Chapter 17

I looked around the storage chamber and was surprised to see just how accurate my guesses had been about the way the demons would handle the storage of the pilfered gems. I counted 12 bins for storing the diamonds, and all of the bins had hinged covers. All but the bin nearest the doorway were closed and locked, but the locks looked very primitive to me. We should be able to pick those locks in very little time. There was even a small alcove where we could hide if a demon showed up with more diamonds before we were ready to leave.

Ed, as part of his Barbarian training had learned how to pick locks, so I asked him to open the bin the greatest distance from the doorway. In the meantime, Bill and I began to load the fanny packs hooked to the harness on my back with as many diamonds as they would hold. We attacked the bin that was open to receive the next load of diamonds to be stored.

We didn’t take all of the diamonds in that bin, but we did take about half of them. As part of the generosity that the demons were showing to us, they had left a few dipper-like tools for emptying the bins. Bill and I worked as fast as we could to remove about half of the diamonds from this bin. Hopefully, the demon who was moving the diamonds here for storage would not notice how many diamonds we had taken from that bin.

Ed had unlocked the bin he was working on by this time, and he was dipping diamonds from that bin and pouring them into a fanny pack. We took about half of the diamonds from this bin before we closed and locked it to make it looked like it had not been touched by us. We managed to fill up all 10 of the fanny packs that I was carrying, so we were ready to leave. If we could manage it, we would be back in a couple of days to haul out as many of the diamonds as I thought we could get away with. Based on what we had seen so far, we should be able to pick up enough diamonds from the 12 or 13 bins to fill 68 or so fanny packs. Therefore, I was going to come back with my trio plus three more “mules” to carry 10 fanny packs each. That should be enough to keep Master Wizard Marzil happy for a few weeks.

We jumped outside the cave, and jumped to the pickup point for transfer to Truth. Pete was absolutely amazed at the number of diamonds that we had been able to steal back from the demons. It was kind of disappointing to examine a sampling of the diamonds that we had liberated only to discover that most of them were of very low quality and were of industrial grade at best. Oh, well, we still had a lot of diamonds for the Wizards to go through, and it should turn out that we had plenty of them suitable for experimentation. Okay, we had done what we had to do, and it was now someone else’s problem. More power to them.

The mules were thanked for their help, and a letter from Master Wizard Humbolt himself was included with their personnel records to show what they had done to help defeat the demons. They and we were released to return to normal duty. For us, that meant that we returned to level #6 to fight demons and to look for other sources of gems.

At one time, a large part of level #6 was covered by an ocean, and that gave the area the opportunity to become a major source of other gems. It was our job to find out if the demons were stealing gems besides diamonds from level #6. We spent a month on level #6 “prospecting” for other gems, such as rubies and sapphires. We found several places where one could hope to find other gems in the quantity needed for commercial exploiting the mines, but we were not involved directly in that part of the program.

Instead, we were given credit for levels #7 and #8, and kicked up to level #9, where the demons and monsters had taken over the whole territory in the past year. Apprentices assigned to level #9 were lost to the demons and monsters at a rate that was downright frightening. Our job was twofold—to find out what kind of defense worked best on that level and to kill as many of the Hell-spawn as we could manage while not being killed by demons and monsters.

Wonderful, that was the kind of assignment we loved! We were also going to be the test animals for new charms, such as an opal and topaz charm that was hoped to be the equivalent of my ancient amulet in throwing out lightning bolts. The one thing that really bothered me about this new charm was that the subcommittee that had been responsible for its designed had thrown the doors open to any and all Master Wizards in Isbardia to contribute ideas and spell fragments to the final spell. We were going to try everything that had been incorporated into the spell to see what was worth keeping, what was of little value, and what was just getting in the way.

We were given two charms, one to be worn by Bill and the other to be worn by Ed. I was along to cover them with the power of my amulet which we knew was at the practical limit of what magic could do. Those two experimental prototype charms were supposed to be identical, but there could be some variation between them, and that was one of the things that we were supposed to evaluate.

While we were testing this first charm to come from the development Master Wizards, prototype charms were being prepared which we were to evaluate. We would be given sample charms which did the usual important things, but we expected to be given some charms with weird and wonderful spells that did things that we would never have thought of.

