A Soldier's Life

Chapter 158: Phazed Decisions

I was having a really bad dream. I had been transported to a world full of magic and dangerous monsters and forced to serve in the Legion. My eyes opened painfully, a crusty feeling on my eyelids; a bluish light dilated my pupils, and a blurry image of a bald gray man stood over me. My mind slowly pieced everything back together, and the memories flooded back in. Maveith said something that I missed; it sounded muffled to my ears.

His deep voice became clearer as he tried again, more insistently, “Where are the healing potions?”

I was confused when he asked about the healing potions, and I tried to speak. My jaw was on fire as it moved reluctantly, and other centers of pain began to announce themselves across my body as my nerves mapped the damage. I croaked out, “Under my chest piece.”

Maveith fished around in my armor and found the vial. Relief in his voice, he said, “I will pour it in your mouth. Swallow it.” He ordered sternly.

My taste buds only registered the blood in my mouth as the aether restoration potion worked. It was my only potion not in my dimensional space, but it gave me aether to pull an actual healing potion from my dimensional storage. I then had only a heartbeat to funnel aether as fast as I could into my healing spell form before the overflow of aether bled away into the environment.

I was only moderately successful in using the overflowing aether from my core. I held up the retrieved healing potion with difficulty; my arm was clearly broken. It was still hard to speak, so I said, “Healing potion,” offering it to Maveith to feed me. “What happened?” I croaked, my memory still fuzzy from what had transpired after the lizard breathed a blizzard on me.

“Eryk, you cannot take two different potions so close in time to each other. It would be best if you waited at least an hour,” Maveith said worriedly. I tried to laugh, but even a small chuckle elevated my pain awareness, reminding me just how much of a mess I was.

I tried to relax and focus on using my own aether to heal my extensive injuries. “What happened?” I repeated more clearly.

“The creature hit you on the ice and threw you into the wall. After you bounced off the wall, it hit you again and crushed you into the wall. Your skin was frozen from the cloud of frost, and your eyes did not look good. I did not think you lived,as that creature is easily over two thousand pounds.” Maveith was still worried about my fate as one of my bones snapped back into alignment. I was worried for another reason. The collector was in my backpack, and I feared it might have been damaged.

My injuries were under control. After healing my head enough to think straight, I focused on my internal wounds. “I am healing myself. Use the collector on the creature. If I pass out, use the healing potion on me.” It took a lot of effort to get the words out.

Maveith did as I asked, and I focused on healing. My armor had done a decent job of protecting me, much better than when the wyvern slammed into me. Broken bones seemed to be my biggest issue. I quickly burned through my available aether and was still in rough shape. Realigning bone with aether was not only painful but also required more aether than healing tissue.

I was taking a break from healing when Maveith stood over me again, proudly holding a large apex essence in one hand and the collector in the other. It looked like a sphere containing dark blue water. It was a water affinity essence. I nodded as the pain was preventing me from moving. “How long was I out?”

“One-third of an hour,” Maveith said, concern still evident on his face. My vision cleared as I healed my eyes from the damage to my cornea. Blinking rapidly, I saw Maveith pulling me out of the room and into the corridor.

Maveith indicated the room. “The ice in the room is melting. I think the creature was keeping it frozen with its freezing breath.” Maveith bit his lip. “Also, when we entered, all the exits turned into solid stone, trapping us inside.” I forced myself to sit up; the ice had a thin sheen of water on top.

Even if the ice completely thawed, there was a small ledge along the wall that we could walk on to circle the room. As I studied the area, Maveith’s concern faded as my body healed. “Your face and ears have frostbite,” he pointed out.

I was focused on Maveith’s comment about the dungeon locking us in the room. It had not done that before. I recalled the scorpion room from my first dungeon experience, which had done that to me. Maybe the final room of a floor prevented you from retreating? I shared my thoughts with Maveith. “I think the room was more challenging and locked us in because it gives access to a deeper level of the dungeon.”

