Convergence

“So, think this will work on any monsters we find?” John asked Teri as they cleared another vine barricade. The warm feeling of Teri’s magic faded as she let go of his hand. The awkwardness of their little gardening ritual had lessened slightly with repeated use, but Teri was still more withdrawn than she had been.

Still, his query perked the goblin girl up, her ears twitching slightly.

“I don’t see why it couldn’t work,” she answered. “If the purpose of this trial was to become better at shaping plant life, I can see our method having at least some effect.”

The mention of ‘their method’ caused Teri to avert her eyes, and John had to repress a sigh.

‘Is this some sort of girl code thing?’ he wondered as they pressed on. ‘Does she feel like she’s betraying Aeolia and Vivian by holding my hand? I mean, that’s why I was a little nervous about it at first, but it’s not like we’re walking through a mall or in a park or something. I don’t think fighting through a monster filled dungeon counts as a date.’

That thought sent a spike of new nerves through his core and the lack of pressing threats allowed his mind to worry over the lack of normal relationship activities he and his girlfriends had done.

‘Man, our whole situation is one big mess of oddities,’ he lamented. ‘The only normal thing we’ve done is had lunch out and watched a movie.’

“Um, are you okay, John?” Teri asked, shaking John out of his dark reverie. “You just got really nervous.”

‘Yeah, it would take me freaking out over the weirdness of my relationships to get her out of her funk,’ John thought.

Clearing his throat, he answered, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about something random. Don’t need to worry about it.”

Teri’s ears quivered and her brow creased with concern.

“Are you sure?” she softly asked.

John nodded. “It’s personal stuff. Shouldn’t let ourselves get distracted. Sorry if my emotions got too loud.”

Teri bit her lip. “Sorry for picking them up. It's kind of hard to shut down my senses, especially since we need to keep an eye out for anything around us.”

John smiled. “Can’t really throw stones there. I’ve thrown out Observes like candy before. Used it on you back when we met.”

“It is quite useful,” the goblin agreed. “And sometimes you have to use the tools you have even if they are a bit invasive.”

“Still going to be a little more careful with using it,” John said. “Might have tipped someone off that I was spying on them and really didn’t need them to know about me. Wonder if there’s a way to hide where my spell was coming from?”

“There probably is,” Teri answered. “Not that I know of any.”

John shrugged. “I figure I’ll stumble onto something or get an item for it. Until then, just have to be cautious.”

“Well, it might not be as detailed, but your sensory ability can help in weeding out threats,” Teri postulated. “It does let you get a read on people, right?”

“A bit,” John remarked. “It’s more that I can read the aura and get an idea of their magic from how it feels. I can pick up distortions to it, but don’t have enough experience to really know what that means per person.”

Teri’s expression turned pensive, a small smile on her lips. “I had something of an issue with that when my powers manifested. Emotions aren’t just something that goes, ‘I’m happiness’ or ‘I’m anger’. Took time for me to get used to reading them.”

John nodded in understanding, then looked ahead, eyes narrowing as they came to a downward incline. It was faint, but he could make out some light beyond.

“Looks like we found the light at the end of the tunnel,” John said.

Teri shot him a disbelieving glare. “Really? You want to tempt fate?”

“To be honest, I didn't think you’d get the saying,” John sheepishly remarked.

“I read a lot,” Teri supplied as an answer as they headed towards the light. “Most of the tales of my people are kept with oral tradition, and you can only hear them so much before they lose their luster. My mother was a bit of a rebel and taught herself English so she read some book she’d gotten during a scavenging run once. And then she taught me, reading that old book until it fell apart.”

A nostalgic smile grew on John’s face. “My mom did something like that. I got a really bad case of the flu when I was like six and she spent the whole day reading The Hobbit to me.”

“It's a good book,” Teri said wistfully.

A serious look crossed John’s face. “Got a question. Are you bothered by how goblins are portrayed in stuff like that?”

“I was a bit at first,” Teri responded as their path leveled out, the light emanating from an archway a few dozen meters ahead. “But, until I see evidence that Tolkien was part of the Abyss, he was likely operating on myths left over from when magic wasn’t kept separated. Can’t really blame him for that. And it isn’t like my people have been saints throughout history, so I can’t expect that from our distant cousins.”

