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A Soldier's Life - 157 - Frost Salamander
🕑 Added 2024-03-09 05:36:48 +0000 UTCChapter 157 Frost Salamander
I let Maveith sleep as I prepared breakfast for both of us, finely dicing some bear meat to make patties. As I worked, I popped one of the clear essences into my mouth. This would raise and fortify my aether tolerance, which indicated my natural resistance to channeling large amounts of aether. If a mage pulled too much aether, too quickly, then they risked burning out their aether channels. The old healer in Sobral was burnt. I thought I might be at risk of the same if I started using the aether restorative potions.
As the sphere dissolved, the world around me and my perception of it was momentarily muted. It felt like the opposite effect of the perception essence. My best guess is the dungeon was so saturated with aether that it affected me.
The smell of cooking meat roused Maveith, who took over the duties after handing me the amulet. “How did it go, Maveith?”
“It was cathartic. I will never get tired of seeing my sister again,” he rumbled with strong emotion. He smiled widely, “We fought the orcs and ankheg together and were victorious.”
“I am glad. How about you use the amulet every third rest? Just remind me?” I offered.
“I would appreciate it. You are a true friend to let me use something so precious,” he intoned deeply while nodding enthusiastically.
“Do you want another quickness essence?” I asked, already having the small green spheres in my hand. Maveith nodded eagerly, and I placed all the remaining dark green essences in his hand to his wide eyes. “Just take one a day. Let me know when you run out, and you can choose something else.”
Maveith swallowed one immediately and placed the remaining spheres in his pocket. He focused on cooking as he was the much better cook. Maveith handed me the finished meal, bear patties, and apple slices drizzled with hot apple-berry jam.
While we ate, he asked, “Did you take one of the magic affinities?”
“No, I took an aether tolerance essence. I had trouble the last time I used a magic affinity essence and have been reluctant to try again.” I winced reflexively, recalling the pain from the earth essence I consumed, how abused my body was after, and the foul stench I gave off.
“I am here to watch over you, Eryk.” His deep voice got serious. “You have many secrets. I will keep them all.” There was something about the big gray guy that just made you want to trust him.
“I will consider it. I also explored up the stairs. It is a big climb and ends in a frozen lake chamber with a giant lizard that can burrow through the ice. It hunts large eels in the water for food.” I continued to explain what I had found at the top of the stairs. My description of the creature did not bring any familiarity to Maveith.
“I am going to get some sleep with the amulet. I will see if I can figure out what the creature is.” Maveith looked anxious, “Can you leave the vines? I can start on the rope. Maybe leave the reader table out as well?”
I smirked as he was clearly getting addicted to tracking his progress. The essences would not affect him much, but regaining his lost muscle and body mass would raise his physical stats quickly. I left the tablet reader table and the pile of vines for him.
Entering the dreamscape, everything looked normal until I entered the ankheg room. The strong metallic smell of blood assaulted my senses. Dozens of abused orc corpses littered the room with the two foul-smelling dead ankhegs. I muttered, “At least clean up after yourself, Maveith.”
I eliminated all smells first, removing orc bodies and resetting the room. I would have to tell him that the amulet remained as he left it. With the room clean and live ankhegs hibernating under the ground, I headed toward the scorpion room. In the water room with the centipede fish, I was shocked to find Zarana swimming.
Seeing me, she left the water, climbing onto the floating stone in front of me—and she was naked. I averted my eyes, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here.” Then I remembered I was in the dreamscape and took in her body. I had impure thoughts and wondered just what Maveith was doing with his sister in the dreamscape.
“Is Maveith back?” Zorana asked as I remained speechless. I used my power in the dreamscape to clean her clothes and put them on her body. She looked at the garments, disappointed in either the style or just being clothed.
“No, Zorana. Why are you in this room?” Which sounded like a stupid question.
Her deep and feminine voice laughed, “Cleaning the blood of the orcs off, of course!”
“How? Did Maveith let your—let you wander the dungeon?” I was trying to figure out what freedoms this construct Maveith created had.
“Maveith said I could do whatever I wanted. I wanted to swim,” she said with a mischievous grin. “Do you want to join me? You are Eryk, Maveith’s little friend?” Little friend? I guess compared to the seven-foot bald, gray-skinned goliath woman in front of me, I would appear that way.
“Yes, that is me. But I have too much work to do. Perhaps another time.” I hopped across the stones, and Zorana followed me to the scorpion room uninvited. When I removed the wall, I was not surprised to see Zorana’s construct was missing. Oscar came rushing at me, eager for attention. The Aussie was ready to play. The men were playing cards. “No, combat training today.” I preempted any questions from the disappointed men.
Konstantin’s construct barked, “He is getting soft.” I just muted the entire table, including Maveith, who Zorana didn’t seem to recognize as her brother.
