[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 46: Missing Pieces

Vaskad thrashed with rage, and where Vaskad thrashed, the world upturned. Forests were ripped free from the soil of the starting island, monsters and protectors of the forests fled before his terrible might.

The granite-skinned ogre sucked in air through its nostrils the size of cave mouths. He had just been tracking that horrible human creature who had awoken it so prematurely, and then it was just gone.

Ogres, by nature, are not very smart. But Vaskad had lived for centuries, far longer than any of his clansmen—mostly because he had eaten them—and he had picked up a semblance of intelligence.

That didn’t mean his thrashing stopped. It was cathartic. Even if Vaskad couldn’t spell the word to save his life, he understood that it made him feel better to rip and tear up the island like a child.

And then what he had been waiting for happened. The human reappeared, its stink invading his nostrils.

He was close.

Far closer than Vaskad thought possible. With a grin the width of an avenue, the ogre roared in triumphant rage and began to dig into the rock and soil.

***

As soon as Sam stepped through the glowing doorway, he received a notification. Fresh air, cold and laden with moisture, flowed past him as he stepped out onto a wide platform with rock and carved stone all around.

Where the hell are we?

The distant, bone-shaking roar of the ogre let Sam know that whatever Volquist had done, it hadn’t severed his connection with the ogre.

Even if Sam didn’t know where he was, it would seem the ogre did.

For clearing the Dark Vault, you gain the following loot:

You gain (1) [Escape Scroll].

Choose one of the following rewards:

(1) [Ascension Gem Treasure Box]

(1) [Hidden God’s Treasure Box]

(1) [Skyland Tile’s Treasure Box]

(1) [Mystery Mimic]

New Quest: Treasures of the First

You have already stumbled across one of the rarest types of Vaults across the Shardrune Realms. Find all 4 Dark Vaults within each of the first 4 Layers to unlock the Hexvault, and be the first person to peer inside its fabled halls since the Golden Pantheon were simple mortals.

Dark Vaults Completed: 1/4

“That’s… not a small amount of loot,” Raiko said, stunned.

“You’re not kidding,” Sam said, staring at the options in the vain hope that they’d give up more info. They never did, but maybe this time it would be different.

It wasn’t.

“Did anybody else get the quest as well?”

“What quest?” Raiko asked.

Sam looked at the Treasures of the First quest and then back at her. He saw no reason to hide it, so he recited the information for her.

Unfortunately, it had just as much meaning to her as it did to Sam. She did, however, recall the Golden Pantheon being mentioned in passing by Volquist. However, seeing as they had no way to summon him—and Sam wasn’t about to pray to the man—neither of them knew more than that.

It was curious though, Sam had to admit.

Not only were there other Dark Vaults, but something ancient like the Hexvault might have more than useful trinkets. If it was a repository of this so-called Golden Pantheon, perhaps it held secrets to Ascension, paving the way for Sam and Raiko to enter godhood.

Or maybe it held something better: the gods’ dirty secrets. Sam wasn’t above blackmailing a god, not if they were already gunning for him.

It went against the aloha spirit, but so did trying to scheme and destroy a fledgling Incarnate before he even knew what he truly was.

If Volquist was correct, he added mentally. There’s always the chance that, while he couldn’t lie, he might be wrong.

“Could be the start of something interesting,” Raiko said. “Expeditions, tomb raiding, monster lairs. There’s a lot to explore in the First Layer. It’s just a matter of getting there, what with all the floating islands moving along mana currents, and discovering the secret locations.”

Sam nodded. “Getting to them doesn’t seem so easy. I have no idea how we’ll even get to this fabled island your body is waiting on.” He looked at Raiko. “That sounds very uncomfortable to say aloud.”

“Too many choices!” Komachi cried. “Komachi want all the loot.”

Raiko’s ghostly form looked at Komachi. “You’re getting treasure boxes too?”

The cat nodded quickly.

Considering the scroll materialized in his hands, including all its caked-on dust, Sam could at least look closer at the [Escape Scroll]’s details.

[Escape Scroll]

(Arcane Item) (E-Class)

(★★★ Rare III)

A transportation scroll that brings you and your Party to a random location outside of your current Dungeon, Vault or Temple. Typically, these scrolls are only one-time use, but this variant is of such exceptional quality it has a low chance to last more than once. Works only within Dungeons, Vaults and Temples.

Mana Cost: Low

“No backtracking for our next exploration,” Sam said, showing the rest of his group the scroll. “Question is, where exactly does it send us?”

“Considering it doesn’t say, it could be anywhere,” Raiko said. “Presumably nearby, but ‘random location outside’ is as broad as it gets.”

Komachi glanced at the scroll. “So long as it’s not in the middle of a wall, I’m gewd.”

Unfortunately, the available options for the rest of the loot weren’t as forthcoming.

“The hell is a mystery mimic?” Sam asked.

“Any kind of mimic I guess?” Raiko stared at the floating Shardscript, then seemed to realize the truth. “Oh great, do you have to fight the mimic to get its loot?”

“Doesn’t sound that bad if the loot is better.”

“If, being the key concept here,” Raiko said. “It’s a gamble as to what you get, both loot rarity and type. Mimics are either adorable or nasty as hell. There’s no in between. And there’s no telling how Islegard’s Ascension has evolved them.”

