The Izel Registry Library was far larger than the collection in Casterville; that was obvious the moment they walked in even though they’d never actually seen the collection in Casterville. The Izel Library was as large as the entire ground floor of Casterville’s Vocational Registry building.
It was a very good thing that there were librarians. Without them, finding anything would have been impossible. With their help, it was only difficult; they had to figure out what to ask for instead of looking at everything that might be relevant.
They were two hours into their search and had just managed to find a Psychic Bulwark Sphere that sounded a lot like Taika’s when a messenger arrived to let them know that the Izel Registry Master was available. Amy left Sophia, Dav, and Taika to the search while she went to go meet with Registry Master Ermine.
Half an hour later, she returned with the news that they’d be able to visit the Caves of Darkness Challenge the next day, along with a list of the Abilities used to gain the Night Owl Upgrade. Registry Master Ermine was not a Night Owl, so she didn’t have any information beyond the list, but the list seemed surprisingly informative.
Night Owl Requirements
Restricted
Required
Any Beastshape Sphere
Owl form
Night Sight Ability (Caves of Darkness Challenge, must navigate the entry maze without using any form of light; do not proceed after the maze. The Dark Crystal’s etchings glow until light is used. Restricted Challenge. No fighting required.) Becomes Owl’s Sight for Night Owls
Excellent Ears Ability (Batcave Challenge, must catch ten moths per person and place them on the altar at the rear of the cave for the bats. Release any bats that are caught without harming them. Requires a method to cope with the bats’ Terrifying Screech. Bats will not attack anyone who is not frozen by the Screech. Bats must not be harmed. Restricted Challenge.) Becomes Owl’s Wisdom for Night Owls
Huntsman’s Target Ability (Wyld Hunt Challenge, requires escaping the hunters for an hour. REQUIRES an escort to complete prior to the first upgrade. Do not try to fight if caught. Limited to one Hunt Target per Challenge. Granted upon success; does not require learning. Restricted Challenge.) Becomes Seek Prey for Night Owls
Optional
On Wings of Air Ability (Castles in the Sky Mass Challenge; climb the tallest tree near the entrance and find the Runic Feather. Do not leave the tree. You have until the other challengers forfeit to learn the Ability. Fighting limited to low-level Apple Monkeys as long as you stay in the tree. Ranged fighters should guard while others learn the Ability. DO NOT chase the Apple Monkeys.) Becomes Silent Flight for Night Owls
In My Defense Ability (Colors of Magic Challenge; requires following the black stream until you trace out the symbol of the Ability on the ground; enemies may appear at any time the black stream crosses another color steam. For the first symbol, enemies are past the first upgrade. Requires a strong enough group to handle these enemies. Do not attempt to trace a second color. Flight helps in Ability visualization. Restricted Challenge.) Becomes Sheltering Wings for Night Owls
The way to handle the Caves of Darkness was relatively obvious: Amy would visit the Registry’s alchemy store and pick up some elixirs that would let them see without light. Dav wouldn’t need one, but Amy planned to pick up enough for him anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few extras available afterwards and they’d rather prepare more than they needed instead of too little.
Sophia found a reference pamphlet for the Caves of Darkness Challenge with the assistance of one of the librarians. It was one of the few Restricted Challenges that was in the “public” collection where anyone could look at it; apparently, that was because the restriction was that you had to prove you had the right equipment to handle it before you were allowed to enter, rather than a restriction based on upgrades or specific Abilities.
The information on the maze section was sketchy. There wasn’t any mention of traversing the maze in the dark; in fact, there was a strong recommendation to bring light, because there were traps in the maze. They couldn’t be predicted, either; the maze’s layout, including both branches and traps, changed for every visit.
There were details on the known traps, at least; that was going to make things a lot easier. None of them looked like they’d be difficult to avoid as long as you noticed them before you were in them. The bad air trap could probably be ignored as long as Amy bought the right alchemicals for herself and Taika, but they were going to have to watch out for the pitfall trap and the spear trap. Realistically, they should try to watch out for all of them; even with the alchemicals, being caught in poison gas wouldn’t be any fun even if it was noted as something that caused sleep rather than permanent damage.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
It would be easy to leave after the maze, at least. The pamphlet said that there were two exits to the maze; one led outside the Challenge while the other led forward to the first set of monsters. The maze ended at a large cave that had a crystal set into the center of the cave floor. That cave held a pair of doors at the far side from the maze. The one that led outside would glow a soft white or yellow while the one that led onwards, into the deeper sections of the Challenge, would not glow.
Sophia suspected that the exit wouldn’t glow until you revealed a light, given the conditions to see the Dark Crystal. That wasn’t going to be a problem; they all had lights. Even Dav carried a lantern; he might not need light to see where he was going, but he did need light if he wanted to see things like the words on a page and he liked to review Sophia’s notes and lessons on magic in the evening sometimes.
