《Raylia》 The System Deep in space in an unknown galaxy an alarm starts to scream: WARNING¡­ WARNING¡­ WARNING¡­ Unknow life supporting planet found in System RXB722987.11. Planet is third planet from yellow dwarf star. Self named ¡°Earth¡±, located at edge of known systems. Analysis Proceeding¡­.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡­ ¡­ Analysis Complete. Earth consists of a single sentient race, human¡­ Current population 13,793,062,184¡­ Unknown how humans exist edge of known systems¡­ Current technological advancements¡­low¡­beginning star exploration¡­ Earth contains minute amount of mana. Magic usage null, magic capabilities unknown¡­ Earth integration possi¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. WARNING¡­ WARNING¡­ WARNING¡­ Uncontrolled exothermic reaction detected. Earths core unstable¡­ Calculating¡­ 87.4% probability of complete destruction 10.6% probability just surface annihilation .3% probability of small island remaining habitable .25% probability few subterranean dwellings remain habitable .21% probability 1-3 ships escape destruction ¡­ ¡­ Destruction eminent ¡­ time to destruction 3 minutes 12 seconds ... 11 seconds ¡­ 10 seconds ¡­ 9 seconds Evacuation protocols engaged¡­ Calculating number of possible survivors¡­ 340,000,000¡­ Calculating number to survive integration into system after first year¡­ 12,000,000¡­ Endangered population protocols enacted¡­ Prologue PROLOGUE It¡¯s 11:30am October 5th, 2019. After finishing Professor McMullen¡¯s economics class. I was walking back to my dorm thinking about ordering a pizza and taking a nap, or what I like to think of as Tuesday. Halfway across the Quad alarms start blaring from an old air raid system. Kids are looking around having no idea what is going on. Being from New York, I can remember the stories and events of almost 20 years ago, but there is no war going on, getting frustrated he says, ¡°we¡¯re in North Carolina, who the HELL bombs North Carolina?! What the hell did that jack ass do now!?¡± Heading back to my dorm at a little bit faster pace I sees a flash of light out of the corner of my eye, then another and another. Kids all over the Quad are vanishing in bright flashes of light. Turning around more and more of the students start to disappear, unable to contain myself I starts to scream out ¡°WHAT THE FUC¡­¡± CRACK!!.. and I was gone. My name is Thoren Parker, and I try to stay a bit more than unremarkable, as in I¡¯ve always tried to stay just under the radar. At 6¡¯3¡± and 220 lbs, my blonde hair has the look of hair that is 5 months past a haircut hanging just past my ears, blue/green eyes that hint at the possible intelligence that lays within and a smirk that reveals the witty yet sarcastic attitude I¡¯ve grown accustomed to. At twenty-two and a sophomore in college; I¡¯m athletic but not a star athlete, going to the gym a few days a week but keeping to myself; and I¡¯m decently smart but not going to create the Manhattan project, I loved to read and soak up everything I can but when it came to tests I made sure to just get enough to reach for that B. All in all I was perfectly happy to pass through life doing the absolute minimum and still get by. Then the shit hit the fan¡­ Standing in what looks like an ancient Greek garden, I was stunned at what he is seeing. Perfectly manicured lawns and bushes, columns and statues perfectly decorating the area. Off a slight distance I could see buildings, similar to those of the Greek Parthenon. Amazing stone work, craftsmanship that just left me stunned. A few more bright flashes of light pulled me out of my stupor and allowed me to take in the hundreds and hundreds of people looking around in stunned silence, all just as confused as I was. Until he showed up. At four meters high tanned skin, first thought that came to mind was Holy Shit it¡¯s The Rock!This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Welcome to Raylia! Well actually above Raylia would be more accurate.¡± One thousand pairs of eyes stared in a mix of mute abject disbelief, confusion, fear, horror¡­ ¡°I know we only got a small batch of humans from Earth but are they all mute or is there something wrong with them?¡± Ibbris, looked from face to face, hoping to find some spark of intelligence. ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can try this again. Welcome to Raylia. My name is Ibbris, I¡¯m the god of Destiny. You¡¯ve all been brought here by The System. Due to the emanate destruction of your planet, The System initiated an evacuation of your planet. Yes, yes looking around you only see about a thousand of you well that is rather quite simple. The System incorporates over 11,000 planets. What is left of your population was seeded throughout the planets of the system with the highest probability of survival.¡± What followed was a collection of screaming, crying, abject denial, cursing, demands to see a manager and in 5 sorry cases 3 urinations and 2 brown movements. With a deep sigh Ibbris continued. ¡°Yes, this is real. No, I don¡¯t know where your families are. Yes, I¡¯m really a god. Yes, I will smite each and every last one of you if you keep asking questions. If any of you prefer, we can try to send you back to one of the trillion pieces of rock that once was your planet. Now may I continue?¡± With an almost audible snap one thousand mouths closed and eyes bulged; and 45 more sorry cases of urinary and bowel malfunction. ¡°Great! Now let¡¯s begin...¡± As Ibbris started to discuss what was sure to be a font of information about Raylia and The System, I decided to walk and take a look over the edge of the pantheon. What I saw took my breath away, figuratively then literally. Below was a blue ball of perfection. Similar to Earth, Raylia was a planet made up of oceans and continents, larger than Earth by a large margin with ice caps on either end of the planet. Before I could thoroughly soak up the expansive view I tripped over some air and fell toward Raylia. Space literally ripping the breath from my lungs, I plummeted to the surface reaching terminal velocity. With watery eyes I could only watch as the ground started to rush towards me. Indistinct land mass turned to sprawling land covered in forest, fields, rivers, lakes and mountains. The majestic view of the mountains becoming horror filled as I steadfastly approached them. Not knowing the names of the gods on this new amazing and sure to be short lived experienced planet, I prayed to them all in almost form letter fashion. ¡°Dear god (insert name here)¡­.HELP!!!!!¡± BAMMMM¡­. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 AHHHHHHHH! A mind twisted in pain without the ability to voice it. I woke up in abject horror, my consciousness floating in a sea of excruciating pain and nothingness. No sight, sound, smell, feeling of any sort, all of my senses ripped from me with only the endless searing pain of every nerve. Except for what seemed to be flashing notifications that were almost imperceivable with the amount of pain that I was in. With what seemed like hours senses started to come back first with smell, a damp earthy scent. Next came sight, the soft glow of luminescent moss clinging to the surrounding walls. Finally touch, as he felt the coarse dirt and rock under my arms and legs. Slowly my eyes came into focus and unable to move, I watched in horror of the slow mending of my body under the soft light of cave moss. I watched as my battered bones slowly ground and slipped back into place and my torn mutilated flesh mended itself around the freshly healed bones. Just before I passed and with the slight smirk my last thought was, and Veronica didn¡¯t think I had a heart¡­. After a few hours of laying on the cold hard packed earth, I was starting to breathe easier as the pain started to slowly drain away. Trying to remember exactly what happened, I thought back to what I could remember. Slowly pushing myself up onto my elbows reality snapped into focus. The first words that come to my mouth on this new alien world are ¡°What in the HOLY HELL happened?!?!¡± Pushing myself off the ground I looked down at the sticky, drying puddle of blood that stained the floor. Then I noticed the state I was in. Looking down at I took stock of how he looked. My shirt (using the word shirt loosely) was hanging on my shoulders with slightly more than a few threads and a prayer. My shorts had rips, tears and holes so thorough I was surprised that any part of myself was covered up. Finally, my shoes though beaten looked to have enough life in them for maybe a couple days¡¯ worth of walking. Everything was covered in dirt and blood, from my hair to the soles of my shoes. ¡°Damn, I really do look like a homeless man¡¯s turd¡±. Trying to take stock of where I was I started to look around the cave that I was in. Soft greenish/yellow moss clung to the ceiling and walls giving off an ethereal light to see by. Looking up I noticed my grand entrance. A six-foot hole plugged up with debris stared down at me, loose dirt and stones still drifting down. Looking around there were pieces of the ceiling strewed around the floor, some pieces still glowing with the moss. Slowly I made his way around the room, touching the rough walls, hearing the soft scraping of my shoes on the rocky floor, smelling the stale air; and taking in everything that I could. The only point of interest is the dark tunnel entrance at the end of the cave. Almost beckoning to me. Walking over to a large boulder I sat down to try and figure things out. Taking a moment, I closed my eyes and takes a deep breath. With my eyes closed I noticed a faint blue light pulsing in the corder of my eyes. Opening them I started looking around to see what could be causing it. I start to noticed it was everywhere that I looked, the soft blue light pulsing just stayed in the corner of my eyes. Starting to cross my eyes and staring intently at it I say, ¡°what the hell is that..¡± With that a blue box pops up in front of me. ¡°HOLY SHIT!¡± and nearly falling off my rock, I start to swipe my hand through the box, passing right through it. Calming myself a bit I start to look from side to side, the box staying perfectly centered in front of my vision. Looking more intently I notice the box is similar to those that were part of the MMORPG games I used to play, and figured I¡¯d take a closer look.
Welcome to Raylia! The 9,582nd planet to enter The System. The System offers you the ability to grow in strength. Strive to be more than you are; work to fulfill your destiny!
With your unique entrance to Raylia, you have gained the interests of the gods!
Ugborh, god of the Insane; appreciates a man who is willing to take a leap from the heavens with out a plan a clue or a parachute. Receive: Magic Bag of Holding (godly).
¨C Magic Bag of Holding ¨C (Godly) A soul bound bag that is far more than meets the eye. Drive everyone crazy on where you put things. Also try to figure out where it all goes! The Magic Bag levels as you do. Starting with a 3 meter by 3 meter storage room, every 10 levels you may choose another room to add to your bag. Can enter your bag and invite others as well (just be carefully not to get carried away¡­literally). Can place or recall items by thought. Items cannot be stolen or lost from the bag.
Idros, god of Luck; takes notice of a man that while falling to certain death is able to fall into the safe room at terminal velocity of the only dungeon in 200 miles, leaving him with 1HP. Receive : Title Lucky Bastard.
Title ¨C Lucky Bastard ¨C (Godly) Luck being the most difficult stat to raise, where rogues literally kill for equipment to boost luck by a mere point or two. You however really stepped into it, or missed a step actually. Luck Bastard grants you an additional 100 points in Luck.
Oemis, god of Beer; leaping into the unknown without a plan without a plan or a clue takes balls of steel (or a complete lack of forethought). Oemis appreciates both qualities and wants to toast to your fortitude. Receive : Beer Stein O¡¯ Plenty (godly).
¨C Beer Stein O¡¯ Plenty ¨C (Godly) A soul bound mug that will be the envy of all your friends. Why drink water when you can have an ice cold beer! Simply fill with water and say what kind of beer you would like. Enjoy a dark stout or a nice pale ale. (can also have a hard cider if you swing that way).
Merasil, goddess of Wisdom; Having missed the full introduction to Raylia and The System. As well as starting in a level 50 instanced dungeon far exceeding your level one capability; Merasil takes pity on you. Receive : Soul Companion.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
¨C Soul Companion ¨C (Godly) As the name suggest a soul companion is forever linked with you (well as long as you live (resurrections included)). Your soul companion will grow as you grow.
As I read them they scrolled through, when I got to the bit about the soul companion my interest was a bit more piqued. Re-reading that bit over and over I muttered ¡°what the hell is a soul companion¡±. Willing the boxes to the corner again, I sat there and just started to think about just what these gifts were. Closing my eyes again, just what the hell is going on, and put my head in my hands and my elbows on my knees, I take a deep breath and mutter, ¡°I¡¯m sooo losing my mind.¡± Feeling a bit better I slowly open my eyes and notices a brown leather satchel laying next to my feet and a large beer stein laid on top. Starting to reach down to the items to take a closer look a red ring of light begins to glow on the ground in front of me. Jerking my legs back I watch as the line pulses brighter and brighter ending in a bright flash of red light. ¡°WOW, that¡¯s always a rush! Well, great to meet yo¡­.. OH COMEON!!!! You have GOT to be kidding me! Seriously you stick me with an absolute Noob?! Westley¡¯s death was NOT my fault! He was all ¡°All I have to do is take a little to build up a tolerance¡±, I told him you CAN¡¯T build up a tolerance to iocane powder without having at least a 20% resistance to poisons. Does he listen to me NOOOOOOOO, he goes gets him self killed and then I¡¯m there with a crying princess. I mean Princess Buttercup was gorgeous, but man could she cry and cry and cry...¡± Stunned, I just stare at the creature. In front of me is standing what could only be described as an imp. Staring at the little guy he must be no more than four feet tall. Pointed ears and two small horns stuck out of the top of his head; bit of a stubby nose, a devilish smile with sharp teeth and with bright yellow eyes were made even more startling with the dark red skin. As the creature paces back and forth I notice small wings coming out of its back as it continued talking to no one in particular and gesturing wildly. Completing the look were a pair of black pants with a long tail poking out the back that ended with a black spade. What the hell is with the pants? ¡°ummmm, hey¡­? Who are you?¡± Eyes nearly popping out of his head the imp hands touching his chest the imp exlaimed, ¡°Who am I?!?! I¡¯m your damn soul bound companion. Of which I have NO idea how the hell you pulled that off! Do you have any idea how rare and hard it is to get a soul companion?! There are less than 500,000 of us in the whole System! Sure, you could get yourself an AI on one of the technology planets, would only cost a few million gold or so, still rare though. But a full soul companion¡­inconceivable! I¡¯ve had 175 soul companions and now here I am stuck here with a LEVEL ONE NOOB¡±! Completely not thinking clearly I mumbled, ¡°Why do soul companions always seem to be imps or fairy¡¯s¡­¡± Almost spitting the imp pointed at me,¡± and you¡¯re DAMN lucky you got an imp! Do you have any idea how annoying fairy¡¯s can be? They get dust all over the place! And what? You thought you¡¯d get a minotaur or maybe a giant griffin? What the hell would they need you for? You¡¯re a squishy bag of meat. If anything you¡¯d be their little soul companion! Where the hell are we anyway?¡± Jaw dropping, at the verbal tirade the little guy was on, I said, ¡°On a planet called Raylia I think.¡± ¡°On Raylia?! That back water planet? Great, now we have to go hunt thousands of horned rabbits to get you leveled up. Where the hell in Raylia are we and why are we in a cave? You should be in a cozy town or something; and how the hell are you only level 1? Kids usually hit level 2 by the time they¡¯re 5. Even the stupid fat kids stumble into level 2 by the time they¡¯re 7 and you¡¯ve got to be at least 20.¡± ¡°Actually I¡¯m 22¡± ¡°How is that even possible? Wait never mind I¡¯ll find out for myself¡±. With a quick snap the imp flew into Thoren like a ball of mist. Jumping off my rock, I started to slap at my chest, ¡°WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!¡± Well part of the whole ¡°Soul Companion¡± thing is that I can merge with you. Still feeling my chest but with the panic settling down just a bit, ¡°what do you mean you can just merge with me?¡± This isn¡¯t too hard a concept, Your Intelligence seriously can¡¯t possibly be over 10. (with a sigh and the attitude that he was talking to infant he continued) We are ¡°soul companions¡±, get it? The whole ¡°SOUL¡± part, I¡¯m a part of you now. Where you go I go. I grow as you grow. As you¡¯re a level 1 noob, I¡¯m in my weakest form. Thanks for that by the way. I haven¡¯t been this weak in hundreds of years. ¡°You can level up? What the hell are you talking about? And it¡¯s weird being able to hear your thoughts¡± ¡°Well as I¡¯m a part of you right now genius I can¡¯t talk as I don¡¯t have a mouth, but our thoughts can communicate as if we were having regular conversation. Continue to talk out loud, no one here is going to think you¡¯re any crazier than they already do. As for leveling up yes, welcome to the System! Let¡¯s see what I can find in your memories to explain it better¡­. Damn there were 13 billion of you humans on your planet Earth? What did you do just eat and procreate? WOW ok, now that¡¯s a lot of porn you¡¯ve seen, definitely fits into the procreate part but you were really on a looooong dry spell weren¡¯t you¡±. ¡°HEY! I was busy at school and just didn¡¯t find the right one I wanted to spend more time with¡±. ¡°Sure, keep telling yourself that¡­WHAT THE HELL? You watched a woman and a HORSE? Not even a centaur but a strait up horse?!¡± ¡°NOOOO! Was just a thing I heard about, was curious so I looked it up to see a video what they were talking about¡± ¡°uh huh¡­suuuuuuuure. You¡¯re a bit of a lil freak aren¡¯t you. Never mind let me look¡­.ahhhhhh here we go. You were something called a gamer. Kind of fits with why you were sent to Raylia. Your MMORPG games are very similar to how the System works and your fantasy based games are just as similar to Raylia. So I hope you got your pail and shovel cause welcome to the sandbox! You want to be a fire mage miner go for it. You want to be an assassin pilot, suit up. There are over 11,000 planets in the System. Some are highly magic driven with mana such as Raylia. Others are technology driven with little mana such as your sci-fi games; space ships, lasers, and almost every technology you can think of. Now this part is VERY important, so I¡¯ll say is slowly just to make sure you get it, mana and technology don¡¯t mix¡­ at all¡­period. Mana degrades technology incredibly fast. Leave a laser rifle on Raylia for more than 2 days and it¡¯s got as much use as a metal club with less stats. So, if you want to be a mage and work on a starship well you better master Internal Mana Manipulation. And I do mean master it, not just ¡°Hey I got the skill!¡±, it needs to be over level 100, cause if you¡¯re out in space and you start to leak mana and fry your ship, you¡¯re screwed; and if you¡¯re screwed I¡¯m screwed. Well at least until you die. Ok I think I have enough to work with to work this out¡±. With that the imp materialized in front of me again. ¡°Damn it! Little bit of a heads up before you do things like that please. Actually, what the hell is your name? I just keep thinking of you as ¡°imp¡±, as a soul companion figure we should at least know each other¡¯s names.¡± ¡°Ah, you¡¯re right, fair enough. I should have introduced myself. My friends call my Wick. I¡¯m an infernal imp.¡± With a bit of flair, he took a bow. ¡°I¡¯ve been in the System for a little over 1200 years. Though it¡¯s been about 112 years since my last companion. In between, us soul companions just float around in nothingness playing cards and telling each other stories about our latest companions; and let me tell you that gets old fast!¡± ¡°Wait, so your friends call you Wick, what¡¯s your real name?¡± ¡°Ughhhh fine its Chadwick. Yes, it¡¯s stupid and a bit pretentious. My mother is a succubus and my father was a snob of a hobbit. Really have no idea what my mother saw in him, but she did, and then they did, and then I was. Though I¡¯m pretty happy about being an imp. The other two options were just awful. I could have been an Incubus that looked like a hobbit with all the powers of an incubus in the pathetic form of a hobbit (which is just wrong); or I could have been hobbit that looked like an incubus with all the powers of a hobbit (which I think is just the ability to have really hairy feet) while being hated and hunted by everyone. Final choice is being an imp which gives me growth potential and less despised than the others (god I really hate hobbits!). So back to my name I thought about going as Chad, but that really just made me sound like a tool. Then I decided to just go as Wick, kinda fits and nice and simple.¡± ¡°Huh, well great to meet you Wick. I seriously have got to know though, what is up with the pants? I thought imps were either naked or wore a loin cloth.¡± Wick walked up and smacked me.
You have take 2 points of damage.
Giving me a steely glare and says, ¡°Thoren you really are a perv aren¡¯t you? Seriously I don¡¯t swing that way. Did I ask you why you¡¯re wearing pants? Oh, and don¡¯t EVER talk about loin cloths or ever think about having me WEAR a loin cloth.¡± ¡°OW! Damn it! Oooooooooook, fine but you have to give me a better reason¡± ¡°Fine.¡± With a sigh, Wick continues. ¡°My 79th soul companion and I just cleared out the first level of a crypt when the ceiling partially caves in, separating the two of us. There is a small hole in the rubble pile, instead of just starting to dig me out a bit he says, ¡°I can just pull you out¡±. With that he reaches in the hole grabs me and starts pounding me into the hole. I¡¯m screaming and yelling at him to stop but he keeps pounding and screaming back that he almost has me. After about 15 minutes of pounding I finally come through the hole. Our eyes lock for what seems forever but must have been a minute or two; and then he looks down to see where he¡¯s grabbing me. My loin cloth is torn off at this point and he has a handful of my twig. Let¡¯s just say the next 31 years of our companionship was extremely awkward.¡± ¡°¡­..He¡­..grabbed you¡­.and jerked you through a hole¡­.till you came¡­.out¡­.AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡±
*CRITICAL HIT* You have received 8 points of damage.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 After a few minutes bent over cradling my brutally attacked manhood. I was able to sit up and after a few shaky breaths grunt out, ¡°Ya, I probably deserved that¡±. Wick looked at me and then after a moment or two agreed, ¡°Fair enough, sorry for punching the plumbs, but it¡¯s a very sore issue for me. Let¡¯s sit down and figure out a plan, can¡¯t sit in this cave forever.¡± ¡°Great, cause let me be honest, I¡¯m freaking out a bit here, let me see what I can find to start a fire, and then can you please explain all of this (waving his arms at the cave).¡± I went around the small cave picking up some dry moss and dried out wood (don¡¯t know how it got here, but hey never as questions you don¡¯t want answers to). Pilling up the dry material I set to work using a couple pieces of wood, using the fireplough technique got to work trying to start a fire. Forty minutes, 6 blisters and 8 splinters of rubbing two sticks together led to a small ember starting to glow. Painstakingly blowing and coaxing the ember to life, a small flame sprung up on the dry material. Jumping up raising both arms in the air, I yelled ¡°How do you like that!!¡±
You have discovered the Skill Firestarter. Lvl 1. To Cavemen you are considered a god. To pretty much everyone else they look at you and think ¡°why didn¡¯t you use a match or your Infernal Fire Imp¡±. By creating a camp fire you have learned the skill Camping. Lvl 1
You have discovered the skill Camping Lvl 1 Pop Tent, roll out a bedroll, or just sit by a campfire. You¡¯re officially a camper. The better the camp the better the bonus (you even think glamping and your man card is revoked). Bonus to health, mana and stamina regeneration while in camp. Current bonus to those in the camp 1%. Additional bonus maybe gained with further leveling. .