I questioned Zorana, “Did you tell or show Maveith this secret room?”
“No, he never asked about it,” Zorana replied truthfully.
“Good, never show it to him or tell him about it. You can continue to do what you want in the dungeon,” I sat in my plush chair with the elvish bestiaries. Zorana stood behind my chair, looking over my shoulder.
“What are you doing back there?”
“I was hoping you would read to me,” she said happily, leaning on the back of my chair and rocking it slightly. I pinched my nose. It felt wrong to be rude to the construct of Maveith’s sister. She seemed a mix of mischievous and innocent.
“Fine, just don’t interrupt me,” I said. Oscar hopped in my lap, seeing we were not playing ball. I paged through all the bestiaries and didn’t find the blue lizard with big claws. I did manage to identify the potion from the creeping vine room. It was a protection from heat. I supposed that meant fire, but I was not sure.
I recreated the elven potions from the summoner and identified them as well. Lesser aether restoration, lesser stamina, and an empathy enhancement potion. The dominant creature was the best potion I had liberated from the dead summonor.
I had been reading aloud and completely forgotten Zorana was behind me. “Are you leaving so soon?” She asked, disappointed. She was clearly one of those annoying personalities—extroverts.
“It has been about six hours. I have to go and help Maveith,” I said. I expected her to ask to come, but she clearly knew she couldn’t. I looked at the silenced poker table. “You all can wander the dungeon and interact with Big Z here.” I didn’t let her challenge the nickname as I teleported to the entry room and left the dungeon.
Sitting up, Maveith looked at me expectantly from his work on creating a rope from the vines, “Maveith, you do realize the dreamscape remains however you leave it? You left all those dead orcs and your sister unattended.”
Maveith’s eyes got wide in surprise. “I am sorry I didn’t know.”
“Be careful when you clean up. I don’t want the environments to reset. I have some things in the scorpion room I don’t want to have to recreate,” I told him, taking another step down the trust road.
He nodded and added, “I understand. Is Zorana okay?”
I closed my eyes, “She isn’t real, Maveith. She is just constructed from your memories by the amulet in the dreamscape. Do not get too attached. But yes, she is fine and hanging out with everyone else in the scorpion room.”
I could see the conflict in his eyes. He had come to terms with what happened to his sister but couldn’t let her go. The problem with the dreamscape constructs was they behaved exactly the way you expected them to. I hope Maveith didn’t become too attached, “I will check and see if the cockatrices are back. You can wait here,” I said.
It had been over a day since we cleared the room. As I approached, I could already see the cockatrices in the grass looking for worms. They were back. I spent a few minutes trying to count them to see if the number had changed. I only counted six, but that did not mean anything, as a few could be in the nests. I returned and gave Maveith the bad news, “The cockatrices are back. We either have to deal with them again or go up and handle the blue lizard.”
Maveith dropped the cordage he had been working on. About twenty feet of the thick rope had been completed, but he had almost used the entire pile of vines I had salvaged. “I prefer to go up but will follow want you want to do.” Maveith stretched and flexed his fingers from working on the rope. He asked a question I was not ready to answer, “What about the elf griffon rider?”
“What about her? We have not reached a part of the dungeon that would require a third person yet,” I said, and I could see that Maveith thought much differently by his facial expression.
Maveith put his thoughts in order, “We were outnumbered in the cockatrice room. An ally would have been most welcome. You almost got overrun.”
I explained my concerns. “She is not going to trust us. Well, trust me anyway, as I am wearing my legionnaire armor. As soon as I heal her, she will attack me. Then, I will not be able to sleep, knowing she is nearby, probably thinking about slitting my throat.”
“You can always just put her back in your space,” Maveith rationalized in a sage-like tone. He had obviously been thinking about this.
“It would take me two hours to recover enough aether to put a live person in the space. And if I can’t, we have to kill her and waste a healing potion on her.” I could tell Maveith was going to be pushing for her release even before he spoke.
“I will restrain her and protect you. Goliaths are known to be an honorable people among the elves. She should listen to reason,” Maveith argued.
I ended the discussion by saying, “Let’s clean up and look at the ice room together.” My tone left no debate for argument. We couldn’t leave anything behind. The dungeon appeared to let writing remain on the walls, but anything on the floor was absorbed after we left, which was nice since there were no toilets in the safe room.
The two-hundred-plus steps up following the corkscrew pattern were done in silence. I knew Maveith well enough to know he was planning arguments for releasing the elf griffon rider. When we got to the room, it was just a sheet of clear ice. The large eels were underneath the sheet and swimming, oblivious to our presence.
I scanned the ceiling, looking for the creature. “There, Maveith. See how the river of light seems to go around that spot. Maveith focused, but the creature was not moving.”
