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A Soldier's Life - 315 - Hound Versus Hound (final edit 8-4-25)
🕑 Added 2024-12-19 05:27:25 +0000 UTCChapter 315: Hound Versus Hound The violet glowstone beneath my hand had multiple facets. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to contain a cr
Chapter 315: Hound Versus Hound
The violet glowstone beneath my hand had multiple facets. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to contain a crystalline matrix inside, as if it had grown from crystals and then been sheared off. My earth pulses indicated that my guess was likely correct.
There were two types of glowstones: those that were mined and those that were artificed. Artificed glowstones were mined glowstones with runes embedded in them and were much more valuable, as the artificer could control their brightness. However, they needed to be recharged more often since they quickly burned through their aether.
Mined glowstones, which I had thought could only emit a white light before now, absorbed aether from the environment, and their intensity faded over time, but could be recharged as well. They also tended not to be as bright as artificed glowstones.
“What are you doing?” Mynasha asked as I stroked the stone in thought.
“Mining glowstones,” I responded as I overlayed my dimensional space to encompass a large cube.
“They are very brittle and difficult…” She stopped talking as a large void appeared in the archway. “Guess that works too,” she said, impressed.
A large block of unique glowstone could be valuable. I could also use it as a weapon or shield. It had taken more aether than I expected, indicating some aether resistance but nothing significant. My aether reserves were now about half—primarily due to the mass of the stone I had collected.
My sight turned to the impatient hellhound. The violet glowstones lined the short tunnel leading to its chamber. It meant Mynasha’s lightning would be useless inside. “Are you ready?” I asked my partner.
She nodded and started to draw aether to herself. For this creature, our strategy was her providing defensive aid. She had lightning shields and a lightning aura that slowed everyone but her. The black hound’s shoulder was taller than my head. Glasha said the typical strategy was to net or entangle the creature’s legs, restricting its movement. Aside from its powerful jaws, the beast could regurgitate a fiery napalm that stuck to you while flash-burning. I had been burned in the heat of a fireball before and didn’t want to go through that again.
“I am ready,” she said steadily. Her clothes steamed as the dense aether surrounded her. Together, we stepped into the short corridor of the hellhound’s chamber. It didn’t attack, and I could see intelligence in its glowing red eyes. Was this creature allowed to keep its memories like the doppelgangers in the Shimmering Labyrinth?
“The exit is sealed,” Mynasha stated. I took a quick glance behind us, and a wall of violet glowstone had sealed us in. The hellhound began to circle to our right—toward Mynasha. Like dogs, hellhounds were pack hunters and targeted the weakest first. I was armored and armed, and it had assumed I was stronger than Mynasha—maybe I was.
The beast's throat began to glow as it prepared its fiery breath weapon. As per our plan, I stood behind Mynasha and waited. Its long maw had dangerous-looking yellowed fangs. A rumbling grew as it readied itself to attack. When its mouth opened, a wide rolling flame erupted.
The wave of red-yellow fire caused blue sparks to burst from Mynasha's lightning shield protecting us. Just a heartbeat later, a wall of flame stood before us, encountering Mynasha’s spell wall. We were not wholly spared as the heat washed over us, making breathing difficult as the hot air entered our lungs. I coughed once and held my breath. Then our plan went to shit.
Neither of us was prepared as the hellhound slammed into her lightning shield, shattering it but slowing it considerably. Glasha had told us its tactics would be to wash us in fire, and while we burned, it would flank us, try to crush one of our legs in its fearsome jaws, and shake the victim. Instead, it had used the wall of flame to hide its running approach.
I stepped into Mynasha, wrapped her up, and spun her away with my shield arm out of danger of the rush. With my other hand, magebane slashed down on the beast, catching and opening a long gash in its muzzle. It yelped so loud my ears rang. It didn’t stop its momentum, though. It was too large for me to dodge and barreled into me, forcing me to the ground. My aether shield flashed blue as its claws tried to rake across my chest.
Damn it, I didn’t want to use my instant kill, but I also didn’t want to risk an injury in a prolonged fight. I was currently very susceptible to a probable injury. I took a large portion of the beast’s neck around the spine. It didn’t have as strong an aether resistance as I expected, but my aether still bottomed out.