Dumbfounded, I just looked at Wick and asked, ¡°What the hell are these notifications?¡± ¡°Well let¡¯s start with the easy one, I¡¯m an infernal fire imp.¡± With that said Wick flipped his thumb up and a small flame sat there dancing merrily. ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s better to work smarter than harder. Second as to the Skills you learned well, as you do and learn new things you gain skills. No, anything you¡¯ve previously have done before the System doesn¡¯t count. You need to redo them and show proficiency to gain them as skills. Every level you get in a skill you earn points toward your Destiny Paths. Before we get into everything, lets sit and start from the beginning. As in you telling me what the hell happened to you. Seriously the way you look a half dead beggar would probably feel sorry for you and give you a few coins.¡± ¡°The last thing I remember was that I was walking back to my dorm from class. All of a sudden sirens are blaring, looking around I start seeing kids vanishing in bright flashes. Next thing I know I¡¯m on some pantheon listening to some god talk. I decided to look over the edge to see where we were and then I¡¯m falling through the air on what I assumed was going to be a dramatic end to my life. Then I wake up and watch my body put itself back together. I start to read some floating blue boxes, something about the gods taking notice of me. I read one about Merasil taking pity on me starting in a level 50 instanced dungeon and she game me you. Still haven¡¯t had a chance to finish looking at all the boxes.¡± ¡°Well how much do you know about The System? I¡¯m sure, who was it Omion, god of Life¡­?¡± ¡°Nope, was Ibbris, god of Destiny¡± ¡°Ahhhh, make sense. I¡¯m sure he should have gone over The System when you got there. Well we can go ov¡­.¡± Jumping to his fee eyes popping out of his head Wick exclaims, ¡°WAIT! We are in a level 50 instanced dungeon?!?!¡± Looking a bit surprised at Wicks sudden outburst, I say, ¡°I think so that¡¯s what the one message said, she took pity on me for missing the tutorial or introduction and then starting in a level 50 instanced dungeon.¡± ¡°Oooooooh we are soooo dead. This is probably going to be the shortest soul companionship ever. I¡¯m going to be stuck in nothingness for another century, if I have to listen to another one of Bob¡¯s stories about how awesome his last companion was I¡¯m going to scream! Then I just KNOW I¡¯m going to be matched up with semi-sentient slime. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get slime out of your pants!¡± Sitting up straight, staring at Wick with clenched fists and through clenched teeth, I say, ¡°LOOK, as I told you before I¡¯m already freaking out. I already have an idea of just how screwed we are. In last couple of hours I was transported from my home planet which seems to have EXPLODED. Then within 15 minutes of that I¡¯m plummeting head first to a planet. Waking up to see parts of my body I NEVER want to see again and got to watch as it all slowly put itself back together. Now sit your ass down and explain this system to me. Then we can explore a bit and see what plan we can come up with.¡± Looking intently at me with a bit more respect and understanding, Wick sighed and sat back down. ¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯m sorry. So, what are we working with. What equipment, tools and weapons do we have?¡± I look around me and grab my school back pack and notice the magic bag of holding and beer stein still laying in front of the boulder Opening his backpack, I pulls out a sweatshirt, my phone, a text book on macroeconomics, a spiral bound notebook and 4 pens. Wick wordlessly looks over their supplies, nods a bit then spies the bag of holding and beer stein. His mouth drops open and he reverently picks up the bag. ¡°How did you get this? Do you have any idea what this is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the magic bag of holding I got from Ugborh. What¡¯s the big deal. In most of the MMORPG game we play they¡¯re pretty common place.¡± Wick just stares dumbfoundedly at me. ¡°This isn¡¯t a game. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to create a pocket dimension? There are maybe, MAYBE, 100-200 thousand pocket dimensions in The System. Half tend to be rings that hold a meter by a meter in storage. A third tend to be personal storage without any bag, ring or whatever, those mostly belong to the Celestial Elves. The rest are what you have here.¡± Holding the bag carefully, turning it over in his hands, he continued. ¡°The other two the space is what it is, no upgrade, and can¡¯t enter the pocket dimension. Just to give you an idea there were what 13 billion humans on your planet (excessive but whatever). Now think there are over 11,000 planets in The System and spread out the math. There are about 3 per planet and I can tell you for almost damn sure, this is probably the only one on this planet. Now looking at where we are and what we have, you¡¯re the proud owner of a godly item for what looks like the next few days.¡± ¡°Seriously stop¡­you need to think more positively.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m pretty positive about it! Ok let¡¯s look at the rest. The beer stein in awesome but does nothing for us as we have no water. You should just put it in your bag. The sweatshirt will at least cover up that pale skin of yours¡± Pulling the sweatshirt over my head I say ¡°Hey! It was fall where I came from. Not really the weather to go try and get some color¡± ¡°Uh huh ok. Should throw your backpack in your bag too, never know when we might need it. Your textbook well, just throw it in the bag, we¡¯ll worry about it later. Finally take one of your pens and open up your spiral notebook and start writing this ¡°I Thoren Parker do with sound mind and body leave all my worldly poss..¡± ¡°HEY! Stop that! We¡¯re not dead yet let figure this out!¡± ¡°Ughhhh, Fine!¡± Throwing his hands up in the air. ¡°Ok last thing you have is your phone? Looking through your memories seems like it contains some information and some knowledge, am I right?¡± ¡°Yup, has contacts, which are probably useless now, all my music. OH! I have an app ¡°WikiHow¡±. Basically, a ¡°how to¡± on almost everything. How to cook, sew, garden, pretty much anything.¡± Taking the phone Wick looks at it turning it over in his hands. ¡°Huh, ok. Well I have a skill they may work.¡± Looking at the phone with a more critical eye, tapped on it with his finger, flicking it a bit, even biting on it, he continued. ¡°In about a day this phone will be a plastic paperweight. About 400 years ago when AI¡¯s started to dominate with the ability to interface with most technology, download vast amounts of date, drive vehicles, and then they were all getting artificial bodies granting them even more abilities. We (the soul companions) asked the system for something that we could do to help our companions in the way of technology. So, we got a skill Data Transference, which allow us to transfer data from a device to our companion once per month. All knowledge that you gain is just that knowledge. No skills will be given until that knowledge is used. We have to be careful with it¡¯s use though, if we tried to transfer all the knowledge from a planetary database we would fry your brain if it couldn¡¯t handle the vast amounts of data. Then you¡¯re going to leave me cleaning up your drool for the rest of your life.¡± Tossing the phone up in the ai and grabbing it it, he looked Thoren in the eys and smiled a toothy smile and asked, ¡°so, do you want me to give it a shot?¡± Just about jumping in the air, I scream, ¡°HELLS YES!¡± Wick takes the phone in one hand and puts his other hand on my head. I start to feel my head get warm then looking at the phone I sees it puff up in a bright flash of flame and then the smoke flies into my head. The pain in immeasurable, it feels as if my skull was cracked open and molten lava was pored into it. Information starts to pour through my mind. How to cut the grass, how to make a candle, how to fry an egg, how to correctly trim your nose hairs. More and more info just pours deep into my mind. Next my vast library of music funnels its way into my mind. No longer playable music, the music is converted into sheet music. Every note and lyric burned into my ever-melting mind. Finally my contact list trickles in; names and connections added. After a few moments, I start hearing a girlish scream echoing throughout the cave, unfortunately realizing that it was me and I was still doing it. Gripping the sides of my head and wiping a bit of blood dripping from my nose, I coughs out. ¡°Holy Hell did that hurt! HA, I have it all! So much information, I even have all the music that I love!¡± ¡°Do you know how to play a guitar?¡± ¡°Ummmm No¡± ¡°How about the piano?¡± ¡°Nooooo¡­¡± ¡°Maybe the lute?¡± ¡°no¡­. Though I do have the knowledge on HOW to play them now.¡± ¡°Well when you do get in front on an instrument and realize that it still takes a lot of practice, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re going to be a smashing success HAHAHAHA.¡± ¡°Why did my contact information go to something called ¡°My Friends¡± list?¡± ¡°Ahhhhh, well that may be useful. If any of your contacts are able to upload their contact list as you have (most likely an AI hacking their phone). Then there is a possibility of you being able to contact them.¡± Jumping up and doing a little fist pump, I just start to laugh, ¡°Seriously?! That would be awesome!¡± ¡°Before you go and start jumping around like a teenage girl with excitement, don¡¯t forget we¡¯re most likely going to die in the next couple of days¡± Sitting back down and a bit sullener, I just look at Wick and say, ¡°You suck¡±. Waiving his hand Wick looked back at me, ¡°Whatever. Moving on, do you have any other notifications you have yet to look at? Looking a bit more at the intently at the slow pulsing blue light of my notifications, I says; ¡°Hmmmmmm a few more¡­.¡±.
*Critical hit* You have received 7,800 points of damage for crashing into a mountain at terminal velocity.
Landing in a safe area of an instanced dungeon, your HP¡¯s are set at 1. You are crippled, bleeding, blind, deaf, dumb, concussed. You have sustained broken bones in all but 2 bones. All organs have sustained catastrophic damage. Safe area increases regeneration by 400%.
Congratulation! For surviving being made into a meat pie and enduring the pain You have gained +1 Constitution and +1 Endurance
Congratulations! The ¡°Newbie Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! Due to being on the receiving end of damage, the ¡°Defense Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! Due to being mentally aware of monsters, the ¡°Support Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! For reaching 1 health, the ¡°Risk Taker Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! For entering a dungeon 50+ lvl¡¯s above you alone, the ¡°Dauntless Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! For being the first person on Raylia with over 100 points in Luck, the ¡°Lucky Bastard Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! For be the first to find the instanced dungeon: ¡°??????¡±. All experience will be doubled for the next 24 hours. The Chance of fining rare loot is doubled. Unknown bonus for completing dungeon.
Wick carefully read through each of the notifications and let out a slow whistle. ¡°Now those are some notifications.¡± Closing his eyes taking a breath before opening his eyes again, Wick started, ¡°Ok, well if we survive this we could be in line for huge gains. Reason being is that our chance to make it is insanely small. I¡¯m guessing you haven¡¯t looked at your status page yet. You also have no idea how the system works. So, let¡¯s take this step by step. First, how long do you think you¡¯ve been here?¡± Feeling a little bit better. I thought for a moment then looked at Wick and said, ¡°about 3-4 hours I¡¯d guess. After getting made into a meat pie, took hours for my body to pull itself back together. From there I looked around the cave a bit and then started to read the notification about you, and well you know the rest.¡± Wick took a moment to think a bit more before opening his mouth. ¡°Ok, well then here is what we¡¯re going to do. I¡¯m going to give you one of the fastest run throughs on what The System is as per leveling and your stats. We have about 20 hours of double experience left in this dungeon, which will give us a huge boost in leveling you. We have to take full advantage of this time as much as we can without being stupid and running headlong into trouble. Once we leave this safe area we will not be able to come back; our only choice is to go forward, rest as little as we can along the way and plough through. As we¡¯re so under leveled for this area we need to be highly offensive, take risks and hope for the best. Now think ¡°Status page¡± and let¡¯s see what we¡¯re working with.¡± A little less than sure what I was doing I thought, ¡°Status Page¡± and to my shock and amazement another blue box popped up showing my stats.
NAME: Thoren Parker LEVEL: 1 AGE: 22
RACE: Human (Earth End Prot) EXP: 0/100 LANGUAGES: All System Sentient
SOUL COMPANION: Chadwick (Wick) LIVES: ???? (Bonus Life(s) for EP)
TITLES
Luck Bastard: grants you an additional 100 points in Luck.
STATSUnauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
HEALTH: 100 MANA: 100 STAMINA: 100
H REGEN: 6.5/HOUR M REGEN: 6.25/HOUR S REGEN: 9.25/MINUTE
ATTRIBUTES
STRENGTH: 14 AGILITY: 10 DEXTERITY: 12
CONSTITUTION: 13 ENDURANCE: 13 INTELLIGENCE: 14
WISDOM: 11 CHARISMA:10 LUCK: 110
RESISTANCES
NONE
SKILLS
Firestarter. Lvl 1.
Camping. Lvl 1
ABILITIES
Gift of Tongues: Due to having a Soul Companion all sentient spoken language known. Written language only in Common and Infernal. Due to vast spoken knowledge written learned 75% faster.
Limitless Potential: Being born human your lives are fleeting. All skills level 50% faster
PATHS OPEN
Newbie Path 0/7; Defense Path 0/10; Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50 ; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50
PATHS COMPLETED
NONE
DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 2
Wick looked over the stats with a critical eye. ¡°Well not the worst I¡¯ve seen though very well near it. That 110 in Luck, is absolutely crazy. I¡¯ve had soul companions that would have murdered their own mothers for half that!¡± ¡°Well¡±, Looking a bit sheepish ¡°Having Idros approve of my entrance to Raylia, especially landing in this safe room; is a nice bonus¡± Wick laughed out loud, smacking his leg. ¡°HA! Well at least you¡¯ve gotten good attention from the gods. My 45th soul companion really pissed off the goddess of Fertility on the planet Xanthos. Every time he was about to have sex he¡¯d go flaccid. It was absolutely hilarious, he was a dick (pun intended), so well deserved. Ok let¡¯s get to meat and potatoes of your sheet. The Lives part with all the question marks are probably from the endangers protocols. If a sentient species is added to the System with a low probability of survival the System gives bonus lives. It could be none, it could be 50, it¡¯s all random for each individual. It¡¯s meant to give you a possible redo but the System wants to make sure that you continue to live each life as if it¡¯s your only one. Health, mana and stamina should be self-explanatory. You run out of health you die. You run out of mana you can¡¯t do magic, you run out of stamina you fall on your ass and can¡¯t move.¡± Looking to make sure I was not only paying attention but absorbing, Wick continued. ¡°Let¡¯s move on to attributes. Strength allows you to carry more also increases your attacks. It¡¯s also a factor in calculating your health. Agility well simply put increases your speed and how well you can move your body. Dexterity is for the finer movement¡¯s. Keeping your hands steady for shooting a bow or using a carving knife, etc. Constitution is a big factor in your health, also a factor in your stamina. Makes it harder to be knocked down and helps with resistances such as poison and disease. Endurance is your major factor in stamina; the longer you can run, shoot, mine or whatever. Intelligence relates to how much mana you have; also, how quickly you can learn new things and devise plans. Wisdom, well major factor as to mana regeneration; also, how well you understand new things. Charisma, pretty much how much people will like you. The higher it gets the more likable you will be to people, don¡¯t just rely on the stat, you act like a dick and people aren¡¯t going to like you. Then we have luck, which is VERY elusive. Luck affects EVERYTHING, the chance to meet someone, to finding rare loot, spotting the unknown, landing a critical hit. Its why luck is so hardly fought for and the one stat that is INCREDIBLY hard to raise. You are starting off at 110 is insane, with that type of luck we could hope a meteor crashes into the dungeon and killing everything HAHAHA. Just think of attributes in the tomato theorem. Strength is being able to crush a tomato. Agility is being able to dodge a tomato thrown. Dexterity is being able to cut up a tomato well. Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato. Endurance is being able to run around picking a lot of tomato¡¯s. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad. Charisma is being able to sell a tomato-based fruit salad. And Luck is finding the one person who will buy the tomato-based fruit salad.¡± Wick looked at me and asked, ¡°any questions so far? Those are the basics. No? Good! Now we get to your Destiny Paths or just Paths. They are what will make you grow stronger faster. They give bonuses that lead you to, well, to your destiny. No one knows how many Paths there are, it¡¯s thought there are almost an infinite amount. They seem to help guide and strengthen you to face harder trials ahead. I do know a great deal of the basic paths as well as a few rarer ones, and how to get you started on them, but even my knowledge is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction etc, of the possible Paths you can take. For instance, I¡¯ve never heard of the Dauntless Path or the Lucky Bastard Path before and am pretty curious what you¡¯ll receive from finishing them. Now to get Path Points or PP you need to level skills. Every level of a skill will get you 1 PP that you can use towards a Path. Since you¡¯re at level 1 we should quickly get you your Newbie Path, it well¡­ you¡¯ll see why. So what do you want to do.¡± I took a moment to weigh out my options and try to lay out a plan. ¡°Well you said we need to take advantage of the time of double experience. Is the Newbie Path good enough to spend time on getting it before we start on the dungeon? If so how long do you think it would take for me to get it?¡± Sitting cross legged Wick rolled his eyes up tapping his chin with his finger. ¡°Hmmm definitely worth getting, with the bonuses from the path. Should take about an hour to get it done.¡± I thought for a moment. Is it better to get going now and use every minute that they can to gain the double experience or take the time and complete a path. Weighing my options, I made decision. ¡°Ok here¡¯s the plan, help me get the Newbie Path as long as it won¡¯t take more than an hour. That will leave us about 19 hours to tackle the dungeon. While we move forward you can tell me more about dungeons and what to expect. So how should I get started getting skills and getting the Newbie Path?¡± To my surprise, with a plan set, I hears a notification and a blue box pops up.
You have discovered the Skill Planning Lvl 1 Your parents would be so proud! Instead of running headlong into the unknown you take a moment to plan a thoughtful strategy. Thinking ahead and creating a plan allows you to better analyze a situation and create a decisive strategy to obtain your objective. Increased skill level allows for increased mental acuity while planning.
A little bit surprised, a smile curled on my face as I says ¡°Well I got a new skill, Planning. So how should I get started.¡± With a bit of a chuckle Wick stretches and twirls his finger, ¡°Get up and start running, keep running until¡­well you¡¯ll know when.¡± With a look of determination, I got up and did a little stretch and took off around the cave. The cave itself was no bigger than a basketball court, the ceiling was no more than 25 feet high and could be seen by the soft glow of the cave moss. I just started to do laps. While running I was trying to really soak in everything Wick had told me. Quietly I gave my thanks to Merasil. Without Wicks help and knowledge I would be completely lost. Chuckling a bit to myself I figured I would already be dead having run out of the cave and start attacking things. Running at a brisk pace I ran until my stamina hit zero, which I then promptly fell down on my ass out of breath, to my surprise a couple blue screens popped up.
Congratulations! No Pain no Gain, you have earned +1 Endurance
Congratulations! You feel a little spring in your step +1 Agility
You have discovered the Skill Running Lvl 1 Is anyone chasing you, NOPE! Good for you, by keeping your pace faster than a brisk walk you learn you can go faster by moving those legs more. Kids everywhere would be proud. Keep running, you¡¯re less likely to pull a Jim Fixx and more likely to get an arrow in the knee, just get faster!
Sitting up, I started to chuckle, ¡°I got an endurance point, an agility point; and I learned the skill Running.¡± ¡°Yup that¡¯s what we were shooting for. With The System, you lift heavy things you get points in Strength, read more you get points in intelligence, understand and use what you read you get wisdom, etc. What we¡¯re also trying to get is the Skills. We need 7PP to get your Newbie Path. With the increase in regeneration here you should be full up on Stamina in just over 2 and a half minutes, once your stamina is full start doing pushups till your stamina runs out then the same for sit-ups. Keep alternating until you get the next one.¡± Going to the gym a few days a week I wasn¡¯t terribly hard pressed for the push-ups and sit-ups. Though each set got a little bit easier and after the second set I got the telltale notification and blue screens popping up.
Congratulations! Realizing you have muscles, you have earned +1 Strength
Congratulations! With a lil more bulk a gentle breeze won¡¯t know you over +1 Constitution
You have discovered the skill Physical Fitness Lvl1 You¡¯re a little less flabby than when you started, though you¡¯re far from impressing any ladies. The System want to Pump You Up!
Rolling over on to my back I let out a long breathe of air. ¡°Well that was fun hahaha, Nothing like a bit of exercise to get the blood flowing! I have 5PP now, so just need 2 more. What¡¯s Next? With a low chuckle and a bit of an evil laugh, ¡°Thoren it pains me, but this will really hurt me more than you.¡± With a glint in his eye Wick called up to infernal fireballs in his hands and started to throw them at Thoren. With loud yelp, I started hopping back and forth trying to dodge as much as I could though getting grazed by every other fireball.
You have taken 6 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 8 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 7 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 7 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 8 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 6 points of damage by fireball from Wick
You have taken 8 points of damage by fireball from Wick
Then with the tell-tale notification ring blue screens started to pop up. ¡°Ouch! Damn it Wick I got notifications, stop let me look!¡±
You have discovers the skill Fire Resistance Lvl 1 You always wanted to be thought of as hot. Just not literally on fire! The more you get burned the less crispy you¡¯ll be next time.
You have discovered the skill Dodge Lvl 1 If you''re going to become a true dodgeballer, then you''ve got to learn the five d''s of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge!
Congratulations! Shoot for more medium rare than well done! +1 Constitution
Congratulations! Are you a liar liar? Cause your pants are on fire! Try avoiding next time! +1 Agility
¡°Well that worked better than I thought!¡±, Wick said with glee. That should give you the 7 that you need for the Newbie Path but hold off for a minute. There are a couple of easy ones we can get before our hour is up. Ok limp your butt over to the glowing moss. Really look at the moss and try to see as much as you can.¡± A bit skeptical, though Wick hasn¡¯t led him wrong yet; I limped over to a cave wall and started to intently stare at it. I watched the moss slowly pulse with an ethereal light. I observed the rough looking texture, though when I ran my had over it, had more of a velvet feel. I noticed the tiny roots clinging to the rough cave wall
You have discovered the skill Inspect Lvl 1 Taking the time to truly obverve the world around you, You truly are growing up! At leas now you¡¯ll know what kind of bear killed you and what level it was!
You have discovered Celestial Moon Moss (rare) Celestial Moon Moss, named for the soft almost full moon glow that is given off. Is used in alchemical process producing unique positions and tinctures (unknown).
Congratulations! Instead of smash and grab you took the time to see what is actually before you. +1 intelligence
With a huge smile, I leaned in a bit more to observe the moss some more. Calling over my shoulder ¡°Hey Wick! This stuff is awesome! I want to collect as much as I can do you think you can keep a fireball lit enough that we can see by leaving this cave?¡± ¡°Hmmmm I think so, collect what you want, did you get the Inspect skill and a attribute point in intelligence?¡± ¡°Yup! Got them both!¡± Looking at the moss more closely, I couldn¡¯t see a way to remove the moss without damaging it to an excessive amount. Just before I started to try slowly pulling it off the wall an idea struck me. Grabbing my bag, I put my hand on the moss and thought about transferring it into the bag. With a faint flash the moss disappeared. With a wide grin I quickly thought about what was in the bag, a blue box grid popped up and in one of the boxes held the moss. Just as I was about to shout he received more notifications.
You have discovered the skill Herbalism Lvl 1 You¡¯re no Jolly Green Giant but you¡¯re getting a clue. Keeping a plant in one piece is far more likely to be usable in the future than a whole bunch of pieces.
Congratulations! Who knew that you could think logically?! +1 Wisdom
Walking quickly around the cave I reached out and took as much moss as I could reach. I tried to will the moss on the ceiling into my bag, but nothing happened. Using a little trial and error, I realized there was about a 6-foot radius for placement of objects into the bag. I wondered if that worked on sentient life too or just plant and objects. With a wicked grin I looked over at Wick but decided that being in a time crunch such experiments could wait till another day. Walking back to Wick, I spotted a pile of rocks and rubble in the corner. Thinking about the moss I thought I¡¯d try one quick little experiment. I thought all of the stone into the bag and the rocks in separately. With a quick thought I jumped into the bag myself. Well damn this is weird. The room in the bag was a 3-meter cube. Looking around I saw the moss neatly piled up the big stones in another pile and everything else neatly stacked and arranged within the room. Damn I could have really used this for my bedroom, mom would have stopped complaining for sure! Plus, that funky smell would have probably been avoided. Never did figure out what it was from. Walking over to the moss, gently taking a large piece I walked over to one of the larger boulders and gently laid the moss on top. The moss¡¯s roots slowly started to adhere to the stone and then the moss slowly started to give off the faint light again. Laughing out loud I quickly took all the moss and arranged it on all the boulders, tetrising the moss into an almost seamless carpet covering the stones, bathing the room in a not quite bright but soothing light. With a big smile and a dusting of my hands I left the bag. Coming out of his bag I was met with another notification.
Herbalism lvl 2,3,4¡­.7 reached
Congratulations! Keep up the smarts and your friend won¡¯t know who you are! +1 Wisdom
¡°Holy Hell! Wick I just reached lvl 7 in Herbalism and got another point in wisdom!¡± A bit shocked Wick said, ¡°What did you?!¡± ¡°Well I took some of the medium sized boulders that were by the wall and when I was in my bag I thought I¡¯d see if the moss could use it to sustain itself; and it worked! My back now has shag carpeted glowing rocks hahahaha.¡± Looking a bit introspective Wick pursed his lips and tapped his chin. ¡°I didn¡¯t know anything could grow in a pocket dimension. With so few bags in The System, very few people know what they are capable of, I¡¯d keep this to yourself, but it does open up the possibility of keeping and growing rare plants in your bag. Something to think about! Ok now time to finish off your Newbie Path and for you to decide where to put your other points¡± Opening up his Paths he took a look at what he had.
PATHS OPEN
Newbie Path 0/7; Defense Path 0/10; Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50 ; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50
PATHS COMPLETED
NONE
DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 15
With 7 of the PP he dropped them into the Newbie Path.
Congratulations! You have earned 7 stat point(s)!
Congratulations! You have completed the Newbie Path! +1 to all stats, +1 stat point per level, +4 Health per level, +2 Mana and +2 stamina per level. You have learned the active skills Mana Bolt Lvl 1 and Heavy Blow Lvl 1!
You have discovered the skill Mana Bolt Lvl 1 You take mana a substance you have little understanding about condense it and turn it into a projectile to smite your enemies, bigger the boom the better. Cost: 10 Mana. Increased skill level decreases mana cost and increases speed. Damage dependent on Intelligence and lvl of skill.
You have discovered the skill Heavy Blow Lvl 1 Your caveman ancestors would be proud. Nothing is as basic and damaging as just going *SMASH* Concentrate your force into one powerful attack. Costs 5 stamina. Damage based on Str and level of skill.
Raising his hands in the air like Rocky, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh and say, ¡°Damn Wick! Why didn¡¯t you tell me the haul would be that amazing?! Totally understand why you thought I should have this done before starting the dungeon. Oh, meant to ask what do I get when I level up?¡± With a cheshire grin Wick said,¡°I didn¡¯t tell you cause of your reaction. Was much sweeter seeing how excited you got from the notification! Every level as a human you get 5 stat points. Other races get varying amounts. The longer the life span the less points you get per level, for instance elves only get 2 per level but they tend to live over 1000 years, so they tend to get to higher levels. Humans are a flash in the pan so The System tries to level the playing field a bit¡± ¡°HA! With getting the skills mana bolt and heavy blow I now have 10PP to use. I can finish either the Defense Path or the M. Support Path. What would you suggest? ¡°Well we¡¯re about to enter into a lvl 50 dungeon, honestly I think all the defense you can get will help. You¡¯re going to be close to a one hit instant kill. Let¡¯s see if we can make that 2-3 hits.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. Let me drop them in and see what happens¡±
Congratulations! You have earned 5 stat point(s)!
Congratulations! You have earned 5 stat point(s) to be used in either Constitution or Endurance!
Congratulations! You have completed the Defense Path! +2 to all P. Def stats, +1 P.Def point per level. You have learned the skill Iron Skin Lvl 1!
You have discovered the skill Iron Skin Lvl 1 Well if you can¡¯t dodge and you can¡¯t block, you have to be able to take the hit. Concentrate on your skin, increasing your defense. Higher mastery means quicker activation and localized application. Costs 10 stamina per second. Defensive boost based on level of the skill.
¡°Well that was DEFINTELY a power boost! Though With my extra stat points I can¡¯t seem to increase my luck at all, what gives?¡± Rolling his eyes a bit, Wick huffed, ¡°I told you Luck is one of the hardest stats to increase. It¡¯s the only one that you can¡¯t increase when you get bonus stat points. It¡¯s also what makes what you have insane!¡± Ok, I think we¡¯re about ready to start this dive. Let¡¯s go by the fire and take 10 minutes to plan a strategy, it will also give you a chance to play with your new abilities¡± Wick said with a chuckle. ¡°I was HOPING you had the same idea! Should give us about 18.5 hours. Let¡¯s just hope our luck holds out¡­¡± Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Sitting by the fire with holding my hand out, I was looking at the ball of mana swirling in my palm. ¡°So, everyone in the System that finishes up the Newbie Path can use magic?¡± Laughing hard and wiping a tear, Wick spurts out, ¡°HAHAHAHA, no. The System gives 1-2 skills based on personal strengths. My 27th soul companion was a dwarf named Blumpff. He got shield bash and hammer strike as his two skills. You seem to be adept at magic and have some martial ability in that you¡¯re given both magic melee skills. So, practice for a minute and enjoy the 400% regeneration rate. So how do you want to proceed?¡± With a grin I hold out my arm extending my hand and shot my mana bolt. It was interesting as to how to actually use magic. I had to feel the mana within myself, call it forth to my hand and then not only think mana bolt but also visualize what I wanted to do. I didn¡¯t want to shoot more than 1-2 mana bolts. My max mana is 135 and with his regen rate of 7.75 per hour outside the safe room over the next 18 hours of the double experience I¡¯ll only get an additional 139.5 mana. So all in all at 10 mana per shot I¡¯ll only have about 27 shots. ¡°Well doing the math I¡¯ll have about 27 mana bolts for the next 18 hours, we don¡¯t have any water or food and not a weapon other than magic between us. So, I think we start slow, sneak out and try to see what we can get from those that we kill. Who knows what we¡¯ll find here, though if they¡¯re magic resistant we are definitely in trouble. Do you have anything besides fireball that we can use?¡± ¡°At level 1, nope. Pretty much fireball is it. Though since my fire is infernal it does 20% more damage than a regular fireball. You should be happy all the fireballs I threw at you were done so at glancing blows. Your mana bolt damage is half your intelligence and increases 2% per level of your skill. Damage also depends on where you hit them. As I kept throwing glancing blows the damage was less than let¡¯s say throwing them right in your face. Throwing all those fireballs at you did increased my skill level to 2, so, thank you,¡± Wick said with a sly grin. ¡°Ok so my intelligence is now 21 so my damage is going to be around 10-11 per bolt. Damn Really wish I could increase that or at least increase my mana regeneration more!¡± ¡°Well you can learn the skill Meditation, it will slightly increase your mana regeneration while we rest. You may be able to get an extra bolt or two out of it. Though don¡¯t forget you¡¯re only level one. You¡¯re sure to level and quickly if we can get a few kills under out belt. That will increase your mana pool as well as your regen. Now to learn meditation close your eyes and calm your breathing focus deep within yourself and find your mana pool. Trace the mana lines you used for your mana bolt back to the source.¡± I took a slow deep breath through my nose and slowly released it out my mouth. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breathing, picturing the ball of mana in my hand I slowly traced the flow through my arm and back into my chest. At first, I felt a slight warmth, but the more I focused on that spot the more at peace I felt, felling the warmth pulse in rhythm with my heart. After a moment of calm, I got the notification.
