ALL NOVEL Ch. 52: Hide and Seek
The next room was filled with snakes. They coated the floor in a writhing mat.
Silversoul Snake (lvl 15) x 57
Silversoul Snake (lvl 16) x 33
Silversoul Snake (lvl 17) x 9
Silversoul Snake (lvl 18) x 4
Entirely too many.
Identify has increased to level 11.
Even Identify agreed.
Pellen shook her head. “Maybe if I still had a big spell ready? But I don’t have much Focus left.”
Was that it, then? This was as far as they went? They had found some good loot. The books could very well be priceless. And those skill gems were highly promising.
Now, the smart thing to do was to backtrack to the main path and wait for Alyx to catch up. And hope that Fioreya’s group had either already passed, been overtaken by Alyx, or would leave her and Pellen alone if they bumped into her. None of the above seemed likely to Cass.
Cass shook her head. That was a problem for later, whether or not they pushed forward a little more.
They could wait and see if Pellen recovered enough Focus for one of her area of effect spells. But they had just killed that other snake and the possibility of another Soulbound Wolf coming to investigate only increased the longer they loitered.
Could they push forward without risking too much?
The snakes slithered over each other, filling the room. But there were gaps in their formation. Not large gaps, but she had considerable Dexterity. There was more than enough room for her feet. Could she Stealth through the monsters?
Could she bring Pellen with her? The argu mage wasn’t the most dexterous person, but even the most clumsy person in this world was comparable to a trained athlete of Earth because of their stats. So, maybe she could avoid stepping on the snakes.
What about hiding her from their perception? Cass wasn’t sure her Stealth would be enough. Did the mage would have a stealth skill better than her own?
No, no, no. This was silly. They should turn around and—
A door swung open. Cass spun. They hadn’t been closing the doors in case she needed to get through them quickly and Pellen was unable to open them. None except the door separating the main path from this side branch.
Soulbound Wolf (Lvl 27)
A Wolf stepped through, a sword hanging from either hip. Its snarling mask glinted in the dark.
Another one, already? They’d taken their time searching the books, but not that much time. Cass had thought they’d have at least another hour. Pretty safely another two!
Why now? Why already?
Was it reinforcing the first wolf they’d killed?
No. That couldn’t… But the timing worked out better that way.
It didn’t matter. It was walking toward them, its gait slow and methodical. Inevitable.
They had nowhere to go, and it knew that.
“Can you do that teleportation trick again?” Cass asked Pellen.
“No. I used up the mana I set aside for it and I don’t have remotely enough Focus to do it without external reserves supplementing the spell.”
“What do you have left?” Cass asked.
“Maybe one more Hold?” Pellen said, though their voice shook at the suggestion.
Cass looked over her reserves.
Stamina: 103/126
Focus: 286/387
Health: 68/113
All together, not bad. More than she’d had for the first fight.
But she’d had Pellen’s support then. And the wolf had been two levels lower. And wasn’t level 27 special? Alyx and Salos had called it the Gate. It was like the First Step. It represented a dramatic increase in stats. Did that apply to monsters, too?
Could she handle a monster six levels greater than her own?
Did she have another option?
Her eyes flicked around the room. The wolf was behind. The snakes were ahead. A rock and a hard place if Cass had ever seen one.
Maybe she could kill the wolf. And maybe they’d recover enough after to handle the wolf undoubtedly summoned to investigate the snake’s death. And maybe then they’d recover enough after that to handle the wolf summoned to investigate this wolf’s death.
And eventually, Alyx had to show up, right?
Was that the only option?
Another idea flickered through her head. She eyed the small mage at her side. Could she do it?
“How heavy are you?” Cass asked.
“What?” Pellen asked.
Cass shoved her staff into the mage’s hands. “Hold this.” And scooped the smaller woman up in a princess carry. She was an entire person’s worth of weight. Earth Cass could never have managed it. Level 21, slyphid-Cass had no problem.
“Whah!” Pellen shouted in surprise. “What’s happening?”
“Keep quiet,” Cass said and activated Stealth. She could feel the skill protesting. It was meant to hide her. Hide her from things that didn’t already see her. It didn’t know what to do about a struggling passenger or the wolf staring directly at them.
But Cass didn’t care. It had no problem hiding her clothing or her Bag so it could suck it up and reduce the presence of Pellen too, that was only reasonable. And whether the wolf saw her or not was irrelevant. All that mattered was the snakes, and they hadn’t been paying her any mind a minute ago.
Cass stepped forward into the mess of snakes. Her foot settled in a gap between their bodies. She could feel the buzzing in the air created by the electricity running down their spines. If they brushed into her, it would hurt. It might paralyze her again. She’d probably drop Pellen.
They would both probably die.
Cass took another step, moving as fast as she could find a path. Slow was dangerous; stay in one place too long, the snakes might shift and brush up against her. Fast was dangerous; too quick and she might sloppily brush against one as she moved.
