《Shaper: New Beginnings》 Arc1 - Prelude In another universe, a seemingly innocent conversation will have profound implications for one George Peterson. A beautiful middle-aged woman with deep emerald eyes, long brunette hair bound in a clasp of gold and emeralds appeared from thin air in the pantheon. ¡°Vera, did it work?¡±, a young woman with deep sea green hair and sparkling sapphire eyes asked. ¡°Vera? So formal, daughter.¡± Vera chuckled as she took a seat, propping her sandaled feet up on a small pillow that appeared out of nothing. Emerald and gold patterns threaded through her long white dress, which accentuated her figure as she reclined in the seat. ¡°Sorry, mother. Did it work?¡±, the daughter asked. ¡°Yes, the System agreed to redirect all Reborn to the Starter Area in the Domain of Earth.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°You really think a Reborn is needed to save her? If the prophecy is about her then she will not die in the Starter Area, right?¡±, the daughter asked while reclining further in the soft brown leather chair, which was one of many scattered around the open pantheon. Vera considered. ¡°It is hard to say, but even if she isn¡¯t the one, there is a chance the Reborn himself may be able to correct a problem that has long festered.¡± ¡°Really? What did you have in mind? You know one Reborn is unlikely to be able to change the Empire significantly.¡± The daughter said with some surprise. ¡°Actually, this one could with just the tiniest of pushes.¡± The daughter gasps, ¡°Even you can¡¯t interfere or the System¡­.¡± Her mother waved her concerns away, ¡°I have been doing this for eons dear, give me some credit.¡± The daughter blushes. ¡°Of course. When will the Reborn arrive?¡± ¡°If everything goes as planned, he should be arriving very soon.¡± The daughter shivered. Even with her powers as the Goddess of Water, she could not influence or predict the arrival of a Reborn from another universe, but then she is not her mother. Arc1 Ch 1 - Reincarnation The day started pretty much like any other. I pulled myself out of bed late and rushed to class while scarfing down the last piece of pizza from the last night''s late online gaming session. It was raining lightly as I ran out of my dorm building to make it to my afternoon Calculus class. You may think it sounds like I am a bit of a nerd, staying up all night playing games and there is some truth to that. I am coasting through college neither at the top or bottom of my class. Little did I know that my life, no better to say my fate was about to change. As I was about to enter the crosswalk to run across Main Street to reach the other side of campus a large truck passed by drenching me with water spray. While I was standing there with a blank expression on my face trying to decide what to do a biker slid and smacked right into me knocking me into the crosswalk. The last thing I remember is both the surprised face looking at me over the handle bars and the headlights over my right shoulder as I hit the wet pavement. I woke up in a dimly lit room. I was standing on a grey floor that seemed to have small points of light swirling in it. In fact, as I looked around the walls and ceiling were the same that the little points of light seemed to be the source of the dim light in the room. I did not see any doors or windows. "Am I dead?" My voice sounded quieter than I expected. "Yes, you are dead." A friendly sounding voice said behind me. I turned and saw a faintly glowing ball of blue and purple light about the size of a basketball. "Welcome, I would say please don''t be alarmed, but you are dead and talking to glowing ball of light." "Hmmm, where am I? Who, what are you?" As I stared at the glowing ball of light. "As to where you are the simplest explanation is to say you are in Limbo waiting on a choice. I am an extension of the System which runs all Universes. I have been assigned to you to facilitate your choice."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "What choice?" I marveled at my calm, so far, but I was starting to feel some stirrings of panic. "Every person on death is given two choices. The first is to move on to the next phase of existence. Second you can choose reincarnation. Before you ask I can''t describe the next phase of your existence, other than to say it is pretty cool." "What happens if I chose reincarnation?" "You will then have two options. You can reincarnate either with no memories of your previous life or choose to retain them. If your choice is to not retain your memories as you have your last three lifetimes you will be reborn on Earth and start you cycle again. If you choose to retain your memories you will be reborn on a new world, but since you will switch universes when this occurs your potential will be decreased." "What do you mean by my potential will be decreased?" "Hmmmm. During your life you have played several role-playing video games where you must generate a character, correct? To put it in those terms your new life will have lower stats to offset the energy transfer to the new universe for your soul." "That doesn''t sound like something anyone would do then, so how is that even a choice?" "Well there is one other option and that is to start with your memories, but to use another gaming analogy you could be born as an Orc or Troll, Human or Elf, but you will start with a unique random ability as well." "How long do I have to decide?" "You have all the time you want, time is not passing in the rest of the multi-verse relative to us." "You said I have chosen to reincarnate with no memory several times? Can you tell me why?" "You have, but I cannot discuss your past reasoning." After some time, I came to a decision. "I choose to retain my memories and will opt for a random start." The ball''s voice seems to convey surprise as it says. "You do? Very well, can you tell me why?" "I still feel very young and have never really accomplished anything. I want that chance to continue as myself, but I don''t want to start penalized even if it means starting as a troll." "Very well, your choice is made. Good luck in your new life." Suddenly everything disappears in a flash of light and then it feels like I am falling through darkness. Motion stops and gradually the area around me comes into focus. Arc1 Ch 2 - Starter Glade As everything comes into focus I find myself in the center of a glade about sixty feet across surrounded by what looks like oak and maple trees. The air is stirring in a light warm breeze and the sun is shining directly overhead. I appear to be wearing some ragged clothes, but my feet are bare and after patting my pockets I don¡¯t seem to be carrying anything. As I glance around I take in the glade covered with wild flowers and knee-high grass. To my left, a small stream cuts through the corner of the glade. Suddenly a large blue panel appears a few feet in front of me.
Greetings and Welcome This is your introduction to the world of Burra. The area you are in is a Starter Glade, which introduces newly reincarnated entities into the world. No harm can come to you while in this area and you will not need to consume food or drink. You can stay in this area for fifteen days or until you have reached level five before you must leave. The System maintains this world actively and there are several interfaces you may now access. These interfaces can be accessed by thinking or saying the following commands: Status, Inventory, (Un)Equip , Loot, Quests, Logs You have great potential, but the true sign of greatness is how to realize that potential. You have completed the Greeting and Welcome quest. You receive 0 XP, but your completed quest list is now available. You can mentally dismiss this notification at any time.
After reading the panel for the fifth time I mentally dismiss it and it fades away. I concentrate on each of the interface commands and see a brief description for each.
Status - This will display information about your personal statistics, abilities, and skills. Inventory - This will display the contents of your personal inventory and any soul-bound containers. (Un)Equip - This will allow you to equip or un-equip any item in your inventory or soul-bound container. Loot - This will allow you to retrieve any item from killed creatures or found containers. Quests - This will list any current or previous quests. Logs - This will list events and actions that occur in and out of combat.
