Chapter 79
Chapter 79
The steps the group descended upon under Sunreach’s castle were new. They weren’t the usual stones that Max had pulled from the same veins he used for the vault room under the castle, either. Everyone’s pace changed when the passageway narrowed and the old air turned cool and still.
“Keep coming,” Max said, the ball of light he had summoned casting shadows all around. “It’s just ahead.”
Fowl snorted. “You’ve said that like five corners ago. Just where in the gods are we headed?”
Tanila’s fingers brushed his sleeve once. Max had told her about this decision, and she understood why he had done what he did. Cordellia walked behind them, silent as usual until she picked a fight with Fowl. Sog’s steps echoed as his massive foot didn’t contain the element of stealth their ranger did.
The last door wasn’t wood or iron. It looked like a blank slab of stone set into a metal frame. Max placed his palm on it and forced mana into the seam. The slab opened like it weighed nothing.
They stepped into an oval chamber half a mile wide and a hundred feet tall. There were no pillars or doors beyond the one behind them. The floor was a single, smooth piece of off-white stone. The ceiling’s glow came from the stone itself. Only two other things were noticeable upon entry. First, it was the silence, and second was the power that seemed to hum from the floor.
Fowl whispered the first curse. “Ogre nuts. Is this what I think it is?”
“An empty and blank room,” Cordellia asked. “I mean it’s huge… but then again it is Max.”
Batrire took two slow steps onto the floor, looking like she was testing the stone each time her boot touched it. “The room feels… dead.” “Almost as if the room is dead and yet not,” Sog stated.
“It’s not dead,” Max replied. “It’s layered with multiple threads of magic and help from the system. It’s like my dimensional pocket stone, but denser. Nothing we do should fracture it unless we’re idiots.” He motioned toward the wall next to them. “The walls are the same.”
Rakonath moved to the stone wall and sniffed.
You two mentioned doing this… but… I understand why they are acting this way. Something about this place feels… off.
That is the point of this room. No one can die here because it's both within and also outside of the system. Well… they can die but there is less chance of stupid deaths.
“Is this what you’ve been working on for the last month?” Fowl asked. “You built a training area like the one back in Nalgrun?”
“He what?!” Cordellia exclaimed. “How… How do you know what this is?”
Their dwarven warrior shrugged. “How do you know what kind of tree you’re touching or looking at? To me, they’re all just a tree, but you talk about how each one is different. I’m like that with stone. This entire room feels like the one Dagon has because the stone is similar.”
“Fowl’s correct,” Max stated. “Jazzjak and I discussed this for a bit and then I spoke with Tanila and Bob. We all agreed that building this was worth the cost.”
He walked them in until the door behind them had blended into the curve. When he stopped, he lifted his hand and drew a circle of light on the wall. It parted like someone had rolled a huge coin to the side, revealing a small area with five seats.
“It cost me fifty million,” Max said. “Divine Points, in case you weren’t sure what.”
That got the reactions he’d expected.
“Fifty—” Cordellia started to stay, choking on the very word.
“You spent fifty million!” Batrire exclaimed.
“Are you insane?” Fowl added. “Do you know how much—”
“Enough,” Tanila said, cutting them off before turning to Max, “Tell them why you spent that much on this.”
Max rubbed his thumb along his knuckles. “We’ve got three hundred years of protection. Well, less now. You’ve all seen how the arena fights are. You saw what a world-eater could do and what some of the gods who are out there, looking for easy prey, can do. In less than two hundred years, this room is the difference between ‘ we thought about fighting a god’ and ‘ we know what that costs’ .”
No one spoke for a moment, their eyes shifting between each other. The room, once again, became a silent tomb.
“It isn’t like Ockrim’s training chamber that saved us in the dwarven capital,” Max continued. “That one was tethered to a god. This one isn’t, but it borrows the rules from that idea. You fight in here, and you won’t die if a death blow lands. Just like Dagon’s, you can’t gain experience, and your skills won’t improve. The only difference is that your cooldowns aren’t reset either. But you’ll get to experience the pain of dying. You’ll get a chance to experience the fear of knowing you're about to lose if you don’t give it everything you have. What’s great about this is that we’ll be able to practice our timing and learn to stand up to whatever comes our way. This is going to be unlike any of the sparring we’ve done on the topside. Once again, we don’t hold anything back.”
