Chapter X – Awakenings and Revelations.
Verdant woke with a start, throwing soft furs from his bare chest. He was back in his bed furs. Had it all been a terrible dream? ‘Nah I don’t hate myself that much. What the fuck was that?’
He got to his feet, realising that he was, in fact, completely naked. Looking around his furs, he tried to find his clothes, no luck. But he did find his storage pouch and weapons by his bed. The metal of his warpick glowed in the firelight. ‘No wait, the fire isn’t lit. What the hell.’
Reaching down, he grasped the handle of his new friend and was surprised to feel a sense of warmth, comfort and… welcome?
‘This is too weird.’ He grabbed his pouch and sheathed seax from the floor before stowing his weapons in his storage space.
Verdant was preparing to leave the space when he noticed a pile of cloth on a wooden chair by the hearth he’d slept these last two cycles. He walked over and was pleased to find not only a plain linen shirt, but also pants. Verdant could have wept with joy as he picked the pants up, only to find a pair of soft linen undergarments and what appeared to be leather boots made from a soft and supple hide, the lining a heavenly velvet material.
After the past days, in that moment, Verdant felt like the wealthiest man in the world.
He donned his new apparel, appreciating for the first time he could remember, a soft nest for his eggs. Keeping them safe from immediate harm.
He was still admiring the fit of his new clothes and the softness of his boots, when Bolva approached silently, and cleared his throat loudly.
Verdant jumped a couple of meters off the ground from his position, assisted by his greatly enhanced stats, screaming in a manly way. Landing on the ground once more, Verdant rounded on the bigger man. “What the fuck mate, you near scared the shit out of me!”
Bolva smiled through his beard and chuckled. “I doubt that. Honestly, I doubt there was much left in you to do anything of the sort. It wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen but you can forget about wearing your old clothes again. It’s a good thing you weren’t wearing that finely crafted armour of yours.”
“Bolva, I’m going to need you to spell it out for me. The last thing I remember was feeling like I was about to die and passing the hell out. What happened.” Verdant was becoming agitated, he didn’t like it when things were out of his control, and he liked it even less when he felt like people were deliberately hiding stuff from him. ‘Oh damn, I guess I’m that kind of person. Wonderful’
Before his ruminations took him over Bolva interrupted the spiral. “You awoke your wyrd and tempered your heart with a lightning catalyst. Forcing out all of the congealed wyrd, mana and lifeforce you had clogged in your channels. It was really quite a horrific mess.”
Confusion was plain on Verdant’s face. He wasn’t given a chance to express this fact before Bolva continued.
“The goal of that exercise was simply to find your core and awaken it, gathering all the diffuse energies from your body in one place as a result. Your body naturally separates the components of wyrd, but this process is uncontrolled. By awakening your core you can take greater control of your wyrd, weaving it in ways previously impossible for you.
You have taken that one step further by not only awakening your core and gathering your energies, but you also used that relic of yours as a catalyst and managed to perform your first tempering: inscribing a rune upon your wyrd heart.
It is a representation of a facet of your being, you will need to learn and understand more about this rune and what it means to you in order to progress. A further six temperings are required to advance once more.”
Verdant was dumbstruck for a moment. “I don’t understand. I thought I was just taking control of my magic and clearing out the mess in my body. What the hell are you talking about? Why wouldn’t you warn me about this or explain something fully before letting me go off and do…”
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Quest Updated!
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Home is where the monsters won’t hurt you (1/3) {Corrupted}
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The second wave has arrived. Destroy the {Corrupted} with impunity. 0/150 0/3 (2/3 waves)
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Pay attention and you might just learn something.
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He looked at the quest prompt with horror. “Bolva, I still had four hours left, how the hell was I unconscious for so long?”
“Verdant, I don’t think you understand the significance of what you have done since you woke up. You have affirmed a key facet of your being and in doing so discovered the first part of your personal wyrd, your fate. This is the first step to power outside the bounds of either system. It is natural that your body would need some time to recover after such a monumental shift in its energies.”