Sophia skimmed through the rest of the information on the Challenge. It looked like a fairly straightforward setup, with a lot of fights against everything from animated cave formations to bats and mobile mushrooms, but even the earliest fights were noted as being “minimum level: six, second upgrade recommended.” They weren’t ready for them.
It wasn’t until the very last page that Sophia found a section that said there were variants possible depending on how the Challenge was approached. It didn’t go into details; those were apparently restricted. Clearly, the way to get the Night Sight Ability was one of those restricted variants.
While Sophia read up on the Caves of Darkness Challenge, Amy and Dav helped Taika figure out more about his new Sphere. Sophia filled the others in, then joined in to help; Taika was the least knowledgeable about his options and couldn’t really manage the books himself, so he was definitely the best person to look into first.
Taika didn’t have any spare Wisps, so all he could see was the Abilities he’d be able to buy with the one open Ability Slot his Sphere came with. The records in the Izel Registry Library made it clear that Psychic Bulwark, with the Ability options he could see, was a rare but known Sphere with three common development routes.
The most common route was psychic only in the fact that the powers all seemed based on telekinesis; other than that, it was more like a shield warrior than anything else. A few personal mental defensive Abilities were noted as being recommended, but they weren’t the focus. Similarly, there were a few attacks, but they were about bolstering your equipment rather than directly increasing your damage. Sophia could see how it could be useful; an unbreakable sword was definitely handy, as was one that couldn’t be taken away from you, and if you could accurately throw it as far as an archer could shoot an arrow and then recall it to your hand, that was even better.
It definitely lived up to the name, but just as obviously was a poor choice for Taika. It was listed as the most common because it was considered the best balance for someone who wanted to do Challenges and fight with a group. It simply required more mass than Taika had to be useful; you weren’t much of a bulwark if anyone could push you to the side without even trying.
The second option was almost purely about defending the Bulwark. It concentrated on shields and mental defense, without even any of the weapon ability of the first option. It was noted as a path often taken by people who didn’t actually want to fight, but who went into dangerous places for other reasons. They were often intending to become Professionals and used their Calling to develop the Abilities they needed to defend themselves until help arrived.
Sophia could definitely see where that option was useful. She could even see it being useful for Taika; his Species gave him extremely good visual illusions, so he’d be able to both hide and protect himself. The problem with it was one that Taike pointed out: it didn’t do anything to help his teammates. Yes, he could use his illusions for them, but that was limited. If he ended up avoiding a mental attack, but they didn’t, the best he could hope for was to escape. He wouldn’t be able to help them.
He didn’t want to go through something like the Juvenile Corpsevine Crown fight ever again. Sophia hadn’t realized how much that affected him, but she really couldn’t argue against his concern; she didn’t want to end up in that situation again either. It was only good luck (and some help from Cliff) that helped her get through it in the first place.
The last route was the least common, but it was also the one Taika favored. It focused primarily on mental shields and defenses and sharing them with allies. It was considered the most powerful in a Nexus Defense or other large-scale combat, as long as the enemies were ones that used mental attacks or mental illusions. Those were common enough that the route was valuable, but unlike the other two routes it wasn’t one that led to great acclaim. Its strength lay in making you not realize you needed it.
It was highly situational, although some Psychic Bulwarks who chose that specialization also picked up some of the shielding Abilities used by the other specialities. They used them differently; they weren’t powerful shields that supplemented their own Guide-provided shield. Instead, they were small precision instruments that could, if timed properly, trip an opponent or redirect a blow.
Taika was distinctly enamored of the idea of using his brains to combat monsters’ brawn. All three of his friends tried to caution him that it was harder than it sounded, but Taika didn’t care. He was very obviously tired of being useful only for his illusions.
The next step was to gather information on possible upgrades to Psychic Bulwark, especially any that required specific Abilities that came from Challenges near Izel. They’d barely started looking when they were told to clean up for the day; the Izel Registry Library was closing for the night.
Sophia’s stomach took that opportunity to rumble. They’d taken a break for lunch, but they’d completely skipped dinner and it was getting late. It only took a few minutes to set the books and pamphlets that needed to be reshelved on the carts set aside for the purpose.
They’d made decent progress that day as far as Sophia was concerned; figuring out your Path was important, even if they called it a Sphere here. It was the choice of your future, after all, since it ruled what you could and couldn’t do for the rest of your life.
It was too bad they couldn’t continue the next day. They were going to be far too busy with the Challenge.
I tried to make the three major routes distinct, though obviously they overlap since they’re all based on the same Sphere. Taika, like Amy, has a Hallow that is almost identical to a known Vocation (the big difference for Taika is that he has a LOT more of the options available than the Vocation usually does … hopefully it’s been clear that that’s sort of the Wanderer’s thing).
I wonder if there are Vocations like Sophia’s and Dav’s Hallows out there somewhere?