Chương 108: The Delver's Trace

Cal stood outside the Golden Mortar with his pack settled on his shoulders and his spear strapped across his back, watching his breath fog in the dim light. Selara emerged first, wearing layered travel clothing of oiled wool and close-fitted leathers that were practical and built for the forest. Behind her came Aurelian, his silver-blond hair combed for once, dressed in a coat of deep charcoal that fell to his knees over a high-collared shirt.

Neither looked particularly well-rested, and neither commented on Cal's armor. He'd donned the Legion-issue plate that morning, suiting up for something he knew he couldn't properly prepare for. She nodded to him.

"Let's get on with it." They walked south through the still village, their footsteps the only sound on the cobblestones. Cal ran a quick inventory on the way: spear, shortsword, harvesting knife, full pack of potions and rations. The south gate was a large structure of dark timber and iron banding, its doors standing open to receive the grey dawn. Two guards in Legion-issue cloaks leaned against the gatehouse wall, watching the road.

They straightened as the Veil party arrived, their eyes catching on his pauldron's crossed spear and shield seal for a half-second before sliding away. The other party was already there, and Cal could tell who was who based on their descriptions from his mentors. Ido Aloi held the center of the group with the easy poise of a man accustomed to being the center of attention. He was lean and athletic, with tanned skin and short, practical brown hair.

Beneath his armor of blued steel plates was a smartly tailored indigo robe. Faintly glowing runes followed the edges of each plate in patterns that shifted when the light caught them. The silver amulet on his chest held a sparkling yellow stone. His brown eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, and the smile came immediately when he caught sight of Selara. Beside him, Angelika Halmi made the morning air feel several degrees colder.

She was tall and slender, fine pointed ears framed light golden hair that was twisted into a severe braid and lay over one shoulder. In the low light, her skin was ashen, close to colorless, and she swept a look of casual disinterest across the arriving Veil party. Her robes were an impractical white, reinforced with silvered pauldrons and vambraces that were covered in runes. Her twin, Filip, wore interlocking argent scale mail.

Each of the large scales was etched with a crackling blue rune that made the whole suit look like a barely contained thunderstorm. He had similar features to his sister, although his hair was cut shorter and less controlled. And where her violet eyes held calculation, Filip's contained a boisterous energy. If Aurelian was to be believed, Filip's energy came from being the kind of man who'd decided today was going to be a good day because he planned to fight something. Zamir Jamison loomed behind the Halmi twins.

He was eight and a half feet of black iron plate, craggy-featured and bald, his grey eyes set so deep in his skull they looked like caves. His exposed skin had the grey and weathered texture of stone. Across his armor, runes glowed with a dull brown light. Cal did a rapid recalculation of what a good adventuring frontman looked like, as this behemoth set the new standard. Hope Richard stood apart from the group, a yard closer to the gate.

She had a compact, athletic build wrapped in unremarkable leather, though a neat row of daggers was strapped to one thigh. A mousy brown braid fell over her shoulder, and a light dusting of freckles crossed her nose. She ignored the arrivals, her piercing hazel eyes fixed on the distant treeline. Behind them all stood another man, separate from the core group. He was cloaked and hooded in dark, travel-worn fabric, his features completely obscured by shadow except for a stubbled chin.

One thing that stood out to Cal besides their ridiculously cool looking gear was that while Hope wore daggers, the rest carried no discernible weapons. His gaze dropped to their hands, searching for the reason. That's when he saw the rings. Ido's right hand bore two. Angelika's, three. Filip, two. Zamir wore one enormous banded ring on his index finger. Hope had none visible atop her gloves. Void rings? They probably keep their weapons stored like Selara does.

He looked at their unencumbered hands and thought of the spear strapped across his back. Just another thing to mark him as out of place. Ido stepped forward in greeting as they approached, his eyes locked on Selara. Something behind his easygoing smile gave way. A small tightening at the corners. A fraction of a second where the practiced charisma slipped, and his attention lingered on her for a beat too long.

"Selara," he began.

"It's good to—""This is Cal," she interrupted, gesturing toward Cal without looking at Ido directly.

"Cal." Angelika drawled. Her eyes traveled from his boots up the Legion-issue armor and finally landed on the crimson seal at his shoulder.

"And what is this?" Her soprano was clipped and cool.

"Some commoner you've hired to carry your bags?"

"He is our apprentice, Lady Halmi, and a very good one at that."

"An apprentice in the livery of a simple soldier." She tilted her head by a degree.

"How very... novel." Cal remained still. He kept his face blank and his breathing even, not letting the words get to him. She had a similar entitled air as three executives he once worked for, the kind who mistook inheritance for merit, who looked straight through the people below them. That's useful. I can put up with some condescension to stay under the radar. Sometimes that's exactly where you want to be. Aurelian snorted dismissively.

"Are we quite finished with the pleasantries? Some of us have work to do." With that, Hope set off down the Delver's Trace and the others followed, as Aurum's light began to soften the darkness above the canopy. The path was about five yards wide, worn down to bare earth by years of boots. Ido's party took the lead without discussion, falling into a formation that put a natural ten yards of separation between them and the Veil group.