Verdant jumped as he heard the din of combat from outside, war horns calling in the distance. “I need to deal with this Bolva, but I need you to explain what is happening to me when I get back.”
He turned and ran from the hall, running to reach the combat before the system decided to throw a curveball at him for ignoring it.
He ran, the sounds getting louder from outside. Screams and the clang of weapons against weapons. It was clear that the situation was different to the last wave.
Verdant stepped out from the main door and was shocked by what he saw in the settlement below.
And it was a settlement now. For whatever reason it was no longer fields of vacant plots but a fully set up settlement with buildings and patrols of soldiers marching through the streets. The fog from the last wave was still present, only enough to obscure sight at large distances and the sky above still swirled in a whirlpool of restless souls. If he squinted, he was certain he could pick out the remnant of Eirikr, sparking off arcs of electricity.
Mentally equipping his armour, he felt the snug fit of the arachnid plates over his arms and torso. He stepped out of the safety of the hall behind him and set off down the slope to the nearest street.
‘According to the quest I have three times as many enemies and elites to deal with. From above it looks like there are patrols between two and six soldiers and towards the wall it looks like there might be larger groups of ten or twenty. If I move through the city, I can clear out all the smaller groups, I have to kill all of them anyway and I don’t want some weird event later on where all of the surviving troops are called to fight me when I encounter an elite… foreshadowing much… fuck, now I definitely need to kill all of them.’
Moving down the hill and approaching the first street, Verdant leans up against the edge of a building, some kind of tannery from the look of it. ‘Bloody hell, the smell is a dead giveaway.’
Looking more closely at the wood under his palm, Verdant noted that it appeared to have a subtle translucent quality, it was solid and present, not just some kind of illusion. It clearly had weight and substance, but it glowed with the same green ethereal light as the souls above.
Verdant willed his warpick into his main hand and remembered to grab his shield as well, equipping it in his left. ‘There is definitely a greater call for using a shield here, I can’t just run from one enemy to the next without care for my safety. I need to be smarter if I want to survive this. Now focus!’
Feeling for the familiar pull in his chest, he was surprised to feel it very close, he looked in the direction and felt satisfied to see a group of three armed and armoured warriors walking out from a street past the next building, the lead soldier carried a torch burning with green fire, they turned towards him and kept walking light flickering off the ground and buildings. ‘Wow, these guys mean business. Well, they’ve got armour and weapons, but they still seem to have that same slow shambling gait of the skeletons in the last wave. He fired off his Assess and was pleased to note that he was correct in his assessment.
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Rattling Dead [Raeskir] Level 18 {Corrupted}
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
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The rank and file soldiers of the old Raeskir settlement – Ashwood. They have been killed and turned to a darker purpose by the corrupted enemy commander. In death they fill the role of defenders of the city as they did in life.
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Cursed to live in torment until his existence is ended.
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‘Okay… so these are actual soldiers. I’ll need to be careful and try to ambush them.’ Verdant waited for his enemies to approach his position, where they stopped, before turning as one and continuing back the way they came.
He ran from his cover, taking all care to keep his steps light, the lack of metal armour and his new leather boots really helped to dampen his noise while moving.
Running up close, he wound back his right arm to strike the right soldier in the back of the trio along the exposed vertebrae above his armour and below the helmet. He’d activated his Sense Weakness skill and it seemed to think this was the weakest point in sight, he was inclined to agree and struck with all his might, bring the flat of his warpick down and shattering the vertebrae, a soft chime informed him that he had, in fact, killed the skeleton that along with the glowing green spirit exiting from the wound and screaming into the sky were all the confirmation he needed.
Without taking a moment to think he threw his shield arm forwards, knocking the left skeleton in the back of the formation to the ground, before winding up again and striking the torchbearer across his grinning features. The warpick struck hard against the metal of his targets helm and the side of its horn, deflecting most of the blow.
The torchbearer staggered back, before stepping forward, striking clumsily at Verdant with its flaming torch, missing the blow before a downward strike from the spiky end of Verdant’s weapon buried itself in its forehead, between the eyes.
