Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 24

The next two hours were spent making another of the incomplete leeching totems. They worked step by step right until Tanya called everyone in for a break. By this point Riven was confident in his ability to remake the totem given the right ingredients, and there were even substitutions for the quartz crystals he could use via other types of gemstones, but he was still unsure about adding the soul shard. That was going to be the hardest part and would require him to utilize the Death subpillar—which he still hadn’t bound to his soul yet. The description in the manual had a lot of theory behind it that he didn’t quite understand. But he was still very excited to see what would happen when these incomplete totems eventually acquired their soul shards. It would be a venture for another day.

Tanya passed around snacks she’d made, having cooked some more meat they’d taken out of an equivalent refrigerator left by the system for food storage that was fueled by water magic. They had the day-old bread as well, and it still tasted just as great as it had twenty-four hours prior without having gone stale at all.

Julie was excitedly explaining to her younger brother and her mother the specifics of the forge that she and Hakim had learned about through the tutorial book, along with trial and error of their own. She was sweaty, covered in soot, and her hands were starting to blister before she’d wrapped them—but she was obviously enjoying the work. “We’re trying to make knives, because we don’t have all that much time. I don’t know how long it’s supposed to take, but we just finished a knife each…”

She held up her own finished product. It was made of solid iron and wasn’t perfect by any means—but they could tell she was proud of it. The edges weren’t entirely sharp and the leatherbound handle looked a little too big for the blade, but it was definitely a knife, all right.

Julie beamed as everyone clapped, setting it down in front of her with a smile. “The hand-forging of the blade, then grinding them to refine the shape…we had to make all the fittings, handles. Had to harden and temper them, then sharpen it again. It took a long time, but at least I have a weapon for the dungeon now!”

Riven thought about the extra bronze hatchet he’d taken off the sorcerer he’d killed and picked up his bag. Going through it, he quickly found the hatchet, then slid it over across the stone floor to Hakim. “Forgot I had this. Go ahead and use it if you want.”

Hakim wiped sweat from his brow, still breathing heavily from exertion, and looked at the knife he’d made for himself.

Passing his own knife to Tanya, he picked the hatchet up with a nod of thanks Riven’s way and pointed to the totems. “What are those?”

Riven raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried identifying them yet?”

It was a simple thing, but they were still getting used to the idea that they could interact with most things in their environment just by identifying them. Some things had lots of descriptions, while others had none other than a name. Other things were unable to give them details, being too high-quality for them to assess…like Riven’s flowered vase or the bone amulet around his neck.

But he could tell that Hakim got the detailed message regarding his totems when his eyebrows lifted and a large smile crossed his face.

Showing off his creations next, boy did he get a reaction from the others. It was just unfortunate that only he could use them, because none of the others had any Unholy-related pillars. Or any pillars at all yet, for that matter.

Riven had created a third incomplete blood-type totem after yet another failure since his initial two were made. He’d also tried twice to make the other type of Unholy-oriented totem that slowed enemies within their radius, the one called Minor Totem of Murk, but had been unsuccessful both times and no longer had any more time to spare. He’d have to figure out what he was doing wrong later, because the system’s tutorial had stopped giving him hints after his third failure.

Still, coming out with three semicomplete totems that drained health from his enemies was something he was not only proud of, but they would possibly come in handy if he utilized them right. He’d created leather straps for each of them and tied them around the middle to more easily carry the objects and was finally ready to go now that the dungeon was opening.

As for the others, Tanya and Tim had successfully stitched together some additional clothes: namely some very basic shirts, skirts, and shorts. They’d also been able to make plain sandals with some guidance from the tutorial book and the materials given to them, while Hakim and Julie had provided three daggers. There was one for each of the small family, and then an additional small wooden buckler for Hakim, who also wielded the hatchet he’d been given by Riven.

It was better than nothing, that was for sure, but everyone felt rather disappointed at the lack of success concerning the prophecies. Not a single one of them had touched the crystal ball with a reaction, and they’d all given up on day one after trying.

Except Riven, of course, who was still very wary about what’d happened with his own experience concerning the crystal ball. That was some information he’d be keeping to himself, at least for now.

Everyone except Riven and Athela was nervous and shared wary glances with one another while they waited. Even Hakim, who was trying to put on a brave face for the others and was a hulking monster of a man, was obviously a little on edge while tightly gripping his shield and axe.

Meanwhile, Riven was cram-studying what he could from the totem-making tutorial book at a last second run-through. He’d already stuffed the two papers he’d scratched down instructions on for the two totems he’d be able to use, along with the theory notes on soul-shard acquisition and utilization, but he hadn’t found anything usable in the pages of the book beyond this. The rest of the totems were based in Fae magic and the subpillars like Water, Air, and Forest, because the author of the book had been a fae specialist himself.

“Totems will provide experience points toward leveling up if they are used in taking down an enemy, even at a distance. However, this XP is at a significantly decreased value from what would normally be gained by participating in combat yourself.”

Riven nodded, with the final tidbit of knowledge tucked away in his brain, snapped the book shut, and he was about to place it on a nearby table when it simply evaporated from his fingers in a cloud of warm, glowing white smoke.

The large double doors in front of them creaked, the hinges on the heavy, rusted iron breaking and snapping open while dust and dirt fell to the floor. Swinging open and coming to a stop, the doorway lay wide-open before them.

It was the entrance into an abyss, a shadow of black that had no end. There was just a whole lot of nothingness on the other side of the door, and a deep chilling sensation ran through Riven’s bones when the cold air hit him.

“What the fuck?”

*WHOOSH*

In the next second, a howl of wind ripped him and everyone else off their feet, sucking them into the open entrance without warning. They went screaming into the yawning oblivion, the doors snapping shut behind them—blotting out the light while they fell.

Falling through the endless void of nothingness had Riven’s heart doing somersaults in his chest as his limbs flailed about him. He was internally cursing his luck, and that enraged cursing grew to even greater heights when a new and very unexpected message appeared in front of him.