Chapter 16: To Be Crushed or to Become a Diamond

Back in Garden of Roses on the First Plane of Virtue, Liam was sitting on the edge of a small fountain in a safe corner of the maze that had appeared the previous month.

The world felt upside-down to Liam and not just because of the dramatic transformation of the garden – even the sky now had a strange green tinge to it – much more troubling was that his old beliefs about the world had collapsed. Never a fan of rollercoasters, he felt like he was currently trapped in one. The experience of being swept at speed out of his old life was deeply unpleasant. Worse, his situation right now felt like the destination of the rollercoaster was unknown, one where a crash was as likely as a safe arrival. How could a paladin behave so badly? The people who had smashed up the flat had been petty and vindictive. What did they gain from smashing the Xbox? What was wrong with his understanding of the world?

If paladins could be bad, could demons be good? All his history books said demons were wicked and a blight upon humanity. But then all his history books said that the rulers of the Planes of Virtue – paladins, elven queens, golden dragons, and so on ­– were kind and helpful. None of the good beings of the planes were supposed to be the sort of brutes who had destroyed the flat.

And then there was college. Back on his first day, when he had floated into college on a wave of happiness, Liam had looked forward to learning from the best experts in their fields; to forming new friendships; to long conversations with his peers about the meaning of life; to entering a social world that included the possibility of finding a girlfriend he could really fall for.

Instead, he had lessons from junior researchers who simply repeated what was in the course books: the professors were busy polishing their reputations; he’d encountered a powerful sense of entitlement among many of the other students of his course; he had to work long hours and was rarely able to go out to parties; and, above all, there was the very likely sexual harassment of Kate by Professor DuFrey and the very definite attempt by that professor to bully Liam. The people he had looked up to with admiration and respect just a month ago were the ones who were pushing him around. His old life now felt wrong and the course of action proposed by Lord Azanth felt right.

Both Professor DuFrey and Lord Azanth had misjudged him. To them Liam was only a young freshman, a mere Level 6 Mage. He was a lump of dirt on their shoe, which they wanted to push aside. They anticipated meekness. Conformity. Surrender. Well sod them both. Sod his job. His course. It was time to get off the rollercoaster. Any other person being bullied by a professor and a powerful paladin would have very limited options. The most the college authorities would do would be to give DuFrey a slap on the wrist. And while the Gardaí had been mildly sympathetic to Liam on viewing the aftermath of the break in, they stated with indifference that there was no means of tracing the person who did it.

As far as the world was concerned Liam should either accept these blows and carry on quietly towards his eventual career, or perhaps he should drop out and go travelling or find a job outside of being an adventurer. Fortunately, Liam had another option and he had woken up the previous night with the realisation it was the one he was going to take. It would break his parents' hearts but he had decided to go all in on the opportunity provided by Lord Azanth’s knowledge and skills and concentrate on becoming a powerful mage.

That morning Liam had quit his delivery job, had skipped his lectures, and abandoned his coursework. It hadn’t taken much persuasion to get Aengus to leave school – Liam still felt a twinge of guilt about probably ruining his brother’s Leaving Cert prospects – and the three of them were now at the back of the garden maze, arguing about the right character class for Aengus. Even though he was only fifteen, Lord Azanth and Liam needed him to become an effective member of their group.

Do not pay attention to your brother’s weaknesses but to the strength of your foes. I assure you that no weight of armour can mortal flesh protect. Even the warrior at the pinnacle of achievement, with girded by the most powerful platemail armour, can be cracked apart and their soft innards exposed. The monk, however, delivers rapid blows, that both cause damage and stun our foes.

He's too young. He can’t stand in front of monsters without even a shield.

The ponderous warrior who must brace themselves against attack receives hurt even with shield raised and burnished hauberk to protect their body. With my Intoxicating Scent and the monk’s swiftness of attack, there will be many battles in which our enemies are hardly able to raise their arms before they are stunned and destroyed.

It’s the other battles I am worried about.

Your brother has no armour and no armourer’s workshop will ever fill its chest with gold coins from your purses. His best hope for advancement is to slay our foes before they even land a blow upon him and rely upon his Agility to evade the blows of the enemies that cannot be so swiftly slain.

‘What’s the crisp saying?’ Aengus was sitting on the step of the portal, knees drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around them. He looked young. Aengus was pale and had a face that was delicate and better suited to making Liam laugh with tiny, quizzical adjustments of eyebrow and mouth than clenching up with ferocity. He was wearing his favourite jeans, black ones that he had painted with silver lines down the outside. His hoodie was grey and though Aengus’s legs blocked the view, Liam could see the outline of the Mansun logo.

‘Lord Azanth thinks you should be a monk, not a warrior.’

‘A monk?’ Springing up, Aengus kicked at the air, fists clenched at his side. He staggered a little, trying to keep his balance. ‘That’s interesting. A monk! At least I won’t need armour then.’

‘That’s what Lord Azanth said.’

Musingly, now, Aengus ceased jumping around. ‘I think this is a great idea. It suits me to be a monk. I just wish I’d kept going with Tae Kwon Do.’

‘I don’t know. I don’t like the prospect of you facing monsters without any protection.’

‘We should be intent upon the dispatch of our foes, not in pursuing the chimerical goal of avoiding all harm.’

‘You’re talking to Lord Azanth,’ observed Liam after a pause.

