MiP B2 Chapter 42: Dangerous Territory (Patreon)

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"So, how did they do?" Carlos sat back in a remarkably comfortable camping chair and nodded at Major Ordens.

The junior royal guard officer nodded back. "Their performance was acceptable overall, but still with substantial room for improvement."

Kindar stood quietly, his hands motionless at his sides and his face calmly neutral. Beside him, a miniature humanoid figure in steel plate armor sat atop an armored miniature pegasus, the pair standing 2 feet tall combined. The pegasus's wings were furled, their armor sheathes showing impressive flexibility with their position tightly folded against the creature's sides. Both Kindar and Purple's pegasus knight watched Ordens respectfully as they waited.

Carlos motioned for Ordens to continue. "Firstly, Kindar, you focused excessively on defense. I know that your capabilities have a strong emphasis on defense, but that does not mean that you should simply stand back and allow your opponents to attack you freely. You did not do that in your sparring with me; why did you do it in real combat with Jamar?"

Kindar frowned and cocked his head. "I thought presenting indifference to her would intimidate her better, so that I could drain her power. You know my fighting style too well for such a tactic to work against you, but she knew me only as an opponent she could not meaningfully harm."

"Hmm." Ordens gazed at him steadily, considering his explanation. "That may be, but such a tactic relies on a certain degree of superiority over your opponent. It works well only when you don't need it. Against opponents who you are not already certain of defeating, it is better to take every opportunity to harm them. Fight as though every foe is a deadly threat, and you will never regret taking a foe too lightly."

Kindar nodded. "Understood. Thank you for your insight."

Ordens shook her head. "I wasn't done. While a shield can be used to attack, it is rarely as effective for that purpose as an actual weapon. You also relied more than necessary on your armor. As foolish as Jamar was, she did have a point about that – there are people and creatures capable of piercing any armor you might ever wear, and you do not want to find out that you are facing such a foe by needlessly suffering a grievous wound. Finally, your stance and swordwork had several small deficiencies that I will drill you on correcting later."

Kindar bowed his head. "I will endeavor to perfect my skills with your guidance."

Ordens nodded, then hesitated for a moment. "One more thing, though this is more a matter of strategic concerns than combat performance: capturing Jamar alive could potentially have been considerably more useful than killing her."

Carlos frowned at that. "I can't deny that you have a point, but I would have really hated dealing with her toxic personality."

Ordens shrugged, then turned to face the miniature pegasus and its rider. She frowned and turned to Carlos. "Lord Carlos, I am uncertain how much your tame dungeon core can understand."

Carlos shared a look with Amber, then looked back at Ordens and shrugged. "Give your feedback as you would to a human, and we will figure out any needed clarifications or refinements."

Ordens bowed slightly and faced the dungeon creature again. "Very well. As strange as it was to fight alongside a swarm of toy-sized copies of my commander, I cannot deny that it was highly effective. However, the versatility of the swarm was considerably lacking, particularly with regard to the power of the swarm's elites and countering anti-swarm tactics.

"The pegasus riders are not large enough to properly execute their role as heavy hitters. The toy-sized knights are fine; they are dangerous through numbers and through being small enough to slip through common gaps in defenses, and they do their job well. The pegasus riders are too large to slip through gaps like that, but not large enough to have the strength and mass necessary to be effective in contesting an enemy's power."

The pegasus rider shifted awkwardly, and Carlos nodded. "We need dungeon heavy hitters that are fully the size of you or Lorvan, or maybe Sconter, or even larger, with strength to match."

Ordens nodded. "Yes, and they need to be specialized against the things that give swarms trouble, particularly large-scale area attacks and gapless barriers. And that brings up another point: The ground should have already been incorporated into the dungeon's domain and infused with dungeon mana. When that earth manipulator turned the dirt to mud, he should have needed to contest with the dungeon's pre-established dominion to even make it work at all, rather than the dungeon only reversing it after the fact. Dungeons are the masters of their environments. Use that to the fullest."

Carlos cocked his head. "Huh. Duly noted. I hadn't realized the dungeon wasn't already doing that."

Ordens continued. "If you do all of that properly, you will have matched the tactics of the most notoriously dangerous known dungeons. If you wish to go above and beyond that standard, to create the theorized dungeon delvers' worst nightmare, then seek ways to protect the swarm itself from all common anti-swarm attacks. Fire resistance, reactive counter-gusts, contingent force barriers, and so on. Force your foes to kill the swarm's members individually, one by one, and you will have a dungeon no one will want to challenge."

Carlos shared a look with Amber, and they both grinned. "We'll see what we can come up with for that. Anything else?"

Ordens shrugged. "Just one minor point: give them a real battle cry instead of Trinlen's joke."

___

Amber woke up early the next morning, her reason for an early rising already in her mind. Right, we're about to hit Level 37, the same as the aether in this camp's area. We want to be already on the move before that happens, so that we can continue advancing without interruption. She glanced toward Carlos, on the other side of Mayor Stelras's borrowed luxury tent's privacy divider, and smiled tenderly. His mana is so peaceful with him sleeping, and it's nice how he seems to project reassurance toward me even in his sleep.

She sat up and shook herself. As tempting as it is to indulge myself, we have a schedule to keep. We should be flying out of here in 15 minutes. She multiplied her minds and surrounded herself with a flurry of activity, both physical and magical. With one mind, she gave Carlos's soul a playful push with her mana. With another, she silently cast a minor spell to clean herself. A smile visited her lips as she remembered Carlos's first reaction when he'd learned of that spell's existence. I never would have thought about it without his remark, but magical cleaning really is unreasonably simple to use for what it does. Even with how much easier his new spell language is to work with, designing a spell to emulate the `clean` effect by using other effects is so complicated I'm not even sure how to begin! And apparently cleaning being unreasonably easy was a nearly-universal feature of all fictional magic systems in his world?

