Chapter One-Hundred-and-Forty-Two |
Adam offered the mimic’s disassembled corpse to Iffen’s awaiting feelers, which stretched up from around the giant mouth below him. They lowered the offerings back down, putting each piece in-between the three tooth plates before chewing them. The dragon’s body was lifted up from the Iffenguard island below their airship, eagerly accepting the pieces one by one.
“That was horrific,” Jabari muttered in disgust as Adam flew back to their airship.
“I feel like I finally understand what PTSD is,” Lasse said. “I’ll be happy to never see a slug again after this world.”
“The best part is yet to come,” Adam said. “Now we go down there.”
“You’re kidding…” Lasse said.
Julie looked poised to run below deck and hide, but then Ellen placed her rosary on her head, calming her down.
“How did you know it was friendly?” Cathy asked.
“I just had a feeling,” Adam lied. “Unlike Mast-Chewer, he didn’t scream the moment he saw us.”
“I don’t know if I could’ve stood still while its feelers touched me all over…” she replied.
“It speaks?” Ellen asked.
“That’s what my patron’s gift is telling me,” he said and lifted his crimson hand.
He hadn’t yet thought of a good way to try and convince them, and every time he’d lied about something others might know, it had backfired. Julie was possibly the only one who could disprove him, but she remained quiet, her gaze locked onto the giant slug dragon lounging atop of the fortress island.
The elliptical island was a bit smaller than Mast-Chewer’s Nest, but it was still big enough to make everyone nervous about how Iffen took up half of its available space. The dark-grey walls barely hemmed in the gelatinous moss-like mass with neon-green cracks crisscrossing it. Just like last time, Adam marvelled at how the buildings and walls that Iffen lay across weren’t utterly pulverised beneath his weight.
“Is everyone ready?” Adam asked. “I could go alone, but I think everyone should come.”
Glances were shared amongst the others, but they eventually agreed to follow him.
“Trust me,” Adam told them. “He is nothing like Rasal, so we’ll be fine.”
Iffen’s large head swished around in the air slowly, lifted up by two salamander-like arms pressing against the buildings below him.
Adam slowly lowered the airship down and the dragon’s large feelers reached out to hold onto the figurehead and bowsprit to follow their descent.
I’m glad they’re terrified of the dragons. Frankly, I am too. But hopefully they properly understand why Ellen’s quest is insanity.
As the Hippogriff reached the top of the walls surrounding the island, the announcement arrived.
< < Secret Optional Stage Objective > >
< Speak to Iffen, Ruler of Iffenguard >
“A secret objective?” Ellen remarked in surprise. She looked to Adam. “Did you know this was here?”
“I had a feeling,” he replied. “I found a few secret objectives in the Crooked Tower, so I’ve been on the lookout for them here."
Adam thought to just leave the airship near the wall and walk down the long spiralling stairwell next to it that led to the ground below, but then Iffen’s feelers gripping the bow of the ship started to tug slightly.
It seems he wants me to bring the airship all the way down.
“What are you doing?” Jabari asked in horror as Adam slowly moved the Hippogriff past the wall and began the descent to the cobblestones of the fortress island below.
“He wants us to come all the way down there with the ship,” Adam replied.
“And we’re just gonna do what a monster asks?” Ellen questioned him sceptically.
“If he wanted to attack, don’t you think he would’ve done so already?” Lasse countered.
Once the bottom of the airship touched down, Cathy went over and dropped down the extendable walkway attached to the main deck on the portside. She was the first to venture down, but Jabari quickly followed her, though his melody told Adam he was worried and terrified. Ellen basically dragged Julie with her, and Adam and Lasse went last.
“It’s really dark down here,” Lasse said as they stepped off onto the cobblestones. Then he noticed the glow coming off of Iffen’s enormous body, pulsing a neon-green light across the island and its buildings and streets. “It’s way bigger than Rasal…”
“I’m surprised no one is worshipping him,” Cathy said. “He looks like a God, the way he is lying there, just waiting for us.”
Adam stepped out in front of their group and lifted his arms.
Here goes nothing.