‘Well, he makes sense. I’m going to be a monk.’

‘Wait.’ It was hard to see Aengus as a powerful monk, expert in dealing damage. Liam’s brother was small and skinny. It had been a mistake to involve Aengus in this mess.

‘That’s done.’

‘Oh.’ A surge of annoyance rose in Liam. ‘We need to work as a team. That was an important choice and I feel that my views weren’t respected.’

‘We need to get going. I know what you’re like and I can’t wait around for you to look up everything that’s been written about monks before agreeing.’

Your brother has the admirable philosophy of favouring the deed above the word.

He’s a teenager being allowed a character class and to battle in the planes. Of course he’s eager. You know which age group have the most car crashes?

The very old?

The very young. The old are slow and careful. The young are reckless and don’t understand how precarious it is to drive.

‘I have chosen my skill, let’s start.’ Aengus was looking around, for monsters presumably. By now the maze had been explored and much studied. A well-worn path led away from their clearing through one of the gaps between the hedges to low-level encounters that were still ideal for starting characters.

‘What’s your skill?’ asked Liam, curiosity conquering annoyance that Aengus would make such an important decision without consulting his more experienced brother.

‘Unarmed Strike.’ Aengus suddenly punched the air and this time the movement was precise, swift, and powerful. With a broad grin on his face, Aengus brushed back his dark fringe. ‘Let’s go!’

Heading westwards – as much as the twists and turns of the maze allowed – they stayed away from the darker, high-level region with the minotaur and other lethal monsters. Their first encounter was a Crawling Fly-Trap, whose fanged, bulbous head reached toward Liam in a fashion that would have been terrifying at Level 0. Now, of course, it was trivial. One Magic Missile would have destroyed it instantly. Liam glanced at his younger brother to see if any of that brash confidence had faded now he was faced with the actuality of danger.

‘I could kill it,’ said Liam. ‘But perhaps you want to get used to your fighting stye?’

‘Do I just charge?’

‘Wait for Lord Azanth and myself to buff you.’ A moment after he had cast Thornskin on his brother, Liam felt the uplift provided by a Fortify from the demon. ‘Now.’

Without any sign of hesitancy, Aengus sprinted forward, ducked under the whiplash of the plant’s attack and punched it hard in the core of its body. Combined with the damage from the Thornskin this proved enough to kill the monster, which slumped to the ground. Straight away, Aengus hurried on down the maze path towards a Bixie Guard which was holding a short spear. There was a glowing drop over the dead mob, which Liam wanted to collect. It was frustrating to run past it in order to keep up with Aengus, who again had managed to dispatch their opponent without harm.

On his third battle, with a Giant Beetle, Aengus took a hit: a snap of a claw ripped his through his hoodie and into his ribs. Blood poured out of him and his Hit Points dropped by half. Almost at once the scent of prawn cocktail crisp was everywhere. Lord Azanth must have used his new skill. The beetle paused, clearly stunned, and a moment later it was dead to Liam’s Magic Missile.

‘You okay?’ Liam hurried over to his brother.

‘Fine.’ Aengus was sitting and he wriggled until his back got enough support from the bushes behind him that he could relax against it. ‘That smell is strong. I really fancy a bag of crisps right now though.’

Let us continue while your brother recovers. He will still gain group experience if we draw our enemies back to this vicinity.

Sure, just let me go back and get the drops.

In just a little over an hour of pulling and slaughtering a variety of giant insects, bixies and sprites, Aegnus levelled up. His wound had fully regenerated by then, although the hoodie remained torn. That could be a problem, thought Liam, they were going to need money for new clothing.

Aegnus looked over at Liam. ‘I should put my two attribute points into Health, right?’

Glad to be asked, Liam gave his brother a smile. ‘Definitely. You need to be able to survive more than two hits.’

‘Shame though, because Physical Attack and Natural Armour need a boost; Agility too.’

‘Welcome to my world. Where you never have enough attribute points, or levels, or soul stones, or quests.’

Getting to his feet, Aengus said, ‘I’m up to sixteen hit points, from ten. Let’s keep going.’

‘Still too low. It makes me nervous.’

Aegnus shrugged, then set off down a path they had yet to clear.

Another two hours of battling yard trash, almost without rest, and Liam was pleased to hear Aengus call out that he’d reached Level 2. With his Hit Points up to 24, his brother was now perfectly safe from the Level 1 mobs they were destroying. One more level and he’d have a second skill. Perhaps then they could move to a zone where the EXP gain was significant for Liam and Lord Azanth. Here, it was negligible.

‘Can we take a break for dinner?’ asked Aengus and Liam immediately realised how hungry he was. The difficulty was that they had no food at home and very little money to buy some.

You should cook some of these creatures and eat their flesh.

That sounds unpleasant. And in any case, Aengus is a vegan.

A vegan? Lord Azanth sounded dismayed.

You must have come across humans who are vegan? He doesn’t eat meat or diary.

There was a pause. What about elves? I’m fairly sure they are some kind of vegetable. Why don’t we move to the Forest of Lady Hekla and hunt elves?

Fortunately for you, he won’t eat any kind of sentient creature.

Lord Azanth went quiet.

‘Let’s go to the portal. I’ve about eighteen Euro, we can buy some food and come back here to get you to Level Three.’

‘Yeah. This is so much better than school.’

Liam shook his head. Still, the Rubicon had been crossed and there was no going back.