Those charms with the best spells would then be tested on level #10 and higher if they were promising enough. When we finished our evaluations, we expected to have found half a dozen or so charms that warranted full production and be issued to all Heroes who could handle the spells the charms were capable of. At this point, there was no idea of how far up the ladder of levels we would have to go to test everything that was available. That would be determined on a case by case basis. Oh, my God, I hoped that we lived that long!

Anyway, I kept the teleportation ring that I had been issued. If I continued to like its properties and abilities, it would be adapted to a charm to be issued to all Heroes. At that point, the charm was expected to save a lot of lives. I was in favor of that, but there were a few minor adjustments I wanted made in the charm before its final official approval.

We were set down on level #10 and told to get busy. It was summer on level #10, so we were issued a large tent and an amulet that could provide the food and drink that we needed. Those items were stowed in my fanny pack before the jump to level #10, so we were ready to become combat ready the moment we landed on level #10.

That precaution was my idea, and I was very glad that it was allowed, even though many people believed that I was too pessimistic. I had with me a helmet that contained a strong light source, a camera supplied by Master Wizard Bolton, and a sound recorder. There was also a way to patch in the pictures from the drone so that there would be a permanent record of that activity if it was decided to provide that capability to other Heroes.

Anyway, as soon as we arrived on level #10, we were attacked by at least six of the ghosts that threw fire balls. This was the first fight in which the new lightning charms came into play, and they did an excellent job almost as good as was done by my amulet. I noted immediately a change that needed to be made, and my criticism was echoed by Bill and Ed. As issued, the charm was fully automatic and there was no way for the Hero wearing the charm to control the lightning bolts.

This presented a problem because the charm selected the targets, and there were times when the target selected by the charm was not the one most dangerous to the Hero. For example, the charm fired bolts at targets that were barely within range while ignoring targets that were much closer and had a better chance of hitting the Hero. All three of us believed that the Hero should have some control over the choice of targets. The ideal compromise was probably to let the charm choose the majority of targets, but allow the Hero override the choice to go after what he considered a more important target. That was item number one on our list of changes we wanted.

The second item on the list was to provide for more than one beam of lightning to be in action at the same time. When there was a mass of potential targets all firing at the Hero at the same time, it would be a big help for the charm to fire as many bolts as there were potential targets, even it this reduced the power of each bolt. If nothing else, the firing of a number of bolts of less than maximum power would still force the enemy to duck or run if it were protected against lightning bolts, but not against sustained strikes.

We felt that these two items were sufficiently important that they should be looked at immediately. Otherwise, the Hero doing the testing might not survive to make a report. That conclusion was enough to make me jump immediately back to Truth to tell Pete what we thought of the new charm. Fortunately, he agreed with us, and forwarded our criticism to the committee in Isbard. Master Wizard Marzil was notified of our request for a change in the spell, and he dispatched a Journeyman Wizard to make the adjustments that we requested. The Wizard remained in Truth for the duration of our tests to take care of other such problems as we detected them.

Wizard Hersk made the adjustments in the spell on the charms, and we jumped back to level #10. This time we did not have to fight immediately upon arrival. I had time to set up the drone and launch it so that we could get a broader look at the territory and possibly find a collection of demons or monsters for us to attack.

No demons this time, but the drone did spot six of the buffalo-like monsters grazing in a meadow about a mile away. Okay, that would be a good test of the modified charm. I used my teleportation ring to jump us to that meadow. Ed and Bill activated their charms, and we waded in on the monsters. Ed and Bill each fired a single bolt at a monster about 100 and 120 yards away, respectively. In both cases, the bolt landed on the head of the creature, and that was the only shot that was necessary.

Ed had specifically aimed his lightning bolt at the head of the beast and had hit where he had aimed. On the other hand, Bill left the precise aiming point up to the charm, and the charm happened to choose the beast’s head as the place to strike. We had two dead monsters to our credit, but we were not sure if Ed’s specific choice of his aiming point had done anything different from what the charm would have done on its own. That left us with a specific question: just how much could we depend on the charm to shoot at the target’s weakest point? Okay, that we might find out later today, but maybe not with these specific targets.