We stared, and suddenly, the creature dropped to the ice, aware its camouflage was exposed. As it hit the ice, its mass caused spider cracks to form under its six legs, each ending in a nasty locking claw. Maveith inhaled sharply, and the creature looked ferocious. “Do you recognize it?”
Maveith shook his head no. “It is some horror I have never seen.” The creature’s beady blue eyes focused on us. “Maybe the elf rider knows what it is,” Maveith suggested, causing me to roll my eyes.
The creature started stalking the room, repeatedly judging us. It was clearly frustrated that it could not reach us. We waited, making sure a second creature was not in the room. “Since it is just one creature, I can take it.”
“It looks fast, Eryk. Be careful.” Maveith strung his bow and got his last three arrows ready. I hadn’t even realized the other arrows had cracked or snapped.
The creature dug its claws into the ice, and with six legs, it did look fast. I stepped onto the ice, leaving the protection of the corridor. The head of the creature snapped to me, its black eyes sizing me up. It did not look afraid. All six legs locked into the ice. Shit, if it dove through the ice and attacked from underneath, I was fucked. My armor was not dense but didn’t float either.
Thankfully, it charged me, and the ice was blasting away beneath it. The sheet beneath rocked from the creature’s mass, and cracks spread with an eerie rolling cracking sound. Dodging it would be difficult on the ice, so I planned to jump over it after taking its head.
At fifty feet away, it opened its maw and screamed, and a cone of snow, frost, and freezing air blasted toward me. The temperature dropped rapidly, and a snowy haze blocked my vision. Panic started to form in my stomach as my corneas quickly froze, causing my vision to go blurry and darken. The thudding sound of the approaching monstrosity was all I could focus on.
I enlarged the box and listened, guessing at the appropriate time. I moved the box I had made into my dimensional space and felt strong resistance. A good sign I had gotten some of the creature. I tried to move, but the cold had slowed me.
The sound of nails on a chalkboard hit my ears, and I figured it was the creature’s claws sliding on the surface of the ice. That was all I figured out as it slammed into me, whipping my head back and throwing my helmet away. I was catapulted hard into the wall behind me, slamming my head, and knocked into unconsciousness.
Comments
cnjsd dsjncsdk
I can already tell he will release the elf rider
Unwired Rob
I am wondering if there is a huge shift waiting to happen. If he let's the rider out and they manage to become at least temporary allies, will she start to talk about the atrocities committed by Eryk's side? He doesn't have a lot of love lost and the whole system is pretty lousy. Maybe she will convince him to move to the other side and take Castile & trusted team with... might open up some interesting story lines...
robert devoe
ach ending in a nasty locking claw. Maveith inhaled sharply, and the ............ looking claw
Erick Thiemke
I started to do that with book 4. The problem is when I move them over they show as being part of the collection even though they are locked. Then I get inundated with questions why they are locked. Same thing might happen for book 4 but I will see. 3 chapters coming today for other tiers
Xonian
Gotcha, would it potentially be a good idea to add the chapters to the book 3 collection and just keep them locked for non-seraphim’s until RR update? Just a thought instead of having a separate Seraphim collection, maybe more user friendly
Erick Thiemke
you are not sdhowing as being a member of the Seraphim Tier. but these two collections have the chapters 159 to 207 https://www.patreon.com/collection/501795 this is book 4 up to chapter 207 https://www.patreon.com/collection/175631 this has the rest of book 3
Erick Thiemke
You need to go to collections for Seraphim. Seraphim is on chapter 207. Will post links in a second
Vaughn Reich
Where is 158? I cannot find it, it’s been almost 3 months since update for tiers below* Seraphim
Erick Thiemke
https://www.patreon.com/posts/starship-72557958 the last few chapters are in collections up to 190
Duke Togo
Btw where's the chapters past 140 for starship engineer? Im current on RR so that motivated me to try the kitchen sink membership
Duke Togo
Thank you for the reply. I'll probably upgrade my tier. Really do enjoy your novels. It has a very unique flavor.
Erick Thiemke
it is 35 chapters chapters ahead of RR and Scribble hub, with 2 chapters added a week. The Seraphim tier has another 50 draft chapters and gets 4 chapters a week
Marc Joyce
I am in the same boat. I thought I was paying for the latest content, not stuff that's 3 months old. I don't know what to think
Owen Omoregie
I suppose it has to happen sometime, but to me the prop of releasing the rider seems fairly dubious. I don’t see why she would agree to help them seeing as how her mission was to work with the summoner. Plus something about letting her go doesn’t feel right to me. It’s not like he captured her on a honorable battlefield. She was running around helping the summoner release beasts to slaughter innocent villagers.
