Chapter 483: Cracking Things Open to Find Their Secrets

Milo reappeared in the room where Number Thirteen sat dead on his throne, just as quickly and mysteriously as he had disappeared, rising out of a hole in the rock.

No one was in the room except Belinda, Nina, and Zander. Zander threw up his hands, "Well, that cancels the rescue mission. Just as well. BadnewsBenny was being amazingly stubborn about teaching me a ritual to summon a mortal. I almost had a deal, but he backed out when I mentioned your name. He got very squirrely after that and ran off to count his socks. I was in negotiations with a few other spirits, but they all had terrible reviews and ratings."

Nina had watched as Zander had spoken to the bodiless spirits and had not been impressed. "They were lame and wasting your time. It was obvious they couldn't help. They wanted a Five-Star guarantee and payment up front and non-refundable. I can't believe you even have ratings for demons."

Zander put a finger to his lips, "Hush, you. These are NOT demons I was talking to, and the threat of bad ratings is about all these guys are afraid of.

Milo was still tired from the day's exertions and sat down on a stool. Belinda took one look at him and scowled.

"You're hurt. Holy shit, someone broke nearly every bone in your body! Stay there and be still while I do some major healing on you. Who did this? I need to do something painful to them."

Milo gave a small shrug, "Well, technically, I did it to myself in an attempt to escape from a trap."

Nina remembered being trapped together and how he got out that time. "You're in worse shape than when we escaped from the Slaver."

Milo grinned, "I had hard bones this time. It was easier when I had a flexible skeleton. If I didn't have bones at all, I might have been able to slither out of this trap, but that would have been a little extreme. My bones only broke as a side effect of what I used to shatter the rock. Painful, but I learned that you can create a Spherical Rune of Sundering and slowly crush everything inside. I used it to reduce the rocky trap I was in to sand."

Zander, pretending as hard as he could not to be impressed, said, "Ah, of course. A simple application of this Runic Bullshit Magic that I've yet to figure out. I surmise that the volume of the Rune included yourself? And your numerous fractures were all self-inflicted?"

Milo nodded, "Didn't have much choice....oh...wow, that feels amazing."

Belinda's hands were glowing with bright golden light. "It should. Healing Glow of the Benevolent Empress is my best spell. Besides dozens of partially healed bones, you had the start of scarring in some of your deep tissues, and I really didn't like the look of your liver. Your regeneration was dealing with some of it, and will continue to do so, but the boost I just gave you will speed it up and negate some of the long-term damage. You'd probably heal that as well, over time, but why take a chance?"

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"You damn well should; that's the best healing spell in the game, cast by your personal healer. Now, tell me who trapped you so I can go smite them."

"Uh...well, maybe we could forego the smiting. Let's call it a misunderstanding based on how other powerful people have treated the local tribe. Their lone protector is very dedicated to keeping them safe, and we sort of scared them when we rolled in with a lot of weapons and a battalion of mechanical bears. We have a better understanding of each other now, and a lot of the questions I've had about this area, the snails, and the master have been partially answered. Now, I want to go through this tower with a fine-tooth comb, including what's left of Number Thirteen."

Nina smiled, the very strange smile she got when she had some interesting plague to cure. She was never quite so happy as when she learned something new that dealt with Biology or Medicine. "I can crack open that cadaver and see what's inside? Great."

Milo looked to where Ur-Khemyst Thirteen, known as the Master, sat on his throne with a stone spike through his heart. "Yes, it's time for science! Let's get everyone together, and I'll outline my plan."

They met downstairs in the first room. The cloth coverings of the displays had been removed, exposing the effigies of ratkin, snails, stone lurkers, and other monsters. Milo's first concerns over what these displays insinuated had been replaced by an intense anger that was pooling deep inside of him. His worry about upsetting his family was overwritten by Mama's advice about not keeping secrets. He gave a chance for anyone here to look at the displays for a few minutes, then started talking.

"We have uncovered old secrets, terrible secrets. But these were some very bad people. I don't trust them. These displays may be lies, fabricated for the purpose of gaining prestige in a city where money and position in society are powerful things. This tower holds much knowledge, but it could be dangerous to get to it. There are laboratories, libraries, and rooms filled with crates that could contain anything. This is the legacy of a terrible man, and we can expect to discover terrible things that he has done. I believe that originally, he may have come here seeking solitude or looking for new knowledge to exploit for his own purposes. That's unclear right now. But what is clear is that he used his knowledge of alchemy to mutate the local creatures in order to create threats and influence the local tribe. He was quite proud of his work with the Lurkers and the snails. We can see that from the displays. He used the threat of these creatures to build fear in the local tribe of Rockshapers and gain their trust by dealing with the threats he created.

