Rogue Goddess: A LitRPG Adventure

(The Godkiller Chronicles Book 3) C.J.

Carella
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 Rogue Goddess
Godkiller Chronicles, Book Three
By C.J. Carella

Copyright @2022 Fey Dreams Productions, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may
not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written
permission of the copyright holder. For permission, contact cjcarella@cjcarella.com

Cover by: SelfPubBookCovers.com/ van_maniac

This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are

fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely
coincidental.
 Books by C.J. Carella

The Godkiller Chronicles

Goodkiller Mode
Queen of Blood and Shadows
Rogue Goddess

The Eternal Journey

Twilight Templar
Lord of the Dead
Labyrinth to Tartarus
Guilds at War
Court of Thorns
Siege (Forthcoming)

Warp Marine Corps

Decisively Engaged
No Price Too High
Advance to Contact
In Dread Silence
Havoc of War
Warp Marine Corps (The Complete Series)

The Bicentennial War

To the Strongest
They Shall Not Pass
Victory or Death
The Bicentennial War (The Complete Series)

New Olympus Saga:

Armageddon Girl
Doomsday Duet
Apocalypse Dance
The Ragnarok Alternative
New Olympus Tales:
The Armageddon Girl Companion

A Crucible of Worlds
Outlands Justice

Short Story Collections

Land of Gods and Monsters
Heroes and Rogues

Beyonder Wars:
Bad Vibes (Short Story)
Shadowfall: Las Vegas
Dante’s Demons
 To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and
just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/
 One: The Tenochca

“We have arrived.”

“Thank you for flying Strange Airlines,” Caitlin said. “Have a
pleasant say in the land of the… what was the name again?”
“Tenochca,” Dan-El said. “Little is known of them in my city, but
from the stories, they are a fierce people who follow bloodthirsty
gods. They are divided into many warring kingdoms, although every
few generations are united into an Empire which in turns tries to
conquer the neighboring Quechua people in the high mountains.”
“Aztecs and Incas, respectively,” Tilly added. “So we’re going into
Aztec lands to get an Egyptian artifact while led by a Mesopotamian
demi-goddess. And I’m a Goblin. Sometimes I wonder if I
accidentally ate a pound of magic mushrooms and I’m hallucinating
the whole thing.”
“Heh. I know I’m not hallucinating because I only remember the
Aztecs from the Apocalypto movie. Which I didn’t even see, because
it came out when I was a kid and it sounded too gory even after I
was older.”
“I saw the movie. Those were Mayans, not Aztecs.”
Caitlin grinned. “Still makes my point. I couldn’t imagine any of this
because I didn’t know any of this.”
She looked out of one of the Sphinx’s eyes. They had landed in a
stretch of jungle, which the giant statue had cleared on landing. The
surrounding area was filled with teeming greenery, and she could
hear screeches and birdcalls all around them. After spending weeks
in the arid landscapes of the Riverlands, seeming so much life was
refreshing. Of course, she expected the area to be hot and humid,
which wasn’t much of an improvement over the dry heat she’d sort of
gotten used to.
A quick check of her map app showed her they had landed twelve
miles south of the entrance to the Labyrinth. They had brought
horses around, along with Inglix’s favorite camel Mussuku – and the
converted stable was a nightmare to clean, despite Overseer’s help
– but she didn’t know if there were any roads they could use.
“I guess we should send an away team first,” she said. “I mean a
group to explore the area while the rest keep watch on the Sphinx.”
“And you of course will go explore,” Dan-El said with a grin. “As
will I. I suppose we won’t like for volunteers.”
Tranaxx raised his hand. “I volunteer to stay in the Sphinx. I hate
bugs, and this place looks like it’s crawling with them.”
The away team ended up including Allastan, Caitlin, Crunch, Dan-
El, Inglix, Tilly, Spongebob, and Stefan. Tranaxx and Sir Lootzalot
stayed behind. They would stay in touch with the Sphinx through the
Overseer.
It was just as hot and humid as she’d been afraid of, although one
of the benefits of her high Constitution was that weather extremes
didn’t affect her as much as they would have when she a mere
human. According to Trivelin, she could spend a week out in the
desert with no food and water before she started suffering any major
debuffs. She could also endure freezing temperatures, and she
wished there was some of those to endure, because being able to
survive the heat didn’t mean she was comfortable in it.
After the group disembarked, Spongebob summoned two pets: a
pair of Air Elementals, one minor one that looked like tiny whirlwind
with a head, and a greater type that was more of a humanoid cloud.
Caitlin called up the new and improved Purr:

Purr (Dark Weaver Matriarch)

Level 19 Elite Boss (Large)
Health 2,090 Mana 1,000 Endurance 1,900

“They grow up so fast,” she said proudly looking up at the eight-

foot-long spider, who stood six feet off the ground. Her legs were six
to nine feet in length. Other than that, she was the same old Purr,
although cuddling up in bed with her was no longer practical. The
spider started purring, and hundreds of birds took flight upon hearing
the round, which reminded Caitlin of her dad’s truck revving up.
 Caitlin patted her pet, who lowered her body to let her climb up.
She’d discovered that she could seat in the front segment of Purr’s
body, near her head. It wasn’t super-comfortable, but she could use
her spidey power to stick to surfaces to ensure she wouldn’t slide off.
But finding a proper saddle would make things better.
“Oh, you get to bring a mount, while we mere mortals walk behind
you,” Inglix said, not entirely serious.
“I could probably fit you behind me, but I’d have to web you in
place,” Caitlin offered. “Also, being this high up means I’ll be the first
one the bad guys shoot.”
“In that case, I will decline the honor,” the Goblin replied.
<You know, you could use your Mutate power and give your pet
some extra perks,> Trivelin suggested. Caitlin had summoned the
clown in his spirit form, to serve as a scout.
I’m not mutating Purr. I bet she’d look hideous.
<If you think a pair of tentacles, fire breathing, or big batwings are
hideous, sure.>
No mutations!
<You can revoke them if you don’t like them. And they only
become permanent if you sacrifice Qs.>
I’ll think about it.
The seven Adventurers and their pets began to make their way
through the thick jungle surrounding the clearing the Sphinx had
made on arrival. Allastan and Crunch (in jaguar form) led the way;
they could weave between trees without leaving a trace. Caitlin
followed, using Purr to clear a path by simply knocking down any
trees that got in the way.
Behind them, Stefan and Dan-El used their swords as machetes to
finish making an improvised road, both men looking unhappy about
using their magical weapons as gardening tools. The magical
weapons wouldn’t lose durability from chopping ordinary wood, but it
didn’t feel right to them.
The rest of the group followed, with Tilly bringing up the rear.
Spongebob’s minor air elemental flew overhead and the invisible and
immaterial Trivelin darted all over the place, doing an expanding
spiraling circuit over the area. Sneaking up on her group shouldn’t be
a thing.
They made it about a hundred feet before Trivelin spotted trouble
ahead.
<We might have a bit of a sitch, toots.>
Any deets on the sitch, bozo?
<Oh, we got jokes now. Okay. There is a road about three hundred
yards to the north. Looks like it might lead to the spot on your map.>
That sounds good. What’s the situation?
<There’s a village about a quarter mile up the road. And what
looks like a small army invading it.>
Take a closer look, please.
<On it, toots.>
“Guys, there might trouble ahead.”
“We just got here!” Spongebob protested.
“Just what we need,” Tilly added. “What kind of trouble?”
“Give me a second. I’ve got the clown doing a close pass.”
“My elemental just spotted the village, but I’m keeping him back,
just in case they can spot him.”
<Okay, I’m there. Let me show you.>
A screen opened up in front of Caitlin’s eyes, showing her what
Trivelin was seeing.
I didn’t know you could do that, she told him as she watched the
scene.
There were a bunch of guys wearing some fancy feathered armor.
Their breastplates were hidden under bright green plumage on their
back, red feathers on the front of their bodies. Their helmets were
shaped like bird’s heads, but under their decorations, their armor,
spears and shields were perfectly functional.
The plumed warriors or soldiers had surrounded the village. A guy
with extra feathers on his cap was yelling at the villagers, who were
wearing simple short tunics or loincloths and were unarmed, except
for a handful of men holding agricultural implements in their hands.
Trivelin’s screen included audio; she could hear the yelling but the
language wasn’t familiar to her.
What are they saying?
 <Oops. Sorry,> Trivelin said. A moment later, subtitles in English
appeared on the screen. <There you go.>
“I say this to you again, oh great Quetzal Knight. We already paid
the Blood Tithe,” an older villager was saying. “Two boys and four
maidens, all healthy and hale. We are faithful, Lord!”
The Quetzal Knight didn’t seem to have an indoor noise. “If you
are faithful, you will not deny the will of the gods, dog! The Priest-
Kings have spoken! The Tithe is doubled, and I am here to collect!
Bring me two boys and four maidens now, or we will take twice as
many!”
The old man bowed his head low and turned to his people. “You
heard the will of the Knight.”
Several villagers began wailing, while others protested. “We
cannot spare six more! We barely have enough hands to work the
fields this season!”
“You heard me!” the Knight roared. “I, Itzcoatl, have spoken! Bring
me six or we’ll take twelve!”
The warriors behind Itzcoatl brandished their spears menacingly.
Caitlin relayed what she was seeing, since only she could see and
hear the projection. “Looks like they are kidnapping people.”
“Well, let’s go save them!” Crunch said. Hearing a jaguar speak
normally was creepy, but his heart was in the right place.
“Absolutely not,” Stefan said.
“Why?”
“Those warriors are part of the kingdom or empire that rules here.
Attack them, and we’ll have armies sent after us.”
“Only if any survive to tell their tale,” Allastan said.
The older Eternal shook his head. “We’d have to slaughter the
entire village, then. Do you think they wouldn’t sell us out? They are
literally giving up their men and women. Telling the next group of
soldiers about some strangers would be nothing to them.”
“Stefan is right,” Dan-El said, not looking happy at all about
agreeing with his former tutor. “We cannot war against an entire
kingdom. And, worse, its gods will not look kindly to our interfering
with their customs.”
 Caitlin bit her lip. They could beat the patrol. There were about
twenty plumed warriors, and only half of them had any levels. The
toughest guy in the bunch was the Knight, who was a level 8
Warrior-Paladin. She could wipe out the entire unit by herself.
And then… what? The villagers had nowhere to go and more
soldiers would show up eventually. Even if her team managed to
complete the quest without running into them, the peasants would
end up being punished in their place.
Those people are going to be sacrificed to their gods, aren’t they?
<Yep. Blood Tithes are exactly what they sound like. Once a year,
they pick up a few people from every village. Looks like taxes just
went up; normally those folk would hand out their relatives and
neighbors without saying a peep. It’s the way things work here.>
Why?
The clown sounded serious for a change. <Why? Because the
Tenochca gods gain power that way. And then they give some of that
power to Adventurers, and some of them rise up enough to move to
other Realms and become strong enough to serve the Makers’
needs. It’s one of the Paths to Power.>
“It’s wrong,” she said out loud.
<It’s their culture, kiddo. Don’t get all imperialistic on them.>
“What do we do?” Spongebob asked. The portly mage looked torn
between a desire to help and worries about the consequences. Most
of the party members did as well.
“We must do nothing,” Dan-El said. “We wait until the soldiers
leave and we continue exploring the road until reaching the
Labyrinth.”
Caitlin noticed that all the Eternals except Stefan were looking at
her. If she disagreed, they would follow her. In their hearts, they
considered her the leader of the guild.
“What he said,” she told them, dismounting from Purr. “We wait.”
She hated it, but she wasn’t strong enough to change entire
societies.
Not yet.
 Two: A Froggy Day

“Monsters,” Caitlin called out from atop Purr. “Big ones.”