You have discovered the skill Meditation Lvl 1 Looking deep within yourself, (well it¡¯s you so you didn¡¯t have to go too deep), you were able to focus on just being. Allows user to enter into focused state, increasing regeneration by 1% per skill level. May be knocked out of meditation by disturbances. Increasing skill level allows more actions to be done while meditation.
Congratulations! Who knew you were deeper than a koi pond! +1 Wisdom
Slowly opening my eyes, and taking one more slow breath, I smiled, ¡°totally worth it, not only did I get the skill which will help with regen when we take short breaks, but I got an extra point to wisdom. Well no time like the present lets get to it. We¡¯re burning time. Standing up and taking a last look around the cave, I got a bit of inspiration from my WikiHow looking at the remnants of our firewood. Taking the last pieces of wood, I wrapped pieces of the dry moss around the ends, then ripping strips from my already shredded shirt I tied the moss on tightly, making impromptu torches. With that notifications popped up.
You have discovered the skill Craftsmanship Lvl 1 Take a piece of this, take a piece of that and put it all together and you get¡­.something. Though not trained in any particular crafting skill you use your knowledge to make something new. A little bit of ingenuity can go a long way!
Congratulations! A bit know how and a dash of luck and you got something new! +1 Wisdom
You have created Improvised Torch (common) Improvised torch will give you just enough light not to trip over anything underfoot; just don¡¯t expect it to light up your life.
Feeling a bit proud of myself, I put 8 of the torches into my bag and lit one from the fire. Looking around the cave one last time to make sure we weren¡¯t forgetting anything and feeling a bit of sadness leaving the start of my new life, I lead Wick out of the cave. Slowly making our way down the cave tunnel we hear some squeaking. Holding the torch out in front, I could see a pair of eyes peering back at me. With another squeak the eyes came charging at me. With as much as fear and surprise I swung the torch like a baseball bat smashing the creature into the wall. Not wanting to break the torch I quickly ran and started to kick and stomp on the creature. The creature was about the size of small dog, with a long snout and hairless tail. With notifications popping up I plopped down and looked at the creature.
Giant Rat Lvl 4 HP - 16 Giant Rats are the scavengers of the dark. Usually found in packs, so where there is one should keep an eye out for 2, 3, 4 ¡­
You have killed a Giant Rat! 12 Exp (doubled to 25)
¡°Ha! That seemed almost too eas..¡± Interrupted by multiple squeak¡¯s. I looked up and saw 4 more sets of eyes shinning in the darkness. ¡°Oh crap¡­¡± Jumping up and holding the torch like I¡¯m ready for a Randy Johnson fast ball, with just the same amount of fear or being hit, I set himself just as the first giant rat launched itself at me. Hammering into the side of the rat, the rat rolls down the tunnel squeaking in pain as its fur caught fire.
You have taken 4 points of damage
You have taken 5 points of damage
With Wick firing a couple of fireballs at two of the rats. One of them snuck up and started biting my legs. With a quick kick and brandishing the torch to light up the rats life. I stepped back a bit to take stock of what was going on. Wicks two rats were slowly moving, their hit points draining as they burned. The first rat that attacked me laid on the ground mewling in pain with an obviously broken back. Finally looking back at the last rat, the fire almost out, it hissed and attacked again. This time I wound up mentally picturing Pele and kicked the rat right into the wall taking what hit points it had left. Taking a breath, I walked around to the other three and heal stopped each one in the head to make sure they were dead. Looking around at the dead rats, Wick nodded in approval. ¡°Well for your first fight, not too bad. For these low levels hopefully you got a level, but let¡¯s just be glad we got attacked by them first before anything too difficult.¡± Looking at Wick with a bit of a resigned sigh I had to admit as difficult as these rats were they¡¯ll probably be nothing compared to what is ahead. Being a level 50 dungeon, rats were going to be the least of his problems. Figuring that there weren¡¯t any other rats around I thought he¡¯d take a quick look at his notifications.
You have killed a Giant Rat! 12 Exp (doubled to 25)
You have killed a Giant Rat! 12 Exp (doubled to 25)
You have killed a Giant Rat! 12 Exp (doubled to 25)
You have killed a Giant Rat! 12 Exp (doubled to 25)
Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 2! You have 5 points to allocate 25/200 Exp till next lvl
Quickly opening up my stat sheet, I took my 5 new stat points and quickly allocated them, 3 to intelligence to 2 to wisdom. After all the recent points from the Paths and now my leveling my health was a base of 186, my mana was at 157 and my stamina climbed up to 180. All in all, not too bad of an increase for a couple hours¡¯ worth of work! Sharing my updated stats with Wick, I took a knee for a couple of minutes to catch my breath. Patting Thoren on the shoulder, ¡°Not too bad, you shouldn¡¯t be one shot anymore but let¡¯s not test that out as we really don¡¯t know what¡¯s down here. I¡¯m ready whenever you are¡± Nodding my head I got up and picked up my torch. ¡°Well let¡¯s get a move on.¡± Just as I started walking away, Wick grabbed my arm. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not just going to leave the rats here are you?¡± ¡°Why would I want to take them? We don¡¯t have a knife so we can¡¯t skin them.¡± Wick rolled his eyes, ¡°Look what is one of the things we are missing?... FOOD! Ya, rat meat isn¡¯t something to write home about but its far better than starving. Sure, we don¡¯t have a knife now, but I have a feeling that there are things down here that do, so throw them in your bag and we¡¯ll figure it out later¡± A little disgusted at the thought of eating the giant rats. I had to admit that it was better than to starve so I walked around and grabbed the 5 dead rats stuffing them into my bag. Now hefting the torch, we started down the tunnel again. A bit warier than I was before. After about 20 minutes of walking, the tunnel started to open up a bit more and to our surprise the moss could be seen growling along the walls and ceiling sporadically again. Putting out the torch, but continuing to hold it I looked over at Wick. ¡°Just how many things have something like darkvision and can see down here? With the moss here giving off just enough light that we can see where we are going, was getting a bit worried that holding the torch was going to be a flare drawing whatever is down here right to us.¡± ¡°There are a lot of different creatures, sentient and not that have something similar to darkvision. Me being one of them. As long as you can see well enough with out tripping all over the place your plan is a good one. I can see far enough that I should be able to observe something before they see us¡± Walking down the tunnel, keeping my hand on the wall for a bit of guidance, I looked over at Wick and had some questions that have been bothering me for awhile. ¡°So, what exactly is an instance dungeon? Are there regular dungeons too?¡± Looking over and smiling, Wick started. ¡°I was wondering when you were going to ask. Well first off, yes, there are regular dungeons. They¡¯re pretty much planted by The System. Each dungeon has a core that controls the dungeon. Dungeon cores are highly sought after as you can farm them for experience and loot. When you kill something in a dungeon after a few minutes the body will absorb back into the dungeon and some loot will be left behind. Wild dungeons can be quite powerful and have extremely dangerous creatures/traps and puzzles throughout. Though the reward is just as good. First run throughs of a dungeon get much higher rewards. We can get more into how they work when we¡¯re done here. As for an instanced dungeon, it¡¯s completely different. There is no core, creatures aren¡¯t spawned here. So, whatever we kill we don¡¯t have to worry about them popping back up behind us. Also, nothing gets absorbed and drops loot. Like those rats, they¡¯re just dead rats, sure we might get lucky and one of them could have swallowed something and when we open them up we may find something but most likely not. They¡¯re more of way that The System is saying something is happening here that could be of some significance. As an example, my 79th soul companion Shandrain and I got into an instance dungeon on the planet Lordrell. Fun little planet little smaller than your Earth. It¡¯s a mana infused planet like Raylia and we were exploring the forests on the north continent. After walking for about a week into the forest we got the notification of an instance dungeon. Uggghhhh, it was the worst. Turns out the spider queen Vrondeen was overtaking the heart of the forest looking to then expand out over the continent. We spent THREE days fighting those damn spiders, we nearly burnt half the forest down wiping them out; and my ass still hurts thinking about how she bit me. Shandrain never let me live that down the bastard.¡± Wick let off a slight chuckle.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. After a quiet moment Wick continued. ¡°So as to what is going on here, I have no idea. The fact that it¡¯s a level 50 means that it has some pretty big significance. Don¡¯t let the number completely freak you out. It¡¯s bad, well REALLY REALLY bad, but its also a rating on the difficulty of what¡¯s here and also of how significant the event is. So, it could either we extremely high level creatures doing something small and we just happen upon them, or it could be something of incredible significance and just happens that a couple of mole people are about to trigger it. Most likely it¡¯s a mix of the two. Just have to see what it is and be on our guard for the former and hope its more like the latter.¡± We continued on for a bit in contemplative silence, I was just thinking over what Wick just said and Wick thinking back over a past memory. ¡°Shhhhh the tunnel opens up ahead, lets be as quiet as we can¡± Half crouching, I started slowly walking on the balls of my feat, conscious of every scuff and rub my shoes gave off. Trying to will myself to be as quiet as possible, I almost tripped when I got a notification.
You have discovered the skill Sneak Lvl 1 You¡¯re no ninja but you¡¯re far better than a charging knight in armor. Movement speed is reduced while sneaking. As you advance in sneak your movement will become faster and your noticability well decrease. Keep leveling you may just vanish!
Congratulations! Be verrrrrrry verrrrry quiet you¡¯re hunting¡­Wait what are you hunting? +1 Agility
As tense as I was I couldn¡¯t help but grin at the new skill and point. Regaining my focus, I crept forward only to be astounded by what I saw. A sprawling cavern spread out before him. Ancient buildings crumbled and only hinting at the majestic construction they must have been. The far cavern wall was well out of sight as was the ceiling. Wick and I crept further in, trying to see what laid ahead. Hearing voices in the distance, I pointed to a crumbled building. As quickly and silently as we could we climbed up the decrepit stones. Climbing over the stones, squeezing through gaps and making sure not to knock any loose stones, we managed to reach the top. Crawling to the edge, two pairs of eyes looked out to what was laid out before us. What could have only been a small city was hidden under this mountain. No buildings still stood, only the echo of what had been could be felt. The soft glow of the moss, and light of the few camp fires lit up what was left of beautifully carved stone walls and broken masterful works of art. Broken statues and reliefs littered the cavern floors. Breathlessly I whispered to Wick, ¡°What was this? Where are we? This place is amazing it must have been just¡­words don¡¯t describe¡±. In a hushed tone Wick almost reverently said, ¡°Honestly I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never heard of a city like this in Raylia before. Whatever this was, and wherever we are, it¡¯s been a very long time since anyone has lived here.¡± Looking at the camp fires a bit more carefully, wick muttered, ¡°ohhhhh crap. Look at what¡¯s there and tell me what you see.¡± Looking at the movement around the fires I strained my eyes to see what was there. When I got a notification.
Hobgoblin Scout Lvl ??? Hobgoblins are the smarter, stronger version of goblins. They are cruel, violent and cunning. Never attack hobgoblins unless you can wipe them out. Are very vindictive, vengeance isn¡¯t a possiblity it is guarantee.
¡°Ughhh freaking hobgoblins, how many do think there are? How come I can¡¯t see their level and how many hit points they have?¡± ¡°Well first, no idea, we have to get closer to look. Second, they¡¯re more than 10 levels higher than you so inspect won¡¯t work.¡± Then is a hissed voice, ¡°Third, how did you miss the TROLL?!¡± Quietly sputtering I said, ¡°Troll? What troll?!¡± Looking again at the fire I stared and tried to pick out the troll that I must have missed, then what I had assumed was a giant boulder moved.
Mountain Troll Lvl ???? Smash, eat, smash some more! Not overly bright trolls are incredibly strong and tough. Hopefully you brought more than a few friends to fight them, or you are at least faster than they are when you need to run away.
Face palming, I grumbled, ¡°Well at least we know why this is a level 50 dungeon..¡± With a quiet chuckle Wick retorted, ¡°Not quite, as tough as they seem, this would be more a level 20 maybe 25 dungeon. There is way more going on here. We really need more info. Since I know your eyes suck I bet you didn¡¯t see the cages against the wall by the closest fire¡± Really trying to will my eyes to see more, I just shook his head. ¡°Nope can¡¯t see them, I really need to get darkvision or something, this sucks. Going by the roaming torch lights it looks like there are 5 scouts walking around. We really need to thin the numbers a bit and get to the cages and see what¡¯s there.¡± ¡°Ok, we need to kill scouts that are over 10 levels higher than us without them calling out and bring a literal mountain of pain down on us. All we have are fireballs and mana bolts with no weapons what so ever. Ok no problem, to pull a bit from your history this is like the Kobayashi Maru.¡± ¡°Seriously? Star Trek? You root through my mind and you pull that up? Well if you looked further you¡¯d see he beat it, you just have to cheat...¡± I just looked at Wick and smiled. After a few minutes of devising a plan and testing some theories I looked at Wick and said, ¡°you ready?¡± ¡°This has got to be the craziest and stupidest plan I¡¯ve ever heard of, but hey you¡¯re the boss, lets do this.¡± Holding out his fist. Looking at Wicks fist, I shook my head and chuckled, giving him a fist bump. Pulling out a few stones, I just waited until one of the scouts came close to our rock pile. As soon as one was close enough I started to toss the stones. Starting close to the scout and slowly leading it to where we were. The scout heard the first bouncing stone. Having been in this cavern for just over a day all they have come across are giant rats. Hoping to find another for dinner the scout thought about his future dinner with a grin on his face. As the scout neared, I gave Wick a look of ¡°are you ready¡±, with a firm nodded Wick crouched near the top of their pile. I then dropped what was to be the last stone straight down. The scout had been following the sound of bouncing stones for about 20 minutes getting closer and closer. His stomach rumbled with the thought of fresh meat. Thinking about having the rotten stew again just made him want the giant rat that much more. Five feet away he saw a stone drop to the ground from one of the decrepit building. Sneaking up to the wall he bent down to pick up the stone. Standing up he looked up to see if he could get a peak at his future dinner. That was to be the last thing he did. I watched as the scout crept up to the broken wall of the building. When he was right under them I held my bag over the wall and called forth the giant piece of stone I had put into the bag when we conceived this plan. Materializing over the wall the stone fell with all the wonderful gravity this world had to offer. With a sickening (but generally quiet) crunch, I received a notification.
You have killed a Hobgoblin Scout! 225 Exp (doubled to 550)
Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 3! You have 5 points to allocate 375/400 Exp till next lvl
Planning lvl 2,3,4 reached
Congratulations! For devising a plan and killing something over 10 levels higher than you without any of your party taking damage the , ¡°The Path of the Cunning¡± is open to you!
In a whisper, I grinned like an idiot and said, ¡°I told you it would work!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe the plan, ¡°lets drop a giant boulder on its head¡± worked. Well let¡¯s get down there and see what we got.¡± Quietly climbing out of their rock pile of a building, we crept our way to our prize. First thing I did was to put the stone back into the bag. Seeing what was left of the hobgoblins head made me throw up a bit in my mouth. ¡°Now that is gross¡± ¡°Well that helm isn¡¯t going to be any use anymore but let¡¯s see what else he has.¡± Stripping the scout down to his underclothes, (there will NEVER EVER be a time when you will want the underclothes of a hobgoblin), we made a small pile of loot.
You have found: Worn leather bracers Defense: +2 Type: Light Armor Durablility: 4/8 Item Class: Common Quality: Poor Weight: 3.2 kg. Traits: None
You have found: Worn leather vest Defense: +7 Type: Light Armor Durablility: 12/20 Item Class: Common Quality: Poor Weight: 5.4kg. Traits: None
You have found: Worn leather pants Defense: +5 Type: Light Armor Durablility: 9/20 Item Class: Common Quality: Poor Weight: 4.1 kg. Traits: None
You have found: Dull Iron Knife Attack: +1-3 Durablility: 7/15 Item Class: Common Quality: Poor Weight: 0.6 kg.
You have found: Dull Iron Scimitar Attack: +3-7 Durablility: 15/30 Item Class: Common Quality: Poor Weight: 1.4 kg.
¡°Not too bad, though he only had 20 copper on him, do you think you can help me get this stuff to fit? Might help to stop one of the dull weapons from killing me.¡± Together Wick and I were able to work the straps so that the leather armor fit somewhat. Hobgoblins are taller than regular goblins, but they tend to be around 5 feet tall. So, on my 6¡¯3¡± frame the leather looked almost childish. In hushed tones I hissed out,¡°Holy shit! This stuff smells god awful!¡± ¡°Speaking barely above a whisper Wick retorted, ¡°What did you expect? It¡¯s hobgoblin armor. They practically live in it, do you think they take the time to wash it? They sweat, eat, shit and fornicate in it. When it gets too small they give it to someone else and they put it on as is, and it repeats until they die and someone else gets it again as is or it falls apart.¡± Forcing the bile back down my throat, I strapped the sword and knife to my waist, and threw the body into my bag. Raising an eyebrow Wick looked at me and said, ¡°I may eat giant rat but there is noooo way..¡± stopping Wick there I held up his hand, ¡°No, just so we can hide the evidence for now, I¡¯ll dump out the bodies later. Now as the wise and venerable shampoo bottles used to say, lets rinse and repeat.¡± With the 4 other scouts being further out. Wick was sent to lead the trail of breadcrumbs to the kill spot. Being able to move faster in sneak and having darkvision it was the obvious choice. I would just wait on top in our usual spot and as soon as the scout was under me I would drop the stone. A little over an hour later and I was able to take a look at my notifications.
You have killed a Hobgoblin Scout! X4 1100 Exp (doubled to 2200)
Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 4-5! You have 10 points to allocate 1375/1600 Exp till next lvl
Quickly spending my points. I felt and saw myself improve. My muscles got slightly bigger and more defined, the fat that I had was melting off, breathing felt easier as if someone had taken a weight off his chest. I also felt as if my mind start to clear, like getting a cup of coffee in the morning, everything just felt sharper. ¡°So pretty much all the same crap, more worn leather pieces, another 112 in copper, though the last two had interesting pieces.¡±
You have found: Fine Steel Dagger Attack: +3-6 Durablility: 12/20 Item Class: Common Quality: Good Weight: 0.5 kg.
You have found: Iron Ring of Agility Durablility: 6/8 Item Class: Uncommon Quality: Good Weight: .07 kg. Traits: +1 to Agility
Dumping the bodies deep in the rubble. I wiped my hands and gave a look to Wick. ¡°Well seems like the easy part is done, shall we go look and see what real trouble we¡¯re in?¡±
NAME: Thoren Parker LEVEL: 5 AGE: 22
RACE: Human (Earth End Prot) EXP: 1375/1600 LANGUAGES: All System Sentient
SOUL COMPANION: Chadwick (Wick) LIVES: ???? (Bonus Life(s) for EP)
TITLES
Luck Bastard: grants you an additional 100 points in Luck.
STATS
HEALTH: 204 MANA: 165 STAMINA: 204
H REGEN: 9.5/HOUR M REGEN: 10.25/HOUR S REGEN: 9.85/MINUTE
ATTRIBUTES
STRENGTH: 22 AGILITY: 16 DEXTERITY: 13
CONSTITUTION: 25 ENDURANCE: 25 INTELLIGENCE: 27
WISDOM: 27 CHARISMA:11 LUCK: 110
RESISTANCES
Fire: 5%
SKILLS
Firestarter. Lvl 1. Physical Fitness. Lvl 1. Heavy Blow. Lvl 1.
Camping. Lvl 1. Dodge. Lvl 1. Iron Skin. Lvl 1.
Herbalism. Lvl 7. Fire Resistance. Lvl 1. Meditation. Lvl 1.
Running. Lvl 1. Inspect. Lvl 1. Sneak. Lvl 1.
Planning. Lvl 4. Mana Bolt. Lvl 1. Craftsmanship. Lvl 1.
ABILITIES
Gift of Tongues: Due to having a Soul Companion all sentient spoken language known. Written language only in Common and Infernal. Due to vast spoken knowledge written learned 75% faster.
Limitless Potential: Being born human your lives are fleeting. All skills level 50% faster
PATHS OPEN
Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50 ; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50; Path of the Cunning 0/20
PATHS COMPLETED
Newbie Path 7/7; Defense Path 10/10;
DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 7
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Taking one last quick look around from our high view point we settled back to plan out our next move. ¡°Well there doesn¡¯t seem to be any other torches wandering around, so hopefully that means we¡¯ve taken care of all the scouts. Down side is we don¡¯t know when they are due to head back to make a report or to check in with anyone, so it seems we¡¯re even more on the clock to keep some sort of element of surprise before suspicions start to arise. Hate to say it but I think we need to split up. You have darkvision and are far more capable at sneak than I am, so I think you should make your way to the campfires and the cages and see what you can find out. Definitely ere on the side of caution, would prefer to not know a little bit more and keep you safe and our surprise longer. I¡¯ll circle around the cavern and see what I can find and if there may be anything of value. Let¡¯s meet back here in about 2 hours. If no alarms are raised, then that should mean we¡¯re both safe and just wait for the other.¡±
Planning lvl 5 reached
Wick looked as I had a quick unfocused look and smiled ¡°Got something else did ya? A level in planning?¡± With a chuckle I just nodded, ¡°Yup, alright let¡¯s go and see what mess we¡¯re in¡± I stayed to the outside wall and crouched low and as quickly and quietly as I could I started to make my way around the cavern. The ground was flat and relatively smooth guessing a road circled the cavern in the past. Making my way around I noticed alcoves and cut outs, places where stores or houses could have been. It was like walking through a memory. Faint glimpses of the past showing through. A partial relief was still on the wall, a scene filled with so much detail the shadows made it look to be in motion. It was a battle scene where two forces had joined. One side filled with what looked like orcs and if I had to guess I¡¯d say kobolds. The other side showed proud beings that kind of looked like dwarfs but they seemed just a bit taller. For a moment there I got lost in the scene, a pure struggle for survival and a hunger for dominance. Reaching out I let my hand slide over the relief feeling every detail and being awed at the masterful artistry that it took to create. Dropping my hand, I took off again. Trying not to get distracted again but yearning to explore all that was around me. Thinking to myself over and over, after this is done... Slowly coming up to a wide intersection. I noticed that the road went straight into the heart of the cavern and right to where the campfires were. The road also went straight into the wall, slowly stepping back a bit and making sure to stay hidden, I looked up at the wall. Two giant figures stood beside the road wearing full armor. Both fierce warriors dressed in full plate gripping large shields pushed into the ground. The warrior to my left had a steely gaze with a long braded beard and hair coming out of his helm. On his back was strapped a massive war hammer, symbols etched into the head and down the shaft almost seeming to shine a bit with the light of the moss. The other warrior could have been a twin. Dressed the same with a large two-handed sword strapped to his back instead. Staring at the two in awe and a bit of reverence a quirky thought popped into my head, NONE SHALL PASS¡­ and I just chuckled a bit. Looking a bit more intently I noticed a razor thin arch cut into the stone. Running my hand along the line I couldn¡¯t even get my finger nail into the cut. With a bit of a shrug I thought, Huh, just another thing to figure out when this is done¡­ I made my way around the cavern. Not quite as large as I had first thought it was still about five football fields in width and about eight in length. All the buildings were in the same amount of disrepair. Everything had rotted away except small pieces of wood that looked to be what was left of massive beams. Deciding that I had seen enough I started my trek back. Hunched over and concentrating on my movement trying to be as quiet and fast as I could. Just past the warrior statues I got another notification.
Sneak lvl 2 reached
With a smile I continued thinking that with that I was up to nine PP; only needing one more to get my Support Path. I made it back to the original pile, taking a quick look around I didn¡¯t see Wick so figured I should try to get that last PP while I waited. Grinding out pushups and sit ups until my stamina bottomed out I would then sit and meditate to increase my regeneration speed. After my second round of meditation I got the notification I was looking for.
Meditation lvl 2 reached
With a grin I opened up my status page and looked through his Paths options
Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50 ; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50; Path of the Cunning 0/20
PATHS COMPLETED
Newbie Path 7/7; Defense Path 10/10;
DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 10
Now I was torn looking at the different paths. I could definitely finish up the Support Path but I was also only five short of the Risk Taker Path; which considering what we were doing, it was a huge risk, so the Risk Taker path may be something I should try to get. Trying to do a bit of math I thought it takes little over 20 minutes to regain all my stamina and I can try to level iron skin which takes about 24 seconds to deplete my stamina. If I meditate while keeping iron skin active I can effectively level both at the same time. With a grin I sat down and activated my iron skin. I felt my skin tighten a bit, curious I took out the dagger and lightly started to push it against my forearm. Feeling a bit more resistance that what it should be I chucked and put the knife away. Closing my eyes, I started to meditate. After about half a minute I felt my stamina bottom out and my skin revert back to normal and after an hour of meditating and using his iron skin I welcomed the notifications.