The beast collapsed on top of me as a lightning strike shattered one of the violet glowstones in the wall. A second glowstone shattered overhead, showering me in violet crystal rocks. “It’s dead!” I yelled at Mynasha. “I’m fine!” My ears were ringing from the thunder following the lightning.
I had to yell two more times before she stopped the onslaught. The cleric was breathing heavily, steam coming off her body. Since I had bottomed out my aether, I couldn’t use my aether-infused vision, but I could imagine the aether swirling around her. She also had her long, curved knife in her hand and was ready to stab the beast.
Mynasha sheathed her long dagger and helped push the hellhound off me, and I worked the magebane out of its shoulder. I hadn’t been able to interpose the blade in time to stab it through its heart. This encounter might have gone a lot differently if I hadn’t had the aether shield amulet. Glasha’s advice had also almost doomed us, but I couldn’t blame her. I should have added my air shield with Mynasha’s lightning shield, but I was too focused on being flanked.
I was covered in hellhound blood, which was soaking my undershirt. It burned and would probably cause a rash, but I knew it was not dangerous. The hellhound's body was immolating, consuming itself. A thick ash would be left that was useful in alchemy. Mynasha released her hold on the aether. Her halter top did not look well for wear. Even her leather skirt had dried and cracked from the short time she had pulled aether from the environment.
I knelt as the body of the beast was destroying itself and used the collector. The stream of blue wisps diminished quickly, and I hadn’t realized I needed to harvest the creature right after killing it—a minor fire affinity formed on the collector’s plate. Maybe I could have gotten a major essence if I had acted quicker.
We both watched the hellhound shrivel, combust, and turn to ash. All that was left was a black skeleton and its two nubby horns. I shook the ash off the skull and handed it to Mynasha. “I was useless,” she stated despondently.
“We just were not prepared well enough,” I said, laying the onus on Glasha. Having almost died a number of times in the past two years, I could easily brush it off. “See if you can find the reward chest while I gather some of this ash.”
The ash was almost sticky and would need to be dried to be useful. I would need to replace my alchemy equipment, but this ash was utilized to make napalm pellets. My spider silk gloves were coated in ash when Mynasha returned with a bone chest. Hundreds of tiny bones fused together to make up the chest. It might have been attractive if not for the lid being made from tiny skulls.
I opened the chest to find a bed of silver and gold coins supporting a book. Taking the book out of the chest, I opened it under Mynasha’s watch. “You can read that?” She asked, a little surprised.
“Just because I swing a big sword doesn’t mean I haven’t studied magic,” I replied as I worked through the pages and spell forms within. It was a very complex spell, but I could piece it together a little bit. “It is definitely a fire affinity spell. Maybe halo—or ring of fire. Do you have the fire affinity?” I asked, closing the book.
“No,” she replied. “Anything we find in the dungeon is yours,” she asserted. I nodded, and the book disappeared into my dimensional space. Maybe Raelia would want it, or I could sell it if I ever needed coin.
“I need about fifteen minutes to recover aether and recharge my amulet. Then we can head to the ice demon room.” I sat on the floor and pulled out a waterskin, taking in the chamber for the first time in detail. Mynasha sat next to me, and I handed her a second skin. The skull thudded on the stone as she dropped it.
“I need to recover, too,” she said; after taking a long pull, she closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall.
The chamber was almost entirely stone, with just some black lichen growing in patches. I wondered what the dungeon fed the hellhound. My experience was that each room had some type of ecosystem in it. Veins of water with a violet tinge from the glowstone lighting drizzled down the walls. It almost looked like the walls were crying.
The mystery of what the hellhound ate would have to remain a mystery. When my aether had sufficiently recovered, I elbowed Mynasha gently. She was instantly awake. Her lack of urgency in completing the trial told me that becoming the Supreme was no longer a priority for her. We drank some more before venturing into the large cavern and heading toward the blue glow in the distance.
I paused to harvest some of the yellow mushrooms, not getting too close before sending them to my space. I noticed tiny bites from some of the mushrooms, so I guessed that was what the quasits were eating. I hoped to come across more of the green imps. They had yielded unique and useful essences.
As we followed the outer wall, we found the blood stirges nested here high above. Three to five would launch at us when we passed under one of the nesting crevices. Mynasha was grateful to be of use as her lightning shield made quick work of them.
The dretches didn’t appear to wander near the walls as the blood stirges appeared to feast on them. We disturbed one such feeding. A bloated corpse of one of the dretches had a half dozen stirges draining it of fluids. We could have passed it without disturbing the feeding, but the stirges yielded their own treasure.