“Fall back to the clearing we just passed. We’ll form a defensive
line there,” Dan-El ordered. “Commence attacking as soon as targets
come into range.”
The entire group was there. They’d decided to avoid the road and
head straight for the Labyrinth instead, not waiting to scout around.
Since they weren’t using the road, they had left their mounts behind,
except Purr. The Sphinx was left alone and teleported some distance
down the ley line, hiding in the deep jungle. If attacked, it would
simply move to a different area.
They had skirted the village and its plowed fields, sticking to the
wilderness around them. For the first eight or nine miles, they
encountered no trouble. But now that they were getting close to their
destination, things started to get interesting.
Trivelin had spotted a few frog-like creatures spying the
Adventurers. They were called Ceuyalt, small humanoids who could
turn invisible. They were level 10-12, not a serious threat to the
group. The frog people didn’t attack, withdrawing as soon as the
group got close. Half an hour after first contact, Trivelin discovered
their purpose.
<The froggies have gathered by the hundreds,> Trivelin
announced. <And, get this, they are melting together and making
huge versions of themselves. Giant frog people. Coming your way.>
Caitlin made her announcement; soon, everyone heard the
movement of large creatures coming closer. Visibility through the
jungle wasn’t very good, so the group ran back toward a clearing
made by a recent fire. A large swath of land had been scorched,
leaving it relatively free of vegetation, although that wouldn’t last
long; smaller plants and weeds were already encroaching on the
blackened ground. The area was about two hundred feet wide. It
wasn’t much, but it would give the ranged members of the team a
clear field of fire for at least a few seconds.
Once everyone was set up, Caitlin dismounted and moved among
them, empowering everyone’s armor and all the weapons that were
likely to see use in battle. It was too bad that she couldn’t help
spellcasters very much, but the boost would be a huge help for
everyone else. So would all the buffs being granted by the casters.
“How many?” Tilly asked her.
The Warrior-Guardian was standing to the right of Purr, with
Crunch in bear form a few steps further right. Lootzalot and Stefan
were on the left. Their line was a semicircle with Purr in the center,
covering the squishier members of the party. The monsters would
eventually be able to move around the clearing and flank the line, but
Dan-El’s Phantasmal Army and Spongebob’s and Tranaxx’s
elementals were being held in reserve for that eventuality.
Caitlin consulted with the clown before answering. “According to
Trivelin, fifty-three of them have been created and are on their way.
Another fifty or or so are still taking shape; there are no more little
frog people left after that, so that’s all of them.”
“So only ten or more oversized monsters for each of us. Piece of
cake.”
“They’ll be a lot fewer by the time they get to us,” Caitlin promised
her.
The amalgam beasts were bigger than Purr, giant frogs who
advanced in leaps and bounds, knocking down trees and crushing
undergrowth under their massive feet. Their skin gleamed in strange
colors, suggesting it was covered in poison; Caitlin had read
somewhere that the more colorful a critter was, the more toxic it was
likely to be. They didn’t have weapons, but their hands had nasty
looking claws and they had teeth, unlike most normal frogs.
Trivelin could see the monsters’ stats and special abilities; she
relayed them to the group:

Greater Ceuyalt (Nature Elemental Hybrid)

Level 16 Elite Minion
Health 1,760 Mana 850 Endurance 1,760
 Special Defenses: High Regeneration (50 Health per second).
Special Attacks: Venomous skin and tongue, able to strike
targets up to 100 feet away. Leaps can cover 60-70 feet in a
single bound.
Vulnerabilities: Elemental Fire (+50% damage).

I wish I could do that, she thought. Knowing the enemy’s special

abilities could make a huge difference.
<You can, thanks to your god-stolen senses, but you have to
concentrate and be a lot closer.>
That was something useful to know in the future. Meanwhile, she
had monsters to kill and some math to do.
With her current stats and bonuses, each Chaotic Annihilation
beam inflicted 1,406 points of irresistible damage. Not quite enough
to one-shoot the monsters, but her targets would be weakened
enough that one or two spells or arrows would finish them off, even
with their regeneration. Knowing that, as soon as the first figures
trampling through the jungle came into sight, Caitlin began targeting
them twelve at a time, each 4-Q volley unerringly hitting her targets.
Allastan followed suit; his best special abilities worked at greater
range than most spells, and his Elven sight let him spot targets long
before the creatures reached the clearing. A flaming arrow hit one of
the wounded frog creatures and exploded, dropping it in mid-leap.
One down, eighty-something to go.
Caitlin ignored the monsters she had damaged and focused on
their rear ranks, trying to injure as many of them as possible before
they reached the clearing.
Lightning bolts from Tranaxx and Spongebob crackled between
trees. Whenever they hit a frogger, two or more smaller bolts
exploded from the target and struck others. The mages were saving
their fire spells until the enemy reached the clearing. Triggering a
jungle fire would just add another hazard for the party.
For the first minute or so, the party was able to pick off a bunch of
monsters without getting any return fire. Caitlin checked her Q-pool.
She had spent 68 Qs at the start, Empowering weapons and armor.
And she’d fired five 4-point volleys, wounding sixty monsters. Spells
and missile weapons had taken out over a dozen creatures already.
More Ceuyalts felt; by knocking down trees, the giant frogs had
removed a lot of their cover, providing the party with clear lanes of
fire. Caitlin still had over a hundred and fifty Qs, but she held off
using them until she had more intact targets.
“Got one!” Tilly called out.
She was using one of her new items, a Dwarven Repeating
Crossbow that was clamped over her shield. The magazine on top of
the weapon clicked and a complex clockwork action placed a new
bolt and cocked the bow. The contraption could fire one bolt every
three seconds and had a capacity of nine stubby all-metal bolts.
Caitlin had Empowered the crossbow, so each bolt hit with more
than enough power to finish off a wounded frog monster with a direct
hit.
“How many are left?” she asked Caitlin.
“According to Trivelin, about eighty,” she said, aiming her Lesser
Battle-Wand of Death at the closest Ceuyalt. Before she could fire a
bolt, however, Allastan nailed her target with an explosive arrow.
“Make that seventy-nine.”
“This is messed up,” Tranaxx said from behind Tilly. “I thought
Labyrinths were designed to attract Adventurers. This one isn’t.” He
fired another lightning bolt and cursed when his target ducked.
“What do you mean?”
“If you weren’t here, a hundred Elite minions would steamroll us,”
the caster explained before using another spell: six Magic Missiles
exploded out of his hand and hit two damaged froggers, killing them
instantly.
“Hey, it looks like they’re retreating,” Crunch said, or rather,
growled.
The shapeshifter was right; the monsters had pulled back beyond
line of sight. Which sucked, because in less than a minute all the
damage she’d inflicted would be undone, thanks to their
regeneration.
“Maybe they’ve had enough,” Tranaxx said.
“I doubt it,” Inglix said. “They are probably regrouping for a better-
coordinated charge.”
 “Anyway,” the caster continued. “What I meant was, I don’t think
any normal group of Adventurers could reach the Forbidden Jungle.
This place isn’t like the Catacombs. They don’t people going in.”
“Oh, I see. Maybe the designers of this place didn’t build it for the
tourist trade.”
Dan-El joined the conversation. “Not all Proving Grounds are
created to provide a challenge for Adventurers. Some are meant to
keep them out, or kill those who delve into them. Their primary
purpose is to serve as prisons or storehouses.”
“Great,” Tranaxx said. “That means this place won’t be balanced to
give us a fair shot. It’s going to be a giant killing machine.”
“Forbidden Proving Grounds provide the greatest rewards, for only
the most accomplished Adventurers can pierce their defenses,” the
Bard proclaimed. “Greater risks lead to greater rewards.”
“There you go. Very dangerous, but win valuable prizes,” Caitlin
said before she got a warning from Trivelin. “Oh, here they come.”
From the looks of it, over seventy monsters were about to come
charging in a wide column. They had waited until all the wounded
critters were healed.
“This is going to be a big push,” she told Dan-El. “I won’t be able to
pick off enough of them.”
“Very well. Casters, prepare crowd control spells. Slow them down
at the edge of the clearing, then hit them with all the power at your
disposal. Caitlin, continue weakening them with your divine bolts.”
“You got it.”
Everyone prepared. Mana potions came out of their containers
and those who needed them drank the blue stuff until their energy
was restored. Caitlin gathered her Quintessence and checked on the
timers for her ongoing abilities. The Empowerment buffs she’d
applied to her party’s gear still had three to four minutes left. The
fight should be over or close to it by the time they expired.
One thing she had learned was that violence could start and finish
in a shockingly short time. From what Dan-El told her, battles lasted
a long time because everyone usually took breaks: there would be a
flurry of combat, then the two sides would withdraw and rest for a bit.
Some armies, like the Ruby Empire’s legions, were deadly because
their forces were arranged so that fresh soldiers replaced the ones in
front, keeping up the pressure and not giving the enemy a chance to
rest.
Here and now, it was going to be quick and simple: either the
Ceuyalts would overrun the Adventurers through sheer weight of
numbers, or Caitlin and her friends would kill them all. No retreat,
breaks, or quarter.
She began firing off 4-Q attacks every couple seconds, using her
wand to take out the wounded monsters in between cosmic volleys.
At 500-1,000 damage per shot, the wand was a great back-up
weapon, although the actual damage was a lot less after accounting
for the monster’s elemental resistance. She dropped three froggers;
her friends accounted for twelve more.
Despite all the firepower, over a dozen monsters reached the
clearing at the same time. Spongebob switched from damage to
crowd control and cast Mud Trap, a spell that turned a hundred-foot
wide swatch of land into liquid quicksand that swallowed five
creatures before hardening to the consistency of dried concrete.
Those froggies weren’t going anywhere. Caitlin fired off Annihilation
beams over their heads, catching a dozen creatures about to jump
over their stuck compadres. None of them died, but the sudden
agony of losing 80% of their Health slowed them down.
At the same time, Purr sprayed four other monsters with webbing,
reaching across the clearing without any problems. Having been on
the receiving end of a similar attack, Caitlin knew that was like
getting hit by a firehose shooting super-glue. Then a giant lizard
twice their size appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of the
clearing. The lizard was one of Dan-El’s illusion, one that wasn’t
solid, but the sudden sight froze the monsters long enough for
Allastan to used Rain of Death, an ability that transformed a single
arrow into sixty, filling the edge of the clearing with deadly shafts.
Tranaxx activated a Major Wall of Fire next; the conflagration was
huge, more than enough to engulf all the immobilized creatures, and
the damage-over-time effect consumed them in a few seconds.
As the first rank died, more monsters leaped over the flaming
obstacles – just in time to get hit by another multi-blast of Chaotic
Annihilation, which killed seven of them outright. Two Fireballs wiped
out most of the jumpers, but there were plenty others right behind
them.
Five Ceuyalts landed in a crouch and jumped again, covering the
clearing in a second. They crashed into Eshai’s force field, the
multiple massive impacts shattering it, and then it was time for melee
even as more Ceuyalts made it past the burning corpses of their
fellows. The party had killed over half the attackers, but that left more
than enough to grossly outnumber the Adventurers.
Caitlin held on and gathered Qs while shooting the wand from
spider-back. She held on as Purr reared up and slammed its front
legs into the body of a frog, the spiky limbs stabbing the monster like
a pair of oversized spears. That frogger and the one Caitlin shot
went down, but all the surviving monsters had reached the clearing;
they charged or leaped forward, and only a couple of AOE spells hit
them, weakening but not killing them.
The battle dissolved into a chaotic free for all.
 Three: Welcome to the Jungle

