“Not Teleport?” I inquired of Master Harlune immediately. His teaching Portal Magic to Celcynd the Dour, who then brought Item Magic to the rest of the Isparians on Dereth, had been the big event making his name famous among us.

  “That will be the second,” he promised. “But this is pure Artificing and Crafting magic, like nothing I have known before.”

  “I have to agree.” Zeks stacked the Scarabs up silently, and I pushed them toward Master Harlune, keeping five for myself. I would only use them in emergencies, and I wasn’t at the point that I’d be doing tireless rep counts with them, like I did with so many other spells.

  “How close are you to Fifteen?” he asked thoughtfully.

  “I could probably take the step if I was okay with my Secondary Classes remaining static, which I’m not. If that means I have to earn more Karma, so be it.”

  I considered my recollections of Aelryinth, and how long he’d stayed at Fourteen, getting all his Secondaries to Eight, and even Levels in a couple Advanced Classes he’d sussed out.

  I didn’t have the time to do all that, as there were already extremely powerful spellcasters on this world, and I had to Level up to counter them in some manner or another. The Isparian system was incredibly free and easy with how Karma was earned and passed up, but the Matrix System was quite a bit more fussy and demanding.

  Hence, continual field trips, each and every day, getting at least my Naming Karma and staying in practice as a Shardcaster, not just a support mage.

  Also, a great way to build up Slayer Masteries, and I took every edge I could get at that stuff.

  “I understand the desire. It has been a very long time since I’ve felt the desire to increase my strength so strongly. Building up my Theurgic skills while restricting myself to minor magicks has been somewhat stressful.”

  “Your Pool Theurgy means you have an immense advantage over all of us with that massive Empyrean Mana Pool of yours, so don’t bemoan your progress.” He could also Buff himself to the nines when going out and practicing with his minor spells. “I have not said it, but it is very good you are taking the Melee Levels, Master Harlune. The next time you are in a fight, you are going to be far more dangerous than people will expect.”

  He eyed his new Staff Qwyll, leaning against the wall. He had been sparring with Gharu’n and Sho masters to get the feel for staffwork and his skills up to stuff, and had already bashed a lot of skeletal, golum, and olthoi skulls with it, coming along nicely.

  “Yes. Sometimes, simplicity means a lot,” he agreed. “Especially when you can Archer Stands Thrust an idiot charging you, then roast him alive with a Topped Energy Grasp,” he grinned harshly.

  “That is indeed the idea!” I agreed.

  ----------

  Teleporting to the proper area wasn’t hard, as we’d passed nearby, Mount Lethe being the westernmost volcano in Dereth and fairly close to the ocean shore. We’d been able to see it when we’d run by.

  Briggs and Sama were along to see the place and get Lived-Line ties, they’d be coming in with different teams on succeeding days. Upgrading the Motes of our Lost Light Weapons was a good motivation, and coming here had been something basic that in the past had been done in series, going from one volcano straight to the next to complete the quest.

  With it broken and working differently, there was no need, and as we had soooo many other things to work on, it had slipped down the scale in importance.

  But we had decided to upgrade before we hit Moarsman Island, and so here we were.

  There was a crackling blur of purple lightning and exploding spark motes, and the first Banderling Thrasher first dropped his arms, then fell in two pieces. There was a crack and the rather unique sound of bone and flesh going liquid, and the Paragon next to the Thrasher didn’t even have the time to howl as it went flying.

  Thuuuuuuum. Sizzz, zizzzz, zizzz. One more of each dropped as arrows and bolts punched into them, and the Mick cut down his target coolly, barely breaking stride. All four were vivifying with great speed, ectoplasm coming apart from the overkill damage, which was just fine.

  Briggs idly kicked the Mick’s target thirty yards onto the spawn point they’d worn down with a heave of his boot, the location promptly poofing as the vivus found the built-up magic gathered there, ready to respawn something, and promptly began eating it and Sealing the point.

  “Dominated by drudges and banders, sure enough,” Princess Kristie acknowledged, looking ahead at where Mount Lethe loomed over the landscape, and the plateau leading up to it was visible over the trees. We could see a half-dozen Summons around us, all either drudges with brightly colored and painted skin, or banderlings with showy armor. There was one Gotrok spawn in the distance, of equally brightly armored Titan and Juggernaut lugians, oblivious to the fate of their fellow rebels and just looking to have some bashing fun. “There actually used to be a mine in this place?” she repeated, shaking her head. “It’s way freaking out in the middle of BF nowhere!” she complained. “How do you set up an operation out here?! How did they even reach here to set one up?”

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  The Mick cleared his throat grandly, clearly a cue for him. “Well, the Dires were dangerous back then, aye, but nothing like today, Highness. The nastiest things ye’d find wandering about were Virindi Masters, a few tuskers guarding them, an’ some Drudge Stalkers, Hea warriors, an’ Lithos, with random Revenants and Skeleton Warriors fer fun.”

  We all waited for more, and he just looked back at us and shrugged. “Seriously?” Briggs had to ask, blinking once.

  “Aye. That were back when being a Thirty meant ye were badarse, o’ course.”

  “Okay, so a skilled Isparian, perhaps a trained noble, could have made it here. But how do you get a crew out here to work the mine? Did they have Portal Magic back then?” Kris had to protest as we headed towards a collection of mixed red-skinned and white-skinned drudges. Peerless and Bloodletter Drudges, one more a Caster, one more a fighter-type.

