Chapter 342: Sentinel Helm

As Maveith was recovering his aether, Konstantin exited the dreamscape. He looked content as he handed the amulet back to me.

“Wait till you see yourself, Maveith,” Raelia said excitedly. I gave Raelia the small mirror from my shaving kit to hold while Maveith checked himself out. Konstantin was shocked when the armor appeared again. Maveith posed a little before the small mirror, admiring himself. We couldn’t see his expression through the helm, but his body language said enough. His aether ran out after a few minutes, and only the helm remained.

Maveith reached up and took off the goat helm, a massive grin on his face. “I don’t like the color, but I do look imposing in the armor. Is the armor functional in a fight? It didn’t feel like it had any weight to it,” he said doubtfully.

Raelia was the only one who seemed to know anything about the helm. She was more than willing to share, albeit with her know-it-all intonations. “It is an amazing artifact,” she said animatedly. “My griffin wing once escorted an ambassador to the Kingdom of Gesedmuria. We spent some time in the king’s castle waiting for the return escort. They have an elite guard known as the Knights of Virtue. The Knights all wear a sentinel helm, which is a reward from one of the kingdom’s dungeons. The Groaning Burrows, if I remember correctly.”

Raelia looked up at the dungeon ceiling as if it helped recall her memories. “Their armor is polished steel with green highlights, and all the knights match each other perfectly. I was told it’s just an illusion over an aetheric armor spell. They still wear real armor underneath the illusion. I was also told the armor can manifest the illusion without activating it, requiring much less aether to sustain.”

Konstantin seemed skeptical. “I’ve heard about the Knights of Virtue. I’m surprised they revealed so many secrets about their organization to you.”

Raelia smiled wistfully. “Oh, my wing spent a few nights drinking with the king’s guard. Knight Raoul was more than willing to show me how the helm worked privately.”

Based on her reaction, I pieced together what she was insinuating. I was not jealous—definitely not jealous. I bit my tongue. “So, I am not your first human, then?”

Raelia flushed bright red. “I—we—didn’t—" She didn’t continue to avoid getting herself in more trouble. Instead of explaining herself, she turned to Maveith. “The helm should have a way only to manifest the illusion of the armor. It should take almost no aether to maintain. Just experiment with the activation.”

“My aether control isn't great,” Maveith grumbled.

Raelia walked up and patted his shoulder, probably trying to distract me from her revelation of her past dalliances. “Most of the Knights of Virtue had terrible magical attributes. They entered the Order because of their deep aether pool and fighting prowess. If they can do it, I know you can too.”

Maveith nodded at her confidence in him and grinned a little as his face disappeared under the goat helm again. We all waited while Maveith experimented with his aether. It turned out to be extremely simple. He only needed to initiate the channeling on the opposite side of the helm. With just the illusion active, the armor had no substance, and your hand could pass through it.

“Did you say the dungeon gave multiple such helms to delvers?” I asked, imagining an entire army of goliaths in this runic armor would be unstoppable.

Raelia pursed her lips in thought and replied uncertainly. “I think there are about two hundred Knights. The Adventurer’s Guild administers all the dungeons in Gesedmuria, even the Moaning Burrows, so it likely isn't rewarded very often, and the king probably has a right of purchase on the artifact.”

Konstantin took the helm from Maveith and inspected it. “It appears to be sized for a goliath. Maybe only a goliath can use it. May I try?” he asked Maveith, who immediately nodded.

Konstantin slowly lowered the helm on his head. Its large size made me want to make a Spaceballs joke, but, again, it would be fruitless in this company. Konstantin didn’t even need to touch the helm to have the armor manifest. The illusory armor was sized for him, but the large helm made him look slightly comical. As he moved, it wobbled some as well. As he mentioned, padding could be added to improve the fit.

Konstantin drew his blade, facing me, and I sighed. It was clear he wanted to test the helm’s armor. I acquiesced, and we engaged in some test clashes. The armor had substance, leaving a dull, dark blue mark when I connected. That damage repaired itself quickly.

“Enough,” Konstantin boomed, removing the helmet irritably. His graying hair was matted with sweat. “It is difficult to fight with the helm so loose. It also takes a lot of aether to maintain, but I think that might be because it repairs itself. I could hold it for maybe ten minutes in an engagement with you.”

Maveith nodded, agreeing. “I don’t think I could hold it for more than fifteen.” I held back a smirk at Maveith’s aether pool being larger than Konstantin’s. Konstantin didn’t comment, instead handing the helmet back to Maveith.

“I am sure you will use it judiciously,” he said. “Shall we see if the dungeon is more amicable to our presence now?”

The blood caterpillar room now had a humid mist, making the webbing virtually immune to igniting from fire. Still, the blankets of webbing became crusty and brittle after Raelia’s fireball, eliminating their stickiness.

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Without the risk of being entangled in the webbing, the slow-moving caterpillars were not difficult to handle. They were a bit messy; after my spear punctured one, they tended to squirt their yellow blood from the wound. The first time it happened, I got it full in the face and found myself spitting for a good minute to get the taste out of my mouth.