“Hold the line,” she told Purr, and leaped off the spider.
With her Strength, she could now propel herself sixty feet from a
standing position. Her jump sent her soaring over the first handful of
giant frogs, and she landed among the bunch about to join in the
melee, some twenty, thirty of the creatures.
Before she hit the ground, her body transformed in a bluish-black
mass of thick fog. Her Ichor Cloud form filled a volume fifty feet in
diameter, enveloping several Ceuyalts. A Chaos Aura extended for
another fifty feet around it, catching even more creatures and hitting
them with fear and confuse debuffs. She blasted them with an
Annihilation volley, and then began to stab and slash every frogger in
range, solidifying portions of the blue blood cloud into spikes that
that drained the creatures’ blood.
The aura effects were what held off most of the monster horde.
The froggers stopped their charge, some cowering in fear, others
looking around in a daze. A few began to move seconds later, but
without any clear purpose. One of them turned to its nearest
neighbor and bit into it, eliciting no reaction from its victim even after
it tore a big chunk of flesh out of its side.
And all the while, Caitlin kept killing them. It was time to spend Qs
like crazy. While she stabbed them, she used Chaos Drain as quickly
as she could, since she could use the lifeforce she absorbed to
partially replenish her power. Twenty-eight creatures became twenty,
became fifteen, all in under a minute.
Several Ceuyalts finally snapped out of the mind-affecting debuffs
and struck back. Their teeth and claws did minimal damage to her,
but their venom was more effective. The Nature-based toxins gave
her the Realms equivalent of chemical burns, but they dissipated
after doing one or two ticks of damage, which were quickly healed by
Chaos Drain.
 It was a massacre. Maybe if all twenty-odd of them had
coordinated their attacks, they would have overwhelmed her
defenses and killed her, but Chaos Aura kept disrupting their efforts.
Her cloud form was DPS and crowd control rolled into one.
Caitlin could also see all around her, although making sense of the
360-degree vision was a strain even with super-Intelligence. It
allowed her to keep track of the rest of the party, so it was worth the
brain-sweat. So far, her friends were holding out against the dozen
or so froggers they faced. Dan-El’s illusionary warriors and the
mages’ Elementals were helping the tanks keep the creatures off the
casters. Spongebob and Tranaxx had switched to short-range spells,
whittling down the monsters.
It wasn’t a cakewalk, however. The Ceuyalts’ tongues hit as hard
as whips, could wrap around limbs with crushing force, and were
covered in envenomed goo that burned through armor and clothes
with equal ease. Inglix and Eshai were hard-pressed to keep
everyone healthy.
Caitlin had to intervene once. Lootz was hit by two tongue attacks,
one grabbing his sword arm, the other his left leg, pulling at him from
two directions. Before the frogs could tear him apart, Caitlin used a
double Chaos Drain to kill the two monsters. Stefan helped Lootz to
his feet while she turned her attention back to her captive audience.
There were a few close calls for her friends, but the fight turned
into a bloody grind where the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Nobody told the froggers that; they fought on mindlessly. The party
still had to spend energy and sweat to slaughter them to the last
beast. After the initial rush she felt when using her new and
improved powers, Caitlin found little joy in it.
Eventually, it was over; the clearing and the woods beyond were
littered with dead bodies; dozens of loot bags floated over the
corpses, their cartoonish presence making the whole thing feel even
more grotesque. Despite her feelings, she claimed her rewards. The
only thing worse than gaining power from killing living beings was not
gaining power after killing living beings.
 For slaying your foes, you have earned 18,361 Experience
(186 diverted toward Dan-El’s Leadership).
Current XP/Next Level: 97,094/100,000. Current Tier XP/Next
Level: 193,591/250,000
You have found: 97 gold, 2 Major Endurance Potions, 4 Major
Healing Potions, 3 Major Mana Potions, 4 Major Rejuvenation
Potions.
You have found: Axe of Might (Level 16 Enchanted Quality
Item); Ring of Spellcaster (Level 15 Enchanted Quality Item),
Lesser Dragon Blood Elixir (Level 20 Masterwork Quality:
Grants immunity to Fire and adds +20% Fire damage to any
attack or offensive spell. Duration: 30 seconds.
You have absorbed 6,849 points of life force. Your
Quintessence Pool has been increased by 14 points.
Current Quintessence: 84/317. Quintessence Progress:
Quintessence Progress: 221/500.

The loot wasn’t great; the items were ‘greens,’ Enchanted Quality,
useless to her. The Elixir was promising, but she really didn’t need it;
she ended up handing it to Tranaxx, who could use all the
survivability he could find; the extra damage wouldn’t hurt, either.
“Ding,” Tilly said.
“Grats! Me too!” Crunch announced.
Caitlin looked around. Everybody except her had made it to level
twenty after that battle.
“How much XP did you get?” she asked Tilly.
“Thirty-five k, after Dan-El got his cut. I’m halfway to level twenty-
one.”
Which meant that Caitlin had earned about half what everyone
else had. The System didn’t consider the critters to be dangerous
enough to merit better rewards. And she couldn’t even disagree with
it. If she had been alone, the hundred-plus monsters might have
been able to overwhelm her, but she thought she might have had a
decent chance to kill them all, especially if she kited them in vapor
form. Even elite monsters weren’t a real threat to her.
I’ve outgrown the Common Realm.
 <That shouldn’t be news to you, toots.>
Stay out of my head!
<I mostly do, but sometimes you think things so loudly I can hear
them even if I’m trying to mind my own business.>
Fine. Is this Labyrinth going to be a cakewalk?
<Nope. Ptah is no pushover. He must have sent demigods or even
godlings to fetch his thingy, and they failed. Even compressed down
to level 20, they should have been pretty tough.>
Tougher than me?
<I bet none of them had a full God Core, so maybe not. You see,
peeps with God Cores generally don’t risk their hides in the Common
Realm. Or anywhere else for that matter. Most of them have a power
base and they usually stay there, plotting bizarre schemes and
getting worshipped and stuff. Or just getting fat and laid.>
Gross. So I guess I can do this, but it won’t be easy.
<Quests from the gods only come in two sizes: super-hard and
impossible.>

***

“This must be it,” Inglix said. “Never have I seen or heard of such a
thing.”
“Neither have I,” Dan-El agreed. “Most Proving Grounds lie within
structures or below the earth. But this…”
“A freaking instance entrance,” Caitlin said. “Like something
straight out of WoW.”
The ‘it’ in question looked like a circular heat mirage that stood
nine feet tall and wide and led to another open area. Through the
distorted window-like circle, they could see blurred jungle, its trees
larger than the ones they had seen so far. A structure rose in the
distance, a stepped pyramid of a different design than the ones
Caitlin had seen in the Riverlands.
The other noteworthy fact was that the patches of sky they could
see were bright red rather than blue.
“An outdoor Labyrinth,” Tranaxx commented. “Weird.”
 “I think its destination does not lie in the Common Realm,” Inglix
said. “Look at the sky. This doorway leads to another place. One that
may not be bound to the limits of this one.”
“I bet the level cap is higher,” Tranaxx said. “Good thing we all hit
level twenty. Well, most of us, but Caitlin doesn’t need levels.”
“I wouldn’t mind if I got them, though.”
“You killed like eighty giant frog people by yourself, dude,” Crunch
told her. “You can probably solo this dungeon. Labyrinth. Whatever.”
Maybe she should do that. Why risk everyone else’s life or Identity
if she could just steamroll over anything the Labyrinth threw at her?
<Well, for one, you’ll probably run out of Qs before you run out of
things trying to kill you.>
I’ll suck their blood and use it to recharge, she replied, but even as
she spoke she knew that the tactic wouldn’t work against a lot of
creatures, not even with her enhanced draining power.
<You know better than that.>
“I don’t want to endanger anyone,” she said out loud. “Maybe I
should go at it alone.”
“You might have said something before we left the Sphinx and
saved us the trip,” Spongebob told her. “But seriously, soloing a
Labyrinth is going to get you killed.”
“Yeah, I was kidding before,” Crunch added. “Sure, you and the
giant tarantula can kick a lot of butt, but you aren’t immortal. I mean,
not more immortal than we are.”
“Without my songs to strengthen you and Inglix’s healing, you may
not survive,” Dan-El said. “Do not let your concern for our wellbeing
overcome sense, Caitlin. We will be careful, but you need our help.”
Tilly squeezed her arm. “You aren’t getting rid of us.”
Caitlin was moved by their support, and hoped she was worthy of
it. “Okay. Let’s go in, and if there is a safe area, we should take some
time talking about tactics. A bunch of you got new classes, so we
should talk about that, too.”
With that, she stepped through the doorway, praying she wasn’t
making a big mistake bringing them along.
 Four: The Magnificent Eleven

You Have Found: The Forbidden Jungle

Level Twenty-five Labyrinth
Three Quests Available!
Warning! Entering this Labyrinth will place your
Reincarnation site on the entrance. You will lose 3 Identity
points every time you die while inside the Labyrinth.

“Level twenty-five?”
“Inglix was right,” Dan-El answered Caitlin. “This place is on a
different Realm. Perhaps a miniature Realm of its own.”
“So everything we run into is going to be five levels higher than
us?”
“Not everything,” the Bard said. “Minions will likely range between
the twentieth and twenty-fourth levels of power. Elites and bosses
will begin at the twenty-fifth and some will be higher, up to level
thirty.”
“I see.”
“But of course, those are the rules in common Proving Grounds,
those designed to provide a proper challenge for Adventurers while
serving some other purpose. This Labyrinth is Forbidden, as its
name indicates. Its creators will have ensured that its defenders will
be as powerful as possible.”
“So I guess minions will start at twenty-five and the bosses will be
at thirty.”
“Or even higher, although I doubt they will surpass the thirty-fifth
level.”
“We’re gonna level up like crazy,” Crunch said. “We might walk out
of here with ten more levels!”
Caitlin shrugged as she surveyed the brave new world around
them.
 They’d left one jungle and entered another, but that was where the
similarities ended. The foliage on this side of the portal had a jagged,
dangerous quality. A mass of slender trees with leaves that
appeared to have sharp edges surrounded the clearing where the
party had arrived. There was no path out; from the looks of it, they
were going to have to cut their way through the tightly-packed trees.
Everything had a reddish hue; her pale skin looked positively
ruddy in this light. She was now a super-ginger. The air felt thicker,
almost heavier. Breathing seemed to take more effort. The humidity
was bad, too and the heat had a feverish, unhealthy quality that
made her think of a history lesson about the meaning of the word
‘malaria.’ Bad air. Back then people thought you could breathe in
diseases; maybe in this Realm that was true. Luckily, their stats were
high enough that the effects shouldn’t bother them much. Hopefully.
At least it seemed that the entrance to the Labyrinth was a safe
area even there. Nothing came rushing out of the jungle to attack
them. They were allowed to check the quests offered by the
Labyrinth in peace:

QUEST: Battle the Guardians

You have trespassed into the ancestral lands of the
Tenochca. The souls of willing sacrifices have been bound to
Minor Avatars of the gods. These powerful incarnated spirits
will attack outsiders on sight. If you enter, you will suffer their
rage.
Objective: Destroy 40 Guardians.
Rewards: 2,500 XP, 30 gold, one random level 20-25 item
(Masterwork Quality).
Penalties for Failure: None.
Accept? Y/N

QUEST: The Quinametzin Giants (0/6)

Six giants from an elder race that defied the gods now serve
as guardians of the Holy Sites, divine temples or fortress
containing Receptacles where great artifacts are held. Each of
them stands by the entrance to one of those Tenochca sites.
You may not enter those places as long as their guardians
stand.
Objective: Destroy one or more of the giants.
Rewards: For each defeated Giant: 2,500 XP, 25 gold and one
random level 22-25 item (Masterwork Quality), entrance to the
Holy Site guarded by the slain Giant.
If all Giants are defeated: 5,000 XP, one Class-specific level
22-25 item (Epic Quality).
Penalties for Failure: None.
Accept? Y/N

QUEST: Despoil the Receptacles

The gods placed objects of great value in six great
Receptacles, six structures scattered through the Forbidden
Jungle. Each Receptacle lies in the last level of a Holy Site
dedicated to one of the great Tenochca gods. Enter those Sites
if you are tired of living, intruder, for their defenders and traps
will overcome even the strongest.
Related Quest: Retrieve the Ankh of Ptah. The Ankh is located
in the Receptacle inside the Pyramid of Huitzilopochtli.
Objective: Reach each Receptacle and steal its contents.
Rewards: For each Receptable despoiled: 3,000 XP, 25 gold
and one random level 22-25 item (Masterwork Quality), +25
Global Renown, and access to the contents of the Receptacle,
which will include no fewer than one Mythic item and 2-3
Legendary or Epic items. Two Receptacles hold Supreme
Quality items, but you will have to discover them yourself.
Penalties for Success: Robbing the Tenochca Gods will
reduce your reputation with them and their worshippers by 500,
further reduced by 100 for each additional Receptacle
despoiled.
If all Receptacles are despoiled: 5,000 XP, one Class-specific
level 22-25 item (Epic Quality).
Penalties for Failure: None.
Accept? Y/N
 “That’s pretty impressive,” Caitlin said, clicking yes on everything.
Tilly grimaced after she dismissed the quest screen. “I don’t like
their tone. Doesn’t feel very welcoming.”
“Look at the rewards, man,” Crunch said, almost salivating.
“Mythic items! That’s like the next to highest Quality tier!”
Tranaxx sounded just as enthusiastic. “We could find as many as
six of them. And two Supreme items? Those are the rarest type. One
of those can change your entire build, forever.”
“Indeed. Mythic and Supreme items will evolve,” Dan-El said.
“They grow in power along with their wielder. Those Receptacles
contain prizes beyond compare.”
“And many such items have minds of their own, and often hold as
many curses as they do blessings,” Inglix warned. “And while some
may have been stolen from other pantheons, the rest come from the
Tenochca’s bloodthirsty civilization.”
“In other words, let’s not get too excited,” Caitlin said, agreeing
with the dour Goblin for once. “Do we want to loot the entire
Labyrinth, or do we just try to find the Ankh and leave?”
“Clearing a Labyrinth will take at least a few days,” Dan-El said.
“But let us not get ahead of ourselves. We can fulfill the quest that
took us here first, and then decide if we wish to go on.”
Stefan spoke up. “Remember that greed kills more Adventurers
than traps and monsters combined. That’s one reason I gave up the
life.” He sighed. “I guess I was bound to get back in it.”
“Let’s be real,” Spongebob chimed in. “Caitlin can probably faceroll
her way through this, with our help. We’d be dumb to miss an
opportunity to set ourselves up for when we go to the higher
Realms.”
“That is the kind of attitude that can get us all killed,” the older
Eternal said.
“We will decide when we know more. Let us share our new
abilities and prepare ourselves. When we leave this clearing, we
shall be entering unknown territory. Lack of preparedness will be as
deadly as greed.”
Nobody disputed the Bard’s words.
 ***

They spent a few hours reviewing their abilities before leaving the
entrance. All the Eternals in the group had gained a new Class when
hitting level twenty; the non-Eternals wouldn’t get that honor until
level 35. But even for them, the milestone level came with extra
abilities and perks, so everyone’s powers had changed somewhat.