After they trusted him, he convinced them to send their best artists to many places in the world. I think he planned to showcase their abilities. When the artists returned here, Number Thirteen and the Ur-Khemysts of Blothmazdan enslaved the entire tribe and sold them into slavery in different parts of the world. Sending others to the nearby mines. There are only a few of the Nimblekin left in this area. Maybe in the entire world. I've agreed to help rescue one of them from Bloth, and to do that, I need to know more about the place."

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He pointed at Sledgemonkey. "These people are masters of alchemy. We need to follow all safety procedures when investigating the labs and machinery. It may also be trapped. Actually, just assume it's trapped. He was quite paranoid; that much is clear. The traps created by the Rockshapers have been shut down by our new ally. No more spikes from the walls or falling slabs. Expect mechanical traps with chemical explosions, fire, and deadly poisons."

Sledgemonkey nodded, "Pretty straightforward then. We'll get to work."

A few of the scavengers grinned at the thought of some Toughness training. Milo knew Sledge was going to have his hands full. "There is also a library. Certainly trapped. You always trap your books. Algernon and Onyx will be the research team in there, with Butch and Min to make sure they don't get sidetracked reading or miss a trap. Zander, I need you in the Alchemy lab, on the lookout for the possibility of magical traps. Bork, you're on safety, security, and making sure things don't go boom. Roam where you need to. Brutus, I need a guard at the door making sure no one not assigned to a team wanders in. Gendifur can set up a triage station outside for any casualties. Snail patrol can be handled by Rosy and Buttercup. We need the council of snails watched carefully, and any attacks by snails dealt with."

He looked over at Professor Boom, who was polishing his bazooka. "You're in charge of the rest of the expedition, any large-scale snail killing we may need to do, and organizing the camp's defenses. There may be some surprises hiding in these caves. Our brave scoutmasters found a cave of mutated monstrosities and dealt with them, but there may be more, and we're close to Stone Lurker territory."

Boom-Boom said, "You got it. Be nice to test out a few of the smaller weapons while we trim the snail population a bit more, and that will keep the pirates busy. What will you be doing in case we need to find you?"

Milo grinned. "Having fun finding out what Number Thirteen was. Nina, Belinda, and I are going to peel off that armor and dissect what's left. He lived a long, long time. I need to see what made him tick."

The meeting broke up, with everyone sorting themselves into teams and beginning the work of finding every secret in the Master's lair. Removing the body of Number Thirteen was difficult. The stone spike was part of the throne and firmly wedged in both the back and front of his armor. Likewise, the stone loops holding his arms and legs were also part of the throne. To make things more difficult, the joints of the armor were fused, locking the body in place. Milo could feel the hard stone and how tightly it was wedged into the metal of the armor. And the old Rockshaper had done something to increase the density of the stone, taking it from Tier Four to something stronger. Several solutions were suggested using Cataclysmite, White Pudding Acid, or jackhammers. Milo called out to Dinderfinkums several times, asking for aid, but either he wasn't listening or was nervous about revealing himself. Looking around at the diverse people roaming the tower, Milo didn't blame him.

Min was watching from the doorway: "Didn't you say you figured out a way to shatter rock with some sort of magic that Zander is pissed off he can't figure out? Use that."

Milo had considered and discarded the idea of using the new array he'd used. "I was pretty desperate when I tried that, and I haven't had time to experiment more fully with the runic configuration. I don't want to chance an explosion of rock shards or some other catastrophe."

She was unconvinced. "You got it right once before, so I don't see why you can't do it again. And if you need to practice, here you go, perfect time for it. And it could come in handy if you need to rescue someone. Just saying."

Milo felt the rock again, unsure. "This rock is much harder than what I had to deal with before. I'm worried that using powerful runes like that could destroy the body."

Min walked to the back of the throne. "If I need to break something, and it doesn't crack the first time I hit it with a war club, then I hit it harder or get a stronger club. You should just do the same. Start small, go bigger if needed. And do it back here, where the whole throne blocks off the body from the magic you're using. You go in from this point with your spell-thingy, and the spike will break off."

Milo considered that. "It might work. I can use a smaller sphere and increase the rune count, then position it so that the sphere only intersects the first inch of rock on the back of the throne. You're right, this could work."

Min patted him on the shoulder. "Well, my work is done then. Feel free to come talk to me anytime you need to break something. That's something I'm good at; it runs in the family."

Milo began experimenting with runes, and seeing this, everyone else left the room. A wise decision, as his first attempt was overambitious. Being able to use his tail and hands had deluded him into thinking this would be easier. It wasn't. He put too many runes into the first attempt, and the sphere became unstable. The feedback surge hit him like a mule kick to his head and sprayed rock chips around the room. Three attempts later, he created a stable sphere only six inches in diameter. He slowly moved it into contact with the rock and watched as it slowly powdered the material of the throne. After an hour, the spike separated from the throne. Another half hour and the stone loops had been dealt with.

He got Min's help packing the body down to where Nina had set up her operating area. She grinned as they came in. "Time for Science and seeing what's inside that armor."