When we finally did attract the attention of a green imp, we acted ignorant of its presence, pretended to rest, and left a bag of nuts just out of arm’s reach. The quasit took the bait, thinking itself invisible, and tried to steal it. Magebane took one of its legs and squealed in pain as it rolled on the ground. Its bulbous eyes looked at me for mercy. Its small needle-like teeth didn’t help its cause, and I ended its life.
The collector was out quickly, and my eagerness was easy to read. A small, shiny black sphere formed. A third quasit, a third different essence. It was one of the most valuable of the magic attributes—channeling. There were so many burnt mages in the world that the price for such essences was astronomical. This minor essence would be just a drop in the bucket for Castile. Still, I planned to save it for her.
Concerned, Mynasha advised me. “Make sure you hide that,” she indicated the collector. “If Jhuarkasha or Rhuuk see it, they might find an excuse to take it. I’ve never heard of a collector being so—efficient.” I had gained trust with Mynasha over the past month, but I wasn't going to confirm her suspicions. She owed me, since I had guided her throughout the entire Choosing.
I nodded to her and stood. We only encountered one dretch before we came in sight of the blue-ringed entrance. I had collected twenty-two quickness essences and two more minor healing essences from the blood stirges. In addition, I added one more minor charm for the single dretch we slew.
As we approached the entrance to the ice demon cave, it was not a surprise to see Cleric Jhuarkasha and Warlord Rhuuk coming from the other direction. I was surprised we had beaten them here. The shadow demon was a difficult opponent, and it was inevitable that they would come here. They were still over fifty yards away, with a few wandering dretches between us. They hadn’t noticed us as they were engaged in the fight. The cleric stood behind Rhuuk as he managed to fight three dretches, while being dive-bombed by two stirges.
We observed one of the stirges bouncing off an invisible shield. Jhuarkasha focused on protection magic, while Rhuuk handled all the combat. Despite that, he appeared exhausted and was covered in dretch blood, moving much slower than when he had entered. “We should quickly eliminate the ice demon before they arrive,” I said, interrupting Mynasha’s focus on the pair. She nodded, and we stepped into the blue cave.
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Comments
Brianna Stormcloud
Thank you for this week's chapters, I'm happy to see Mynasha being reasonable at this point of the dungeon.
HappyNoms
I think there is a slight tendancy in this chapter and the last to assume the readers a priori know what a dretch and quasit and stirge are. The descriptions of them are not sparse, exactly, but just a touch lean. Maybe it doesn't need any edits but I thought I'd mention it, as any number of dnd monsters seem likely to come up in future books/arcs, and its tricky to see one's own familiarity versus describing them vividly for the subset of readers that are less familar with the relatively uncommon dnd monsters.
Andrew Crews
I knelt as the body of the beast was destroying itself and used the collector. The stream of blue wisps diminished quickly, and I hadn’t realized I needed to harvest the creature right after killing it—a minor fire affinity formed on the collector’s plate. Maybe I could have gotten a major essence if I had acted [more] quickly.” “Taking the book out of the chest, I opened it under Mynasha’s watch. “You can read that?” [she] asked, a little surprised.” ”“I need about forty minutes to recover and recharge my amulet. Then we can head to the ice demon room.” I sat on the floor and pulled out a waterskin, taking in the chamber for the first time in detail. Mynasha sat next to me[,] and I handed her a second [waterskin]. The skull thudded on the stone as she dropped it.” “The chamber was almost entirely stone, with just some black lichen growing in patches. I wondered what the dungeon fed the hellhound. My experience was that each room had some type of ecosystem [within] it. Veins of water with a violet tinge from the glowstones drizzled down the walls. It almost looked like the walls were crying.” “Concerned, Mynasha advised, “Make sure you hide that,” [she] indicated to the collector. “If Jhuarkasha or Rhuuk see it, they may find an excuse to take it. I have never heard of a collector being so—efficient.” I had built trust with Mynasha over the last month, but I was not going to confirm her suspicions. She owed me, as I had [held] her hand throughout the entire Choosing.”