Allastan (Elf)
Level 20 Ranger-Mage
Health 815(1,115) Mana 1,045(1,545) Endurance 694

The quietly competent Elf continued to rely primarily on his

archery. He had picked up an Epic-Quality Elemental Longbow that
let him add several magical effects to his shots, on top of his
abilities. His Mage Class gave him a bigger Mana pool and spells;
since he could already generate a lot of damage, he had picked up
mostly utility or protection spells from the Life and Light schools,
including a couple of energy shields or barriers, a couple of heals,
and a self-buff or two. His main focus remained DPS.

Crunch
Level 20 Master Shifter
Health 2,589, Mana 1,835 Endurance 2,449

The Orc Eternal had tripled down on his shape-shifting

specialization, acquiring a rare Class upgrade rather than
multiclassing. Master Shifters could turn into any creature or person
they met. His abilities were very similar but not identical to Caitlin’s
True Shape-Shifter. He could gain the powers of monsters and
animals but not spells or class abilities. His build and gear
emphasized Strength and Constitution, and he had gained fast
regeneration and a couple of self-heals, making him a good tank.
 Dan-El (Human)
Level 20 Bard, Illusionist
Health 704 Mana 3,025 Endurance 694

The Bard Caitlin was sort of dating remained a support specialist.

His go-to songs were still Hymn of Strength (which increased the
party’s damage, morale, and skills by 40%) and Restoration Song,
which gave everyone some healing every second. He had a few
utility songs and had gained a new power ballad that did ongoing
damage to enemies. His illusions had become more powerful, now
able to do a lot more damage. His Phantom Army had doubled in
size: he could now create four warriors, one healer, and one caster.

Eshai of Ashur (Human)

Level 20 Mystic Adept
Health 535 Mana 2,223 Endurance 540

Eshai’s Mystic Adept was a combo of spellcaster and ‘monk’ as

per the D&D class, with a specialty in healing and magical barriers
and force fields. He had the second lowest hit points but made up for
it with an ability that let him instantly divert Mana and Endurance into
Health. Coupled with no fewer than five different energy formations
that could block, deflect or reduce damage, and the Mystic could
serve as an off-tank in an emergency. His damage abilities weren’t
numerous or potent, and he only had a couple of single-target heals,
but the energy shields he could apply to either the entire group or
single members made a big difference.

Inglix (Goblin)
Level 20 Priest-Guardian (Gufti)
Health 1,502 Mana 2,127 Endurance 1,288

The Goblin’s second Class had given him a fighter’s Health, which
improved his survivability, and a few extra defending buffs, but he
was still the top healer of the group, and had gained a few new perks
and abilities that greatly increased his ability to undo damage,
remove debuffs, and provide a few defensive buffs.

Sir Lootzalot (Human, Eternal)

Level 20 Arcane Knight, Paladin
Health 2,705 Mana 1,745 Endurance 2,190

Lootz had upgraded his class at level ten to Arcane Knight, a

fighter-mage mix that specialized in spells for melee and short range
combat, increasing his damage output and durability. And now he
had added Paladin to the mix, giving him a couple of decent heals,
auras that reduced damage or did healing over time, and several
powerful anti-undead spells. His main problem was that he
sometimes froze in combat or forgot to use his abilities, but he was
working on it.

Spongebob (Human, Eternal)

Level 20 Archmage
Health 360 Mana 3,787 Endurance 383

The other former member of Coyote’s gang had upgraded his

Master Mage class to Archmage, gaining big bonuses to his Mana
capacity and regeneration, as well as spell effects and damage. His
main problem was his low Health; the kid was the classic glass
cannon, although his Mana Shield and other defensive spells made it
harder for enemies to drain his Health directly and his Elementals
had become much more powerful and he now could keep four of
them active at the same time. Like most specialist, he was meant to
work in a party, but as long as someone kept him alive, he could
contribute a lot.

Stefan Wong (Human, Eternal)

Level 18 Warrior, Kensai, Stalwart
Health 2,352 Mana 1,279 Endurance 1,710

Dan-El’s former teacher and reluctant adventurer had picked up a

tank class, Stalwart, which increased his survivability and taunting
abilities. His mastery of the sword gave him decent DPS against
single targets, especially after being awarded a Masterwork quality
katana from a quest reward.

Tilly Swift (Goblin, Eternal)

Level 20 Dreadnought
Health 4,240 Mana 466 Endurance 1,956

Tilly had evolved her previous two classes into the Dreadnought a
combination tank-DPS that gained a 100% boost to Health, a 25%
increase to all her defenses, and several hard-hitting attack abilities.
Between her class bonuses and some great gear she’d gained along
the way, she was a monster in melee combat, but was weak at long
range, except for a few charge and leap abilities. She remained the
main tank of the team.

Tranaxx (Human, Eternal)

Level 20 Elementalist, Magus, Warrior
Health 1,260 Mana 2,558 Endurance 1,275

The mage had decided to improve his survivability by picking

Warrior as his level twenty class. He wasn’t planning on using his
new fighting abilities, but just wanted to have more hit points. The
choice seemed like a bit of a waste to Caitlin, but the guy already
had plenty of spells and his DPS was the second highest in the
party, so nobody had complained about his new class.

***

“Is everybody ready?” Dan-El asked after he finished singing

Hymn of Strength.
They all nodded. Caitlin had Empowered the group’s gear, all
other long and medium-term buffs were applied, and they were
ready to push their way through the jungle.
Soon they would find if their preparations had been enough.
 Five: Old Man Willow Ain’t Got <Bleep> on Me!

An hour later, they’d barely advanced a mile. The jungle kept

trying to kill them.
The moment they left the clearing, the trees proved to be more
than simple obstacles. Their leaves turned out to be as sharp as they
looked, but also hard enough to damage metal armor, slice through
leather, and leave deep, bleeding wounds that needed at least a
minor healing spell to close. The wood itself was tough as iron; they
were forced to use their magical weapons to chop through branches,
which in turn began to reduce their durability.
The vegetation wasn’t moving, not really. But when they pushed a
branch, it always had a way of bouncing back, its leaves angled just
so it slashed at them in passing. Thorns they hadn’t noticed seemed
to appear just when you put your hand, or elbow, or in Crunch’s
case, butt happened to smack or lean on a plant. Roots tripped them
constantly, even after they started checking their footing. Twice, her
Detect Traps spotted ‘natural’ pits hiding under bushes.
And as if that weren’t bad enough, as the party moved deeper into
it, the jungle began conducting bio warfare operations on the
intruders. Soon, any exposed portion of skin that touched or brushed
by a plant quickly developed a bad case of something like poison ivy,
except in some cases it was bad enough to make skin peel and
burn, doing 1-12 point of Nature damage until healed. Clouds of
pollen drifted into them every few minutes, and the toxic reaction
they triggered if inhaled wasn’t fixed by anything below a Lesser
Healing Potion or a spell.
A group of normal people trying to brave this place would have
died about as quickly as if they’d gone to Mars to do some nude
sunbathing.
Caitlin’s blue blood cleared up every skin or breathing problem in a
matter of seconds, but even so her eyes and nose were running like
crazy. It didn’t matter how fast you healed up if the stuff kept coming
back. Even the smells burned her nose from the inside. Inglix and
Tilly were being hit worse than the humans for some reason. Maybe
they were more susceptible to whatever nasty chemicals Mother
Nature was inflicting on them.
Mother Nature, or something more sinister.
“This is wrong. All of this is wrong,” Allastan said, looking
uncharacteristically upset. He’d kept glancing at the woods with
increasing worry as they moved along. His eyes were bloodshot and
he looked mildly intoxicated. He wasn’t the only one.
Dan-El signaled to the party to stop. They did, standing around
uneasily in the rough path they had managed to carve while Inglix
cast an area effect Purify spell. Caitlin glanced toward the rear of the
group and her eyes went wide. She was pretty sure that the trail
they’d left behind looked narrower than it had been just minutes ago.
It was as if the jungle was closing in on them. And yet, all the life she
could sense was in the myriad trees and brushes filling the area. She
couldn’t pick up any other presence in the area. No animals, not
even insects. Just the trees and thorny bushes and creeping lianas,
angrily looming over them.
I’m letting my imagination run wild, she told herself. Plants don’t
get angry.
These plants did. Her gut was sure of it.
“Let us bide here for a moment,” Dan-El said as the group
gathered up. “What is bothering you, Al?”
“This jungle is more than a collection of plants. I can feel
something greater than everything that lives here, directing all living
things to hinder us.”
“I told you we should have burned this whole place down,” Tranaxx
grumbled before he started coughing. “At least we’d have gotten rid
of the pollen!”
“And we would have been caught in the midst of a massive fire,”
Inglix told him. “The smoke alone would have done us in. High-level
Adventurers may no longer need to breathe air to survive, but we still
remain mortal. Even your kind.”
“What do you mean ‘your kind’?”
 “Stop it,” Tilly said in a no-nonsense tone before turning to
Allastan. “If the trees are being controlled, shouldn’t we see stat
boxes on them?”
Plant life normally didn’t have stat boxes, unlike animals or people.
The system treated them as objects. Caitlin concentrated on the
nearest tree and an info box popped up:

Tree (Unknown Species, Palm Family)

Durability: Man Body: 1,650. Branches: 90-300. Roots: 100-
500.
Herbalism Uses: Unknown.
Crafting Uses: Unknown.