Of the twenty-three blood caterpillars, twenty produced minor nature essences. This slight increase was a promising sign that the dungeon was either boosting our rewards or more effectively replenishing its creatures. I shared the haul with Konstantin, who now had a sizable bag of essences. The reward chest was slightly disappointing, yielding the same silk rope as last time. I stored it before we moved onto the goat maze.

“I don’t think we should bring out the griffin,” Konstantin announced at the entrance to the maze. “At least not until we have completed the dungeon with just the four of us and tested the dungeon’s response to us.”

“It will make it extremely difficult to hunt down all the goats,” Raelia said, clearly eager to give Baldo some hunting experience.

“We can come back later to clear the maze again,” I said. “If Fortuna favors us and we get all the goats, we might claim the chest. If not, it’s not a problem. I’m more focused on collecting the figs.” Seeing their puzzled expressions, I explained, “I believe they could be an excellent foundation for an aether restorative potion.”

That earned some silent stares before Konstantin muttered, “If that’s true, the island will be crawling with alchemists in under a year.” I didn’t explain to Konstantin about efficacy or shelf life—or that I had no idea what other ingredients might be necessary for the brew. I could also be completely wrong and the golden figs could be useless for such a potion. Still, I believed I was right.

We only found seven goats in the maze and collected a less populated fig tree in the center of the maze. I took only one of the major coordination essences, giving two to each of the others. I didn’t allow Maveith to object to the distribution, telling him he could either consume it or give it away when he returned to his family.

The dungeon needed more time to regrow the fruit. As we climbed the switchbacks, we could only see two of the goats walking atop the maze’s walls. Without aerial assistance, navigating the large maze in less than a day to find the wandering goats would be difficult.

Upon reaching the safe room, we rested and took turns on watch. The defenders in the jungle room would reveal whether our assumption about the dungeon was correct. When we huddled around the entrance to the jungle room, we could only spot two black cats in the foliage. On guard, we entered the room, with Maveith testing out the sentinel helm’s armor for the first time. He allowed the large cat to rake his chest, leaving a trio of parallel blue lines on the flat black surface. Testing done, we all focused on killing the cats.

After the two cats were slain, the reward chest appeared, and we relaxed. Under the illusory armor, Maveith found his leather armor unscathed from the slash, filling him with excitement over his new artifact. Carrying the helm around would be a hassle, but it would be worth it. I once again envisioned an army of unstoppable goliaths clad in black, goat-helm armor on the battlefield, but I didn’t know what battle they would be fighting.

The reward chest once again contained two potions on a bed of silver coins. One potion had the now familiar healing potion script, and the other was new. I was the apparent expert, and it took me a few moments to figure it out: “It is a dark sight potion. It allows you to see in the dark.”

“They work amazingly. I used the one from the Shimmering Labyrinth; it felt like the sun was high in the sky,” Maveith contributed. Konstantin ended up taking the potion, but no silver, and the healing potion went into one of my belt pouches. Raelia and Maveith each got one of the major power essences from the cats. With my dimensional space filling rapidly, I only gathered a few of the yellow flowers before we moved on to the manticore room. This would be the true test to see if the dungeon had reset and the difficulty had scaled down for us.

We crowded around the entrance and made sufficient noise to attract the manticores. It didn’t take long before the hideous chimera noticed us. It flapped its powerful wings, circling high above in the chamber. “I only see one,” Maveith offered optimistically.

“It has been over two days since we killed the last pair. I hope the essence it yields is better this time around,” I muttered.

I had Maveith make another failed attempt to communicate with the creature, but it only stared at us. Giving up, I stepped into the chamber, capturing the manticore’s attention. When it came from the cliff toward me, I ran right so the others could attack it from behind. The tail barbs bounced off my air shield and my aether shield from its initial tail attack. But its tactics had changed. It didn’t stop; it continued attacking from range, and instead, its powerful claws descended on me.

Raelia’s fireball erupted, and its dry heat surged over me. The manticore howled in pain from the flames and arrows as it tried to crash into me. It failed, and Heartseeker tore through its wing as it flew past. Maveith had discarded his bow and was rushing toward me with his maul and sentinel armor activated. I was relieved he was on my side as I distracted the injured beast, allowing his hammer to slam into its flank, but not before the tail, still holding a number of barbs, slammed into Maveith’s chest and stuck. My heart caught in my throat, but Maveith’s hammer didn’t slow, shattering its spine and causing both hind legs and tail to go limp.

Anxious about Maveith, I hastily slashed my spear across the beast’s face. I missed the eyes but opened a deep, clean line of flesh across its nose. I followed up my slash with a stab to its neck, pressing the black spear deep into the howling monstrosity. The fight and life quickly left the creature as it slumped.

I rushed to check on Maveith. He stood tall, and after removing the helm, he found a grouping of shallow holes in the leather chest piece beneath it. The manticore had not launched its spikes, so fortunately, no poison was present. None had penetrated to his flesh, but the sentinel helm wasn’t infallible. Maveith fingered the small holes, coming to the same conclusion. “Grab the reward chest, Maveith, and I will see what essence it yields.”

The others joined us, and I pulled the collector into my hand. Konstantin stood over me, equally anxious for the result. The aether being pulled was thick, which was a good sign. As the apex channeling essence formed, I let out a relieved breath.

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