Magical Engineering

“Sorry, Traveler, uh, I don’t remember the numbers, but looks like I gotta go. You want me to put you in my System storage or leave you with the guards?” I asked, worried about Cecile and Elicec.

“Storage, please, until I’m sure who is entirely still real,” the core requested. I dropped it off on a shelf next to the other cores, then quickly ordered the first mini-Mel back to full Mel and ran outside.

“Hey, this is clear of monsters now, and Traveler wants me to hold on to it for now. Where’s the entrance to the underground caverns? I’ve gotta help my friends and finish off your infestation,” I informed and asked the first guard I saw. He looked at me like I had just saved his entire family.

“Back the way you came, go to the entrance into the city, turn towards the mountain, and you should see several guards on the far wall; head for them,” the guard said. I nodded before taking off in another sprint. My speed was certainly better than anything I could have ever done when I was younger, but it didn’t seem like I had surpassed any championship sprinters just yet. How long until my basic feats of athletics were as superhuman as my magic? Despite my lack of Olympian-level speed as yet, it didn’t take me long to find the entrance and Glunderlin standing outside it with two dozen guards.

“Any idea how much trouble they’re in?” It wasn’t likely they knew the answer, especially since Mel hadn’t relayed any, but any extra information was useful.

“No, just saw your friend’s drone leave the cavern about ten minutes before you showed up,” Glunderlin answered worriedly.

“Okay, well, I’ve taken care of the other problem; I’ll explain everything after I’m back. Can you send someone to Mel and let him know I’ve gone down,” I asked. Glunderlin nodded, and I heard him telling the guards to send a runner as I started into the depths.

The path was straight forward enough, and I could hear fighting somewhere in the distance, and while my body still wasn’t overly happy with the last fight, there was no way I would be leaving the brothers to fight this alone. Strangely, the further in I went, the lighter things got. I had been expecting more darkness, similar to the last building. Then again, if these were plant creatures, it was entirely possible they needed sunlight to really grow. That left the question of how the previous monster was surviving without it. Maybe they just needed it at the start until they had something functioning internally to provide the energy? I had no idea, and I didn’t really want to waste the skill points on dendrology to find out.

“Elicec, just hold on; I’ll get us out of here. You’ll be okay!” Cecile’s cry echoed from somewhere far ahead. Damn, something bad had happened, and I had no idea how much further away they were.

“Hey, I’m coming, you hear me, seedling or mother root, whatever you are, I’m coming for you, and if my friends are in any way hurt, I’ll pay that back to you ten times over!” I screamed it as loud as I could, any potential surprise be damned if I could provide a distraction to get the brothers a moment of safety. My taunts continued as I chased after the sounds of my friend's desperate attempts to stay alive.

I switched to elemental orbs as I ran, letting the pain sweep back through my body without the Life orb, but I was going to need to channel a ton of mana as quickly as possible, and any residual drain had a strong chance of overloading my core. The last thing I needed was to fight off a mana backlash in the middle of this. Frankly, it was amazing one of them hadn’t hit me yet during a fight. Was it because of gaining the backlash resistance attribute so early?

As I rounded a corner, both the noise and light rapidly increased. I was sure the fight was happening at the end of this passageway. “I already killed whatever monster you spawned trying to capture Traveler, so if you think I’m afraid to do the same to you, you’re very wrong!” I yelled, continuing my taunts as the scene finally came into view.

It was worse than I had thought. Elicec had a bad head wound, and his eyes weren’t open. Cecile was pushed back against the wall with only a single functional arm, bleeding from a dozen other wounds fighting off a host of thorny vines. In the center of the room was a giant bulb with dozens of tendrils extending around the cavern. Several of them ended in what looked like cocoons. Those had to be all the missing people. Was Timon somewhere in there?

I hit the vines that were stabbing at Cecile with a fireball using one arm and attempted to let loose with the Aether orb on the other arm. I felt the mana channel through me. I could tell Recall had worked, but the massive bulb hadn’t moved at all. Was it just too rooted to the ground? I could change that. I charged at it with my mallet back in my hands.

“Cecile, work on getting the cocoons opened and get everyone to the surface,” I ordered the conscious member of the Twinoges as my mallet struck the hard outer casing of the root bulb. What would happen if this thing blossomed? Was that even how it worked?

“What about you, Dave?” Cecile yelled back, already ripping open the nearest cocoon.

“Either I’ll be fine, or I won’t. You aren’t in any shape to help at the moment, so the only good outcome you can add is getting everyone out right now,” I yelled, producing my screwdriver again and using it as a tree spike, this time cracking the shell of the monster. Cecile stopped arguing and continued getting everyone to safety.

The moment I felt the screwdriver hit empty space, I put my hand up to the crack and sent a fireball directly into it. The explosion sent me flying backward. Instead of a wall, for once, I managed to land on my feet. My ribs were killing me. I was pretty sure the explosion had either made the existing breaks worse or broken something else. All around the room, the roots and vines started to wither away, all life vanishing from them.