Chapter 61: Chapter 60: A Rogue deals with a bug

Nicholas alerted Jack to their acceptance of the deal. Then he waited a few seconds before he saw the twins faces light up and Debra said "Oh I got a message from your god Jack. Are you ready to accept it, Denise?"

"Yeah, I'm accepting it now."

While Nicholas was observing them, he felt a surge of power he identified as Jack's energy flow into the twins. His energy was very low-key, Nicholas only felt it because he has divine energy within him. The energy seemed to change them at a fundamental level.

"Sis this is awesome! Look we have an inventory we can store things in!" Denise said.

"Have you checked out the map?" Debra said excitedly.

The two girls chatted for each other about the things they had gotten from the contract then opened up their status. "Hmm it's asking us to select a class. That is what you were talking about right? Wait a minute you forgot to introduce yourself." Debra said.

"I guess I did not. This is Frankie my close friend and I'm Nicholas. Yes, I was talking about the class earlier." Nicholas said.

"Oh she's only a friend? I thought the two of you were a couple. I'll take a look at the classes, oh hey there is a blacksmith class in here!" Debra said. "What will you select Denise?"

"I'm thinking of going with Elementalist. It sounds pretty cool. Huh, it's asking me what Element I should focus on. What should I focus on?"

Nicholas asked "What are your options?"

"There is quite alot actually, lets see there is fire, water, ground, air, and a bunch of other basic ones. I'm thinking I should pick something uncommon. What about Lightning?"

"No way sis! Do you remember that time I got shocked by Uncle Jimmy? I'm not hanging out with you if you choose that."

"Okay, yeah, that was absolutely awful. Your hair didn't stay down for three days after that. What about this one Space?"

Nicholas said "I never heard of that one. What is it?"

"It says it's the very fabric of the universe. To be honest it looks above my head. I probably shouldn't go with this one. Oh wait, here is a great one for us Sis, Metal! If I take it, I can help you with blacksmithing."

"You sure sis? You are the best!" Debra hugged Denise.

"No you are" Debra hugged back and they hugged for a very long time.

"So did the two of you get a skill when you select your classes?"

"Yeah, I got Forging Strike." Debra said.

"For me I got Basic Metal Manipulation. I can control metal within ten feet of me. Wow, I can feel metal as well, this is kind of trippy."

Nicholas picked up one of the rusty blades and said "Can you show me what you can do with this?"

"Sure." Denise looked at the sword and the blade seemed to melt in Nicholas hand, it soon formed a smooth circle and then a condensed cube. She picked it up and said "Wow that takes a lot of mana to do. Just controlling doesn't take much, but manipulating it took quite a chunk of my mana to do."

"Hey Frankie, here you go." Nicholas handed her the Bug Repellant. "You need this more then I do."

"Thank you Nicholas." Frankie smiled up at him, and his heart twisted again.

Turning to the twins Nicholas said "We should all sign up to be a party. I am already in one with Frankie; it will allow us to keep track of one another."

"Sure." Debra and Denise said.

Sending them all a party invite, Nicholas soon saw a pair of small versions of the twins under the image of Frankie. After picking up anything of worth from the battle site, they began heading towards where the map said the temple was. As they headed deeper into the valley a deep mist began to settle around them.

While they were walking Debra asked Frankie "So what are the two of you doing out here?"

"I was cursed, Nicholas is helping me break it."

"He looks like he genuinely cares for you. Are you sure you two are just friends?"

Nicholas in front could feel Frankie staring at him. Frankie said with a tinge of sadness "yeah."

Focusing on the path ahead they soon arrived at a cliff face. There was a bunch of dead trees around, and hidden under some dying moss, was a door. Beside them, were the remains of some busted statues that looked ancient. Nicholas could only barely tell they were once a set female statues.

Tearing away the moss, Nicholas found the door held an inscription in a language he did not recognize. "Can any of you read this?"

Seeing none did Nicholas placed his hand on the door and tried to push it open. Suddenly a burning pain in his hand made him yelp and step back. As he did so, the door slid upwards revealing a dark hallway. Then several lights flared into existence illuminating the path ahead.

"Are you okay?" Frankie asked.

"Yeah, Just gave me a bit of a shock."

"That was kinda ominous, do we really need to go into there?" Debra said.

"Yeah."

The party went forward, and as they walked down the tunnel, Nicholas noticed a strange hole in the side of the tunnel. It was fairly large, at two feet across; it looked as if something had dug its way into the temple.

Debra looked at the hole and said "I think I've seen these kinds of holes before. They come from Giant Cave Beetles. They are not very friendly. They luckily have short lifespans. The only problem is that they get quite large before they die."

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"How big do they get?" Frankie asked sounding worried.

"Very big. About the size of a small carriage. But based on the age of this hole, I think it's past it's lifespan by a while."

They continued onward, as they went several murals began to appear on the walls of the tunnel. They were of Undead and the Living engaging in battles. Nicholas had seen similar murals underneath Narak. Was this another temple to that corrupted goddess?

Before long they reached a spacious chamber. Two massive statues inside were placed staring at one another. They both resembled each other and radiated a different aura. The one on the left felt like life, and the one on the right was giving off a death aura. Nicholas recognized them as the same one he had seen before in Narak.

Frankie said "Hey that's the same goddess we saw." Her voice echoed across the chamber. They continued forward towards an altar.

