36 – Plateau

The climb down from the mesa drove home just how high it was. The stony path was steep and wound through several switchbacks before taking Andy and Lucy to the base. At the bottom, looking up at the steep path with no sign of guardrails, Andy couldn’t help thinking how easy it would be to defend. “We could put traps on that path. We could fire arrows down at attackers.”

Lucy nodded. “We should scout around all the sides and make sure there aren’t any easily climbable access points.”

“Yeah, good call, but I don’t think there will be. That was the whole point of this boon; it was meant to force attackers to approach via our gates.”

“Unless someone can fly or has spider-like climbing skills. Remember, we’re dealing with magic now.”

“Yeah… damn.” Andy sighed, shaking his head, but after a moment’s contemplation, he shrugged. “Most people are low-level. Let’s take things one step at a time.”

“True; I doubt we’ll find any of our foes flying on dragon’s wings just yet!” Lucy smiled almost shyly at her attempt at humor, then gestured toward the desert. “Shall we?”

“Yep.” Andy took the lead, though he tried to walk quietly and made sure he didn’t outpace Lucy as they moved; he was counting on her Hunter’s Sense to help them get through the desert in one piece.

After gliding through the desert at breakneck speed in the dark, it felt strange to walk in broad daylight. Everything looked and felt different. In a way, he felt vulnerable, especially with his new class only at level one. He had to keep reminding himself that he still had four skill points in spears, and his critical mastery and sneak attack skills were also still available.

They were probably halfway through the stretch of desert that separated them from the ranch homes when Lucy tapped his shoulder and held up a hand, pointing off to the left. Andy held still, readying his spear, and whispered, “What?”

“Several things moving this way,” she whispered.

“Big?”

She shook her head. “They don’t feel like that minotaur.”

Andy moved ahead of her, in the direction of whatever was coming toward them, his spear tip glinting in the sun as he readied himself. They could run or hide, but they had just as much chance of finding more trouble if they did that. So far, Andy hadn’t seen anything in the desert that he wasn’t willing to stand up to, unlike some of the gigantic things he’d seen on his brief foray toward the city. He heard Lucy’s bowstring pull back, and then his ears picked up the sounds that had set off her magical senses.

Low, grumbling chatter and the shuffle of feet on the hard, rock-strewn desert ground. The sounds were instantly familiar: goblins. Andy hissed, “If there’s a big one, take him out first!” He shuddered, remembering the lightning blast the big green goblin had hit him with. Then, the first of the creatures came into sight, kicking its leather-clad feet through some dried scrub brush as it hacked its little handaxe at a prickly pear pad.

Lucy’s bow twanged, her arrow hissed, and then it exploded in a basketball-sized ball of fire in the goblin’s chest. It screamed and fell back, thrashing on the ground as its flesh burned. “Holy shit!” Lucy crowed, suppressing an almost guilty-sounding chuckle.

By then, half a dozen more goblins had burst through the desert foliage, and, screaming and hollering, they brandished all manner of weapons, charging toward Andy. Thankfully, none of them looked to be the spell-casting type of goblin, and before they could close the distance, Lucy shot another right in the eye with one of her fire arrows. The resulting burst of flames was overkill; the poor thing was already dead as its head caught fire. Then the goblins reached Andy, and he laid into them with his spear.

Three charged him directly, but two, howling and hooting, tried to move around him to get to Lucy. Andy whirled his spear through the air, driving the little savage humanoids back, then lunged out, spearing one of the flankers. The blow was bad enough, punching through its soft, distended belly, but then flames erupted, catching its flesh alight as though it were made of papier-mâché.

One of them darted forward with its own crude spear and jammed it into Andy’s hip. “Ungh!” he grunted, whirling, whipping his spear in a slashing maneuver. He sliced a deep cut across one goblin’s chest, then lodged the weapon between the ribs of the one who’d stabbed him. To his delight, both goblins caught flame.

Lucy’s bow twanged, and a scream and thud behind him told Andy the other one that had run past was down. Grinning savagely, he darted toward the last standing, unburnt goblin and quickly overwhelmed the hasty, clumsy guard that it tried to throw up with its spiked club. Two thrusts and he’d put it down, bleeding but not burning; Andy’s Kindlebrand rune had faded after the third use.

Panting, grimacing, Andy pressed his palm to the stab wound on his hip, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. Lucy’s jogging footsteps sounded behind him, and then she was there, eyes wide, face aglow with adrenaline. “Are you okay?”

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“Yeah, I think so—” His response was cut short by System messages:

***Congratulations on your victory, Andy! You slew a goblin hunting party! You’ve earned enough experience to advance your Pyroglyph Invoker class to level 3! You’ve earned 2 improvement points! You’ve gained the level 2 innate ability, Rune of Extension. You’ve gained the level 3 bound ability, Scorchmark Glyph.

Rune of Extension – innate: Carving this rune beside one of your temporary glyphs will take ten mana from your pool to maintain it indefinitely. To cancel the effect and regain your mana, simply use your Burnscribe ability to remove the rune. Mana Cost: 10, sustained.

Scorchmark Glyph – bound

: You may now inscribe volatile runes onto surfaces, leaving behind glyphs that trigger upon proximity. When activated by the presence of a being with ill intentions toward you, the glyph will erupt in a burst of searing flame, dealing fire damage that scales with the will of the inscriber. Mana Cost: 25.***

***Congratulations! Thanks to your Kindlebrand invocation, you earned a share of the experience for Lucy’s kills! Your Pyroglyph Invoker class has made progress toward level 4!***

“I got a level!” Lucy said, shoving his shoulder.