“And what if our [Treasure Hunter] trait works on them, making them even stronger?” Sam asked. “Wait. Does [Treasure Hunter] work on this loot, seeing as we got it around the same time as the blessing?”

“Eh,” Komachi said. “What’re mimics?”

“A kind of nefarious monster with a host of deadly abilities that can copy—or y’know, mimic—just about any inanimate object. Fortunately, they tend not to take on the appearance and powers of living things.”

“No cat mimic?” Komachi sounded disappointed.

“Hopefully… not?” Raiko shrugged her ethereal shoulders. “Could be they’ve taken on that ability with the Ascension. They’d be even worse than shapeshifters. I’ll have you know that [Death Trap] is not a good way to go.”

Sam scanned his surroundings. Now that they were out of the Dark Vault, they were no longer within a place of safety. A chill crawled down his spine, a foreboding feeling of impeding danger overtook him. There was no shaking it.

He didn’t want to stick around here any longer than necessary.

“As much as I want to pick the best loot of the bunch, you think there’s anything stopping us from waiting and choosing later?” Sam said, placing his hand on his claymore’s hilt.

Raiko peered closely at the Shardscript. “While it’s not guaranteed, nothing in the wording suggests there’s a time limit. Let’s get to safety then.”

Komachi let out a disgruntled meow but crawled into Sam’s armor, anyway.

“Sounds like a plan,” Sam said, casting continual looks over his shoulder. He felt like the ogre was looking right at him and it made his shoulder blades itch.

It didn’t take much exploration to find the next room, which emptied out onto a series of circular carved platforms.

There was a rainstorm going on around the island, but they weren’t technically on the island anymore. “We’re beneath the island,” Sam said, his voice half full of wonder.

Sam realized that he had seen this area from above when the ravine smashed open by that boulder. What he had taken for small buildings were, in fact, docked Skyshards.

Raiko looked around and floated across the gap to one of the circular platforms. Most of them were empty, but several hosted the tiniest of islands.

Islands the size of a decent house, but still so small that you could throw a ball from one end to the other without even trying. As Kale would have put it, you could have spit across the length of most of those islands.

And despite the fact that many of their landing platforms were empty, there were still enough mini-islands for dozens of people to take.

Raiko floated from one to another as thunder rumbled overhead and lightning stabbed at the sky surrounding their sheltered… dock? It looked like a dock, but one that was built for the sky and meant to be situated beneath an island.

As Sam headed down the steps carved into the stone and felt the uncomfortably strong gusts of rain-lashed wind push him about, he realized the genius of building a dock beneath an island.

For one, it was almost entirely out of the inclement weather. A nice touch in the final minutes of his first quest here, he had to admit.

And it was a pretty useless space. Who would ever think to build beneath a floating island normally? You’d have to be insane to want to live down here, perpetually in the shadow of the island above and dangling over the yawning blue sky below.

Sam told himself not to look down, but as he crossed one of the first cracked and crumbling bridges, he couldn’t help himself.

He wasn’t afraid of heights, but seeing moving creatures swimming through the thick steely gray clouds miles below him was unsettling all the same.

They didn’t even have the decency of creatures in the ocean. At least when you were out on the great blue deep, most of the scary things were deep enough that you couldn’t see them.

But even the darkest clouds here were lit up with flashes of lightning that illuminated shapes that would have had H.P. Lovecraft hiding in the closet.

And then, Sam heard it.

Between the howling of the wind and the rumbling peals of thunder that shook the stone walls, he heard muted voices.

“Do you hear that?” Sam asked, but his voice was whipped away on the wind and Raiko didn’t even bother to turn around.

Straining his hearing, Sam homed in on the faint sounds. They could only be heard whenever the wind dropped, and it wasn’t thundering.

In other words, not very often.

Eventually, Sam found a small carved room cut into the rock wall facing the interior of the island. Something Sam immediately thought of as mauka, a Hawaiian term for inland or “toward the mountains”.

Within the sheltered room, he could hear much better. The wind only faintly whistled through the gap in the stone. Sam took out the [Archflame Coal], letting its light illuminate the dark room.

There were dozens of doors, each with strange markings that Sam couldn’t make out. Whatever language they were in, it wasn’t any that Sam knew, even with the addition of Common to his languages.

Pressing his hands against one of the stone doors, he could feel the faint vibrations of something pounding against the other side. And then he heard it again.

The sound chilled him to the bone. Not because he thought it might be a monster or worse, the ogre coming for him, but because of who might be on the other side of the door.

He could scarcely imagine how horrible it would be to exit a Dungeon or cave, only to find that the only way forward was sealed.

Besides, the ogre would have just ripped the door off. Even if it could shrink its size, he seriously doubted it would be banging on the door in a futile attempt to open it.

It never crossed his mind to turn around and leave. Perhaps it should have. With only two minutes left of his Battle Royale quest, the time it would take to open even one door would be more than enough to fail it.

That was okay with Sam. He had made enough progress without the quest, and if he could save even one person from a grisly fate, he would count it a win.

With the [Archflame Coal] held high, its glowing light filling the room, Sam hunted for a means to open the doors.