Each floor was massive, but there were artifacts you could get that allowed you to start on a deeper floor for your next delve. The problem was everyone in the party needed to have one of them on entering, and they did not sell for cheap in the local auction.

“After I meet with Sana, and perform the task for the King, we can go for a delve. Maybe she will want to come along,” I stood and went to the bridge as we should be getting close to the city of Myththorne.

Remy was sleeping in the captain’s chair but came awake when I entered. “Sorry about that, Storme.”

“Remy, you can not be sleeping if you are the only one on the bridge,” I chastised him, but it was also my fault as I never relieved him or checked on him.

“I am sorry, Storme,” He immediately went and checked on his navigation charts. After a few minutes, he said, “Turn three degrees to port, and we should be about an hour from Myththrone.”

I took the helm and aligned the Maelstrom on the new course. “Get some sleep in your cabin, Remy. I have it from here.” I probably should have taken Cilia and Leda, but they managed my other two skyships with trade runs between the islands. Both were unarmed Black Maurader ships I had captured.

The city of Myththorne appeared in the distance, a tall, sharp, green conical structure dominated the center of the city. Dozens of colorful, shorter buildings surrounded the green, thorne-like building in the center. The colorful buildings were made from the colored stone found in the dungeon. It must have taken thousands of delves to get enough stone for some of these buildings. I moved the Maelstrom into an approach on the south of the city.

I held at the remote tower from the city and waited behind two other skyships. Each ship came forward slowly and talked with the guards in the tower to register and get a landing assignment. When it was my turn, I climbed up to the top deck on the Maelstrom.

Seven elves in heavy armor stood on the tower. The only woman among them asked, “Business in Myththorne?”

“Mage Storme Hardlight of Skyholme. I am here to fulfill an artificing request by your King.  We will also be doing some trading and delving into the Cavern of the Thunder Witch.” I replied calmly.

The woman had a book out, “Which request are you fulfilling?”

I pulled out the assignment and read it off, “The Adamantine Legacy Blade.”  I held it up for her. I hoped it had not been fulfilled. I checked ten days ago, and it was still active in the Adventurer’s Guild.

The woman talked into a communication stone, and I waited for her to finish. It was a long while before she finally turned her attention back to me. “I will join you, and you can dock at the King’s Palace.” Without waiting for permission, she leaped thirty feet and landed softly next to me. Her face was stern under her helm. “We should get moving, King Nirhaan is anxious to speak with you, artificer.”