Sacrifice Mage-Chapter 39: Runes And A Rotwyrm Flank

Two people had gone missing. Neither of them had been from our neighbourhood. They were both under the purview of other cults—one in the area overseen by the Fire Cult and another who had been seen most around the Earth Cult.
It was a worrying development. Both of the missing cases were men who had no friends or family, far from popular members of the community. But disquieting all the same.
“Don’t second guess your decision, Ross,” Escinca said that day. “You are doing the right thing, going out to the dungeon and gaining yourself some more experience.”
“I know, but…” I tutted. “It doesn’t feel right just running off like that.”
“I understand your concerns, but we shall survive.”
He was right, and I wasn’t actually second-guessing myself. I definitely intended to go along with Ugnash’s party. It wasn’t an opportunity I could squander so easily.
That resolve didn’t stop my dumb brain from nagging me with worries, though.
Still, I tried to focus on what I wanted to accomplish. There were guards and Aurier and Hamsik and all the other cults working on the issue of the Thralls. The latest wasn’t even a violent incident. In fact, it wasn’t even a guarantee that the Thralls were involved. People unfortunately tended to disappear from Ring Four with startling frequency.
“You’re really headed off to an actual dungeon,” Aurier said a little wondrously. “I… wanted to go there one day too. Just never got around to manifesting the right Aspect.”
I nodded in sympathy. “I’ll make sure to everything I see there.”
Aurier wished me luck. “And make sure you’ve got everything you need. I can pack some meals for you if you want. Oh, and water.”
“That’d be nice, thank you.” I decided against telling him that I’d probably be Sacrificing the food instead of actually eating them.
Escinca gave me a kind smile. “I will rest easy knowing you still have the Blessed dagger I gave you.”
I tapped the knife handle jutting above my waist. “Wouldn’t lose it for the world, Elder.”
Right. Preparation day. With the delve coming tomorrow, I needed to make sure I was ready. So, the first thing I did was head over to Gutran’s smithy. Even though I got lost and ended up at the Preserve at first, it was still pretty early when I made it to my destination.
“I can pay you for them,” I said, indicating the mace I had been using and a suit of armour. Not a full suit, but a sturdy breastplate, vambraces, and greaves. “How much for the whole pack?”
“Don’t worry about payment,” Gutran said. “You’ve been working hard. The least I can gift to you is some of the armaments I made.” He grunted. “Take what you need. Don’t be shy. Although, there’s probably a limit to what even you can carry.”
There was. But I was mostly thinking of it in practical terms. I didn’t want to restrict my movement too much when wearing the armour, even though I knew I could adjust their weight.
Gutran insisted on being generous, so I got the mace and all the armour I wanted completely free of charge. Thanking him once more, I headed to my next destination—the Mage Guild. More specifically, to the trade workshop within.
There, I bought a bunch of the essentials. A trio of health and mana potions, according to the list that Cerea had kindly drawn up for me. A spatial storage bag, though why I had to get one when Cerea already had an Aspect that functioned much better was beyond me. Last of all, I got mage-food. Turned out some mages had an Aspect that could convert mana into an edible form different from potions, because it filled up the stomach instead of mana storage.
I didn’t particularly need it since I was getting some food anyway, and I didn’t even need food in particular. But some insurance probably wouldn’t hurt, so I bought some just in case.
The actual last thing I got was a proper treasure, though. While I had hopes that Sacrifice would be useful in the dungeon, considering the promise of monstrous inhabitants—and would therefore push back the mana implosion deadline—I still wanted to give myself some breathing room. As I had a good amount of money left over after my purchases, I began browsing.
I wasn’t sure what to get at first. Buying random treasures just because they appeared to have some sort of useful or interesting ability wouldn’t necessarily be a good purchase.
For all I knew, it wouldn’t work exactly how I envisioned, so when I ended up trying to use it in the dungeon, it would just be a failure. Plus, the treasures were mostly one-offs. I couldn’t just purchase several and test out the first few. They were crazy expensive too.
I was tempted though. Definitely tempted. One mage sold a shiny trinket with a gemstone that apparently glowed when danger was near. I could envision Sacrifice making
me
glow for some time like a ridiculous living danger beacon, but it was also likely one or more of the others had some sort of perception-related Attribute or something along those lines.