Meditation lvl 3,4 reached
Iron Skin lvl 2,3 reached
Muttering to myself about being one shy, I was about to start meditating again when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Nearly peeing myself I had to force my mouth shut not to make a sound as I spun around pulling my knife to see what it was. Trying to keep from laughing out loud Wick covered his mouth and plopped down on a rock silently laughing. In a hissed tone I looked at Wick and said, ¡°What the hell were you thinking?! That almost cause me to shout out, then what would we have done?!¡± Holding both hands up, Wick calmed down and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry. Was just trying to get your attention, didn¡¯t realize you were a bit zoned out.¡± Shaking my head I sighed a bit, ¡°You¡¯re right I should have been paying more attention. I was trying to get some more PP to fish a Path. I have fourteen PP now and can either finish the Support Path or try to get one more PP and finish the Risk Taker Path. What do you think I should do?¡± With a moment of contemplation Wick started, ¡°Well both are good Paths in the beginning. The Support Path will give you one support point which you can use toward Intelligence/Wisdom every odd PP that you add to the Path for a total of five. You also get one free stat point you get for every even PP you add to the Path for a total of five. Finishing the Path you get plus two to all the support stats (Intelligence/ Wisdom) plus one support point per level. As for Risk Taker Path, well you get plus one to all stats every five PP you use so a total of three to each for the Path. You also get a random chest and get plus one percent experience per each level a defeated mob has over you. Both are great Paths so hard to say which way to go. The Support Path with give you sixteen stat points plus five for being level five, for a total of twenty-one. The Risk Taker Path will give you twenty-four stat points plus a small chest.¡± Trying to decide the better route, I wavered back and forth finally deciding, I added the points of the Risk Takers Path. The increase in experience and the small chest was the better choice to make. ¡°Well, I¡¯m still short a PP hopefully I¡¯m close to another level in Physical fitness so let me try to grind it out a bit more.¡± With that I got back to pushups/situps and meditation grind. Only forty-five minutes later I got the notifications that I was hoping for.
Physical Fitness lvl 2 reached
Congratulations! Pushing those muscles a bit further, you have earned +1 Strength
Congratulations! You¡¯ve finally dropped that freshman fifteen! +1 Constitution
Really happy with the bonus two stat points I dropped the fifteen points right into the Risk Takers Path, which led to more beautiful notifications.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Congratulations! You have earned +1 stat point to all stats!
Congratulations! You have earned +1 stat point to all stats!
Congratulations! You have earned +1 stat point to all stats!
Congratulations! You have completed the Risk Takers Path! Receive one random chest. +1% experience per level a defeated mob has over you!
With a big grin, I really felt everything about myself improve a bit, it was an incredible feeling. With a small pop a chest appeared in front of me. Looking a bit greedily at it I opened it up and took a look inside.
You have found: Cloak of Concealment Durablility: 15/15 Item Class: Uncommon Quality: Well Crafted Weight: 4.9 kg. Traits: Decrease detection by 10
Inspection lvl 2 reached
Wick let out a soft ¡°HA¡±, before continuing. ¡°Well that¡¯s definitely going to be useful with what¡¯s ahead. I waited a bit extra trying to get a sense if the hobgoblins noticed their scouts were missing. To our luck nope! Must be middle of the night, so most of them are gambling, drunk, asleep or a mix of the three. I wasn¡¯t able to get to the cages. There was just too much open space between where I was and where they were. The light from the fires would have lit me up too much and would have been easily spotted. However, I was able to get a count of what we¡¯re up against and it¡¯s not pretty. There are fifteen regular hobgoblins, five warrior hobgoblins and one shaman hobgoblin. Plus you already know about the mountain troll.¡± Shaking my head I started to think out loud, ¡°Huh, well any chance we can sneak up and kill them individually?¡± ¡°Nope, nada would be spotted after the first kill and even with a sneak attack those warriors are almost hard to one shot, even slicing their throats wouldn¡¯t do enough damage, don¡¯t get me wrong would do a lot, but just not enough to kill them.¡± ¡°Alright, what about freeing the prisoners and having them help?¡± ¡°Possible but would probably get spotted while trying to open the cages, most likely get killed before you get them open.¡± ¡°Damn it, ok¡­.¡±, I thought for a bit, then a bit longer with a very slow smile creeping on my face. ¡°Say, how far away is that troll¡­.¡± ¡°Wait, Why? He¡¯s on the far end sleeping against a building pile. They don¡¯t really like fire so he¡¯s staying away from it. What the hell are you thinking?¡± ¡°Two more questions, can I over charge a mana bolt, and trolls wear loin cloths, don¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Oh God¡­ Oh God no! What the hell are you thinking?! Yes, you can over charge a mana bolt just when you call it forth hold it and let more mana build into it. It¡¯s not easy. As to the troll yes, they do, and I REALLY REALLY don¡¯t like where you¡¯re going with this¡±. Crawling back into the rubble pile I pulled each scout back into my bag and made my way back to Wick. Pulling them all out and their equipment I gave Wick a smirk and said, ¡°Well let¡¯s dress them back up.¡± ¡°Ughhh, you are just sick you know that¡­ I¡¯m still not sure what your plan is but so far it sucks, you sick bastard.¡± Getting all of the scouts redressed was a testament to our will. Almost throwing up twice and having to play around with dead bodies I realized I was going to have to let Wick get first crack at the beer stein when the used it. Placing the dead bodies back into my bag (I really have to see if there is a way to clean the inside), we made our way around the cavern following the road that I had used earlier. When we got to the two warrior statues, Wick could only let out a slow soft whistle. Having put on the cloak I felt a bit surer of my stealth allowing myself to travel a bit faster but very conscious of the noise we made sneaking. When we reached the far side we settled down and I started to explain his plan to Wick. ¡°ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?!?!¡±, Wick barely able to contain himself was grabbing onto my cloak with both hands spitting in my face as his wild eyes held my own. ¡°Look, this is the only plan that I could come up with, now do you have a better one?¡± With the wild look slowly subsiding, Wick looked away and shook his head ¡°No¡±. ¡°Alright then, we¡¯ll have to go with this one. Now go get into position and I¡¯ll get started¡±, With that another notification.
Planning lvl 6,7 reached
¡°Ha! The System must like my idea, I just got two levels out of it.¡± ¡°Ya, well we¡¯ll see how well great it is if we¡¯re both still alive after it¡± Turning around, Wick quietly snuck off to his position. Slowly sneaking towards the troll, going from one pile to the next hiding behind boulders to regain my stamina as much as I could I stopped when I was no more than twenty-five meters from the troll and another twenty-five meters to the closest fire. Looking up at the troll I could tell he was deep into sleep, the rolling rumble of his snoring a testament to that fact. Making sure the cloak was pulled down over me as much as possible I started to very slowly make my way toward the troll, steeling myself against the thoughts of this is crazy, what the hell am I do, I¡¯m soooo gonna die. Keeping an eye on the hobgoblins by the fire I kept my pace slow and steady. Whenever one would look my way I froze, sweat dripping down my back but letting every muscle lock until the eyes would move else wear. The sounds of the hobgoblins and the deep snoring of the troll helped cover any soft scraping my shoes made on the ground. The closer I got the more I noticed just how intoxicated the hobgoblins were. Those that weren¡¯t passed out were throwing dice drinking and yelling at each other. When I finally made it to the troll I slowly started to pull out the bodies one at a time. I laid one of the bodies on the trolls calf and put a knife in its hand, looking up to make sure the troll didn¡¯t move and listening for any change in the snoring I continued. Carefully placing a body on each thigh and another one on the other calf, I moved around slowly placing the bodies around the Troll. Always checking for signs of change from either the troll or the campfire. Taking the last body out I leaned it against the trolls¡¯ foot and slowly crept back checking the placement. The arrangement wouldn¡¯t fool most, but a troll isn¡¯t that bright. Hopefully it will look like it¡¯s being attacked. I then slowly crept my way to the opposite building pile getting myself into position. Crouching down behind large pieces of ruble, I took a few minutes to relax and shake my hands out. Wanting to make sure I was fully restored on my stamina and giving Wick a few more minutes to get himself into position. Closing my eyes, I took one last deep breath and began pulling my mana to my had for a mana bolt. Watching the mana swirl in my hand I concentrated on pulling more and more mana into the bolt. The ball started to swirl faster and faster, the energy getting whipped up into a frenzy with the need to be released. More and more I pulled into my hand, straining against the magics want for release. Peaking around the stone I raised my hand and steadied it with his other, focusing exactly where I wanted to shoot. With a grunt I let fly my enhanced mana bolt and watched it fly to its target. With the mesmerizing effect of watching a car wreck, I winced as I watched my bolt tear through the loin cloth of the troll and smash into his enormous twig and berries. With a deafening roar the trolls eyes flew open in an absolute fit of rage. Looking down seeing the hobgoblin scouts on its legs its anger flew it into a stage of blood rage berserker. Smashing the scouts about it picked up its club and launched itself at the campfires belching out a blood curdling roar. The hobgoblins looked up in startled fear as they saw their troll descending upon them. The first swing of the trolls club decimated 3 hobgoblins sending them smashing into the surrounding stones in more pieces than they started. The campfires erupted into action. Confusion and bewilderment etched on their faced as fear laced through them. The five warriors grabbing their shields and swords and started to attack the troll in fierce battle darting in and out trying to avoid the devastating swings. With stunned shock and awe I was frozen in place watching the play before me unfold. In absolute shock at the amount of destructive force the troll was able to bring forth I just couldn¡¯t tear eyes away. Shaking myself out of the stupor I kept my eyes on the battle before me and crept my way behind the fires. Looking for my intended target. Just as I was about to stop my eyes locked in on my target, the hobgoblin shaman. Jumping about the fire the shaman kept channeling ice bolts and dark energy bolts through its staff. The bolts tore rents of flesh from the troll. While the shamans attention was wholly on the troll I crept up behind him slowly pulled out my dagger. Just under a meter away from the shaman I sprung into action, grabbing the shaman around the waist I reached around and dragged my dagger across its throat, using every ounce of strength I had to get the blade as deep as I could. Wrenching itself free from my grasp, the shaman turned to look at the new attacker. With one hand clenching its staff the other grasped its throat, blood spilling through its fingers. With a look of shock that turned to cruel hatred the shaman brought up its staff. Not sitting still I quickly started to pull mana to shoot the shaman in the neck trying to disrupt its spells while lunging at it with his knife activating Heavy Blow. Landing the knife into the chest of the shaman broke whatever spell it was preparing. The mana bolt into the neck of the already mortal wound, finished the job. Notifications starting to pop up I quickly dismissed them trying to keep from getting distracted from massacre in front of me. The troll had already killed all but two of the warriors, both of which were severely injured with little life remaining. Without the shaman to provide heavy damage the rest of the hobgoblins were doomed. Not that the troll hadn¡¯t taken heavy damage in return. Bleeding from countless wounds, the troll swung his club ending the life of one of the warriors and then stomped on the head of the last one. Slumping a bit the troll took a ragged breathe then noticed me, back lit by the fire light. Half blinded and with flesh pealing from its bones it let out another roar and reared back and threw its club at me. Frozen staring at the troll, I barely made a twitch to move as the club was about to get slammed into me. A moment before the club would hit, I got hit from the side. Looking at what hit me as I flew a couple of meters I saw Wick get hammered by the club and thrown into a pile of rubble. ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!¡± the word loud and raw ripped from my mouth as I saw my soul companion taking a hit that would have most likely ended my life. The roar of the troll grabbing my attention, I stood up as the troll reached to the sky roaring one more time. In full blooded rage I started to shoot mana bolt after mana bolt. Holding my hand out I poured every drop of mana I could into one massive bolt, all the anger, fear, loathing I had just fueled the unstable bolt. ¡°DIE YOU UGLY SON OF A BIT¡­¡­¡± A rock thrown by the troll slammed into my chest sending him flying back into rubble. My mana bolt shooting high overhead. My sight tinged in deep red as a notification popped into view
*CRITICAL HIT* You have received 235 points of damage.
Hearing faint cracking I coughed up some blood, my body unwilling to let me move. I watched as the troll painfully stomped its way towards me. Bending down it roared in my face, the foul fetid breath blasting my face, as I saw the battered face of the troll, with an eye missing gouges across its face with cracked and missing teeth. Standing up with one final roar the troll pulled his arm back twisting its tormented body to give everything it had into this final swing. CRACCCKKKKKK¡­¡­ I watched as the troll wound up to dispense final judgement on me and what I saw instead was a stalactite plunge through the head of the troll spearing him to the ground. Watching what just happened my jaw dropped, and was able to mutter ¡°what the fuuuu¡­¡± and then passed out. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Groaning I mummled, ¡°god damn it, I hate this place that¡¯s twice in one day¡±. Cracking my eyes open, I felt as if my chest was caved in, well it was but I was on the mend. Looking in front of me I saw the hulking mass of the mountain troll. Its tormented body skewered from head to ass, legs bent to the floor under the mass of rock pinning the troll to the ground. Arms hanging lifelessly at its sides he looked down and saw its massive hand, the hand that was just about to end my life. I then thought to Wick. That annoying, short pants wearing imp. Who saved my live, at the cost of his own. In less than a day I came to rely on that little guy. Hated to admit it but I really missed Wick. Wick was smug and a bit of a dick, but he helped me in so many ways; including sacrificing himself. Knowing full well without him I would have been killed multiple times over by now. Forcing back a tear, I pushed my feelings back down. Trying to sit up but with every rib broken in multiple places, the pain was a good reminder that I should really check all of the notifications that I had. Resting my head back down I started to open them up.
You have killed a Hobgoblin Shaman! 330 Exp (doubled to 660) + 56 Exp (17 lvls higher)
Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 6! You have 5 points to allocate 491/3200 Exp till next lvl
Congratulations! For killing Hobgoblin Shaman Z''gut Orccutta You receive all of Z¡¯gut Orccutta¡¯s System owned items: You have received 23 slaves! You have received Kham Faldihr city core!
Congratulations! For owning a slave the ¡°Slavers Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! For owning more than 20 slaves, the ¡°Slave Master Path¡± is open to you!
Your Soul Companion Wick has died! Respawn in 24 hours
Congratulations! Really like to embrace the ¡°no pain, no gain¡± attitude, +1 Constitution
Viara, goddess of Battle; takes notice of a man willing to fight insurmountable odds. Receive Title : Battle Forged.
Title ¨C Battle Forged ¨C (Godly) It takes a certain someone special to fight insurmountable odds. Willing to push their bodies beyond their limits in doing so. You have been granted the scalable skill Pain Resistance level 1.
You have discovered the Pain Resistance. Lvl 1. Willing to take a beating and keep on ticking. Who says it¡¯s crazy to take this kind of abuse¡­everyone! Reduce pain by 1% per level up to maxumim lvl 80.
Pyktris, goddess of Death; is intrigued by someone who is willing to bring themselves within a few points of death multiple times in a day Receive : Death Dancer
Title ¨C Death Dancer ¨C (Godly) Magic is one of the bedrocks of life on Raylia. Learning from a master can unlock a school of magic. Learning from a goddess you unlock two: Death Magic and Dark Magic.
You have killed a Mountain Troll! 1800 Exp (doubled to 3600) + 2124 (118 lvl¡¯s higher)
Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 7! You have 10 points to allocate 2959/6400 Exp till next lvl
Congratulations! For killing something over 100 levels higher than you, ¡°The Indomitable Path¡± is open to you!
Congratulations! Who can make a million to one shot, You can!! Now that¡¯s a shish kebab! +1 Luck
¡°SLAVES! WHAT SLAVES?! I DON¡¯T WANT TO OWN SLAVES! Trying to stay calm, I took a breath and thought I¡¯d check my stats and see if I can figure out how long I¡¯d been out.
NAME: Thoren Parker LEVEL: 7 AGE: 22
RACE: Human (Earth End Prot) EXP: 2959/6400 LANGUAGES: All System SentientStolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
SOUL COMPANION: Chadwick (Wick) LIVES: ???? (Bonus Life(s) for EP) Magics: Death; Dark
TITLES
Lucky Bastard: grants you an additional 100 points in Luck.
Battle Forged: Grants skill Pain Resistance
Death Dance: Unlocks Death and Dark Magic
STATS
HEALTH: 89/260 MANA: 85/194 STAMINA: 252/252
H REGEN: 11/HOUR M REGEN: 11/HOUR S REGEN: 10.05/MINUTE
ATTRIBUTES
STRENGTH: 28 AGILITY: 20 DEXTERITY: 19
CONSTITUTION: 31 ENDURANCE: 29 INTELLIGENCE: 32
WISDOM: 32 CHARISMA:16 LUCK: 111
RESISTANCES
Fire: 5% Pain: 1%
SKILLS
Firestarter. Lvl 1. Physical Fitness. Lvl 2. Heavy Blow. Lvl 1.
Camping. Lvl 1. Dodge. Lvl 1. Iron Skin. Lvl 3.
Herbalism. Lvl 7. Fire Resistance. Lvl 1. Meditation. Lvl 4.
Running. Lvl 1. Inspect. Lvl 2. Sneak. Lvl 2.
Planning. Lvl 7. Mana Bolt. Lvl 1. Craftsmanship. Lvl 1.
ABILITIES
Gift of Tongues: Due to having a Soul Companion all sentient spoken language known. Written language only in Common and Infernal. Due to vast spoken knowledge written learned 75% faster.
Limitless Potential: Being born human your lives are fleeting. All skills level 50% faster
+1% experience per level a defeated mob has over you.
PATHS OPEN
Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50; Path of the Cunning 0/20; Slavers Path 0/5; Slave Master Path 0/25; The Indomitable Path 0/50
PATHS COMPLETED
Newbie Path 7/7; Defense Path 10/10; Risk Taker Path 15/15
DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 3
Absolutely shocked by the streaming blue screens, I just tried to digest everything that I was reading. Really need to ask Wick about the gods thing. After spending the free stat points, I could feel a bit of the edge fall off with the increases. Now let¡¯s figure out how long I¡¯ve been out. I wiped out my mana before passing out, and before adding the new points I was regenerating 10.25 per hour so, and with the added 14 points from the new stats works out to being just about 7 hours. I still need to wait another seventeen hours for Wick to come back. Crap I really need his help figuring this out. With a bit more of a clear mind I started thinking about the slaves again. They must be what¡¯s in the cages we saw, don¡¯t really think I should keep them in the cages until Wick gets back, should just set them free and be done with it. With a bit more conviction I decided to get my ass in gear, figured I should get up and free my slaves. Trying to roll over onto my side I see a glowing dark blue orb about the size of an ostrich egg laying next to me. Feeling my ribs grind a bit with the motion, I figure, hey I should really take a closer look at this, should never just leave glowing blue egg looking thing laying around. Reaching over I pick it up and start to look and the swirling energies floating inside being drawn into the swirling lights..
Kham Faldihr city core The lost KhorDuuarven city of Kham Faldihr is currently being intrigrated into The System. Full integration in 29 hours. Do you wish to claim Kham Faldihr? YES/NO Claims completed in 24 hours.
Damn it! Really could use Wick on this! Have no idea what claiming a city means. Taking a little look around at the rubble a bit of dejection in the idea of what the city would be worth. Remembering the statues at the end of the road however brought back the greed of owning such an amazing place with masterful works of art. I quickly accepted.
Congratulations on owning Kham Faldihr! For being the first of your kind to own a city you receive one building! Bonus delayed until city restored. Claim completion 24 hours. 1000 Exp (doubled to 2000) 4959/6400 Exp till next lvl
¡°Hahahaha, yesterday I could barely pay to keep my dorm room and now I own a city!¡± laughing out loud to myself. Coughing and clutching my chest, cursing to myself. Ok chuckles heal up first before you decide to go all manic. Getting myself on my hands and knees I spit out a bit of blood then slowly pushed myself back up onto my feet. Standing up I looked at what was around me. The fires had burned down to glowing coals. The cavern lit by the soft light of the moss gave a bit of an oppressing feel. Slowly shuffling, tripping over scattered stones, I made my way back to the fires. Ok, need to get these fires going first. Not being able to see will be a bit of a health hazard trying to get to the slaves. More likely going to kill myself falling over the debris than actually achieving anything. Would be pretty sad to survive all this then to keel over due to whacking my head on a stone after tripping. Searching around the fire pits I spotted scattered piles of wood. Slowly dragging some wood over I placed some smaller pieces in the coals first. Blowing on the coals as much as he could without causing a coughing fit, the small pieces caught, small merry flames dancing of their surfaces.
Skill Firestarter. Lvl 2. reached
Smiling, I slowly started to grab larger pieces of wood building the flames back up. After the fire was cheerily burning I grabbed a few lit pieces and started to build up the other three fires. The bright flames pushing back some of the darkness.
Skill Firestarter. Lvl 3. reached
Well guess it¡¯s time to introduce myself. I started to shuffle toward the cages. Three crude iron cages stood about thirty meters from the fires. Each cage seemed to be made up of more rust (practically begging to give someone tetanus) than iron but still held strong. On the front of each cage sat a large poorly made yet secure lock. Looking into the cages I see twenty-three sets of warry eyes looking back at me. Looking from cage to cage, everyone was covered in dirt and grime, wearing threadbare clothes with most showing signs of malnourishment. Bit of a shock seeing all the different races mixed together; humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, even a kobold and a goblin. Raising his hand he did a little awkward wave and said ¡°Hi.. I¡¯m Thoren, if anyone knows where the keys are I¡¯ll get you all out.¡± An older dwarf in the back slowly got to his feet and trudged his way to the front of the cage. No more than five feet tall, and just about the same wide. The dwarf was a picture of a working life. A long red braided beard streaked with gray hung low. His worn simple clothes hung off a body that seemed to be used to long hard work. Never taking his eyes off me he asked in a suspicious tone, ¡°Whit ya gaunnae do wit us lad?¡± Standing there a bit awkwardly, I reached back and nervously scratched at my head, ¡°Ummm, well thought I¡¯d get you out of the cages and then I don¡¯t know, set you free? I have no idea where we are or how to get you back to where you come from.¡± Looking me over for any sign of deception, the dwarf stared at me for a few moments before he started. ¡°Noo jist haud on, are ye a bit o¡¯ touched in da heid? Da troll musta knock¡¯d ye silly. We be System slave¡¯s lad, there aint be naw freein¡¯ us¡±. Plopping down on my ass, I was utterly gobsmacked. Lowering my head into my hands I just muttered, ¡°just where the hell am I? I¡¯m a college kid not some slave owner¡­¡± Seeing the true raw emotion in front of him the dwarfs tone changed, ¡°Dunna fret ¡®bout it. Da imp wit ya? He be able ta splain better. Da key was wit da shaman, check da clothes.¡± Nodding my head, I carefully got back up and shuffled to the shaman¡¯s corpse. Not having searched for loot in the dead hobgoblins, I thought about getting the people free before I went looking for loot. Finding the keys I just left everything else right were it was. Keys in hand I went to free my new slaves. Going from cage to cage I unlocked each one. Dropping the locks on the floor and hauling the rusty doors open the best that I could. With slight nods back and forth twenty-two of my new acquaintances made their way to the fires to warm up a bit. The last to leave was a woman who had been sitting cross legged in the back with her head down. With an easy grace she stood up and brushed her silvery hair behind her pointed ears. Looking at her my heart just froze in my chest. Before me stood the most stunning woman I had ever seen in my life. Every model and actress back on Earth just paled in comparison. In those moments I tried to commit to memory every feature of hers that I could. The deep blue silvery eyes, the small slightly freckled nose, a delicate mouth that I just wished I could make smile. The soft angular features of her cheeks and chin. Most of all I couldn¡¯t stop looking into those eyes. A deep intelligence with a mix of curiosity, wariness, steadfastness and tiny bit of gratitude bore back into my eyes. As I stared I got a notification.
Kali Quimoira Lvl 27 Celestial Elf Slave/Druid
With sure fluid motion she practically glided to me. Taking a moment before speaking she said, ¡°Thank you for freeing us¡­¡± With a look like she wanted to say more she turned and walked over to the others and sat beside one of the fires. Looking over at the fires I could only think, damn it Wick I need you, sixteen more hours till you get back¡­ Chapter 6 I take a moment standing by the cages looking back at the fires. Trying to get a grip on my new reality. Has it really been only a day? Classes and school just felt so long ago. Every problem I thought I had before just seemed petty and juvenile now. Ha, good thing I didn¡¯t waste my time getting ready for midterms. But reality really hits home as I look back over the fires. I have slaves and for some reason I can¡¯t go all Abe Lincoln and say you¡¯re free and good luck. I look and see twenty-three people that are my responsibility. Huddled around the fires I see twenty-three people dirty and tired. Whispering to each other and glancing my way apprehensively. As unsure about what I¡¯m going to do as I am. They look just worn out physically and emotionally and they look absolutely starving¡­. OH SHIT! They need to eat! I break out of my contemplation and walk over to meet everyone. I walk over to the closest fire and clear my thought and give a bit of a wave. ¡°Hey everyone, I want to introduce myself and get to know everyone, but first I know I¡¯m hungry and everyone here looks like they could use something to eat too. I honestly don¡¯t have much just a few cave rats, can anyone here butcher and cook them?¡± By the second fire a hand slowly raised. I peer a little closer and a notification pops up
Ashley Roberts Lvl 12 Human Slave/Cook
Inspect. Lvl 3. reached
Blinking a bit and mentally swiping the notifications away I smile and look at Ashley. Pulling out the cave rats I look at Ashley and with a smile and talking with soft even tones ¡°would you mind cleaning these and cooking them for everyone?¡± Looking back at me she meekly nodded and said ¡°yes sir¡± I looked at her and smiled, ¡°Thank you Ashley, but it just Thoren. Would you mind teaching me later?¡± With a slightly confused look she nodded slightly and said, ¡°yes s¡­ Thoren.¡± Smiling back, I said ¡°Thank you Ashely, I really appreciate you helping me.¡± Looking around at everyone. Trying to catch as many eyes I could I started talking hoping to reassure everyone as much as I could. ¡°While Ashley starts working on some food, I really want to sit down and talk to everyone and figure out what is going on. Everyone knows I have soul companion Wick, but with him gone for the next few hours I¡¯m hoping to rely on you to help fill in as many of the gaps as possible. Before that though I want to loot all the hobgoblins and see what we collectively have to work with; as well as burning the bodies, really don¡¯t want to be stuck in here with a bunch of rotting corpses.¡± On the other side of the fire the dwarf that I had talked to earlier started to rise. Taking a moment to look at him a bit more closely I got the notification.
