Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (best adventure books to read .TXT) 📗

orb with wonderment for a long moment before she finally looked back up to me. “How will you ensure the guards do not find us?”

“Magic,” I stated, trying to impart as little sarcasm into the word as I could. I set the finished healing globe on the counter and started on the next one. “Once we reach the Council district, we’ll make our way to the statehouse. Our goal there is to find any sort of entrance that they’ve left unguarded: a door, a window, or, as a last resort, a long stretch of wall that’s out of the way of any patrols.”

“The statehouse is positioned at the center of the city, built out on a small cliff face overlooking the harbor,” Val explained. “The wall is too shear to approach directly from the rear of the building, but there is a large plaza at the entrance. Should we find a way to sneak through it to the back of the statehouse, there are multiple exits that may still be unguarded.” She finished her debriefing and motioned for me to continue.

“Once we’re inside, Lia and I will take the lead scouting. We need to find the Conduit,” I continued as my collection of mana globes grew larger. “The Conduit is the original person who summoned the Dominion, and they’re the link between this world and wherever the Dominion comes from. If we kill them, that link breaks, and their presence here goes away,” I snapped my fingers for emphasis, “just like that. I’m hoping that one of the leaders of the Company is the Conduit, so we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“What happens to all of the people that the Dominion controls when we kill the Conduit?” Lia asked.

“It depends on how far along they are in the transformation; the further along they are, the more they’ll lose when the Dominion leaves. If they still have control of their minds, they’ll just go back to normal with minimal side effects: scars, slightly distended limbs, nothing too serious. Hopefully there aren’t any fully transformed Thralls out there, but if there are, they’ll die when the connection breaks.”

Val and Lia digested the information silently, and I took the opportunity to look over my work. There were eleven orbs set out in neat rows before me: five glowing orange, three flickering a much brighter blue, and three that were an almost translucent white with wisps of smoke within. I sorted them into two even groups and pushed them out towards my two companions, leaving one of each color for myself. “Here. These are for you.”

Val looked down at the globes with trepidation, her hands pinned to her sides. Meanwhile, Lia reached out immediately and snatched up the blue and white globes to give them a closer inspection. “I’ve never seen these ones before! What do they do?”

I looked to Val and gently tapped the orange globe. “If you break this open, the liquid inside will close any small to moderate wounds. It won’t heal any major internal injuries, but it’s great for staunching cuts on the battlefield. The material it’s made of is weak enough that you can crush it in one hand.” I picked up the orange orb I had left for myself and crushed it over my outstretched arm in example. The viscous liquid inside spilled around my bracer and plopped down onto the countertop, where it bubbled and steamed as it evaporated away.

There was a moment where I thought Val was going to jump away from the table, but her initial shock faded quickly as the liquid disappeared. I turned to find Lia holding the blue orb up to her eye for analysis. “You do NOT want to be near the blue one when it breaks,” I said, gently lowering her hand away from her face. “It explodes when the contents are exposed to air, spreading a paste that burns at extremely high temperatures for a long time.” She froze in place, then carefully lowered it down to the counter. “It has a thick skin,” I laughed, “so you have to throw it pretty hard to make it go off.

“The last one is a concentrated smoke bomb. It’s pretty straightforward, all things considered. I’d recommend holding your breath if you’re breaking it nearby,” I explained. “Any other questions?”

There was a long pause before Val spoke up. “How did you make these? What are they?”

I sighed. “Magic,” I answered again, but I paused a moment in consideration. “No, alchemy. Both, I guess.” Her brow furrowed as she narrowed her eyes at me. “Listen, I’m sorry to be so vague about it. Our number one priority is to succeed at this mission, and I’m not going to withhold any of my abilities if they could give us a greater chance at success. But I can’t really explain them, either.”

Her eyes relaxed to a kinder look. “I understand. Thank you.” Her and Lia both loaded the orbs into satchels attached to their waists. “Is that all?”

“No, there’s one more thing.” I took a deep breath. “This mission has to succeed. No matter the cost, it has to succeed. This is bigger than any of us; if the Dominion leaves this city, the world will end.” I looked between the two of them. “I will do everything I can to make sure we all get out of this alive, but…” My head fell, unable to meet their eyes at the implication of my statement. “No matter the cost.”

Lia took my hand. “We’re all in this together, and we’ll all come out of it together. We’ll finish this, I promise.”

“Lia is right,” Val added. “I believe in this plan. I believe in our abilities. We will come out of this victorious. All of us.”

“Thanks, guys,” I said, raising my head. Their show of faith gave me the final boost I needed to move out from behind the counter. “I guess it’s time to go, then.” Together, we made our way to the front