Behind her, she could feel the wolf still approaching. Its steps increased in speed with every second. She could feel its eyes burning at the back of her head. The gaze pulled at her, threatening to throw her back to that first moment in Uvana Valley again. Threatening to make her a sniveling level one afraid of everything, knowing nothing.
She refused. She wouldn’t let it intimidate her again.
Still, its very real danger approached ever faster.
Pellen shook in Cass’s arms. Perhaps also affected by the wolf’s skill. Perhaps justifiably terrified to be adrift amid dangerous enemies with no autonomy over the situation.
Stealth was still loudly protesting the abuse of its abilities. This was not how it was supposed to work. One was not supposed to be able to bargain with a skill.
Cass queried what would make it happier.
Cover! Not carrying an entire additional person! Maybe some shadows to slink through? And wait! She still wasn’t supposed to—
Cass activated Confounding Mists, wrapping it around her and Pellen before spreading it slowly through the room. Was that cover enough?
She could feel Stealth sputtering, but yes, it was much happier to advise in this situation.
Focus: 162/387
Behind, the wolf howled, breaking into a sprint. It hadn’t liked that Cass had just disappeared from its sight. It ran straight into the snakes. They writhed around it, trying and failing to get out of the wolf’s way. They ran into each other and tied themselves up in knots.
The wolf ran straight, apparently unconcerned by its inability to see, more concerned with its inability to see her.
It wouldn’t need to do anything else. Cass was still directly in front of it. She was moving fast, but not faster than the wolf running full tilt.
So redirect it, Confounding Mists suggested. Immediately, Cass understood what the skill meant. With a concentration of Will, she could shift the space within the mist. Not a lot. But a few degrees at a time.
Focus: 112/387
The effort gobbled through her Focus. But she’d turned the wolf entirely around. It barreled out of the fog only to find itself standing where it had started at the entrance of the room.
It howled and charged back into the fog. She spun it around again, slower this time. She was almost entirely across by the time it exited the fog again.
Focus: 74/387
There was just one problem. She didn’t know what she’d do next. She’d started this expecting—hoping—the wolf could not cross the mat of snakes.
But clearly, it had no problem with that. It easily stepped back into the mist, the snakes hurrying to get out of its way yet again.
Which meant escaping this way was perhaps ill-advised.
But what now? She had, at most, two more goes at turning it around, but Cass felt like no matter how many times they did this dance, the wolf would not give up.
Did she need to turn it around? She just needed it to not touch her. What would happen if it made it across and didn’t find her?
It couldn’t hurt to try.
Cass let it go straight across this time. Its repeated loops had put it off her direct trail, so it ran past her with a good yard between them.
It reached the far side and flinched. Perhaps even it expected to see the entrance again at this point. Its head whipped back and forth. Searching for her?
It stomped forward to the far door. It put a hand on the handle. The door glowed purple but did not open. It tried again. It glowed again. It roared, its head whipping around the room.
But Cass was still safely wrapped in the aether mists.
It stomped back into the mist, howling. It rushed around at random, its swords drawn and swinging wildly. Most of its strikes hit nothing. A few clipped snakes as they tried to get out of its way.
It howled as it stepped out of the mists again on the side it had entered from. It still had not found them. It gave the room one more frustrated look before stomping back to the entrance and walking out of the side passage.
Meanwhile, Cass stepped out of the mists past the snakes and set the still-shaking Pellen down.
Confounding Mists has increased to level 5.
Stealth has increased to level 11.
“Is it gone?” Pellen asked, her voice a shaking whisper.
Cass nodded. “For now, at least.”
Pellen eyed the wall of mist still hanging over the middle of the room. “Is that your skill, too?”
Cass nodded.
“Has anyone told you it’s awful in there?”
Cass nodded sheepishly.
“It’s like up and down and left and right are reversed,” Pellen said. “Like the world stopped existing and there is only aether forever in every direction.”
“Sorry,” Cass said. Seemed like it was going to be a skill for solo use only.
Pellen shook her head. “It seems like it worked?”
Cass nodded. “For now. I think we can expect another wolf in an hour or two, assuming that one doesn’t come back in the meantime.”
“Why? Oh. Do wolves investigate the death of wolves?”
Cass shrugged. “The timing matches up better if they do.”
Pellen sighed. “What are we going to do?”
“Poke our head in the next room and see if there is any unguarded treasure?” Cass suggested.
“What are the chances of that?” Pellen whined.
Cass shrugged again and tried the door. Like previous doors, Cass had tried—and just as it had responded to the wolf—the door glowed purple and refused to budge. “Your turn.”
Pellen pulled it open easily.
This wasn’t in and of itself surprising at this point, but Cass had questions. Why did the doors react to her more like she was a monster guarding the place than an intruder looking to loot it?
Questions for later.