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A Soldier's Life - 342 -
🕑 Added 2025-02-09 08:09:50 +0000 UTCChapter 342:
As Maveith was recovering his aether, Konstantin exited the dreamscape. He looked content as he handed me back the amulet. “Wait till you see Maveith,” Raelia said excitedly. I gave Raelia the small mirror from my shaving kit to hold while Maveith checked himself out. Konstantin was shocked when the armor appeared again. Maveith posed a little before the small mirror, admiring himself. We couldn’t see his expression through the helm, but his body language said enough. His aether ran out after a few minutes, and only the helm remained.
Maveith reached up and took off the goat helm, a massive grin on his face. “I don’t like the color, but I do look imposing in the armor. Is the armor functional in a fight? It didn’t feel like it had any weight to it.” He said doubtfully.
Raelia was the only one who seemed to know anything about the helm. “It is an amazing artifact,” she said animatedly. “My griffin wing once escorted an ambassador to the Kingdom of Gesedmuria. We spent some time in the king’s castle waiting for the return escort. They have an elite guard known as the Knights of Virtue. The Knights all wear a sentinel helm, which is a reward from one of the local dungeons. The Groaning Burrows, if I remember correctly.”
Raelia looked up at the dungeon ceiling as if it helped recall her memories. “Their armor is polished steel with green highlights, and all the knights match each other perfectly. I was told it’s just an illusion over an aetheric armor spell. They still wear real armor underneath the illusion. I was also told the armor can manifest the illusion without activating it, requiring much less aether to sustain.”
Konstantin seemed skeptical. “I’ve heard about the Knights of Virtue. I’m surprised they revealed so many secrets about their organization to you.”
Raelia smiled wistfully. “Oh, my wing spent a few nights drinking with the king’s guard. Knight Raoul was more than willing to show me how the helm worked privately.”
Based on her reaction, I pieced together what she was insinuating. I was not jealous—definitely not jealous. I bit my tongue. “So, I am not your first human, then?”
Raelia blushed. “I—we—” she couldn’t continue, knowing it would be a lie. Instead of explaining herself, she turned to Maveith, “The helm should have a way only to manifest the illusion of the armor. It should take almost no aether to maintain. Just experiment with the activation.”
“My aether control isn't great,” Maveith complained.
Raelia walked up and patted his shoulder, trying to distract me from her revelation of her past dalliances. “Most of the Knights of Virtue had terrible magical attributes. They entered the Order because of their deep aether pool and fighting prowess. If they can do it, so can you.”
Maveith nodded at the support and grinned a little as his face disappeared under the helm again. We all waited while Maveith experimented with his aether. It turned out to be extremely simple. He only needed to initiate the channeling on the opposite side of the helm. With just the illusion active, the armor had no substance, and your hand could pass through it.
“Did you say the dungeon gave multiple such helms to delvers?” I asked, imagining an entire army of goliaths in runic armor.
Raelia pursed her lips in thought and replied uncertainly. “I think there are about two hundred Knights. The Adventurer’s Guild administers all the dungeons in Gesedmuria, so it likely isn't rewarded very often, and the king probably has a right of purchase on the artifact.”
Konstantin took the helm from Maveith and inspected it. “It appears to be sized for a goliath. Maybe only a goliath can use it. May I try?” He asked Maveith, who immediately nodded.
Konstantin slowly lowered the helm on his head. Its large size made me want to make a Spaceballs joke, but again, it would be fruitless in the current company. Konstantin didn’t even need to touch the helm to have the armor manifest. The illusionary armor was sized for him, but the large helm made him look slightly comical. As he moved, it wobbled some as well. As he mentioned, padding could be added to improve the fit.
Konstantin drew his blade, and I sighed. It was clear he wanted to test the helm’s armor. I acquiesced, and we engaged in some test clashes. The armor had substance, leaving a dull blue mark when I connected. That damage repaired itself quickly.
“Enough,” Konstantin boomed, removing the helmet. He graying hair was matted with sweat. “It is difficult to fight with the helm so loose. It also takes a lot of aether to maintain. I could hold it for maybe ten minutes.”
Maveith nodded, agreeing, “I don’t think I could hold it for more than fifteen.” I held back a smirk at Maveith aether pool being larger than Konstantin’s. Konstantin didn’t comment, instead handing the helmet back to Maveith.