I laugh out loud as it really hits me. I am in a game world, which was a fantasy back in high school when my friends and I use to stay up late playing games. Even though our game nights eventually evolved into long nights of online gaming, I think everyone in the group had dreamed about what it would be like to be part of the game. Now I just need to see if reality lived up to my dreams. I focus on Status which opens a larger blue panel displaying my stats.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 1 XP to next Level: 0/100
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: None Fame: 0
Str: 12 Melee Damage Modifier: +2
Agi: 12 Range Damage Modifier: +2
Dodge: 2%
Con: 8 Health / Stamina: 40 / 40
Health / Stamina Regen: 8% per min
End: 0 Pain Threshold: 0%
Int: 17 Mana Pool: 85
Wis: 14 Mana Regen Rate: 3.5 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 15 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper
Skills: none
Spells: none
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 0
Well, my constitution sucks and why is Endurance zero. I focus on it and a new panel opens.
Endurance (End): This attribute affects how much pain you feel with a 1% reduction in pain per endurance point above 10. There will be additional benefits at a higher level.
Ok, so really pain endurance. Otherwise everything looks straight forward. I turn in place to take in the area around me and nearly jump out of my skin. There is a glowing blue ball about the size of a cantaloupe floating in the air about five feet behind me. I realized I have taken a step back without being aware. Tentatively I say. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Greetings George Peterson.¡± The ball pulses in time with the voice, which is a low baritone. I waited, but the ball didn¡¯t say anything further. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°I am a guide give to all Reborn to help them with basic information they would be lacking, because they have not been raised in this world.¡± ¡°I see. Can you tell me what you think would be most important to know?¡± ¡°No. I cannot offer any opinions or guides, only factual responses to questions.¡± ¡°Ok. I was about to look at my other attributes and then I will see if I can think of any questions.¡± The ball was silent. If the System was trying to acclimate me or make me comfortable it missed the mark. I look at my other attributes next to make sure there are no surprises. A new panel opens as I focus on each one.
Strength (Str): This attribute affects damage done with a melee weapon. Base Damage Modifier: +1 per point of strength above 10. Additionally, the maximum weight that you can equip and carry in personal inventory is determined by strength. Finally, Strength affects personal inventory size: (Strength point / 3) squared.
Agility (Agi): This attribute affects damage done with a ranged weapon. Base Damage Modifier: +1 per point of agility above 10. Additionally, this attribute affects dodge chances: 1% per point of agility greater than 10.
Constitution (Con): This attribute affects how many health points: 5 per point of constitution, as well as, the amount of health/stamina regeneration: 1% per minute per point of constitution. This attribute fuels physical feats via a Stamina pool, 5 per point of constitution, which melee fighters will be heavily dependent on.
Intelligence (Int): This attribute affects the size of one¡¯s mana pool: 5 per point of intelligence.
Wisdom (Wis): This attribute affects the amount of mana regeneration (.25 per point of wisdom).
Charisma (Cha): This attribute affects trading and interaction with others. (1% decrease in price when purchasing per charisma point above ten. 1% increase in price when selling per charisma point above ten.) Charisma lower than ten can have negative effects on interaction with others. Charisma also affects your trade modifier, every point above 10 increases the modifier by 1%. Example: A 5% modifier would decrease the price of items you purchase and increase the amount you receive when you sell an item by that percentage. However, this modifier applies to both sides of the trade, so if you have a 5% modifier and the person you are trading with also has 5% effectively they cancel each other out.
Perception (Per): This attribute affects one¡¯s ability to find hidden or concealed items/entities. The chance to find hidden or concealed items/entities is extremely variable based on conditions, the user actively searching, and the method used to conceal it. Perception starts at a base of 10 plus both intelligence and wisdom greater than 10 divided by 2 rounded down.
Favor: This attribute shows how much the System favors your actions. It is extremely rare for this to be anything other than zero as the System is neutral. If this ever goes negative you will regret it.
Wow, based on favor I better not mess with the System. The * next to Equipment captures my attention as I focus on it a new panel opens.
Equipment: Ragged Shirt, Defense: 0, A ragged shirt that has seen better days, but at least it''s better than being naked. Ragged Pants, Defense: 0, A ragged pair of pants that have seen better days, but at least it''s better than being naked.
Interesting I have no weapons or money. I guess the area outside the glade is safe or I am to make myself a weapon here in the glade. Next, I looked at XP, which indicated the total XP earned to date and the total XP needed to reach the next level. I dismiss all the panels and walk over to the stream and catch the blue ball following me after I get about ten feet away from it. I find a relatively calm spot and kneel to look at my reflection. The gold eyes made me flinch as I took in my new face. I could still recognize myself even with the grey skin. When I look down at my arms they seemed very close to the color of granite. Now that I have seen what I look like I look at my Race description, what is a Harrow?
Race: Harrow A Harrow is a rare humanoid species attuned to magic in strange ways. As such while other races do not have default negative reputation with Harrow they are cautious around them because their powers are both unpredictable and strong. It is rumored Harrow have traveled from another world fleeing something that they never discuss with other races. They typically stand 5-6 feet in height with no difference between female and male. They have distinctive golden eyes and grey colored skin. Their hair is typically brown or black with no facial hair. Harrow start with a +2 to both Strength and Agility, a -2 to Constitution, and a magical ability. They also have night vision, which allows them to see 30 feet if there is any light. They cannot see in complete darkness. To learn your racial ability, as a reincarnation in a Harrow body, you will have to find a teacher among the Harrow.
I stood up and checked my Inventory and found a 4 by 4 grid with two squares occupied.
