The days that followed were a constant stream of runescripting. While the rest of the camp engaged in other preparations, Dan was busy consuming the resources seized from the enemy base, defusing the ex-Imperials and improving the rest of their squad. Those who didn’t have runes got basic versions of the strength, agility, and armor runes Dan was using.
As for Jennifer, he was able to upgrade her agility rune to the next level, allowing her to overclock it similar to his own high-performance mode. In addition, he added a rune that would allow her to generate a basic magnetic field from her body. The ability would let her cling to metal surfaces as well as attract metal objects. It wouldn’t necessarily provide an immediate benefit, but it did add significant utility to her skillset without the delay of waiting for her to learn another spell.
Dan saved the best for himself, partially because he had the most rune slots available, and partially because he knew he was the team’s heavy hitter. If he was going to be stuck tangling with any high rank elves, he was going to need every possible edge.
With those thoughts in mind, he did his best to ignore the burn of self-inscribing as he added two new runes. The first gave him flame and heat resistance. Not enough that he could play in lava, but enough to ignore the worst of dropping a fireball on himself. The second was a temporal rune. Notoriously hard to craft and a mana hog when activated, the rune would let him speed up his cognition, allowing Dan to perceive events as if they had slowed to a lethargic crawl.
The first rune was inspired by Merella. His eventual goal was to create a fire aura for himself. If his enemies couldn’t approach him without burning themselves, it would certainly simplify sword fighting. The second runescript was straightforward. Being able to “slow down time” for short bursts would allow him to maximize his already-improved reflexes. It might not actually make him better with his sword in a technical sense, but it would go a long way toward improving his survivability in a melee.
Although he still had materials, Dan ran out of time. Unless he planned to ignore the upcoming military operation, they would need to head out at least two days early, especially if they wanted to make it to their staging location in time to scout the landing site. Dan checked the straps on the backpack he raided from the Imperials. It was nowhere near as good as something produced by modern technology, instead made of some sort of alien hemp analogue and leather. He could already tell that the poorly-padded shoulder straps were going to chafe, but there simply weren’t modern amenities to replace it. They hadn’t even gotten a supply drop via helicopter because UN command was too afraid that the Tellask would be able to get an idea as to where their squad was.
Abe was already talking with some of the Imperials. The soldier was better at diplomacy than him, and he had convinced most of them to join the venture with the promise of U.S. citizenship for the survivors. Dan doubted he had the authority to make such a promise, but who knew? It might have been true. Silently, he activated his status to inspect his gains from the previous weeks.
<USER> Status
Rank 5
Body 6(8)
Agility 7 (9)
Mind 8
Perception 7
Spirit 49
Skills
Swords 10, Brawling 5, Archery 2, Runecrafting 7, Leadership 4
Affinity
Space 12, Lightning 11, Fire 10, Gravity 6, Force 9
Enhancements
Armor Rune V, Strength Rune +2, Agility Rune +2, Thermal Resistance Rune, Temporal Dilation Rune 10:1
Runes+
Spells
Shocking Fist 10, Spark Field 2, Lightning Stroke 10, Spatial Shield 8, Flame Jet 4, Gravitational Easing 6, Fireball 11, Force Bubble 8, Spellshield 6, Forcebolt 3
He was almost ready to reach Rank 6. In addition to his modest increases in runecrafting, his recent focus on force magic had paid off. Forcebolt finally packed enough punch to do appreciably more damage and his spellshields had become noticeably more resilient. Still not enough to make him feel comfortable going toe to toe with an archmage, but he was steadily gaining strength.
Without much ado, they began their hike around 10:00 a.m. After torturing Merella, most of the Imperials avoided him, although Tessa would occasionally greet him with a pleasantry. After reconnecting with him, Sam was trying to work on her relationship with Ellie. As far as Dan could tell, it wasn’t going terribly well. The much younger woman seemed to be scared of everything and uniquely unsuited to their mission.
Really, Dan was fine with walking on his own. After the last couple weeks of constant activity, a couple hours to himself to collect his thoughts were more than welcome. Ironically, before the Tellask had come and the world had gone to hell, hiking on his own had always been Dan’s escape. Even when he went with friends, it was usually only a matter of time before uncomfortable small talk lapsed into blessed silence.
