Book 1: Chapter 21: A Change of Circumstance
<em>The Eastern Alliance vastly underestimated the depths to which a free people would resist an oppressor, and troops of the kingdom now known to be called the Republic of Arastia fought with great zeal and fervor. They knew what fate awaited every single man, woman, and child should they be a conquered people.</em>
<em>- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Schr circa 103 AC</em>
My magic healed my body but in my vanity, I noticed it did nothing for the marks and scars I was umting here and there. The days followed one another in a slow steady rhythm, with little change for a further three days. Work, eat, work, heal, and sleep was my monotonous daily routine. However, on the fourth day, I took my morning toilet a little earlier than usual, due to waking from a nightmare of being pursued by sharp-ded dark things. I could just make out a woman of middling years, with a face set with hard lines of grief, making her way to Degei before his regr motivational morning speech. Gold circles were threaded throughout her raven-ck hair and tinkled as she walked. I could not help but feel that her features were familiar, but in my morning state, my mind failed to make a connection. A small leather purse was exchanged and Degei nodded solemnly to the woman, raising the purse a little higher with both hands before stuffing it into the loose folds of his clothes.
Subsequently, I was made to work even harder in the mines that day. I nowbored four shifts with only a few hours rest after my evening meal, before I joined another ve gang to toil away in the dark blue depths. I was being worked to death. My mind, in its own twisted humor, noted that this gave me little time to have words and socialize with my newfoundpanions. Despite my circumstance working against me, we were able to hurriedly exchange asional snippets at brief intervals in the day.
I made sure to pace myself, but this new grueling menu of work meant that I had to dedicate five points of Mana every day just to keep my body in working condition. However, thanks to this new forced work n, I had started to gain rapidly in status points and skills. I had attained two points of Strength and another skill point in Hammers. My near-sleepless nights had earned me another point in Constitution, as well raising both my Endurance and Rest skills. I had earnestly tried to raise my Rust spell and was rewarded with an increase in Intelligence and Wisdom, as well as finally raising the spell to level two. More importantly, thanks to mybors I was gaining in experience. Putting aside my nightmarish conditions, the avid gamer inside of me actually looked forward to the next day and the opportunity to earn even more experience.
One small moment of levity that lightened my spirits for a day was a guard being berated by Degei for the state of his equipment. Unbeknownst to him, I had been casting Rust on his gear. He looked genuinely shocked at the state of his armor and weapons as the Overseer gave him a dressing down.
I had also secretly cast Rust on Kidu’s cor with some trepidation one evening before my spell had leveled up and gained in power. He showed no ill effect as hey in his deep slumber, snoring wildly like a bear. I was satisfied to observe that there were a few splotches of rust about the edges of his cor the next day.
Through these observations, I concluded that it would be safe to cast Rust on my own cor. Through gritted teeth, I cast it that same evening to no ill effects, save for the usual feeling of wrongness and a very slight warm feeling around my neck where the metal contacted my skin. I had learned to effectively block out the sibnt whispers that seemed to transpire from just behind me when I cast Rust. This proved, in my mind at least, that humans are remarkably adaptable and able topartmentalize the strangest of things. I wondered if those involved in the cruel ve trade business were able to return to their families at the end of a long day’s work with smiles on their faces and love in their eyes. Did the hand that held the whip also pat the head of an innocent child?
Though mentally exhausted, I was certainly growing stronger. What didn’t kill me could only make me stronger, I muttered to myself, remembering the famous quote from Nietzche. I needed to make my way out of here and escape. I was reasonably certain that Degei was already trying to kill me indirectly, and at this rate, who knew how much longer I wouldst? It was only my magic, my prodigious Constitution, and Adita’s sympathy that had allowed me to survive under my current horrendous conditions.
Just as I was mulling these thoughts over, there was a rumble that quaked through the ground. The sounds of nging industry stopped as the reverberations shook the encampment, a sense of panic infecting the air. The earthquake, for it could be nothing else, rattled the building around me as a stampede of ves made for the single entrance. Rising quickly on unsteady feet, I hurried to join them in exiting the stables.
Not before long, guards woken from their sleep stormed to the pens with a tired-looking Degei in tow. The guards violently ordered us to form orderly lines, the lick of a club or whip more threatening than the shaking of the earth as we waited for the rumblings to subside. I could hear the ignorant ves whisper to each other something aboutnd dragons stirring, or the Earth Mother being angry, and other such superstitious nonsense.
The locals probably had no idea about the mechanics of tectonic activities and continental drift. However, a small part of me did wonder, that perhaps maybe, just maybe, it could actually be the work of actualnd dragons.
“Get back to sleep the lot of you! Work tomorrow! Back! Back I say dogs!'''' Degei ordered half shouting, his words enforced with the stinging crack of studded leather. I made my way back inside along with the other ves, ourmon fear of Degei overriding our dread of the angry earth, so well were some of us broken by fear of the whip.
Lying on my pallet I tried to whisper to Kidu, but the snoring noises from his direction confirmed to me that he was already asleep. It would be churlish of me to steal him from it. Turning to my right, I whispered out to Durhit. I was barely able to make out his craggy face in the gloom, and was met with an annoyed grunt.