  “Another funny story to that, an’ aye, they did before he set his mine up. There actually be a Quest line to gain Mount Lethe Recall, a spell t’ bring ye right outside this mine. Involved running around an’ speaking with old Celcynd the Dour, Aru rest his soul, an’ Master Harlune. The scroll actually spawned repeatedly down at the bottom o’ the mines… the cursed mines, what turned the miners an’ Baron whatsizname to undead an’ all.”

  “Ranged,” Briggs ordered casually. The Roaches aimed, I brought up three Darts, and our Senior Melees just cocked their Weapons back.

  I released, and then twangzingwooshwhack AIEEEEEE! The four drudges there dropped as Shardings, missiles, and Darts tore through them. The neighboring spawns did little more than glance in our direction, and we just kept going.

  Rogar squinted off to the side. “Pink crystal, sir!” he pointed calmly at a glimmer through the light underbrush.

  “Oh, can’t let a Diamond Lord off. Free Heart on that, an’ likely a pyreal mote!” Lord Mick said enthusiastically. Not that pyreal was worth all that much now.

  “You just like killing Diamond Golums for the slightest reason, sir,” Selena sniffed loudly.

  “Aye, an’ I’ll have ye learning t’ loathe the bright glittery bastards as much as I do one day, I will!” The Roaches groaned in rehearsed unison. “Relax, me fine unkillable pesties. Ye’ve the single best Hammer-wielding mound o’ muscle in Dereth right here, do ye not?” he asked theatrically.

  Endure transformed from the fiery wedge that had fried the vivifying drudges back to extremely weighty adamantine smoothly, spirals of Lost Light crossing in front of the Greathammer’s head. “Light exercise,” Briggs admitted casually, having had plenty of experience shattering Diamond Golums in the south Dires around Candeth Keep.

  “Not if I get there first!” laughed Kristie, and was off like a shot.

  “Hey!” Briggs protested, and then glanced at me.

  I waved a Mass Imperil IV+1 off around the resting collection of pink slabs of crystal scattered among the vegetation there a hundred yards away. The gray flashes shimmered around the oddly pink Diamond Lord and its three crystalline white escorts, all of which promptly began to rise from the ground at the attacking magic.

  All of which meant Kris could likely kill them all before Briggs actually got there, except, well…

  Endure hurtled over and past her like a thunderbolt, hit the Diamond Lord, and blew its central crystalline chest to smithereens before she could possibly get there.

  “HEY!” she protested, as Endure whipped back past her, the other golums all turning into the distance. “No Casting at my bondmage!” she corrected promptly, as all three of them seemed to coordinate and launch two Pyreal Shockwaves and a Bludgeoning Vuln in my direction.

  The Vuln bounced off my Magic Resistance, everyone hopped aside as the two War spells shot past and blew apart an innocent rock behind me, sending the boulder tumbling away.

  There was a blur of motion, the golums started to turn around to address the threat in their midst, and then all three of them collapsed as their chest-crystals shattered from precise thrusts finding the proper fracture points, breaking apart into large lumps of crystal that began to further shatter down immediately.

  Briggs halted after catching Endure deftly, no reason to chase any further, and smiled broadly as he turned around and loped back to us.

  Kris almost beat him back, tossing two motes of pyreal, a collection of diamond powder, and two Diamond Golum Hearts on the Disk that Rogar was riding. Then she climbed up on Briggs’ back and gnawed on his ear to punish him for taking her kill, which punishment he took with a broad grin on his face.

  While Briggs pretended to paw helplessly at the Hag administering dire sexy penalties upon his ear, I asked the bemused Mick as we resumed course, “If the spell was already down there, that means it wasn’t a true mine, it was a Dungeon, and it already existed before that idiot baron decided to mine from it.”

  “Well, now, telling others that might have put the fear o’ the dead inta his workforce. Let’s just call it a fine set o’ volcanic lava tubes, right magical they were, an’ the first great source o’ pyreal for coins an’ magical Gear an’ everything. If there be pyreal coins left o’er from the Fall, the odds are they came out of this mine here, I were told in the past,” the Mick replied piously.

  “Someone explain to me how a volcano pops up AIR Gold, please!” I held out my hands and looked up at the sky, providing an excuse for Kris to stop gnawing and join everyone in snickering at me.

  Briggs used the opportunity to drag Kris lightly off and around him and promptly bite her squarely on the nose. She squealed in mock dismay, and he let her drop, striding on without missing a beat.

  “There shall be blood!” she promised his backside, all eight canines on display with her smile, and indeed, there was a drop of blood coming down from her nose.

  It was pulled back up and into her nose before we took another dozen steps, and the bite marks thereon completely vanished. Briggs’ ear looked fine, too!

  “Are we the only chances they get to play outside together?” the Mick asked a bit too loudly. “I be feelin’ a mite unimportant right now.”

  “We had to max out the ten Infusions somehow,” I noted to him. “We don’t even know what they’ll do yet…”

  “Aye,” the Mick agreed, his gaze roving over the collection of Lost Light Weapons everyone wielded. “The basic Sword didnae use the Font o’ the Lost Light, an’ also used the old Mana Capacity system. It used the classic four Weapon spells from Item Magic an’ the spells to support yer Sword Skill, upping Strength, Coord, an’ the Skill directly. As ye Infused it, the Sword itself improved, an’ the spells on it increased in tier with it. But it didnae compare to Blades with inbuilt Renders, so few folk bothered to use it. Only the Sword o’ Lost Hope were worth the wielding, even at the end, an’ weren’t that thing an unholy mess o’ Blood Magic making it what it were,” he finished astutely, remembering his prior talk with Kris about that thing.

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