Of course, things weren’t completely still or silent. Awakening the mana of some animals in the Amazon had started what appeared to be an unstoppable chain reaction. New animals born near awakened animals had their mana activated as well. Even eating mana-infused vegetation or prey could unlock an animal’s mana.
Dan didn’t have any idea how many creatures the Tellask had brought with them or intentionally awakened, but as they approached the landing site, the jungle changed noticeably. Trees were bigger, and there were at least a couple of new varieties that Dan swore he saw move. The foliage in the undergrowth was more prone to be covered in barbed thorns. On one occasion, the group took a long detour to avoid a series of vines emitting a dark miasma, the ground beneath them littered with sparkling white bones, picked clean of any flesh or mana.
After the first day, Jennifer became bored and began walking with Dan. They really didn’t have that much in common, but she didn’t let that stop her. She chatted with him about her streaming career and exploits for hours on end. At first he didn’t really care, but she was an engaging story-teller, and before long, he found himself interested. Not really in the games themselves, but in the drama between members of top guilds. As each new game would come out, the elite VRMMORPG players would migrate to the new game and try to become the first to master the meta. It led to rivalries and petty grievances straight out of daytime soap operas.
It turned out that the division in the Starshield candidates could be traced back to their general guild affiliations. Years of pvp and stealing loot led to enough bad blood and name-calling that getting the groups to work together was about as effective as herding cats. Yet another incidence of Henry acting rather than planning.
Dan opened up to Jennifer as well. She learned about his overbearing mother, the brief period in college where he had some decent friends before he lost touch with them while dating. The eventual issues with his ex, and how Sam was really the only stable friend he had after his life fell into a rut. Despite how mundane the subjects were compared to the coming battles, Jennifer seemed interested in sharing stories with him. Dan welcomed the distraction as he tried to avoid thinking too much about the coming conflicts.
Then, as they set up camp just before dark on the second day, Abe walked up to him, his usual jocularity missing from his face.
“Thrush.” He nodded at Dan while he tried poorly to assemble a heavy canvas Imperial tent. “I just wanted to talk to you about the plan for tomorrow.”
“We’re mapping the area, right?” Dan asked, frustration on his face as he stared at a set of unwieldy tent poles. “Looking for Imperial sentries and avoiding them while searching for spots to place artillery for the upcoming attack. Did I miss something?”
“Well,” Abe chuckled slightly. “That’s more or less the gist of it, although what you’ve said is more of an explanation than a plan. We also need to look for avenues of attack. Holes in the enemy defenses. If they have towers that can shoot down an F-35, I’m sure they have something magical that can do a number on ground troops. Command would prefer to know about any nasty surprises ahead of time.”
“That makes sense.” Dan frowned. “Is that the reason you’re approaching me? You want me out there triggering the nasty surprises ahead of time?”
“You got me.” Abe rubbed the back of his head a bit bashfully. “Look, the ex-Imperials can handle scouting out the sentry positions. Even if they’re spotted, they look enough like the enemy that they’ll probably get mistaken for a patrol. William, Rose, and I will be looking for the artillery positions. No offense, but no one but us even knows the first thing about what to look for.”
“High ground?” Dan interjected hopefully.
“Fine.” Abe rolled his eyes. “No one but us knows the second thing about how to station artillery. That leaves us with figuring out a plan of attack and scoping out their defenses. Honestly? The only people that can keep up with elves and fight silently at their level are you and Jennifer. Maybe my team could do it, but we both know you’re more powerful.’
Dan chewed his lip for a second, deep in thought. Ultimately, he couldn’t disagree. The landing site was almost certainly littered with powerful magical weapons. Without an attack plan, or even some basic intelligence such as the layout of the base, attacking blind would probably be a death trap. Worse, the only five people that could do it were him, Jennifer, Abe, Rose, and Will. No one else could fight well enough to silently take down any of the guards they would run into.
“I’ll ask Jennifer,” he sighed. “Give us a map or something, and we’ll head out before dawn and see what we can do.”