Balram Graniteforge Lvl 32 Dwarf Slave/Blacksmith
Pushing himself up straight he looked at me, nodded and started. ¡°Aye lad, da be a good idea. I be goin wit ya, ta look around. We be doin as ye said. Stacking supplies, and da bodies. Also, we be clearin some space ta set up a proper camp.¡± Looking around at the others, everyone nodded and started to get to their feet to get started on the tasks ahead. Grabbing a few torches Balram and I started to make our way down the main road toward the statues I noticed earlier. Looking over at Balram I clear my throat, ¡°So, why can¡¯t I just free you guys since you¡¯re my slaves?¡± Giving me a look that was as much ¡°why me¡± and that of a parent trying to respond to a child that keeps asking ¡°why¡±; Balram let out a breath and mumbled, ¡°ya really are as clueless as a babe in the woods¡­ A¡¯right lad here be da gist. As da System brought more n more planets in, many of da more aggressive races took to killin da innocents as they looked ta conquer more lands. Da System bein neither good nor bad, gave an option of slavery. It gave da option of sellin and usin da slave other dan killin em. A non-collared slave in a city can be taken as a slave by a new master. As a slave we be earnin system credits as we be workin. When we be earnin enough we can convert da credits ta free us, our master be gettin gold in return from da System. Na many do though, have ta be careful. Da master has ta ok da freedom and if he does have ta make sure he doesn¡¯t jus make ya a slave again. Have ta earn da credits all over again.¡± Taking a moment to digest all that, I notice that Balram doesn¡¯t have a collar on and none of the other slaves had one on either. ¡°Ok, I think I get that part of the system so far. How come you and the other slaves don¡¯t have collars on. Oh and what is so special about the collars anyway?¡± ¡°Well da hobs took more slaves den they had collars. Only had fifty, so sent da rest of us here. They be thinkin where we be goin with da troll and it bein a cave and all. Da collars are control collars. Dependin on da collar it can make ya do or not do anything, as well as shockin and even killin ya if ya wanted to.¡± ¡°Well damn¡­.Wait!¡± stopping and looking right at Balram almost incredulously, ¡°there are 50 more slaves?! Where are they?¡± ¡°Aye, back at da hob village, which be somethin we be needin to figure out next. You don be thinkin dat da hobs naw be checkin in on here cave do ya?¡± ¡°Well shit¡­..¡± Placing a hand on my shoulder, Balram looked me in the eyes and gave me a reassuring squeeze of my shoulder. ¡°Lad, donna be frettin about it yet, lets do first things first, ya have a city now let¡¯s be checkin it out, what be da name of da city anyway?¡± ¡°Ummmm Kham Faldihr¡± Now it was Balrams turn to stop short. Quietly muttering to himself, ¡°Da canna be right¡­¡± Looking back at me he looked a bit unsure, ¡°lad ya be sure dat be da name?¡± ¡°Let me check.¡± Looking through my status screen I see a new tab for holdings. Clicking on the tab I see Kham Faldihr with two count down clocks. The first for claim completion having just over 12 hours left and one for integrations just over 17 hours left. ¡°Yup, definitely Kham Faldihr¡± Starting to walk again Balram looked completely lost in thought. The rest of the walk to the wall was done in contemplative silence as we both thought over the bits of information we both shared. As we slowly made our way to the outer wall. The soft glow of the moss and the light of the torches started to reveal the giant statues I saw earlier. As we got closer Balrams steps started to falter as his eyes and mouth opened in true disbelief. Barely acknowledging me looking up agape says, ¡°do ya know who dey be¡­. ¡°falling to his knees he continued, ¡°KhorDuuarven¡±. Looking back and forth between him and the statues I nodded, ¡°Yup, this was their city, there¡¯s also a pretty amazing relief somewhat still intact on the wall over there¡±, pointing to down the wall I originally crept past. Looking more confused and a bit aggravated Balram, spoke up voice getting a little louder with each word. ¡°Ya knew dis be a KhorDuuarven city and d¡¯na tell me?!¡± Holding up my hands and taking a step back, ¡°Whoa didn¡¯t think it was a bit deal they just look like slightly taller dwarfs, figured they were cousins or something.¡± ¡°Ya though¡¯ dey be cousins?! Are ya daft, stupid or jus a jack ass?! Dey be our ancestors!¡± ¡°Sorry! I had no idea! You¡¯re the first dwarf I have ever met how am I supposed to know who your ancestors are, it¡¯s not like the notifications give me any idea of how they relate to you Taking a deep breath chewing the inside of cheek Balram nodded slightly and got to his feet. ¡°Aye lad, ya right. I¡¯m sorry. Ya jus canna know wha dis means to me an da other dwarves.¡± Walking up to the statues and running his hands along the smooth stone and bowing his head for a second, he continued as we walked toward the relief I had seen earlier. ¡°Before da System integrated us, da dwarves an da duergar were one race, da khorduuarven. Da stories say da khorduuarven had a strong connection ta magic and portals; and had spread to a few planets.¡± Looking at the relief with a pained eye he took another slow breath and continued, running his hand along his beard. ¡°Dey were a proud people, too proud. Dey found a planet filled with dragons, called Dakyun. For centuries did a war be fought. A group of mages though¡¯ ta end da war by delvin in ta dark magics. Dey went to Dakyun an¡¯ unleashed a spell of death dat da whole planet withered and died. Da wrath of da dragons was fierce. Da khorduuarven had ta pull back a bit from da other planets. Other races sensing weakness fought and fully drove dem away to der home world Durin. Da dragons wanting to wipe away the khorduuarven fought to the death pushing the khorduuarven dedeeper inta der cities. King Beleriand seeing da end of his people ordered a portal to an unknown world opened. Da khorduuarven fled ta my homeworld Nogrod. Da las group ta leave were da mages and fur spite unleashed da forbidden death spell once more and fled.¡° Looking up to me I could see tears in Balrams eyes has he described the fall of his ancestors.Stolen story; please report. Turning and slowly walking back to the fires he continued. ¡°Der was a split in da khorduuarven da light and da dark. A civil war broke out and dey nearly finished destroying dem selves. Fur centuries dey fought splitting inta groups known as da dwarves and da duergar. So much knowledge was lost. Portal magic and where Durin was, was lost. Millenia¡¯s passed and da System integrated us. Da was over 9,000 years ago.¡± Walking back the rest of the way to the camp was somber, yet with just a hint of excitement. Getting to the newly cleaned and set up campsite Balram walked to the middle fire and looked at the other dwarves who had concerned looks on their faces seeing the serious face on Belram. Spreading his hands a bit and in a bit of shaky voice he said ¡°Raylia is Durin..¡± Looking around everyone is shocked, some excited mumblings, some are just stupefied. I kept looking expectantly and¡­nothing. A little exasperated I blurt out, ¡°Seriously everyone knows what Durin is?!¡± A human in the back clears his throat. I look over and concentrate a bit and get the notification.
Wes McCabe Lvl 14 Human Slave/Bard
Wes looks around a bit and starts, ¡°Well it¡¯s a famous story. You¡¯re talking about 2 races fighting to the point of almost mutual extinction. Not to mention two worlds that were utterly wiped of life. Millions of sentient lives were snuffed out not to mention all the flora and fauna.¡± One of the other humans spoke up. I got her notification as she spoke.
Carolina Ferreira Lvl 10 Human Slave/Tanner
¡°Wow, Wes. That was really well stated. When you¡¯re not being s total troll, you really can speak intelligently.¡± Wes looking at Carolina and giving a bit of a smirk, chuckled and said. ¡°For you my dear I¡¯ll act any way you want.¡± Just shaking her head, Carolina couldn¡¯t hold back the ¡°Ughhh.¡± Still the only one standing besides Balram. I¡¯m even a bit more confused. ¡°If Raylia is Durin and Durin was utterly destroyed of life how is Raylia like it is now? Also, are there still dragons around? And if this place is so hidden and forgotten how the hell did a bunch of hobgoblins find it?¡± Balram patting my shoulder directed me to sit. ¡°A¡¯right lad, ye be havin some good questions, less see if I canna help answer dem. Your friend Wick would be a bit o help now but see wha¡¯ we can do. Da end of da war wit da dragons had ta be over 11,000 years ago lad. Da System integrated Raylia abou¡¯ four millennia ago. It was a bit of a sparse world ta start but da System can speed growth up a bit, as well as addin¡¯ flora/fauna/dungeons etc. Der be dragons still, a few hundred thousand or so, dey be long lived, a few hundred on a couple thousand planets or so. As us dwarves made a come back so did da dragons. Though dey be hunted a bit. As fur the hobs knowin¡¯ abou¡¯ here. Sorry lad I dunna know. Da shaman may have known but he be dead now. Da hob leader should know and da is gunna be your second problem.¡± Digesting what Balram was saying I pause then say, ¡°wait my second problem, what is my first problem?¡± ¡°Well lad, you be soul bound as owner of here City. When word gets out dat Raylia be Durin and it will. Dwarves an¡¯ Duergar be comin¡¯ here, na ta mention all da adventurers da be lookin¡¯ fur lost cities like Kham Faldihr. Da only was to become an owner of da City is ta claim it. It canna be sold or traded. Der be a difference between a city and a City. Like a town or village people can live tagether have walls an¡¯ da be a city. A City be one da has a city core. City cores be rare lad, dey can be made wit billions of mana focused on a rare spell and a willin soul da soul mus¡¯ be willin. Can also be made wit¡¯ dungeon cores lad. Two dungeon cores be needed fur a town, three more fur a village an¡¯ ten more afta dat fur a city.¡± ¡°Wick was telling me the difference between an instance dungeon and a dungeon with a core, and that the cores are rare too.¡± ¡°Aye lad, dey be rare. New planets start off as dungeon planets, so your old planet should be getting¡¯ lots of dungeons an¡¯ adventures seeking em out.¡± ¡°Well that won¡¯t happen, my old planet blew up, hence why I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Ahhhh lad I be sorry. Now I know why you dunna know your arse fur your elbow.¡± ¡°It¡¯s ok, there were about a thousand of us sent here to Raylia. I don¡¯t know how many from Earth were saved or if any of my friends or family were.¡± A quiet somber mood spread over the camp. After a few minutes Balram looked up and asked one question very tentatively. ¡°Lad¡­if any of us earn enough credits ta free ourselves, will ya free us?¡± Looking around the campfires every eye looked up and bore into me, curious as to what I was going to say. The uncertainty was laid bare at my feet. ¡°I swear to any and all the gods that I Thoren Parker swear to release each and everyone of you as soon as you have the credit to do so.¡± **BOOM**
Fybemis, god of Justice; takes notice of your oath. Reward for completion : Unknown Failure to honor oath : Unknown (recommend NOT finding out)
¡°What the fu¡­.¡± Everyone just stared out my eyes wide and mouths agape. Balram just shook his head in bewilderment. ¡°Lad, you be daft, you ju¡¯ made an oath to da gods.¡± ¡°Well I meant every word of it. As far as I¡¯m concerned, you¡¯re all free now. Whatever it takes to make it official with the System we¡¯ll do as soon as we can.¡± Feeling the mood shift, Balram smiled and looked at me. ¡°Lad, we be your family now, we¡¯ll help ya find those ya lost but till death we be here for ya.¡± Looking around at everyone else they smiled and nodded and stated their agreement. Feeling a bit better about my situation I took a breath. ¡°Balram how much danger are we in right now? How long till the hobs come back?¡± ¡°Hmmmm we should be alright for a day or two. Da chief be waitin for da integration an fur us ta clean up da city.¡± ¡°Ok, in that case lets eat I¡¯m starving. Then let¡¯s get some sleep. My inner greedy hamster is curious about the loot but I¡¯m just too damn tired and hungry right now to care.¡± Laughing a bit Balram nodded his head, ¡°fair enough lad we all be hungry and tired, lets see what we got.¡± There was a pile of travel rations, five barrels of disgusting looking water and then the grilled rat that Ashley was cooking which just smelled divine. Looking at the water I just felt nauseated just thinking about drinking it. ¡°Hey Wes, is this the only water we have. Have you really been drinking this?¡± ¡°Yup, that¡¯s it. It only gets really bad when you have to chew it a bit.¡± Barely keeping the limited amount of contents currently in my stomach down. I remembered one of my gifts. Reaching into my bag I pull out the beer stein. Dipping the stein into the water I pull it up and looking into the dirty water I close my eyes thinking about an ice-cold amber ale I loved at home. Opening my eyes I look down at the frothy head, taking a sip the beer tasted better than anything I ever had. Feeling a bit of loss for home I take another sip. Closing my eyes smiling I take a moment to thank Oemis. ¡°Hey Wes, come here and try this.¡± Walking over Wes saw what I had in my hands. ¡°What is that?¡± Where the hell did you get it?¡± Handing the stein over to Wes I said, ¡°It¡¯s one of the gifts I got from the gods. Oemis appreciated my ummmm fortitude and offered this up as a toast.¡± Wes took a sip and let out a long ¡°ahhhhhhhh!¡± Then proceeded to gulp the rest of it down. ¡°That was by far the best beer I¡¯ve ever had!¡± Smiling I called out to everyone. ¡°Hey if you¡¯re thirsty and don¡¯t want to drink this nasty water come on over!¡± People started walking over to see what I was shouting about. Constantly refilling the stein with different kinds of beer that people may like. Everyone dinking their full laughing a bit, for at least the moment forgetting where we were and just enjoying ourselves. Filling up the stein with a nice cold wheat beer I walked over to Ashely who say quietly taking care of the dinner for us. I handed her the stein and she smiled and thanked me. At first, she took a few sips then with a giant grin started to drink down the cold beer spilling more than a bit down herself. Smiling up at me she said, ¡°I haven¡¯t had a beer like that since I left home. What kind of beer can it make?¡± ¡°Well pretty much any, ciders too if you like.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great! We can use some to cook the meat next time. Well at least when we get more meat.¡± ¡°You just tell me what you want, and I¡¯ll be more than happy to get it for you.¡± Getting up I walked back to the barrels. Seeing that we had emptied little over one of the barrels, I used a bit of beer to wash out the barrel and then scoop after scoop I refilled it with the amber ale. Doing the same with the new empty barrel I washed it out then refilled it from another barrel with a nice dark stout. Leaving the other barrels for later or in case we actually needed water. I walked back to the fires sat down with everyone. Ashley passed around the cooked rat and we all ate and talked for a few hours. Getting to know each other a bit more. A rotation was set up for a watch just in case while the rest of us when to sleep. Ready to take our turn when the time came. Chapter 7 Waking up, trying to blink and then rub the sleep out of my eyes. I see the warm glow of the fires and people bustling about cleaning around the campsite while others had gone off to explore the city a bit. Sitting up and looking around a bit more, I notice I have a blinking notification.
Time Remaining: Soul Companion : 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes Kham Faldihr Claim Completion : 0 days 1 hour 53 minutes Integration Completion : 0 days 6 hours 53 minutes
Seeing the timer had expired for Wick, I quickly summoned him back. A red circle starts to glow in front of me then bright flash of light. ¡°DAMN IT! Dying REALLY REALLY sucks! Alright kid did you get killed too? Captured? What¡¯s the down¡­¡± Wick stops and looks around. Seeing all the people had stopped what they were doing and just staring at him. ¡°Well damn¡­ What the hell did I miss?¡± Seeing that it was Wick that cause the light show everyone got back to what they were doing. Balram started to make his way over, smiling loudy saying, ¡°Bout time ya showed up ya lazy imp! Dis lad o yours is as green as a babe suckling on his moms teet.¡± Mouth open Wick looks back and for the between Balram and myself before saying, ¡°seriously what the HELL is going on?!¡± Laughing a bit and slapping him on the back I start to run through everything that happened, killing the troll then freeing the slaves and claiming the city. Rubbing his hands together with a wide grin, Wick looks at me. ¡°So, you now have a bunch of slaves AND claimed a city while only being here a day or two. Here I thought you were captured or killed even after I so selflessly gave up my life to save yours.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you pretty much have unlimited lives as long as I¡¯m around?¡± ¡°Well sure that is one way to look at it, OR that I selflessly saved your ass and gave up my life. I prefer to go with the latter version. So, what¡¯s the name of our new city anyway.¡± ¡°Our city huh? ¡°Of course, as your soul companion what¡¯s yours is mine and what¡¯s mine is mine. You know how it works.¡± ¡°Uh huh, sure. Well anyway it¡¯s called Kham Faldihr.¡± ¡°Huh well we¡¯re in a mountain so I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s Dwarven or Duergar? God, I hope its not Duergar, their cities are buried so damn deep it takes hours to get to the surface.¡± ¡°Uhhhhh no, actually its KhorDuuarven.¡± Wicks smile evaporated, hands dropping to his side. He looked at me a bit more seriously all hint of humor gone. ¡°What did you say?¡± Seeing how serious he was being, I looked up at Balram and then back to Wick. ¡°It¡¯s KhorDuuarven.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible every city that they abandoned to head back to Durin were completely razed. All the city cores were taken. Hell, I know one is on that back water planet Endor and two are human cities on Naboo. The only ones that are left would be on..¡± ¡°On Durin. Wick Raylia IS Durin.¡± Plopping down on his ass, Wick just shook his head then his eyes snapped wide open. ¡°AND YOU CLAIMED THE CITY?! Are you out of your mind?! Do you know what kind of target you just painted on yourself? Once people find out you have a FRAKING CITY CORE, not to mention that you have a still intact..¡± Looking around at all the broken building Wick continued, ¡°intact-ish KhorDuuarven city. Everyone is going to want to get their hands on you for this city.¡± Looking up at Balram, Wick gestured at him, ¡°Tell this idiot he has to raze this place as soon as he can. It¡¯ll just be a city core then. At least that he can sell and then be on easy street for the rest of his life.¡± Balrams eyes nearly popped out, ¡°He canna do dat! Who knows what be hiddin here, Once da city be razed it naugh¡¯ be a KhorDuuarven city any more. It jus¡¯ be a city core!¡± Seeing that this was about to get out of hand I quickly put my hands up, ¡°Stop! Both of you. Wick, I heard from Balram about how dangerous this will be. I know the risk. Though I think we have time. Only ones that know what this city is are the people here and I think the hobs in their village, and I doubt they¡¯re going around telling people as they probably want this place to themselves for a bit. You¡¯ve been in my head, you know how much I loved city building playing my games.¡± Wick nearly screamed, ¡°THIS ISN¡¯T A GAME!¡± ¡°I know Wick, but this is something special. I¡¯m going to need you and everyone here to make it so. As well as we all need to get stronger so that we can protect it.¡± Balram nodded saying, ¡°He be a good lad Wick. He made an oath to da gods about freein¡¯ us slaves as soon as we earn it.¡± ¡°YOU¡¯VE GOT TO KIDDING ME?! All this AND you start making oaths to the gods?! Just how crazy and stupid are you!?¡± Wick screamed, his veins nearly popping out of his forehead. Looking Wick straight in the eyes, I calmly and firmly stated. ¡°That was an easy oath to make. You know how bad slavery was on my planet, and how we had to work hard to over come it. Those prejudices ran deep and was a vile practice that I will NOT be a part of. Every slave that I ever get will be freed at the absolute earliest point possible. As soon as they are my slave they will NOT be treated as such, do I make myself clear?¡±
You have discovered the skill Leadership Lvl 1 Wholly believing in something with the entirety of your being and being able to inspire someone to your point of view. Increasing skill level increases the ease of inspiring those around you.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Taking a breath, Wick could see the conviction in my eyes. Gave a nod of his head and said, ¡°You got brass ones kid. Well if I¡¯m going to die again at least I know I¡¯m serving one worth dying for.¡± With that he held out his fist with a quirk of a smile. Giving a smile back I gave him the fist bump and said, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to earn that loyalty.¡± Looking back and forth between Balram and Wick I chuckled a bit, ¡°well now that we¡¯ve got that out of the way think we have a few things to go over. First, I want to go over the loot, REALLY curious what we have. Then we have to figure out the hobs. That seems to be our next big problem so can¡¯t put that off.¡± Standing up I look back at Balram, ¡°Wait why wasn¡¯t I woken up for my watch shift?¡± ¡°Lad, ya freed us, ya fed us, ya gave us amazing cold beer instea¡¯ of da piss water, ya¡¯ve given us hope fur da future which we all nearly lost, an¡¯ well ya be our master. We figured ya could sleep in a night.¡± Wick laughed, ¡°You finally used that stein huh? How was the beer? As good as you thought? You definitely owe me a drink after I sacrificed myself for you!¡± ¡°Seriously Wick, how long are you going to keep bringing that up?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m never letting it drop, want to make sure you never forget!¡± We walked over to the pile of loot stacked neatly to the very far side of the last fire. The closer we got the more the smell began to assault us. Barely able to hold back a tear, I waved my hand in front of my face. ¡° Wow that armor really does reek.¡± Balram smiled briefly then held his nose. ¡°Aye, hob armor is disgusting, but we don¡¯ have much else.¡± Looking over the pile, I really didn¡¯t want to pick anything up. ¡°Ok Balram, so give me the down and dirty. What do we have to work with?¡± ¡°Well lad, we got nine sets of armor, if ye can call em dat. All poor quality and smell like shite. Two scimitar, three short swords an¡¯ two long swords, all as sharp as a butterknife. Der be three fine short swords but dey in need of some repair. Four dull daggers, two fine daggers, three rings da add +1 to dexterity, strength an¡¯ agility; 1468 copper and one scroll.¡± Looking down at the smelly pile of loot I give a bit of a sad sigh. ¡°Well sounds mostly like a pile of crap.¡± Nodding at the loot, Balram perked up a bit, ¡°Da shaman had da scroll, it be a portal to da village, he also be havin¡¯ dis.¡± Holding out his hand he held a silver necklace. Picking up the necklace I have it a quick look.
You have found: Silver Necklace of Wisdom Durablility: 10/12 Item Class: Uncommon Quality: Well Crafted Weight: 1.4 kg. Traits: +4 to wisdom
Blurting out, ¡°Well THAT¡¯S what I¡¯m talking about!¡± Getting control of myself, I look to Balram and nod. ¡°I appreciate that you and everyone else have been doing the hard and disgusting jobs of looking everything.
Inspect lvl 4 reached
¡°Ha well that was unexpected, got another level in inspect! I¡¯m curious do we have a list of what everyones profession is? I saw that you¡¯re a blacksmith Balram and Ashley is a cook.¡± ¡°Lad, we be your slaves ya jus¡¯ have ta look in ay property tab.¡± Looking down at Wick, Belram asks, ¡°Didn¡¯ ya teach da lad at all?¡± ¡°Whoa there beard boy, when I died all this noob had was stinky hob armor and a few baubles, you¡¯ve been around while he had everything else, so I blame you for him not knowing a lick.¡± Balram gave Wick a steely glare, ¡°Beard boy aye?....HA! Ye be right tiny, I shoulda¡¯ gone over it a wee bit more.¡± Wick gave him the stink eye, ¡°Look who¡¯s callin who tiny¡­. Hahahaha¡± Laughing and slapping Balram on the back. Scrolling through everyone¡¯s professions I see there is a trader, two miners, 3 stone masons, a tinkerer, an herbalist, couple of hunters, there¡¯s even a diplomat. The classes are all The one that really struck me though was that Kali was a Druid. She was the only non-craftsman type class. Looking over at Balram I ask, ¡°Why is everyone a craftsman here?¡± ¡°Lad, every fighter we had be put ta death. We be what¡¯s left of da caravan to Bowland Fells.¡± Seeing a look of confusion start to cross my face he continued. ¡°Bowland Fells was an¡¯ I do mean WAS, a town da was in da Wilds. Raylia still be new an¡¯ untamed.¡± ¡°Wait, now that we know Raylia is really Durbid, why don¡¯t we just start calling it Durbin?¡± A notification, popped up.
Request for Planetary Name Change: You have discovered the original name of the planet that you reside. Do you wish to petition for a planetary name change? Yes / No?