Since she didn’t have any crafting or gathering skills (and had no
intention of getting any, given all the stuff already on her plate), she
gleaned no useful information from the dark-wooded, broad-leafed
specimen. The trees were impossibly tough compared to normal
ones, but other than that their stats they offered no clue to explain
how they seemed to be actively resisting or even attacking the party.
But maybe she wasn’t looking deeply enough.
Trivelin, do you see anything in the trees?
She had sent the clown ahead to scout in spirit form. He had
reported that the jungle extended for about ten miles in every
direction before reaching a series of lightly wooded hills. Visibility
became hazy beyond the hills; something was interfering with
Trivelin’s senses, and he had a feeling that venturing much farther
would trigger some kind of reaction. Anything from alarms to magical
anti-aircraft fire. They’d decided to keep him overhead instead, along
with Spongebob’s new Elemental, an Air Hawk – Leppunzel was its
name – that looked like a bird of prey made of clouds.
<Now that you mention it, no, toots, I ain’t seeing nothing. Other
than trees. But I don’t have Tier 0 Enhanced Senses like you do.>
I have used them already. The ability gave her a passive bonus to
detect traps and hidden objects or openings, but required activation
to gain more information than what the System gave Adventurers.
Before they left the clearing, she had used it examine their
surroundings, but hadn’t detected anything special.
<Try again. Don’t focus on anything, just activate them and sort of
relax, go all Zen-like, listen to the sound of one hand clapping, you
know. Let the senses work for you.>
Caitlin shook her head but tried to follow the vague fortune cookie-
like instructions. Enhanced Senses didn’t require the expenditure or
Mana or Quintessence, just concentration. But how do you
concentrate without focusing? She did her best, and although their
info boxes didn’t change, she felt a vague connection linking all the
plants around them. But she didn’t get anything more than that.
A leaf drifted by and touched her cheek and she felt like a bee had
stung her before the toxins were eliminated by her body. She hated
this place. She also got a feeling that the connection between all
those things had been at work there. Hm.
“Maybe I’m literally not seeing the forest for the trees,” she
muttered.
“Say what?”
“I need to see the bigger picture. Like from up above.”
“I can have Leppunzel give you a lift,” Spongebob offered.
Caitlin thought about it. She could turn into an Ichor Cloud and
float up instead, but she hadn’t tried using her Enhanced Senses in
that shape; something else she should have practiced in her plentiful
spare time.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
She wanted to ask for assurances that the Elemental wouldn’t
drop her, but decided against it. Worst case, she could turn into a
cloud and gracefully – or at least slowly – drop to the ground. No
sense letting the others know that she was mildly scared of heights.
Leppunzel descended onto the rough path at Bob’s mental
command, stirring leaves and more pollen. Everyone cursed at the
creature while Inglix healed them. The bird’s shape changed as it
approached Caitlin, clearing up and turning into a transparent
whirlwind slightly taller and wider than her, visible only by the way it
picked up loose dirt – thankfully without any bio-toxins in it – from the
ground.
 The swirling wind flowed around her, making her feel like a dozen
blow dryers were working on her at the same time. It wasn’t painful,
just a bit weird. Then she was inside the miniature tornado; there
was little wind there, but she felt a gentle pressure all around her
body, holding her in place. The whirlwind began to rise and she went
with it.
I’m only mildly scared of heights. Mildly. Mildly, I said!
She felt a little worse than mildly terrified, watching her feet leave
the ground and her friends recede as she was lifted and carried up.
Soon she was hovering a good fifty, sixty feet in the air, watching the
jungle canopy as it spread out around her. The hills Trivelin had
mentioned were visible in the distance, and beyond that there was
just a featureless haze.
A quick look all around her showed her that the path they’d made
was indeed shrinking at a rapid place. The clearing at the Labyrinth’s
entrance was there, but the rough trail they’d cut out of it as they
trudged through the jungle was mostly gone. The initial stretch they’d
spent sweat and Mana to clear had fully reverted virgin wilderness,
and only the last half mile or so still remained, getting narrower the
older the trail was. Getting back was going to be just as hard as
moving forward.
Who’s doing this? Jungle Ents? Are those even a thing?
<More like Old Man Willow, I think> Trivelin said. <But turned all
the way to eleven.>
Caitlin began to shrug, considered her situation, hanging from an
elemental up in the air, and decided to move as little as possible.
She didn’t think she could accidentally drop out of the whirlwind, but
there was no sense in tempting fate. Also, she decided not to look
straight down. Pretend you are on a balcony, or looking out a
window, she told herself. It helped, a little.
Okay, time to see what’s going on.
She activated Enhanced Senses once more. Before, she had
been able to see Leppunzel’s standard stat box (Level 20 Avian
Sylph, with 900 Health, Mana, and Endurance). Now, the
Elemental’s entire ‘character sheet’ became visible to her, showing
her all its stats, abilities, and vulnerabilities. But that was nothing
compared to the eyeful she got when she glanced at the wilderness
below.
Caitlin hadn’t been able to see any creature’s stat box for the
same reason an ant couldn’t see a house.
The jungle, the mighty jungle all around them, was one massive
organism, with a single, titanic stat box floating over it. It had popped
up into existence the moment she focused on it.

Xunkli the Living Jungle (Primal Titan)

Level 25 Avatar of Yum Kaax
Health 1,500K Mana 10K Endurance 500K

Fifteen hundred K translated to fifteen hundred thousand hit

points. One point five freaking million.
“Are you effing kidding me?”
<We’re going to need a bigger weedwhacker,> Trivelin noted.
 Six: The Spawn of Xunkli

“I don’t know if we can fight this thing,” Caitlin said.

<Not every challenge can be solved with a sword through the
heart. Only most of them.>
“Leppunzel, tell Bob that everyone needs to get back to the
clearing.”
As you wish, the Elemental replied. Do you wish to return to the
ground?
“Not yet. I want to keep watch while they get started.”
Once everyone was safe, they would be able to consider their
options. Maybe she could turn into Ichor Cloud form and hack and
slash the entire jungle. In that form she’d be pretty hard to hurt, and
she could absorb tree sap just like blood, healing herself. Which
begged the question of why she hadn’t done that to begin with, but
they hadn’t expected the jungle to be so resistant to invasion.
Down below, the group got the message and began heading back,
following the trail they’d made. What was left of it, that was. Beyond
a hundred feet, the path was already gone.
<Uh, oh.>
Caitlin looked up and saw what the clown had noticed. The jungle
was rippling. Trees were swaying in unison, sending green waves in
the canopy. Something was happening to the entire place.
<I don’t think it wants to let you go,> Trivelin said.
“Okay. Take me down.”
The group stopped and waited for her to land. “The jungle is
coming to life, guys. We’ve got to rush back.”
“Can I burn down this place now?”
“Yes, Tranaxx,” Dan-El said. “Everyone, focus on clearing our way
back. Spongebob, on the left, Tranaxx on the right. Caitlin, open us a
path!”
Tranaxx summoned an Ifrit while Spongebob called a pack of Fire
Goblins and a Terra-Beast, a big gorilla-shaped Earth Elemental that
grabbed the nearest tree with its massive hands and pulled its roots
off with one mighty pull. The fire critters and mages used a
channeled short-range spell – Blazing Jet – creating four cones of
flames that consumed the vegetation around the party.
The trees burned, but as soon as fire wasn’t being applied directly
to them, the flames sputtered out in a matter of seconds. Sparks
didn’t catch on nearby plants, either. This jungle wasn’t fireproof, but
it certainly was flame resistant.
Caitlin was the chief lumberjack of the gang. First, she summoned
Purr back; she’d dismissed her because the spider’s large size
would have required an even bigger path to clear, but now she
tasked it to be a bulldozer, knocking down any trees in their way and
chewing or stomping them into kindling. She turned into Ichor Cloud,
activated Chaos Shock, and went nuts on a section of jungle, flowing
over the regrown trees and shrubs and slashing them with dozens of
hardened blood machetes. Chaos Shock added 150 damage to all
her 23 attacks per second. She didn’t bother augmenting the
damage with Qs, because she had a feeling that she was going to
need them. Even just relying on the Chaos damage, her efforts were
enough to tear through the hostile and toxic plants.
The jungle fought back. The burning wood released poisonous
smoke, requiring Inglix to spend Mana casting Wave of Healing and
Purify until Spongebob used some Air spells to push the smoke
away from the party. Caitlin’s vaporous shape didn’t spare her from
the Nature toxins the woods produced, but she was able to use
Chaos Drain to heal herself.
Now that they were treating the living jungle as an enemy, they
moved faster through the woods, but at the cost of a lot of power.
Caitlin was using Mana to increase her Willpower (to safe levels) in
order to raise the damage of her cloud weapons, which wasn’t a big
drain, but the mages were burning through their energy pools at
unsustainable rates.
“This isn’t going to work,” Spongebob said. He’d stopped casting
and was letting his Elementals do most of the work. “We’ll never get
back before we go OOM.”
 “We need to go full-on apocalypse on these bastards!” Tranaxx
shouted, and began throwing Fireballs deeper inside the jungle.
The short-lived fiery explosions didn’t seem to do much. Or rather,
much good. As if the attack was a signal, the jungle began to come
alive. Stat boxes popped up as in the distance as trunks grew faces
and uprooted themselves, waving their branches like a multitude of
clawed arms.

Spawn of Xunkli (Primal Elemental)

Level 25 Minion
Health 825 Mana 525 Endurance 825

Elder Spawn of Xunkli (Primal Elemental)

Level 25 Elite Lieutenant
Health 2,750 Mana 1,375 Endurance 2,750

Caitlin’s life senses lit up as Xunkli the Living Jungle woke up.
From the looks of it, there were about ten minions for every
lieutenant, so there were only about ten thousand of those.
Lieutenants, that was.
“Form a circle!” Dan-El ordered as monster converged on them
from all points on the map. “Eshai, set up your barriers! Clear an
area, everyone!”
Every tree around them had been uprooted or burned to a crisp,
but the ambulatory trees were closing in fast, and they didn’t need to
wait to reach melee range, either. Thorns and shuriken-like leaves
came flying out of the Spawn and darted towards the party, hitting as
hard as bullets. Tilly cursed as half a dozen thorns clattered on her
shield. Next to her, Tranaxx cried out in pain when he caught a thorn
on his chest, losing over 200 Health.
Tilly created her Guardian’s Aegis, which generated an energy
wall eight feet high and wide, protecting the mage as he staggered to
the rear. His summoned Ifrit wasn’t so lucky; the Fire Elemental was
literally blown away by dozens of spinning leaves. Eshai’s Mana
Dome sprang into life and immediately began to lose Durability as
the continuous fusillade hit it from all sides. The Mystic’s Mana
dropped rapidly as he kept repairing the damage. He downed his
first Mana potion mere seconds later.
The tanks formed a rough perimeter around the squishies,
reinforced by the remaining Elementals and Dan-El’s phantom
warriors. The barrier allowed them to hit enemies on the other side,
and they did, hewing into their woody adversaries like so many Paul
Bunyans.
Fighting behind the energy formation was tricky, though. The
melee fighters had to extend their weapons or arms past the shield
to reach the monsters. They often had to expose themselves
completely to keep the Spawn from hammering on the defensive
field, and they took plenty of hits in return.
Clawed branches smashed against armor or shields whenever the
fighters left the barrier. Lootz wasn’t affected; between his auras and
personal force fields, not to mention his heavy armor, he was able to
fight outside for a good while, hacking branches and trunks with his
fire-wreathed blade, his Health dropping slowly. Tilly was also sturdy
enough to survive the minions’ attacks. The Spawn lieutenants
started to arrive in numbers, however, and they could both survive
longer and hit harder.
Stefan and Crunch weren’t quite as durable, so they were careful
about stepping out of the barrier. The Kensai had picked up a few
new abilities at level twenty that allowed him to create slashes of
force that traveled a good distance away from his blade, and he
used them to prune down the enemies. Crunch was in bear form; he
just taunted monsters into coming in close and then mauled them to
death.
Meanwhile, Allastan, Bob and Tranaxx switched back to full-on
bombardment. Explosive arrows and Fireballs took minions down in
bunches, while single-target spells were used on the lieutenants,
whittling down their Health. They managed to thin out enemy
numbers, but not enough.
Caitlin stayed outside the barrier as well. In her current form, the
monsters weren’t doing enough damage to overcome the healing her
Chaos Drain gave her, although that was going to change soon.
Standing their ground was suicide for the team, and trying to move
was slightly faster suicide. She might be able to escape to the safe
zone, but everyone else would end up respawning – or dying.
<Don’t worry, Fearless Leader! Even Forbidden Labyrinths cannot
offer zero chances to survive. There is a way out.>
Where? I’m not seeing any.
<Look harder.>
Caitlin considered that while she killed monsters by the dozen.
They couldn’t all fly away, and they were surrounded, so moving on
the ground wasn’t an option, either. Down? Her senses didn’t pick up
any traps or hidden objects under her feet, but they had to be
relatively close to her to be spotted.
You’d better be right about this, or we’re all dead. And three of us
can’t afford to die.
<What do you mean ‘we,’ white girl? This is just a gig for me.>
Caitlin used Chaotic Annihilation to clear a dozen minions around
her before returning to human form, leaving Purr to tank for her while
she moved to the center of the group.
“Who’s got Earth spells?” she asked. “We need to dig! I think there
is a way out underground.”
I hope.
If her guess was wrong, they were about to literally dig her friends’
graves.
“Ask Bob,” Tranaxx said, drinking a Mana potion. “I’ve only got
rock-throwing spells.”
Spongebob created a Wall of Fire to keep some Spawn from the
barrier before turning to her.
“I know a spell. Tunnel Earth; it makes a ten-foot wide, variable
length opening.”
“Okay. Make one straight down.”
“How deep?”
“Try thirty feet?” she said before turning around and firing off an
Annihilation volley to clear a bunch of tree monsters who’d
surrounded Tilly.
“On it.”
Bob concentrated while Caitlin spent some blue blood to heal Purr,
who had been pushed toward the barrier by sheer weight of
numbers. The Spawns were shredding her giant spider. And the
tanks, who also fell back behind Eshai’s defensive formation.
Unfortunately, the barrier was almost out of Durability and Eshai
had been forced to drink Lesser Mana potions because the higher-
powered ones were still on cooldown. He’d also downed his last
precious Potion of Renewal, which gave him a huge per-second
regeneration boost. That wasn’t going to do the trick, though. The
energy field was seconds away from collapsing, and then they would
be hammered by hundreds flying thorns and spinning leaves. They
no longer had any tree cover, since all the trees had turned into
monsters.
A ten-foot wide circle began to glow on the ground as Spongebob
prepped the spell. It filled about half of the area covered by the
barrier, which made things crowded since nobody wanted to drop
down the incoming hole. The tanks stepped out of the energy shield
to provide enough room for the casters; so did Caitlin, firing off
energy blasts or draining the Spawn to death.
With a hand gesture and a magical shout, Bob activated the spell
and the circle turned into a hole in the ground.
Caitlin looked down. There was a glimmer of green down there,
indicating a secret passage, but it appeared to be below the bottom
of the vertical tunnel.
“Uh, give me another ten feet?”
“Give me a second,” Spongebob said. “Actually, five seconds.”
“Go!” Caitlin yelled, and Bob got going.
Bob was two seconds away from completing the spell when the
barrier went down.
 Seven: Stack ‘em Like Cordwood!