A loaf of Bread (5). When eaten, increases regeneration of health and stamina by 5% over 30 minutes. Also removes the starving de-buff. Water Skin (5). When drunk, increases mana regeneration by 5% over 30 minutes. Also removes the thirsty de-buff.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Good to know I have some food and water when I leave the glade. I look around and I can¡¯t help feeling there has to be more than just checking out the System interfaces and my stats. I also don¡¯t feel comfortable about leaving without a weapon. Especially since as far as I know I only get one life here and I didn¡¯t think to ask what will happen after I die here on this new world. I turn back to the blue ball. ¡°What should I call you?¡± ¡°I have no designation.¡± ¡°I will call you Spark then.¡± ¡°Your designation has been accepted.¡± ¡°Ok, Spark I have some questions. I have no weapons and only a little food. How will I feed myself for fifteen days and defend myself?¡± ¡°This area is protected by the System, you will not feel hunger or thirst while here. Also, there are no other creatures located in this area to interact with. Finally, the System will prevent you from taking any physical damage while in this area.¡± ¡°What about when I leave the Starter Glade?¡± ¡°You will have to consume food and drink three times per day to prevent negative status effects. The Starter Area outside the Glade is full of creatures, but those immediately outside are not aggressive and will not attack you unless you attack them first. Immediately to the North is a village where you will be able to receive more information and acquire quests and some basic equipment. In the Starter Area you can be injured and killed. If injured you will regenerated at you current health regeneration rate and if killed you will respawn losing one level in the process. If your level reduced to level 0 you will no longer respawn.¡± Well since I am currently level one I will need to gain a level. Since there is a level limit on the Starter Glade there must be away to gain XP here. ¡°Spark, how long will I have to ask you questions?¡± ¡°I will remain for a maximum of one day.¡± ¡°What skills can I learn here?¡± ¡°I am only allowed to discuss skills you already have.¡± I just have a thought. ¡°Spark how long in a day? And how do I tell time?¡± ¡°There are twenty-five hours in the day, with forty days in a month, which is divided into four weeks. There are ten months in a year with three months for summer and winter and two months for spring and fall. The days are simply first day through tenth day. The months are Torrent, First Dawn, Blossoms, Spirit, Midyear, Vera, Harvest, Leaves, Frost, Year¡¯s End. The years occur in six-year cycles among the six domains, Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Light, and Darkness. The current date is the fifth day of the first week in the month of Blossoms, Year 1237 of Fire.¡± After he tells me this I notice a small faintly flashing icon the size of a dime on my lower left-hand side, which moves with my field of vision. ¡°Ah, I bet this is a Heads-Up Display or HUD like many games I¡¯ve played. When I focus on it I received a notification that the Clock/Calendar functions are now enabled in my System Interface. I curse silently, this means there are probably more features that are hidden in my System Interface. I think this is a stupid way to introduce a person to the System, but then it is also possible that Spark could offer up some truly game changing information if I only hit on the right question. Spark won¡¯t discuss skills, but the next most important thing for growth would be attributes, so let¡¯s see what he will tell me about that. ¡°Spark how do I increase my attributes?¡± ¡°Attributes for Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma can be increased temporarily by using spells and potions. Permanent increases will occur when virtual attribute points are converted to actual points when you level up or as a quest reward. Your Endurance attribute can only be increased by training.¡± ¡°What is a virtual attribute point?¡± ¡°As you gain XP the System records the attributes used when gaining that XP. As thresholds are reached the System will record a virtual increase in that attribute, which will be awarded on level up.¡± ¡°Is it solely related to the amount of XP you earn or is there something else that affects the ratio of XP to attribute points?¡± ¡°The difficulty in earning the XP affects ratio of XP to virtual attribute points. The default is 50% of the levels required XP is needed to increase one virtual attribute point, which means an average of two attribute points awarded with each level.¡± Spark flickered. ¡°The System now considers your tutorial to be complete.¡± ¡°What? But I still have more questions. I thought you said I have a day?¡± Spark flickered again. ¡°You have a maximum of a day to receive a set amount of information. The more valuable the information the fewer questions you can ask. Good luck George Peterson.¡± Spark vanished with a small pop. I spend several minutes cursing, thinking I was on the right track with my questions about attribute point gains. I need to calm down, there is nothing I can do except explore the area and see if I can find anything that will earn me some XP. I start walking straight to the tree line and shortly after entering the cool shade of a 30-foot-tall maple I bounce off an invisible wall that feels like a mattress. A new blue panel appears.
Leaving Starter Glade Do you wish to leave the Starter Glade? You will not be able to re-enter after leaving. Leave or Stay?
I ignore the prompt for the moment and try moving toward the right with my hand on the barrier. It takes about twenty minutes to slowly circumvent the glade including jumping across the stream. The boundary appears to be a uniform thirty feet from the edge of the glade into the trees. I firmly select Stay for now and the panel closes. Another flashing icon appears and a new panel opens as I mentally focus on the icon.
You have learned the skill Inspection, 5 XP awarded. Basic 1.
I focus on Inspection to get more information.
Inspection, Basic Level 1 (35% progress toward next level) This skill acts as a modifier for Perception to highlight contextually useful information, etc.
Hmmm, I guess that can¡¯t hurt, but not sure what it really does, I think as I rub my chin. I suddenly feel strange until I realize it¡¯s because my chin is smooth with no stubble. This new body is going to take some time to adapt to. Now let¡¯s see if I can find a weapon. After several hours of crisscrossing the glade and surrounding trees, I have found numerous branches of varying lengths, several stones of varying sizes, lots of grass, and assorted wild flowers. As I sit with my back to one of the Oak trees, I consider what I have found and there are no great options for weapons. I can carry some of the rocks to throw and take one of the larger branches as a club, but I am concerned about what I will find outside the glade when I leave. I look at the flashing notification I have been ignoring while searching the glade.
You have gained a level in Inspection. Basic 2. ¡­ You have gained a level in Inspection. Basic 7.
While sitting there I suddenly feel the urge to face palm. I totally forgot to check out my Shaper ability. I open my Status panel and focus on Shaper.
Shaper This is the ability to infuse an object with mana and then change its characteristics. Effects will vary based on the object, amount of mana infused, and one''s skill at Shaping.