“Oof,” Andy grunted, stumbling forward. He held up his hand, saw it was wet with blood, and hissed. “Dammit…”

“Hang on, Andy! I got a new skill called Field Dressing. Let me see if I can help.” Lucy stepped away, scanning the nearby environment. “I activated it, and now that cactus is glowing…” She jogged over to a prickly pear and pulled a pocket knife from her jeans pocket. Andy continued to press his hand to his wound, frowning. He’d heard of aloe vera helping wounds, but a prickly pear?

While he waited, he contemplated his new abilities; so far, the Pyroglyph Invoker class was far more generous with them than Umbral Warden. Was it just more front-loaded with them? Did he need to push Umbral Warden into higher levels to see what it could really do? Of course, the System had called his new class “rare.” Maybe that had something to do with it. He also had to consider that just thirty minutes ago, he’d remarked to Lucy that the path up to the settlement would be perfect for traps. Now, the System had awarded him the ability to make fiery trap runes.

It all felt too coincidental, but maybe it had more to do with his intentions than it did the System throwing him a bone. Hadn’t he already found that focusing his intentions while advancing seemed to have an effect? As he had the thought, he looked at his sheet and saw he had three improvement points again. While Lucy started back toward him, he decided to go ahead and put one more point into his spear, eager to see what would happen when he reached rank five. As he attempted to apply the point, a new System message appeared:

***You have reached a plateau in your development of Spear Fighting. While you may continue to use the skill effectively, further advancement is currently restricted. To progress beyond this point, you must engage in focused practice and demonstrate a breakthrough in technique, understanding, or creative application. Consider refining your existing forms or stances. Intentional practice against meaningful resistance is key. Good luck, Journeyman.***

“Ah, shit. That figures.”

“What?” Lucy asked, holding a wad of cactus pulp in the palm of her hand.

“Um, I tried to put a point into my spear skill, but it says I’m at a plateau. Apparently, we can’t just grind levels, we have to actually practice our skills at a certain point.”

“Really? What’s your spear skill at?”

“Four.”

“Huh. I already pushed my bow to five with this last level…”

Andy shrugged. “Yeah, but you were pretty much a pro before this shit started.”

Lucy smiled, nodding. “Don’t forget it.” She held up the pulp. “Hey, drop your pants.”

Andy looked at her, startled. “Huh?”

“Let me see that wound, silly.”

“Oh, right.” Andy unbuttoned his jeans and turned to face her sideways as he pulled one side down, exposing the bloody hole in his hip, not far from his beltline.

“Oh, ouch! That looks sore! Okay, hold still. Let’s see if this works. It costs mana, so I think it’s a spell…” Lucy began to press the pulped cactus against his wound, but Andy flinched back.

“Did you, like, take the needles—”

“Of course I peeled it! Trust me!” She grabbed his pants, holding him still, then pressed the pulp into his wound. He watched her face, suddenly feeling like the attention she was giving him was very intimate. She closed her eyes as she gently pressed her palm to the wound, and then Andy felt a warm tingling, and the bone-deep ache faded from the wound.

“Shit! That feels a lot better!”

“Really?” Lucy looked up, smiling. Then she pointed at his injury. “Look!”

“Wild…” Andy whispered, examining the strange, greenish webbing the compress had made over the wound, almost like a bandage.

Lucy clapped her hands together, standing up. “You can pull your pants up now.”

“Heh.” Andy buttoned his pants. “Well, that’s pretty badass, Luce.”

She looked at him sharply when he called her Luce, and for a minute, he thought he’d overstepped, but then she smiled and nodded. “It is badass, isn’t it? By the way, the System said I’m close to a class evolution. Any advice?”

He nodded. “Be intentional. When you spend skill points or, shit, do anything, think about why you’re doing it. Like right now. We’re heading out to these homes, but not just to look for supplies, not just to recruit people; we’re working for the safety of our settlement.”

Lucy looked at him for a long minute, then she slowly began to nod. “You’re a smart guy, Andy, you know that? You have a kind of quiet intensity. I think we’re lucky you were home when this whole thing went down.”

“Well, the feeling’s mutual.” They stared at each other for a few seconds, and when Andy started to feel awkward, he pointed his spear at the goblins. “Think they have anything we want?”

Lucy shook her head. “I don’t see anything.”

“All right, well, give me a couple of minutes to enchant my spear, then we’ll get moving.” Andy held his steel spear-point up to his face, examining the metal. It was bloody, and he thought he saw a slight discoloration in the metal from the heat of the fire, but it seemed fine—just as sturdy as before. Shrugging, he cast Kindlebrand again, then he channeled mana through his finger and inscribed the Rune of Extension beside it.

His maximum mana was 95, so giving up ten to keep that rune active on his spear seemed like a no-brainer. He looked at Lucy. “Want me to do any more of your arrows?”

She shook her head. “No, it ruined three of the ones I fired, and I think it was overkill.”

“For goblins, yeah, but what if we run into a giant tarantula or a damn wyvern or something?”

Lucy tilted her head to the side, then held up a finger. “Fair point.” She pulled out two lightweight metal arrows with deadly-looking, four-bladed tips. “Enchant these two, and I’ll save them for something nasty.”

Andy grinned. “You got it.”