Andrew Crews
Glasha said the typical strategy was netting or entangling the creature’s legs, restricting its movement. Besides its powerful jaws, the beast could regurgitate a fiery napalm that stuck to you as it [flash-burned]. I had been burned in the heat of a fireball before and didn’t want to experience it again.” “The beast’s throat began to glow as it prepared its fiery breath weapon. As per our plan, I stood behind Mynasha and waited. Its long maw had dangerous-looking yellowed fangs. A rumbling grew as it readied itself to attack. When its mouth opened, a wide rolling flame erupted. The wave of red-yellow fire caused blue sparks to burst from Mynasha’s lightning shield [as it] protected us. Just a heartbeat later, a wall of flame stood before us, encountering Mynasha’s spell wall. We were not wholly spared[,] as the heat washed over us, making breathing difficult as the hot air entered our lungs.” “Damn it, I didn’t want to do this, but I also didn’t want to risk an injury in a prolonged fight[,] and I was currently very susceptible to a probable injury. I took a large portion of the beast’s neck around the spine. It didn’t have as strong an aether resistance as I expected, but my aether still bottomed out.” “I had to yell two more times before she stopped the onslaught. The cleric was breathing heavily, steam coming off her body. Since I had bottomed out my aether, I couldn’t use my aether-infused vision, but I could imagine the aether swirling around her. She also had her long[-]curved knife in her hand and had been ready to stab the beast.”
Karnnie
Love to see the speed in which he recovers Aether now compared to day one. He is getting strong.
Sparks
Hella Overkill on this demon 😆
Deliver roo
I would hope not, otherwise it would be possible to cheat the boss chamber and organize a line of people to enter in waves so that the demon continuously faces new foes, never recovers and can never win. Another question, I think, is: will Rhuuk and the other candidate do what Eryck could have done in multiple occasions and confront him and Mynasha as soon as they have beaten the demon.
Michael Sareyani
Read this series from Book 1. I have to say, pretty good. The MC really earned this arc and it felt more relaxed and good for him to be free. Still, I think the best part was the Elven city of the dead by far and mainly the first part as the utterly OP skills of Eryk wasn't a factor. The dungeon and frankly all the dungeons are waaaay too easy. If he didn't have to save Mav's sister, it would take him about 3 months essence himself up to a god just by bouncing between dungeons
Simão Wiborg de Carvalho
Fair enough. I hadn't considered that.
Simão Wiborg de Carvalho
And Thank You for writing A Soldier's Life. It is a great story.
Erick Thiemke
probably not. shelves would take up space and even with them, if the shelf materialized off the ground it would probably tip over
Simão Wiborg de Carvalho
Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but... will he add shelves to his space? If he crosses something/someone like the Storm Giants again, the same can happen, and he'll have a lot of equipment/material damaged. If the things are inside a shelf, they're mostly protected.
Shandlar
Bear, that is shaping. She's burned her channeling. He needs a huge amount of shaping, but his channeling is already almost too high. His mac is like 57 now, right? So since his daily amount before burning is tolerance times pool size, and his pool size is so low, having a channeling so much higher than your pool size is kinda dangerous if anything. No reason to recover aether so fast when you can't even use it anyway.
Devin
Thank you! I found the reddit post about this series 5 days ago. I went to download it to Kindle unlimited and discovered it was already in my library. I decided it must be good if I went to go get it twice. I'm here now, so I guess it was pretty good. I can't wait for more and this is now one of my favorite series!
MavTech
When I finally got grammarly, my writing really cleaned up. But editing even with grammarly pro takes time away from writing content. It always broke my stride. After about 200k words on RR I realize just how much work writing is. It takes effort and time. Thanks for giving us a such a great series. ASL is great. I actually found Sphere first on RR then saw ASL and instantly became hooked. Just found your Patreon this week. You are churning out great content. So again thanks. Happy to help fund the writing. I feel like I got way more value than my $25/mon. Merrry Christmas!
Erick Thiemke
oddly, i have never been to Con anywhere. I stopped playing DnD in college and picked it up again about 12 years ago as a DM on roll20.net, that lasted 3 years. during the covid thing, I read a whole crap load, 2-3 books a week and then just started writing my own stories. you can see a lot of my earlier work. i didnt get grammar software until a year ago
MavTech
It has been a joy to join the Seraphim Tier and read so far ahead. This is one of the best stories I’ve read in a long time. I read a lot on RR and Amazon and this story just hits right for me. Likeable, but not perfect MC. Powerful and moral enough to maintain his kindness and generosity. Balance of power and interesting circumstances and challenges. Hints of romance and heart. I can’t adequately describe all the greatness squeezed into this beauty. Thanks to the Author. If we ever meet I’ll be sure to buy you a round. You ever go to DragonCon in Atlanta?? I met a lot of authors there a couple years ago. Cheers.