“Iffen!” he exclaimed. “We’ve come seeking your aid!”
The ground rumbled and a large tentacle sprouted from the Slug Dragon’s mass, reaching down onto the ground in front of them, and from it grew a humanoid body with a tail connecting it to the large tentacle. Its body was mossy like Iffen, and a neon-green-glowing mouth appeared in the middle of its head while two eyestalks sprouted from its hair. The black beads of the stalks gazed upon them.
“Your offering was delectable. It has been long since last I tasted a spawn of Nharlla,” the slug humanoid said in that familiarly deep and phlegmy voice. “What aid do you seek?”
He knows about Nharlla?? Adam wondered in confusion.
Before Adam could say anything, Cathy replied, “I wish to learn how to befriend the dragon that lives on Starfall Island!”
“And I am seeking the False Judge,” Lasse added.
“I can aid you with these quests, but in return I have a request of my own. The Whale Eaters’ foul captain has twisted and warped the bodies of my kindred, making a vessel out of them. It should be laid to rest. If you could bring it to me, I would assimilate it with myself and honour those that perished in its making.”
< < Quest Unlocked > >
< Song of the Slugwhales >
< Bring the Golden Slug airship to Iffenguard >
“A quest?” Ellen asked, looking at Adam.
He shrugged, feigning ignorance.
I don’t think Emelia ever did the quest, since she didn’t mention it. I’m curious what it gives us in return to be honest, and given that there’s a secret objective tied to speaking to Iffen, I feel like it may reward us a secret item of some kind.
Actually, we never completed the secret objective last time, Adam realised. Maybe it’s related to returning the Golden Slug.
Normally, it would be foolish to give away such a powerful ship, but given that we have the Hippogriff, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Where can we find this airship?” Adam asked Iffen’s puppet.
Just like last time, when Emelia had asked, Iffen didn’t respond with words. Instead, thin tentacles shot out from the head of its slug puppet, flying across the ground to touch each of them on the forehead.
Adam saw the Golden Slug as it coasted past the familiar sight of Lenny’s Landing with the horseshoe island and a large balloon in the middle. He was also shown a small green isle with a dilapidated lighthouse on it. It was hard to tell exactly when the images were from, but he guessed that Iffen had picked them specifically with the Hippogriff in mind. No doubt he also knew where they were headed already and thus chose the sight of the settlement as it easily stood out, even if the others had never seen it before, because they would already instinctively know that the White Flags used large balloons for their bases.
As the images faded from Adam’s mind, Iffen’s puppet said, “These are visions of what is to come. Take over the vessel and bring it to me.”
“I think that first image was a White Flags’ settlement,” Lasse said and Jabari nodded.
“How far can you see into the future?” Julie asked Iffen.
Her melody was once again a strange undecipherable mess.
“My sight travels far,” Iffen answered. “Now go. I wish to be reunited with my kindred. I know you will not fail me.”
The slug puppet was sucked back into the large tentacle, which itself was pulled back into Iffen’s massive body.
Adam bowed his head slightly and then ushered the others back towards the Hippogriff.
“So, we have to capture the airship before he’ll help us with our patron quests,” Cathy said.
“Since feeding Iffen was enough to make him friendly, the same might work for the noxious dragon,” Jabari guessed.
“Do you think it would be that easy?” she replied sceptically. “What if it’s wrong? If I fail the Guardian again, I’ll be punished for sure.”
“Let’s not worry about that just yet,” Adam said. “I think we should have enough firepower to take on the Golden Slug already, so if we do that first, then Iffen is bound to help us.”
After they all got back onto the cloud ship, Adam lifted them out of Iffenguard and set them on the course to Lenny’s Landing.
No sooner had they left behind the fortress island than Ellen approached him by the wheel and asked, “Seriously, how did you know about that place? You knew the name of the dragon before the pop-up told us.”
The others came over too, since they didn’t have much to do thanks to Adam being able to single-handedly steer the ship. Lasse and Julie stayed quiet, though Adam could tell that the Archer had noticed the same thing and was quite curious.