Then there was the Wisp Lamp. Basically, a literal genie lamp that released a floating will-o’-wisp that consumed a small chunk of whatever Aspect a mage used, only to replicate and fire it at enemies that came afterwards.
That sounded extremely interesting, but for one, it cost three hundred opals—I learned each opal was worth a thousand gold, and my net worth was barely thirty in total.
For another, I had absolutely no idea what Sacrifice would give for something like that.
I realized I was getting a bit too lost in the magical side of everything that was on offer at the trade workshop. Practicality. That was what I really needed. Pushing aside my burning fascination on the treasures, I focused on the enchantment runes.
“This isn’t a scam, right?” I asked the bored-looking young Rakshasa mage. “Like a rune that can literally stop you from dying is kind of pushing the suspension of disbelief, don’t you think?”
“Of course not,” she snapped. It was hard to tell from her appearance, but her voice made it sound like she wasn’t much older than me. “That’s how Lifeward runes work, you nincompoop. You think the Mage Guild doesn’t vet sellers and wares?”
That was fair enough, I supposed. The runes were a much better case for purchase. They weren’t so expensive that I’d have to limit how much I bought, and there were multiple of the same kinds, so I could happily test them. “Do you need an Aspect of Enchantment or something like that to make these things?”
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The Rakshasa frowned at my change in question. “You don’t know much about things, do you?”
“I’m still kind of new here, yeah.”
She muttered something about letting just about anybody sign up as a mage before answering, “Yes, you need an Aspect of Enchantment to create any sort of enchanted gear, rune, what have you. But it doesn’t really work until you get the right Augmentation in Spirit, so most people wait to get that until they’re well into Silver or even Gold. Of course, not everybody
cares
about Enchanters.”
Her tone made it pretty clear what she thought about that.
“What’s the Augmentation you need for enchanting?” I asked, curious.
“Manifestation.”
Curt. Just like the Weave would have been. It almost made me laugh. But I could see what she meant. “So that Augmentation bypasses the Natural Limit of Existence?”
She seemed surprised that I knew that. Bless Linak and Professor Urhei for the little chats about Aspect effects not lingering on a permanent basis in the world. “Yes. Manifestation is the main Augmentation that helps bypass that limit. It’s a must for Enchanter- and Artificer-style Aspects.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “Thanks.”
I still didn’t have a proper idea of what exactly Augmentations were, but I figured I had chatted enough for now. So next up, I took a look through all the runes on offer.
“How long does Lifeward last after I crush the rune?” I asked.
“I’m only allowed to sell Minor Lifeward runes for now,” the Rakshasa said. “So… these would last you about twenty minutes at a time.”
Plenty of time to last through a fight. I figured they were supposed to have other applications, such as journeying through a particularly dangerous stretch of a dungeon or something along those lines. I was highly curious about the exact mechanics of it. As in, what happened when I had it active and something fatal actually hit me.
Wasn’t quite certain I wanted to test that out, though.
Still. It was easy to buy one of each rune that looked interesting before testing with Sacrifice.
“Let’s see if this really would ward my life,” I said.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Lifeward. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward
: Aura of Lifeward negating fatality from non-obliterating damage once engaged in a radius of 5 meters for 1 hour and 20 minutes
]
Light green and yellow threads of mana gently swirled around me, my skin tingling ever so softly at their motion. They faded into nothing soon enough, but their presence was still there, a faint, lingering hue of their energy daubing my surroundings with the colour of golden grass.
I frowned at the description, though. The effect negated
fatality from non-obliterating damage
, not the damage itself, and didn’t work on all damage types either. I would remain seriously wounded even if I didn’t die. Moreover, it confirmed that things like getting crushed to a fleshy pulp by a falling boulder was still probably going to be fatal. Non-obliterating, after all.
The Rakshasa was frowning at me. “What did you just do? I’ve never seen runes act like that.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like… you turned it into an aura somehow.” She was inspecting me very hard and I once again felt like a specimen in a lab.