Balerion18
Something like that. It isnt much to get him there. It would be a waste to give them to her vs himself. Any other essence, I can see him giving away. But that one is one he needs.
Balerion18
Yes. I want him to be able to talk his horse. Lord knows he loves that silly horse more than his friends lol
Balerion18
Thank you for the chapter. I have enjoyed this arc. I like the orc and the whole competition. It is interesting. I am interested to see how the rest of the group will handle him being an otherworlder.
BubblyGhost
It was stated in this chapter that it would do next to nothing for her, wheras even the MC will only get a few points due to it being a minor. Also he only needs what, like a score of 30-40 to actually cast spells?
Jeffrey Worrall
I don’t think it’s that many, plus essences have a diminishing return after awhile, he wouldn’t become a god. Finally, there is likely a spell for others that does what his convergence spell does for him. If he gets his mana shaping high enough to cast that spell it might reduce the amount of essences needed by a lot.
Salvo
Getting a steady pool of minor charm essence, which is good as Eryk already has charm at 5. I’m hoping for something like mind speech as comms is always a benefit in a fight, and it might work on ginger as well.
Silver Beard
rofl- I thought Wednesday was start of the 'new' week... not the end of the last one and you still owe us a TB chapter.
Snooze Bear
I would agree if it was a decent amount of apex he had gotten which would have helped her, but wasn’t it stated that she needed hundreds of apex essences? That would mean tens of thousands of minor essences. That would probably be enough to turn our mc into a god-like character, which then kind of just feels like a way to avoid giving the mc op powers. I am all for helping Castile and keeping the mc as weak as possible since I kind of like that aspect of the story, I just feel like this is a cheap way to prevent the mc from powering up
C
Why wouldn't he help his friends if he has the ability too? She's in pain. He knows what it's like, so he wants to help. He needs no other justification.
Shandlar
No way, it's showing MCs growth of character and willingness to take on a role with the group instead of going solo. I suspect the group will all agree to go home with Maveath and go Bull Manticore hunting for a few months in order to try to get a handful of Apex Channeling for her. Channeling is one of his lowest needs for powering up.
Snooze Bear
Honestly, saving essence for Castile just feels like a way to avoid powering up the MC…
Chachi
ill be honest i domt think giving those essences to castile was smart considering she would need apex to make it worthwhile. he should just consume them granted if he did eventually find a eay to farm or gather apex or major ones then maybe gift some.
KipBR
Read the part where he shields her again. It talks about repeated lightning strikes, and Mynasha not calming down. Basically she panicked, and started trying to throw close range lightning. She used the shield, then she electrified a corpse a number of times.
Nick Nicholson
Fuck is your point? She didn’t channel jack shit. It literally said the crystals would make her lightning useless. All she did was cast a single lightning shield that broke immediately. I think you should go back and read the chapter again. Please read it very slowly so you understand it.
Silver Beard
The only big question is if the others will be allowed in when the entrance seals to keep Eryk/Mynasha from leaving?
Manfred Schütze
As you can read in this chapter her Body ist streaming, she may have unlimited mana but IT literally burns her Body which ist why she hast a Limit how many lightning Bolts she can fire
Andrew
Thank you!
Silver Beard
Maybe he'll get one from the other Cleric when they attempt to ambush them on the way out. His warlord seriously injured, I don't see the other Cleric trying for the Shadow demon. Attacking another might be frowned upon but if he's the only one to emerge it'll likely be glossed over. Mynasha doesn't exactly have great support.
Eriach
Unlimited doesn't mean she can't become exhausted from channeling all that essence
Eriach
Tftc ♥️
Silver Beard
Nice. Tyfc
KipBR
Yay! A chapter!
matthew dooley
Also thank you for the chapter
Nick Nicholson
What does she need to recover from? She hasn’t done shit this entire time. Plus she said she would have unlimited essence in this dungeon.
matthew dooley
Will the MC ever get an essence for Aether Pool? I think it would help him allot considering how much his bottoms out
Erick Thiemke
4th of 4.