“I am sure you will use it wisely,” he said. “Shall we see if the dungeon is more amicable to our presence?”
The blood caterpillar room now had a humid mist, making the webbing virtually immune to igniting from flash fire. Still, the blankets of webbing became crusty and brittle after Raelia’s fireball. Without the risk of being entangled, the slow-moving caterpillars were not difficult to handle. They were a bit messy; after my spear punctured one, they tended to squirt their yellow blood from the wound. The first time it happened, I got it full in the face and found myself spitting the yellow blood for a good minute.
Of the twenty-three blood caterpillars, twenty produced minor nature essences. This slight increase was a promising indication that the dungeon was either boosting our rewards or was better able to replenish its creatures. I shared the haul with Konstantin, who now had a sizable bag of essences. The reward chest was slightly disappointing, yielding the same silk rope as last time. I stored it before we moved onto the goat maze.
“I don’t think we should bring out the griffin,” Konstantin announced at the entrance to the maze. “At least not until we have completed the dungeon with just the four of us.”
“It will make it extremely difficult to hunt down all the goats,” Raelia said, concerned.
“We can return later and clear the maze,” I said. If we get lucky, we can claim the chest. If not, it’s no big deal. I am more interested in the figs.” Seeing their confusion, I explained, “I think they might be an ideal base for an aether restorative potion.”
That earned some silent stares before Konstantin muttered, “If that’s true, the island will be crawling with alchemists in under a year.” I didn’t explain to Konstantin about efficacy or shelf life—or that I had no idea what other ingredients might be necessary for the brew. I could also be completely wrong and the golden figs could be useless for such a potion. Still, I believed I was right.
We only found seven goats in the maze and collected a less populated fig tree in the center of the maze. I took only one of the major coordination essences, giving two to each of the others. I didn’t allow Maveith to object to the distribution, telling him he could either consume it or give it away when he returned to his family. The dungeon needed more time to regrow the fruit. As we climbed the switchbacks, we could only see two of the goats walking atop the maze’s walls. Without aerial assistance, navigating the large maze in less than a day would clearly be difficult.
Upon reaching the safe room, we rested and took turns on watch. The jungle room would reveal whether our assumption about the dungeon was correct. When we huddled around the entrance to the jungle room, we could only spot two black cats in the foliage. On guard, we entered the room, with Maveith testing out the sentinel helm’s armor for the first time. The large panther managed to rake his chest, leaving a trio of parallel blue lines on the flat black surface.
After the two cats were slain, the reward chest appeared, and we relaxed. Under the illusionary armor, Maveith’s leather armor remained untouched, filling him with excitement over his new artifact. Carrying the helm around would be a hassle, but it would be worth it. I once again envisioned an army of unstoppable goliaths clad in black, goat-helm armor on the battlefield.
The reward chest once again contained two potions on a bed of silver coins. One potion had the now familiar healing potion script, and the other was new. I was the apparent expert, and it took me a few moments to figure it out: “It is a dark sight potion. It allows you to see in the dark.”
“They work amazingly. I used the one from the Shimmering Labyrinth; it felt like the sun was high in the sky,” Maveith contributed. Konstantin ended up taking the potion, but no silver, and the healing potion went into one of my belt pouches. Raelia and Maveith each got one of the major power essences from the cats. With my dimensional space filling rapidly, I only gathered a few of the yellow flowers before we moved on to the manticore room. This would be the true test to see if the dungeon had reset and the difficulty had scaled down for us.
We crowded around the entrance and made sufficient noise to attract the manticores. It didn’t take long before the hideous chimera noticed us. It flapped its powerful wings, circling high above in the chamber. “I only see one,” Maveith offered optimistically.
“It has been over two days since we killed the last pair. I hope the essence it yields is better this time around.” I had Maveith make another failed attempt to communicate with the creature. I stepped into the chamber, capturing the manticore’s attention. When it angled toward me, I ran so the others could attack it from behind. The tail barbs bounced off my air shield and my aether shield from its initial attack. But its tactics had changed, and its powerful claws descended on me.
