I gasped as a torrent of jagged ice poured over me. My skin felt like it was being shredded even though not a single bit hit me. I worked to control as much of it as possible, but the energy was more than I knew how to handle.

  A dark, sibilant voice whispered inside my head, “Freedom can’t be controlled.”

  I struggled. It wasn’t in my nature to simply give up; and while I might have decided the system AI was public enemy number one, that didn’t mean I was ready to have a slumber party with whoever owned that voice. Eventually, I couldn’t resist it anymore. I lost ground inch-by-inch until the pain overwhelmed me.

  I felt like I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear a sound. It went on for what must have been days. There was simply no end to it. The agony pierced me through and through, but I felt my body change. It became stronger, more durable, better able to respond to the world around it. More than that, it became different. I was no longer 100% a creation of this world. I was something more. What, I had no idea, but I knew my tether to the AI was disrupted. even if only a little bit.

  Building from the Outside In: Trans-dimensional Body I is now considered to be completed. The radical level of transformation has pushed to you exceptional enhancement. All rewards for completing the quest are doubled. STR: +10, CON: +10, AGI: +10. All Damage Resistances: +10. Trans-dimensional Body is upgraded to P-1.

  Updated Quest: Building from the Outside In: Trans-dimensional Body II

  Your change up to this point is only skin deep. Now you need to make the changes sink in deeper. Achieve Trans-dimensional Body J-1.

  Rewards: STR: +15, AGI: +15, CON: +15

  Failure: Likely perma-death at the hands of the being you know as the system AI.

  Rewards for Piercing the Veil I:

  1) Completion of Skin Like Stone. Congratulations. Maybe you do have a future, since you survived the rapid transformation.

  2) Mind +10: Open your mind; it will show you the way.

  3) System Integration reduced by 5%.

  4) Most valuable of all- you gain a new energy pool. We’ll call it the FU pool. Use these points sparingly. At your level, they will regenerate very slowly, unless you are actively absorbing extra-dimensional energy. These points can be used to circumvent the system AI. Experimentation will be required to learn more.

  FU: 3

  Regeneration Rate: 1 per 30 days.

  Continued Quest: Piercing the Veil II

  Continue the quest for more information. Knowledge is power.

  Rewards: Assigned based upon results.

  Failure: It is only a matter of time before the system realizes that one of these things is not like the others.

  Then it was gone. The bubble faded away, and I felt the weight of the system come crashing back down on me. I hadn’t even realized how heavily it had lain on me until I experienced a few moments of freedom. Now, I needed more.

  I stood up. My body definitely felt different. Stronger even than the last transformation. It had hurt, but it was completely worth it. I lifted my spear and realized that my HP and Mana were both ok, but that all my buffs were gone. I had to use my third casting of Arctic Talisman, but it was worth it. Then I charged at the line of kobolds.

  Just before I got to them, I triggered the shadow step ability. Whether it was my newfound conviction or the extra 10 points of Mind, I managed it with far less disorientation. My head was still spinning, but I worked it so I ran into one shadow and out of another on the ceiling, so that I slammed into the shaman.

  His body was crushed under me, but by the time I regained my bearings, he was trying to cast a spell. That wasn’t gonna happen. I grabbed his head and slammed it straight down into the ground. The back of his skull cracked the first time, and then shattered like an egg with my second blow. His HP might not be entirely gone, but he wasn’t going to cast or do anything with his gray matter spread like peanut butter on the cave floor.

  Then I felt a searing pain in the back of my leg and another lesser pain across my back where my hauberk lessened the impact. My agility and the shadow cloak were enough, such that I now rolled and then stood up. The five came at me in unison. I thrust out at the first and drove my spear straight through its armor, both in the front and back.

  The others managed to close and land blows, but I got off a Corrupted Vines spell to bind up three of them. They weren’t nearly so well contained with only one vine on each of them, but it allowed me to step back. I yanked the spear forward as the kobold thrashed about on it. He tried hacking away at it with his sword, but the magical spear held firm.

  I then proceeded to use him as a club to beat the one warrior who wasn’t busy struggling against one of the vines. I was strong enough to batter him back, and that left them open to me casting Frostburn; but before I could finish the spell, Arctic Blast triggered on my spear, and the force of it ripped through not only the warrior stuck on the spear, but also the one which I was beating. The first one shattered into pieces, while the second screamed as his body was ripped apart by cold.

  I quickly realized that these kobolds might have a fiery power, but it came with a cost. They were particularly weak to cold. I spun around and cast Frostburn. I aimed it at the first of the kobolds to hack and burn his way free of the vine. That left only two opponents, well mostly one. The furthest from me was being used like a chew toy by Brother Wolf. Judging from the cuts on my spirit pet, the kobold had managed to put up a good fight at first, but that was past now.

  The remaining kobold managed to cut himself free just as I closed in on him. I blasted him with Frost Rift for 107 damage while he spat a glob of fiery paste at me. It burned into the skin of my neck and collar bone. I gritted my teeth. My fire resistance was enough to resist half the damage.