Verdant let the undead fall, confirming its death with a chime, then turned to face the third enemy he had bashed to the ground, ignoring the tell-tale scream of the green spirit leaving his fallen foe and joining its brethren in the sky.
It appeared that the skeleton had shattered both it’s arms when landing and it was clear that it could not rise from the ground.
He approached the downed monster and crushed its helmet and the skull within using a single strike, releasing the tortured soul from shattered remains once more.
Not checking the notifications from the fight, Verdant looted the bodies and moved on.
From the hill above it looked as though there were several patrols in each street around the ruined settlement. He would have to move quickly and without drawing attention to himself if he wanted to make it out of this quest alive.
Verdant realised that he had underestimated the size of the grounds when they had been simply that. But now that there was a sprawling settlement with multiple storied wood and stone buildings, it was far easier to get lost. Looking to the hall on the hill he decided to select the direction facing from the main entrance as north, which coincidentally pointed directly to the gaping hole in the wall he had entered several hours ago.
That then made the original path he had walked down from the hall the Northern Road in his mind, and he began following the signal, as he’d come to rely on it, clearing the city in a clockwise fashion, it was essentially a giant circle after all. He simply killed the soldiers, looted the remains and moved on.
He was quite lucky so far and couldn’t explain why, but he had yet to see a single group of enemies with more than five soldiers. Even when he encountered a new type of soldier in leathers, using bows. They were also tacked on with the standard soldier patrols and certainly didn’t demonstrate any abilities he’d have expected to see from a lookout or a support person. They just marched along dumbly like the others, essentially free bags of XPs.
A couple of times fighting the larger groups, Verdant had been too slow and had suffered minor blows from the horribly slow creatures. It didn’t seem to matter where they struck him, it would only barely draw blood in most cases, though the one time he had not been paying attention and allowed an archer to get off a shot, he had regretted it deeply. The arrow struck him above the knee and had pierced easily through his hardened skin and muscles, lodging deep within the head of his quadricep drawing a great fount of blood, the pain shocked him and he’d shouted out; momentarily triggering his Bloods Wrath, closing the distance in moments and tearing the offending skeletons head from its shoulders with his bare hands.
His health points had ticked down by a few percent and the wound stopped bleeding and mostly healed over once Verdant had ripped the arrow from his leg, taking a chunk of flesh with it.
He looked around the street, noting a building that looked like an inn, made of an ethereal stone, standing three stories high.
Verdant felt an immense danger and threw himself to the ground as an arrow flew through the space where his head had been moments before. It continued its trajectory and punched a hole clean through the stone wall of the inn.
He got to his feet, raising his shield. ‘Not that this will do much against an arrow that can punch through stone. Where the hell did the come from?’
Looking to where the arrow came from, he tried to track its original trajectory, he saw nothing except for a dark street with a thin fog obscuring the finer details from view. The sense of impending doom struck him again as he threw himself to the side once more, narrowly missing the second arrow that had been aimed at striking him in the head.
He scrambled across the hard ground and barged through the ruined door of the inn. ‘I need to get inside, I can’t kill something I can’t see, maybe it will follow me in here.’
Running past wooden tables, Verdant found a doorway at the end of the bar that was covered from the open area of the tavern floor, he waited by doorway for any sound that might indicate someone had followed him.
Verdant took deep and even breaths, he couldn’t let this one enemy throw him off his game. ‘Maybe I should have a look back here for a more suitable ambush point…’
He looked behind him, noting that he was standing in the doorway of what appeared to be the inns kitchen.
Stepping away from the doorway and into the kitchen, he’d barely started to look around when he heard a scraping from the front area. ‘Shit!’ He kept his steps light and controlled as he moved back towards the open tavern area.
He stopped by the doorway and listened as a scuffing, scraping sound made its way across the floor.
Verdant peeked around the corner and activated Assess as soon as he saw his target.