John nodded. “Makes sense. But I think we’ve run out of time to swap book recommendations. Look.”

He pointed a finger into the chamber beyond. They were close enough to see the open expanse filled with glowing trees in front of them. What was concerning John was the hunched trevolk at the center of the grove, waiting for them.

“Looks like it's going to be smarter than the ones from the entrance,” John said quietly, leaning to the side so Teri could read its Observe. “You getting anything from it?”

“Just a sense of peace,” she replied. “How are we going to deal with it?”

“Okay, let’s operate under the assumption that the path leading here was meant to prepare these novice priests,” John muttered out. “Then fighting probably isn’t the right way to win. Think we can communicate with that guy the same way we did with the vines?”

Teri’s ears quivered, and she directed her attention to the still motionless trevolk, eyes intently studying it.

“It couldn’t hurt,” she said after a minute of examination. “At the very least, it should make us appear to it like a pair of the elves it's meant to be testing.”

“Do you know if there’s some max range to it?” John asked, peering into the chamber. “Be nice if we could just blast it with good vibes at a distance.”

“I don’t think we can reach it from here,” Teri answered, dashing John’s hopes for maintaining a safe distance. “Looks like we’ll have to charge the black gate.”

“Mordor’s a bit greener than I remember,” John joked. “Shall we, Aragorn?”

Teri beamed at him and the pair strode into the chamber. The moment they crossed the threshold, the wizened trevolk shifted, its head creaking up, faint motes of purple flaring to life behind the veil of leaves obscuring its face. It remained motionless as they drew closer and John found himself looking around for any hidden enemies, not trusting his luck that they would proceed without fighting.

John tensed as the trevolk began to lumber towards them, but maintained his gait as Teri’s never faltered.

“Just a bit closer,” Teri muttered out, her left hand lightly tapping John’s right. Nodding, John took her hand, and the pair stopped a few steps later. The trevolk maintained its slow advance as Teri began to draw out the power within them. John let Arcane Sense activate, feeling the magic spring from them and surround the trevolk like water flowing down a floodplain. The magic was charged with the feeling of the noon sun beaming down on him as he rested against a tree, one that wanted to lull him to sleep.

Unlike with the vines, where Teri’s spell easily flowed into them and made them part for them, the magic refused to pass into the trevolk, who now stood two meters from them. It swirled around it and John felt Teri’s aura fluctuate, grating into him like sandpaper.

“I can’t make it work,” she groaned, her voice strained from effort. “It feels like the trevolk is fighting it.”

John focused his attention onto the trevolk, piercing through the tranquility of Teri’s spell to feel the living tree’s aura. He was assailed with the sensation of being dwarfed by a massive tree, the feeling of insignificance suffocating him. John **** past the uncomfortableness and focused on where its aura clashed with the spell.

‘It’s more like waves crashing into a cliff than anything forest-like,’ John thought as he studied the interplay of magical energies. Teri’s spell smashed into the unyielding bastion of the trevolk’s presence, unable to break past it or find a weak point to assail.

‘What are we missing?’ he wondered. ‘Teri can’t keep this up forever, and the longer we waste trying this method, the less mana she’ll have when we have to try fighting it. She isn’t doing anything different, so this should at least do something. Is this guy just that much stronger?

‘Wait, if it's more resistant to the effect, maybe Amplify can overcome that?’ John thought. ‘At the very least, I’ll feel less like dead weight right now.’

“Teri, I’m going to use a skill that can boost the power of your spell,” he whispered. “It’s one with a per second cost, so think you can keep this going for about ten seconds?”

“I can do that,” Teri replied. “Probably can keep going for about two more minutes.”

“Let’s play it safe,” John cauctioned. “If this doesn’t work, we switch to something else.”

Teri nodded and John focused on her spell. Once he had a good view of it, he cast Amplify at it. His mana surged out of him and fused with Teri’s magic, heightening the goblin’s spell. The trevolk’s efforts to resist them suddenly faltered and the enhanced spell flooded into it.

