Unconquered Tower

FORTY

It didn’t take long for Roan to run back to Village 3, buy the skill, and start running back. In that time his fifth weapon had sold and the sixth was on the block. At this point the bids were lethargic, but he wanted the weapons sold and to push his total earned credits as high as he could. If they could boost the bonus for the floor it’d be more than worth it.

The map maker skill pressed against his skull. Roan struggled to understand how it felt. He imagined this was how a bat felt, or something similar. Even not meaning too he knew the area around him in a three foot sphere better than he could have ever thought possible.

From where the roots of the trees ran under the earth, to rabbit burrows, to where items had been buried. Every step was another blitz of fresh information that threatened to overwhelm him if he didn’t keep a tight reign on his mind.

Overall the entire roundtrip took less than an hour. When he returned back to where they had been he found most everyone settled right where he’d left them. Darren almost looked shocked when he returned back so quickly.

“No trouble?”

“Dead quiet,” Roan said. He took a knee and drank from his canteen, looking over toward Grace’s knot of fighters.

“Them?” Roan asked.

“They haven’t done a thing. Just sitting there waiting on you. Is the skill active?” Darren asked.

“Yeah. It might be passive or just running off the mana in my body. But everywhere within three feet of me I know what’s where,” Roan said.

“Sounds similar to mine,” Darren said. Roan thought about it and closed his eyes, thinking of the skill. He quickly found out the difference in their abilities.

“Can’t track living things or anything that’s moving. Can’t feel you or the mobs at all. Do know there’s a few arrowheads buried in the ground though,” Roan said.

“Arrowheads?” Darren asked, frowning. He turned to look at the hills that weren’t far away at all.

“Yeah. Quite a few of them actually,” Roan said, standing up and walking down the line.

“Not crossbow bolts though?” Darren asked.

“Nope.” Roan bent down and pushed aside the dead soil and found what his skill had been telling him was there. An obsidian arrowhead.

“Shit,” Darren said. Roan took a second longer to figure it out himself.

“We haven’t seen any of them using bows,” Roan said, half in denial himself.

“He’s called the general,” Darren countered. The others had started to come over to them to see what they were talking about. All three of them stiffened as they saw the arrowhead, their eyes ranging back to the hills.

“It’ll be a retreat under fire,” Darren said finally.

“We can still just go to the stairs and get out of here,” Moira said.

“We agreed we’ll try. Our clearance rate is way too low. We need to improve it,” Darren fought back.

“Are you all ready, yet?” Grace asked impatiently.

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“Yeah,” Roan answered for them. He dropped the arrowhead and stood. It didn’t change what needed to be done. They were going into the caves.

“That entrance there,” Darren pointed at the closest of the cave entrances to them. It would be the least amount of travel under bow fire as they ran out.

“The moment shit starts going, I’m getting my brother.”

“That’s the plan. Roan, you’re our guide. After you,” Darren waved his hand forward and Roan leapt toward the opening. Keeping his polearm lowered like a spear he entered the dark of the cave and immediately was pleased with his new ability.

The cave swallowed all light soon enough, the downward slope of the tunnel leading them into the depths of the earth. Behind him the lines of mobs marched loudly while his fellow climbers followed along. Darren’s hand on his shoulder startled him enough to jump.

“Slowly now. Not everyone can see in the dark,” Darren whispered. Roan nodded back and slowly moved forward. With every step more of the cave opened up to him, showing how the floor was slightly slanted and the false walls that could be hiding anything in them.

“False walls. Every five feet on both sides of the halls,” Roan whispered. Darren squeezed his shoulder. Behind them the line of shuffling feet slowed and stopped. For a long second nothing happened, just silence in the dark cave tunnel.

A muffled crack like wood splintered heralded the foiled ambush. In the tight confines of the tunnel it was hard to swing his polearm, but he could thrust with ease. Up and down the line steel rasped and crossbows thunked. Goblins screamed as they leapt toward him, but Darren was there, slashing and cutting with one hand while his other stayed on Roan’s shoulder.

“Push forward. We need to find a junction,” Darren said calmly. Already the ambush was faltering, the goblins dying too quickly from the mobs unrelenting firing.

“Not very smart, but they have good aim.”

“They know we’re coming,” Roan said.

“They knew we were coming since we showed up. We just need to flip the script on them. How far can you push the mapping ability?” Darren asked.

“I don’t know, but we can settle down and try it out,” Roan said. As it was, the mapping ability was working like a passive giving him limited knowledge in a small area.

“Order the mobs up and encircle us. Taoya, a bit of light?” Darren ordered. Roan sent the command, the dumb mobs marching forward and past them, crushing goblin corpses beneath their feet.

“We need to find an ability to see in the dark,” Taoya grumbled, but his bloodline was activating. Bits of light jumping from his skin as he jogged in place, footsteps silent even as they hit the rocky ground. Moira grunted in agreement, sitting down and resting.

Roan focused on the skill and found it eager to serve. There was a natural knowledge of how to use it. Intuitive as breathing. Nothing like learning through a skill manual. Mana drained out of his body and the hunger came instantly. A still steaming hot steak appeared in his hand. He gnawed on it, ripping chunks of flesh while the mapping skill worked.

There was a way to project it he knew, if he had the mana to do it. As it was, even while eating the enriched food, it was a draining skill. His reserves were plummeting, his body feeling heavy. But he was figuring out how the cave system worked fast enough.

“There’s several chokepoints. Actually, lots of them. If we came in heavy it’d be a disaster. But if we blow the chokepoints it’ll work for us. They’ll have to come out of the main artery that’s connected to the hill where they have the prisoners,” Roan said.

It was hard to decipher exactly what was going on, the ability wasn’t perfect. His lack of mana was also telling as the depth he had when it was passive was gone. He couldn’t see the false walls or what was hiding beneath the floors or in the ceilings. Only the maze of tunnels that all led back to a massive chamber deep below.

“You can lead us there?”

“They all connect. It’ll take a while, but we should have enough explosives,” Roan said. The layout reminded him of an old saying. All roads lead to Rome. Every single tunnel would lead to the massive chamber. The chokepoints were where the converged to narrow out the amount of paths. Aside from the central pathway that led directly to where the prisoners were held. That path was short and direct to the surface, wide enough that it looked unshakeable.

“Hope Tyler’s ready up top. The main path runs straight toward her,” Roan said.

“That’s her problem. Ours is sending them to her,” Darren said. He patted Roan on the shoulder, causing Roan to drop the skill. He lost the instinctive knowledge of the route, but his memory was more than good enough.

“We keep pushing through the ambushes,” Darren ordered. Roan stood and they kept pushing deeper into the darkness.