The Itemancer 2 Read online

  “Right, let’s go.” I said, striding back toward the tree I had come from. Amy followed silently, a pondering look on her face.

  “Rowan.” I stopped, and looked back at her.

  “What’s up?”

  “What if we just stayed here? Left Hell, and the Empire to their own devices. There’s a whole world here. Our own world. Your world. We could just take our friends here, and seal it off. No one would ever find us. If we got bored of this world, we could find another one. Without all the drama, and months traveling through a desolate nothingness. No politics. Just us, living.” She petered off as if she had more to say, but wasn’t sure how.

  I gawked at her awkwardly, at a loss for words, but composed myself a moment later. “I mean… we could. Maybe eventually we will, but it doesn’t sit right with me to destroy my home, disrupt Hell, and then simply leave without trying to help. I have to do something to fix the mess I made. Even if the dragons are dicks, the stability of the empire was better than civil war.”

  She looked away, and nodded. “What’s wrong anyway?” I asked. “If anybody was going to suggest hiding, I’d think it would be Izzy.”

  “I… I’m just tired. Hell is so empty, and desolate. The only thing that breaks that up is the fighting, and I’m not a warrior like Dee. I don’t find killing enjoyable, only occasionally necessary. Plus everyone is at eachothers throats, and we’ve been stuck on a ship for a month. My life feels meaningless right now, and despite all my power, I can’t fix anything. I’m a goddess of life living in a world of death. I can’t abandon you, not after you gave me consciousness, but I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this.”

  Tears streaked her face, and rather than question how an avatar, projected by magic, could physically cry, I wrapped her up in an embrace.

  “It’ll get better soon. Once we reach our destination, we’ll be in civilization again for a while. Civilization that will hopefully not be trying to kill us.”

  She nodded, her face pressed into my chest, and I felt the wetness of her tears as my shirt ground against my chest. I patted her head awkwardly, doing my best to comfort her as she sniffed loudly. After a full minute, she composed herself, pulling away, and wiping her eyes.

  “I’m sorry for that.” She said, looking embarrassed.

  “It’s ok, I’m your friend. You can talk to me.” I replied, not feeling at all certain about how to handle the situation.

  She nodded. “I’m grateful for your friendship.”

  She retreated into her amulet, which I took as my cue to leave through the tree. Gaius nodded at me when I stepped back out onto the surface.

  “Didja have a good time with the bunnies?” He asked.

  ‘If that was level five, then maybe I should hold off on adventuring for a while. At least, until it’s worth the risk.”

  “Aye, weyll about thaht. I’ve ‘ad an idea about how to speed thangs along. Ah need a powerup though, so I kin expand past me space limitations.”

  “Do tell.” I responded eagerly.

  “Why naht bring adventurers to come ‘n play with the beasties? Aye’ve learned that planets get a part of the XP from things that die on us.”

  “So even if the adventurers win, we still come out ahead because they harvested the monsters for us?”

  “Exactly!” he exclaimed excitedly.

  “What do you need?”

  He smiled slyly. “Oh, just ta be able ta expand me tunnels into another dimension. Thaht way, I can create space as needed.”

  I checked the cost of doing so. Forty-thousand and change XP was most of what I had left on Amy’s amulet; especially with the transfer cost, but looking at it as an investment in the future, I paid the price.

  “What about getting people to come here? Can you do that?”

  He shook his head. “Thahts all you. I kin help manage the portals, but people showin up? Ken’t help with that.”

  I nodded, and walked back through the portal. After my near-death experience, I had never been so happy to see the inside of the ship. Sighing, I collapsed into my bed, and a moment later, my consciousness gave way to the rocking of the waves.

  Chapter 14

  It was only a few more days before we arrived at the kingdom of Yardspan. I attempted several more forays into the dungeon world during that time, and made sure I was accompanied by one of my item spirits to avoid the possibility of being eaten. As I disembarked from the ship, I did my best to put those experiences out of my mind. Even my companions had trouble keeping up at some of the higher levels. Where Gaius found the template to create genuine angels, I would never know.

