The group of rescuees followed close behind, though not that close, considering I was leaving a wispy trail of light behind me as I walked along.

  Up the stairs I went, moving at a decent clip.

  I heard the hobgoblin before I saw him. The big guy’s heavy boots clacked on the stone stairs.

  He saw us, and barked out of surprise.

  With a flick of my hand, I sparked an orb of light in front of his face.

  He yelled again, struggling to grab his sword from the sheath at his side.

  I snatched the sword and gave the guy a hearty shove with my other hand.

  He grabbed at me — or the air, hard to tell — but ultimately tumbled over the edge and shrieked into the open hole in the middle of the stairwell. His screams echoed for a surprisingly long time before coming to a sudden stop.

  Turning to look behind me, I saw the elf near the front. I tossed the sword his way.

  “Will that work?” I asked.

  He smiled as he caught it. “It will do.”

  The two of us led the charge up the stairs. Which, you know, did falter here and there when people needed to take a rest. Which was something of an issue with the kids. That’s one of the problems with so many damn stairs. Even my juiced-up legs were burning when we made it to the hallway.

  I could hear the celebration outside even as deep as we were underground, the stomping and drumming and screams and shrieks. It seemed like the goblin party had found a new level of depravity, and we were about to stumble into it.

  At least it explained why no one had heard the hobgoblin being killed.

  I paused at the bottom of the last set of stairs and looked at the group gathered around me.

  “I came to you from Raim,” I said. “It’s a fort about five miles to the east of here.”

  I took a second to remember where I’d come from, and then pointed to the east.

  “It’s that way,” I said. “When we get on the ground, I’m going to do some pyrotechnics that will hopefully keep the goblins away from us long enough that we can get into the woods. From there, head east.”

  “Where east?” A voice called out.

  I pulled out the necklace to double check things, and saw, exactly the position of Denitza.

  “Right there,” I said. “I hope I’ll be with you to guide you. We need to move quickly. I’m sure the goblins will be coming after us, but I won’t leave anyone behind.”

  “Except me,” the elf at my side said.

  “Right,” I replied. “This guy is our rear guard. Now, let’s motor.”

  There was some confusion at the statement, but everyone seemed to figure it out when I turned and ran up the stairs.

  14

  When we emerged outside, it was a bit colder and a lot wetter. And surprisingly, brighter. Despite the rain, there were so many fires burning that I actually had trouble seeing with darkvision. Goblins were basically everywhere, dancing with wild abandon to the booming drums.

  “Time to end the party,” I said quietly.

  I raised my hands up, and there was that moment of doubt. Was the plan I had the best idea, considering what was at stake? Was it going to save these people, or was I going to just wind up killing myself along with them?

  I shook my head, and cleared my thoughts until I felt a moment of stillness. I could tell that the night goblins had noticed us, since there was a ripple of silence spreading out from us. I thought back to the camp, trying to remember all the details of its layout. I still felt insane power coursing through my body, ready to rip my body apart. I breathed the power in, holding it tighter.

  The spells were at my fingertips, more than I had ever cast a single time, all ready to go.

  It felt as if the world around me paused as I let the tremendous surge of mana go. Twenty sticky fireballs and ten regular fireballs shout out of my hands at one time, soaring high and lighting up everything before bursting through the tree-tops.

  For a heartbeat, it was dark again, and the goblins shouted with glee, maybe thinking I’d failed.

  But then the fireballs came crashing back down, slamming into the earth with enough force that nearly everyone fell over. It felt exactly like a bomb had just gone off.

  Towers of flame lit a path along the clearing, heading east. The sticky balls on the side burned on, and bright, while the normal fireballs, in the middle, just incinerated all the goblins, giving us a clear exit path.

  I got so many kill notifications that I had to push them to the side just to see. But they just kept coming, so I had to mentally shove them to the background.

  The biggest surprise, however, was that I still had plenty of mana left to play with. I was still supercharged.

  I laughed out loud, and it scared me because it barely sounded like my laugh. It was far more maniacal.

  The rescuees just stared at me.

  But the victims moving caused some of the larger goblins nearer us, the hobgoblins, to charge in with blades held high.

  With no warning, barely thinking it, I ripped femurs from all the hobgoblins at once, the bones sailing across the clearing and clattering down the stairs behind me.

  The hobgoblins dropped to the ground, a horrible mewling noise coming out as they bled out from their legs.

  I grabbed a mana vial from my belt and poured it down my throat, having bottomed out, somehow. Now was not the time to deal with a mana-induced headache.

  This gave us just a little breathing room. The goblins backed away in case I did something else horrible and magical.

  “RUN!” I shouted.

  And the rescuees ran, some of the adults picking up the smaller children and booking it with them in their arms. I double checked to make sure no one was left unassisted, then I followed behind.

  We sprinted down the space in between the pillars of fire, stepping through the charred remains of our enemies.