Teri suddenly stopped her magic, causing Amplify to fail with no target.

“It worked,” she breathed out. “The trevolk’s practically glowing with pride and is happy at what we did.”

“Were we just too weak before I chipped in?” John wondered aloud.

The trevolk lifted a hand and pointed at Teri, then over to John before slowly bringing both hands together, its staff remaining upright without aid.

“It’s because we worked together,” Teri exclaimed.

“Isn’t that what we were doing before?” John asked.

“In some way, it was, since I was drawing power from the blessing in both of us,” Teri quickly answered. “But it wasn't really both of us pooling our abilities together, just mine. That’s why it wasn’t working. It wasn’t the strength issue, it was just that I was the only one doing the actual work.”

“You don’t need to make it sound like I was just being a freeloader,” John joked before a serious expression wiped the smile from his face. “So, now what do we do?”

The trevolk’s leaves suddenly fluttered as if in a stiff breeze and it began to fade away, leaving behind only its staff.

145(8) EXP Gained

“Guess working together was the right answer,” John said after a moment of silence. “Is it weird that I feel a bit bad at getting experience from this?”

“We did beat it,” Teri consoled him. “Just not in the ‘smash them until they fall down’ sort of way. And if you didn’t think to boost my spell, we might not have had a win at all. I say it’s deserved.”

John sighed. “I suppose that’s right. Might as well take the ‘easy’ win over some long drawn out slugfest.”

“I wonder why its staff stuck around?” Teri wondered, walking towards the item in question. Absent from its former wielder, John noticed it was covered in the same sort of etchings as his wooden armor.

“I think that’s the totem,” John said, casting Observe on the gravity defying piece of wood.

“Looks like we’ll need these to progress further in,” John said, lifting the totem like a piece of firewood. “Going to take a shot in the dark that Mystic Key is going to let us open some door or undo a barrier.”

“Sounds likely,” Teri remarked.

“But I should check just in case,” John added, unable to resist his curiosity.

Mystic Key: This item is tied to a magical lock, and when in close proximity, can open it.

“Yeah, that was pretty obvious,” he commented, closing the display. “Let’s go find this door.”

“You aren’t going to check the rest?” Teri asked as they began to look for the way forward. “You’re still brimming with curiosity.”

“I can hold off until we reunite with everyone,” John said. “I figure we’re going to find a way deeper into the temple somewhere around here that the totem will unlock and that path will converge with the other two.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Teri agreed. “We just have to find the exit.”

The pair made their way to the back wall of the chamber, exploring the plant covered stone for any sign of egress. As they approached a very heavily overgrown portion of the wall, the totem pulsed, the etchings glowing purple briefly. The vines twitched and shifted, revealing an open archway and a dark path onwards.

“Thank you, totem,” John said, stowing the item as they walked into the passageway.

“Do you think the others tackled their challenges alright?” Teri asked.

“Can’t see them failing it,” John answered with a smile. “Aeolia’s not going to let some plants stop her and Vivian’s clever enough to figure out the best way for her and Beth to easily beat whatever they’re up against. Not that Beth would quit against a stronger foe. She’s really stubborn.”

“And Senka?” the goblin pressed.

“I’m more worried about her running out of manifestation time,” John confessed. “She has to be still to get the most of her abilities, so she has to pick her targets with precision. Though, she fought me pretty well, so maybe I’m just being a little over concerned since I haven’t seen enough of her fighting to fully anticipate how she’d fight with Aoelia.”

Just as John finished speaking, a cool sensation washed over him.

‘Well, that was poor timing,’ Senka’s voice rang in John’s head, sounding somewhat miffed.

‘Senka!?’ John thought, alarm coloring his exclamation. ‘Is everything alright? What happened? Is Aeolia…’

‘Relax,’ the spirit advised him. ‘Aeolia is in no danger. We had already beaten our totem guardian and were traveling down a path not unlike this one.’

John let out a sigh and Teri asked, “I presume everything is alright with Aeolia, yes?”

“Sensed all that, huh?” John asked with a small smile.

