Common Clay

“So wait, you and Jack already killed three of those things?”

Clay nodded, wishing that Anne would keep her voice down. She’d been extremely excited to join him, but she didn’t seem to have listened very much to what Jack had told the others about the experience. “Yeah. I got two, Jack got one. We killed a few big ironslimes too; they seem to like to try to drop on us from behind or jump from a side tunnel.”

Anne nodded; she seemed a little jittery, though it was hard to tell if it was from excitement or concern. “How’d he manage it? From what he was saying, the things are just giant sacks of armor and explosions.”

“We kind of turned it to our advantage.” Clay paused, peering ahead carefully. His senses were starting to raise an alarm about this particular tunnel. “For the second one, he acted as bait, and I ambushed the thing when it came after him. After that, I got the thing’s attention, and he hit it from behind.”

She snorted. “You’re saying he managed to chop it apart with those little knives of his?”

He gave her a look. “No. He opened part of it with his knife, and used Spontaneous Spark to set it on fire. Said it didn’t matter if it blew up cause it was going to, anyway.”

“Hard to argue with that.” She seemed to think the situation over, and sheathed her sword. A moment later, she’d unlimbered her longbow, and had an arrow nocked. “Did it really blow up that easily? Seems like it would put up a bit more of a fight, seeing as it’s a higher rank and all.”

Clay shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it easy. It took a couple of hits to really kill it.” The flames had only seared a portion of the ironslime each time, but the shock of the initial attack had loosened the slime’s grip on the ceiling at least, bringing it down to Jack’s level. It hadn’t been as effective as his own ambush, but then again he’d opened that fight by using Drums of the Earth to knock the thing from the ceiling completely.

The monster had hit the rocks hard enough to stun it, and the delay had allowed him to close with the thing and finish it. Hopefully, the rest of the slimes wouldn’t be so quick to adjust and adapt. Time would tell.

He shook his head. “Anyway, is there anything I can help you with? I know Jack wanted to learn a bit more about how to scout.”

Anne glanced at him and then chuckled. “He would, wouldn’t he? Always trying to find how he can help out the best. I suppose I should learn a bit more from him.” She fell quiet for a short moment, still absently picking her way along the tunnel. “Actually, there is something you could tell me about. If you don’t mind.”

She sounded remarkably uncertain, given that it was Anne. The [Burglar] was rarely anything but a gregarious extrovert, always ready with a laugh and a smile. “Sure. What is it?”

Despite his response, Anne seemed to hesitate a while longer. Then she shook her head and sighed. “Once this mission is over, I’m betting they’ll send you away, just like Jack thinks they will.” Clay opened his mouth to object, and she made a calming motion. “Not out of anything malicious; I just think that once you bring back a group of level sixes or higher instead of the group of level ones you left with, they are going to want to put you to use elsewhere. Either training more low levels, or hunting down new Lairs, or something else I can’t think of. Which means our little group is going to be facing the next mission on its own.”

Clay paused. Her logic made sense. The Council had already had some kind of plan for him in the spring, and he imagined it hadn’t included him creating a new team of adventurers out of the Rogue’s Gallery. They probably wouldn’t complain about a group of veteran cadets showing up, either; he could imagine them sending Anne and other others out on another mission to cull a Lair on their own.

It didn’t mean he had to like it, though. He’d been imagining getting the chance to introduce his friends from Pellsglade to the friends he’d made at the Academy. The fact that he might get denied that opportunity seemed unfair somehow. Clay sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Anne nodded, her eyes going back to the tunnel ahead. “So, Jack’s going to be our scout. A lot of people might have expected me to be right up there with him. I’m faster than he is, but he’s a lot quieter in a lot of ways. Besides, I think we have a different problem.”

Then she gave him a terrifyingly brilliant smile. “I need to be louder. That way, whatever is coming after us comes after me, instead of the rest of the team. That’s what I need.”

Clay raised an eyebrow. “Anne, I don’t think that getting yourself hurt is going to do the rest of the team any good.”

“I’m not aiming to be hurt. I’m aiming to be a distraction.” Anne rolled her eyes. “[Valor] and [Fortitude] are my primary [Stats], so dodging and taking the occasional hit won’t be an issue—and while they are coming after me, they aren’t going to be taking Natalie apart in the middle of a [Chant], or Xavien while he’s healing somebody, or Lawrence while he’s doing something sneaky. I want to steal their attention until it’s too late for them to stop the others from killing them.”

He looked back at her for a moment longer, noting the utter seriousness in her eyes, and nodded slowly. “What kind of [Experiences] did you get? For your last two levels, I mean.”

She grinned at him. “[Acrobat] and [Determined]. Means I can keep dodging better and longer than anyone else on the team. I got [Disarming Strike] for my newest [Feat], and [Evasive Steps] for my second [Style] too. If anyone in this bunch can stay alive playing bait, it’s going to be me.”