  There were plenty of goblins, snoglins, and hobgoblins behind us, but it seemed like they weren’t actually eager to come after us.

  So on and on we ran until we reached the end of the fire and the end of the clearing.

  Everyone else ran into the darkness, but I paused to look back.

  Way back by the staircase, I saw a large figure lit by the fire who looked like he was dancing. But then I caught the glint of his sword. The elf was there, working as our rearguard, dealing out death in a truly beautiful way. He glided from one side to the other, keeping any goblin from progressing farther. But even from this distance, I could see he was slowing down. His stamina wouldn’t last forever, and he would make a mistake. Then the night goblin horde would descend on him and come after us.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to the night, and it seemed like the trees rippled my words back along to him. For a moment, he glittered in the night, and seemed to double in speed.

  I turned and ran into the darkness.

  15

  I was incredibly surprised to find that the two deer were still there, waiting for me. Not only that, but they helped us. The children rode on one of them, and the other led us through the darkness, weaving through the fallen trees and shrubs in a path that was relatively easy to follow.

  From the back, I’d check our route every now and then, but mainly I paused to listen behind us. I heard the sizzling of rain on fire. Distant screams and yells of pain. But no sound of pursuit.

  A nice plus, I noticed I’d received an indicium from the night:

  BOOM. You’ve been granted the indicium Goblinoid Slayer. This indicium is granted due to mass killings of goblinoids. You are able to terrify goblinoids once per day. When activated, goblins in a 200 yard radius, or who can see you, are overwhelmed by fear. Warning, may incite rage on more powerful goblinoids.

  I felt like that might possibly come in handy.

  As we moved through the night, the sounds grew muted, but I did my best to maintain vigilance. Which wasn’t too hard to accomplish, since whenever I started to feel normal, I’d remind myself that I was trusting two giant deer to deliver me to safety.

  After about two hours had gone by, we finally paused. I shared what food I had, giving the bits of dried meat to the children. Then I poked a tiny hole into the elemental plane of water and everyone drank their fill. No strange creature tried to slip its tentacle through this time, which was nice. I didn’t want to deal with another monster attack that night.

  At the front, I pet the muzzle of one of the deer, while pointing in the direction of Raim. The deer nodded, as if totally understanding me, and he took the lead once again, picking the path safely.

  We moved slower, but there was a sick sort of apprehension amongst the group, like something terrible was about to happen. That it was only a matter of time before the goblins recaptured and killed us.

  But I didn’t hear a thing behind us. When I slipped into bonesight to check over the world, there were no goblin skeletons anywhere. Lots of snakes, squirrels, birds, and a few nasty things I was particularly grateful seemed to be sleeping, but no horde of goblins. Or hobgoblins. Or even snoglins. We were, for the moment, safe.

  On and on we moved in silence, until I caught glimpses of light peeking through the canopy above. Finally, we saw light ahead, and there was no stopping anyone except the deer and me. All the survivors surged ahead, stepping into the sunshine of the new day in the clearing, continuing on in a staggering exhausted sort of jog toward the heavy gates of Raim. Gates which had opened wide as the first folk stepped into the clearing.

  People came out of the fortress town and helped the survivors in.

  I walked slowly with the two deer, one on either side, smiling.

  Sure, I hadn’t managed to save everyone, but at least I saved most of them. Maybe that would count extra, somehow, with Lord Quince. Maybe that would earn me a place of honor on the elevator down.

  Maybe.

  But as I walked toward my party, all of whom were standing inside Raim, maybe making sure I wasn’t disqualified on a technicality of them helping me home, I got three surprises.

  One, the quest completed:

  Congratulations! You’ve completed a QUEST!

  Save a Soul, Gain a Pass

  Save a person before they are killed by the tribe to the east.

  Reward for success: Quince will grant you GloomGuard Passage Indicium, 4000 XP

  Two, the deer had disappeared. I looked all around me, but they were gone.

  Three, someone stabbed me in the back.

  16

  Agonizing pain flared in my back, something so horrible I knew exactly what had happened. Mainly because it had happened to me before. Weird to think that I knew what being stabbed in the back felt like.

  I tried to say something, but my mouth wasn’t working. It felt like not much of me was working, and my knees were starting to sag.

  “We don’t appreciate anyone who wrecks our system, steals our product,” a gruff voice said in my ear.

  In the corner of my eye, I saw an ugly human face, pallid, and with hair the same color as the deer.

  A guttural noise came from somewhere inside me, and my head seemed to move of its own volition, smashing into the ugly man’s nose.

  He dropped me, grabbing at his busted schnozz.

  I fell to the ground, but rolled so I could see the two men who had previously been deer.

  There were people yelling, but it all sort of blended into background buzz as I fell into an internal hole of sorts. Black edged around my vision.

  My left arm was raised, and my fingers curled into a weird position, and then magic shot out of my arm.