With a third mind, she cast a telekinesis spell to grab her clothes for the day, unfold them, and move them into position. With a fourth mind, she stood and moved her arms and legs to let her clothes easily wrap around her, coordinating perfectly with the third mind's telekinesis. She stepped into her boots as they shoved themselves onto her feet and tightened themselves. With a fifth mind, she reached out mentally to Purple and Haftel. [Good morning. How are things going out there?]

Haftel sent back a gruff summary. [Packing up is on schedule. We'll be ready momentarily.]

Purple sent an image of the camp. The sky was barely starting to lighten at pre-dawn. Half of the tents were already gone, and the other half were being actively taken down. Kindar and his escort were waiting beside Esmorana's aerial passenger carrier, which was fully set up and awaiting its passengers. Lorvan and Ordens were standing ready, all of their supplies already in wherever they stored them. Sconter was busily packing down the ground where their fireplace had been, arranging sticks and leaves, and erasing various other signs of their presence.

Carlos's mana gently grasped the tendril Amber had pushed him with and held it for a moment, then he yawned and stretched. "Hmm? Wha?" He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, then pushed himself up and yawned again. "Amber?" He paused, then his eyes widened and he jerked. "Oh! Right, moving day again." He almost stumbled over his own feet as he leaped up, then caught himself with a quick Levitation spell. He chuckled, then cast a few spells of his own, and Amber sensed the flurry of spellwork rapidly cleaning and dressing him.

They marched out of the tent together just a couple minutes after waking up. They had packed their bags last evening, and tucking away the last few things was just a moment's work with Telekinesis spells effectively giving them as many hands as they could want. The tent itself was even less work to pack, as its self-packing enchantment handled that for them. They took flight for their new campsite a full 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

Amber kept one of her minds on monitoring the aether around them as they flew, particularly around Noralt, the lowest-level of their adventurer escorts at Level 38. As she expected, aether started trickling into the stocky woman when they passed into a Level 39 area. Haftel and Sconter followed when the aether reached Level 40, then Esmorana at Level 41. For all four of them, the rate was scarcely a trickle compared to Amber's own torrent.

Then they approached their new campsite, in Level 46 aether, and Amber's breath caught as even the two royal guards started absorbing aether. She'd been expecting it, but it was still a visceral shock to have concrete proof that their loaned protectors, who had seemed all but invincible until now, had limits.

They circled in the air for a few minutes before landing as the adventurers debated the best place to land and set up camp. There was a new atmosphere of tense alertness among them, and Sconter went around the edges of their chosen location creating camouflage and deterrents without a hint of his usual joviality.

Colonel Lorvan held up his hand as they landed to bid Carlos and Amber to talk with him, before they could even pick out spots for Purple and their tent. "I remind you once again that I cannot guarantee your safety in this area. The major and myself are still among the most powerful beings nearby, but there are things here that can require significant effort from us to defeat, and there is a chance of something strong enough to actually defeat us showing up.

"Additionally, I am now certain based on the narrow width of the aether bands we just crossed that we are near the wellspring itself. I estimate that it is within 30 miles of here. In the worst case, there is a chance that the wellspring's guardian might notice our presence and attack. If that happens, Major Ordens and I will be outmatched. Its level is most likely in the low to mid 50s, and reaper-class as well. Wellspring guardians that are not at least close to reaper-class tend to get defeated and replaced by monsters that are."

Lorvan gave Carlos and Amber stern measuring looks. "We are still far enough that we will likely go unnoticed if we are stealthy and circumspect, but successful wellspring guardians are territorial and seek to eliminate potential competitors before they grow strong enough to be genuine threats. This is the most dangerous point for you: you must avoid detection while growing your power, until you are strong enough to defeat the guardian. Understood?"

Amber nodded, and Carlos gulped lightly before giving his own nod. Carlos took Purple out of his belt pouch and looked at the glowing crystal. "So, we should really go for the most widely distributed aether gathering we possibly can, to keep it subtle and small enough on any local scale to be overlooked, right? Last time was the practice run, and now we're on the real thing."

Lorvan nodded. "Correct, provided that your gathering efforts do not approach any closer to the wellspring. If you want advice on any other aspects of it, ask Crown Mage Felton."

Carlos chewed his lip for a moment. "I think Sconter might have some useful insights too." He looked around briefly for the large scout, then shrugged and sent a telepathic request instead.

___

High Lord Recindril Tostral looked up from his strategy notes at the sound of a knock on his door. He sighed and called out, "Is it Jamar again? You'd think two days since her respawn – again – would be enough to drive in how badly she screwed up."

"New delivery for you, my lord. Like before."

He blinked and cocked his head. 'Like before'? Oh, right, those teleport and signal items. He quickly opened the door, took the package, and opened the accompanying sealed letter.

High Lord Recindril Tostral,

Congratulations on your recent successes, with my support. Unfortunately, a substantial fraction of nobles still bow to the Crown out of fear, and I believe you will need something more spectacular to persuade the holdouts that their fear and loyalty are misplaced.

You will have to be clever, of course, and I believe that you are, but I hear that the Crown has allocated considerably more royal guards to combating you, and I fear that cleverness alone will not be enough. Accordingly, in addition to refreshing your supply of the same items as before, I have included in this shipment a particularly special device that might do the trick. The device's instructions are packed with it. Use it wisely.

As always, I must remain anonymous.

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