  I thrust forward with my spear, and he spun around. I will give him that he was pretty agile for someone who had been poisoned and frozen. Without the extra agility from my cloak, I’m not sure how long I would have been able to keep up with him. He took a couple more thrusts with his shield while trying to avoid any direct blows. Even then I could hear his arm cracking under the strain.

  For my part, I accepted a couple of slashing wounds. My resistance to slashing damage was up to 28 now, so he simply wasn’t strong enough to do more than a couple dozen points of damage per blow. Eventually I slammed my hip forward and knocked him backward. He stumbled and instinctively threw his arms out to catch himself. That was the last mistake he ever made, as I jammed my spear through his throat. It wasn’t enough to finish him, but a quickly cast Frostburn spell finished him off. I stomped on his half-frozen head and screamed out my victory to the world.

  Chapter 10- NPC?

  When I pulled myself out of the ogre revelry, I saw that the next group of warriors was currently retreating. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to fight through another group. But on the other hand, that meant they were consolidating their defenses on the bottom floor. I shrugged. Nothing to be done about it.

  After quickly checking to make sure that my buffs were in place and popping a regeneration on myself and Brother Wolf, I moved out. Looting would have to wait until I freed Violet. Her status in the party interface showed her HP at just under 50%, but more significantly, she had a pair of debuffs.

  Bound: You are held firmly by ropes. Under the right circumstances, this might lead somewhere fun; but I don’t think that is what’s happening here. Both mobility and physical attack are reduced to 0%.

  Gagged: Your mouth has been stuffed full of – well .something. Better not to think about it. Have you been running your mouth again? Most spell-casting is impossible, as is verbal communication beyond a grunt.

  She was alive, which was good, but I knew she must be fuming to have been captured by kobolds. At least the absence of any more serious debuffs like broken bones or such meant she should be able to run as soon as I could free her.

  I trotted down the ramp till I reached the stone floor of the dungeon’s bottom. It was actual stone, rather than merely being unworked rock. Everywhere on this level showed a far greater magnitude of development than the higher levels. It appeared that this group of kobolds had spread from this spot. That was fine, as long as there wasn’t a dragon down here.

  It suddenly occurred to me that, while I wasn’t very worried about any number of kobolds, I did need to worry if their god was here. Too late now. It wasn’t like I was going to leave Violet here. I just made sure to pay a bit closer attention.

  At first, I encountered the wreckage of shattered barrels. Foodstuffs and various other goods from a general store were scattered everywhere. Then it led into a twenty-foot-wide and fifteen-foot-high tunnel. It was too large for it to be solely for kobold usage, but I wasn’t going to knock the fact that I didn’t have to move through cramped quarters.

  Somewhere up ahead, I could hear the sounds of a crowd. The closer I listened, the more I could tell that it was a singular voice riling up the crowd.

  “Brothers and sisters, we have a rare opportunity. Today not only will we sacrifice the heretic, but we shall also burn one of our sworn enemies.”

  The cheering got louder. Nothing like a public execution to get a mob incited. I assumed the sworn enemy was Violet but had no idea who the heretic was. Part of me wondered if this was another dungeon event. It seemed unlikely that we would encounter two in one dungeon, especially if this was a new function. There were a couple hundred dungeons across LoS, and that was even during closed beta. That number would only be expanding.

  As I worked my way down the hallway, I saw a shadow within a shadow. I pretended to ignore it until I was just past it, then spun around. A dagger-wielding kobold was leaping for my back. Luckily for me, I could cast Frostburn faster than he could cross the intervening distance. The spell blasted his body backwards as the ice began to spread. He cried out in pain, but I made a quick end of him with a couple of spear thrusts.

  Hopefully, the noise of the crowd up ahead meant that no one would have heard his cries. The funny thing was they had to know I was here, but they weren’t mounting any further organized resistance, just an attack by a rogue-type kobold. I shook my head. Something was definitely off.

  When I reached the end of the tunnel, there was an underground amphitheater carved into the rock. I had to dispatch a couple of guards, but they went down easily, and no further back-up came to help them. Once I got a good look at everything. though, I realized I might have bitten off more than I could chew. If there was a single kobold here, there must have been a thousand of them. Even if they were all under level thirty, there was no way I could fight my way through that many.

  A raised mound was at the center of the amphitheater. There were mounds of gold, weapons, and a hodgepodge of other items which a primitive might have thought were valuable. Two poles were erected, with prisoners tied to them. I recognized Violet right away. Her armor was still on her, but she appeared to be bound firmly. It was too far to make out details, but I had to assume she had a pissed-off look on her face.

  As for the other individual tied up, I couldn’t say for sure. She, maybe a she, was wearing robes. She looked humanoid with long, red hair -- and not human red, but more like crimson red. But as I looked closer it also appeared that she had kobold wings sprouting out of her back. Hmm… oh well. If the kobolds had her bound up then she wasn’t much of a threat.

  Next to them was your classic TV preacher. I certainly hadn’t spent any time watching those holo-channels, but sometimes you skip by and sorta get sucked in. It didn’t matter that he was a kobold. The expressions, mannerisms, and speech patterns were all the same.

