Path of Dragons

Book 6: Chapter 74: The Wisdom of No Distractions

Elijah had made a lot of progress.

Or at least that was what he told himself after spending hours entirely immobile in the most uncomfortable position he could have imagined. After he’d given up on getting out of it without leaving the library, he’d turned his attention to the cultivation of his Soul. He’d been working on it for a while, mapping and planning for when he found appropriately dense ethera to fuel the final push. However, the draining of his energy had given him new insight into everything. So, instead of blindly following the pattern he’d read in the guide he had bought so long ago, he chose to follow his intuition.

It was only after hours of sending tiny amounts of ethera – barely enough to even track – to trace its way through his system of channels that he realized how inefficient the old pattern really was. Now, the only question was whether or not he wanted to start over or simply adapt the old plans to accommodate the new information.

Regardless of which way he went, it was a good reminder of two major factors. First, the guides were not foolproof. As the Librarian had confirmed, they were all factually correct. However, that didn’t prevent the authors from omitting certain information or espousing opinions as fact. With his training as a scientist, Elijah felt confident that he could distinguish between the two, but he wasn’t without biases of his own. And those biases would lead him down false paths.

The second aspect that he needed to be reminded of was that cultivation – or any progression, for that matter – was never one-size-fits-all. What worked for him wouldn’t work for someone like Sadie, and vice versa. So, while the guides were sometimes helpful to point him in the right direction, they couldn’t tell him exactly what path to take. The answers he sought required deep introspection, time, and quite a lot of effort.

Because of that, his most recent step forward in the cultivation of his Soul had been woefully inefficient, and it hadn’t taken him nearly as far as he might have hoped. He could keep going down that road and reach the next tier, but he knew it would negatively affect his future.

No – if he wanted to reach his potential, he needed to forge his own path. Certainly, he wouldn’t turn down assistance or more information. Everything was helpful. But it was only part of the whole, and not even the most important piece. Instead, the bulk of his progression needed to come from within. Otherwise, it would be far weaker than it should have been.

The draining of his ethera had laid that bare, so he chose to look at it as an opportunity rather than the humiliating experience it should have been. He also didn’t like the implication that the Librarian could interpret his intent so clearly. It wasn’t precisely mind reading, but it was close enough that it became a huge red flag.

All of that flitted through Elijah’s mind as the others discussed the plan. Apparently, the tower was virtually impregnable – it had been built to stymie Transcendents, after all – which meant that to get in, they needed to jump through the system’s hoops. The challenges really weren’t so different from towers. There were bits of history in there, and Elijah knew that some of the people inside had been – or were – real. However, the structure of the challenges seemed almost wholly manufactured.

In this case, that meant that to get into the tower, they needed to repair three runes on opposite sides of the academy. Once those were intact, the locking mechanism of the tower would be exposed, allowing them access. There were a couple of problems, though.

First, each one of those runes was guarded by a powerful automaton specializing in potent magic. So, before they could repair the runes, they would need to defeat the defenders. And according to the information Dat had found, that would be quite the difficult task, largely because those automatons had been created by the First Mage himself.

That brought up the second issue. The First Mage was a legendary Sorcerer who was capable of destroying whole cities on his own. And that wasn’t hyperbole, either. He’d done just that during the War, and on multiple occasions. His exact status was unknown, but many speculated that he’d crossed the threshold into Transcendence. Obviously, he would be brought down to their level, but anyone with that kind of experience would doubtless be a deadly opponent.

Before they even had to worry about the First Mage, they would need to address the other problem.

“We’re not crafters, bro,” Dat said. “How are we supposed to fix these runes?”

It was a valid issue. The information the others had found made it absolutely clear that repairing the runes would require specialized expertise. It was a reminder that defeating the challenges necessitated a wide variety of archetypes to complete. While Elijah and his companions had managed to get by so far – most of them were extremely versatile – it was almost surprising that they hadn’t encountered such an issue before.

“Do we have anything else we need to figure out before we leave the library?” asked Sadie. “Because I would really like to get Elijah’s opinion on this before we make plans.”

“Aww,” Elijah tried to say. It came out sounding more like a particularly rude and juvenile noise.

“This place is a treasure trove of information,” Ron pointed out. “By all rights, we should spend the rest of our time here, challenge be damned.”

Sadie shook her head. “I don’t think it’s quite as valuable as it seems,” she stated. “Most of it is interesting enough, but only for a historian. From a practical standpoint, there’s not a lot of useful information here.”

From Elijah’s standpoint, that made some sense. The system was extremely helpful, but it guarded information quite fiercely. Elijah expected the reasoning behind that was twofold. First, it wanted to ensure the basic veracity of information, so even if the guides in the World Tree’s Knowledge Base didn’t always tell the whole truth, there were no outright lies in there. Second, it wanted control, and for a variety of reasons Elijah could only begin to fathom. The most prevalent of those was that some information was not meant for inexperienced minds. It was better that people earned that knowledge on their own terms – either through gaining ethereum or through their own experiences. Otherwise, things could go very wrong very quickly.

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Their current situation was almost certainly a case of the system curating what knowledge was available in the library, which meant that they were unlikely to find anything useful, regardless of how much they searched.

Elijah only wished he could say as much, but with his current condition, that was impossible.

Thankfully, the others seemed to understand the situation just as well as he did, and they came to a similar conclusion. However, they did resolve to spend another day in the library, just to make sure that they didn’t miss anything important. It was unlikely, but that didn’t mean it was impossible.