Clay felt almost compelled to agree. Then his senses gave him a flicker of warning from up ahead. “All right. We’ll give you some practice, then. First, let’s try to have me kill a couple of these giant slimes—one of them is on the way here now. For the third one, we’ll see how well and how long you can dodge.”

Anne bounced a little on her toes, her grin infectious. “Got it, boss. Any hints for now?”

He paused. “Monsters aren’t super complicated. They like targets that aren’t paying attention, or who look like they are ready to run into a trap. Someone who is distracted is the first one on their dinner plate.” Then he paused. “Of course, you should only be acting like you aren’t paying attention. Understand?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I got it.” Anne nodded, and waved for him to back away. “Go get into position. We’ve got some monsters to taunt!”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about these spears! Think it’ll ever run out?”

Clay resisted the urge to tell Anne to pay attention; the way she kept evading the blades and spikes told him she was. The flippant way that she kept looking back at him was incredibly difficult to recognize as an act, though. Of course, that was the point, but still…

“I mean, you think it’d get the picture and stop it eventually. How long have I been doing this, anyway?” The [Burglar] stepped to the side as another spike slammed down, nearly close enough to brush her armor. “It’s almost getting boring.”

“The monster doesn’t understand speech, Anne. You don’t need to make fun of it.”

She laughed, spinning away from another blade. “Yeah, but it does make this easier.” He watched as she snapped another blade with her sword; apparently [Disarming Strike] lent her a significant amount of strength when she was countering an enemy’s weapons. Anne had already broken several of the blades, though she seemed to need a bit of a break between each attack.

Clay smiled. “Easy or not, you’ve been at it for a while. You ready to finish things?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be! If you’re done being lazy, of course.”

“Get ready to pull back, then.” He started the Words of Refrain, having already used the Drums of Earth earlier. It finished quickly, and he focused on the ceiling. It shook obligingly, though he tried to keep the strength down. Having the whole mine cave in wasn’t exactly helpful after all.

Anne abruptly fell back, sheathing her sword and pulling out her bow. He thought he heard her muttering something as she moved, but Clay focused on what he needed to do to shake the thing to the floor so he could deal with it.

The claws that had apparently held the slime on the ceiling cracked and broke. He saw the fluid bulk of the monster start to fall—and then stop. Clay felt his eyes widen as he caught sight of spears extending from the slime to the ceiling. Had the slime somehow managed to catch itself? How had it known the shake was coming?

He was still a little stunned about it when Anne opened fire.

She shot three times in quick succession. He saw the first two arrows strike the bulk of the slime in the center, and then to the right. Both times, plates of rock rose to block the impacts; Clay could hear the shafts snap, a sound that echoed around the tunnel.

Then she fired the third arrow, one that had been lit by Spontaneous Spark. It went left where the other arrows had gone right. This time, the rock plates were missing, and the flaming arrow drove deep into the ironslime’s flesh. Clay saw the fluid inside start to fizzle and catch, and shielded his eyes.

A heartbeat later, the front third of the slime seemed to explode in a wave of fire and smoke. He heard the slime’s improvised braces keeping it on the ceiling snap, and the cave shook as the remainder of its bulk slammed into the ground. His nostrils stung as another wash of fluid spilled over the floor, some of it igniting in the remaining embers of the blast.

Clay dropped his hand and stepped forward, ready to finish the thing, but Anne raised an eyebrow at him. She had put up her bow again, and drawn her sword, hefting one of their torches in her off hand.

He winced and retreated to a minimum safe distance. Who was he to deny the [Burglar] her fun?

“You’re sure you don’t need any healing, Sir Clay?” The concern in Xavien’s voice was clear, and Clay tried not to feel a little bitter about it.

Even with his [Experiences] and higher [Stats], Clay was starting to feel the drain now that he was entering the third of his five shifts in the mines. When he’d brought Anne out to the others, she had been practically skipping ahead of him, already bragging to the others about the [Stats] she’d gained dodging ironslime spears. Clay had been half-surprised to step out into the sunlight and had felt nothing but gratitude as he’d set down his gear for a handful of minutes.

Unfortunately, a handful of minutes is all it had been before Xavien had come over, holding up a handful of rations in consolation. With a sigh and a stubborn reminder that it had been almost as much his idea as it had been theirs, he’d led the [Oracle] back down into the mine. At least he’d gained a point of [Will] just for continuing.

“I’m fine, Xavien. Just a little tired.” Clay gave the man a weary smile. “We’ve already killed six of the giant ones, and about as many of the large slimes, too.”

Xavien’s eyes widened slightly. “That’s… a significant number. Did you kill all of them?”

He shook his head. “No. Jack and Anne managed to get one a piece.”