Teri nodded. “Kind of hard not to.”

“Yeah, Senka just ran out of manifestation time,” John elaborated. “They were walking down a path like this one, so I hope this one will connect with it soon.”

“Yeah, you guys are close,” Aeolia’s voice echoed from the darkness ahead.

“Marco!” Beth’s voice, sounding further away than Aeolia’s, rang out.

“Polo!”John shouted back, unable to keep a relieved smile off his face. “Sounds like everything worked out. Let’s hurry and meet up with everybody.”

The pair picked up the pace, though Teri had a confused look on her face.

“What was that thing you and Beth did?” she asked.

“What, Marco Polo?” John said. “It’s a game kids play in the water. The ‘it’ kid closes their eyes and tries to tag someone, using the ‘Polo’ response the other players say to hone in on them.”

“Ah,” Teri remarked as faint light became visible ahead of them. “Looks like we’re getting close.”

The illumination grew as the three light sources converged on a round chamber, leaving one passageway in shadow. Aeolia was first, flying in, dwarfed by the sphere of light that didn’t shrink down with her.

“Looks like I win,” she cockily stated, growing to full size as she landed.

“If we had set a bet, you would have,” John countered as he and Teri entered.

“I knew we were forgetting something,” Aeolia said with a sly grin, sauntering up to John. “But you wouldn’t say no to giving me a prize, would you?”

John’s heart skipped a beat, but he returned the winged woman’s smile as they drew closer. “I think that’s in the cards.”

Their lips met and John let out a pleased hum as Aeolia pressed into him. After a few seconds, Aeolia pulled back slightly, a healthy flush on her face.

“Yeah, that’s a good prize,” she said.

“Why is it I always run into you two doing shit like that?” Beth’s amused and tired voice broke the mood as she and Vivian neared the chamber.

“‘Cus you have shit timing,” Aeolia groaned, reluctantly peeling away from John.

1137(60) EXP Gained
Totem of Might and Totem of Cooperation added to Inventory

John blinked as the popup appeared the instant Beth and Vivian crossed into the chamber, the redhead making a beeline towards him and Aeolia.

‘I’ve leveled,’ Senka chimed in, sounding less enthused than John would have thought and drawing his attention away from the sudden item drops. ‘And it seems I don’t benefit from the resource reset such an event causes.’

John’s expression soured. ‘Well, that sucks. Think we should pause and see if leveling unlocked anything for you?’

‘No,’ the spirit replied. ‘I don’t want to hold the party up. We should only have one obstacle left. And don’t waste mana summoning me until we get into combat.’

“Something wrong?” Vivian asked, drawing John out of his head as she stepped up to him, a comforting hand lightly touching his arm.

John flashed her a smile. “Nothing wrong. Just got the experience from the monsters you guys beat and it leveled up Senka.”

“Speaking of that,” Aeolia cut in. “I believe this is yours.”

She presented Senka’s blade form to John and he touched it, willing it back into his inventory.

“Thanks,” he said. “Anyway, Senka didn’t get her mana and hp restored the way mine do with a level up.”

“Man, that’s a convenient bonus,” Beth remarked.

“Yeah, it is,” John agreed, recalling the times in game when a level up let him snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Shaking his head, he continued, “Back on topic, Senka thinks we shouldn’t delay and press on to finish this instead of pausing to see if leveling did anything for her. And she’s going to rest up in my head until we start fighting.”

“If we have to fight,” Teri cut in. “Didn’t your quest log say we only have to acquire the temple’s treasure and retreat? We aren’t exactly in the best shape to be taking the final boss on.”

John nodded, both in acknowledgment of the technicalities of their quest and in the assessment that their trip to this point had taken its toll. While he and Teri had been spared physical combat, their mana had been thoroughly drained, both of them below half. The others weren’t in the best shape either, with Vivian’s reserves the lowest at only a quarter full.

“We’ll see what we’re up against first,” he said. “If it looks too much, we can go for plan ‘B’ and do a grab and dash.”

The girls nodded, all of them somewhat weary of continued fighting. Plan set, the party made their way down the fourth path, relaying their experiences as they went.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.