Tech Duinn: An Ether Collapse Series (Ether Flows Book 1) Read online

  He couldn’t stand still and instead charged one of the approaching hunters. His quick disposal of Ulec and his blatant aggression gave him his only advantage. He wouldn’t let it slip away. When he popped through the grass in front of the snake woman, its mouth fell open. It attempted to recover and spit something at him but he drove the tip of his coated sword into its fanged mouth.

  Two projectiles zipped into the back of his six-foot En field and he turned sideways, barely avoiding one and feeling the sting in his arm from the other. He clenched his teeth to stop his scream and checked the wound. Glancing. That was better than he could have hoped.

  He turned and released Phantasmal Blade horizontally in the direction the arrows had come from. The grass flew, cut midway up the stalk by the invisible blade. Azrael heard two shouts that morphed into terrible death cries. He ducked into the nearby grass and listened. At least one more lived. Assuming that his blade had finished off the two archers, that was.

  He heard footsteps running away and he took a deep breath, still waiting to see if anything else moved. Nothing. He checked his health. That arrow had taken off more than he thought. He lost another point as he watched. They had envenomed arrows!

  He checked his debuff bar.

  Boomslang Venom

  1 Health point per second. Last until cured or removed from the system.

  He instantly moved his wound to his mouth. It was a bit of a feat of flexibility, but he managed to wrap his lips around the cut. He sucked and spat blood for the next thirty seconds. He managed to remove enough of the venom from his system that its damage was only 0.1 health points per second. At that rate, his regeneration could counter it. He still needed to find a cure, but he would live.

  He could hear the noise of the final attacker fleeing, and waited until silence reigned again.

  He looted his four dead attackers and found that they had very little of value. Four Crystals total, two bows and forty arrows. But no cure!

  Their clothing was standard cotton, and he managed to find a few spare changes in the hunters’ bags. He took the clean sets—he never knew when he might need additional changes of clothes.

  There was a trail of blood leading into the forest, and Azrael followed it. Perhaps he could still save the unicorn. He didn’t hold to hope, especially after he discovered the envenomed arrows. But he had to try.

  The beautiful creature was lying on its side, heaving as it attempted to pull in air. Azrael sighed and moved closer. It tried to stand and run but it didn’t have much strength left. He removed the four arrows and threw them aside. He couldn’t tell how many hit points were remaining with his low skill level in Analyze.

  Chest tight, Azrael began sucking blood from the wound and spitting it aside. He spent thirty seconds on each wound like he had his own. The unicorn watched him work, its eyes unblinking, and its sides heaving with each strained breath. As soon as he finished with the last wound, the sides of the creature stopped rising.

  Azrael felt a cool line trace down his cheek. He breathed in sharply and shook his head, forcing down his feelings on the matter. He wasn’t supposed to be emotional. Why had he even tried to save this thing in the first place?

  He checked his debuff and found a surprise.

  Unicorn Savior

  You attempted to save a Unicorn from Dagda’s menagerie. You are marked.

  Another shock waited for him. The poison was back up to 0.2 health per second. That was slightly higher than his health regeneration. Had it automatically increased because he hadn’t cured it yet? Or was it higher because he had tried to purge the venom from the Unicorn?

  A moment later it ticked up to 0.3 per second and his jaw hurt from clenching his teeth. He had perhaps thirty minutes at this rate. He needed to get to that cabin and fast.

  He was about to take off when he remembered to loot the fallen Unicorn.

  Bottle of Tech Duinn Essence

  ● Rare Crafting Component

  Increase Analyze Skill to learn more.

  He held the ornate bottle in his hand and ran through the woods. He left his portable tent behind and told himself he would come back for it. If he survived. His indecision from earlier was gone. Lord Ogma was his only hope to survive.

  Ten minutes in, and the poison was ticking at 0.5 health per second. He had seventy points remaining and he could feel himself growing weak. He wasn’t even sure where this cabin was. After all of his training—was he going to stumble through the woods on this toilet of a planet and die?