Raelia’s fireball erupted, and its dry heat surged over me. The manticore howled in pain from the flames and arrows as it tried to crash into me. It failed, and Heartseeker tore through its wing as it flew past. Maveith had discarded his bow and was rushing toward me with his maul and sentinel armor activated. I was relieved he was on my side as I distracted the injured beast, allowing his hammer to slam into its flank, but not before the tail, still hold a number of barbs slammed into Maveith’s chest and stuck. My heart caught in my throat, but Maveith’s hammer didn’t slow, shattering its spine and causing both hind legs and tail to go limp.
Anxious about Maveith, I hastily slashed my spear across the beast’s face. I missed the eyes but opened a clean line of flesh across its nose. I followed up my slash with a stab to its neck, pressing the spear length deep into the howling monstrosity. The fight and life left the creature as it slumped, and I rushed to check on Maveith.
He stood tall, and after removing the helm, his leather chest piece had a grouping of holes. The manticore had not launched its spikes, so fortunately, no poison was present. None had penetrated to his flesh, but the sentinel helm wasn’t infallible. Maveith fingered the small holes, coming to the same conclusion. “Grab the reward chest, Maveith; I will see what essence it yields.”
The others joined us, and I pulled the collector into my hand. Konstantin stood over me, equally anxious for the result. The aether being pulled was thick, which was a good sign. As the apex channeling essence formed, I let out a relieved breath.
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Comments
Kudugu
Not to forget that girl servant that betrayed him by telling Boris of the dreamscape amulet.
SlaveToMyWhims
I never appreciated the girl sharing details of her sexual past in real life. It's a necessity if you are going to take a woman on for a long-haul, because those kinds of things tend to jump out and make a messy mess at the wrongest times and in the most inconvenient ways. But it never felt good hearing about it. In a lot of cases it cools the relationship off, especially if it was an eventful past. What I'm saying is that i would have appreciated having these bits left out.
GucciG
I understand the jealousy but Eryk has no ground to stand on here, lol. He’s been here for what, two years? In that time, he slept with a charismatic captain and Renna.
Andrew Crews
Chapter title: One Knight of Virtue
Andrew Crews
[When Maveith finally recovered his aether, Konstantin happened to exit the dreamscape, looking content as he handed me back the amulet.] Konstantin slowly lowered the helm [on → onto] his head. Its large size made me want to make a Spaceballs joke, but again, it would be fruitless [in → with] the current company. “[Aether → aether] control isn’t great,” Maveith complained. It didn’t take long before the hideous chimera noticed us. It flapped its powerful wings, circling high above [in → above] the chamber. I was relieved he was on my side as I distracted the injured beast, allowing his hammer to slam into its flank, but not before the tail, still [hold → holding] a number of barbs[,] slammed into Maveith’s chest and stuck.
Daniel Foster
"The reward chest was slightly disappointing, yielding the same silk rope as last time." it should be - Same silk cloak.
michele 00
Good opinion, you could say I agree.
Erick Thiemke
i think that might be a funny scenerio. Konstantin making Eryk as he sees him. have to wait and see
Brett Ulakovic
Ok thank you
Apophixas
I get why it would make sense for Elves to develop a more "take our time" approach to a lot of things. But we've seen that it's clearly not the case in this world. It would make sense if the Elves in this world were extremely insular and xenophobic, but they aren't. The young ones are just as impulsive as any human, and the old ones are not immune to the pettiness and anger that afflicts the other races. Also, the whole, "If I don't know, I can't care" mentality is nice and all, and most of the time I agree. In regards to someone being a virgin or not though, it's stupid. That's important info, because it changes things about how you need to approach your first intimate experience with someone. And some people have preferences as well.
Apophixas
I think it was mentioned before that hundreds of years old is still only sort of youngish. For context, the Shimmering Labyrinth was THOUSANDS of years old.
michele 00
That said, it doesn't bother me that people have experience, it annoys me to have knowledge of it. You know the saying 'eyes that don't see, heart that doesn't feel' (Translation: occhi che non vedono, cuore che non sente) or something like that (I'm Italian) ? Pretty much what I'm trying to do here, why would I get upset about something I'm not even sure about ?
michele 00
Hmm, tbh I don't really care, I don't think she's the final partner...and what do I think about the age? I think assuming she could still be a virgin is ok. Why ? because having such a long life expectancy and a system/culture that surely was also formed around that, it wouldn't be all wrong to think that some things take 'time' for such long-lived races as for example finding an ideal partner, having sex ecc.