“Best be going asleep manling, tomorrow will be the hardest darkest day yet, mark my words,” he said in his attempt at a quiet voice, before turning on his side and facing away from me, closing off all further avenues of inquiry.
Apprehensive and annoyed, I cast Rust impulsively at my cor. I felt the familiar ufortable and inimical sensation flow throughout my body, before I released it into the ve cor on my neck. The whispers had be stronger, and the crackle of the ck lightning’s pulses felt more and more like the beat of a living creature now that the spell had increased in level. The cor on my neck grew unbearably hot, almost sizzling my skin and filling the air with a sickeningly appetizing smell. It skirted the borders of agony, taking a chunk off my Health before subsiding to just painfully hot. I grit my teeth at the unexpected sensation, the strength of the reaction taking mepletely by surprise. But there, alone in the darkness, I was unwilling to let out a sound and draw attention to myself.
Just then, I thought I heard something crack or give in the cor, like the sound of an errant foot slowly stepping on an expensive and fragile toy. I could feel a coarse sandy sensation where the metal met my neck. Tentative shaking fingers reached to confirm the state of my cor, but I stopped myself just before they brushed against the slowly cooling hot surface, remembering the pain when I had previously touched it. My mind scrambled for a solution to my predicament before I remembered an old staple of mine: Identify. At least perhaps in this way I could check the durability of the cor. Guiding my magic to the cor, I made a wee discovery. <strong>Iron ve Cor</strong>
<strong>Durability 294/400</strong>
Hands shaking now, hesitant and unsure, as if unwilling to test the truth of a mirage in a desert, I touched the cor. Nothing happened. Sweet blessed, nothing happened; no pain, no lightning shock. Touching the cor again several times to affirm my discovery, I began to cry silent tears of joy. Even in my heightened emotional state, my mind sought to exin what had happened. The ‘Iron ve Cor of Obedience’ had lost its suffix and was now just a simple ‘Iron ve Cor’. Though I was never particrly gifted with the sciences, my improved Intelligence had helped me attain this sudden realization. The rapid oxidation of my iron cor caused by my improved Rust spell had released a great deal of heat in an exothermic reaction, which of course then caused damage by inflicting me with perhaps first or second-degree burns. This could be a boon, in that the effects of the spell were more rapid and significant.
On the other hand, it also meant it would now be difficult for me to apply the spell against enemies secretly and without their knowledge. I hoped the dark energies released when I cast the spell proved to still be invisible, and with some chagrin, I noticed that the spell had cost an additional point of Mana. The coarse sandy feeling I felt around the area below my neck was probably oxide or rust that had shaken loose. I hypothesized that the degradation of the cor likely messed with its delicate mechanics or magical circuitry, or whatever crazy system they used to keep a man in a state of very in this magical world.
Fearing a potential tetanus infection, despite my rtively high Constitution, I quickly cast Heal on myself. I checked the status of my character as the feeling of my skin knitting over was most ufortable, but the soothing balm that spread throughout my body that apanied it assuaged my concerns. With only four points of Mana remaining, and an unknown amount of time before I would probably be called to an even more grueling day, I decided to rest. Though my talks with Durhit and Kidu had stoked once more the desire for adventure, my own actions this evening had lit a burning need within myself to be free. What I had taken for granted in my old world was the thing I craved most here.
My wise choice to rest had also rewarded me with a notification, the universe appearing to agree with my actions.
<strong>You have gained 1 Wisdom</strong>
<strong></strong>
<strong>STATUS</strong>
<strong>Calling</strong><strong>Gilgamesh Level 6 Acolyte of Avaria</strong> <strong>Strength</strong><strong>22</strong> <strong>Dexterity</strong><strong>13</strong><strong></strong> <strong>Constitution</strong><strong>28</strong><strong></strong> <strong>Intelligence</strong><strong>18</strong><strong></strong> <strong>Wisdom</strong><strong>14</strong> <strong>Charisma</strong><strong>9</strong> <strong>Luck</strong><strong>13</strong>
<strong>SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES</strong>
<strong>Pain Nullification (lvl.1)</strong> <strong>Power Strike (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Endure (lvl.3)</strong> <strong>Stealth (lvl.1)</strong> <strong>Rest (lvl.3)</strong> <strong>Backstab (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Dodge (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Polearms (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Dual Wield (lvl.1)</strong> <strong>Critical Hit Mastery (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Mining (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Unarmed Combat (lvl.3)</strong> <strong>Hammers (lvl.1)</strong>
<strong></strong>
<strong>SPELLS & MAGIC</strong>
<strong>Heal (lvl.5)</strong> <strong>Rust (lvl.2)</strong> <strong>Identify (lvl.2)</strong>
<strong>Silent Casting (lvl.1)</strong>
<strong></strong>
<strong>GIFTS</strong>
<strong>Curse of Entropy -20% all starting attributes.</strong>
<strong>Experience to next level 970/991</strong>
<strong>Health</strong><strong>96/117</strong> <strong>Stamina</strong><strong>39/45</strong> <strong>Mana</strong><strong>4/12</strong>
<strong></strong>