Elsewhere

“That Ability of yours is far more than just convenient. What is the range on it at this point? Has it increased?” Baslin asked.

Duke chuckled, after checking his Ability sheet. Still, just a bit over four hundred kilometers. I can’t wait to see what it jumps to when I get it up to a Master level.”

“Four hundred kilometers. You could move across the entire continent in a matter of seconds with that.” Baslin marveled, shaking his head. “And all without painstakingly constructed gates that take nearly a decade to perfect.”

“Maybe if I knew where I was going, I could. That seems to be one major limitation – if I can’t see or don’t know where I am going, it doesn’t really work.”

“Not a bad limitation. We just need to get you a bit more worldly.” Baslin commented.

“That’s a future plan. We have enough on our plate already. Are you sure you can keep that madman contained?”

Baslin’s smile unsettled Duke. “Oh, I’m quite sure. Don’t worry about it at all.”

Duke picked up Grat and set out to find Elaine, not wanting to continue that conversation. It did not take long to locate her – she was inside the Inn chatting with Calen. She shot to her feet upon seeing Duke carrying Grat and rushed over in a panic. “Grat! Not again!”

Duke laid Grat down on a table as Elaine rushed up to them, her magic welling outwards to examine her husband. “He has been poisoned!” She announced and immediately set to curing the poison. She strained her will and her magic for several long minutes before she collapsed. Duke caught her before she hit the floor realizing that this was a terrible idea, praying that the baby wasn’t harmed by Elaine’s strain and exhaustion. He immediately began to TRANSFER MANA back into the druid, restoring her Mana reserves.

Her eyes opened in full panic. “I can’t help him.” She said despairingly as tears flooded her eyes. “Oh, my precious Grat, what have you gone and done this time?”

Duke helped Elaine into a seat next to her husband. “Can you keep him stable until we can get the cure?”

Elaine lifted her eyes from her husband, his hand grasped desperately in her own. “There is a cure?”

“We think so. Long story short, Queen Pahst has been transformed into some sort of queen spider and it is her venom that is affecting Grat. If we can get even a sample of the venom, we can probably make an antitoxin. We are also pursuing other means.” Duke spoke softly, trying to comfort Elaine.

“Yes, bring me the venom. I should be able to make an antidote for it.” Hope rose in Elaine’s eyes.

“There’s one more thing you need to know.” Duke paused to make sure he had her attention. “Farthell is the one who poisoned Grat.”

She gasped, her hand snapping up to cover her mouth. “Then the Council is no more. Dark times come for this land. Druids who have turned from the mother are a terrible plague on the land. I will keep my love safe. Find us a cure and we are going to have to purge the very Council from this land.” Her voice grew stronger as she spoke, conviction cementing her will with a flare of PURPOSE.

Duke left her and Grat, TELEPORTING back to the Legion. They had dug in and were preparing for an extended stay. Tents had been arranged in neat rows behind earthen and wooden fortifications. It struck Duke that the fortifications looked a lot more permanent than he had expected and the forest had been cleared back three hundred meters all around. Aurelia and Eihlen met up with him as he made his way towards the command section.

“Is Elaine able to keep Grat stable?” Aurelia’s question greeted Duke.

“It seems so. I left him in her care. The poor guy just keeps getting taken down. I don’t know if it’s bad luck or he is just not meant for the field. Either way, I am not sure I can keep bringing him along.” Duke lamented.

Aurelia gave him a gentle hug and reassured him, looking up into his eyes. “This is not your fault for having him join us. You heard the druid yourself. The venom was meant for me. At my tier, it may well have killed me, and then where would that have left you?”

“Probably charging forward blindly and destroying anything and everything that got in my way of getting to Chopie.” Duke answered honestly.

“On that, we both agree. I hate to say it this way as it sounds remarkably self-serving, but this result is better. We will find an antivenom or find a way to make one. We might even get lucky with Eihlen’s levels and maybe even tier.” Aurelia squeezed a bit tighter as she spoke.

“On that note, we should get going. I do not want our prey to get out of the range of your Abilities. I was about a kilometer away when I came upon the chamber. Hopefully, there is still something to fight there.” Duke pulled out a gem and handed it to Eihlen. “This is the Gem of Radiance. When we TELEPORT in, push some Mana into the Gem and it will shine brightly. I don’t need light to see down there, but I expect you both will.”

“Thank you, Your Grace. I will do as you instruct.” Eihlen responded.

“OK, all that ‘your grace’ crap is fine around the rest of the Legion, but when we are down there in the thick of it, call me Duke. One syllable is much faster, and formality is idiotic in combat.” Duke spoke clearly and intently at Eihlen who nodded in response, tightlipped. “OK, then, here we go.” The three of them TELEPORTED to the underground chamber.

Eihlen immediately infused Mana into the Gem and it flashed into a bright light that hovered over her head. She saw the large chamber filled, not with giant ants like she had been psyching herself up to handle but with giant spiders. She screamed as thousands of spiders of all sizes launched themselves at the trio.