“Fifty million Divine Points to feel afraid?” Cordellia asked.
“Fifty million to make sure fear doesn’t break you when it matters,” Max reply. “And before anyone lectures me, yeah, I’m hoarding DP. I’m counting every point that each of my worlds gives me, but Bob agrees. So does our helper.”
Tell them what I said and don’t hold back. Let them call me a monster; it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done so. We both know your friends are lagging behind your enemies, not behind you. You cannot solo what comes next and keep them alive unless they learn to fight how they must.
Max repeated what Bob said, and a few of his friends winced at the words that came out of his mouth.
“For the record,” Jazzjak said, “I told him to buy it. He argued for almost two hours because of the cost. Then he bought it anyway after Bob and I managed to convince Max it was worth it.”
Fowl’s face looked like he was sucking a lemon. “Fifty million DP. That’s… that’s a lot to spend on us. Thank you.”
Jazzjak didn’t wait for Max to reply. “I know Max hates spending DP on anything that he doesn’t have to. Each of you is aware of what is to come and that the deadline draws closer every day. While you’re concerned about fifty million, that amount won’t be as much when he’s chasing tier six. You all need this. Even Max needs this. But the truth is, you all must learn what the arena is going to be like. Even Sog’s small time on that dragon’s planet doesn’t compare. There is a reason why he lost so easily.”
Their helper grunted and shook his head, a single ear flopping to the side. “This simulated battle is going to give you a chance to experience how outmatched you are or the things you need to do to win. And you need it with one safety net left in this world. If you miss this window that Max has created for you… When your protection drops, that first real fight in the arena can put one of you down for good. So don’t nod at me like you agree, as you do sometimes. Instead, get in here and practice.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Max let their helpers' words sink in before he let out the breath he had been holding.
“There are rules for a place like this,” Max stated. “Only two gods can battle in here at once, that’s it. No two-on-one or anything else. There is also a one-week cooldown after any god-on-god session before the room can be used again. It burns out the layers and needs time to regenerate.” He looked at the far wall. “Also… if we keep growing at the pace we plan, this room won’t hold us for long. There’s an upgradeable version of this room but I don’t think we’ll get it anytime soon. It costs one billion DP. If we buy it, the room stays viable through tier six. Past that, there isn’t a purchase we can make to practice with domains or that kind of power. After tier six, if you die and someone destroys your core,” he paused and looked at Tanila, then Sog, “you die for real.”
Rakonath let out small thrum that seemed louder due to the way it reverberated off the stone.
“So… if we want to keep from dying when a fight comes, we train,” Fowl said. “But if we want to have the next version to practice fighting in our domains…
“We grind a billion,” Batrire joked. “In our spare time, of course.”
Cordellia grunted. “I get it. I hate that it cost you so much, Max, but I do like what this room offers.”
Sog rolled his shoulders before popping his neck. “Finally. Someplace we can let go… It does get boring not being able to go all out. Still, it’s a shame the ceiling is so low. Poor Rakonath won’t be able to fly as he should. ”
Batrire’s eyes tracked the curve of the ceiling. “How does it work? I mean, the… not dying part.”
“If a blow would end a life, it negates that blow at impact ,” Max replied. “It won’t stop the attack before that moment. Like Dagon’s training area, you will feel it. Then it will release the energy back into the stone. Your head gets to stay attached and you’ll get to think about what went wrong or how to fix that.” He held out a hand. “There are no rewards for fighting here and no arena tricks. The point is to make us learn to fight with everything we have but at a whole new level.”
Fowl stroked his beard, smiling the entire time. “Bob’s got a mean streak. Funny how I seem to enjoy that now.”
I prefer an alive streak.
“This place is going to teach you how to fight,” Max said. “And that’s what we need when it’s you and a god in a box with nowhere to go.”
“Even though this is under Sunreach, can our people use it?” Batrire asked.
“When the week is up and there are no god fights scheduled, we’ll open it to trained groups,” Max said. “Guard rotations, champion trials, the youth squads. To them, this place will be like Dagon’s. They’ll get skill resets and everything else. But they’ll also learn, like we did, the importance of fighting with everything you have. It’ll change how all of our champions and future tower climbers train.”