  “We mourn our fallen brothers who fought to capture this enemy, just like those touched by the heretic’s lies. But we will root out this corruption and purify it with fire as the great god, Gleorios, taught us.”

  As he spoke, he paused repeatedly for the cheering that followed.

  “Gleorios has not abandoned us. He simply waits for us to show our devotion. We must be diligent in striving for draconic purity. Slay the outsiders and win Selmia for our lord. He will bless our actions today with an increase in power.”

  They were probably lucky that Violet was gagged – otherwise, she’d be laying into that shaman even if she couldn’t move. I took stock of everything else, looking for traps. Around the mound were a number of soldiers. These were black-scaled kobolds. They were probably the ones who had retreated here. There was a type of moat running around the mound. It must have been about ten feet wide, but it couldn’t have been very deep, because the kobold warriors were standing in it.

  Now, I had to figure out how to get past a thousand or more kobolds, past those guards, past the shaman. Then I had to be able to free Violet and maybe the other person before we were swarmed. As I looked again, I saw a circle of shamans form up around the two poles. They clasped hands and began chanting.

  I didn’t know what the spell was, but I could feel the magic. My Pack Caller affinity made me more sensitive to spirit-type magic. This had something to do with that. They were attempting to summon something. It wasn’t rocket science to realize that I probably didn’t want to encounter anything they summoned with two human or sorta human sacrifices and thirteen shamans linked hand-in-hand.

  That just put me back to my original problem: How to get there. There were plenty of shadows there, so while it was further than I had ever shadow stepped yet, I knew I could get there. The problem was that the ability left me disoriented and vulnerable. This called for not just getting there, but being able to move quickly.

  Then I thought about the description of the cape’s abilities. It said that my mass would remain the same. I had certainly noticed that, when moving from one shadow to another. But then it said that I would be able to move as easily as a shadow. It was part of what was making it difficult to adjust. It just wouldn’t help me to flit around among the crowd. Maybe it would work if I was above them, though.

  I could use Levitate to get up to the ceiling of this cavern, but normally that would be problematic. First off, levitation wasn’t flight. The spell description was quite clear that it only allowed for vertical movement. Now, if I could move as easily as a shadow, I might be able to shadow step up to the ceiling, then use levitation to hold me in place there.

  By doing it that way, it would buy me the time to get re-oriented without being swarmed. Then I could drop down right on top of them. Free Violet with my dagger and break up whatever this little ritual was. I had to think that, even if it wasn’t a dungeon event, that it would still be worth some good XP, not that that was my primary motivation. It was most definitely about rescuing Violet.

  Time was running out, though, as the crescendo of their chanting kept rising, and I felt the concentration of magic increasing. I cast Levitate and then willed myself into a shadow up around the ceiling. The gut wrenching sensation was just as bad as before, but luckily, I managed to keep from hurling. Ogre spew raining down likely would have given away my hiding spot.

  Once I regained my bearing, I looked down. It was disorienting to float like a balloon up here, but so far, no one had noticed me. They were all too captivated by whatever show was going on. I thought about how to notify Violet that I was there without letting everyone else know. Then it occurred to me. I could Heal her. Sure, my first healing spells didn’t have a long-enough range, but Moderate Heal did.

  I charged the spell up to quadruple power, and it still only cost me 288 mana. In turn, that allowed me to Heal 1,160 HP. It wasn’t quite enough to bring her to full health, but it definitely got a reaction out of her. Fortunately, the gag in her mouth kept her from making too much noise. Then it was time; no use putting it off.

  I dropped the Levitate spell and started to fall immediately. Because of how I moved as a shadow, it was much slower than normal. I was a good sixty feet up, and normally, I’d take significant damage from that; but now, I was confident I could survive. The downside was that the fall was going to take a full five seconds.

  At about the halfway mark I was seen by one of the guards, who shouted out. I ignored him and cast Frostburn and then Frost Rift in rapid succession at two of the chanting shamans. The mana built up around them disrupted my spells partially, but it was still enough to knock them backwards.

  I landed right behind Violet with my dagger in hand. A quick downward slice severed all the ropes holding her to the pole. Thank goodness for ogre strength. It really did come in handy at times. Then before helping her any further, I cast Polluted Breeze and aimed the flow of poison out into the crowd. Hopefully, that would keep them from trying to rush the mound.

  The guards were overcoming their shock and starting to move towards me. I reached down and cut the bonds holding Violet’s hands together. Violet pulled the gag out and said, “Took ya long enough,” but I heard the appreciation in her tone; or at least I thought I did.

  I took a sidelong glance at the other prisoner and was shocked. She looked to be half kobold, half elf. She was probably five feet tall, but she was bound tightly to the tree. She had kobold wings, tails, clawed hands, and scales in various locations. but elven ears and long crimson hair. Her face was humanoid but still had a feral look to it. I couldn’t see her teeth, but it wasn’t hard for me to envision them as sharp and pointy.