Rune Seeker

“The goal,” Hiral said, almost fifteen minutes later, “is to sneak to The Playhouse. The less Mecha-Armor we need to deal with – preferably zero – the better position we’ll be in to deal with whatever trial we’ll be facing.”

“I have to ask,” Ilrolik spoke up. “I’m probably not the only one thinking it – Are we sure we’re up to dealing with an A-Rank trial? We struggled with a non-Elite, Mid-A-Rank enemy. We could fall back, go do some of those B-Rank trials to get some levels and whatever rewards come with them, then go to The Playhouse.”

Hiral nodded at the concern – it was a fair one, after all – then looked to Nivian and Seena. “Ilrolik has a point, and we’re either all going to The Playhouse or none of us are. I’m not saying that to put pressure on anybody,” he made sure he met the gaze of each of the party leaders as he spoke. “It just wouldn’t be safe to attempt the trial with anything less than a full raid group. Us surviving is more important than clearing the trial now.

“Like Ilrolik said, we could always come back later when we’re stronger. Thoughts?”

“I still think we should go in now,” Seena said after getting a nod from Nivian to go first.

“Easier for you to say with how strong your party is,” Devison said. “No offense, but we all saw you out there. And against the Triclops. You might as well already be A-Rank. Or stronger. Of course you want to go.”

Seena shook her head. “It’s not us I’m thinking about, it’s you. No, hear me out. This is an A-Rank trial, and even though Tomorrow built this place, doesn’t it remind you a lot of dungeons? Trials with rewards, even the fight with Al and the loot we got. It’s the same thing.”

“She’s right,” Finotol said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Al described another dungeon from the Ascender’s Tower. We haven’t been in one of those trials yet… but… look, we just got a quest. A Dynamic Quest. The wording was even the same. If this isn’t a dungeon, there’s something going on.”

“And!” Seena held up a finger like this was the important part. “When we ran some lower-Rank people through a higher-Rank dungeon, they got an achievement for completing it.”

“You think we’ll get better rewards for completing the trial at a lower Rank?” Wule asked, putting it all together.

“Exactly,” Seena said. “Maybe an achievement. Maybe loot.”

“Why didn’t you try the A-Rank dungeon in Ascender’s Tower then?” Devison asked.

“There’s a restriction on who can enter,” Seena said. “Need to be A-Rank and have an advanced class. We couldn’t go in even if we wanted to. Yet.”

“If we enter The Playhouse,” Hiral picked up the previous conversation. “And the monsters there are High-A-Rank as well, we can leave and come back later. But, Seena’s idea about getting more for completing it now is a valid one. Nivian, what do you think?”

“We handled the G14NT,” the Death Knight said. “We’ll handle whatever’s in the trial.”

“Bash smash trial,” the Troblin added.

“See?” Wule asked with a shrug. “Obviously we’re in.”

“Ilrolik?” Hiral asked. “I know it might seem like it, but, really, no pressure. What’s your honest take on it?”

The Shaper crossed her arms and stared at Hiral… until Loan punched her in the shoulder.

“Oh, would you stop?” Loan asked. “We both know you’re to decide we’re going.”

“I could…” Ilrolik started.

“You won’t,” Sera interrupted. “Your habit is to consider all options, but only voice one when you’ve actually decided on the other. You behave the same way whenever you speak to the council. To make it seem like it’s their idea.”

Ilrolik stared at Sera, not even blinking.

“You thought Elezad didn’t realize?” Sera asked. “I would not marry an idiot. He’s known for years, but it amuses him, and your decisions are usually what he would choose anyway. You both got what you wanted while thinking you were the smartest ones in the room.”

“Obviously don’t feel like that anymore,” Ilrolik said flatly.

“Which also doesn’t matter,” Sera continued. “You’ve always put Fallen Reach first and foremost. This won’t be any different. Us going in now – with the chance of gaining even more power from it – will help you achieve your goal.”

“What if I…?”

“You won’t.”

“I could’ve…”

“You didn’t.”

“I’m worried about…”

“You have the axe now.”

“I’m al…”

“Mushrooms. I know.”

Ilrolik’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Do you have a buff that lets you read minds?”

Everybody else just looked at each other, completely lost by the rapid back-and-forth.

“What do mushrooms have to do with anything?” Wule asked what everybody else was wondering.

“She’s allergic,” Sera said. “Cause’s a minor rash.”

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“How do you even know that?”

Sera looked at the Grower. “I made sure to learn as much about my party members as possible. It seemed prudent.”

And… that seemed to be that. Nobody else had a comment until Ilrolik finally sighed and uncrossed her arms.

“They’re both right,” the Shaper said. “I do think we should do this trial now as opposed to later. I think we can handle it. I’m also allergic to mushrooms. Have been since I was a little girl.”

“Then I guess it’s settled?” Hiral asked, and got nods from each of the three group leaders. “Great. We should move before one of those Mecha-Armors stumbles on us. I’ve already lost four clones to W45Ps, and one to a G14NT who just decided to shoot through the entire building to get at it.”

“How do you know how the clone died?” Seena asked him, and Hiral paused at the question. It… was a good one.

He just knew.

He even had the memories of running into the building, then the roar of those shoulder mounted cannons from behind. The next thing he knew, the whole building came down on top of him.

How did he remember…?

The strands of Connection going to his sensory domain. Somehow it was expanding a bit of his senses to the clones, and in turn bringing those senses back to him. He couldn’t feel anything from the other clones running around, but the five that’d died?

Three to the high-powered rifles. One from the vibrating blades, and the final one that fell to the G14NT.

This was… revolutionary.

