Chapter 4: Talentless - Chapter 4

Standing just a few feet away from the gate, Rayden and his company carefully surveyed the grass around it, taking in the eerie beauty of the flowers that had enchanted the apprentice smith and his unfortunate lover. It truly was a strange sight, a green oasis surrounded by a craggy wasteland of cracked earth.

Surrounding the verdant island, the sparse vegetation of the rocky terrain was in between its usual mottled brown and the bright green of the new mana-enriched land, as if the emerald colony was slowly expanding its territory outwards.

“It’s spreading,” Rayden murmured. “Who could be behind this?”

“I do not know,” Ivy replied. “But we’ve talked enough.”

Without a moment of hesitation, she confidently strode into the shimmering liminal and disappeared. Jim blustered through immediately after, as if mad he hadn’t gone through first.

“You know, we could just leave them in there and run,” Boh joked, turning to face the group. “Problem is that the big brute would clear the thing solo, then come back to tan our hides after.”

“I only see one big brute,” Quill replied smugly. “And he’s more of a wide brute than a tall one.”

“Just wait ‘til my chest is bigger than yours, Quill. A few more kegs of ale and I'll compete!

“I have difficulty responding to that,” the redhead blinked.

Rayden chose to let the two of them bicker, taking a few steps away to muster up his courage. He certainly wasn’t going to betray Ivy, but he would have appreciated a pep talk or at least a semblance of a plan.

Right now, the only thing he knew about the gate was that there were probably more goblins inside, and that nothing awaiting them would have Talents of their own. That nightmare began with green gates and above, thankfully.

Gates were a strange and mysterious phenomenon that most assumed were the work of the gods. Less than one percent of Sepith’s population was Attuned, and an even smaller number had completed a gate and earned their Talent. The former was a simple matter of birth, while the latter required a great deal of skill as well as backing from either nobility or the very best merchant guilds.

Common knowledge was limited, but there were a few basics everyone knew.

It was widely understood that dungeons could only form in areas rich with mana, would always lead to isolated planes where trials and monsters waited, and would return you to where the gate had formed once completed.

Completing a dungeon awarded the participants with an influx of condensed absorbable mana, changing their internal mana structure and increasing the efficiency with which they used and produced it. It also allowed Attuned to gain and improve their Talent–the unique manifestation of a person's mana.

The most powerful Attuned, those who had obtained their Talent and delved into more dungeons to upgrade their Profundity, could begin to Siphon mana from natural environments, instead of just from gates. That was how the Kingdom of Sepith had gradually been formed, and the Feral Lands pushed back.

However, that was about the limit of what laypeople knew. The origin, purpose, and planar location of dungeons were all hotly contested, with some believing they were a punishment from the gods, and others believing they were an invaluable gift. As far as Rayden could tell, Sepith’s monarchy’s official stance was more practical: that regardless of their origins, the power gifted by dungeons to Attuned was the best way to regulate the fortunes and prowess of their people.

He was inclined to agree, but was cynical of the royal family’s ability to manage those boons fairly.

“Alright,” Rayden sighed. “I suppose I signed up for this.”

The adventurer gazed into the strangely pulsing entrance, steeled himself, then walked straight into the unknown. The transition was nearly seamless. There was a brief curtain of darkness that seemed to dampen all of his senses, then Rayden emerged on a grassy platform, standing a few hundred feet away from a large and imposing castle.

The grand fortification was made of huge blocks of sturdy stone and topped with four towers crowned by deep parapets. It was surrounded by a murky and ominous moat that seemed to stretch on for miles, split up by a long wooden bridge that led through a towering archway into the castle proper.

A stiff breeze rustled his hair as he took in the grand scale of the fortress, surprised to see no signs of life or banners on its walls. Seconds later, Quill and Boh popped into existence next to him, still glaring at each other. Rayden noticed that the grass underneath them took a second to bend beneath their weight, as if they weren’t fully corporeal until the strange environment registered their presence.