  The port around us bustled as I stepped off the ramp, though some people stopped to point and gawk at the tentacled, slightly undulating deck of our ship. I tried not to think of that either, as it still made me uncomfortable to watch the wood squirm. I quickly found the closest passerby, and asked him for directions to the seat of the local government. The man shrugged, giving a convoluted description, and we were soon on our way. I wasn’t particularly confident that I knew where we were going, but in the end, we found it. The architecture was something I could only describe as tastefully artistic, brown bricks covered in places by a kind of glaze that reflected the red light of Hell’s sun. The building rose into the sky four stories tall, covered in domes. Demons occasionally leapt into the air from platforms that ringed the domes, and took flight on wings I had rarely seen them use.

  The building was swarmed with demons who all seemed to be standing in lines, lines that extended out the door, into the street. One extended through the street, turned, and continued down another street. Challins, which I had thought of as a chitinous analogue to cows until this point were dotted here and there, being ridden as mounts. Occasionally, their paths would cross through the lines, and the pedestrians would jump out of the way. The riders seemed to show little concern for anyone in their path, which left a bad taste in my mouth.

  “Do you want me to infiltrate the building, and try to find a way to speed this up?” Izzy asked, staring dispassionately at the milling demons.

  I gritted my teeth. “No, if we’re going to set up good relations, we should go through proper channels.”

  “Are you sure? I imagine the bureaucrats would be a lot more helpful with a knife to their throat.”

  I glanced at her to gauge whether she was joking, but as always her face was barren of expression.

  “No, I’d really prefer not to have a diplomatic incident. We’ll just have to put up with it for now.”

  She shrugged, and the five of us entered the line. Hours crawled by as the line slowly progressed toward the building. Gwen and Amy started playing some kind of complex game with their hands, Dee scowled at nothing, and Izzy remained placid, seemingly unaffected by the long wait. For my part, I fiddled with ideas for item powers, creating them in the menu, and checking their costs. Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound, and I looked up from my menus. In front of me, a quickly vanishing wall of ice revealed a stunned challin, and a very upset rider.

  “You fools! Look what you’ve done to my poor Ellie! I’ll have your heads you miserable wretches!”

  Guards filtered in from the surrounding streets as he ranted, and I turned to whisper to Izzy. “Hey, what happened?”

  “He was about to run you over. I reacted before I had time to think.”

  “Go invisible. It looks like we’re about to be arrested.”

  She did, and barely a second later a guard approached us. “What’s the meaning of this? Don’t you know that it’s a crime to block traffic?”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry officer, we’re foreigners. We didn’t know about that law.”

  “Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You’re under arrest for the crime of impeding traffic. The likely sentence is one year of hard labor in the mines. Do not resist.”

  Dee looked ready to draw her sword, but I shook my head. We needed to find a way out of this, one that wouldn’t lead to bloodshed.
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  “Actually officer, we’ve been sent here as envoys from the duchy of Rowans Oak. Doesn’t that give us some form of diplomatic immunity?” I pleaded.

  “Do you have any paperwork signifying that?”

  “No sir, we were waiting in line specifically to acquire that paperwork.”

  “You were standing in the lost or stolen items line to declare yourself as a diplomat?”

  “Errrrr…” I said, realizing I should have asked someone which line I was standing in earlier.

  “Mhm.” The officer said. “Lying to an officer is also a criminal offense, punishable by five years hard labor. You’re coming with me.”

  “I think not.” Izzy’s voice spoke from behind him, and the guard was unconscious from a blow to the head before he could turn.

  “Wait, guys-” I started, but the sound of pitched combat rang out louder than my voice. To my left, Dee joyously traded blows with three guards who all wielded swords. To my right, Amy’s holy spells pierced through enemies who rushed her, and in front of me, Gwen ducked and rolled, taking shots with her gun that I had modified to not require reloading. Throughout the chaos, Izzy phased in and out of view, delivering non-lethal knocks to the head every time she became visible. I realized that despite the seeming ferocity of the fighting, they were holding back to keep their blows nonlethal.