Brett Ulakovic
Will they be farming the ram room s for the Ather fruit and the Sentinel helm to see if more of them drop Another question for the dungeon shouldn’t be bigger since it’s been untouched for hundreds of years. Not sure on how the dungeon grows
MacMahon Wenzl
I also thought Raelia was like 47 or something, it would honestly be a bit strange. There could be a "save yourself for marriage" thing but if you lived 1000+ years that might be a bit much.
Shandlar
The fact it dropped Apex means he needs to do it only like 20 more times instead of 150. They already have something like 8 Apex channeling and twenty something majors. 25 Apex and 25 majors should be enough to heal 3 points for a normie. Maybe 30. He would have need 150+ majors if he hot stuck with only the 7 Apex he had previously.
Eriach
Not a bad idea, but the air shields consume alot of mana
NightRider
Konstantin was happy when he left the Dreamscape amulet, Did Konstantin add an Eryk version to the amulet? It would amuse him no end to get payback for Eryk adding him!
michele 00
Bro, I definitely didn't want to know the BOP's past 💀 (btw just an innocent question... to find a girl without experience in this world you have to be in a relationship with a 10 year old girl or what ? 🤔)
Mark Corwin
Alright. Looks like he only has to do this 160 or so times. I hope he get plenty of aether shaping essences
Erick Thiemke
Also when Glasha did a lore on the black spear, Heartseeker
Ivan Kanewske
I have noticed when you drop at 3am, your errors or higher, Way less when you have time and drop at 9pm, I am glad for your work, Just finished listening to the first 3 again, this time in a row, they did lightly discuss seeding a dungeon in the shimmering labyrinth, you just didn't use the term seeding. It's either where the ranger cloaks came from, or a ranger died and now the dungeon has the ranger cloaks as a reward
Erick Thiemke
he already search - at least as far as his earth pulse went - about 60 feet
Erick Thiemke
edited
Erick Thiemke
corrected
Erick Thiemke
corrected
Erick Thiemke
Weird. It must have been a Grammarly correction because I'm pretty sure I wrote it as one. Correcting. But then again, it was 3am when I finished writing the chapter.
Erick Thiemke
sure, editing. it was the same coordination
Jordan A
“I took only one essence, giving two to each of the others.” Can you add what type of essence was received? It’s not mentioned in the chapter.
Ivan Kanewske
but the sentinel helm wasn’t in fallible. I believe infallible is one word
Ivan Kanewske
He only needed to initiate the channeling with his other hand on the other horn. With just the illusion active, the armor had no substance, and you hand could pass through it. With his other hand on the other horn, With his hand on one of the horns?? And you hand could pass through it You to your
Ivan Kanewske
jealous. I bite my tongue I believe Bite should be bit
Ivan Kanewske
Did Raelia or Eryk give Maveith a small mirror from the shaving kit? The way that is written is confusing, I assume it was Eryk,
Justin Barnett
I was just confused because the collector worked on everything in the vault of the spirit arachnid and that dungeon was more heavily delved than this one.
Erick Thiemke
It isn’t struggling. It functioned normally. The reason for the blood catiplers not all giving essences is the dungeon didn’t invest a sufficient amount of aether in their creation. And before yes, the dungeon was trying to interfere and figure out what the collector was doing
Erick Thiemke
Good point…will edit to have the tail strike come as he moved in for the blow
Garrett
Why was the tail still moving with a broken spine?
Justin Barnett
Why is the collector still struggling? I thought the dungeon was intentionally resisting it before, but now that they all left and returned, shouldn’t it be functioning normally?
Silver Beard
Wonder if the core is under the fig tree? Too valuable to uproot.
Kio
Should have done the spaceballs joke.
Salvo
You know, I bet Maveith can throw Eryk in the air and he can make an air shield lookout for a few seconds for the goat maze, don’t know if it would be better than just using Baldo.
Andrew
Thank you!
Erick Thiemke
1st of 4 for cycle. I did edit the last chapter for grammar and wording. Also posted two more Book 4 edited chapters this afternoon. When I add those book 4 edited chapters you are not notified.