Ok, not very informative and it uses mana. I take out one of the rocks from my pocket and spend the next hour trying to infuse mana and shape it to no avail. It is starting to get late so I gather handfuls of leaves under one of the trees to make a bed for the night. As the sun sets I look up at the night sky and chill runs down my spine as it really hits home that I am not on Earth anymore. I can¡¯t recognize the stars at all. While staring at the sky I see a bright green moon about the size of a golf ball rising from the direction of the setting sun. I lay back on my improvised bed and fall into a troubled sleep. My sleep is interrupted by a vivid dream. I seem to be floating above a large auditorium that is carved out of a huge cavern. I float down until I enter the body of one of the children filling the wooden seats below. The class was excited about the Xiallak visiting today. Xiallak is more a title than a name. They are well versed in the history of the Harrow and are skilled story teller. This would be the day the students get to hear the full story of how their ancestors traveled to this planet. They had, of course, heard whispers and rumors from their older siblings, but remarkably they knew only small fragments. The class was being held in a large auditorium, unlike regular classes. The tiered wooden seats allowed everyone to see the raised stone bench behind a beautifully carved desk made of the mana enriched Telth tree, one of the few native plants that survived the trip to this world. The desk was for the book of histories, not that the Xiallak would need it, but it was a custom. The class became quiet as the Xiallak arrived. Two Grand Master ranked guardians materialized by the desk at the same time using their racial skill. The presence of the guardians demonstrated how much the Harrow cherished the Xiallak since only Xiallak knew the arts to awaken a Harrow¡¯s racial ability to manipulate the domain of time. The time domain was both a powerful and difficult skill to master. The Xiallak appeared to be of middle age and of average build, dressed in worn long blue and silver robes that blended with his granite-like skin. His appearance is deceptive since his mastery of time would be even greater than the guardians that protect him. Everyone hardly breathed listening to the Xiallak¡¯s footsteps echoing throughout the hall. When he reached the bench, he gently took the book of histories from his inventory, placing it on the desk to his right. ¡°Greetings class! My name is Folen.¡± His voice resonated throughout the auditorium, sending a chill down their spines. The class was in such awe they only managed a mumbled greeting in reply. Folen chuckled, knowing full well the impact he was having on the class. ¡°Today we will discuss the tale of origin, but truly it is more a tale of how we came to this world. To begin we must go back a thousand years to the time we first set foot on Burra. At that time the Harrow lived on our homeworld of Talos. We shared this beautiful world with the Yikold. They were not elementals beings, but were so in tune with the Earth Domain, their bodies gradually changed to living rock as they aged. For thousands of years, our two peoples had shared the world, with the Yikold keeping mostly to the vast mountain ranges.¡± Folen¡¯s demeanor took on a more serious countenance as he continued. ¡°One day much like any other this changed. A Yikold arrived in the town of Hilgurth on the edge of the southern mountain ranges. He was badly injured and nearly incoherent as he told the tale of ferocious creatures that attacked several of their deep places throughout the mountains to the south. These creatures absorbed any spell cast at them. Only by using their mana to propel the earth against the creatures were they able to injure them. The Yikold died shortly after delivering the message. While there had not been a war in recorded history, there were still monsters, dungeons, and natural disasters, such that our people had established a world-spanning network of communication. This was used to spread the word about the danger as guardians and Xiallak like myself prepared to probe the south.¡± He paused and sighed. ¡°Little did we know the problem was greater than we first thought. The warning from the southern mountains was a fluke. The creatures had not just attacked the mountains to the south. We found out they had attacked all the mountain chains of Talos. Later we surmised that the creatures thought the mountains would be the most defensible location, so they took them first. Most of the Yikold race had perished by the time we discovered the depth of our error. As we started to probe the south our Guardians and their Xiallak vanished. Finally, on the third attempt, one of the party members remained behind to relay what happened to the group. Even then the entire party was killed in less than a minute, only lasting that long because of the Xiallak put all his power into accelerating time for himself. For a few moments, he evaded the creatures which he identified as Carnos, but on brushing against one he found his power sundered as it absorbed his power.¡± Folen looked up from the book of history to take in the class, which was utterly silent and still as they waited with bated breath to hear of the downfall of our home world, as Folen continued. ¡°This explained why the scouts failed to report back. Just a touch was all it took for the creatures to absorb and disrupt our control over time, rendering us helpless. Within a week the Carnos began to attack from every mountain. Our people frantically consulted the gods and even demons in our desperation as we fell by the millions. Our strategies changed to using our powers indirectly to kill the creatures, however it hardly slowed their advance. The demons knew the most about the Carnos. They were creatures that feed on mana and lifeforce. The more sentient the creature the more they gained by consuming them. In our horror, we realized that many of the fallen were not dead, but instead now existed on farms where they were kept like cattle to be fed upon.¡± Folen seemed to shake himself as he continued. ¡°Our greatest mages tried to open portals to other worlds hoping that some of our people might escape. Unfortunately, there was a barrier around our world preventing a gate from opening. Our greatest mage Parul found that this did not block access to demons or the gods. He theorized that since they were on a different plane of existence, it might be possible to travel to another dimension. After nearly a month of battle, the remainder of our forces retreated to a collection of time worn islands in the middle of the Eastern Ocean. The barrier of water with no mountains allowed us to hold out, but each subsequent attack became stronger.¡± ¡°Parul gathered our greatest mages with priests bolstering the group to open a gate across universes. They knew they could not keep this portal open very long. Maintaining the opening would consume the most powerful mana potions and use mana crystals like water. Since there might not be enough time to transport everyone, the travelers were chosen with careful consideration to carry on the species. They numbered ten thousand strong, though the most important to their survival went first, because the portal may collapse at any time. They carried seeds, dried food, tools, and everything else that could be carried on their bodies. Parul was not sure if their inventory space would survive the trip, as a result they could only take what they could carry. Many had tears in their eyes as they left friends and family behind to a certain death. From the moment the gate stabilized the group sprinted through the opening. The Carnos seemed to realize their prey was escaping and a vast new attack began. Everyone not maintaining the portal or in the group of travelers ran to the defense.¡± ¡°At this point, many of the strongest of our guardians attacked with a new weapon. Parul had created an item that harnessed our power over time to increase the yield of our most destructive device. When it exploded the mana used to generate the explosion was contained in a small sphere of accelerated time and compressed space, which consumed all of the mana in an instant. When the sphere collapsed killing the guardian, the violence of the explosion killed hundreds. Others wore devices constructed to kill the wearer if they became unconscious. All were truly desperate as they tried to hold back the tide of Carnos.¡± ¡°At the end, their sacrifice was not in vain. After all travelers entered the portal, Parul performed his last act. He and the few mages remaining conscious through the mana drain severed their connection with the portal and then powered a final device that caused a rupture in the portal¡¯s integrity. From this tiny rupture, a blade of immense force cut into the earth to the core of the planet. When this happened Parul felt the barrier around the world fail, which allowed him to teleported to the small moon that circled his world. Mana was thin here. His wards flickered and he fell to his knees, though he had enough time left to witness his world crack and then explode. As the world ruptured he felt his connection to the party members that traveled to the new universe snap. We don¡¯t know what happened to Parulafter that, but we hope he died with satisfaction, knowing his people lived on and were safe.¡± Folen saw tears in many of the student¡¯s eyes as he finished. ¡°On arrival to Burra, we found that our spells worked differently here. While there are no ley lines the ambient mana is stronger. Most importantly we discovered that our time domain skill required a Sage to awaken it, unlike in our original universe where anyone with patience could learn it. As you know we settled to the north of the Tassan empire and came to an agreement with the Empress to send Guardians to protect her using our unique skill. We built underground for safety and have thrived over the last thousand years. We will never forget the sacrifice that got us here.¡± Folen gently closed the book of histories. He looked up at the class and said. ¡°This is a sad tale, but also a tale of sacrifice and love. Countless Harrow gave their lives, so that we could be here today. Remember them and let this example guide your life and steel your resolve in times of trouble. We are Harrow!!¡± Folen finished with a shout that rang out through the auditorium. The class leaped to their feet, answering. ¡°WE ARE HARROW!!!¡± Arc1 Ch 3 - The Grind As the light hits my eyes I stretch and grab a handful of leaves. I feel disoriented for a moment until I realize I am not in my bed and yesterday wasn¡¯t a dream. I sit up with a heavy sigh and look across the glade. The sun has just risen and a gentle wind stirs the grass and wild flowers gentle bob across the glade. Well what to do today? I frown at the pile of stones and branches I gathered yesterday. I frown deeper as I consider my failure with trying to use my Shaper ability yesterday. Maybe I was going about it all wrong. My ability indicates it uses mana, but while my Status panel indicates I have a mana pool but I don¡¯t know how to access it. I will try to start working on that. Well how would I try to if this wasn''t a game, which really it isn''t. I take a stick and draw a circle about the size of a basketball in the dirt and then sit down in front of it. I look at the circle and memorize its size and slightly irregular shape in the dirt. Closing my eyes, I try to relax and visualize the flow of chi in my body, since that''s the closest I could think of to try to direct my mana. After sitting there just listening to wind blowing through the grass I thought I felt something. Every time I try to grasp it the feeling disappears. After the tenth time I switch to pushing instead of grasping and I feel a gentle heat flowing down my arms. I direct it into the circle before me on the ground. Suddenly, I feel like a dam opens and the mana starts draining quickly. I feel a sharp stab of pain in my head and my eyes involuntarily open. I found I cannot focus my eyes and start seeing bright flashes of light right before I pass out boneless to the dirt before my circle. Sunlight pierces my eyelids as I groggily grab my head, which is throbbing mercilessly. "What happened?" I mutter to myself as I notice several notifications in the lower left of my vision flashing where I last minimized them. With a thought I expand them.