“That’s… huge,” Cordellia said. “Imagine if we had access to Dagon’s place a lot earlier.”
“It needs to be a game changer for ourselves and for our people,” Max said. “We’re trying to earn as much DP as possible and I know some of you are enjoying that small trickle of DP that Miranna and her team are sending each day from their success on their world. Unlike others, we need to focus on helping as many adventurers as possible defeat the tower.”
Jazzjak’s nose twitched. “There’s also politics you’ll need to consider. For now, I agree with Max. Giving people a place to learn without flattening half a district means fewer angry citizens when a certain god-child happens to flatten a building by accident after tossing a dwarf into it.”
Fowl tried to look innocent and failed.
Batrire hip checked him, smiling. “That was funny and you know it.”
Sog grinned and glanced at the others. “So who bleeds first?”
Max could almost feel those words move through his friends. The honest answer was everyone . The right answer was to start with two who’ll give you the right kind of fight .
He looked at Fowl. “Not you.”
“What—why?” the dwarf exclaimed.
“No one wants to watch you sit there and absorb whatever comes your way,” Max said. “It needs to happen, but I don’t want to waste a day or a week with a battle of attrition. Don’t worry, everyone will get a chance to feel the pain of your thorn aura. Right now we need to watch a fight that's a bit faster and more… exciting. Those of us who don’t fight can watch for ways to coach and improve, while also secretly preparing for our own chance.”
Max turned to Tanila and Sog.
The demon’s grin was immediate. Tanila’s slight inhale was quiet enough that his Sonar caught it. She didn’t look at him after the first glance. Instead, she gazed out across the room. A few seconds later, her gold eyes focused on Sog.
She’s measuring him.
Max knew that Sog could hit like an avalanche. Tanila’s power was just as strong but she was precise. He’d been waiting to see that collision since the decision to build this place had been made.
“You up for this?” Max asked her.
“I am,” Tanila replied.
Sog’s grin widened. “Try not to cry when I win.”
“Promise not to whine when I clip your horns,” Tanila replied, winking.
“Oh, this is going to be so good,” Fowl said. “I’ve got the drinks while we watch!”
Batrire rolled her eyes, but she kept smiling. “Behave.”
Jazzjak flicked an ear. “For the record, I uh… might have placed a wager with Max on who wins.”
Everyone laughed as the vorpal rabbit winked at Sog.
The demon groaned, knowing that the joke was meant just for him.
Max raised a finger and drew a thin circle of light at the edge of the practice field. It rippled, then sank, then came back faint. “Once I lock the circle, no one crosses it except the two inside.”
“Then stop talking and lock it,” Sog said.
Max closed his eyes for a heartbeat, sensing his skill stirring.
Anything else?
Do not underestimate the first ten seconds. Everyone burns hot at the start. These two are the perfect choice.
Max breathed out. “Alright,” he said. “We’re on the clock after this. You two step in, you don’t step out until the room says you lost, or you both call it. We stop if I say stop. I’d say no spells like wildfire as I’m not sure how that would work here, and I don’t want to risk it. Everything else is legal.”
“Understood,” Tanila said.
Sog nodded once.
Max motioned for the others to move into the room with the seats, waiting till they all found a chair that suited them. He drew the ward circle. The faint glow rose to ankle height and hummed. The room seemed to be waking up from a deep slumber. Max felt the strands that would take a killing blow prevent it from ending their life. He didn’t like the sensation. He liked what it bought.
“Positions,” he said.
Sog jogged to the far edge of the circle, swords sliding into his hands with a sound from nowhere. He didn’t have flames appear like Max had expected.
Tanila moved to the opposite side. She touched the spot on her wrist where a band once hid her true self. A smile appeared as her hair brightened, her gold eyes glowing to match.
Max lifted his hand, stepping into the room with the others behind the room's ward.
“Three,” he said, taking his seat
“Two.”
Max’s sonar let him sense Batrire’s lips moving in count with his. Cordellia was leaning, her left leg bouncing. Rakonath’s eyes were focused on the duo before them.
“One.”