Both Wick and Balram started to scream ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!¡± As soon as they noticed my far off look. Quickly choosing ¡°No¡±. I looked at both of them stunned. As every on else around the camp, seeing there was no issue continued on with their tasts. Wick was the first to reach me and slap me in the face. ¡°What is WRONG with you? Are you a complete idiot? As soon as this planets name is changed a System wide alert goes out indicating the change. Here we are trying to keep the fact that this is Durin an absolute secret as long as we can, and there you are about to send a system blast to everyone about it. Rubbing my cheek, ¡°I get it, I didn¡¯t realize that the notification would pop up. I was just asking talking about Raylia amongst ourselves.¡± Balram took his turn, ¡°Lad, you be a city owner now. Da system picks up on new information and gives ya a few more liberties dan da rest of us.¡± Seeing me nod he continued his story. ¡°We be what¡¯s left of a caravan ta Bowland Fells.¡± Wick looked over to Balram, ¡°Really, Bowland Fells is no more?¡± ¡°It be da hobs new village, dey took it few months back, while we be on da road der.¡± Wick looks over to me, ¡°My 174th soul companion Calandish, was a dungeon hunter. With Raylia still being fairly wild there are still wild dungeons that have yet to be found let alone claimed; not to mention all the land and resources that are available. The thing is Raylia is at the very edge of the System, and getting there is a pain in the ass. You either fly here on a ship which could take years since there are no jump gates anywhere near here or you use a portal, which is EXTREMELY expensive. You need a large enough mage guild that not only has a portal spell but has enough mages to produce a gate here. Though this tends to be a one way ticket. Last I knew there was only one mage guild here in the city of Kamont in the Amdon kingdom that had the ability to set up a portal though only to a few planets. They don¡¯t have the mana to send one to the inner system planets.¡± ¡°Aye, da be right Wick¡± Wick continued, ¡°Calandish, was as reckless as you are stupid and hopped a Thalian transport to get here. We were in space for four months in the most disgusting of transports I had ever seen, when we got boarded and spaced for not having enough credit to pay off the pirates. Anyway, back then Raylia had four major kingdons, three human and one wood elf. There were also a few villages and towns in the wilds that didn¡¯t want to be apart of the kingdoms. Bowland Falls was one of the largest and first. ¡° Balram nodding along. ¡°Still be da case, or it was till the hobs took Bowland. Our guild broke apart and a few of us pooled da gold we could and joined a caravan ta Bowland. We hoped for a new beginnin¡¯, Wit da hope of startin¡¯ our own village in da future. We decided against da human kingdoms as dey still rely on slavery wit most bein¡¯ of da different races. Why we were feelin¡¯ hopeless when we were made slaves, as der was little escape inta human kingdoms.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Balram, I know you¡¯ve all been through a lot. You said I was going to have to deal with the hobs though. Can¡¯t we just deal with them as they come here?¡± Wick shook his head, ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand. Hobs are extremely tribe oriented. They will beat and kill each other, but that is to make sure that only the strong are part of the tribe. If anything or anyone else kills a member of the tribe, let alone their shaman they will hunt you to the very last hob.¡± ¡°Well shit, alright. Any ideas?¡± Balram slapped my shoulder, ¡°we still be havin¡¯ some time. Dey were waiting on da city ta integrate as well as fur us ta clean up da place.¡± Looking at my clock
Time Remaining: Kham Faldihr Claim Completion : 0 days 0 hour 13 minutes Integration Completion : 0 days 5 hours 13 minutes
¡°Well I¡¯ll have the claim completed in thirteen minutes and the integration in about five hours. Tell me about Bowland Fells.¡± Chapter 8 ¡°Bowland Fells, doesn¡¯t exist anymore, at least not the way anyone could say it did.¡± Looking over to the other side of the fire I see Kali looking back at me. There are two tears running down both sides of her face. There is a look of hardened pain in her eyes that just bore through me. I must have been staring just a bit too intently as a quick elbow from Wick brings me back to reality. Couching a bit, I look back to Kali, ¡°Do you know about the lay out of the city? How many hobs are there? Anything would be great.¡± ¡°Lad, if we be discussin¡¯ a plan, we be needin¡¯ a drink. Les¡¯ be goin¡¯ to da water and usin¡¯ da special stein of yours and get us all a drink.¡± Balram pushed himself up gave me a hand up and we made our way over to the barrels. ¡°A¡¯right lad now use that stein of yours and get us a drink, while I be tellin¡¯ you a few things.¡± Thinking of a rich dart stout I passed the stein over. ¡°Ahhhhh, da be hittin¡¯ da spot.¡± Wiping his beard with the back of his hand he looked over at Kali as she poked at the fire, quietly talking with Wick. ¡°We were a good guild. We weren¡¯ big but we were growin¡¯. Two years ago, we captured our first town, a true town wit¡¯ a core. Large guilds were startin¡¯ ta notice us. Der be a few losses but were many more wins. Our leaders were approached by Stormglades, dey be a larger guild. A deal was made and der was a merger.¡± Grinding his teeth and gripping the stein white knuckled I thought he was going to shatter it. ¡°Only half da guild an¡¯ da elites were taken, an¡¯ all da accounts and lands. Da rest of us were given da armor on our backs a few supplies and a few credits an¡¯ shown da door.¡± Letting out a slow breath, Balram looked at me. ¡°Most of us woulda¡¯ died der and den. Kali told dem ta go ta hell and started ta get us all ta-gether. Some left an¡¯ went der own way, some gave up an¡¯ became a farmer or joined an army. Still der was more dan seventy of us left. She knew of Raylia, was a risk but der was hope. We called ourselves Phoenix, we were gunna head to Bowland Fells, learn a bit den strike out deeper in ta da wilds and claim our own village. Hunt fur a dungeon core or two over da years and build again. We pooled our credits, Kali sold all her gear and used every credit she had ta get us on the caravan ta Boland Fells. Da portal ta Raylia itself nearly wiped us of credit.¡± ¡°Fur two months we slogged our way ta Bowland Fells. Nuttin but hard tac, rations and what ever game we could get. We reached Bowland jus¡¯ as da sun was goin¡¯ down. But it wasn¡¯ right. Da gate wasn¡¯ open but smashed. Just as we realized somethin¡¯ was wrong da hobs came pourin¡¯ out of da gate. T¡¯was a bloody gruesome fight. Forty-seven of us died dat day, includin¡¯ every fighter we had. Donna¡¯ get me wrong we gave em hell, killed at least four to everyone we lost, but we still lost. We don¡¯ blame Kali fur what happened, no way she coulda known, but she blames herself fur everyone we lost and all of us bein¡¯ slaves. Freein¡¯ us has givin her a lil hope lad. Donna let her down. Nodding my head, with a dry mouth a croaked out, ¡°I won¡¯t, I promise.¡± I took a big swig of the stein refilled it and we made our way back to the fire. Sitting back down between Wick and Kali, I nudged a piece of wood back into the fire with my foot before I started. ¡°Kali whatever you can tell us would be great. I know what you¡¯ve been through let¡¯s see if we can end this.¡± Looking back into the fire I blurted along, ¡°You were looking for a new start for your people. I know you¡¯re slaves but to me it just means we¡¯re all a family now. We can make this city ours. A new beginning for everyone.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Ther was a pregnant pause as Kali just stared into the fire. Slowly she brushed the hair on her right side behind her ear and looked back at me. A hard look but one that bore into me. ¡°You really mean that don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯re all lost souls here. You called your group The Phoenix. I think it rings true here. We¡¯re all starting new from the ashes of losing everything. Not to mention we¡¯re doing it in a city that¡¯s also being reborn.¡± With a hint of smile she said, ¡°I like that.¡± In the corner of my view I could see the slow pulse of a notification that I swiped away before, talking to Balram. Quickly looking at it I wanted to see what I missed.
Kham Faldihr Congratulations! Claim Completed! Would you like to continue with city over view? (YES / NO) (WARNING! Continuing with city without full integration could lead to loss of knowledge, building accessibility, and unknown) Integration Completion : 0 days 3 hours 13 minutes
Well ya that¡¯s a big fat no. There is no way I¡¯m going to risk screwing things up by being impatient. Clicking no, I looked up at everyone staring at me. ¡°Uhhhh, sorry just got the notification that I¡¯ve claimed the city, though there is still over three hours till full integration. So just going to wait until that¡¯s finished to see what we have.¡± With a bunch of nods I look over to Kali, ¡°So what can you tell me about Bowland Fells?¡± ¡°Bowland Fells was a town with just about a thousand people. When we were brought into the city, there were only fifty slaves, the rest of the population were killed. The town fell two weeks before we got there. Twelve hundred hobs and that troll attacked the town. Bowland had an ice mage who was able to slow down the troll down a bit, but she ran out of mana and the troll was eventually able to break down the gate. Once the gate was down the rest of the hobs swarmed into the town and slaughtered fighter and innocent alike. When it was all over, over eight hundred hobs were killed and over nine hundred townsfolk.¡± Looking up with tears running down her cheeks, ¡°If we could have been a few weeks earlier we could have helped save the town. Behind those walls we could have beaten the hobs before they broke through.¡± I reached over and grabbed her hand. ¡°There is nothing you could have done. No way you could have known. More importantly there is nothing you can do about the past, you can only plan for the future and fight for the present. We¡¯ll go and save the rest.¡± Wiping her face, she bobbed her head a bit and continued. ¡°With all the hobs we killed in the caravan plus the small group here there are probably around two hundred or so hobs left. Half of those are the lower castes though. The warriors and the shamans belong to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes. They dominate the rest. Its all about strength with the hobs.¡± Trying to get an idea what we were up against and trying to figure out how many would fight, ¡°will the lower castes fight too?¡± Balram nodded, ¡°Aye, they all be actin¡¯ like bees when a hive is kicked.¡± Putting my head in my hands, ¡°Ok so we¡¯ll need to fight maybe a hundred warriors, a couple shamans, and another hundred who knows what. We have little to no weapons, no fighters, and only twenty-five of us.¡± Wick slapped me on the shoulder, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit! Hey, you had less and were able to kill everyone here! Though you shot the troll in the beans and had him do most of the killing, and you dropped boulders on the heads of unassuming hobs. Plus you had a very lucky shot that killed the troll¡­.But hey! You did kill them!¡± Raising his fists in the air shaking them a bit. ¡°You never know maybe you can climb a building and they will all line up for you to drop something on their heads as well!¡± Giving Wick a shove I rest my elbows back on my knee. ¡°You know Wick, you¡¯re a bit of a dick.¡± Standing back up and dusting himself off, he smiled and said, ¡°When did I ever say I was anything else?!¡± Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Giving Wick a playful shove, I climb to my feet. ¡°Ok well I¡¯m going for a bit of a walk and try to think of something. If anyone has any ideas let me know when I get back.¡± Wick starts to get up but I put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Hey, I just need a few, you just got back take a few and just relax by the fire. I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡± Looking up at me Wick gives me a bit of a concerned look, ¡°You sure? Don¡¯t mind just tagging along.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all good, just processing everything now. Also need to see if I can shake out an idea or two. Bit of a quiet walk may do me some good.¡± Walking away I can feel some eyes burning into my back. With some of the conversations I hear tidbits of concern, not just for themselves but for me as well. Worry about what¡¯s going to happen in the next day or so. Will the hobs come here or will be take the fight to them. How a small group of noncombatants can take on a group at least 4 times larger. To be honest I was having the same worries. Sure, I killed a group of fighters and a shaman plus a bit ass troll, but I cheated and got lucky. Trying to hope for something similar is crazy. I started to walk through the ancient city, well what was left of it. Everyone had made lots of progress, cleaning up the streets a bit looking through the broken-down buildings for anything of value. You could almost feel the life the city once had. Worn paths on the streets, the flow and design of the streets that were nothing less than an architectural marvel. Intermittent columns that stretched to the roof, beautifully carved and designed. Reaching out and touching one I could feel a warmth in the stone. Looking around I could almost see how the buildings must have stood proudly. Children playing in the streets. People truly making this a city, a home. Now it¡¯s my city and I have people that will be calling it a home again. How can I protect them, fix the city and try to remake it to what it once was. I kept on wandering and found myself in front of the old relief. I backed up a bit and sat down on a stone that had once been part of the buildings wall behind me. I just sat there, elbows on my knees staring at the relief. I needed a plan. While I sat there fully immersed in my pity party. I heard some low shuffling coming my way from the road behind me. Truly expecting it to e Wick, I readied myself for whatever he was going to do, a possible shove, smack upside the head, ass spanked, or even a wet willy, I just kept my head down and waited for the inevitable. To my surprise the shuffling stopped in front of me with not a single follow up sound. Not a word was spoken nor cough, clearing of the throat or the usual ¡°ummmmm¡±. Looking up I was equally shocked and confused. Standing in front of me were two of the saddest looking creatures I¡¯ve ever seen. Staring at them for a minute I got the tell-tale sign ring of my notifications.
Brick Lvl 8 Kobold Slave
Noxi Lvl 6 Goblin Slave
Wait, I had a goblin and a kobold as slaves? I really had to go over my slaves list more carefully. They both stood around three and a half feet tall. Both of them wore scraps as loin cloths and were both fairly emaciated. Brick has deep red colored scales with a dinosaur/dragon like head two small horns curving up and back at the top of his head. He nervously wrung his clawed hands and his feet and tail shifted nervously. Noxi stood a few inches shorter than Brick. His skin a dark hunter green. His wide long pointed ears swooped back which reminded my of my old great dane as a kid who got caught pooping in the house. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Noticing that I acknowledged they were there, they both started to mumble and elbow each other. Noxi finally sighed and lowered his head inaudibly mumbling something to me. Seeing these two both extremely poorly treated creatures in such extreme mental duress. Made me chuckle and shake my head. Not to the fact that they were pathetic, more to the point that I was. Theses two fought their fears and came up to me, while I¡¯ve been off feeling sorry for myself. Hearing me chuckle the poor little guys heads snapped up their eyes wide with fear that they may have done something wrong. Holding up my hands I tried to quickly calm their fears. ¡°Whoa guys, hold up relax. Sorry I was thinking of something stupid in my head, I was not laughing at you. Now what¡¯s the matter and how have I not seen you around before?¡± Noxi bobbed his head a bit before starting again. ¡°We want thank Master. Master save us, keep us as slaves. We work hard for Master. Be good slaves.¡± Brick followed up with, ¡°Work really hard, please no kill us.¡± What I saw just then made my heart just drop. I had Bricks deep golden eyes and Noxis large emerald eyes staring up at me. In those eyes I saw unmitigated fear, a fear of not being wanted, of being tossed out and killed. But what really caught me was the barest hint of hope that was present. Barely able to speak I did my best to force down a swallow before I trusted myself to say anything. Looking back and forth between the two of them I tried to reassure them as best as I could. ¡°Guys sit down and let¡¯s talk.¡± Nervously looking at each other they slowly seated them selves down on the cold stone floor. ¡°Ok, let me make sure you fully understand something, I am not going to kill you, not going to get rid of you. Well unless you do something to undermine everyone or inflict hard on anyone.¡± With that I got two furrowed brows and head tilts which were obviously due to confusion. Sighing a bit I tried again. ¡°As long as you¡¯re good boys and help people and the city and don¡¯t hurt anyone on purpose you¡¯ll always be welcomed.¡± That got their attention. Both their eyes lit up. Noxi blurted out, ¡°We be GOOD slaves!¡± Brick followed, ¡°We help, do as told. Work hard, very good slaves!¡± Holding out my hands trying to calm them down a bit, ¡°Ok ok ok, I believe you. First off you¡¯re slaves until I can free you. To me you¡¯re both free¡±. Noxi¡¯s eyes had a confused look, ¡°Master wants to frees us?¡± ¡°Yes Noxi, I want to free you both. I want to free all the slaves. You¡¯re all my friends and we¡¯re going to be each other¡¯s family. We will have to rely on each other and that mean you¡¯ll have to count on me and I¡¯ll have to count on you.¡± Bricks looked at Noxi then me. ¡°We be free and be family?¡± ¡°Yes Brick free and family. Can I count on you two?¡± Seeing their heads bob up and down like jack hammers I saw tears start to form in their eyes. Crap. ¡°Hold on you two. No crying. Now lets talk a bit more.¡± I reached into my bag of holding and took out my stein, which thankfully was still full. Taking a deep sip I looked down and saw the rapt attention they were giving me and the stein. ¡°Would you two like a drink?¡± Both of them were absolutely dumbstruck. Noxi sputtered out, ¡°Master share alcholz with us?!¡± ¡°Yes and please stop calling me Master, my name is Thoren.¡± Holding out his hand Noxi reverently took the stein and took a full pull of the cold beer then carefully handed it to Brick who stared at the stein in wonder and took a full pull himself before gently handing it back to me. Smiling up at me Noxi said, ¡°See why hobs loves alcoholz.¡± Brick nodded, ¡°Hobs drank all alcoholz in town. No share with slaves. Drank till sleep for long day.¡± Noxi nodded and laughed, his big ears flapping. ¡°Ha! All means Hobs falls down and sleeps long time.¡± Handing the stein back to by two little friends, two things struck me. ¡°What do you mean by ¡°Means Hobs¡±, aren¡¯t all hobs mean?¡± Both Noxi and Brick shook their heads. Noxi took a drink and said, ¡°Only warrior hobs and magics hobs are mean, other hobs little better than us slaves.¡± Curious, I followed, ¡°You mean the shaman right? What about the other hobs, I thought they all fought to the death?¡± Brick took another sip before adding, ¡°Magics hobs¡­ummm shaman hobs cast spell on poor hobs. All hobs go crazy. All hobs fight till die.¡± The other part I needed to clear up as a plan started to form, ¡°do all the hobs love to drink if they find alcohol?¡± Holding the stein upside down with his tongue out trying to get the very last drop. Noxi bobbed his head, ¡°Yup alls hobs loves alcoholz. They drink all alcoholz when they find it. Hobs no make alcoholz so fight and drink all alcoholz.¡± Gently Noxi handed the now empty stein back o me. Looking down at the stein in my hands a small smile spread across my face as a plan started to form in my mind. Thinking to myself, this is the stupidest plan anyone has ever thought of. I was a bit shocked and couldn¡¯t help but chuckle when I got another notification.
Planning lvl 8 reached
Chapter 10 Chapter 10 I really started to feel like I was getting some semblance of a plan together. Looking down at Brick and Noxi I handed them the stein and told them ¡°Guys seriously you earned yourselves a drink, really appreciate your help! Here take the stein and get whatever you want. Get used to using the stein a bit.¡± Both of them looked up at me partly confused and altogether proud of themselves. Noxi reached up to carefully grab the stein, then they both turned and half jogged to the fires, laughing and boasting to each other who helped more, but mostly about who was going to get the first drink and what it was going to be. Taking a moment to lean back a bit and try to formulate a strategy another ding and notification popped up.
Congratulations on owning Kham Faldihr! Congratulations! Claim and Integration Completed! Would you like to continue with city over view? (YES / NO) Bonus of one building now available.
With that a small ring appeared on the floor and semi-transparent form rose up from the floor. It was undeniable that the being was khor-duuarven. He stood just shy of five and a half feet. Dressed in a compilation of black and silver armor, leather straps and belts crossed his chest and waist holding a few knives and pouches and attached to his puldrons was a long red cloak with a large hammer strapped to his back. Holding a long pip in his hand he slowly turned around and looked throughout the cave and at the end of his turn his shoulders slumped a bit with a sigh. Turning back around and pointing at me with a pipe he finally said, ¡°You be the new Master.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question, but I was able to look him in the eyes and see a bit of a challenge there. His face had time worn features, his sky blue eyes held me trying to weigh me as a man and a possible leader. His silver hair was brushed neatly back and fell past his shoulder and his long multi-braided beard hung to his waist. Clearing my throat, ¡°Well let¡¯s skip the Master thing a bit. I am the owner of the city. The other residents are up around the camp fires.¡± ¡°You mean your slaves are around the camp fires.¡± Giving me a bit of a challenging look. ¡°Well ya, they are my slaves and no not by choice. I would do anything to free them now if I could. Got them by killing hobgoblins which is a major issue that I¡¯ve been trying to figure out while sitting over here. Wait how did you know that they¡¯re slaves and that they¡¯re mine?¡± With a bit of a softer look he started. ¡°Easy lad we be connected now. Plus, they are all saves ¡®cept you an¡¯ that would make ya a slave master. Glad it be not by choice though lad, we of the khor-duuarven disliked slavery. I see ye be human, you sure have a motley crew of slaves ta be sure. Not sure what a dwarf be but the rest I¡¯ve heard of. Had been hopin¡¯ that a khor-duuarven would come reclaim our home but was not meant to be.¡± He said with a sigh and a shake of his head. With a bit of a chuckle I said, ¡°Well a dwarf is your descendant, I¡¯m sure they will be more than happy to tell you the history.¡± With that he smiled a bit, ¡°That would be great lad. This system be new, gives me a few abilities and ways I can help ya run an¡¯ manage the city (looking around a bit) or what be left of her.¡± ¡°Do you have a name? Screaming hey majordomo, would get old fast¡± Chuckling, ¡°Aye lad me name be Horkom Graymantle, I was the adviser to the King Margraugg Brightstriker when this city was created. I chose to bind me soul here to guide me people, just didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be the last one. Well, aren¡¯t ye gonna check it out?¡± Bit confused, I asked, ¡°Check what out?¡± ¡°Yer new tattoo lad.¡± As he use his pip to point at my upper chest. Opening up my shirt and using the soft light from the moss I was able to see the tattoo covering the top of my chest over my heart. It was of large mountains with a valley. The entrance to the valley was walled off with two large square towers carved into the mountains on either end. At the back of the valley carved into the mountain were two large gates, with towers and plateaus, parks and gardens carved out from the mountain. It was absolutely stunning. It had a beautiful indominable feel to it. I also noticed on one of the towers a certain little imp lounging and smiling, well impishly. Seeing my reaction Horkom chuckled. ¡°Aye she was a beautiful city once. Was one of the jewels of the empire. She was also our last hold out due to her having the star gate. Hopefully ye can bring her back to her splendor.¡± He spoke the last looking wistfully at the old city. Looking back up at Horkom I pointed at Wick and asked, ¡°What the hell is he doing there?¡± Then noticing a multicolored celtic knot wrapped around my upper bicep the colors almost seeing to flow, I pointed to that as well and said, ¡°And what the hell is this tattoo? Don¡¯t get me wrong looks pretty awesome but no idea where I got it.¡± Letting out a big guffaw Horkom started, ¡°BWAHAHA, He be soul bound to ye so ya carry his mark. Anything soul bound leaves its mark.¡± Pointing at Wick he says, ¡°See he be holdin¡¯ your bag and stein too. They all get added to make a story of ye. As for the other tattoo those be yer affinities of magic. The red be for fire from Wick I assume, the blacker than black be for Death, the midnight blue for Dark, the rich brown for Earth, the light blue for Air, the star speckled black for Space and the rich purple for Arcane. Havin¡¯ the city ye gain the affinities she has.¡± Tracing my finger along the different lines I let out a ¡°huh¡±. Snapping my eyes up, I look at Horkom and blurt out, ¡°Did you say star gate?!¡± With a wry grin he says, ¡°Aye was wonderin¡¯ if ye heard that. Tis the only way we were able to reach other planets. Kham Faldir was the only city we had that could build the star gate and then reach into the stars. We believe that Arcane is the key ley line that allows the star gate with the mixture of the other four ley lines, just not sure which ones are needed. Kham Faldir is the only place where five ley lines converge with the rare Arcane.¡± Not being able to wait I quickly pop open my new settlement interface to see what I had.
Kham Faldir
Owner ¨C Thoren Parker Majordomo ¨C Horkom Graymantle
FINANCIAL
Credits ¨C 1,000 Platinum ¨C 10 Gold ¨C 0 Silver ¨C 0 Copper ¨C 0
OVERVIEW
Population ¨C 24 Morale ¨C 21
Core Size ¨C City 1 Settlement level ¨C Isolate dwelling
Linked locations ¨C 0 Ley lines ¨C Earth, Air, Dark, Space, Arcane
Mana ¨C 100 (10/day) Fortifications ¨C 10,000
BUILDINGS
Tier 1 ¨C NONE
Tier 2 ¨C NONE
Tier 3 ¨C NONE
Tier 4 ¨C NONE
Unique ¨C Star Gate (interplanetary)
RESOURCES
Food Consuption ¨C 48/day Food Production ¨C 0
Resources ¨C 0 Resource Production ¨C 0
FORTIFICATIONS
Main magic stone gates
Requirements for expansion to: HAMLET
10 buildings; 20 populationYou could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Looking at the portal more information pops up.
¨C Star Gate ¨C (Legendary) (interplanetary) There are many portals in the universe that allow for interplanetary travel. There are few portal spells and scrolls that allow for very short closely connected planetary jumps; as well as static portals or gates that allow for longer distance travel requiring vast amounts of mana or technological power (electrical ¨C plasma ¨C fusion ¨C matter/antimatter ¨C singularity ¨C zero point energy ¨C core tap ¨C black hole ¨C gravity wave). The distance to travel defined the amount of energy needed. The combination of ley lines in conjunction of the rare Arcane energy allows for near infinite distance travel with known coordinates.
Congratulations on owning a Star Gate! As the owner of the only know star gate in existence you own the full and complete set of architectural plans and blueprints. For adding new high level knowledge to The System you are rewarded with a free set of blueprints for the platinum addition of the ¡°Auction House¡± as well as 1,000 credits and 10 Platinum.
Looking that over I had to contain myself from doing a little happy dance. I remembered that I had one free building I could build. I automatically ignored anything under tier four or unique. No way was I wasting this build on something as stupid as a long house or a marketplace. I briefly thought about using it for the auction house but I thought I already have the free plans would be a waste to not use them. Curious I thought I¡¯d look and see what the plans would normally cost.
Auction House (tier 4) (Platinum edition) These plans give the full and complete blueprints for the Auction House from level 1-10. Each level of contruction adds a 1% discount on purchases as well as other benefits. Cost: 100,000 Credits / 1,000 Platinum
Well shit¡­ That was one hell of a bonus! At the same time I¡¯m thinking that the city is going to be a complete money sink buying blueprints and building. I just have to keep telling myself its an ¡°investment¡±. Going through the endless list of options my eyes start to go crossed. There really needs to be a better way of deciding what to pick. Not that I want to have a skyscraper or landing pad. A lot of these would be absolutely pointless given the detriment to technology here as well as to the level of the city. Seriously the only things we have here are a star gate (which is awesome!), magical gates (again pretty awesome) and a few campfires. I really need a better perspective on this. I narrowed the list to buildings that were original to Kham Faldihr. I figure if the star gate was as amazing and unique to the system maybe I can luck out and get another unique building with another reward. Still the list is too long. Screw it let me see only what is unique. Besides the star gate which is already greyed out, I assume since I already have one there is only one other building, a Dragon Forge. Well damn that sounds fracking awesome! Who the hell wouldn¡¯t want a dragon forge?! Let me take a look at the description.
Dragon Forge (unique) (Legendary) The Dragon Forge is a legendary level forge that produced mythical and legendary weapons for the Khor Duuarven. Only five know weapons are known to exist and are in possession. The weapons are forged in the magical mana rich fires of dragon fire.