You have learned the skill Mana Manipulation, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1. Warning: You have depleted mana to 0%, starting to drain health to complete ritual. Starter zone prevents hit point loss, terminating connection to Raw Mana Ward. You have learned the ability Ritual Magic, 40 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have learned the spell Ritual Ward, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have gained a point in Endurance.
I focus on my new skill and abilities to get more information.
Mana Manipulation, Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This skill increases the size of one''s mana pool by +0.5% per skill level. Also increases mana regeneration rate by +0.25% per skill level.
Ritual Magic, Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This ability allows the user to create, maintain, and change rituals much more efficiently than usual. -0.5% mana and component cost used per ability level.
Ritual Wards, Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates, maintains, or changes a ward to protect a specified area, item, or person. Cost varies based on complexity and type of the ward, as well as, type of components used. Current known wards are: - Raw Mana Protection Ward, No components, Drawings: Simple Circle, min/max mana: 50/200 per 1¡¯ diameter. Takes mana / 10 damage before collapsing. Duration: 1 hour per 10 mana.
Very cool, except for the splitting headache which is gradually getting better. I sit up and look at the glowing circle before me. I tentatively reach out to brush the ward with my hand but met resistance. I pick up a small pebble and throw it at the circle. There is a faint thump as the rock stops in mid-air and slides down the side of what must be an invisible dome. I mentally focus on the circle and a blue panel appears.
Raw Mana Protective Ward Diameter: 1.3¡¯ Health Points: 7/8 Duration: 7.5/8 hours Do you wish to dismiss the ward? Accept or Cancel.
Not that impressive, but then this is a first attempt and I am guessing by the duration I must have passed out for about thirty minutes. Well Ritual Wards indicates I can charge a Ward so let¡¯s try that and try not to pass out this time. As I sit in front of the circle again with my eyes closed I try to will just enough mana to full charge the ward and I receive a mental popup.
Attempt to Recharge Raw Mana Protective Ward Cost: 10 mana (Min Cost: 50 mana) Pay Mana Cost: Agree or Cancel?
It looks like I must pay the minimum even to maintain. I think Agree and I have just enough time to think not again when I pass out. I once more wake up to shooting pain in my head. I slowly sit up clutching my head and focus on the ward again.
Raw Mana Protective Ward Diameter: 1.3¡¯ Health Points: 8/8 Duration: 7.5/8 hours Do you wish to dismiss the ward? Accept or Cancel.
Well it looks like it recharges the Health, but I am right back where I was on the Duration. I wait about 30 minutes until my headache goes away and consider. I don¡¯t get any notification this time, but I open my Ritual Magic and Ritual Wards again. Also, I am getting tired at looking at all this text so I try to get a short form of the information.
Skill: Mana Manipulation, Basic 1 (50%) Ability: Ritual Magic, Basic 1 (25%) Spell: Ritual Wards, Basic 1 (50%)
Ok it looks like all of them have increased, with Ritual Magic increasing about half of Ritual Wards increase. I grit my teeth and think no pain no gain. I cancel the ward and the glow disappears from the circle. I position myself in front of the circle and prepare to grind. I spend most of the rest of the day either passed out or with a headache, but at the end of the day I look at my notifications with some satisfaction.
You have gained a level in Mana Manipulation. Basic 2. You have gained a level in Ritual Wards. Basic 2. You have gained a point in Endurance. You have gained a level in Mana Manipulation. Basic 3. You have gained a level in Ritual Wards. Basic 3. You have gained a point in Endurance. You have gained a level in Mana Manipulation. Basic 4. You have gained a level in Ritual Wards. Basic 4. You have gained a level in Ritual Magic. Basic 2. You have gained a point in Endurance.
I take I look at my increases as the sun starts to set with my new shortened form.
Skill: Mana Manipulation, Basic 4 (40%) Ability: Ritual Magic, Basic 2 (20%) Spell: Ritual Wards, Basic 4 (40%)
After I spend some time watching the night sky I get an interesting popup.
You inspect the Green Moon, Name: Vera, Attributes: unknown.
Interesting, I can get information from the System, just by focusing on something for a while.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I lean back and think about my plans for the next several days. I will continue grinding before attempting to use my Shaper ability again now that I know a little about how to use mana. I try to relax, because the next few days are guaranteed to be painful. Over the next week I follow a steady pattern of waking early. Then spending most of the day creating and dismissing wards. While contemplating the stars before falling to sleep. On the sixth day of my stay in the glade I hit the jackpot when a new notification pops up.