I touched the tip of my nose; pain radiated from it and my nose was slightly stiff. My healing was able to restore the damage from the frostbite. My aether was low again, so I paused while it recovered naturally. “Maveith, do you want to catch the eels? I have some fishing line.”

Maveith looked at the melting ice. “I am not familiar with this type of eel, but it should be edible. I do not think we should try the meat from the lizard you killed. Its blood is blue, and the meat is pale white; neither are good signs for consumption.”

“I want to harvest essences from the eels. I am not really concerned about eating them. We also need to decide if we are going to head back to the safe room at the bottom of the stairs or use one of the two exits up here. With that ranged breath weapon, I am not sure we should attempt this room again. I should be completely healed in half a day, so this is unnecessary.” I made a show of sliding the healing potion under my armor in the pocket where the aether restoration had rested. Now Maveith knew where he could find it next time.

There was also a stone reward chest in the center of the ice. Maveith was reluctant to walk out on the surface to retrieve it. I removed my armor temporarily to lighten myself and had enough aether to cast at least three air discs to stand on if the ice could not support me. The ice groaned and cracked as I walked toward the reward chest. As I picked it up, the ice splintered further, and I retreated to the corridor with Maveith. I unceremoniously dropped the chest to shatter it. Silver coins spread across the floor, and a distinctive yellow of gold appeared in the mix—five gold coins. We sifted through the messy debris, not seeing a potion or other item. Maveith found a silver ring blending in with the coins.

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“This ring is probably an artifact, Maveith. Do you want it?” I asked.

Maveith held up his hand with his thick fingers. “I don’t think it will fit, Eryk.”

“Well, when we get out of here, you will get your share of the coins,” I reassured him.

Maveith looked at the watery ice. “I think we should use those corridors and try to find the others.” With how close I had been to death, it was more apparent we needed help.

“I agree. Let us move to the corridor on the right.” I was not confident about walking across the ice again, so I moved slowly along the narrow ledge. My body was still healing, so every little slip was uncomfortable as I kept my balance. Maveith’s wide body stepped on the ice every few steps when the ledge got narrow, and it creaked under his weight, but it held.

We sheltered in the new corridor, and I gave Maveith both of my fishing kits. He shattered the ice with his hammer, creating a hole, and I gave him the chunk of the lizard I had sent to my space for bait. With Maveith occupied in fishing, I gratefully slid down the wall, my armor scraping on the stone. I started to eat in order to recover reserves and fight off exhaustion. Maveith caught the first eel almost immediately.

The four-foot eel was dark gray with a silvery belly. He smashed its head and slid it toward me. I pulled out the collector and noticed it had a small dent in it. I needed to be more careful with this artifact in the future. I had thought carrying it was smarter for easier access since my aether took time to recover after I killed a creature. Instead, I had almost broken one of my most valued possessions.

I used the collector, and the blue wisps pulled into the collector formed a dark green minor essence. “Maveith, quickness essence.” I held it up for him, and Maveith’s eyes lit up with eagerness. I was guiltily greedy myself and would gladly give him minor essences while keeping the apex essences for myself. Although, I admit being quicker might have just saved me from almost dying.

While Maveith pulled eel after eel out, I used the collector and continued healing the damage to my body. Maveith tossed the eels out onto the ice, as they smelled fairly horrible, and we decided not to try the meat. Hours passed, and the bites came less and less frequently. There was a heap of twenty-three minor dark green essences.

Maveith suddenly stood and backed away from the entrance to the room. I was on alert and stood as well. “What is it?”

“The corpse of the lizard creature just disappeared. I looked up, and it was gone. I think the room is resetting,” Maveith noted, and we both watched from the corridor’s safety.

“How long did it take?” I asked Maveith since he had a better feel for time than I did.

Maveith bit his lip, thinking. “I think just under a day. Maybe exactly a day. I drifted off a few times while waiting for a bite.”