I smiled. “I’ll be taking a bunch of this, this, and these runes…”
They runes I got cost me a grand total of nearly six-thousand gold, which wasn’t exactly cheap. But it would hopefully be good return on investment after the dungeon delve. It was also freeing to realize I could spend as much as I wanted because I didn’t have to pay for food, rent, utilities, or any other bills. Crazy, when I stopped to think about it for a moment.
Before I left, I acquired a treasure. I had still intended to find something I could Sacrifice to push back the mana implosion properly. All the rune Sacrifices had added another day to the countdown but I wasn’t quite satisfied. Three days was fine, but nothing amazing.
So, I got myself a mass of squirming, pulsing, monstrous muscle.
The leering Ogre who sold it to me was trying to sell its virtues. “The flank of a Rotwyrm lives on even after it dies. See how it moves? How it
writhes?
You will not find another specimen like this in
all
of Zairgon, I assure you, my good mage.”
Good mage, huh? It made my hackles rise a bit. Scathing repulsion was at least a lot more honest.
But out of all the treasures, this was the one I focused on because of my last experience at the academy. Back there, I had Sacrificed an old, dried heart and Emulation hadn’t worked on it. Not really. Instead, it had offered a significant rank increase for my Spirit while also driving my mana implosion countdown further back.
If my suspicions were correct, then I ought to get the same—or maybe slightly better—results here. Because I was starting to think that Emulation worked when I made an active effort to obtain whatever monstrous body part I chose to Sacrifice. Not when I simply bought it.
My test proved I was right. I purchased the pulsating flank of writhing, half-rotted muscle the size of a trashcan lid and channelled Sacrifice into it. White threads of mana buzzed through me before wrapping around my tribute, burning it away silently.
“Disgusting,” I murmured.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Muscle of a Lesser Rotwyrm. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward
: Your Power has risen by 1 Rank
]
[ Rank Up!
Your Power Attribute has risen by one Rank
Power
: Iron X
]
I stared at the notification for a while. The Ogre was thanking me for the business and I hardly remembered to reply because I was too busy realizing that I had
almost
done it.
Just one step away from my first Silver.
More importantly, the countdown for mana implosion was now at five days. More room for me to breathe easy. I couldn’t wait to hit Silver and get a real handle on my temperamental core.
As I was leaving, I didn’t see Cerea at first. My mind was too busy wondering how Sacrificing something that had been termed [Moderate] by the Weave had resulted in a singular rank increase just the same as Sacrificing something defined as [Broken]. I wasn’t sure that made sense.
From what I had seen so far, the former was at least two degrees better than the latter. [Broken], [Minor], [Moderate], and then whatever else came after. Maybe [Major]? Point was, I should have gotten a better reward.
Except, my Power had already been high. The dried demonic heart had raised my Spirit, which had been at Iron IV before the rank up. In contrast, my Power had been at Iron IX. Higher ranks needed more effort to cross, so I supposed it made sense that even a seemingly stronger tribute had resulted in just one rank up.
Which meant that I really ought to be grateful that the writhing, pulsing meat had been good enough to raise my Power’s rank.
Which
further
led me to worry that Sacrificing things to raise my rank wasn’t going to be an effective strategy once I was well into Silver. Unless I found really rare or powerful treasures, which wasn’t something that would happen often. In other words, I couldn’t grind it.
“Oh, Ross!”
Cerea’s voice made me stop short. She was walking over to me from the other side of the hallway. I greeted her, learning that she had been to the trade workshop to stock up on supplies as well. Interestingly, she said she was a member of the Mage Guild too, but not the Zairgon chapter. She had naturally registered in Claderov.
It was nice to find out guild members could take advantage of its resources no matter where they were. Though, that made me wonder if different chapters had different Guildmasters.
While Cerea had gotten most of what she needed from the Mage Guild trade workshop, she was still lacking in hard supplies. Things like weapons, rope, perhaps some backup armour, and so on.
Being the good business advocate that I was, I took her straight to Gutran’s smithy. She had intended to go to a different place in Ring Two, but I assured her that Gutran’s stuff was at least worth a look.
I wasn’t just being a good Samaritan, though, since I’d have ended up at the smithy anyway. My ulterior motive wouldn’t rest until I had done so.
Having hit Iron X in Power, it was time I sought advice on how to hit my first Silver.