Behind and above them, a huge ethereal wall of blue fog threatened like a storm cloud, blocking off all possible paths except for the bridge in front of them. It was the only indicator that the new environment was a different reality, and he had heard the blue phenomenon described as the enclosure.

The fog was considered guidance from the gods, showing adventurers the way forward so they would not wander for eternity.

“Woah, big ‘ol’ castle!” Boh announced, eyeing the gray fortress.

“Indeed,” Rayden grinned. “Big ‘ol castle.”

“I don’t like the look of that water,” Quill said, scanning the expanse. “It’s more than vast enough to house some unpleasant creatures.”

“Good thing there’s a big fucking bridge,” Boh said cheerfully.

“Indeed,” Quill sighed, rolling her eyes at Rayden.

Jim skipped towards them from where Ivy was surveying their new domain, a few yards away. The charming smile on his face made Rayden want to swat him away like a buzzing fly.

“You know, Rayden, I always say that if you’ve seen one moat-protected castle, you’ve seen them all.”

“Oh,” Rayden nodded, trying to be subtle. “Jim, exactly how many of them have you encountered before?”

Their energetic showman opened his mouth to answer, but realized the trap set for him at the last moment.

“Not a single one, my friend, it’s simply what they say. I hope we can each see our second together, so that we can reach our verdicts.”

“I hope so, too.”

“I swear, you must be some type of fae, Jim,” Boh grumbled. “A fairy in disguise, maybe a changeling. Perhaps a pixie who's convinced himself he’s a human, gallivanting wherever his next fancy takes him.”

Jim seemed to appreciate that description, nodding enthusiastically at the moody dwarf.

“Oh, that sounds lovely, Boh. Imagine the antics and well-intentioned trouble I’d get into!”

“You’re a fucking asshole, Jim.”

Rayden turned to Quill, who was shaking her head at the two court jesters. He certainly wouldn’t say it out loud, but he found her look of mild annoyance appealing.

“Can I give you my theory of why those two don’t get along?” He asked.

She tilted her head in interest, giving him just a hint of a smirk.

“Is it not their race's history of war, their disparate dress, or their opposite personalities?”

“Nope,” Rayden laughed. “Their styles are different, but I think they are so alike it’s making them competitive. They’re like two animals fighting over the same territory, believing there can only be one true doofus in our group. One day, they'll realize that Ivy is serious enough for all of us and become fast friends, I swear.”

Quill chuckled, and he was pleased by the sparkle in her big brown eyes.

“An enemies-to-lovers kind of affair. I like it. However, I think I’ve seen enough for now.”

She walked over to the two idiots and slapped them both on the back.

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“Come on, gentlemen. Enough dawdling.”

As she walked over to Ivy, Rayden found himself drawn to the sway of her hips, even though the robes she wore hid most of their allure. His brief moment of lechery was interrupted when he noticed Boh standing right beside him, catching his attention with a knowing wink. He groaned. Hadn't the man just been reprimanded?

Fuck, I’m no better than trash.

“Ah, we’re just a couple of dogs, aren’t we, Rayden?” Boh grinned.

Deeply ashamed, Rayden caught up with the others at the tip of the enormous bridge. The damn thing had to be several hundred feet long and at least thirty feet wide. Whoever built this thing, and he was betting it was a king, must have had serious masculinity issues.

So far, there were still no signs of life anywhere, be it atop the castle walls or as far as they could see past the bridge. The whole setup was eerie and unsettling, as if someone had taken the idea of a castle and warped it into something strangely sterile.

A small plaque was built into the ground just before the bridge, reading:

Cross if you have faith.

Rayden paused to consider it, but their tall, tan, and brazen captain didn’t pay it any mind.

“Follow me,” Ivy commanded, fearlessly stepping onto the bridge.

He was a little unnerved by the green-haired woman’s approach, but was glad to abdicate the mantle of leadership and become a humble follower. The next time he gave a speech about his ambitions as a hero, he would have to remember to mention that his brand of justice did not involve leading others.