A huge cloud of frosty snow erupted from the ceiling. The frigid blast quickly froze the water on the ice, resulting in a glass-like finish. The eels did not seem to have repopulated yet. I could only see a few eels deep in the water. The dark blue lizard landed on the ice, which was definitely smaller than the one I had recently killed. I was still not eager to fight this particular creature again.

We watched it survey its domain before I said, “Maveith, take the essences, we should get going and see where this leads. I was hoping to explore both options before deciding, but I lost track of time, and we will have to settle for this corridor.” I had completely healed; my only pain was my stomach requesting fuel.

Reluctantly, I sent the collector to my dimensional storage to protect it from my own shortcomings. We walked down the straight corridor, maybe two hundred feet, to the next room. It was another large chamber with a few full-grown trees, creating a small forest. I thought the trees were oak—at least the leaves were shaped like oak leaves I recalled from Earth. “Do you see anything, Maveith?”

“In the trees,” his deep voice echoed above and behind me. “A large mantis is eating leaves.” He had to point out the green creature for me. It was not large—maybe the length of my arm. Maveith voiced what I was thinking. “They are not overly dangerous. I am guessing they are sustenance for something much more deadly.”

We started to get frustrated trying to find the threat in the room. We spotted at least four of the mantises but no overt threat. The room almost looked peaceful, with nineteen large oak trees, a high ceiling, and much brighter lighting than in other rooms.

We sat facing each other in the corridor, resting our backs on the wall, and started to make dinner. We watched the room, trying to figure out the threat before entering. Maveith cooked with the thermal stone between his legs. I could tell he was tired, and we needed to sleep somewhere safe soon. As we ate some seared bear meat, a flash of movement occurred in the trees.

“What was it?” I asked Maveith, who was studying the trees with me. We could hear crunching as the mantis was being devoured in the canopy.

“I think it was a spider, but it was fast, and I don’t know what type.” As if the first attack was a catalyst, other flashes occurred in the upper branches as more spiders decided it was dinner time.

“I don’t see any webbing,” I said, as the blue-white spiders dashed among the branches harvesting the mantises.

“They could be nesting inside the trees. I counted over ten,” Maveith noted, still focused above. “I have never seen a blue-white spider before.”

“I think I remember something in the books in the dreamscape library. I will go and check.” I put the amulet in my hand and entered the dreamscape. I ignored the people and Oscar, as I did not want to be gone too long. I found the entry in the elven bestiary and focused on translating it.

They were a variety of phase spiders—spiders that could make themselves incorporeal to avoid attacks or surprise prey. The ones we noticed were slightly smaller than the entry, about the size of a dog. They were venomous, and the poison was a paralytic. They nested in trees and caves. Their webbing was only used to preserve prey and cocoon their eggs, as they did not make webs. They were noted as extremely dangerous foes.

I returned to Maveith and informed him of what I had learned. “They are called phase spiders. Their bite can paralyze you, but they can also make themselves incorporeal. We have enchanted weapons, which should make that point moot.”

Maveith was pointing, drawing my gaze. Shit. There was a mama-phase spider the size of a horse. We watched the smaller spiders bring the large parts of their mantis harvests as offerings. The large spider used its legs to put the pieces into its mouth, making loud and disturbing crunching sounds as it snacked.

Maveith asked, “Is it time to bring out the elf griffin rider?”

There were so many enemies in the room that Maveith and I would be outnumbered. I was not optimistic about returning to the ice room to explore the other corridor. “Twelve small spiders gave offerings to the big one. That makes thirteen total,” Maveith said from his observations.

“I do not see an exit from this room. The trees could be blocking it, but this could be a dead end,” I reasoned. “Maybe we fight the blue lizard and try the other corridor?”

Maveith seemed to consider. “I think we will eventually return here. We should try this room. Venom usually takes time to work or requires multiple bites to become effective. I think we can do this, but having the elf as an ally makes it safer.”

I was still reluctant. “If she doesn’t stab us in the back while we are fighting,” I wavered for minutes before finally conceding. “Fine, Maveith. I will bring out the griffin rider, and we will try to reason with her.”

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