Adam sighed, trying to make it seem like he’d been caught off-guard by the question, because he’d finally hit upon a good way to explain how he knew so much.
“I suppose I shouldn’t hide it any longer,” he started. “Remember the special vendor I told you all about? The one that gives me the ability to have two weapons?”
Ellen and Jabari both nodded.
“Her name is Alivida, and she’s a moth that sells Mastery Upgrades,” Adam explained.
“Is that where you spend the Mastery Shards!?” Lasse blurted out, having clearly wondered about the strange currency for a while.
“Is she located inside the tent on the island?” Ellen asked. It was clear she had explored a fair bit, after all, she’d had to find Sköll’s cave in order to unlock Nwetrou as a patron in the Forbidden Altar.
Adam nodded. “That’s right.”
“I wondered about that place a lot,” she admitted. “What’s the trick for making her appear?”
“You have to wait for night time,” he revealed.
Lasse sighed. “Man, that’s so obvious I feel stupid for not realising.”
Adam grinned. “There are a lot of secrets on Interim Island.”
“So what, the moth sells something to learn about Stages?” Ellen asked. “That sounds really strong.”
“It’s called the Orb of Insight,” he replied. It seemed alright to reveal it to them, since even if they got the upgrade they wouldn’t be able to go back and see what it said about the Floating Sea, making his lie convincing enough. “The thing to get two weapons is called Second Sheath. There is also something called Vanity that can turn the island’s denizens into humanoids, but it’s very expensive.”
“How does it work? The Orb, I mean,” Ellen asked, still sceptical.
“It has a 3-Stage cooldown, but it basically shows you the Players you will encounter in your next Stage, along with the main objective and the hidden secrets. It’s pretty useful.”
“A cooldown?” Ellen wondered. “Then it makes a lot more sense to me,” she said. “I thought you could just use it for every Stage. That would’ve been like cheating.”
“Cheating is fine if it helps us beat the Trials,” Lasse said.
Jabari and Cathy nodded.
“Yeah, there’s no sense playing fair since the Trials haven’t been fair to us,” Adam agreed.
“That’s not what I meant,” Ellen said, backtracking her comment. “It’s just that, so far, there has been a logic to everything and a clearly-defined balance. Take the Tower Crawler boss. It’s clearly meant to teach us that not every fight is winnable.”
“We beat the Crawler in my group,” Julie said.
“Mine too,” Jabari added.
Ellen frowned. “Well, since the objective wasn’t to defeat that boss, I think it was meant to serve as a tutorial, because we weren’t forced to fight it. I think it was preparing us for this Stage. Like, we’re probably not meant to be able to defeat Iffen or other slug dragons in a fight. The reason we could deal with Rasal was only because he wasn’t fully formed.”
“Are you sure we should attempt his quest?” Jabari asked, changing the topic to something less theoretical and more pragmatic. “The Golden Slug looked enormous.”
“The Hippogriff is way more nimble than normal airships,” Adam said. “We can do it if we take out their ballistae first.”
He still remembered how he’d nearly died to one of those weapons, because they clearly weren’t worried about firing on targets standing on their own deck, despite any incidental damage to the ship’s hull that might follow. As such, he didn’t think they should step foot on the ship until all of the ballistae were out of commission, at least on the main deck.
Everyone split up and talked amongst themselves as the Hippogriff sailed to Lenny’s Landing, though Lasse alternated between the crow’s nest and keeping Adam company. It wasn’t really necessary for Lasse to keep a lookout, since Adam was able to steer them out of the path of pirate ships while guiding them towards the cluster of melodies clearly belonging to the settlement.
Still, as they got close, Lasse came down to inform him that the small island with the lighthouse that they’d seen through Iffen’s foresight was coming up on their starboard side. Given the lack of melodies emanating from it, it seemed devoid of life, though it was still possible a slugwhale resided there.
“Should we check it out?” Lasse asked.
Adam shook his head. “Let’s not get side-tracked. We don’t know when the Golden Slug will come through here, so we need to be on guard.”