HELLS YA!! I need me some of that! How the hell can I not pick it with a description like that?! With a mental click I pick the Dragon Forge. ¡°NOOOOOOOO!¡± Horkom grabs me by the shoulders his face pale (well pale for him), eyes wide with a frantic look in the. ¡°Lad whada do?! Do ya have any idea what ya have done?! The Dragon Forge is what cause the war with the dragons. It takes a dragons heart and soul and binds it ta da forge, enslaves it chainin¡¯ and buryin¡¯ da soul deep with in da forge. When da forge was destroyed the soul was so warped and twisted dat only da final destructive magic was able ta give end it tortured spirit. Only way to get a heart and soul still viable it to kill a live dragon and my guess The System is going to do just that.¡± ¡°OH FUUUUUUUCK! SHIT SHIT SHIT¡­. System please cancel my order I don¡¯t want it, don¡¯t want to kill a dragon for the forge!¡±
Dragon Forge Time Remaining: Building Completion : 47 hours 58 minutes Missing components ¨C 1 dragon heart, 1 dragon soul, forced collection cancelled, requesting components¡­¡­ components found.
¡°WHAT?! What do you mean found?! Damn it! I wish I could talk to the soul!¡±
Dragon Forge Time Remaining: Building Completion : 47 hours 57 minutes Undesired change in parameters¡­. Requesting soul communication¡­. Request Granted.
With a flash I was transported to a white space. To call it a room wouldn¡¯t put it into context. Everything was white the floor and everything in infinite directions. Except straight in front of me sat an enormous, ancient golden dragon. To say he was enormous is to put it mildly he was the size of a football field and that¡¯s with his wings folded and his tail curled around him. He sat there staring at me, his anger and loathing radiated from him in waves. I felt like a tiny canoe out in the ocean during a storm the waves battering and buffeting me. I definitely peed a bit. His roar was absolutely terrifying. ¡°Meat sack where did you learn such a vile and heinous building as the dragon forge?! How is it a human as come into such knowledge?! Where is the short vile Khor Duuarven that has taught you such a design?!¡± His head inched closer as he raged, I could feel the heat radiating with his words and breathe. I stammered trying to get words out. ¡°I..I¡­I¡¯m sorry. The Khor Duuarven are no more all that is left is one major domo and he was as distraught as you are when he found out I had chosen the dragon forge. I just thought a dragon forge would be amazing¡­¡± Cutting me off he raged even more. ¡°YOU THOUGHT STEALING THE HEART AND SOUL OF A DRAGON WOULD BE AMAZING?!?!?!¡± I had no idea if he could kill me here and if he could I truly thought he would. Holding my hands up and falling to my knees I shouted, ¡°NOOOOO! It¡¯s not like that. I was given a boon of a free building from the System when I took ownership of Kham Faldihr. I wanted something special and unique. I saw the forge and I thought the description was amazing. Where I come from the idea of dragons are amazing wonderful magical creatures. The idea of having a forge with that seemed truly epic. I had NO idea it required a heart and soul. I would never have chosen it if I had known!¡± The dragon sat there seething. His eyes studying me seemingly piercing my soul. After a few minutes (which seemed like hours) he lowered his head. His hatred gone, his anger there but contained and sadness, oh the sadness showed deep in his eyes. His voice a deep resonating bass came forth. Not in the bellowing anger of before but more of a grandfatherly tone to a child who has done something epically stupid. ¡°Boy, I can sense no lie within you. You spoke from the heart even to the wonder you have of us dragons. You had no malice of heart in this decision.¡± Looking at him I stepped closer, trying to find my courage and voice. ¡°I swear I did try to cancel the build as soon as I knew. How is it The System got your heart and soul?¡± Looking into my yes his golden slit eyes teared a bit, ¡°I thought if The System was going to take one of our hearts and souls it was better that it took mine instead of one of the younger dragons. I am ancient of my race with only a few hundred more years left. I¡¯m getting tired of hiding from other races. Even if they don¡¯t know how to bind our souls they still hunt us for other reasons. To try and take us for mounts or for our scales and bones. We are hunted non stop. We were once a mighty race that numbered in the tens upon tens of thousands. Now there are but a few scant hundreds of us left. I am the last that remembers our home world. None know where it is. After the war with the Khor Duuarven we were scattered among a few worlds. Continuing to hide and fight as we watch our numbers tumble further toward extinction.¡± Holding out my hand I touch the side of his golden head. ¡° I will destroy the forge brick by brick, stone by stone by hand if I have to. I won¡¯t let you be enslaved as your brethren had been. I wish I could just make you like the majordomo of the forge and have you bound but not enslaved.¡±
Dragon Forge Time Remaining: Building Completion : 47 hours 57 minutes Change in directive¡­. Change approved¡­
With shock both the dragon and I stared at each other with the change. Looking back at the dragon I asked, ¡°Is that something you would want? Would you want to be bound to the city and forge but free within those constraints?¡± For a few minutes the dragon sat there quietly thinking and staring at me weighing me. Until he finally responded. ¡°What would you have of me? I see you already have slaves, I have no interest in being a slave.¡± I told him about the slaves and how I wished them to be free and would free them as soon as I could. He continued to stare and ponder his decision. ¡°I see no lie within your words or any kind of attempt of deceit. If I accept, I ask three boons. First, I make the decisions as to the forge who may or may not work there, what can be forged and out of what materials. There will be no weapons made for the purpose of killing dragons, and there will be nothing made from dragons that was not freely given. We do shed some scales and have given blood, if given or found in an honest way they may be used. Second, I see you have a star gate I want you to try and find my brethren and bring them to Raylia. Save as many as you can and give them a new home. Finally, I want you to do your best in finding my home world. I want to know what has become if it.¡± Without a breath or blinking I quickly said, ¡°ABSOLUTELY! I so swear!¡±
Fybemis, god of Justice; takes notice of your oath. Reward for completion : Dragon Forge Failure to honor oath : Souls retribution¡­
Ya¡­. That is one promise I am DEFINITELY going to keep. I REALLY need to stop making oaths. The consequences are terrifying! With the oath made the dragon gave a lil nod. Looking at him I thought I¡¯d try to inspect..
Ancient Golden Dragon Lvl ??? One of the most ancient of races. Their magic and intelligence is the pinnacle of sentient races. Their grace and speed is on par with their pure brute strength and power. Don¡¯t pick a fight without a few hundred of your friends to back you up and even at that you may just be a snack.
You have discovered the skill Bravery Lvl 1,¡­,11 You¡¯ve shown that you could stand toe to toe with the pinnacle of a sentient force of nature (only peeing a little). Only question is were you being brave or stupid¡­
Inspect lvl 3 reached
Well damn that was useful! Though terrifying seeing what the dragon is capable of. Well damn I really need start asking for names¡­ ¡°Since we¡¯re going to hopefully be together for a while, I think it might be helpful to know you¡¯re name.¡± Chucking in a kettle drum sort of way, the dragon smiled a bit and said, ¡°My name would be impossible for you to say¡­¡± With a twitch to his eye he continued, ¡°for now. Call me Odoir¡± With a smile I nodded, ¡°It¡¯s an honor to meet you Odoir. Looking forward to building something wondrous with you.¡± A small delay Odoir took his claw and slightly pierced his scales drawing a bit of blood, then just as quickly used the same claw and pierced my chest. He quickly sent a healing wave that healed our injuries all in the span of a blink or two. Dumbfounded I just started at him and with a with a small smile and a nod of his head he said. ¡°It¡¯s an honor to meet you as well. Will see you in two days.¡± With that a flash brought me back to where I had been standing. Blinking, I still felt Horkom holding my shoulders. Looking at him I see his face change from absolute horror to a small grin. I look at him and ask, ¡°How long have I been gone?¡± Looking a bit closer he said, ¡°did naught even know ye left. Though it seems like there¡¯s been a big change.¡± With an even bigger smile he said, ¡°A dragon and a Khor Duuarven livin¡¯ and workin¡¯ together, who woulda ever thought!¡± Looking down and pointing at my tattoo, I saw a massive golden dragon straddling the tallest mountain peak with its wings unfurled and a jet of flame erupting from his maw. With that I get a notification.
Thoren Parker Race change: Human (Earth End Protection) (Evolving)
Well what the hell does that mean¡­. All of a sudden, I hear a yell coming from the fires. Wick screaming, ¡°GOD DAMN IT THOREN! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE NOW?!?!¡± Chapter 11 Chapter 11 I start making my way back to the camp fires. As I get closer, I see Wick pacing back and forth, kicking loose pebbles as he goes. Muttering to himself and gesticulating to emphasize his mutterings, ¡°I¡¯m going for a walk he says, just going to go sit and think about things he says, no worries ill be back just need some time he says¡­.¡± Everyone sat and started at Wick equal parts concern and amusement at his antics. Walking up I clear my throat and say, ¡°Alright everyone have a few bits of news¡­¡± ¡°OH! DON¡¯T YOU GIVE US A ¡°FEW BITS OF NEWS CRAP!!¡± WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?!¡± Wick jabbing his tiny finger into my chest. ¡°While we¡¯re at it let me see the tattoo!¡± trying to lift my shirt and worm it way to look at my chest, I keep slapping his hands till I just had enough. I tell him, ¡°FINE, Hold on!¡± Lifting up my shirt everyone looks at my tattoo emblazoned on my chest, not just the awe of seeing the city as it once was but also that massive golden dragon on the mountain. Pointing at the dragon Wick looks at me and in very chirped words, ¡°What. The. Hell. Is. This?!¡± Looking at Wick then everyone else, pulling my shirt down, I started. ¡°Well like I said there are a few bits of new¡­¡± Looking at Wick to see if he was going to interrupt me again. All he did was narrowed his eyes waiting for me to continue. ¡°First bit of news the city has been fully integrated and claimed.¡± Lifting my fists slight in a half hearted Ya. Everyone looked at me with a bit of a smile expecting me to continue. ¡°Oooook, with that we have a majordomo.¡± Horkom appeared at my side and gave a slight bow. Everyones jaws drops, none more than the dwarves. Balram slowly got up and made his way over to us. Never taking his eyes off Horkom. Reverently he spoke stating less than asking, ¡°Ya be khorduuarven¡­¡± With a smile Horkom responded, ¡°Ahhhhh, you be a dwarf, I can see khorduuarven blood in ya. Aye I be the last of the khor duuarven. We seem ta have gotten a wee bit smaller.¡± He chuckled Snapping out of it a bit, Balram nodded, ¡°Aye Nogrod gravity be stronger dan da gravity here.¡± With a wide grin splitting his face he continued, ¡°smaller bu¡¯ stronger!¡± Wick looked at Horkom, gave a bit of a head bob said, ¡°Great to meet ya. Welcome to the team. City is a giant turd right now, looking forward to making it great again.¡± Oh god I just pictured him wearing a stupid red hat. Looking back at me Wick starts jabbing me with his finger, ¡°The whole city thing is great, congrats. Now what the hell hell is that giant fracking DRAGON!¡± Scratching the back of my head I start, ¡°Well the System gave me a free building, with the whole claiming thing. Then I got a free set of platinum blue prints for the Auction House..¡± ¡°Wait you got set of PLATINUM blue prints?!¡± Wick dumbfoundedly asked. Balram and a few of the dwarves mouths dropped a bit and leave it to Wes to give a drawn out whistle. Wick looked at me a little more closely, ¡°Exactly why did you get the free blueprints?¡± I continues, ¡°Oh I got them for the star gate¡­¡± As I was about to go on, Wick held up his hand to stop me. ¡°What the hell is a star gate?¡± Looking around at everyone, no one moved only sound was from the fires crackling. Getting a little self-conscious I went on. ¡°Well a star gate allows for interplanetary travel to almost any planet using the¡­power¡­of..the..leylines..¡± As I was speaking mouths dropped open. Balram shakingly grabbed my arms. ¡°Lad, dis be knowledge lot ta time. No ones be knowin¡¯ about it. If ownin¡¯ Kham Faldir before was gonna have ya bein¡¯ hunted till da end of time. Dis will make ya hunted in death too!¡± I knowingly nodded, ¡°Ya, I figured. It¡¯s unique to here anyway. Later I¡¯m sure Horkom will be more than happy to show everyone the star gate, but can I finish?¡± Letting his hands drop and nodding Balram went and sat down again. ¡°Ok, so when I was trying to pick our free building I thought I could get lightening in a bottle twice sort of say by picking another building unique to Kham Faldir.¡± Realization started to dawn on the dwarves as their expressions started to change to fear and a bit of anger. ¡°So looking through the list I saw something called the Dragon Forge..¡± With that all of the dwarves erupted, some shouting ¡°We¡¯re doomed¡±, to ¡°What were ya thinkin¡¯!¡±, ¡°Gob smacked human!¡± ¡°WHOA! Wait a minute!¡± Looking around I had my hands up waiting for all of the furvor to die down. ¡°As I was saying when I found out how its made, I tried to stop it, the system then let me speak with the dragon. We were able to change the Dragon Forge to allow the dragon to maintain its freedom as a kind of majordomo of the forge. He will dictate it¡¯s uses¡± The dwarves were even more shocked, and some were even grumbling that they would never be allowed to use it. Seeing the dwarves reaction Horkom spoke up, ¡°Aye, Thoren be speaking the truth. The dragon, Odior will be like me. Since we be connected he says he will treat all races equally, be they dwarves or human or any other.¡± That seemed to placate the dwarves as they smiled and nodded to each other. Wick gave me one more look then asked, ¡°Ok so what is the whole ¡°evolving¡± bit?¡± Shrugging, I really didn¡¯t have an answer. ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know, right before I departed he poked himself and then me with a bit of blood and healed us both. After that I saw my sheet had the evolving bit. So, your guess is as good as mine. Don¡¯t think its anything bad we need to worry about for now. Right now we need to take care of the hobs and I think I have an idea on how to do that.¡±
Leadership lvl 2 reached
Looking around I started to go over my plan laying it out step by step. As it s pretty simple but daring (or stupid) plan I finish up and look at everyone. Balram is the first to speak, ¡°So out a everyone, ye be takin¡¯ jus¡¯ da goblin and kobold?¡± Wanting to make sure he understands my reasoning. I went over a few points. ¡°Yes, they are very easily over looked and can easily blend in so their risk is low, hell I overlooked them and there are only about twenty of us here. This is all about stealth and a big group id incredibly difficult to hide. If we take in to account that almost everyone here is severely undernourished practically starving mistakes can be made. Finally, I may have extra lives so if I die I may come back, hopefully here, but who knows. If that happens, I want to make sure that if the hobs come straight here Horkom can open the gates so everyone can escape. That¡¯s a last resort as we have no idea what¡¯s out there and if we can stay hidden here for longer, hopefully we can rebuild a bit more. I¡¯m not going to risk any more lives than I have to, and I think this has a chance¡­¡± Looking over at Wick. He shrugs his shoulders a bit, ¡°this is a stupid plan with very little chance to work. Though so was your plan to shoot the troll in the twig and berries.¡± As every guy there grimaced a bit. ¡°You are stronger than you were, you¡¯re stronger than you were before so technically it could work.¡±
Leadership lvl 3 reached
Nodding with a bit of a smile, I say, ¡°getting there shouldn¡¯t be a problem as we have the scroll, just hope they have a scroll back.¡± Horkom cleared his throat, ¡°No need, you be soul bound. Unless blocked ya be able ta open a portal back to the city.¡± Bit surprised, I follow up, ¡°Just on Raylia or anywhere?¡± ¡°Anywhere.¡± ¡°Well damn that is a pleasant surprise! Makes things much easier. Will DEFINITELY need to go over the star gates abilities more when this is over and done with.¡± Clabbing my hands and rubbing my together I went on. ¡°Ok let¡¯s get this party started. They¡¯re probably figuring the city was claimed by now so time is probably getting of the essence.¡± Picking up the portal scroll I look at it for a minute, then ask, ¡°Any idea where the portal opens up that may be a big issue.¡± Everyone started to look at each other shrugging their shoulders, well crap. Looking to Horkom I ask, ¡°Can the star gate send me somewhere close to the village?¡± He nods, ¡°Yes as long as you know the coordinates.¡± With that a human clears his throat and speaks up, ¡°I can help with that, I¡¯m a cartographer and know the village coordinates I can get you in or around the village.¡± Taking a quick look, I get the ping.
Harry Bharat Lvl 19 Human Slave/Cartographer
I look at him and smile, ¡±Thanks Harry! Appreciate the help!¡± He nods and looks around not used to the attention. ¡°Ok, well no time like the present. Horkom lead the way to the star gate. Harry if you can please give him the coordinates let¡¯s say a mile out, to hopefully keep from getting spotted. Just tell me what direction I need to head to reach the village.¡± Looking around I ask, ¡°where are Brick and Noxi?¡± Staying a bit out of the fire light they both step closer, Noxi still clutching the stein. I look at them a little closer hoping they didn¡¯t go over board when I said they could have a drink as having two drunk members of the team would put this whole mission in jeopardy. Eyeing them a bit more carefully to make sure they didn¡¯t over indulge. They seemed nervous but thankfully sober. The alcohol may have actually helped in calming there nerves a bit. Looking at them I waved them over, ¡°Ok boys let¡¯s go.¡± Following Horkom we walk to the center of what must have been something of a town square. Holding some torches we really don¡¯t see anything until we look down. A large perfect circle of black stone (at least fifteen feet in diameter) was in the dead center of the square. There were thin silver and gold lines woven on the outer foot of the circle and again three feet in. In between these bands were intricate symbols carved into the stone. Harry gave Horkom the coordinates and the symbols flared to life in varying colors of the ley lines. Two thick bands of energy rose up from either side of the circle and rose up fifteen feet into an arch, as soon as the bands came together the space in the arch turned midnight blue and rippled like a ponds surface after a stone in dropped in. Honestly Wes had said it best and he let out a drawn out, ¡°Daaaaaaamn.¡± Looking around, I patted Noxi and Brick on the shoulders and said,¡±ok boys once more into the breach.¡± Everyone looked at me confuse, so I just shook my head and said, ¡°nevermind.¡± Pushing Noxi and Brick into the gate, Wick followed right behind them. I gave everyone a bit of a nod, ¡°well wish us luck.¡± With that Belram, said, ¡°be safe lad, good luck.¡± Everyone else nodded and said similar things and I walked through the gate. Coming out of the gate was a little disorienting. Have been in a cave for practically two days straight, the sun and the fresh air was absolutely refreshing even if it took a few moments to get used to. Luckily, we were in a little peaceful glade. Looked like a perfect camping spot and my guess Harry must have given Horkom the location of their last camp site before Bowland Fells. Looking behind me I saw the star gate, which looked like a mirror image of what we had stepped through, an energy arch with a dark rippling pool within. The forest around the glade contained some massive trees. Many different species and not one that I would be able to name. There were a few trees that seems somewhat similar to great oaks and maples as well as giant sequoia. There were tress with dark rich rough purple trunks and lavender leaves and small yellow trees with green striped leaves. There were a few unknown birds flying, chasing chirping and buzzing insects and what looked like a white bunny with a spiraled horn on its head. I just had to know so I stared a bit intently, *ding*
Bunnicorn Lvl 3 HP - 14 Bunnicorns look cute and cuddly but can be fairly vicious if provoked. There is a reason there is a saying about procreating like bunnicorns, where you find one there are many more about. Caution do not attempt to kick or punt a bunnicorn as that could lead to a swarm.
Yaaaaaaaa, ok lets just leave that alone for now. Looking up in the sky I could see Raylia¡¯s twin moons and some soft clouds. The sun seemed to be low in the horizon or just coming up. Not sure which it is. ¡°Hey Wick, do you know if the sun is just coming up or going down?¡± With an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes he walks over to the purple tree and points to the bluish moss growing on the side. ¡°The moss on a bumuga tree always grows on the north side so the sun is setting.¡± ¡°Alright fine, thanks Wick. Ok, we¡¯re about a mile out from Bowland, lets get close enough that we can get a look at it.¡± With that I start heading off toward town. Wick clears his voice and says, ¡°That¡¯s the wrong way jack ass.¡± Stopping, a little embarrassed I turn around and start walking the other direction. ¡°HA! Just kidding, just screwing with you.¡± With laughed ¡°You¡¯re such a dick Wick.¡± Brick and Noxi just looked at each other not knowing what to say and filed in behind us as we started hiking our way to town. We ended up seeing all sorts of different animals and plants. Was tempted to try any inspect them all but figured we were a bit on the clock, and I could almost hear the incessant complaining that Wick would have done if I had. Slowing our pace, we started to carefully make our way to the edge of the forest. From there the walls no more that two to three hundred meters away. The gate was wide open, well with the giant hole ripped in the side of the walls made some sense. Why close the gates when there is that giant hole? Not that they were expecting a fight anyway. Hobs were milling about inside and out. A bit of tension in the air as they seemed to be waiting for something. My guess is the confirmation that the city was taken. Crouching low I huddled the four of us together. ¡°Ok, so we all know the plan. We¡¯ll wait for the sun to set then Noxi you and Brick sneak into town. You know where the water barrels are take the stein and as quickly and quietly as you can turn all of the water in the strongest alcohol you can think of that the hobs really enjoy. This is important, look at me and pay attention, DO. NOT. GET. CAUGHT. Do you understand? One of you will turn the water to alcohol while the other keeps watch. If you see a hob coming hide and wait for it to be all clear before continuing. Do you understand?¡± Both of them were staring at me and nodding vigorously. ¡°Great! As soon as you¡¯re done hide and keep an eye out. Hopefully they all will start to drink when its known all the water is now alcohol, and drink heavily. As soon as you¡¯re sure they are all passed out drunk from the alcohol. Do not leave your hiding spot until you are sure they are all drunk and asleep, ok?¡± More nodding. ¡°Ok then you sneak out and come back here to find Wick and me. You will stay here after that until I call you. Ok? Tell me what you are to do.¡± Looking at each other Noxi said, ¡°we¡¯s to go in town, makes alcoholz froms waters wit¡¯ magic cup. Then hide and waits for hob to drinks alcoholz till falls down sleep. Then come finds you and Wick.¡± They both looked up to make sure that was right. ¡°You two got it right! Ok, relax a bit we have some time till the sun sets.¡± I decided to try and meditate for a bit. Might as well try to level up a bit while I¡¯m waiting so I sat against the tree pulling my cloak of concealment around me and started to take slow deep breaths. I work my wat to my core and sense my mana swirling inside me. I go deeper and start to notice some differences in my mana; it¡¯s all different shades of color all similar to the affinities that I have. The more concentrate the more I can differentiate the different types of mana. *ding*
You have discovered the Skill Mana Sense. Lvl 1. Not all mana is created. Taking your time and focusing in and around you, you notice that mana is not just a single substance but contains all the elements and affinities of the universe.
Congratulations! Your mind is a muscles, exercise it +1 Intelligence
Congratulations! Thinking deeper than a koi pond +1 Wisdom
Meditation lvl 6,7 reached
Well that was a nice use of my time! A big grin spreading across my face. Wick looked over at me and said, ¡°Figured out mana sense now did ya?¡± Looking at him, I ask, ¡°Ya, why didn¡¯t you teach me this back in the cave?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s much easier when yo have multiple affinities, and when you finally got them we didn¡¯t exactly have the time to sit down and grind out your skills now did we?¡± Ya, I have to give it to him that¡¯s a good point I smirk a little and say, ¡°True, as soon as this hobs thing is taken care of we need to get stronger and work on my skills. I have a feeling I¡¯m going to need to build up fast.¡± ¡°Oh kid, you have no idea the heap of crap you¡¯ve landed us into. Let¡¯s finish this first then figure out our next plan.¡± Night finally set, we waited a bit longer after the sun set just to let things settle down a bit. I got Noxi and Bricks attention as they¡¯ve been sleeping on the forest floor for the last couple of hours. ¡°Ok guys, now¡¯s the time. Do you remember what to do?¡± Both of them vigorously nodded again. ¡°Ok, off ya go. We¡¯ll wait here, and most of all BE CAREFUL!¡± Wick and I watched Noxi and brick sneak their way into the city. Then it just became a waiting game. Wick looks at me and says, ¡°you realize this is a crazy entirely idiotic plan, right?¡± ¡°Hey, come on you know that¡¯s the only plans I can come up with.¡± I say with a sly grin. ¡°Alright as long as you know it. Ok being that you¡¯re over level five I can teach you fireball, now this isn¡¯t your run of the mill fireball either. Being soul bound to me you¡¯re getting the improved and special ¡°Hell Fire¡± addition, you¡¯re welcome; now hold onto your boot straps this is gonna hurt a little.¡± Wick grabbed my head and I could start to feel that I knew how to create fire and then fire it. Knowing that I knew that all while it felt my brain was grating over a cheese grater, was less than fun. *ding*
You have discovered the Skill Draconian Hell Fire: Fireball. Lvl 1. This is not your momma¡¯s fire ball nor your little imps hell fire, fireball. You have Draconian Hell Fire, fireball. What does that exactly mean? Your guess as good as mine, no one has ever combined the magical destructive fires of the dragons and of hell before, GO YOU! Cost: 15 Mana. Increased skill level decreases mana cost and increases speed. Damage dependent on Intelligence and lvl of skill. And¡­¡­ GOOD LUCK!