Cal settled into a step behind Aurelian and Selara, his eyes moving between the treeline and the group ahead. The Halmis were immediately, relentlessly loud.

"Absolutely appalling." Angelika lifted the hem of her white robes away from the path's margin.

"The mud content alone is—""The smell, Angie." Filip kicked a chunk of bark off the path with enough force that it vanished into the undergrowth.

"Who decided forests needed to smell like this? It's like breathing inside a very old, very damp sock." He punctuated this by kicking another piece of debris, then pivoted on his heel to walk backwards for a few steps, searching the trees with restless eyes.

"Is it always this dull? I feel like I am going colorblind. Zamir, do I look hale to you?" Zamir, who walked with an implacable, ground-eating stride, said nothing.

"He thinks this weather is bad for my constitution," Filip told his sister. Cal found himself grateful for the twins' noise. It made it easier to watch Hope. She moved at the edge of the formation, just ahead of Ido. At one point, between a breath and the next, she simply wasn't there anymore. The space she'd occupied on the path was empty; the undergrowth undisturbed. A minute passed, and the path continued.

The twins argued about whether the Virethane's mud was technically worse than the mud near some coastal resort they'd apparently both hated for separate reasons. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Hope materialized at Ido's elbow, and Cal could barely overhear her report.

"The path is clear for the next few miles, boss. Minor critters about. Nothing above F-tier." Ido gave a short nod, and she slid back into her position at the formation's margin. Two hours in, the Virethane's ambient noise changed. The constant drip-and-creak of the forest shifted, acquiring a low, pulsing vibration that seemed to come from below the dirt. The spiritual energy in the air thickened perceptibly, enough that his passive [Spiritual Perception] registered it like a change in the air pressure.

We're getting closer. The essence saturation from the dungeon is bleeding out through the forest like it was on the way to the Rootbound Depths. Suddenly, a twig snapped in the brush. The undergrowth to their right detonated outward, branches cracking, and an E-tier razor boar came charging at them with its full mass and momentum. It was shoulder-height on Cal, built like a barrel of meat wrapped in coarse hide, with dangerous looking serrated tusks.

Its small eyes found the nearest cluster of bodies and it lowered its head. Cal's body reacted before his mind finished processing the boar's arrival. He dropped into a fighting stance, feet spreading, weight lowering, spear leveling at the animal with both hands— Aurelian sighed. The man flicked his wrist. A marble-sized bead of white-hot light hissed from his fingertips, crossed the path in an immeasurable instant, punched a cauterized hole through the creature's skull, and buried itself in the earth beyond.

The boar's legs folded and it went down in a heap, cartwheeling end over end twice before coming to a rest. Okay, Cal thought as he straightened. That boar rush was kind of scary, but holy mackerel, if Aurelian isn't scarier. I need to learn some magic like that! The leading party had barely glanced back. Ido kept walking. Angelika, however, had stopped and turned, her eyes moving from the boar's corpse to Cal's party. Her attention settled on Cal.

"Well? Are you going to do your job and loot the stone, or just stand there?" Cal was taken aback for a second, then looked at Aurelian who gave him a brief nod. He ignored Angelika, crossed the path in a few quick strides, and knelt. The boar's hide was still warm under his hands. He drew his harvesting knife and worked quickly, his [Spiritual Perception] active and probing as he pressed inward, being tipped off that there was a spirit stone to find.

The boar's dying life force was the loudest thing in his senses, a diminishing warmth. Pushing past it, he filtered out the fading aura signature the way he'd trained himself to screen out the ambient hum of the forest's background Mana, searching for something spiritually dense beneath the meat and bone. He found it. A weak, muffled resonance deep in the chest cavity. Its 'sound' was dampened, its vibration softened by layers of tissue, like hearing a bell through several closed doors.

Cal paused, his blade hovering. He cast his perception outward, toward the air above the corpse. Only forest. Then he pressed inward again, into the chest cavity. It grew back, subdued but unmistakable. The body is doing it. The hide, the tissue: it's acting as a natural shroud. But the spirit stone can still be felt… maybe in time if I practice this I'll be able to tell which beasts have stones and which don't? He cut the stone free and held it up, then pressed his perception against it in open air.

The E-tier stone's aura expanded immediately, fully open to his senses. He placed it back in the cavity. Muted again. Interesting. He collected the stone and then stood, turning back to rejoin his party.

"Keep it." Aurelian was already moving ahead, Selara next to him. Cal nodded his thanks and fell into step behind them. Angelika sniffed.

"You spoil your help, alchemist." The alchemist stopped dead mid-stride and stared her down. The typical boredom had vanished entirely from his features.

"He is not my 'help,' Lady Halmi." The nobleman projected each syllable pointedly.

"He is my apprentice. And a more talented one than you might imagine." Well would you look at that, I must be growing on him, Cal observed, smiling to himself. Like mold? A venomous smile split her face.