They began to march forward as a group, nervously scanning the moat for

danger. At first, there was none. It wasn’t until halfway across that Rayden noticed a rippling in the murky waters, followed by an ominous surge of bubbles.

“Hey!” He called out in a tense whisper. “Something’s moving.”

The others turned just as a thick purple tentacle rocketed out of the depths towards Boh. Ivy reacted instantly, pinning the squirming appendage with her gauntlet. Boh wasted no time flattening it with a powerful blow of his hammer, only for a new limb to rise from the depths and shoot towards him again.

Rayden rushed forward with his daggers drawn, only to stumble as a tentacle emerged from the other side of the bridge and wrapped around his ankle. Thankfully, Quill and Jim each blasted its stalk with a bolt, causing enough combined force to make the wriggling limb recoil.

Newly freed, he turned around, cycled a bit of mana to his arms, and sliced the undulating menace in half. Blue blood spilled over the bridge as the limb continued to writhe in pieces.

Fucking disgusting.

Briefly catching his breath, he saw Boh and Ivy finish off the second tentacle, before doing the same. The five of them advanced warily, inspecting the water around them for more of the slimy.

“Any idea what that was?” He asked.

“No, and I’m not sure we can fight this,” Quill said through gritted teeth. “We can’t see the body, and none of you strike me as aquatically inclined.”

“Right,” Ivy agreed. “Run!”

The five of them began a mad dash for the castle as the water bubbled and splashed around them, whipped into a frenzy as if the rage of the monster underneath was boiling over. After a decade of adventuring, there was little that outright terrified Rayden, but sea monsters with an undisclosed number of tentacles were high on the list. They made it a third of the way to safety before a dozen more purple limbs emerged at the same time.

“Let a dwarf drink in peace!” Boh shouted, ducking under an appendage before giving it a good whack.

Rayden didn’t have a chance to laugh. He leaped over one tentacle and stabbed his daggers into another as it wound its way toward Quill, just for another to take its place. It was like cutting through an underbrush of oversized worms.

He pushed himself and his dwindling mana base as hard as he could, weaving in and out of the spider web of limbs in a frantic and chaotic waltz. He dodged, stabbed, and rolled, then jumped, sliced, and ran. The latter was the most important.

“Keep running!” Ivy shouted helpfully.

After another minute of exactly that, he finally had a moment to look up and assess the situation. The others were managing, covered in inky blue blood but unharmed except for a few bruises. The bridge behind them looked like a chef had gone mad and butchered a thousand squids.

They were almost there. The archway leading into the castle was maybe thirty feet away. Unfortunately, the sea monster hadn’t given up yet.

With a piercing wail that emanated from the depths it writhed in, the monster tightened its flailing limbs into a targeted strike, and a barrage of grasping tentacles all rocketed towards Quill at the same time.

The party converged.

Jim finally pulled out the sword hanging from his hip and began to hack away. Rayden held his daggers like twin fangs, stabbing at the purple tendrils wherever he could. Ivy grabbed at them with her gauntlets and held them in place for Boh to pummel with crushing blows. Quill was a human cannon, blasting wherever her companions weren’t in the way. They were a deadly and effective ensemble, but the mutant mollusk just wasn’t running out of arms.

“Quill, watch out!” Raden shouted as a handful of tentacles snaked around the party’s guard and curled towards her. He and the others tried to cut through the thicket of limbs, but weren’t fast enough. For a brief and horrible moment, their mage was held up in the air, her face turning blue from the constricting pressure of the tentacles.

Just when he was afraid it was too late, the redhead’s eyes exploded with an emerald flash of concentrated mana.

Rayden had no idea what she had done, but the monster abruptly retracted its tentacles. Quill hit the ground hard and began to gasp for the air the monster had knocked out of her. Jim and Rayden reached her side first, right as the aquatic abomination slammed down an ungodly number of appendages on an empty portion of the bridge about five meters back. It had lashed out at nothing, like a frustrated child.