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---{Aesgir [Shadow Caller] Level 27 {Corrupted})---
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Once a human scout and ranger for an Einherjar contingent defending the Raeskir Settlement, Aesgir has been reduced to a skeletal shadow of his former glory.
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Primary Abilities
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Phantom Volley: Fires arrows that appear to come from multiple directions, some real, some illusions.
Shimmercloak: Asgeir turns invisible while moving and leaves behind false silhouettes to confuse his opponent.
Piercing Wyrdshot: A high-damage arrow that pierces through defences.
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Cursed to live in torment until his existence is ended. Like all the others.
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He was horrified to see a slim, horned skeleton, wearing tattered leathers moving like a mirage across the room. Aesgir disappearing, before flickering into sight once more with his next step; every step left behind an afterimage, that stayed in place for a few seconds before whisping away into shadows. It was an extremely intimidating ability to see up close.
‘I can only imagine what this ability would have been like when he was alive. I’m guessing the arrows earlier were the piercing shot from his status. I definitely don’t want to see that volley skill. How can I take him down and avoid taking too much damage, I’ve got at least two more [Elite] enemies to take down after this and I don’t even want to guess what kind of abilities they have.’ He waited for his foe to walk closer.
Scuff… Scrape…
Scuff… Scrape…
Scuff… Scrape…
The sound of his enemy was a lot more consistent than his appearance made his movement seem. ‘It must be an illusion, he’s not glitching through space like a fucking videogame, it’s just an effect meant to throw me off. The skeleton is still moving, basically, in a straight line. If that’s the case, maybe I can still ambush it.’
Verdant stowed his shield and prepared a two-handed swing with his warpick. The sounds in the main area were drawing closer and closer, until he saw the flickering shape start to appear past the doorway, he let loose his swing and was horrified to see it pass straight through his target, as it disappeared, his weapon over extending and crashing, full-force into the stone wall behind the bar, adjacent to the door frame.
Verdant looked wildly around the room and saw his enemy standing on the far side, bow drawn, arrow knocked; with a dark energy gathering around the tip.
‘Fuck!’ He dove forwards as the arrow was released, not the brightest idea considering he was putting himself closer to the arrow, rather than away, he ducked his head as the glowing arrow scraped a deep furrow across his scalp.
He landed on the flagstone floor and looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, hot blood poured down his face for a moment before his health points dipped, healing the gash and stopping the flow. He’d willingly given up his cover and was now paying the consequence for his rashness. ‘I can probably reach the bar if I’m quick, but I’ve already seen that arrow punch through stone.’
He made up his mind as another arrow punched through the table blocking Aesgir’s line of sight. It landed a scant few centimeters from his right side. Rolling over the arrow and stumbling to his feet, he launched himself behind the bar and moved with speed, barely dodging normal arrows that punched through the wood of the bar behind him, reaching the end he found another door, leading to the kitchen.
‘Shit I really hope there’s a back door of some kind out here. I need to get the hell out of here, I can’t fight that thing right now.’
Verdant moved into the kitchen, past a preparation bench and continuing past a cooking fire. On the left was an open door, from the entryway it looked like some kind of larder. ‘I doubt there’s a way out in there, it gotta be a root cellar or food storage of some kind.’
Having made up his mind, he moved past the doorway, down a hall and small room with a collapsed, wooden bed and a fireplace glowing merrily with the eerie green light of everything else in this place.
Past the bed, he found what he was looked for. Not a door, but a window. Wooden blinds sealed shut. He struck the panels with his weapon and was pleased the hear them splinter under the first strike, hinges breaking with the force and panels falling away from the opening. He threw himself out of the window before his pursuer could catch up. ‘It might have that same shuffling walk, but it proved it can move almost instantaneously across a short distance as required. I need to make some distance between us fast and hunt this guy down later when I can figure out how to deal with his fucking teleportation bullshit.’
Verdant ran away from the inn, moving back to the path he had established before. Moving even faster. ‘I have to gain some space, I don’t think that undead piece of shit is just going to stop chasing me, but I still need to kill all these other soldiers as well.’