  He felt his erratic heartbeat thudding in his chest. His sickly sweat coating his body in a cool film. Driblets of sweat mixed with the red blood from his opponent and ran down his skin. This wasn’t good.

  He had eleven free stat points. It would increase his health regeneration if he dumped them into Stamina. He checked his character sheet on the run and placed those stat points.

  Azrael Sovereign Level 12

  Class: Revenant

  Class Skills: Phantasmal Blade (V), En (IV)

  Health Points = 69/270 Points

  Ether Pool = 160/160 Points

  You have 0 stat points and 2 skill points to distribute.

  Stamina – 27 (+11) (Stats X +3)

  Strength – 19 (Stats X +3)

  Agility – 26 (Stats X +3)

  Dexterity – 27 (Stats X +3)

  Intelligence – 16 (Stats X +3)

  Wisdom – 16 (Stats X +3)

  Charisma – 16 (Stats X +3)

  Luck – 12

  Skills:

  Analyze – Weak 24 (Rank up?!)

  Combatant – Moderate 12

  Endurance – Weak 17

  Martial Arts – Moderate 42

  Obfuscate – Strong 1

  Sneak – Weak 16

  Swordsmanship – Strong 21

  Tracking – Weak 12

  He also filled out his En skill and saw the fog of discovery roll back. Maybe he would have a cleanse or heal spell available in the next tier. Doubtful, but still possible.

  Tier 3 Skills

  Stored Action

  ● Stored Action allows the user to store an attack and trigger it at will. The attack stored can be any skill you possess or any attack you can muster. Each invested skill point reduces the Ether cost of the skill.

  Skill gained at 1/5, “Storage.”

  0/5

  Ether cost is 100.

  --

  Desperado

  ● Desperado allows the user to freeze a single opponent for 0.1 seconds. The freeze can be shortened based off the level disparity between the user and the target. Each subsequent skill point invested increases the freeze time.

  Skill gained at 1/5, “Desperado.”

  0/5

  Ether cost is 50.

  He breathed out and kept running. He looked at Mend. It would be a temporary measure at best. The skill had no properties that would cure venoms or poisons…

  The extra stamina had bought him a bit more time, but he was out of other options. Could the bottle of Essence in his sweaty palm heal him?

  Ten additional minutes into his run the poison was up to 0.9 health per second and he had fifteen health points left. He had failed to calculate the increasing poison damage into his thirty-minute estimate. He had less than a minute to live.

  He looked at the bottle of Essence, unstoppered it, and chugged it back.

  His throat felt like he had just poured molten metal down his esophagus. The liquid reached his stomach and ignited whatever food he had in there into a raging bonfire. He screamed at the top of his lungs as the liquid fire consumed him.

  The pain wouldn’t allow him to take a breath. His lungs froze and his heart tried to break through his sternum. The lack of air and pain combined to stop his heart. His whole body tensed in the throes of death. His eyes rolled up and he fell to the ground.

  What had possessed him to save that Unicorn?

  Chapter Ten

  Azrael groaned and shot a hand to the back of his head. What happened?
How had he ended up on this wooden floor with the smell of burning birch permeating the air? He cracked an eyelid and shut it tight again as the light hurt his sensitive pupils. The spikes of pain the bright whiteness shoved into his brain made him wonder if he had died all over again.

  Dead people don’t feel pain. Probably…

  Okay, well, he likely wasn’t dead, but he would have to lay here for a bit and recover some more. At least he was conscious. Instead of an attack on him, he heard the door close, and a man’s gruff voice say, “I followed his trail, and found Mark’s truck ransacked. There were tracks from soldiers who appear to have been Oberan’s. I found this piece of livery on the truck.”

  The gruff voice sounded worried but was responded to by a soft womanly one, “My dear, do not worry, Oberan cannot touch you.”

  “It isn’t me I am worried about, Jophi—”

  “He wouldn’t dare touch me. I am your betrothed, and the Tuatha’s one bargaining chip with Cathodiem. My father will scorch this entire planet if Oberan dares.”

