Ultimate Level 1

A rush of glowing light flooded around Batrire, which was so bright it almost blinded Max as he stared at his dwarven friend.

In the party view, he saw the slightest sliver of red hanging on. For what felt like an eternity, it didn’t move.

The hand still rested on his shoulder, and Max glanced up, seeing an older female elf, old enough, her face actually having wrinkles on it.

“She will be fine,” she said as she smiled at him.

“But her health it’s not–”

“I know. I was able to get my stasis spell on her in time. She was lucky. You saved her. Now, help me get her to another room, and we will take care of her.”

Max realized he was kneeling next to Batrire but could not remember dropping to them and slowly stood up.

“My team… they will be coming…” Max paused, realizing there was a crowd of other adventurers surrounding him. Many had tears in their eyes, and he saw them all looking at him with a look he couldn’t place on their faces.

“We will find them and bring them to you,” the woman replied. “Which dungeon?”

“The scorpion one.”

She nodded, and two men in attendant suits repeated the gesture and raced off toward that hallway.

“Do you want to carry her, or shall I have someone else do it?”

Her voice calmed him even though Max couldn’t bring himself to believe Batrire would be ok. Her health bar still sat there on the cusp of death. One wrong move could send her to the grave.

“I’ll… I’ll carry her.”

The woman nodded and watched as Max bent down and gently scooped her up in his arms, realizing he had slathered all of the gore from himself onto Batrire’s outfit. “She’s going to kill me when she sees this mess,” Max mumbled to himself.

Some laughter came from those who heard him, and Max glanced around, seeing the gathered people start to smile, and then a few began to clap.

Tears never stopped flowing from his eyes as Max bowed his head. He couldn’t look at them. He didn’t feel like he earned this praise.

“Lift your head,” the elven woman spoke as she stood beside him and put a hand in the middle of his back. “They see how you care about your friend, and we all know you gave everything you had to save her. There is no greater honor than that.”

Max nodded, trying to blink away the tears and acknowledging the applause and words of encouragement with a nod and a smile.

He let the woman lead him with her hand, slowly moving through a gap that appeared in the crowd.

“What were you fighting?”

Max looked up from the bed where Batrire was lying, breathing slowly but now clean and appearing safe from harm.

She had been taken out of his party and somehow forced into another with a few guild specialists who were treating her.

“It was something in none of the books,” Max admitted, looking at the older woman watching him with grey eyes. “It had three tails and–”

He saw the woman gasp. He tried to remember her name. She had told it to him as they walked.

“Three tails, are you… of course you’re certain. And this is what poisoned her?”

Max nodded.

“I hate to ask this, but did you defeat it?”

Bobbing his head again, Max glanced at Batrire before responding. “It was a tough fight. I wasn’t certain we should try, but… Batrire wanted to and–”

The door crashed open, and Fowl and Tanila rushed in, ignoring the hallway attendant trying to stop them.

“Is she ok!?” Fowl shouted, rushing toward the bed and seeing Batrire with her eyes closed.

Max moved quickly, stopping his friend, who tried to push past him.

“She is, but stop Fowl! She needs to not be touched!”

Fowl glared at Max and then looked at Batrire, and then he fell to his knees, pulling on his beard.

“Why did I let her make us do this?! Why didn’t I listen to you and say no?”

Putting a hand on Fowl’s shoulder, Max bent down and looked at his friend. Seeing the tears forming, Max gave him a gentle shake.

“She is ok. I made it in time, and this woman behind me, Merla, saved her. Now we just have to let them do their job.”

Fowl reached up with his hand and clasped Max’s arm. “Thank you. I owe you more than I can ever repay, but know my life is yours,” he whispered.

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Max shook his head. “We’re family. I would do this for any of you. Besides, we both know Batrire already has a claim to your life.”

Fowl snorted and then coughed. After clearing his throat, he chuckled a few times and nodded.

Letting Max help him to his feet, he turned and bowed to the woman standing behind them, watching their interaction.

“I am grateful for what you did. Thank you.”

She returned the bow slightly and smiled. “It is my pleasure. This is one of the reasons why I am in the hall: to help when moments like this come. I am just glad my legs are still swift enough that I was able to make it in time. Your friend, Seth, was just telling me about the creature you four killed.”

Fowl turned and looked at Max, who nodded. Then Max saw Tanila moving toward him.

She gave him a massive hug and whispered ‘thank you’ in his ear before moving to the chair by Batrire’s bed.

“We did manage to defeat it.”

Her grey eyes sparkled as Fowl said those words. “Can I ask what it dropped?”

Fowl glanced at Max, who shrugged his shoulders. “Can I ask why? I’m assuming you know about it even though it wasn’t in any books I read.”

Merla bit her lip as Fowl and Max gazed at her.

“There are many creatures not listed in most books. Knowledge of that one is limited. There have only been three sightings or encounters recorded. Perhaps there have been other occasions when it appeared, but those groups never returned. To know you four defeated it and all survived…” she paused, her eyes going to Batrire, “leads me to a few questions I would like to have an answer to.”