Congratulations You have reached Novice rank in the Spell Ritual Wards. 25 XP awarded. Diameter doubled. Takes mana / 9 damage before collapsing. You have reached Novice rank in the Skill Mana Manipulation. 100 XP awarded. You have leveled up!!! You have one free stat point to allocated, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +2 Intelligence and +1 to Wisdom. You have exceeded 10 points in Endurance. This is quite the achievement as you cannot physically injure yourself in the Starter Glade. For pushing through the pain, you are awarded the skill Numbness. This skill cannot be leveled, but when activated once per day will allow you to ignore all pain modifiers for 1 minute. This will also delay being rendered unconscious if mana or health falls beneath 50% or 25% respectively and endurance is under 50. Fame increased by 5.
Wow that is definitely worth it. I will have to get to an endurance of fifty to stop myself from passing out. I finish out the rest of the day grinding and look at my Status panel.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 2 XP to next Level: 200/300
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: None Fame: 5
Str: 12 Melee Damage Modifier: +2
Agi: 12 Range Damage Modifier: +2
Dodge: 2%
Con: 8 Health / Stamina: 40 / 40
Health / Stamina Regen: 8% per min
End: 16 Pain Threshold: 6%
Int: 19 Mana Pool: 95
Wis: 15 Mana Regen Rate: 3.75 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 16 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper, Ritual Magic (Basic 5, 75%)
Skills: Inspect (Basic 7, 23%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 1, 50%), Numbness
Spells: Ritual Ward (Basic 5, 75%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 1
Awesome. I recline on my bed and excitedly think about tomorrow. I plan to use my Shaper Ability on a smooth fist size stone I retrieved from the stream bed. Hopefully, that is not too big to start with. Assuming it works I would like to create some stone daggers and a stone spearhead, but I will see how it goes tomorrow. My eyes drift shut as I contemplate Vera as she rises into the night sky. When I fall asleep, another vivid dream sweeps me up into a deep dark void. Suddenly there is a flash of light that I intrinsically understand is the birth of the multi-verse. An infinite number of universes are given birth at the same time, all wrapped around a brilliant core of magic, which pervades each universe, but diminishes in intensity the further each universe is from that first universe. I move through the universes until I reach the one I was reborn into. Suddenly I notice the universe I am in is becoming more structured, knowing that this is caused by the System, which governs the natural laws of each universe. New beings are created, more powerful than Gods. They roam the universe, sculpting whole worlds on which different races appear: Dwarves, Elves, Humans, Gnomes, Goblins, Gnolls, and a seeming endless number of others. As time passes these Elder Gods begin to shape these races to their own will instead of the System¡¯s. The System is unable to stop the Elder Gods so it creates new Gods that are overall weaker and more controllable than the Elder Gods, but within their domains they are nearly as strong. A war starts between the Elder and new Gods which devastates the universe. Whole worlds are destroyed with races being extinguished forever. I plunge down onto one of the worlds that is shaped like a huge disk. I arrive on a plain below where hundreds of Gods face off against three Elder Gods. The Gods working in groups, channel their power into a single God or Goddess who fires massive golden bolts at the Elder Gods. These bolts strike a barrier which absorbs the resulting explosion with hardly a ripple. One group stops firing as their leader calls a halt. I could hear her clearly over the noise of the fierce battle. ¡°These three Elder Gods should not be able to stop this much fire.¡± Vera says, while planting her battle spear in the ground in front of her. ¡°These are the last three we need to capture to end the war, but instead of fleeing they decide to make a stand here. Yorg, you can detect energy the best. Can you sense where they are getting the energy to support the barrier?¡± Yorg carefully examines the barrier detecting faint streamers of energy leading back to the center Elder God. ¡°The center one is actually supporting the barrier by himself.¡± Everyone gasped in disbelief. ¡°How is that possible?¡± Vera quickly calls a halt to the bombardment. The bolts finally stop firing as she informs the battle group of their findings. Muttering could be heard among the groups before the center Elder God speaks. ¡°I see you have figured it out. A pity I thought you would all drain yourselves dry before figuring something was up. You see I, Helthos, have harnessed a Star Stone.¡± Helthos pulls his hand from behind his back to reveal a smokey blue stone nearly one foot across, which still looks small in his giant hand as he stood twenty-five foot tall. I know a Star Stone could only be found at the heart of a star. It allows the star to convert the massive heat at the center of the star into mana, which then floods out of the star with the solar winds, keeping a low level of ambient mana available everywhere. With the Star Stone somehow removed, the star would become unstable and explode. Nearly every God suddenly looks up at the star overhead and then at Helthos as he laughs. ¡°That¡¯s right this stone belongs to this star, which will soon explode taking you all with it.¡± Vera sees Shaf, God of Space, try to open a portal, which immediately collapses. ¡°If he is failing we are not getting out of here.¡± She mutters. Vera turns to look at Helthos and watches him enjoying how the Gods and Goddesses are starting to panic. Vera calls for silence. ¡°We are not getting out of here, but we need to make sure they can¡¯t either. Make your peace with that. When the star starts to collapse, there will be an energy wave, which will feed the stone. It will also destabilize it for a short time. The energy wave will still block us from opening portals, but the barrier should also drop for a short time. We need to get up and personal with them, before that barrier comes back up. Are we of one mind?¡± ¡°YES!!!¡± comes roaring out of hundreds of throats. I could see the confusion on Helthos¡¯s face. He could not hear the speech shared among the Gods like I could, but their sudden lack of panic was unnerving him I could tell. The sky darkens and then brightens as the bright orange sun dims and then flares as it shrinks in size. Vera commands. ¡°Overcharge your weapons, the wave should hit any minute.¡± Across the field, all the weapons of the Gods and Goddesses begin to glow with a golden light, which grows brighter each second. A sudden flash passes over the plain and Vera yells. ¡°CHARGE!!¡± Helthos is clutching the Star Stone in both hands focusing on it, while the other two Elder Gods begin to hurl bolts of green energy at the approaching mass of divine beings. I could see why so many Gods are needed to bring down three Elder Gods. When each bolt of green energy hits a God or Goddess they are either killed or severely injured. Despite that, dozens cross the barrier to discharge mighty spells and arcs of golden energy, as they clash with the Elder Gods. Even with Helthos distracted, he would fire a wave of orange energy that disintegrates any God that gets close. Vera has a plan though. ¡°Uom, can you sneak attack him?¡± Uom is the Goddess of Trickery, so if anyone could sneak up on an Elder God it is her. ¡°Helthos won¡¯t know what hit him.¡± Uom cries as she vanishes. A moment later, Uom¡¯s daggers plunge into Helthos¡¯ back even as his power incinerates Uom. Vera has all the Gods nearby channel power into her. Vera directs the energy, not at Helthos in his moment of distraction, but instead at the Star Stone, which cracks under the blow. Helthos lets lose a scream of both rage and fear. He tries to contain the now out of control stone, which continues to crack further. Vera and the remaining Gods withdraw and erect a shield under which they prepare to travel. As the stone destabilizes further, Shaf successfully opens a portal that they could flee through. Vera is the last to leave and witnesses the other two Elder Gods fleeing while Helthos remains with his hands glued to the splintering Star Stone. The stone glows so bright now that Vera could see his bones through his hands as she enters the portal which closes behind her. They all receive a System notification of Helthos¡¯s death, which is one of the few times an Elder God has been killed in this war. I follow them through the portal where they now gather to pursue the remaining two Elder Gods. Their number is now half what it was. I seem to float up into space, knowing that the Elder Gods are forced back into a corner of the universe where the System seals them off. Many of the new Gods and Goddesses are killed in this war. The remaining are each given a world to govern and nurture. I find myself floating above the world of Burra. A beautiful middle age woman with deep emerald eyes, long brunette hair bound in a clasp of gold and emeralds appears floating above the world of Burra. Emerald and gold patterns thread through her long white dress. This is Vera who picks this world as her domain. Just looking at her calms me as I fall into a deeper dreamless slumber. Arc1 Ch 4 - Stone Shaping I once again awaken to a perfect morning, but I am very excited to try out my Shaper ability, but before I do that I take a bath in the shallow stream. Dirt doesn¡¯t seem to stick to me and I haven¡¯t been sweating, but the bath feels very refreshing. I sit down under my favorite oak and hold the stone in my hand. I close my eyes and focus on the stone. It feels cool and smooth to the touch. I try to channel mana into the stone and change its shape to dagger blade I have in mind. I sense a connection forms and mana starts pouring into the stone as a notification appears.