Congratulations! Check your foot to see if it s a rabbits, +1 Luck
¡°Ummmmmm Wick?¡± ¡°Ya ya ya I know I¡¯m awesome you¡¯re very welcome, hell fire is pretty freaking awesome right?!¡± ¡°Ooooh, ya for sure! But I got something called ¡°Draconian Hell Fire¡±, what the hell does that mean?¡± ¡°WHAT?! You fracking OP¡­. Let me see, open up your window.¡± I did and let him view. ¡°Well damn, ya that is something new. Must have something to do with that whole ¡°evolving¡± thing he did to you. We¡¯re going to have to have a talk with that dragon. Should be interesting to see, I mean if you don¡¯t go and blow your arm off or something.¡± After an hour or so we start to hear some commotion going on in town and gets into full swing for more than a few hours. Then slowly things start to die down and eventually an almost perfect quietness blankets the town. What seemed like fifteen to twenty minutes later we see two little figures scampering away from the walls towards us. Both out of breathe noxi hands me back the steain and says, ¡°alls..meanz hobs¡­sleepz¡± ¡°Whoa catch your breathe guys, you did great! Did all of the mean hobs get drunk and fall asleep?¡± The two of them couldn¡¯t nod their heads more if they tried. ¡°Really amazing job guys! You did your end, now its our turn. No matter what you stay here, do you understand? If something happens and I die and come back I am going to come back here to get you. Do NOT try to come help us if you think something has gone wrong. Do you both understand?¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Again, they both nodded vigorously. Wick showed me how to turn off my notifications, no way was I going to let those get in the way and distract me until this is finished. I pulled my cloak tight around me and we set off and carefully as we could toward the hole in the wall. Steeling our nerves, wick looks at me again and wispers, ¡°I fracking hate you and these ideas.¡± I smile and whisper back, ¡°oh I know.¡± We sneak into town and look for our main objective, though we found two. One was the giant church looking building and another was what I was told was the Adventurers guild hall. Deciding what I was planning to do would be bad to do to a church to actual gods, I decided to go with the guild hall. We quickly and quietly made our way over to the front door and let our selves in. The building looked absolutely ransacked, didn¡¯t matter to us for what we were using it for. We started to move all the furniture, and anything made of wood and heavily blocked all the windows. clearing a huge space in the center of the hall. Now this is where things either went really well or shit started to hit the fan. We started to creep around town looking for all the hobs, trying to keep track of where they were as well as the slaves and ¡°non-meanz hobs¡± as Noxi likes to call them. We located the shamans halfway into our search. Ironically enough they were inside the church. There were four of them inside, and they all looked younger and more junior to the one we had fought before. We decided to start with the one that was the furthest away from the rest and work out way in. There was no way we wanted to go against all the hobs if we didn¡¯t have to and killing these four should help keep that from happening. We crept our way to the far end of the church where the hob was sprawled out on his back on a stone bench. These creatures are just plain rank. They smelled go awful, covered in dirt and grime, his breathe was absolute disgusting, he was mouth breathing tongue lolled out. He had as many sharp teeth as he had broken and missing ones, and to top it off he had a snot bubble going in and out of his long-pointed nose with every breathe. I pulled out my dagger and straddled the hob in case he fought back and gave Wick a nod. Wick took out a piece of leather and clamped it over its mouth while I heavily slid the knife across the hobs neck. The hob jerked awake, struggling with blood pouring from his neck, sitting down on him I quickly slammed my knife into his chest. I received a *ding* bit ignored it, as we were looking at the other hobs seeing if there was any reaction. When there wasn¡¯t any, we continued on to the next closest hob and repeated the process over and over. When all four were dead, Wick looked at me and said, ¡°Ya this way is highly impractical, still think your plan is crazy and stupid but it¡¯s better than this.¡± Looking at my little friend I smiled, ¡°oh you love this crazy shit, don¡¯t deny it.¡± Chuckling, Wick shakes his head, ¡°You sure know how to bring out the stupid in me.¡± Now covered in blood we continued our search through the town, though we haven¡¯t been able to find the chief yet. Seeing as we¡¯re burning through time I make a snap decision and head over to the slaves. We crawl over to the cage and I quickly inspect the closest slave to the cage wall.
Liz Anderson Lvl 24 Human Slave/Farmer
I whisper as loudly as I dare, ¡°Hey, Liz¡­¡± nothing. I try again, ¡°Liz, Liz Anderson¡­¡± still just barely a movement. Finally I just pick up a small stone and lob it at her, hitting her in the cheek. She finally comes out of her daze and looks around. She see¡¯s us and then I remember I¡¯m covered in blood. Her eyes go wide she¡¯s about to scream, I quickly hold my finger to my lips and try my best to shush her. Understanding slams into her like a lightning bolt and she clamps her hands over her mouth, afraid to make a peep. She crawls over to us and with pleading eyes, softly begs ¡°oh my god, you have to free us please you need to save us¡±. I nod to her, ¡°that¡¯s the plan but we can¡¯t find the chief and after killing the shaman we count 94 hobs besides the ones huddling over on the other side of you cage.¡± ¡°Those be the hob Dalits, they¡¯re treated no better than us except they¡¯re not caged. They should be harmless. The chief and six of his best warriors are in the mayor¡¯s old house, just north of the town square. If you¡¯re the one that got them all drunk just know the chief isn¡¯t stupid, he may be drunk but there is no way he let all six of those warrior¡¯s drink if any of them. Usually he keeps two posted outside the door, but with all the loud drinking those two went inside, probably frustrated they weren¡¯t allowed to drink.¡± ¡°Well shit ok, thanks for the info, we¡¯ll get you all out as soon as we can, going to try and take care of this as best we can first.¡± She was about to argue but I held up my hand, ¡°look we don¡¯t have a key and trying to break this open will definitely cause a racket, we¡¯re running out of time, I promise we¡¯ll do our best.¡± Biting her lip she nodded, and added, ¡°ok, good luck.¡± Well now is the time to really get to work. We head back the guild hall as quickly and quietly as we can, carefully opening the doors as wide as we could. Then we sneak up to the first hob and see if this is going to work. I gently reach under its arms and Wick grabs his feet and we pick him up and carefully carry him into the hall placing him at the back end, lowering him gently. He didn¡¯t even flinch and his snob bubble merrily went in and ot the entire time. Shrugging to each other and taking a deep breathe we got to work, hauling hob and hob into the hall. Being careful not to wake them and being as gentle as we possibly can. Hours later we almost drag in the last hob. What was one of the mose vile and revolting experience of my life. The hobs were covered in vomit and urine and what was definitely not chocolate. Some of it theirs and some of it others. The sheer stench alone made me almost throw up no less than three times with only sheer force of will forcing it back down. Our staminas almost completely drained. We practically fall to the ground. We take a few steadying breathes hands on our knees and we make our way to the back and pulling huge stones out of my bag of holding we block the back door. Going back to the front I pile up more giant pieces of stone, leaving a very small hole at the top just enough for a hand or two. Looking at Wick I say, ¡°well still have a few pieces of the stone left, any ideas?¡± He looks at me for a minute and a big smile spreads across his face and then quickly sours, ¡°damn it now you have me thinking stupid shit now! Ya, I have an idea. May work you never work, give me the bag and about ten minutes and then light ¡®er up. Anxiously waiting by the door, after what seems like ten minutes, I climb the stones in front of the door and look inside. All the hobs are still completely passed out drunk. Looking around, I¡¯m a little relieved there aren¡¯t any other buildings close to the hall. As the adventures seemed to like the space around the hall to practice their trade. One last look and I stik my hand into the hole and say, ¡°well lets see what draconian hell fire looks like.¡± I call forth the fire and a ball of flame the size of a softball comes to life on the palm of my hand. I start to pour more mana into the flame and the flames dance and writhe in all sorts of deep reds blues and whites. The fire churns and swirls faster and angrier as I dump more and more mana into it. Now the size of a beach ball, the heat radiating from the ball is unbearable. The hobs are starting to stir a bit as the heat and light radiate from the flames. Unable to hold it any longer I shoot the ball into the center of the hall and see the hobs there explode outward into the large rough-hewn log walls. The fire quickly spreads throughout the hall. The hobs are now awake and fighting toward the doors finding the stone blocks barring their exit. Their oily armor and dry wood furniture send the hall up into a blaze. I back away from the hall a few dozen meters and start to vomit as the smell, and screams assault me. Bearing down a bit I head towards the mayor house, there are still at least 7 hobs left and only Wick is there to deal with them. The noise and light from the flaming hall reach the house as I round the corner. I hear a roar from within the house as a large warrior steps out of the front door, *BAMM*. A giant stone slams on his head. Another warrior confused slowly comes out and looks up, *BAMM*, he too gets a giant stone slamming into his head. I look up and see Wick on the Peak of the roof holding the bag of holding out over the roof, looking down waiting for any other hobs that may come out. A minute or two later, five hobs come racing out the back door. Completely and thoroughly enrages, racing down to the guild hall, which is a raging bonfire now. With all the dings that I got I know there aren¡¯t any hobs left alive. I run to the town square and climb up to the roof of one of the buildings. I know there isn¡¯t any way in hell I¡¯m going toe to toe with any of those hobs let alone the chief, I¡¯m going to have to shoot at them from range and hope we have enough mana to burn the rest of them down with fire balls. The five hobs make their way back anger rolling off them as four of them are screaming and point at each other and the chief is raging against all of them, pushing hit and kicking them as they made their way back to the mayors house. I watch as fireballs start raining down on them from the roof. Three of them get lit up and they all start to hide from the hell fire. With a wry little grin I see that their backs are to me, wishing they had grouped up a bit more I start to pour mana in my fireball, with their backs to me and their attention on the mayors roof they didn¡¯t notice the growing fire behind them. There are three that are sort of close together, the ones that had been on fire before, so I aimed at the center one and let it fly. The center hob was killed instantly while the other two went flying. One ended up getting impaled on a wrought iron fence while the other got slammed head first into the stone wall of a nearby building breaking its neck. Screaming at the remaining hob he pushed him toward the mayors house while the chief turned and roared at me then started to jog towards me. ¡°Oooooooh shit, oh shit, oh shit¡­¡­¡±, I start firing off fireball after fireball into the chief. His armor starts to burn and his skin blackens but he still comes on, raging with his muscles bulging and roar pouring from his mouth. He pulls out a long life hurls it at me. I¡¯m able to move a bit out of its way, instead of slamming dead in my chest it hits my shoulder. The knife is buried to the hilt in my shoulder with it point sticking out of my back, the force of the throw knocks me tumbling down the roof and then slamming into the ground breaking a leg. Pain is radiating through my body as I nearly black out. I force myself up on my good leg and start hobbling across the square. I see the what¡¯s left of the water barrels and make my way for them as I get closer, I can smell the alcohol five of the barrels are empty but there are still 3 filled with something that smells of rum. I fall into them and push them over and continue to hobble to the other end of the square. The chief comes around the corner hatred burning through him as he sees me stumble into the barrels. Is mocking laugh hits me, ¡°Stupid puny human. I am going to enjoy killing you slowly. You¡¯ve killed my warriors but no matter I have the Dalits to rebuild me more. Your skull will make a fine cup. I rush/hobble to the other side, tripping at the last moment slamming my pierced shoulder against the stone wall of a building, I scream and crumple my back against the wall. I look at the chief as he slowly makes his way towards me. Halfway across the square he pulls out his sword and hurls it end over end at me. It slams into my other shoulder piercing the stone behind me pinning me to the wall. He stops and laughs again. ¡°Oh how someone so weak has caused me such trouble, I should have the other slaves see you like this before I slowly kill you in front of them.¡± My fear starts to ebb as my anger starts to flow. I slowly slide my foot back raising my knee and painfully reach my wrist onto my knee and look at the chief, I give a hoarse chuckle as I spit out a bit of blood, ¡°Hey asshole, next time you want to give a shit speech watch what you¡¯re standing in.¡± Confused, he looks down and see¡¯s the giant puddle he¡¯s standing in. With that I lift up my hand and shoot a fireball into the puddle. The alcohol ignites into an inferno. The chiefs screams are blood curdling. Out of the flames I see him slogging out. His skin no longer blackening more melting off his body. This mix of alcohol and draconian hell fire is melting and lighting the fat under his skin on fire. He continues forward, An eye burst and his lips sagging, he says, ¡°ssssstuuuipppp huuuuuaaaannn.¡± Absolutely dumbfounded I yell, ¡°Oh come on! Why won¡¯t you just fucking die!¡± I pour the rest of my mana into a mana bolt. It starts to writhe in my hand *and I¡¯m a bishocked to see it¡¯s a rich dark purple. ¡°why the hell is it purple?¡± Not a second thought as the chief is less than a meter a way, I scream in pain, anger and fear. Lift up my hand and fire the bolt straight into the burst eye socket. His head snaps back and he falls to his knees. I get a *ding* as he falls to his side. I scream at the dead hob, ¡°YA, FUCK YOU!!¡± I drop my hand to my side and let my head fall back against the stone wall. A few minutes later Wick walks up to me, he looks down and says, ¡°damn you look like shit.¡± ¡°Thanks dick, now can you pull THE FUCKING SWORD OUT OF MY SHOULDER!¡± ¡°Geez, don¡¯t get your panties in a twist hold on.¡± Wick pulls the sword and then the dagger out of me, (ya I cried). I look at him, ¡°so what happened with the last warrior?¡± ¡°Oh, HA! The stupid hob threw every but his sword at me then came up to the house screaming at me to fight him. I was out of mana, so I just looked down at him and then emptied the rest of the stones on top of him.¡± Shaking my head, ¡°You know you¡¯re just stealing my moves man.¡± ¡°Ya, don¡¯t get me started. Anyway, what¡¯s your health at? Taking a quick look I was at 73 health, ¡°I¡¯m at 73, I¡¯ll survive¡±, looking at my broken leg I go on, ¡°though my leg looks terrible we should set it and splint it, go find a couple pieces of wood and rope.¡± ¡°You got it boss.¡± Wick jogged off to see what he could find. I still had a ton of notifications piled up but I was definitely not going to handle them now, too much to do first. Wick hurried back with what looked like two slats from a fence and couple pieced of thin corded rope. ¡°Ok, grab my foot, and when I say pull it and snap it back into place.¡± Wick looking at me a bit dubiously, ¡°You, sure about this?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m suuuu¡± *SNAP* Wick gave a quick firm tug and snapped my bone back into place. I screamed ¡°God, damn it Wick! I didn¡¯t say go yet!¡± ¡°And I thought it better if I did it quick, less to worry or think about.¡± ¡°Ughh you¡¯re such a dick!!¡± We quickly placed the boards on my leg and tied them up. *ding* Still too tired to care I ignored it. ¡°Help me up will ya?¡± Wick pulled me to my feet and helped me on the side with the broken leg. We hobbled over to the chief¡¯s crispy body. There was only one notification I was interested in and let it pop up.
Congratulations! For killing Hobgoblin Chief Ukrat Dardrong You receive all of Ukrat Dardrong System owned items: You have received 49 slaves! You have received Bowland Fells town core! You have received 97 hobgoblins! Make hobgoblins slaves? (YES / NO)
Well damn what the hell am I going to do with them? I¡¯ll figure that out in a bit. I bend down and pick up the town¡¯s core. It¡¯s smaller than the city core about the size of a softball with the similar glowing blue tint to it.
Bowland Fells town core The town of Bowland Fells has survive in the wilds for over a century. There is no lacking of struggle. Will you take up the struggle? Do you wish to claim Bowland Fells? YES/NO Claims completed in 12 hours.
Well of course I¡¯m going to claim it. I¡¯ll probably just take the town and move it close to Kham Faldihr or somethings, maybe see if I can add it to the city somehow. Again a problem for later.
Congratulations on owning Bowland Fells! Claim completion 12 hours.
With that taken care of. I have Wick search the body; he should have the key to the slave cages. He gives me a dirty look and complains that he always gets the dirty work. Wick pulls out the key, seven rings a necklace and an earing. All of which I could careless about right now and just grab the key and say, ¡°Thanks buddy, I do appreciate you taking care of the crap.¡± Wick give me a bit of a nod and says ¡°Alright lets go free the rest of YOUR slaves.¡± I cringe as he adds the emphasis on the ¡°Your¡±. I say, ¡°You seriously know I hate that I own them right?¡± He nods, keeps walking, saying ¡°Yup and I know it bothers the hell out of you so I make it a point to keep reminding you.¡± I¡¯m about to argue but instead a small smile creeps across my face as I hobble after him to the slave cages. We get to the cages and Wick goes and stars to unlock all the doors. I call out to Liz and she makes her way over to us. She stops a couple feet away from me and gives me a look, ¡°Looks like you¡¯re our new slave master¡­¡± Too tired to go down this road again I hold up my hands, ¡°Hold on, I already went through with this with the other group of slaves in the city, You can all ask them about it, hell I even made an oath to the gods that I want you all free and will set you free as soon as I can.¡± Everyone that over hears us starts to talk amongst themselves pointing and then all start asking a ton of questions. Again, there is NOOOO way I¡¯m dealing with this now. ¡°Look! I know you have questions and concerns but honestly, I¡¯m too tired, and in too much pain to deal with them. I claimed the town and when the timer pops I¡¯m going to take it and raze it and move the town, anyone have an idea what happens if I do that?¡± An older gentleman comes forwards claiming he does. I get the ping as I inspect him.
Walter Simmons Lvl 31 Human Slave/Historian
Well alright, I have a librarian and now a historian, a whole lot of uselessness unless I get some books for them. I gave him a nod, ¡°Ok, Walter tell me, what happens to the town?¡± Looking around a bit he then focusses on me. ¡°All of the consumables are lost and there is a penalty of half the constructed buildings, you have fifteen minutes to decide which buildings you are keeping when you use the core again in a new location otherwise the System will pick for you. Those buildings will all be empty and the town as well.¡± I take a minute to digest this for a minute, then make up my mind. ¡°Here¡¯s the plan, I want everything that¡¯s not nailed down piled up in the square. I don¡¯t want to lose a scrap of food or a loose nail. Every book, tool, piece of furniture; it¡¯s all coming with us. We have a city to rebuild.¡± A bit dumbfounded, the all start to get worked up, but Walter is the first to spit the words out. ¡°The city is real, and you¡¯ve truly claimed it?¡± Wick almost totally out of patience, pipes us, ¡°Yes you dolts! We know you¡¯re tired but hurry up we¡¯re wasting time! The sooner you¡¯re done the faster we can get the hell out of here before something else shows us!¡± That was enough to motivate them all, scared that something else would be coming next, they set out, going from building to building neatly clearing everything out and piling it in the town square, though as emaciate at they were was going to take a long time. I still had one more thing to deal with and that may help fix this problem too. With Wick at my side we hobbled over to what is hopefully our last problem for the day. We reach the tent strewn paddock where the last of the hob stood huddled together, with unabashed fear in their eyes. They were all dirty, half starved and wore tattered clothing. But what was interesting over half were female, these were the first females that I have seen, and while they were all definitely dirty and unwashed, they didn¡¯t have that urine/shit smell that the warriors had. One female choked down her fear and slowly approached us. Curious I did a quick inspect.
Vansa Nurda Lvl 6 Hobgoblin -------
She stops a few feet away arms wrapped around herself. Her head was lowered, and she was visibly shaking with fear, but she was able to choke out a few words. ¡°You come to kill us?¡± I don¡¯t think anything could have hurt more at that moment. I had been stabbed, thrown, leg broken, battered and yet those five little words hurt more than the rest. If she wasn¡¯t so dirty and malnourished, she would have looked pretty actually. These hobs seemed far different than the others. Their looks were less sharp, far more proportional, had more of a quasi-green elf look going (though no way in HELL was I ever going to say that to an elf). I looked at her a moment longer and scanned over the rest. What I hadn¡¯t noticed before were the children. There were several hiding behind what I assume were their parents. I looked back at Vansa and asked, ¡°Why are you so different than the others?. Unsure of herself or the question, she raised her head a bit. ¡°We are Dalits, we are the low. They be strong fighters and magic users. We used for breeding and work when no slaves. Even then slaves sell for gold we no worth gold. There are no slave hobs, people kills hobs.¡± I brought up my notification of the hobs again ¡°Make hobgoblins slaves, ( YES/NO)¡± flashing before my eyes. I was curious about a few things first. ¡°Do you earn stats when you level?¡± Confused, she answered, ¡°Yes, but don¡¯t level much just do work and breed. Warriors level fast put all points to strength and agility. Only strong hobs are good hobs¡± I follow up with, ¡°Can you learn to do things; farm, sew, hunt?¡± Looking around more and getting more nervous, she says ¡°yes can do all what are told, we are low.¡± With that I made my decision, I clicked the ¡°Yes¡± button and watched as all the hobs looked around not knowing what was going on. Vansa¡¯s head snapped up ¡°You make us slaves?! Why you do so, why not kills us?¡± Wick was a bit shocked I had done it as well, even elbowing me and saying, ¡°uhhhh, you sure about this?¡± I shrugged a bit and looked up to Vansa, ¡°even hobs see the value in taking slaves. Even though I don¡¯t want slaves I see you have value even if your own didn¡¯t see it. You are no longer Dalits and not really hobs. You¡¯re going to be part of a city. A growing family. It won¡¯t be easy as there will be some mistrust from the others after what your brethren as done to them. You¡¯ll be pushed to follow and work the paths as everyone else. You¡¯re allowed to add one point to strength every four levels but may work to increase your strength through hard work. You¡¯ll all learn to do things such as hunt, mine, sew; whatever you want but you will take up a trade and skills. You¡¯ll be treated as equals and will strictly follow the same rules as everyone else. Like everyone else you¡¯ll be set free from being slaves but as this is something new I¡¯m going to add that you can earn that only after five years and have proven yourself to be honorable. Lastly if someone wants to be a warrior, they will have to plead their case with me. I don¡¯t want warriors like the onese that were here, if you are to be one you will be an honorable one fighting FOR the poor and the city NOT for yourself. Those are the conditions to being me slaves, will not be easy but the choice is yours to make now.¡± Stunned they all looked around then fell to their bowed their heads and said ¡°yes master!¡± With that I got another *ding* and Wick raised his arms up in the air in exasperation lauding, ¡°you have GOT to be kidding me?! Stop inflating his ego!¡± Looking around I told them to all get up and stop with the master bit just to call me Thoren. Then I quickly had them all run and help the other slaves empty out the city. Wick and I started our slow hobbling walk back to the square where we saw lots of side glances from the towns people to the hobs as the cleared out the town. I saw Liz drop off a few chairs and I called her over. ¡°Hey Liz, ok well I made these hobs slaves, is that going to be a problem with everyone?¡± Taking a moment to look at the hobs helping to empty out the town into the square, she looked back at me and shook her head and said, ¡°No, actually more of us would have been a bit upset if you had killed them all. They used to sneak us extra food when they could even though you can see they are just as underfed as we are. The shaman are the ones that used to make them fight to the death, its an awful spell but from what they told us only works on the Dalits bound to the clan, you don¡¯t need to worry about a rogue shaman turning them against us. This could work, and I know most of us are willing to give it a try.¡± Nodding, ¡°Ok, then. How much longer do you think it will take to get everything pulled together?¡± She looked around a bit seeing which buildings were left to clear out and rubbed the back of her head. ¡°Probably another hour or so. After we clear everything out we should probably have Wick and a few others search the empty buildings incase there are any hidden little treasure troves. So say two to three hours?¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to go lay my back against that building over there, let me know when everyone is good to go.¡± I was absolutely spent, I laid down and fell right to sleep. The fear and unknown of dealing with the hobs melted out of me and drained the last bit of strength I had left. Before I knew It I had a foot lightly kicking my side. Wick stood over me with his hands on his hips saying, ¡°wake up sleeping beauty they¡¯re ready to go.¡± Tapping my leg it feels healed up and checking my health bar I¡¯m more than three quarters healed up. So, I untie my splint and gingerly get to my feel and stretch. I look to Wick and then the mass of people and everything mounded in the square, dreading the logistical nightmare ahead. Looking back at Wick I get a little grin, ¡°Hey I have an idea..¡± ¡°Damn it Thoren! Stop with your ideas!¡± ¡°No no no no, I think you¡¯ll REALLY like this one¡­¡± I tell him the idea and he truly gets an Impish grin. I walk over the end of the square and have everyone load up all the carts and sleds available, people picked up as much as they could, and I threw the rest into my bag. I thought of the city and called up the star gate which rose up from the ground. Everyone was a bit shocked but I got them moving through in a somewhat organized fashion. I pulled Liz aside as everyone continued on, I gave Wick my bag and he zipped through the gate. ¡°Liz, I need to stay here to finish the claim of the town, raze it then come back to the city. Horkom is the majordomo, and I want you to tell him to organize everyone and all the supplies. Find some cooks and get everyone fed as best as we can and that I¡¯ll be back tomorrow to see how it¡¯s going.¡± Her mouth dropped open a bit and then shut, she said ¡°Oh he is sooooo going to hate you when he hears this, and you are totally putting me in the line of fire.¡± As her eyes narrowed. Giving her a pat on the shoulder, I grinned and said. ¡°Oh he definitely going to be and I promise to make it up to you!¡± With a heavy sigh she nodded her head, ¡°Ya you bet your ass you will, I may be your slave and all but come on.¡± Wick came jogging back out of the gate and Liz was the last one through. With that I close the gate and we started to make our way to the mayor¡¯s house. The house was completely empty, devoid of everything but the walls floors and roof. Locking the door after us we went upstairs locked the bedroom door and laid down with our hands laced behind our heads. Wick looked over and said, ¡°You should have seen everyones faces as everything got marched through the gate, then when the hobs came in, HAHAHA, even more of a kerfuffle. The townspeople laid it all out and people calmed down a bit, there¡¯s mistrust there but in time who knows could be a something¡­.Oh! Horkom was bellowing your name looking for you! Cursing your name trying to find out and make heads and tails about the mess.¡± ¡°HAHAHA, oh he¡¯s got to be mad, well I think¡­¡± Pulling up the notification.
Time Remaining: Bowland Fells Claim Completion : 6 hour 19 minutes
¡°He should probably be cooled off in 6 hours¡­.hopefully; or at least too busy to yell TOO much.¡± Wick and I both fell asleep and was only awoken from the distinct *ding*
Congratulations on owning Bowland Fells! Congratulations! Claim Completed! Would you like to continue with town over view? (YES / NO)
Clicking ¡°NO¡±. Figuring this might be best done right outside of the town we got up and strolled our way out the front gate. Turning around to face the town I pulled up the interface on town options. Finding the option to raze the city. I clicked ¡°YES¡±, which brought up the ¡°Are you sure?¡± option which I clicked ¡°YES¡± again. With that The town was enveloped in a bright white light and started to shirt in on itself. Shrinking faster and faster until it was a single point of light and winked out. A little nervous, I check my page again and noticed the town interface was still there, with a few options. Less than curious about those options and more curious to know what¡¯s going on back at home. I opened up the gate. Holding my arm out I looked at Wick and bowed a little, ¡°After you, my friend...¡± ¡°Oh whatever¡±, and we walked through the gate. Taking a moment to look around at where the town used to reside there was just a sprawling patch of brown dirt. I looked up and the blue sky and the white clouds and breathed in the fresh cool air. I nodded to myself, looked at the gate and said to no one, ¡°here we go¡±, and walked through the gate.