“Are the drops more important or the skills and abilities?” Max asked. “I honestly don’t know what it had, but you might understand if the other two are a bit reserved about sharing those details.”

Merla nodded. “Yes, I think I would prefer to know about its abilities. Just tell me if you would, was it a chest boss?”contemporary romance

Max glanced at Fowl and shrugged. Fowl looked at Tanila, who nodded after motioning to Batrire on the bed beside her.

“There was a chest, ma’am. It had a key we acquired after we…” Fowl grimaced, wondering if he had said too much. “After we harvested everything we could think of.”

Max had never seen an elf’s expression change as fast as Merla’s did now. Her eyes and mouth competed to see which one was wider.

“You harvested it?! Can I…” she stopped, shaking her head. “No, it is for you four to decide what to do with those parts, but know that I can help you find the right person to handle them discretely.”

Max and Fowl chuckled, agreeing that they would need to keep this hidden from others.

“We would appreciate that,” Max said. “Now let me tell you about what it could do.”

They only had information on two of the tails, and she understood there would be no knowledge about the third. She was also able to explain how Batrire had gotten poisoned when no substance had ended up on her.

“The poison was rumored to have an effect that transferred the poison to the healer.” Merla laughed suddenly and shook her head. “I should be thankful that I cast stasis and not heal, as I would have ended up poisoning myself… we could have wiped out most of the healers in this place.”

“Is that why Batrire is still like that?” Fowl asked.

She nodded and moved to the middle of the room where the bed was. “Now that I know what is causing this, I can get a special elixir made. I’m unsure of the cost, but I will do what I can to help alleviate it. Those kinds of things are rare and…” Her eyes sparkled as she turned around quickly and looked at Fowl. “Did you harvest the tail that had the green poison?”

Fowl winced but nodded.

“Perfect! That should help with this also. I know you wanted to keep it a secret, but we must get them working on a cure quickly. I only know of one person who could probably get this done within a week… anyone else would take maybe a month.”

Tanila started to choke when she heard that time frame. “A month! Seriously?”

Merla shrugged. I know only one alchemist with the skill and ingredients to use that tail to create an antidote. The only other option would be a tower item, and that would be costly.

Max sighed, knowing what the healing elixir from the tower would have cost for his eye.

“Let’s do it.”

Fowl nodded in agreement with Max. “Tanila, are you okay if Seth and I go with Merla to meet this alchemist?”

Tanila smiled and nodded. “I won’t leave her side.”

Max tried to ignore the area of the inner capital Merla had led them to. The sculptures and buildings made everything he had seen in any other part of the capital feel bland and drab.

Every statue outside this man’s shop was so detailed that their eyes seemed to follow you, and it looked like they were about to come to life. They had gold foil, silver, and other colors on the stone to look like clothing and armor. The weapon each held shone in the light of the sun.

“Someone’s making too much money off their stuff,” Fowl muttered as they entered the shop. The stone building looked to be one solid piece. Both felt that had to be impossible, but even Fowl commented that he found no lines where the stones come together.

The door was a deep, dark wood that neither had ever laid eyes on before. The grain and pattern were hard to follow as it constantly drew your eye to new spots.

Inside was a tiny sitting area with fancy chairs and a solid glass that ran along the small shop opening. Other than that, there weren’t any supplies or evidence this was an alchemist shop.

“He keeps everything in the back,” Merla said as she noticed Fowl and Max scanning the room.

A young man stood behind the counter, his clothes made of the finest material Max could ever recall seeing.

“Ahh, Mistress Merla. Good to see you. It’s been years. I will gladly get my master if you wish to see him.”

She nodded, and the man moved to a door before touching a metal plate next to it. The door opened on its own, and he disappeared inside, with it closing behind him.

“This is an alchemist shop?’ Fowl asked.

Merla laughed louder than Max had expected as she moved to one of the couches and sat down, motioning for the two of them to join her.

“In this section of town, people do not want to see or smell those things. They want to walk in, tell you what they need or desire, and then be given a price.”

Max nodded. “I guess a noble person wouldn’t want to go home smelling like the fumes of an alchemist.”

“Exactly. Now, behind that door is a workshop like most could never even dream about, but we will wait and see what Tang Mu can do for us.”

“Tang Mu? That is an unusual name.”

Merla smiled and winked at Fowl. “It is. He doesn’t come from our kingdoms. On the other side of the great ocean are more kingdoms, and where he is from alchemy is an exceptional art. Some would say even more important than magic.”

Fowl coughed, finding it hard to believe that someone would compare the two with alchemy winning.

The door the young man had gone through opened and they turned, seeing a smaller man with slightly brown skin and a long mustache that hung down both sides of his lips coming toward them. His smile was whiter than any Max could remember seeing.

“Lady Merla, welcome to my shop once again.”

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