He didn’t waste any time wondering why, choosing to help Quill to her feet and focus on escaping the confused monster’s wrath.

“Still alive?” He asked as he hoisted her up. She rasped out something indistinguishable in response, but began running towards the archway. That was more than a good enough answer for him.

They began one final sprint, their frantic footsteps thudding against the wet wood as the water behind them roiled and thrashed. Nobody dared look back until they finally burst through the archway into a cavernous and dimly lit stone refuge. It looked to be some sort of armory, with loose bits of armor and weaponry strewn about the sparsely decorated room. But most importantly, it was blessedly dry.

“Fuck me,” Rayden panted, still hearing the thud of entacles thrashing around behind them. “Was that thing normal for a goddamn gray gate?”

Quill was in no shape to answer, and Ivy remained predictably stoic as she caught her breath, but both Jim and Boh looked like they wanted to answer.

“Almost caught you fuckers,” Rayden laughed in between gasps.

“And that foul beast almost caught us,” Jim said with a goofy grin. “Exhilarating. I hadn't had a thrill like that since I made love to an entire family of dwarves.”

Everybody was way too exhausted to take the bait, but Boh looked like he was tempted to try the moment he recovered. Rayden walked over to where Quill had collapsed onto the floor and crouched down. She was shivering, possibly from the near-death experience, and possibly because she had gotten completely drenched.

“Um, you OK?” He asked, gingerly placing his cloak over her shoulders. It wasn’t exactly dry, but he figured it was better than just her soggy robe. “Not really,” she muttered, turning her head to acknowledge him. Her eyes were sunken and her cheeks were deathly pale, but the smirk on her face was an encouraging sign.

“Sort of a dumb question, don’t you think?”

“Definitely,” he nodded. He let a moment pass in silence to perfect his setup. “Wasn’t that monster scary?”

Her face contorted for a second before she involuntarily chuckled.

“Ugh…thank you for the cloak.”

“You’re welcome.”

“That thing was horrendous,” she whispered.

“I know. I’m sorry you got the worst of it.”

Ivy, apparently having already recovered, walked over to where they were resting and placed her gauntlet-clad hands on her hips.

“Good work,” she said approvingly. “You fought well as a team.”

He hadn’t asked for an assessment, but he wasn’t going to back-talk this particular woman. Rayden felt a hand smack his back, and a much braver dwarf whispered in his ear, “You hear that? The overseer approves of us, Rayden!”

That one almost got him, but he managed to stifle his laugh.

“You’re absolutely right, Ivy,” Quill agreed. “And I’m grateful. Very much so. None of you hesitated to help me, and I won’t forget it.”

“The goodwill of such a fair maiden pleases me,” Jim said without a hint of shame. “But it seems like you saved yourself more than anything.”

She shook her head, hugging herself tightly to suppress a shiver.

“No. I wouldn’t have stood a chance if not for all of your efforts. Thank you, sincerely.”

“You are welcome. We will continue to do the same for each other,” Ivy declared, apparently determining that for all of them.

Rayden wasn’t sure what had gotten into the woman but was pleased she seemed to have taken a liking to them, at least.

Their newly emboldened leader pointed at a hallway leading further into the castle.

“Boh, Jim, let’s take a look,” she commanded. “Rayden and Quill, rest up for a second. We’ll be back soon.”

“I’m your right-hand man, Ivy,” Boh proudly declared.

“And I, the noble left!” Jim proclaimed.

Rayden was about to ask how they possibly could have recovered enough mana to continue so soon, but stopped himself. At this point, why bother? He knew exactly how, and one of them had just proved it.

Furthermore, he did need a break, and so did the suffering mage beside him.

“OK,” he eventually nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Understood,” Quill agreed.

Without another word, Ivy guided the two disparate menaces down the hall, leaving Quill and Rayden alone. The sea monster had finally stopped its thrashing, and all was quiet except for the water still dripping from their gear.

Rayden didn’t want to make the poor mage uncomfortable, but he felt the obvious had to be said.

“You already have your Talent.”