Duke Togo
Wait where is 158+? I'm still new to patreon
Erick Thiemke
you can access it from the link in the chapter release notes page. but be warned it is a recent author notes and has spoilers as it was updated to chapter 200
jordicl
hey man, it would be great to have a "status check" extra chapter every once in a while. by that i mean just the table with his current stats and what is stored inside his storage space. I'm sure you have that spreadsheet somewhere, so just posting it would be as helpful to keep track of stats as a reader as it helps you as an author.
jordicl
He doesn't have to out himself as an otherworlder to gain her cooperation. She's as screwed as he is, and if she wants to leave the dungeon alive, she needs Eryk to find his company and get out of there alive. She'll also be willing to enter the pokeball again because the alternative is facing his company. She is potentially also Eryk and Castille's ticket to somewhere that is not the Telhian Empire.
jordicl
that cliff is evil
Trevayne
Nice little cliffhanger and a good update.
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter:-)
J S
Well that’s bad.
Erick Thiemke
helo
Erick Thiemke
only the bears in the dungeon give the healing potions. 2 in his space right now
Silent Rain
Hallo 🙋
Silver Beard
but I recall he stashed both of their packs surprising Mavieth at the time.
Erick Thiemke
I don't know why the Goodreads rating is not showing up on Amazon, but yes, it has over 83-something ratings, so it should. I will post a fifth chapter this week. I am trying to finish one now before attacking World Sphere
Silver Beard
Maybe they should try to get more than 1 health potion in reserve; to save one of them from the aftermath of her restoration.
Silver Beard
fast Goliath that's about to save his life in this next chapter. Likely will again and again in the future. Good investment
Silver Beard
Posted.
Erick Thiemke
Maveith is gonna restain her in blood…..lmao
Erick Thiemke
The lightning fast goliath
Erick Thiemke
A few chapters ago they each packed their backpacks with a few items. The collecter is in his backpack
Silver Beard
How? The collector is still in Eryk's space; unless you edit in that Eryk provided him the collector before the assault
Silver Beard
That is a complicated question. I recall when he got the oblivion pills- I made the comment that they would lower the inhibition of others to being stored. It's been said that Mages can actively resist 'storage' or other effects IF they know about them. The elf rider has been stashed twice but both times she was wounded and NOT on guard against it. This time it will be different. Bringing her out will be challenge enough, but the truth is she will have to willingly go back in at a moment's notice. There is no way the rest of the legion will react favorably to her and nobody can exit the delve without Castille and the Cauldron. The oblivion pills might not be an option if the company were to find them first, etc. (edit your plot). Still, she'll have to be willing to lower her resistance if she's going to back in healthy. There's also the reality that he will have to keep his aether topped off all the time in case they find the company so he can stash her away before she's discovered. I suppose that's where the aether potions and tolerance essence fit into the picture. It'll be a huge matter of trust between them for her to keep her guard lowered just for him to be stashed away for a 3rd time. And of course- Eryk is looking for his company which won't be favorable to her at all! Which is why I already suggested he will have to out himself to her and Mavieth as a outworlder to gain her trust. The problem then is that she might be willing to pay that price to out him in spite after she's failed her last 2 charges (her griffin and then the Summoner's apprentice). Her prospects at home are looking pretty grim.
1536539
Thank you for the chapter, damn i love this story. I will restain her and protect her from you Restrain her and protect you from her
BubblyGhost
'I placed all the remaining dark green essences in his hand' - well that's chekov's gun right there lmao
Prinny Knight
Ouija board says yes, my hope and dreams are unsure, my rationality says yes but with extreme caution and prejudice if necessary.
Erick Thiemke
nice. incubus life isn't for everyone. there are some good partial stories on the Announcements page. lots of spelling mistakes and terrible grammar but good stories non the less
Erick Thiemke
definitely an apex essence - if he recovers before the life essence dissipates....maybe Maveith will use the collector.....
Eriach
I found you on RR with town builder, binged that, found soldier, binged that, and binged the space engineer. Now I'm reading TB as you repost it along with the new posts of Soldier
Eriach
Jeez
Erick Thiemke
yes, that was not the reason he didn't want to bathe
Erick Thiemke
1 more chapter this week but if you all get the story on Good Reads (needs 20 reviews before it shows I think) I will post a fifth chapter this week. https://www.goodreads.com/
Eriach
Oh, good fight. Another Apex essence to be had soon. Does Maveith know how to swim?
Erick Thiemke
So - after this room is the MC motivated to try to get the griffin rider to help?
Erick Thiemke
some of you will say you told me so. the kindle unlimited contract thing does prevent me from posting book 1 elsewhere but I will not renew it after the 90 days are up and post book 1 again. spent 2 hours scrubbing the chapters from RR and scribble