The air was full of flying thorns, slashing leaves, and grabby and
stabby arms.
It would have been easy to just panic and die horribly, but the
team had been through a lot of fights, some almost as desperate as
this one. Everyone in the party, even Stefan, who didn’t know them
as well, reacted like champs. They might be about to die, but they’d
go down fighting.
As the wooden soldiers surged forward, Allastan, Spongebob and
Tranaxx unleashed their cooldown powers, abilities that could only
be used once an hour or even once a day. You usually saved those
for fighting a big boss, or when outnumbered ten thousand to one.
Allastan fired a single arrow towards the sky. When it reached a
hundred feet, it exploded into sixty fiery darts that plummeted back to
earth, each targeted on one of the monsters around the former
barrier’s perimeter. Arrow of the Dragon’s missiles hit each target for
500 Physical and 600 Fire damage. They killed every minion they
struck and severely wounded or finished off a good dozen elites. The
Elf wouldn’t be able to use the ability again for four hours, and had
spent most of his Mana to activate it, but the result was worth it.
Most of the first wave of monsters went down.
He wasn’t the only one pulling all the stops, of course. Tranaxx
unleashed Flame Storm, a spell with a base cost of 450 Mana and a
two-hour cooldown; it combined Air and Fire magic into a flaming
tornado with a thirty-foot diameter. The whirling flames burned
everything they touched for 1,200 Fire damage; given the Spawn’s
wooden bodies, they suffered even more than that. The storm
moved around in a spiral pattern, first wiping out the closest
monsters before spreading out to catch the other waves. For the
next forty seconds, fiery death ruled the jungle.
Finally, after he was done deepening the downward-aiming tunnel,
it was Spongebob’s turn. His ace in the hole wasn’t as flashy, but
turned out to be the most useful power move of the three. He
shouted and waved his arms as he spun in a circle, with Tilly using
her energy shield to keep him safe from the continuous rain of
missiles. When he was finished, a twelve-foot high wall of earth had
risen around the group, replacing the energy barrier Eshai could no
longer sustain. At first, the wall appeared to be simple packed dirt,
but a moment later it began to glow red and emit insane amounts of
heat, as it if hard turned into lava. Luckily, the heat only radiated from
the exterior side of the wall, cooking any nearby survivors while
sparing the party.
And the spell – Elemental Fortress – had even more tricks up its
figurative sleeve. Storm clouds rose above the wall, generating
lightning bolts that struck the Spawn further back, even as it poured
rain on the lava walls, rain that turned into scorching jets of steam
that reached out up to sixty feet into the living jungle.
For as long as the spell lasted – “Thirty-two seconds from
activation,” Bob explained – the enemy horde might as well be on
the moon for all the danger they posed to the team. Bob had had
used up 1,000 Mana on the 24-hour cooldown spell. He’d clearly
been saving it for a special occasion just as this.
Caitlin gasped at the display of power. She might have some
unfair advantages, but twentieth level Adventurers were nothing to
sneeze at.
While hell rained down on the enemy, she’d only used a few single
Annihilation blasts to pick off any near-dead elites close enough to
be a threat. After Bob deployed his Elemental Fortress, she didn’t
bother anymore. Instead, she ran down the hole’s walls, using her
spider abilities, and went looking for the hidden door her senses had
picked up.
The vertical shaft ended an additional six feet deeper before it
reached a solid stone surface that kept the spell from digging any
further. At the bottom was a flat surface made of cut and fitted blocks
of stone. One of the flat blocks touching the edge of the tunnel was
shaped like a circle; it was slightly wider than a manhole cover, and
decorated by a carved head surrounded by bizarre symbols and
snakes. And it was glowing green. Hidden door.
Another random document with
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 CHAPTER XX
THE TRY-OUT