Stone to infuse contains 67 cubic inches. Stone Dagger: 8¡± blade, 1¡± wide, average 1/3¡± thick. Haft is 5¡± long, 1 ?¡± inch thick at the heel. Total 11.15 cubic inches. Base Mana required 67/1728 * 200 per cubic foot = 7.75 (Cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches.) Desired change round stone to complex shape dagger, Mana Cost increased by 10 times. Shaping time: 1 min
Crap. I quickly activate Numbness and feel pins and needles course over my limbs as it takes effect. The dizziness that preludes my passing out recedes and I focus on completing the shaping. The stone in my hand shimmers and flows into the stone dagger I envisioned. The blade appears like the flaked flint blades I saw one time on the Discovery channel. The haft is solid stone with a banded pattern making it easier to grip. I don¡¯t make it fancy so there are no crossguards. I have just enough time to see the dagger firm up into its final shape and the remainder of the stone collapses to dust before I pass out and spikes of pain hammer into my skull. I wake up to another pounding headache and several notifications.
You have unlocked your ability Shaper, 50 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have learned the skill Sense Stone, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have learned the skill Shape Stone, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have crafted a Stone Dagger of Uncommon quality, 10 XP awarded. Damage 5-8. Durability: 25/25. You have learned the skill Crafting, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1.
I sit up and pick the dagger off the ground where I dropped it when I passed out. The blade appears sharp. I pick up a leaf and try cutting it. A smile splits my face as the knife slices through it like butter. I focus on my new skills and a panel opens before me.
Shaper Basic Level 1 (0%) This is the ability to infuse an object with mana and then change its characteristics. Effects will vary based on the object, amount of mana infused, and one''s skill at Shaping.
Sense Stone Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to infuse mana into stone to determine its type and characteristics, which can affect a whole or partial object. 10 mana per cubic foot. Minimum 10 mana cost. This skill allows the user to associate a stones mana signature with the type of stone. The skill is complemented by the Inspect and Lore skills, which will reveal more information about the stone as these skills level.
Shape Stone Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to infuse mana into stone with a greater efficiency and then change the shape and characteristic of the stone. 200 mana per 1 cubic foot of stone, only whole objects can be shaped. If there is insufficient mana to shape the whole object the user can sacrifice health at a rate of two to one to satisfy the cost. The stone can be shaped into any form the user can imagine, but the closer the new shape it to the original shape the lower the cost. Mana cost reduced by one per skill level. At the Beginner skill tier the user will be able to animate stone shapes and each subsequent tier will cut the shaping time by half. Shaping Time: 1 minute per cubic foot
Crafting Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to craft items quicker and with a lower material cost. Crafting Time reduced by .5% per skill level, cost reduced by .25% per skill level.
Well until I get my endurance up I can only do that once a day. I¡¯ll need Numbness to prevent passing out until completing the Shaping. I can go back to grinding, but before I do I want to try to use Shaping on water. I walk over and kneel by the stream cupping a palm full of water. I close my eyes and try to pour mana into the water and picture a small golf ball shape. Where the stone seemed to drink in the mana, it seems to slide off the water. I try a different approach by picturing the mana pooling in my hand without trying to force it and that seems to be working. It is slower than the stone to start with until I finally get it.
Water to infuse contains 1 cubic inches. Ball of Water: 1.2¡± diameter Base Mana required 1/1728 * 50 per cubic foot = .03 (Cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches.). Cost adjusted to minimum of 10. Shaping time: 1 min
As I open my eyes I see a small golf ball of water sitting in my hand. I try rolling it around in my hand and it feels rubbery. I pull out the stone dagger and poke it. While the blade meets a little resistant it slides in. As I pull the dagger out the ball appears unharmed. I take the time to looks at the new notification I have.
You have learned the skill Shape Water, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have crafted a Ball of Water. This ball will retain its shape for one minute unless renewed or receives 5 hit points of damage.
Shape Water Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to infuse mana into water and then change the shape and characteristic of the water. 50 mana per 1 cubic foot of water. Minimum cost 10 mana. Can change the infused water into any geometric shape. Mana cost reduced by one per every four skill levels. As the skill progresses more options will become available. Cost increases for more complex object shapes. Shaping Time: 1 minute per cubic foot Duration: 1 minute per skillTier level
Interesting, the cost surprises me at first, since it is so much lower than stone. That must be because the stone shape is permanent, while the water is temporary. Also, water was easier to shape. That was such a success I want to try air next. I take a seat by the stream and try to focus on the light breeze blowing over my hands. I try the same technics I used for stone or water with no success. I try to extend the mana from my hands to grasp the air which has some effect on the air. I can feel it parting around the streamers of mana I am extending. Maybe I need to build a cage to capture the air. I spent nearly an hour before I temporarily create a ball of air. It is springy and hangs suspended in midair. As I push down on it the ball starts to deform until it finally pops. I look at my notifications while I consider what to try next.