“I did something with my Rune of Connection,” he explained quickly when the others were left just looking at him as he thought in silence. “I can remember some of what they saw or felt. It’s not perfect, but…”

“Can you use it for scouting?” Seena asked. “Safely?”

“Yes and no,” Hiral said. “The clones had to die for the memories to come back to me for some reason, but I think there’s something there. Maybe because of how much Dreaming I put into them, along with a hint of Exchange? We can work with this after doing more testing”

“Of course,” Yanily said.

“Testing,” his whole group – along with Nivian, Wule, and Loan – all said at the same time.

“At least nothing is going to explode with these tests,” Seena said, then glanced at Hiral. “Probably. I guess there’s still always a chance with you.”

“If we all have so much time to be flippant and breathe – neither of which is useful,” Politet spoke up for the first time. “Should we not be moving?”

“Now would be a good time,” Drahn said as he came back into the room with Seeyela, Right, and Igwanda following close behind. “We’ve been keeping an eye on things, and nothing’s close right now.”

“We’ve got a straight shot to The Playhouse if we move now,” Igwanda added. “I went up to the top floor to have a look, it’s about a mile that way.” She pointed… straight at a wall, but the rest of the people got the point.

“A mile without using any solar energy to speed things up?” Wule asked.

“All the more reason we should get going,” Nivian said, standing and exiting the room. He hadn’t even gotten his stew-pot out – they must not have wanted to risk even using the Interspatial Rings. It did make ‘clean up’ pretty quick, at least.

“Let’s do it,” Ilrolik agreed. “Quick and quiet. I don’t know if I’ve ever done anything that way.”

“Not really the ‘Shaper-way’, huh?” Loan said to the other woman with a chuckle.

“I’m going to have to invest in dexterity, aren’t I?”

“I’ll even teach you how to dance.”

The short banter between the two towering Shapers was the last of the conversation as the group moved to the stairs, then down to the ground floor. While Hiral was pretty sure the Mecha-Armors relied almost entirely on their solar energy senses, that wasn’t to say they couldn’t hear or spot the group. Best to be careful about it.

“Drahn and Igwanda,” he said. “You two scout ahead, make sure we don’t stumble on anything. Playhouse is this way?”

“Straight down this street until you reach a park – you can kind of see the trees already,” Igwanda said, pointing. “Playhouse is another quarter mile past that.”

“Good. Seeyela, keep an eye on our rear, okay?”

The woman gave him a thumbs up and hung back while the rest of the group jogged towards the park in the distance.

Their feet were almost silent on the sidewalk – even Nivian’s bone-plate boots – and they kept one of the towering buildings on one side at almost all times. It was only when they were crossing intersections they had to watch every direction, but as one block turned into two. Into five. Into ten, and they reached the park, they hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of any of the Mecha-Armors. Even then, it had only been the head of the one of the G14NTs as it lumbered down a distant street.

“Bets on their being something in this ‘park’ that wants us dead?” Yanily asked as the group passed a small stone wall that seemed to be the symbolic border for the park.

“If there is,” Hiral said. “Put it down as quick as possible. Any solar energy we use is going to attract attention, then we’ll be running for The Playhouse.” He got nods of agreement from the others, then they were moving again.

And, despite Yanily’s prediction, nothing attacked them. There weren’t even any tracks. The park – like the rest of the city aside from the Mecha-Armors – was quiet. When they reached the far end, with The Playhouse and the water beyond becoming visible at the end of the street, everybody paused to look back at the winding paths beneath the trees. All in all, it had been scenic. Peaceful.

“I don’t trust that park at all,” Yanily said.

“I wonder how many trials are hidden in each zone?” Wule asked. “We know we have two here already – Mechanized and The Playhouse. Could there be a third? Then that one we suspect out in the orchard.”

“In the park?” Finotol asked. Then she nodded. “You could be right. This place stands out from everything else we’ve seen in this city. Or, we could just be imagining it because we want it.”

“We’ll come back and take a closer look when we deal with Mechanized,” Hiral said. “For now, our goal’s in sight. Let’s go.”

Without another look back, the assembled parties checked all directions for flashes of brass armor, then sprinted across the street to the side of the next building. From there, it was a straight shot to The Playhouse.

To the surprise of literally everybody present, they made it to the front entrance without issue. No ambushes. No Mecha-Armorsbearing down on them. Not even a Mid-Boss or anything guarding the open doors. All there was, was a box-office in the middle of the eight sets of doors, a paper sign stuck to the inside of the window.

“Today only! Free admission! Go on in!”

“I don’t trust that sign, either,” Yanily said immediately.

“It’s not suspect at all,” Seeyela agreed.

Looking beyond the box-office and the open, glass doors, a large lobby waited for the party. Empty, like the rest of the city, it was still impressive, with wide staircases leading up the second, third, and fourth floors of the building. Vibrant, red lines of carpet stood out along the black, marbled floor, like clear guidelines for visitors to follow.

Banners of all kinds hung from the ceiling, names and images of different instruments adorning them. The different heights, angles, and orientations of them – along with the subtly varied colors – gave Hiral the impression of flowing water. The illusion of it was only furthered by the ornamentation, artwork, and statues depicting underwater life of all kinds throughout the space.

“We going in?” Devison asked. “Never been to a theatre like this before.”

“Remember what we found last time we entered a playhouse,” Seena said.

“An Infested,” Hiral replied. “Banst.” Then, for everybody who hadn’t run the Lost Refuge of the Lost, he explained this wasn’t their first playhouse. “But, yeah, we’re going in. Why else would we be here? Be ready for anything.”