B y the first of June Hillman’s baseball team had settled into its
stride. Four successive victories had restored the confidence of
players and adherents alike, and the final test of the season, the
game with Farview Academy, played this year at Orstead, was being
viewed in prospect with less apprehension. Laurie had somewhat
solved the science of throwing to bases from the plate and was
running a very even race with Elk Thurston, a fact that did nothing to
increase the entente cordiale between those two. Elk seldom missed
an opportunity to make himself disagreeable to his rival, and since
Elk was both older and bigger, and possessed also the prestige of
being a member of the upper-middle class, Laurie had to keep his
temper many times when he didn’t want to. After all, though, Elk’s
offenses weren’t important enough to have excused serious
reprisals. He made fun of the younger boy and “ragged” him when
he was at work. Sometimes he got a laugh from his audience, but
more often he didn’t, for his humor was a bit heavy. His antagonism
was largely personal, for he did not accept Laurie seriously as a
rival.
He liked best of all to tease the other on the score of the latter’s
failure to make good his boast of transforming the impossible Kewpie
Proudtree into a pitcher. Elk, like about every one else, had
concluded that Laurie had given up that task in despair. But whereas
the others had virtually forgotten the amusing episode, Elk
remembered and dwelled on it whenever opportunity presented.
That Laurie failed to react as Elk expected him to annoyed him
considerably. Laurie always looked cheerfully untroubled by gibes on
that subject. Any one but Elk would have recognized failure and
switched to a more certain method, but Elk was not very quick of
perception.
 On a Saturday soon after the beginning of the month the Blue met
Loring in a game remarkable for coincidences. Each team made
eleven hits and eleven runs in the eleven innings that were played—
errors and brilliant plays alternating. George Pemberton started for
Hillman’s but gave way to Nate Beedle in the second. Elk caught the
final two innings in creditable style, and Laurie again looked on from
the bench.
On the following Monday afternoon Laurie laid in wait for Mr.
Mulford on the gymnasium steps. “We’re ready for that try-out
whenever you are, sir,” he announced.
“Eh? What try-out is that?” asked the coach.
“Proudtree’s, sir. You know you said you’d give him one.”
“Proudtree? Why I understood he’d quit long ago!”
“No, sir, he didn’t quit. He’s been practising at least an hour every
day, except Sundays, for more than two months.”
“He has? Well, well! And you think he can pitch some, do you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Laurie firmly.
“All right. Now, let’s see. I don’t believe I’ll have time to look at him
to-day, Turner. How about to-morrow morning?”
“Tuesday? He hasn’t anything from eleven fifteen to twelve, sir.”
“Good. Tell him to be over at the field at eleven twenty. You’ll catch
for him? I hope this isn’t just a flivver, my boy, for from present
indications we’re going to need pitchers next year.”
“Wouldn’t we be able to use another this year, if we had him?”
asked Laurie, grinning. Mr. Mulford smiled responsively.
“Hm, we might, and that’s a fact,” he acknowledged. “Well, have
your champion on hand to-morrow morning, Turner.” He hurried on
into the gymnasium, and, after a thoughtful stare into space, Laurie
followed him.
“Next year!” scoffed Kewpie when, after practice, Laurie reported
the gist of his talk with the coach. “He’s crazy! What’s the matter with
this year? I’ll bet you I can pitch as good ball as Orville Croft right
now.”
“And that wouldn’t be saying much, either,” assented Laurie.
“Well, they’ve got him on the team,” grumbled Kewpie. “Pinky’s got
a nerve if he thinks I’m going to wait around for a whole year after
the way I’ve been working all spring!”
“Yes, he ain’t so well in his nerve,” mused Laurie. “Ought to see a
doctor about—”
“Well, didn’t you tell him I wanted to play this year?” demanded
Kewpie impatiently. Laurie shook his head.
“No, you see, dear old lad, I didn’t want to overtax his brain. You
know how these baseball coaches are. They can wrestle with one
idea, but when it comes to two at the same time—” Laurie shrugged
eloquently. Kewpie viewed him doubtfully.
“Oh, shut up,” he said, grinning. “Well, anyway, he’s got to give me
a chance with the team this year. If he doesn’t he won’t get me next.”
“I’ll mention that to him to-morrow,” replied the other soberly. “I
dare say if we take a firm attitude with him he will come around.
Well, eleven twenty, then. I’ll wait for you in front.”
“In front” at Hillman’s meant the steps of School Hall or their
immediate vicinity, and on the steps the two met the next forenoon.
Laurie had brought his mitten, and Kewpie had his glove and a ball
in his pockets. On the way along Summit Street to the athletic field,
which was a quarter of a mile to the south, Kewpie was plainly
nervous. He didn’t have much to say, but at intervals he took the ball
from his pocket, curved his heavy fingers about it, frowned, sighed
and put it away again.
Mr. Mulford was awaiting them, and Kewpie, for one, was glad to
see that he was alone. After greetings the boys laid aside their coats,
and Kewpie rolled his shirt-sleeves up. Mr. Mulford seated himself on
a bench near the batting-net, crossed his knees and waited. His
attitude and general demeanor told Laurie that he was there to fulfill
a promise rather than in the expectation of being thrilled.
 “Start easy,” counseled Laurie. “Don’t try to pitch until you’ve
tossed a few, Kewpie.”
Kewpie nodded, plainly very conscious of the silent figure on the
bench. He wound up slowly, caught sight of Laurie’s mitten held
palm outward in protest, and dropped his arms, frowning.
“Yes,” said Mr. Mulford, “better start slow, Proudtree.”
Kewpie tossed five or six balls into Laurie’s mitt without a wind-up
and between tosses stretched and flexed the muscles of his stout
arm.
“All right,” said Laurie finally. He crouched and signaled under the
mitten. Kewpie shook his head.
“I don’t know your signals,” he objected. “You tell me what you
want.”
“Pitch some straight ones,” suggested the coach.
Kewpie obliged. His stand in the box and his wind-up were
different from what they had been when Laurie had last caught him.
Considering his build, Kewpie’s appearance and movements were
easy and smooth. He had a queer habit of bringing the pitching hand
back close to the left thigh after the delivery, which, while novel, was
rather impressive. Kewpie’s deliveries were straight enough to
please any one, but Mr. Mulford called:
“Speed them up, son. You’d never get past the batsman with
those!”
Kewpie shot the ball away harder. Laurie returned it and thumped
his mitt encouragingly. “That’s the stuff, Kewpie! Steam ’em up! Now
then!”
Kewpie pitched again and once more. Mr. Mulford spoke. “You
haven’t any speed, Proudtree,” he said regretfully. “The weakest
batter on the scrub could whang those out for home runs. Got
anything else?”
Kewpie had recovered his assurance now. “Sure,” he answered
untroubledly. “What do you want?”
 Mr. Mulford replied a trifle tartly. “I want to see anything you’ve got
that looks like pitching. I certainly haven’t seen anything yet!”
“Curve some,” said Laurie.
Kewpie fondled the ball very carefully, wound up, and pitched. The
result was a nice out-shoot that surprised even Laurie, who nearly let
it get past him into the net. “That’s pitching,” he called. “Let’s have
another.”
Kewpie sent another. Mr. Mulford arose from the bench and took
up a position behind the net. “Let’s have that out-curve again,” he
commanded. Kewpie obeyed. “All right,” said the coach. “Not bad.
Try a drop.”
Kewpie’s first attempt went wrong, but the next one sailed to the
plate a little more than knee-high and then sought to bury itself in the
dust. Laurie heard the coach grunt. A third attempt attained a similar
result. “What else have you got?” asked Mr. Mulford. Laurie detected
a note of interest at last.
“Got an in-shoot,” replied Kewpie with all of his accustomed
assurance, “and a sort of floater.”
“Show me,” answered the coach.
The in-shoot was just what its name implied, and Kewpie
presented two samples of it. The “floater,” however, was less
impressive, although Laurie thought to himself that it might prove a
hard ball to hit if offered after a curve. Mr. Mulford grunted again.
“Now pitch six balls, Proudtree,” he said, “and mix ’em up.”
Kewpie pitched an out, a straight drop, an out-drop, a straight ball,
an in, and a “floater.”
“That’s enough,” said Mr. Mulford to Laurie. “Come over to the
bench.” Laurie dropped the ball in his pocket, signaled to Kewpie,
and followed the coach. Kewpie ambled up inquiringly. “Sit down,
son,” said Mr. Mulford. Then, “Where’d you learn that stuff?” he
asked.
With Laurie’s assistance, Kewpie told him.
 “Wilkins,” mused the coach. “Must have been the year before I
took hold here. I don’t remember any game with High School in
which we got licked that badly. He must be all he says he is, though,
if he can teach any one else to pitch that stuff. Well, I’m not going to
tell you you’re a Christy Mathewson, Proudtree, for you’ve got a long
way to go yet before you’ll be getting any medals. I guess I don’t
have to tell you that you aren’t built quite right for baseball, eh?”
“Oh, I’m down to a hundred and fifty-four,” answered Kewpie
calmly, “and I’m not so slow as I look.”
“I don’t mean your weight,” said the coach, suppressing a smile. “I
mean your build. You’ll have to work just about twice as hard as
Beedle would, for instance, to get the same result. You’re—well,
you’re just a little bit too close-coupled, son!”
“I’ve seen fellows like me play mighty good baseball,” said Kewpie.
“I dare say. If you have, you’ve seen them work mighty hard at it!
Well, I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m only telling you this to
impress you with the fact—and it is a fact, Proudtree—that you’ll
have to buckle down and work mighty earnestly if you want to be a
really capable pitcher next year.”
“Well, what about—” Kewpie glanced fittingly at Laurie—“what
about this year, sir?”
Laurie saw the coach’s gaze waver. “This year?” he echoed. “Why,
I don’t know. We’re fixed pretty well this year, you see. Of course I’m
perfectly willing to let you work with the crowd for the rest of the
season. Pitching to the net will teach you a whole lot, for you can’t
judge your stuff until you’ve got some ambitious chap swinging at it.
Some of that stuff you’ve just showed me would be candy for a good
hitter. You’ve got one weakness, Proudtree, and it’s an important
one. You haven’t speed, and I don’t believe you’ll have it. That’s your
build; no fault of yours, of course.”
“I know that,” agreed Kewpie, “but Brose Wilkins says I don’t need
speed. He says I’ve got enough without it. He says there are heaps
of mighty good pitchers in the Big League that can’t pitch a real fast
ball to save their lives!”
 “Maybe, but you’re not a candidate for the Big League yet. If
you’ve ever watched school-boy baseball, you’ve seen that what
they can’t hit, five times out of seven, is a really fast ball. They like to
say they can, and I guess they believe it, but they can’t. Maybe one
reason is that they don’t often get fast ones, for there aren’t many
youngsters of your age who can stand the strain of pitching them.
Mind, I don’t say that you won’t be able to get by without more speed
than you’ve got, but I do say that not having speed is a weakness.
I’m emphasizing this because I want you to realize that you’ve got to
make your curves mighty good to make up for that shortcoming.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Kewpie almost humbly. “I understand.”
“Good. Now, then, let’s see. Oh, yes, about that ball you call a
‘floater.’ Did Wilkins teach you that?”
“No, sir, I—I got that out of a book. It—it isn’t as good as it might
be, I guess, but I’m getting the hang of it, sir.”
“Well, I wouldn’t monkey with it just now. It’s a hard ball to pitch—
hard on the muscles. You don’t want too many things. If I were you,
son, I’d stick to the curves and drops. That out-drop of yours isn’t so
bad right now, and I guess you can make it even better. If you have
five things to offer the batter, say, an in, an out, a drop, a drop-curve,
and a slow ball, you’ve got plenty. If you’ve got control and can
change your pace without giving yourself away you’ve got as much
as the most successful pitcher ever did have. It’s control, son, that
counts. All the fancy stunts ever known aren’t worth a cent unless
you can put the ball where you want it to go. And that’s that.”
There was a moment of silence. Then Kewpie said: “Mr. Mulford, if
I work hard and pitch to the net and all that couldn’t I get into a game
some time? I mean some game this spring?”
“Why, I don’t know,” said the coach slowly. “What’s the idea? Want
to get your letter?”
“No, sir, but I’d—why, I’d just like to, sir, awfully.”
“There are only four games left before the Farview game,” was the
answer, “and I don’t want to promise anything like that, Proudtree.
But I will agree to put you in if the chance comes. Look here, you
chaps, why don’t you work together and get to know each other?
There’s a lot in the pitcher and catcher being used to each other’s
ways. Then, perhaps, I can give you both a whack at a couple of
innings some day. I’d do that, I think. You look after Proudtree,
Turner. Make him work. Keep his nose to the grindstone. Remember
that there’s another year coming, eh?”
“I’ll make him work,” laughed Laurie.
“Then do I—do I get on the team?” asked Kewpie anxiously.
“You get on the squad,” was the answer. “Report to-morrow
afternoon. There’s a game on, and you won’t get much work, but you
can pitch to Turner a while and learn the ropes. Let’s get back now.”
Coach Mulford arose. “Turner, I suspected that you were going to
waste my time this morning, but I was wrong. Your dark horse looks
to me well worth the grooming!”
He set off across the field toward the gridiron on a short cut to the
village, and the two boys walked back to school. For the first dozen
paces nothing was said. Then Kewpie laughed and turned to his
companion. “Told you I’d do it!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Told you
I could pitch ball as well as the rest of them! Didn’t I, now?”
“You told me a lot of things, you poor cheese,” answered Laurie
crushingly, “but where’d you be if Ned and I hadn’t managed you? I’ll
tell you. You’d still be lying on your window-seat, like a fat seal,
reading ‘How to Pitch’!”
“Huh, is that so? I guess if it comes to that, you fat-head, Brose
Wilkins is the guy—”
“He sure is,” agreed Laurie, “he sure is! And, prithee, you half-
baked portion of nothing at all, who discovered Brose? Who
persuaded him to waste his time on a big, fut lummox like you?”
“Well, anyway,” replied Kewpie, quite unaffected by the insults,
“neither you nor Ned nor Brose Wilkins could have made a pitcher
out of me if I hadn’t had the—the ability!”
“You ain’t so well in your ability,” said Laurie scathingly. “All you’ve
got is a start, old son, and so don’t get to thinking that you’re a Big
Leaguer! Maybe with prayer and hard work I’ll make you amount to
something by next year, but right now you’re nothing but a whispered
promise!”
“Oh, is that so?” said Kewpie, and again, “Is that so?” He wasn’t
quick at repartee, and just then that was the best he could do.
 CHAPTER XXI
THE DEAD LETTER