  “My mother cares very little for the affairs of Cathodiem. She will stand behind Oberan if it’s just you. Your father placed you here to garner information on the Tuatha, and she knows that this marriage is a sham. If your father attacks, she will use that knowledge to erode his support.”

  There was a lull in the conversation before Jophi continued, “Ogma, if what you told me about your brother is true, how can anyone stop her?”

  “Let’s figure out what to do with the boy first, and then we can run before Oberan finds you. I don’t think Mark knew much, but I need to hide you somewhere safe.”

  He heard the blanket over the door get pulled back, and two people entered the room. Ogma must have Analyzed him because he said, “I can tell you aren’t unconscious any longer, Azrael. What were you running from?”

  Azrael cracked an eyelid again and studied the figure of the gargantuan man before him. Ogma was tall, in the category of small giant actually, and his face sported a beard so bushy and dark that Azrael had to consider if he was part bear. His mane of hair was full of twigs and moss, while a large wooden handle for some form of weapon poked over his shoulder. Azrael guessed it was a mace or a club based on the sheer strength the man exuded.

  He Analyzed him.

  Ogma Tract

  Master-Firbolg

  Level 115

  Moderate Analyze failed to reveal additional information.

  He squinted at the box and swallowed hard. No wonder Ogma didn’t have to fear Oberan. Ogma was the highest-leveled individual Azrael had ever met.

  His high level was the second oddity today, though.

  On average, Apprentice levels ranked up at twenty-five. But the Unicorn had been fourteen levels above that average. At the time of his Analyze, Azrael was willing to believe that was just an outlier.

  Similarly, Journeyman ranked up at fifty and Master ranked up at seventy-five. Those were all averages, of course, but for Ogma to be forty levels above the average and not ranked up? He should be in stasis. Waiting to rank up and storing Etherience. But he wasn’t. Was Ogma’s class that rare?

  Azrael cleared his throat. “I came because I was traveling with Mark. He was going to bring me and my two companions here.”

  “Why were you unconscious then?” Lord Ogma prompted further.

  Should Azrael tell him?

  Lord Ogma, I almost died saving a Unicorn in the woods and drank a bottle of Dagda’s Essence hoping to live. Now? Here I am. Alive.

  He coughed to hide his thoughts. Yeah, it sounded absolutely ridiculous.

  “I got in a fight with some hunters on my way here. They injured me pretty badly,” Azrael said.

  “Yes, I found the four bodies of the beastkin you murde—”

  Someone hit Lord Ogma’s arm, and Azrael remembered Jophi was in the room. “That is enough, Ogma. You’re scaring him. He is only an Apprentice.”

  He tensed up, expecting the Firbolg to backhand her through a wall. Instead, he cut off mid-sentence and looked to her softly. She was diminutive next to the monstrous man. Azrael tried to gauge her actual size compared to himself from his place on the ground. She likely was around the same height as him. Wiry, and dark haired.

  She was not dressed fancily or extravagantly. Azrael would call her pretty, but also didn’t have a lot of experience with women. Still, Azrael hadn’t expected someone as strong as Lord Ogma to stop mid-sentence on her account.

  Azrael Analyzed her. Trying to understand why someone as strong as the giant would listen to her.

  Jophiel Turendal

  Journeyman-Sorceress

  Level 3

  Moderate Analyze failed to reveal additional information.

  She was weak. Well, that was unfair. She was weak compared to Lord Ogma.

  She looked to Azrael. “We probably can’t help your friends. I hope that isn’t your request.”

  His stomach clenched. And his heart felt heavy. He coughed. “No, I wasn’t going to ask that.” Or was he?

  The silence in the room grew unbearable. Azrael volunteered his story, with a few parts edited out. They didn’t need to know about his Sovereign blood, or about whatever happened with the Unicorn. He hoped Ogma wouldn’t dig into his Analyze and find out more despite the omissions.