A determined look came into Xavien’s eyes. “Then I will make sure to help just as much, Sir Clay.”

Clay gave him a steady glance. “It’s not a competition, Sir Xavien.”

The [Oracle] flushed in apparent embarrassment. “Of course not, Sir Clay. I only meant…” He paused. “I merely don’t want to be the one to hold the rest of us back.”

For a moment, Clay remembered the feeling he’d had as the others had received their [Classes] and left him behind. “I guess I can understand that. I don’t think you will need to worry about it, though.” He glanced down a side tunnel, extending his senses in that direction. He’d cleared the path there with Anne, but the slimes seemed to move around a lot more. Better to be sure they weren’t going to get surrounded later on. “None of you seem like you are further behind than the others. You’ve all worked hard to get us this far.”

Xavien held the torch a little higher. “We’ve had a good leader, Sir. Without you, I’m sure we’d all still have been trapped back in the Academy.”

Clay shrugged uncomfortably. “You would have found a way. You were staying strong before we met, and you would have made cadet by next year at least.”

“Perhaps.” Xavien’s voice was as skeptical as he’d usually been, and Clay rolled his eyes a little. “All the same, this has been an opportunity to actually do something, to make a difference. We’re grateful you gave us the chance.”

He snorted. “You’re all making it seem like I have one foot in the grave. The gods tell you something you haven’t shared?”

Xavien laughed, a rare booming sound that echoed through the tunnels. “Regrettably, no. I haven’t been blessed with hearing their will. Though I’m sure that they remain committed to our cause.”

“As long as it amuses them, I’m sure.” Clay paused beside another side tunnel, one that he hadn’t explored before. His senses were complaining about something inside, enough that he ignored Xavien’s startled noise of half-scandal, half-surprise. He glanced towards the ceiling, keeping an eye out for any signs of glistening material waiting for him. The monster didn’t feel like it was approaching, which probably meant it was just a large ironslime, not a giant. It was starting to seem like the big ones used the smaller ones as tripwires or guards, in some cases. Maybe they just smelled the fluid left behind when they died.

“You seem to have very… odd views about the gods, Sir Clay.” Xavien’s voice had taken on a cautious quality. Had he spotted Clay’s tension? “Do you really feel like the Trickster has played that much of a part in your journey?”

He couldn’t help but snort again. Xavien was far more serious about the Rectory’s doctrine than most, and he didn’t mean to tweak the man’s nose, but it was a bit too much for him to avoid. “Well, she was the only one that talked to me during the Choosing. I’m fairly sure she gave me my [Class] mostly as a way to bother the rest.” Clay started forward, keeping his eyes on the ceiling and along the edges of the floor. “I’m sure I’m not as reverent as the Rectory would want, but I feel a bit… conflicted about the way she seems to be using me.”

Clay paused, glancing backwards. He saw Xavien still standing where he had been, staring at him in apparent shock. “Sir Xavien? You all right?”

Xavien slowly shook himself and started forward again, his expression a bit dazed. “You said the Trickster was the one who gave you your [Class]. She spoke to you?”

He frowned. “Well, yeah. During the Choosing. Isn’t that how it works? The gods give us the [Classes] that they have picked out for us, and guide us forward?”

The [Oracle] hesitated for a moment before he responded. “I suspect that the experience most people have at their Choosing is a bit more…metaphorical than yours, Sir Clay.”

Clay blinked. He looked back, expecting a wry smirk or some hint that Xavien was joking, but the [Oracle] looked about as serious as a gravestone. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you are the first person I’ve ever met who actually talked to one of the gods during their Choosing.” Xavien was studying the tunnel ahead, but he glanced at Clay as if to reassure himself that the message was being received. “It is… extremely uncommon for someone, especially a [Commoner], to remember anything like that. Most people, myself included, only have a vague memory of being asked to make a choice. That’s all.”

Clay stared at him blankly, trying to process the information. He realized, with a numb kind of chagrin, that neither of his parents had ever mentioned seeing the gods or goddesses during their Choosing. The crude, inaccurate statues that he’d seen in the village Shrine reappeared in his mind. He’d thought they were off due to the quality of the craftsmanship. What if it had been simple unfamiliarity?

Then he shook his head. “Maybe I’m remembering wrong, then. It’s not like she gave me any particular grand quest or anything. I mean, she made me a [Commoner].”

“A [Commoner] who has already destroyed two Lairs, and is about to destroy a third.” Xavien seemed amused now, as if enjoying how unsteady Clay was feeling. “One that managed to inspire our entire group of adventurers and turn them into a force for good. It would be an interesting coincidence, that same [Commoner] having a false memory of the Trickster, wouldn’t it?”

He grunted in response, turning back to the tunnel ahead. There was something further up ahead, and it suddenly seemed a lot more comfortable to go and deal with it than it did to continue the conversation. “It was just a daydream or a side effect of the [Chant] the Rector used. Don’t read anything into it.”