Getting a strange feeling like they were being stared at, Nicholas looked around. Not seeing anything, he quickly cast the spark of the sun and lit up the chamber even more then the flickering lights did. When he did so, he saw it hanging from the ceiling.

A massive beetle was staring down at them, and when it saw it had been spotted, it dropped down behind them. It landed with a huge thud and cracked the ground underneath it. The thing was foul looking as if it was rotting inside it's shell. Nicholas quickly examined it.

 

It charged towards them, Nicholas grabbed Frankie and jumped out of the way as the Beetle charged pass. It's giant mandibles tried to grab onto Nicholas, but he dodged out of the way. "Keep back Frankie! It's Undead!"

Nicholas drew Deasma and ran around the beetle drawing it's attention. "Hey asshole over here." Nicholas stabbed into the bug and it let out a roar. It reared back and swiped at Nicholas; he jumped underneath it and rolled out of it's stomping feet.

Irritated the bug searched for Nicholas, but was suddenly hit by a floating sword. Denise was using it to harass the beetles eyes trying to blind the beast. Sensing the sword was being controlled by her, the beetle charged at Denise. Nicholas jumped on it's back and jammed his blade into it.

In agony, the beetle jumped up and tried to smash Nicholas into the roof. Rolling off, he landed on the floor hard. The beetle landed behind him and attempted to bite him in half. Suddenly a bottle smashed against the beetle and an awful odor spilled out. "Take that!" Frankie said reeling back to throw another vial of the bug repellant.

The beetle let out a massive scream and its flesh where the liquid had touched it began to melt away. Nicholas took the chance while it was distracted and cut off one of its legs. Furious now the beetles body began to shake and a spray of goo began to stream out of it's back end.

Where the goo landed, a sick black smoke began to be emitted. The beetle attempted to spray the lot of them. Nicholas was having none of that, and slashed off another three legs, making it almost immobile. It attempted to bite on to Nicholas, but he jumped back.

Debra stepped forward and called forth a mighty glowing hammer. She struck down towards the head of the beetle and cracked it's head open, but the thing was still alive. Nicholas jumped forward and slashed Deasma into the crack Debra had made and the bug went still.

When it did so, Nicholas felt a massive surge of energy go through him and cried out as he leveled up again. He shuddered in pleasure and heard the twins also gasping as they leveled up as well. Frankie stared at him and then said "Is that going to happen every time we fight?"

Nicholas said "No, only when I level up."

She went over to the carcass and kicked it. "I fucking hate bugs and the undead. God it smells awful in here now. I hope there aren't any more of those things in here."

"Giant Cave Beetles are pretty territorial, they don't allow others of it's kind near."

As he was recovering his breath, Nicholas felt an unusual compulsion to approach the altar. The altar was in the center of the chamber between the two statues. As he appraoched the pure black altar, he could swear he heard chanting coming from the walls. As he was reaching towards the Altar, his hand was suddenly grasped by Frankie.

"What do you think you are doing? Don't go touching things in a temple. I don't want you cursed like me." She said a little concerned.

"I don't know, I'm getting a eerie feeling like I need to touch the altar. I think I need to do this." Nicholas said, and this time touched the Altar.

A odd voice filled with divine power flowed through him and said "Child, transfer the power stored in the altar to me." Nicholas could feel a massive store of divine energy within the Altar. It was a mixture of two distinct energies, while they appeared to be opposites, they were somehow synced together.

He reached out towards the power and was surprised when the power jumped out at him and poured through him. It roared through his connection to Jack up to the goddess that had been channeled through Nicholas. "Yes, some of my power has been returned to me, thank you Child."

A different voice came along and said "Don't hog all of it sister. Hey, thanks man, please keep up the hard work. Keep out an eye for more of our temples, we stored alot of power before we were corrupted."

As the power was extracted from the Altar, Nicholas saw the lights get dimmer within the temple, till he could tell the temple no longer held that holy aura. "Child, you hold our energy within you, it has begun to change you. I do not know the path you have stepped on, but know that we will support you. Check the far wall. We stored treasure for our followers there."

The other voice came over and said "Some assholes are messing with our power down there as well, if you identify them, make sure to slaughter them. My power is not for some power hungry dick to mess with." With that, the voices disappeared.

Frankie said "Are you okay? You've just been standing there for a while."

"Yeah, I got a message, there is a treasure room in the back."

She lit up at that and said "Awesome, I love treasure." She practically danced her way to the back wall and examined the wall. Quickly Frankie opened up a hidden room, and the party found it was filled with several weapons and a few chests. In the middle of the room was an ominous black staff.

Examining it, Nicholas found it was meant to raise the dead. Not wanting to leave such a hazardous object behind, he placed it in his inventory. Debra picked up a large hammer and said "This will do for me."

Denise picked out several metal blades and a large sword. "This will allow me more metal to work with."

Nicholas checked out the chests and found one filled with coins. Distributing them amongst themselves, with Frankie saying to Nicholas to keep her share in his inventory. The other chests possessed some ancient books, and some supplies. Frankie examined the room and said "I think we should spend the night here."

"What why?" Nicholas asked.

"I'm tired, I don't want to sleep out in the open again tonight."

"What about you two?"

"Yeah, we both are kinda tired. Plus we want to check out what we can do after that level up. We still need to choose a feat and use our skill points."

"Alright, I guess we can stay the night in this room."

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