"I'm surprised you took another apprentice. How courageous. Let us all pray this one proves more... resilient." She spared Aurelian one last contemptuous glance, then pivoted toward Ido and the rest of the group, letting the barb linger behind her. The alchemist stood motionless for several seconds. A tendon jumped beneath his ear, and he clenched his jaw until the bone stood out white against his skin.

The habitual veneer of indifferent superiority had evaporated, exposing something volcanic and barely contained before he wrestled it back under control. He started walking again, spine locked straight, every movement clipped and deliberate. Maybe I should change the subject… Matching the alchemist's stride, he let the gap between them and the lead group widen to a comfortable margin.

"I'm surprised she expected me to harvest it," Cal murmured.

"Given how wealthy this party appears, I assumed an E-tier beast would be beneath their notice." Aurelian seemed to shake himself and replied, "In terms of wealth, you are, of course, correct. The stone is trivial to them. However—" He paused, seeming to consider something.

"The Academy is a ruthless teacher. They instill it early and they instill it hard: waste is a sin. We would not haul the carcass, but spirit stones and valuable reagents are never abandoned. A matter of principle, as it were."

"That seems practical."

"Most of the Academy's doctrines are, beneath all the pomp and ceremony." Cal let a moment pass before continuing.

"That fire Spell… was that something they taught you there?"

"The Academy teaches combat magic, indeed. Competently, if not brilliantly." He glanced sideways at Cal, dropping his voice below the hearing range of the group ahead.

"But most of what I do with fire is a family matter, guarded by oaths that bind considerably more tightly than any institutional pledge." Of course. Cal stared down at his hands. I know I shouldn't complain after the leg up they've already given me, but man, having a ranged option like that would be handy. Aurelian pulled him back out of his thoughts.

"The Primer I lent you had an appendix covering fundamental runes in the back. I assume you memorized it along with everything else?"

"Of course."

"And have you experimented with them?" Cal shook his head.

"Honestly, no. I've been so focused on mastering the alchemy work that I haven't made time for it."

"Then you've been industrious with one hand and idle with the other. The Primer is a map, apprentice. It is useless if you never take a step. You must learn by doing." He's right. The truth of it stung. He'd absorbed the appendix in one sitting and then shoved it away for later while he built the alchemy pipeline. Later had arrived.

"Is it safe?" Cal asked.

"Combining runes without a proper Spell formula?" Aurelian barked a mirthless laugh that startled a bird from a branch somewhere in the canopy above them.

"Safe." He repeated the word as though tasting something sour.

"Apprentice, nothing about power is safe. It is controlled, or it is catastrophic. Assume every combination you do not understand is a bomb waiting for a reason to detonate. That is the first and only rule of discovery." He paused briefly, his attention drifting before he continued.

"However... proper care can produce safe results. Begin small. Double-rune structures, always with [Control], fueled by the minimum Mana you can manage. If the construct begins to destabilize you'll feel it before it fails; the tone will turn discordant and the structure will fray. You release the Mana entirely and let it disperse. Do not try to correct it mid-collapse." His jaw tightened slightly.

"Do not ever try to correct it mid-collapse." Cal nodded his thanks, excited at the prospect of further discovery.

"Thank you, Aurelian. I'll be sure to be careful." The trees thinned first, their trunks spreading apart over fifty yards until the canopy opened into a wide clearing. As Aurum completed its descent below the treeline, the sky had turned deep maroon. The light turned everything red: the trampled earth of the clearing, the ring of old fire pits marking countless previous parties, and the rough-hewn log benches someone had dragged to the clearing's perimeter years ago.

Tucked into the shadows at the edge of the clearing stood a small cabin. And then there was the barrier. It hung at the clearing's far end as a blurred distortion in the air, translucent and faintly luminous. Through it the forest resumed, but differently. The trees beyond the barrier were darker and much larger than those outside. Thirty yards past the barrier, the base of an enormous, ancient tree gaped open in a black maw, its entrance framing absolute darkness.

Cal's [Spiritual Perception] hit the barrier and recoiled. The sensation was the spiritual equivalent of shouting into a canyon and having the echo come back larger than the original sound. Against his senses, the barrier's aura pressed with an immovable density, its low sub-sonic hum something he felt in his back teeth as much as in his perception. He pushed gently, trying to find an edge, a ceiling, or some limit he could define. There was nothing.

The power simply continued, deeper and harder, until his perception couldn't find the bottom or top of it.

"Right." Ido turned to face both parties and clapped his hands together.

"Let us get camp set up, shall we? We will set out at dawn, rested and—""Absolutely not." Angelika slashed a knife-hand through the air.

"I am not spending a single night in this—" she gestured at the clearing and the trees "—festering backwater. We go in now, we finish this farce, and we leave in as soon as possible."

"Entering a dungeon at night is—" Selara began, then stopped herself and glanced at Aurelian. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking even more bored than usual. His attention drifted toward the barrier, toward the hollow tree beyond it, and then back to Selara with a small shrug. Selara sagged a fraction. She pressed her lips together and looked back at Ido, not speaking further. Ido glanced between both parties for a few seconds, seeming torn.

"Fine." He turned to his group, the affable warmth entirely gone as the seasoned delver commander came to the fore.

"We're going in. Prepare yourselves."