  The closer man’s skin unzipped, exposing his skeleton, which leapt, as a whole, at the other man. The second man screamed in confusion and fear as the skeleton emerged, bloody, from his prior buddy. The fight was short and brutal as the skeleton tore the man’s flesh apart in a horrid frenzy.

  I got notifications for both men as their bodies slumped to the ground.

  The skeleton, still upright and dripping in fresh viscera, steaming in the cold rain, stepped toward me and held up a warning finger.

  But then it collapsed.

  I did the same, hitting the ground as my healing spell ran through my body.

  The big head of a minotaur appeared above me.

  “What just happened, Clyde?” Mornax asked, dropping to a knee next to me.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “They stabbed me. Or, uh, one did. I was stabbed.”

  I stretched my back, straining against the tightness of the newly-remade muscles.

  Mornax reached down and helped me to my feet.

  He looked a bit shaken as he surveyed the ruins of my two assailants.

  “New spells?” Mornax asked.

  “I, uh, yeah,” I lied. I couldn’t remember casting any spells. I wasn’t sure what had happened, actually. I just knew I’d survived.

  17

  The mood back inside Raim was jubilant. It kind of nice to be in a city with such a focus on helping others. Sure, there was an air to it being forced, as everyone was also fighting to get a chance to descend to Gloomguard, but still. All twenty-seven survivors were sitting in the sun, blankets wrapped around their shoulders. They’d each been given bowls of something steaming, and a healer moved through them, looking over them and speaking softly. And not far behind the healer was Lord Quince, also checking on the survivors.

  I leaned against a pillar, my face turned up to the sky, just getting a little sun.

  Something tugged at my finger.

  One of my eyelids opened just enough to see what was happening.

  A kid was holding my finger.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “You saved me,” he said. “Momma said to say thank you. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, opening my other eye, and then getting on one knee. “You doing okay?”

  “I think so.”

  “Do you need anything?”

  “I, I don’t know.”

  “You think of something,” I said, looking into his eyes, “you ask me. I’m here for you.”

  He gave me a little smile, and then ran quickly back to his mom. His mom smiled my way, and I gave her a nod in return.

  “Busy night,” Nox said.

  “You or me?” I asked, squinting as I looked up at him against the sun.

  “Me,” he snapped. “You went off on your little adventure with no problems.”

  “I mean, I wouldn’t say that—”

  “Regardless, I am glad to see you have returned to us healthy and hale. Now, would you like to hear what I learned?”

  “I would, yes.”

  He nodded. “There is quite a library these locals have let fester in the lower levels of Tower Seven. I fear I have only managed to skim the surface of what might be held within those rotting tomes. I imagine more and more history is lost every minute we stand here.”

  “You want to go back to reading, eh?”

  “It would be my first choice of activities, yes.”

  “Then hit me with the top-line details and get back to it.”

  “The fortress of Raim is all that remains of an ancient nation. It is unclear exactly what the boundaries of the nation were, or even who it was peopled by, though I have seen references to The Fallen and—”

  “What’s the Fallen?”

  “A race, I believe. I will have to do more research on this. I haven’t quite discerned if the Fallen were the ones who built this fort, or whom the fort was built against. There are quite a few different languages represented in those books, and it takes time for me to understand them.”

  “I could probably help a bit with that.”

  “You do have a rather impressive gift in that regard. I would appreciate that help when you can.”

  “Not sure when that will be.”

  “As I feared. In any case, this was a wealthy kingdom, sitting in the center of many valuable resources and able to hold against any invaders. As time went by, apparently mind you, there was quite a treasury built up. It was something of a wonder. At least for the time. One of the kings was a bit paranoid, and is the reason behind that,” he pointed at the big hole in the ground. “He built this hole and put all the treasure in the bottom. His heirs continued the lunacy, and built a treasury at the bottom. This is where it gets a little confusing, because it is not clear if they were intending to make a Dungeon or something else, but something else is what they ended up with...”

  I waited for Nox to continue, but he just stood there smiling at me.

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  “I was letting the moment build.”

  “Let’s agree the moment is built and you can continue.”

  “A researcher only gets so many chances to relay such juicy information,” he said with a sigh. “And before I tell you, let me warn that we are treading into the territory of legends. They say that what happened down there is that the God of Mazes and Madness was either trapped within the treasury there, or chose to reside within the treasury. Whatever the case, the god chose to alter the treasury into, well, something else.”

  “But what is that something else?”

  “It is not rightly known. From what has come out with survivors, it is something different every time a new party enters. Sometimes it is something simple, say a room filled with golden coins. Other times a pit of snakes. Other times a maze filled to the brim with traps.”

  “Kind of like a dungeon,” I said. “Like an old school dungeon or something, from, you know—”

  “No, I don’t know.”

  I almost said it was like something from the Old World, but I caught myself in time.

  “Regardless,” he continued after realizing I wasn’t going to clarify what I’d said, “there is seemingly limitless treasure, artifacts, and wonders available to those who willingly step inside. And, obviously, make it back out.”

 

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