He was sensing a lot of signs of life coming from a westerly direction, but none of the melodies were clear enough to judge a distance by and that told him that they might still have an hour or more before the ship arrived. He also knew it could travel quite quickly, so he didn’t want to get embroiled in something until after they’d dealt with the giant airship.
I should probably leave some of my Mana-infused flesh on the lighthouse island though, he considered. He had left a bit by Mast-Chewer’s Nest, but it was too far for him to be able to sense it. The effigy he’d left by Morgan’s Rest was detectable to the southwest though.
Adam briefly left the helm to enter the captain’s quarters and study the map. Lenny’s Landing was on the northern edge of it, and the island they were passing by was listed as ‘Old Lookout’. There were a few other islands here and there, but all of them were quite small and they didn’t have time to investigate them all just yet.
Adam pulled out the flesh he’d stored in the captain’s quarters while they’d visited Iffenguard, bringing it over towards the lighthouse island as they coasted past, placing the mass next to the foundation of the ruined tower.
Then he returned to the helm, just in time for Lasse to announce that they were coming up on the settlement.
< < Settlement Discovered > >
< Lenny’s Landing >
Just like last time, the dock in the centre of the horseshoe-shaped island below the large balloon was filled with airships, meaning new arrivals had to tether themselves to the island around it and walk across the sand to reach the settlement. They tied the cloud-spun ropes from the ship around some palm trees and walked across the extendable walkway and onto the sand.
Since only Adam could control the cloud ship, there was little danger of them being hijacked while absent, but it was impossible to lock access to the lower floors, so they made sure to bring all their valuables with them. Since it was the second day, the settlement’s shops ought to have Rare options now, at least if Emelia had been right.
Adam floated above the sand while the others trudged through it, but when they came to a walkway leading into the settlement, he lowered himself down onto it and used his legs.
“It’s unfair that you can fly,” Jabari muttered while shaking sand out of his Avalanche Boots.
No one else had struggled to cross the sand, but the weight of Jabari’s armour was clearly weighing him down, especially the Scale Trousers and boots, making that kind of terrain troublesome for him.
Although they wanted to check the vendors, Adam led his crew up to the top of the settlement where Shiff resided.
The big ogre greeted each of them with a handshake, the chain sleeves clanging loudly with the motion.
As Adam explained how they were expecting the Golden Slug’s arrival, with plans to take it over, Shiff stroked his thick beard, listening intently.
“You won’t hear nobody complain if you take that ship down,” he grumbled. “But don’t fight it around here. We won’t help yiz.” The way his bushy eyebrows moved animatedly every time he spoke, along with his wild mane of hair, reminded Adam of a puppet, but his thick arms and muscular body made it clear he wasn’t one to be messed with, regardless of his friendly demeanour.
“We’re also looking for the False Judge,” Adam said. “He’s supposed to lead a band of pirates to the west of here.”
“Aye, that bastard stole me favourite sword,” Shiff said, a note of anger entering his deep voice. “I’ll gladly point yiz toward him. Just bring her back to me, aye?”
< < Quest Unlocked > >
< Shiff’s Favourite Sword >
< Retrieve the stolen sword from the Judge’s possession >
I think this was the quest Emelia was able to get us out of last time.
Shiff brought out a map and Adam immediately noticed the iconic shape of the unnamed island that Emelia had called Fallow’s Grave. It was far to the north-west of their location, past the Whale Eaters’ stronghold. The Cloud Skimmer’s stronghold was also shown to the north.
Shiff put a thick finger on a cluster of four small islands collectively called the Storm’s Eye. It wasn’t too far from the settlement, but clearly Shiff, along with the other White Flags, weren’t allowed to go roaming for revenge. Adam was sure the big guy could’ve easily gotten the sword back by himself if he was allowed to.
Suddenly Adam noticed an orchestra of melodies approach the settlement from the west, breaking from the indistinguishable soup of sound he’d been sensing, and he knew it undoubtedly belonged to the Golden Slug, since all of the melodies were similar and filled with various states of excitement and tension. They clearly thought they’d be taking on the Fallen’s new fleet, but Adam wouldn’t let them leave the area alive.
He looked to his team. “We’ve gotta go.”