In the meantime, Elijah refocused on his Soul, tracing a new pattern that incorporated some of the lessons he’d learned. The idea wasn’t only to get the ethera to his spells more quickly. It was meant to do that, but Elijah felt certain that his ill-fated experience with trying to flood his body with ethera had him facing the right direction.

So, as the hours passed, he worked on a new design that took that idea and ran with it. Perhaps he was on the wrong track. Maybe he was wasting his time. But his every instinct told him that he was moving down the proper road.

With that on his mind, he didn’t even acknowledge the passage of time. Instead, he focused wholly on the task at hand. So, he was a little surprised when the Librarian finally allowed his companions to remove him from the knowledge repository. Once outside, ethera flooded into his body, and thankfully, he experienced none of the side effects that had beset him when he’d drained his own core.

His eyes fluttered open, and he finally stretched his arms out wide. His joints popped, and his muscles protested. But it felt amazing to finally have the freedom of movement available to him.

“God, that feels good. I always say that you never appreciate the ability to move until you’re paralyzed,” he said.

“You’ve never said that, bro.”

“I’ve thought it once or twice,” Elijah said with a grin.

“You’ve got marks on the side of your face. I can still see the outline of the tiles,” Sadie pointed out.

“Call it a fashion statement,” Elijah replied, still stretching. “So, find anything new? Or are we still on the same mission?”

“Nothing pertinent,” Ron stated.

“But there’s another problem,” Dat added.

“Isn’t there always?”

Just then, a trio of sentry golems turned a corner and caught sight of them. The ambulatory armor immediately launched into a sprint. Sadie stepped forward to meet them, though with a hundred yards separating the creatures from the group, it still took a moment for them to arrive. In that time, Dat said, “We won’t get flooded with golems again, but the city’s in lockdown protocol. That means there are going to be patrols.”

“Fantastic,” Elijah said, already shifting into his guardian form. “At least they give experience, right?”

As he completed his transformation, the three golems arrived. The clash echoed through the streets as he and Sadie stymied their charge. What followed was a brutal melee that reminded everyone just how dangerous the sentry golems could be. The group was capable of dealing with hordes of the things, but not without Kurik’s traps. Minus those, the only way to put the things down was through sheer physical violence.

Sadie and Elijah were well suited to that, but the other three were largely out of their element. Ron could still offer his heals – and he did – but his few offensive spells were useless. The same was true of Dat’s and Kurik’s abilities. Even most of the latter’s traps were ineffective.

So, the bulk of the responsibility fell on Elijah and Sadie. They responded to it with characteristic vigor. Sadie employed a measured approach that took advantage of her superior technique, while Elijah barreled into the enemy with animalistic savagery. Both were effective, though Elijah took far more wounds along the way. Thankfully, that’s where Ron stepped up, keeping them both going. Dat and Kurik did what they could, using hit and run tactics to inflict as much damage as they could manage. It wasn’t much, but every little bit helped.

The first fell pretty quickly when Sadie and Elijah attacked it in unison, though it took a good bit longer to take down the second. They finished the third off within a minute of downing the second.

“How far do we have to go?” Elijah asked. He hadn’t been privy to their planning session, so he wasn’t as familiar with the city’s layout.

“Four miles that way,” Dat said, pointing to the east. “The second is about eight miles to the north. The third is opposite the first. And the tower’s in the middle.”

“This is going to suck, isn’t it?” Elijah wondered. It was a rhetorical question. They all knew the path they’d chosen would be a difficult one. The only question was whether or not it would all be worth it in the end.

They set off without much delay, and after only a couple hundred yards, they encountered another patrol of sentry golems. The group attacked it using a similar strategy, though with slightly better results. When they were finished, Elijah remarked, “At least it’s good experience. I Just got one-eleven.”

“I got a level too, bro.”

“I did as well,” Sadie said.

Kurik grumbled that he didn’t, while Ron revealed that he’d gained a level too. So, it seemed that the rewards would be commiserate with the annoyance of the challenge. Seeing that, they attacked the journey with a little more enthusiasm, and on their way to the first rune, they were forced to fight against seven more patrols. Each one went down, but with varying degrees of difficulty.

For their part, Elijah and his group took their fair share of wounds. Not for the first time, he appreciated having a powerful Healer on his side. Ron made all the difference, and if they’d been forced to fight without him, things would have turned out very differently.

Elijah shuddered as he imagined having to play the role of the group’s Healer. In the beginning, he’d done just that, and he knew that if that had continued, he’d have long since abandoned the challenges altogether. But with Ron taking on that burden, he was free to play to his own strengths.

It was just one more reason they’d managed so much success.

No sooner had that thought passed his mind than they finally reached the site of the first rune.

Elijah muttered, “A temple?”

“I don’t think so, bro.”

“It looks like one,” Sadie countered. “But nothing I read suggests they paid much attention to religion. I think it’s just supposed to look important.”

“That’s kind of dumb, isn’t it?” Ron asked. When everyone looked at him, he just shrugged and said, “If these runes are the only way to get into that tower, then it makes more sense to hide them, right?”

“Unless the defenders are so strong you ain’t gotta worry ‘bout that kinda thing,” Kurik remarked.

Elijah hoped that wasn’t the case, but he felt fairly certain that his hopes would be dashed.