  “I believed your absurd tale right up until the dungeon let you escape! I will ask it myself,” Lord Ogma said. He pulled a purple smoky sphere from his pocket.

  Azrael tilted his head. That looked a lot like the depictions of a dungeon core. It pulsed with soft light and a voice spoke into the room. “Azrael, did you send this barbarian to challenge my depths?”

  “Apep!” Azrael exclaimed. He looked from the massive fist wrapped around the glowing stone to Ogma. “Why do you have Apep’s core?”

  His notification for a completed quest popped up, but he mentally closed it, waiting on an answer.

  Ogma looked between him and the stone. “Wait, you actually let this boy go?”

  “I did let the boy go. He told me I would gain popularity. But now I have lost my body,” Apep complained.

  Jophi looked between Azrael on the floor and Ogma, who towered over her. “What is going on? Why did you capture another dungeon core?”

  “Jophi, I am trying to gather more strength for my Cardinal Dungeons. If I feed them more, then we can reach the Tectonic Dungeons.”

  Jophi hugged her shoulders and shuddered. “The Prime Dungeon under your Territory is terrifying. It is so powerful already, and is even deeper than the Cathodiem’s Prime Dungeon. The Silver Spires have been around a lot longer than Tech Duinn. Something just feels off about that. You know the old saying of ‘don’t rush anything’…”

  “Wait. You’re planning on feeding me to another dungeon? Come on, that seems unfair. I didn’t kill the boy…” Apep complained.

  Lord Ogma sneered at the stone. “Quiet, or I will crush you in my hand!” He put the stone on a nearby table and began massaging Jophi’s shoulders. The disparity in size made him look like a father comforting a child. Her shaking stopped and she tilted her head back to smile up at Ogma. Her love for the giant man was obvious to Azrael but he seemed to treat her like a little sister.

  He coughed. “Lord Ogma, you traced my trail all the way to Mark’s truck. You know Oberan took him, and my friends. But didn’t ask about Mur and Oberan’s plan to capture it.”

  “What?” Ogma shouted. His tone caused Jophi to flinch out from under his hands and step away. “Oberan wouldn’t dare to take from me. My mother’s favor only stretches so far.”

  Azrael looked to Jophi. She was looking at Ogma, her eyes wild.

  “Lord Ogma, I can only tell you what I heard.”

  “Tell me all that you heard, then.”

  Azrael told him about the tax increases, the unrest and the rumors of invasion in Mur. Jophi’s blood fled her face and when Azrael finished, she was white as a sheet.

  “Ogma, honey, I think it’s time we left this cabin.”
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  Ogma growled, looked to Jophi, and softened. “Start packing. I need to check out a few things. We will leave in an hour.”

  Ogma left the room, and the door of the cabin slammed a moment later. Jophi met Azrael’s eyes. “Want to give me a hand?” she asked.

  Chapter Eleven

  Azrael took a moment in the room by himself. All of his gear was in there, including the portable tent. He hadn’t expected that. Lord Ogma had truly found everything. He grimaced.

  “Don’t leave me with that monster,” Apep’s voice whispered into the room.

  He had forgotten all about Apep and found the dungeon core on the same table where Ogma had placed him. He didn’t like the idea of Apep dying, especially after the dungeon had let him live.

  “I can hide you in dimensional storage. But I’m not sure if that will kill you,” Azrael whispered back.

  He stood staring at the pulsing purple crystal. Waiting. “Better if I die trying to escape,” Apep finally said.

  Azrael picked up the dungeon core, crossed his fingers, and placed it into his ring.

  He then instantly pulled it back out. “Are you still alive?”

  “Yes. I felt like I was in there for a few minutes. Why didn’t you pull me out right away?” Apep scolded.

  “I did…”

  “Time dilation. Right, well, please don’t leave me in there too long!” Apep said.

  Azrael nodded and placed the dungeon core back into the ring.

  Next he checked his statistics. He still needed to assign those two skill points into his third-tier skills.