  Grateful for that, slipped into my own invisibility, hoping the battle would be over before I ran out of mana.

  “Call in the special forces!” one of the guards yelled. A flare of energy was sent hurtling into the sky, where it exploded loudly. It didn't seem to belong to any of my spirits, so I guessed it was intended to signal the so-called special forces.

  Two minutes later, five fighters entered the square at a dead sprint, four men, and a woman. All five carried drawn swords, and no-nonsense scowls. They also radiated power, and it took me a moment to place the feeling. They were item spirits!

  “Lay down your weapons or die.” The lead spirit, one of the males, called out .

  “Screw you!” Dee called back, quickly dispatching the three guards she had been toying with.

  “This is your final warning. If you continue to resist arrest, you will be summarily executed.”

  A fireball impacted against him without causing any visible damage. The remaining demon guards fled to avoid interfering with the special forces team, and the team took that as their cue to stride forward. They did so at a leisurely pace as if they had all the time in the world.

  Dee’s face took on an expression somewhere between happy and fierce as she charged the group. Amy began charging a spell, while Gwen took aim. Izzy was nowhere to be seen. Face deadpan, the group leader for the opposing item spirits ducked around Dee’s charge, leaving a large slash in her side as she passed. Thanks to the nature of the avatar body, the wound vanished with an expenditure of her mana, but Dee’s joyous expression was replaced with one of utmost concentration as she began trading blows with her counterpart in earnest. Setting aside the fact that she wasn’t using her fire magic, Dee and her opponent seemed evenly matched. The man’s compatriots started to move toward him, but Amy finished her spell just as Gwen finally fired her shot. The spell summoned an angelic creature made of pure light, and carrying a sword of light. It manifested mere feet from the group of enemies, and began its own duel with one of them.

  Gwen’s shot seemed to have little impact on it’s victim, despite the direct headshot. She frowned in consternation, as the remaining three guard spirits charged the pair. Before they could reach them, icicles rained down on the trio, seemingly coming from the empty sky. None were killed outright, but their charge was blunted as they threw up magical shields for protection. Suddenly, a scream sounded from my right, and when I turned to look, I realized that Dee had been skewered by her opponent’s sword. It wasn’t quite a lethal blow to her avatar body, but it would only take a moment for her opponent to turn it into one. Dropping my stealth, I summoned a holy sword, and threw it. I praised my training with Izzy, as the sword buried itself to the hilt in my target.

  He let out a “hurk” at the impact, but managed to properly eviscerate Dee before his own avatar lost cohesion. Both spirits dissolved into the aether as I reengaged my invisibility. I sprinted, and managed to grab Dee’s sword before any of the enemy were able to react to the situation. I thought about taking the officer’s sword as well, perhaps as a useful hostage, but decided against it. We didn’t need the liability. Before I could muse on this any further, my chest was hit with warmth. I looked down, and realized that Amy’s spirit had returned to her amulet.

  I turned to watch as Gwen and Izzy fought off four opposing spirits by themselves. The angelic summon was sitting on the ground, decapitated, while it’s opponent seemed none the worse for wear. Izzy was engaged with three of the spirits simultaneously, using her speed, and the occasional teleport to stay ahead of her enemies movements. Unfortunately, her knife was ill-suited to this fight, as it took large wounds to debilitate an avatar. Meanwhile, Gwen was desperately trying to avoid being skewered by an enemy who had managed to close to melee range, barring her from using her gun.

  Making up my mind, I drew Dee’s sword, which I had named Dragon Eye so long ago, and charged at Gwen’s assailant. The noise of my approach alerted my foe, who turned toward me. Hoping to conserve mana, I dropped my stealth, and engaged in my own duel against a vastly superior foe.

  His first blow would have ended the fight before it started, if not for my invulnerable tunic. Even so, one of my ribs shattered from the force of the blow, and I was flung backward several feet. I rolled sideways as I landed, just in time to avoid a blade that had been swinging downward. My opponent was insanely strong and fast, and I cursed my decision to fight as I got to my feet. He was just starting to rush toward me again, when Gwen’s gun rang out, causing him to stumble. He glared daggers at her before returning his focus to me. I hadn’t been idle in that time. Taking advantage of my training with Dee I had set my stance, and reset my guard, meaning I was ready when he did reach me.