Aurelia’s sword burst into flame, preparing to cut as many spiders to burning pieces as she could. Duke’s response was more energetic. The trio were immediately surrounded by a globe of crackling LIGHTNING interlaced with FLAME.

Duke shouted into the surrounding area. “You think you can fucking ambush me again? No fucking way. Burn! All of you, burn!” With a flash of an additional 300,000 Mana, the sphere blasted outwards, expanding to cover the entire cavern save for the area the three of them stood within. Air rushed in after the explosion so violently that it nearly swept the trio off their feet.

The Gem still shone brightly as the wind cleared the smoke from the chamber revealing smashed and scorched bodies of tens of thousands of arachnids of various shapes and sizes. Most were no larger than a person’s head, but some were as large as a car. In many places, the spiders’ exoskeletons had been melted and fused together. Nothing moved save the three of them.

“Well, that was not what I was planning.” Duke remarked. “Did you get any experience for that, Eihlen?”

She shook herself out of shock and pulled up her notifications. “It shows that the party killed 5,013 arachnids of various levels and tiers. I got more than three million experience and I’m now up to level 80! I didn’t hit tier three, but I jumped nearly 70 levels from that one fight. Not that I can call it a fight. That was horrifying.”

“I hate spiders. I question the sanity of anyone who doesn’t.” Duke replied. He turned to Aurelia with the obvious question in his glance.

“I gained four levels from that so yes, it was fruitful. Maybe you will have gained a level as well.” She smiled at Duke, ignoring the steaming corpses all around them.

“We’ll see later. I’m sure there are more things to hunt in these tunnels than what we have found so far. Are we still in range of your Legion Abilities?” Duke asked.

“Yes, and they even increased from that. My range is increasing. I’m glad I had focused the Abilities before we even came down here. That would have been a terrible loss of opportunity.” Aurelia agreed.

Duke smiled at the pair. “Please take a moment to allocate your stats and such. I want to regen a bit of Mana before we move on. I blew more than half of my Mana pool on that attack.”

“That was unlike anything I have ever seen…Duke.” Eihlen paused, keeping herself from using the honorific and then continued. “Is there anything that could stand against that kind of power?”

“I’m sure there are plenty of things that could. I haven’t had to fight much that was above Tier five as far as I have been able to figure. There’s no telling what Tier Chopie and his lieutenants are. They could be Tier ten for all I know, and my Abilities will be easily countered.”

Eihlen suddenly looked concerned, but Duke spoke again. “Don’t worry. Even if they are that high a Tier, I have a lot more on my side than simply raw power. I’ve got that in spades, but I have more tricks up my sleeve than that.”

“Quite a wonderous coat it must be to contain such marvels up its sleeves.” Eihlen responded. Aurelia burst out laughing, followed shortly by Duke. Eihlen just looked baffled as she asked, “What did I say that was so funny?”

Regaining control of his laughter, Duke placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just another idiom and your reaction was the perfect tension-breaker. Thank you for that.”

“I still don’t understand.” She replied, concern and confusion dominating her countenance.

“Don’t worry about it. Just trust that you didn’t say anything wrong, but it was gloriously funny to the two of us.” Aurelia added between continuing chuckles.

The trio waited for Duke to regen his Mana before he TELEPORTED the corpses away to clear a path to the tunnel he saw the giant ants pouring down. They set out to follow the path with mixed spirits. Duke and Aurelia were smiling while Eihlen was growing more and more trepidatious as they walked further into the tunnels.

They travelled through three connecting tunnels and chambers before they came upon any activity again. As they entered the next chamber, they were greeted by several ordered ranks of giant warrior ants. This was very different from what Duke had seen in the tunnels before and was strange enough to make him pause in the entrance to the chamber.

“They seem a bit more organized than before. Weird.” Aurelia remarked.

“Very much so.” Eihlen added.

Before they could discuss any further, the ants acted. Instead of attacking, they lowered their front legs and placed their heads on the surface of the chamber. The trio exchanged confused looks.

“Well, that’s even weirder.” Duke added.

Before either of the two others could respond, a voice entered their minds. “Please do not attack. The one who was controlling us is no longer here and we mean you and yours no harm.”

“Weirdest.” Aurelia added.

The voice started again as the warrior ants shuffled sideways, opening a path through their ranks. “Since you have not attacked, I am hopeful that we can live in peace. You are invited to my chamber so that we may speak directly.”

Duke spoke up. “This is not what we expected in the least. What guarantee do we have that you will not attack us once we are in the heart of your nest?”

There was no response and after several seconds of exchanged glances the voice began again. “I sincerely hope you are not trying to speak with me at the moment. I can only project. I cannot read your own thoughts or hear your words as I am too far away to hear them. Please follow the path opened for you and we will talk. On my honor as Queen of this Nest, I grant you safe passage in and out of the Nest. As long as you do not attack, you will not be harmed.”

“Well, that answers that. What do we do, Duke?” Aurelia asked.

He shrugged and smiled. “I guess we go meet the Queen Ant. Worst case, if they attack, we can destroy them, or I can get us out if the need arises there as well.” With that, the three travelled further into the tunnels following the open path made for them.