Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Gloomy catacombs

The vampiress considered moving to another area and attacking again, but she had more urgent things to do. She was concerned about the integrity of the mansion and its inhabitants.

Therefore, Gjaki headed for what every fantasy fortress worth its salt must have: a secret entrance. She had created several tunnels to sneak in and out of the mansion, which were cleverly hidden.

Only she could open them, and get through the multiple defensive spells without the rock collapsing over her. She had spent quite a bit of gold and time creating them, but her fortress would have been incomplete without them. Besides, she had enjoyed building them, even though the promised and expected bastion attacks had never been implemented.

It had been one of the promises of the game at its launch, and one of the great disappointments. Not a few had cursed and even quit the game for that reason. Although, truth be told, Gjaki had preferred it that way. She didn't want her beautiful mansion and its tenants to get involved in it. Now, she even was grateful.

One of the entrances, to which she was heading, was just behind a small waterfall, as all the canons dictate. When she arrived, she stood for a moment open-mouthed, admiring the place. It was much more beautiful in reality than it had been in the game, much more real.

She approached nervously. The Oracle had already warned her that not everything she had seen in the game was real. So, she breathed a sigh of relief after feeling the magic that the vampiress recognized as her own, though more powerful.

The entrance had reacted to the stone being stained by a drop of blood, which was the first step in activating it. The next was to simply let enough mana flow for the rocks to split open. Of course, the mana had to be compatible with the one already imbued in them, her own.

Afterwards, she simply walked through the tunnel, and went through multiple mana barriers, past multiple traps. To avoid them, it was necessary to have an idea of ​​where not to step, and to be Gjaki.

It struck her as both oddly nostalgic and as a delightful novelty. The tunnel lit up as she progressed, and dimmed once she passed. It is true that she didn't need it, but the effect had seemed essential to her in the game. Besides, it was helpful when she invited Eldi or Goldmi to see her construction.

A somewhat eerie sound could be heard as the wind passed, although there shouldn't be any wind there. However, the pack wind with chilling noises had been at a price that was hard to resist.

There was also other decorations, such as cobwebs, blood stains, or a coffin embedded in the wall. Not to mention that the lights came from chandeliers adorned with bat wings at their bases.

There were even some doors with the sole purpose of making noise when opening. They could also lead to rooms with skeletons chained to torture devices, which she now didn't know if they were real. There could be also graves, some of them half-open, which showed skeletal hands.

She couldn't help but admire what she had created, like a child at an amusement park. For a while, Gjaki almost forgot about everything else, and she couldn't stop the smile from her lips while looking around. She even triggered a couple of traps to see them act.

Finally, the vampiress reached a door different from the others. It was the last defense, the last identification.

She put her hand on it, and let it sink into what seemed solid material. In fact, it was, unless the spell to cross it was triggered. If it was tried to open normally, all the defense mechanisms of the tunnel would trigger.

She arrived at a small circular room with a multitude of doors. All but one led onto other tunnels, although it was impossible to tell which ones. However, she remembered them perfectly. Not in vain had she designed them one by one, all with somewhat gloomy motifs.

She passed through the huge mouth of a skeleton dragon painted on one of them, and emerged in a small corridor. Again, it was packed with deadly traps. In fact, she had died in the game more than once while setting them up, creating the ID system, or just testing. Although it was more fun to try them with her companions, by surprise. Eldi hadn't found it that funny, but Goldmi had, when her friend had sent her the video.

The corridor also ended in a door, which could be crossed like the previous ones. However, if it was done that way, one would be trapped in it. It had to be opened. For this, a black key that she took out of the inventory was needed.

The command post was a huge underground room filled with monitors, different types of controls, and a large red button. In fact, there was more than one red button, as they gave a 30% discount if bought in packs of five.

However, all the monitors were off, as they were an unnecessary mana drain if no one was there. She was the only one who could enter.

She walked up to one of them and imbued mana. Immediately, it seemed to come to life, and showed her the general parameters of the mansion. She could see that most of the defenses were down, though there was one notable exception. The shield bar was at 100%, though it was continually oscillating, which indicated that it was being attacked. However, it never dropped below 97%.

She was surprised to see that most of the mansion's utilities had been disabled. Many of the bathrooms, kitchens, massage chairs, or other amenities were shutted down, though not listed as broken. She soon understood why.

"Mana is at 0.74%. They must've deactivated the non-essentials. Mmmh. The escape device is ready and loaded. 0.73%. The shield won't last much longer. I have to do something."

She walked through the door that led to the core. This could be seen from the outside, but could not be accessed by any other way. The huge gem had lost much of its brilliance, which made it apparent that it barely had any mana left.

In the game, she had carried that stone with her to charge it little by little. In fact, when she was busy, Gjaki would sometimes log in just to pour her mana into it, as she knew that when coming back in, it would be already replenished. She also dumped in it all mana left just before logging out.

It had taken her months to charge it, when she was at level 100. While it was true that it wasn't done continuously, she knew that she couldn't just stand next to it and recharge it. The spending of the shield while resisting the attacks was much higher than her mana regeneration.

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Closed for vacations. Next chapter in September.