  His blade swang towards me from the left, and my arm went numb as I deflected the strike upward with my blade. I ducked under the blade, and moved past him, leaving a shallow gash in one of his arms. The fighter grunted, and turned, blocking my clumsy attempt to get a second hit on him. He batted my blade to the side, and thrust at me. Luckily, this was something Dee often did in our training sessions, so I dodged to the side just in time. This left a genuine opening in his guard, into which I thrust my own sword, skewering him in the side.

  I jumped back as his blade came down where I had been standing. I had inflicted damage, but not enough to dissolve his avatar. A moment later, even that had been repaired via an expenditure of mana. That was what gave me an idea. The XP cost to increase the maximum mana, and mana regen stats was the bulk of the XP cost for my item spirits. Considering XP was hard to acquire most of the time, I doubted these were self-sustaining. That meant I could bleed them until they ran out, and had to dematerialize.

  What followed was possibly the most painful several minutes I have ever experienced. I encouraged Gwen to keep firing as I let my tunic absorb blows in order to land my own. By the end, several more ribs had fractured, but finally my opponent had stopped spending mana to heal his wounds. Several more shots from Gwen rang out as I barely managed to keep my guard up, until finally he took one too many hits. With a groan, he dissolved, his sword body clattering to the ground.

  I looked up to see that Izzy had learned from my experience, and was down to two opponents herself. I waved at Gwen to help her, as I used most of my remaining mana to cast healing spells I had learned from Amy. They were nowhere near as effective as hers; but they got the job done, my ribs mostly repaired by the time I ran out of mana.

  Regretting my life choices, I rushed back into the fight. With a fierce shout to draw attention, I engaged with one of Izzies opponents. He quickly switched his attention to me, and proved he was even more skilled than my p
revious opponent had been. A fierce barrage of lightning-fast blows nearly tore Dragon’s Eye from my grasp, and only the interruption of a shot from Gwen impacting his arm saved my life. Cursing my sore, abused arms, I reset my guard, and readied for another round. My opponent chuckled, stepping toward me calmly.

  “My sword has been in the city guard for over a hundred years. Even before the apotheosis freed us from our shackles, I was nearly a legendary weapon in my own right. The fact that a human such as yourself could survive even a single exchange of blows with me is frankly insulting.” He said, contempt in his eyes.

  “The apotheosis?” I asked, not having heard the word before.

  “Have you not heard? A god of the unliving souls has been born, and walks this world. It is by his glory that our souls have been given substance.” He stopped stalking toward me just outside of sword range so that he could continue preaching.

  “A human like you could never understand! A superior being has given us life, given us power! We are blessed with greatness, and a mite such as yourself should bow before the chosen!”

  I raised my hand to stop his rant. “Actually, I’m the item god you’re talking about, and I certainly never chose you for anything. I chose them.” I said, turning my raised hand into a finger pointed at Izzy and Gwen.”

  “Blasphemy! A creature such as yourself claiming to be our god? I will end you!”

  His body almost blurred as he propelled himself into my guard. All tactics or sword form seemed to have left him, in favor of raw, brutal speed and strength. Almost in a panic, I stepped back just in time to avoid being split by a fierce downward slash. I attempted to step back in, in an effort to counter the apparent opening, but wasn’t prepared for him to turn his position into an awkward upward thrust that glanced off my tunic. Despite the odd angle, the thrust broke one of my ribs, and sent me flying backward into a wall.

  I slid to the ground moaning. I cursed as I realized the broken rib was one I had just healed. I returned to my feet with an effort as he stalked toward me again, this time with the gait of a predator hunting his prey. I winced as I set my guard again. Despite knowing that Amy would be back in a couple hours to revive me should I fall, I refused to let this strange zealot win. Knowing that my mere existence created such a dark mindset bothered me.