The [Oracle] nodded, apparently struggling to fight back a smile. “And you haven’t had any similar… dreams… since then, have you? Just the one time?”

Clay’s mind flashed back, unwillingly, to the time he’d seen the Trickster and the Sage arguing among themselves. Instead of answering, he quickened his step. “There’s a slime up ahead. If we are fast, maybe we can kill it and set up our first ambush. Let’s focus on that for now.”

“Of course, Sir Clay. Whatever you say.” It took a terrible amount of effort to ignore the amusement in Xavien’s voice. What was he so amused about, anyway? From the sounds of it, he should have been thinking that their entire mission was being led by a madman.

Then again, as Clay thought over their entire war against the monsters in Rodcliff, maybe he already was.

The giant ironslime shuddered as Xavien directed a brilliant ball of lightning directly into its core. For a moment, it looked like the slime would be able to hold it off with its stone armor, but the [Oracle]’s newest [Charm] melted a hole straight through the stone, and through the flesh beneath it. Fire and smoke poured out of the wound, and the entire monster detonated a moment later. Its death shook the intersection where the battle had been taking place, and Xavien shouted in victory.

Clay wished he was feeling quite as confident. He dodged another spear of stone, smashing it to pieces and deflecting a stone blade with his spear. The two giant ironslimes had attacked together, converging on the spot where he and the [Oracle] had killed a trio of large ironslimes. He’d stunned the one coming from the direction of the main tunnel, but this one had crawled its way out of a side tunnel he hadn’t noticed because of the way it had bent.

So now he was fighting a monster that seemed intent on hiding inside of that same side tunnel, all while stabbing out at him with a series of spikes. It lashed out at him again, and Clay dodged, snapping one blade and deflecting the other into the ground.

“Sir Clay! How can I help?”

He glanced back to see Xavien running out of the smoke, his armor only mildly stained with soot. The [Oracle] looked calm and determined, a fact that Clay put down to having already finished his opponent. “Get ready to block for a moment. I need to get in close!”

Xavien nodded and hooked his mace back to his belt. The man scooped the torch from the floor where he had dropped it and brought his shield around in a guard position. Clay nodded and started the Flame-tongued Song. If he could collapse the side tunnel, it might force the slime out from where it was hiding. It could also force the thing to retreat, though, which didn’t sound like a good idea.

Better to just make sure that the thing was as close to dead as he could make it.

The slime continued to lash out, and Xavien grunted as the first spike slammed into his shield. He wasn’t knocked backwards, which was good, but those kinds of hits would be hard for an [Oracle] to take for long. Clay needed to move quickly.

Dodging the next two spikes, Clay sprinted towards the side tunnel. It was a tiny space, one he would only be able to enter if he crawled in headfirst. The idea of doing so sounded awful, given that there would be a very large, very angry slime waiting for him. Fortunately, the thing was still filling the entrance anyway, sending spike after spike out at them.

As he finished the Song, Clay ducked another spike and drove the point of his spear into the mass of the ironslime. It tore a gaping hole in its hide, cutting through the armor that it attempted to form over its hide. With fluid gushing from the wound, it retracted a little, as if trying to retreat.

Clay breathed fire directly into the tunnel, catching the ironslime directly on the wound. There was an immediate burst of smoke and fire, one that nearly singed his eyebrows, but the force of his [Chant] kept shoving all the flame and heat and fumes further into the side tunnel. He heard a second explosion further into the side passage, followed by another. By the time the third blast cracked a part of the mine’s wall, a notification finally appeared in his vision.

{Giant Ironslime slain! Soul increases by 80.}

{Commoner reaches Level 11!}

{Maximum level for all Stats is now 26!}

{Experience gained (Relentless: Fatigue lessened by 15%. Gain 15% bonus to repetitive or familiar activities.)}

{Experience gained (Guide: Gain Mapping Skill. Gain 20% bonus to Analysis and Track Skills. Movement speed increases by 10%.)}

{Achievement Unlocked! Unyielding Spirit: Fatigue lessens by 5%. Wounds heal 10% faster. Gain 10% damage resistance.}

He blinked in surprise. Another level, already? After his time at the Academy, he’d forgotten how quickly things could advance. The new [Achievement] seemed like it would be extremely useful; he was already starting to feel less tired. Being able to map things a bit more clearly was also going to be helpful in the underground maze of the mines as well.

Feeling a bit more cheerful, Clay turned back to Xavien, who was studying the cracks in the tunnel wall. The [Oracle] glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Not bad for a mere [Commoner] with… interesting dreams.”

Clay snorted. “Come on. We need to find at least one more of those things.” The [Oracle] nodded, and they made their way even deeper into the mines.