A lthough Kewpie made no secret of his acceptance on the

baseball team, in fact gave a certain amount of publicity to the
fact, his appearance on the diamond the next afternoon created a
distinct sensation. Aware of the sensation, Kewpie became suddenly
taciturn, and when he did speak he clothed his words in mystery.
Laurie, seeing an opportunity to render Kewpie’s advent more
spectacular, seized it. During Craigskill’s practice on the diamond the
Hillman’s pitchers warmed up in front of the first base stand. Beedle
and Pemberton pitched to Cas Bennett and Elk Thurston. As Croft
was not to be used, Laurie’s services were not required, and he sat
on the bench. But when the opportunity was glimpsed he arose,
picked a ball from the old water-bucket, drew on his mitten, and
signaled to Kewpie. Then he took his place beyond Cas, and Kewpie
ambled to a station beside Nate Beedle, and a ripple of incredulous
delight ran the length of the bench. Kewpie tossed a ball into Laurie’s
mitten, and the bench applauded with a note of hysteria. Not until
then did Coach Mulford, who had been talking to the manager,
become aware of the fact that something of interest was taking
place. He looked, saw, stared. Then the ends of his mouth went up a
little, tiny puckers appeared at the corners of his eyes, and he
chuckled softly. Around him the players and substitutes were
laughing uproariously. They had reason, it seemed. The sight of the
short and rotund Kewpie in juxtaposition to the tall and slender
Beedle might have brought a smile to the face of a wooden statue.
But Kewpie seemed unaware of the amusement he was causing. He
pitched his slow balls into Laurie’s mitt gravely enough, finishing his
delivery with his hand close to his left side, as though, as one
facetious observer put it, a mosquito demanded attention.
Laurie laughed inwardly, but outwardly his expression and
demeanor were as sober and as earnest as Kewpie’s. Mr. Mulford’s
countenance showed him that that gentleman appreciated the humor
of the incident and that he was to be allowed to “get away with it.”
Beside him, Elk Thurston’s face was angry and sneering.
“Some pitcher you’ve got,” he said, speaking from the corner of his
mouth. “You and he make a swell battery, Turner.” Then, as he sped
the ball back to Nate, he called: “Guess it’s all up with you, Nate.
See what the cat brought in!”
Nate smiled but made no answer.
Then Hillman’s trotted out on the diamond, and the pitchers retired
to the bench. Laurie chose a seat well removed from Mr. Mulford,
and Kewpie sank down beside him. Kewpie was chuckling almost
soundlessly. “Did you see Elk’s face?” he murmured. “Gee!”
Laurie nodded. “He’s awfully sore. He thought we’d given up, you
know, and when he caught sight of you coming out of the gym his
eyes almost popped out of his head. There’s Ned over there in the
stand, and George and the girls. Say, Kewpie, you’ve just got to get
into a game before the season’s over or I’ll be eternally disgraced!”
“I’ll make it,” answered Kewpie comfortably. “You heard what he
said.”
“Yes, but he didn’t make any promise. That’s what’s worrying me.
Wonder how it would be to drop poison in Nate’s milk some day. Or
invite him to ride in Mr. Wells’s roadster and run him into a telegraph-
pole!” It was the sight of Mr. Wells coming around the corner of the
stand that had put the latter plan into his head. “Got to manage it
somehow,” he ended.
“That’s all right,” said Kewpie. “Don’t you worry about it. He’ll give
me a chance soon. He didn’t say much yesterday, Nod, but I could
see that he was impressed.”
“You could, eh?” Laurie viewed the other admiringly. “Say, you just
hate yourself, don’t you?”
Craigskill Military College took a three-run lead in the first inning
and maintained it throughout the remaining eight innings. The game
was mainly a pitchers’ battle, with the enemy twirler having rather the
better of the argument, and, from the point of view of the onlooker,
was decidedly slow and uninteresting. Kewpie’s presence on the
bench supplied a welcome diversion at such times as Hillman’s was
at bat. Almost every one liked Kewpie, and his performance as
center of the football team had commanded respect, but he came in
for a whole lot of good-natured raillery that afternoon. So, too, did
Laurie. And neither of them minded it. Elk glowered and slid in
sarcastic comments when chance afforded, but they could afford to
disregard him.
When the game was over the substitutes held practice, and the
few spectators who remained were rewarded for their loyalty if only
by the spectacle of Kewpie Proudtree sliding to first during base-
running practice! Kewpie at bat was another interesting spectacle,
for there was a very great deal he didn’t know about batting despite
having played scrub ball to some extent. But Kewpie believed firmly
in Kewpie, laughed with the others at his own expense, and stored
up knowledge. He was, however, heartily glad when the brief session
came to an end, for some of the requirements had been extremely
novel to him.
Saturday’s game, played down the river at Melrose Ferry, resulted
in a ten-inning victory for Hillman’s. To his surprise and chagrin,
Kewpie was not taken with the team, but he went along nevertheless
and viewed the contest with ironical gaze from a seat in the stand. It
is probable that he felt no consuming grief when, in the fifth inning,
Nate Beedle was forced to give way to Pemberton. It is equally likely
that he would have managed to dissemble his sorrow had
Pemberton been knocked out of the box and a despairing coach had
called loudly for “Proudtree! Find Proudtree! We must have him! He
alone can avert defeat!” Nothing of that sort happened, though.
George Pemberton finished the game nicely, even bringing in one of
Hillman’s four runs with a safe hit to the left in the eighth. It remained
to Captain Dave himself, however to secure the victory in the tenth
inning with a home run. Returning to Orstead, Kewpie attached
himself to Laurie and was very critical of the team’s performance.
Laurie, who had pinch-hit for Murdock in the eighth and had popped
up a weak in-field fly, was gloomy enough to relish the conversation
until Kewpie became too caustic. Then Laurie sat on him cruelly and
informed him that instead of “panning” the team he had better be
thinking up some way of persuading Pinky to let him pitch a couple
of innings in one or other of the two games that remained before the
Farview contest. Thereupon Kewpie subsided and gazed glumly
from the car window. His chance of pitching for the team that season
didn’t appear so bright to him to-day.
Sunday afternoon they took their accustomed walk, Polly, Mae,
Ned, Laurie, and Bob, and as usual they stopped for a while at the
Pequot Queen. The afternoon was fair and warm, and the Pequot
Queen—or the Lydia W. Frye, if you prefer—made a very attractive
picture. The new white paint and the golden yellow trim were still
fresh, the gay red and white awning stretched above the upper deck,
the flower-boxes were green and promising—there was even one
pink geranium bloom in sight—and the beds that Brose Wilkins had
made at each side of the gangway were filled with plants. Miss
Comfort wore an almost frivolous dress of blue with white figures and
her best cameo pin, the one nearly as large as a butter-chip, that
showed a cheerful design of weeping willow-tree and a tombstone. A
yellow and white cat sat sunning itself on the railing and submitted
indifferently to the caresses of the visitors. The cat was a gift from
Brose, and Miss Comfort who had lived some sixty-odd years
without such a thing, had not had sufficient courage to decline it. She
had however, much to her surprise, grown very much attached to the
animal as she frequently stated. She had named it Hector.
To-day Miss Comfort had news for them. The letter she had written
to her brother-in-law in Sioux City had returned. She handed it
around the circle. It had been opened, and its envelope bore an
amazing number of inscriptions, many undecipherable, the gist of
them being that Mr. A. G. Goupil had not been found. The missive
had now been sent back by the Dead Letter Office in Washington. It
was, Miss Comfort declared, very perplexing. Of course, she had
always written to her sister at her home address but the firm name
was just as she had told it.
“He might have moved away,” suggested Bob, “after your sister
died.”
 Miss Comfort agreed that that was possible, but Laurie said that in
that case he would certainly have left an address behind him,
adding, “Well, if he didn’t get that letter he probably didn’t get our
telegram, either!”
“Why, that’s so,” said Polly. “But wouldn’t they send that back, too,
if it wasn’t delivered?”
“I reckon so. I’ll ask about it to-morrow at the office. Maybe you
should have put the street and number on your letter, Miss Comfort.”
“Why, I never knew it. That’s the address my sister sent me. I
supposed it was all that was necessary.”
“It ought to be enough,” said Bob. “How big’s this Sioux City place,
anyway? Seems to me they ought to have been able to find the
Goupil Machinery Company, even if they didn’t have the street
address.”
“Well,” said Miss Comfort, “I’m relieved to get it back. I thought it
was strange that Mr. Goupil didn’t take any notice of it. Now I know it
was because he never received it. You see.”
“Tell you what we might do,” offered Laurie. “We might find out Mr.
Goupil’s address from the lawyers who wrote you about it and then
you could write to him again, ma’am.”
“Oh I shouldn’t care to do that,” replied Miss Comfort. “I’m settled
so nicely here now, you see, Laurie. In a great many ways it is better
for me than my other home was. There were so many rooms there to
keep clean, and then, in winter, there were the sidewalks to be
looked after, and the pipes would freeze now and then. No, I think
everything has turned out quite for the best, just as it generally does,
my dears.”
“Just the same,” quoth Laurie as they returned up the hill past the
telegraph office, “I’m going in there to-morrow and find out what
happened to that message we sent.”
“That’s right,” assented Bob. “They ought to give us our money
back, anyway!”
 They learned the fate of the message without difficulty the
following morning, although they had to make two calls at the office.
On the second occasion the manager displayed a telegram from
Sioux City. Laurie’s message had been delivered to A. T. Gompers,
Globe Farm Machinery Company, Sioux City. The date and even the
time of day were supplied. At first the manager appeared to consider
Laurie and Ned over-particular, but finally acknowledged that
perhaps a mistake had been made. If, he said, the sender cared to
put in a claim the company would take up the matter and make a
thorough investigation, and if it found there really had been an error
in delivery the price of the telegram would be refunded. But Laurie
shook his head.
“We’re a short-lived family,” he explained. “Few of us Turners live
to be over eighty, and so I guess there wouldn’t be time. Thank you
just as much.”
“What it amounts to,” said Ned, as they hurried back to a
recitation, “is that Miss Comfort got the fellow’s name wrong
somehow. Or maybe his initials. Or maybe the name of his
company.”
“Or maybe there ain’t no such animal,” said Laurie. “I always did
sort of doubt that any one could have a name like Goupil. It—it isn’t
natural, Ned!”
“Oh, well, as Bob says, ‘All’s swell that ends swell,’ and Miss
Comfort’s satisfied with the way it’s turned out, and so we might as
well be.”
“Sure,” agreed Laurie. “We don’t own it.”
In front of the school entrance Mr. Wells’s blue roadster was
standing, a bit faded as to paint, a bit battered as to mud-guards, but
having the self-assurance and poise of a car that has traveled far
and seen life. Laurie, to whom automobiles were ever a passion,
stopped and looked it over. “Nice old bus,” he observed, laying a
friendly hand on the nickeled top of the brake-lever. “Let’s take a
spin, Ned.”
“Nice old bus,” Laurie observed, “let’s take a spin, Ned”
 Ned laughed. “Think you could drive it?” he asked.
“Why not? I don’t believe it’s locked. Kick on the switch, push
down on the starter, put her into first—I wonder if the clutch works
the same way as dad’s car. Yes, forward, back and across—All right,
let’s go!”
Ned pulled him toward the gate. “You’d better come along. First
thing you know you’ll be yielding to temptation, old son.”
“I sure would like to try the old boat out,” acknowledged Laurie.
“Some time he’s going to look for it and find it missing. He’s always
leaving it around like that, putting temptation in my way!”
Examinations began two days later, and Laurie had other things to
worry about than blue roadsters or even Kewpie’s non-participation
in baseball games, for, just between you and me, Laurie and
mathematics were not on very friendly terms, and there was at least
one other course that caused him uneasiness. Yet, should I fail to
mention it later, he did scrape past, as did Ned and, I think, all others
in whom we are interested. But he wasn’t certain of his fate until a
week later, which accounts in part for the somewhat perturbed and
unsettled condition of mind that was his during the rest of the present
week.
On Wednesday Hillman’s scored another victory, and Laurie aided.
Mr. Mulford put him to catch at the beginning of the sixth inning, and
he performed very creditably during the remaining four. He made
one “rotten error”—I am repeating his own words—when, in the
eighth he pegged the ball a yard over Lew Cooper’s yearning glove
and so allowed a steal to second that, a few minutes later, became a
tally. But otherwise he did very well behind the bat and made one hit
in two times up. George Pemberton pitched the game through, and
Kewpie remained lugubriously on the bench. Afterward he had quite
a good deal to say about Mr. Mulford, none of which was very
flattering. Hillman’s had put the game on ice in the fifth inning,
Kewpie averred feelingly, and it wouldn’t have hurt Pinky or the
team’s chances to have let him pitch a couple of innings!
 “And there’s only Saturday’s game left,” mourned Kewpie, “and
that’s with Crumbie, and she’s better than we are and there isn’t one
chance in a hundred of my getting into it! Gee, I should think folks
wouldn’t make promises if they don’t mean to keep ’em!”
Laurie, who was half of Kewpie’s audience, Hal Pringle being the
other half, reminded the speaker that Pinky hadn’t really promised,
but his tone lacked conviction. He, too, thought that the coach might
have used Kewpie that afternoon. Kewpie was still plaintive when
Laurie remembered that the morrow held two examinations and
hurried off for a brief period of study before supper.
I have already intimated that Laurie was not quite his usual care-
free self that week, and the same is true to a greater or lesser
degree of most of the other ninety-odd students. Finals are likely to
put a fellow under something of a strain, and, as a result, normal
characteristics are likely to suffer a change. The sober-minded
become subject to spells of unwonted hilarity, the normally
irrepressible are plunged in deepest gloom, and the good-natured
develop unsuspected tempers. All this is offered as plausible partial
excuse for what happened on Friday.
 CHAPTER XXII
THE FORM AT THE WINDOW

N ed had been through a hard session that had not ended for him
until after four o’clock, and he was very far from certain that his
answers to Questions V and VIII were going to please Mr.
Pennington. A game of golf with Dan Whipple arranged for four
o’clock had not materialized, and Ned had returned to No. 16 to
spend the remainder of the afternoon worrying about the Latin
examination. About 5:30 Laurie came in. Laurie had a bright-red
flush under his left eye and looked extremely angry.
“What did you do to your face?” asked Ned.
Laurie viewed himself in the mirror above his chiffonier before
replying. Then, “I didn’t do anything to it,” he answered a bit sulkily.
“That’s what Elk Thurston did.”
“For the love of mud!” exclaimed Ned. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone
and had a fight!”
“I’m not going to,” responded Laurie briefly, sinking into a chair.
“Well, then what—”
“Shut up and I’ll tell you,” said Laurie crossly. “We were playing the
scrubs, and Simpson had an exam and wasn’t there, and Pinky put
me to catching for them. Elk came sprinting in from third on a little in-
field hit, and I got the ball and blocked him easy. He was out a yard
from the plate, and that made him mad; that and the fact that he’d
made an ass of himself by trying to score, with only one out, on a hit
to short-stop. So he jumped up and made a great howl about my
having spiked him. Of course I hadn’t. All I had done was block him
off when he tried to slide. Cooper told him to shut up, and he went off
growling.”
“Well, how did you get—”
 “I’m telling you, if you’ll let me! After practice I was walking back
with Kewpie and Pat Browne, and just before we got to the fence
across the road down there Elk came up and grabbed me by the arm
and pulled me around. That made me mad, anyhow, and then he
began calling me names and saying what he’d do if I wasn’t too little,
and I swung for him. Missed him, dog-gone it! Then he handed me
this and I got him on the neck and the others butted in. That’s all
there was to it. How’s the silly thing look?”
“It looks punk,” answered Ned unsympathetically. “Better go down
and bathe it in hot water and then put some talcum on it. Gosh, son,
I should think you’d have more sense than to get in a brawl with Elk
Thurston. That rough-neck stuff doesn’t get you anywhere and—”
“For the love of limes, shut up!” exclaimed Laurie. “I didn’t start it!”
“You didn’t? Didn’t you just say that you hit him first—or tried to?”
“What of it? Wouldn’t you have struck him if he’d called you all
sorts of names, like that? I’ll say you would! You’re always strong on
the ‘calm yourself’ stuff, but I notice that when any one gets fresh
with you—”
“I don’t pick quarrels and slug fellows right under the eyes of
faculty, you idiot! For that matter—”
“Oh, forget it!” growled Laurie. “What difference does it make
where you do it? You give me a pain!”
“You give me worse than that,” replied Ned angrily. “You look like—
like a prize-fighter with that lump on your cheek. It’s a blamed shame
he didn’t finish the job, I say!”
“Is that so? Maybe you’d like to finish it for him, eh? If you think
you would, just say so!”
Ned shrugged contemptuously. “Guess you’ve had enough for one
day,” he sneered. “Take my advice and—”
“Your advice!” cried Laurie shrilly. “Your advice! Yes, I’m likely to,
you poor shrimp!” He jumped to his feet and glared at Ned invitingly.
“You make me sick, Ned, you and your advice. Get it? You haven’t
got enough spunk to resent a whack on the nose!”