You have learned the skill Shape Air, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have crafted a Ball of Air. This ball will retain its shape for one minute unless renewed or receives 1 hit points of damage.
Shape Air Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to infuse mana into air and then change the shape and characteristic of the air. 25 mana per 1 cubic foot of air. Minimum cost 10 mana. Can change the infused air into any geometric shape. Mana cost reduced by one per every ten skill levels. As the skill progresses more options will become available. Cost increases for more complex object shapes. Objects are still bound to the surrounding air. The weight supported is equal to one pound per square inch of surface area. Shaping Time: 1 minute per cubic foot Duration: 1 minute per skillTier level
Hmmm, I wonder. I place my hand flat a foot off the ground and try to create a flat square of air about two feet long, one foot wide, and one inch thick. I can feel the springy surface as I push down on it. I tentatively put my foot on the square, which should hold almost 300 pounds. It does hold my weight as I stand on it and bounce a little. It¡¯s not flying, but very useful. Well next up would be fire if I can make some. I haven¡¯t tried creating fire without matches since I was a kid in summer camp, but I remember how. I collect several twigs and dry leaves in a small pile and surround them with stones near the stream, just in case I need some water quick. I use my stone dagger to help carve out a fire plow using two of the branches.Stolen story; please report. It takes about twenty minutes until I figure it out, but I succeed in creating a fire. I put the fire plow in my inventory for the future. Now I carefully put my hands toward the fire. I feel heat, but as I push them close I realize my hands are in the flames, but it doesn¡¯t hurt. I look at my log and see You take 0 points of fire damage spamming by. I laugh aloud, this Starter Glade is awesome. I try my previous technics but continue to fail. I spend an hour on it and decide to take a break. I am starting to get frustrated, which is not helping. I continue grinding for the rest of the day. As I lay down to sleep I am swept up in another dream. I wonder if this will happen every night. This time is different as I see a featureless white room take shape around me with a man dressed in a business suit with a matching power tie. ¡°Greetings, I am here to offer you a choice.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°That is not important, but for this conversation call me Spark. You are here in this dream space, so we can discuss an offer.¡± ¡°Spark as in the guide I named?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right and thanks for the name while it lasted.¡± Spark says with a grin. ¡°What are you offering?¡± ¡°As a Reborn you would have three dreams sent by the System your first three nights in this world. The first is about your Race, the second is about the Gods, and the third would be more personal. The third and final dream would cover a class that the System decides would best fit your character. However, you can also defer this dream to a later date, which is the choice you now face.¡± ¡°Why would I want to defer the last dream?¡± ¡°Your stats and skills will change over time, which would mean a different class would be the best for you. Also, if you happen to get a legendary piece of equipment a dream could tell you the history and functions of the equipment, which for legendary equipment is usually not obvious.¡± ¡°Is there a chance I will find a legendary piece of equipment?¡± ¡°There is a chance, but it is very slim. I just mention it for completeness.¡± ¡°Will I get to pick when I receive the dream?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t. The System will decide the best time to send you the dream. Also, if you become the worshiper of a God or Goddess they can influence when you get the dream as well.¡± ¡°Well with my current stats and skills I don¡¯t expect a dream would do me much good right now, so I will defer it.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± The room and Spark both start to fade out and I fall into a dreamless sleep. I open my eyes to the morning sun just peeking over the edge of the glade. The dream which I now have confirmation is not just a dream is still vivid like the previous nights. I think I made the right choice, but only time will tell. I guess I can go back to grinding. And so, it went over the next five days. I would start the day by shaping one item and then spend the rest of the day grinding my ritual magic and making different shapes with water and air. I spend one day making another dagger. Then three days making a spear. The first day was the wood shaft, which was 6 feet long. This got me a notification for learning Shape Wood. Then the stone spearhead next day. Finally, I join them together into a spear on the morning of the fifth day. I haven¡¯t received any more XP for creating another dagger, but I get some for the Spear and another very welcome notification.
Congratulations You have crafted a Spear of Uncommon quality, 25 XP awarded. Damage 8-12. Durability: 75/75. You have leveled up!!! You have two free stat point to allocate, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +1 Intelligence, +1 to Wisdom, +1 to Constitution. Fame increased by 5.
Sweet! I look at my Status panel.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 3 XP to next Level: 395/600
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: None Fame: 10
Str: 12 Melee Damage Modifier: +2
Agi: 12 Range Damage Modifier: +2
Dodge: 2%
Con: 9 Health / Stamina: 45 / 45
Health / Stamina Regen: 9% per min
End: 20 Pain Threshold: 10%
Int: 20 Mana Pool: 100
Wis: 16 Mana Regen Rate: 4 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 18 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 50%), Ritual Magic (Basic 7, 75%)
Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Inspect (Basic 7, 23%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 5, 50%), Numbness, Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Ritual Ward (Novice 5, 75%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 2
Well my stats are looking a lot better. I finally got Endurance a little higher, but I haven¡¯t noticed a difference with 10% pain reduction. I now have some weapons, should I leave or not? I think I will leave tomorrow. It would probably be smart to keep grinding, but I am already going stir crazy and I would only have another day before I would be forced to leave anyway. Not to mention the splitting headaches are getting to me. I could use a change of pace. There is just one thing I want to try before I leave. With my Ritual Ward reaching Novice the diameter doubles and I now have 100 mana, I should be able to create a 4-foot diameter circle. I am thinking while that¡¯s not big I should be able to curl up inside the circle to get some additional protection when I sleep at night. I cast the Ward and after waking up with another splitting headache I inspect the Ward.
Raw Mana Protective Ward Diameter: 4¡¯ Health Points: 11/11 Duration: 9.5/10 hours Do you wish to dismiss the ward? Accept or Cancel.
Ok now for the big test, I have collected a pile of sand from the stream and have let it dry on a rock. I dismiss the Ward and then pour the sand in the groove I have cut in the dirt for my circle. I cast the Ward again. I see a new notification when I wake up.
Ritual Wards Novice Level 5 (37.5%) This spell creates, maintains, and changes a Ward to protect a specified area, item, or person. Cost varies based on complexity and type of the ward, as well as, type of components used. Current known wards are: - Raw Mana Protection Ward, Components optional with varying effects, Drawings: Simple Circle, min/max mana: 50/200 per 2¡¯ diameter. Ward has (mana / 9) hit points. Duration: 1 hour per 10 mana o Optional Component Sand allows more focused circle, min mana 40 per 2¡¯ diameter.
Interesting, so if I use sand I should be able to make a 5¡¯ circle for 100 mana. I have enough sand to do that, but I will save that for when I leave the glade. I spend the rest of the day casting the ward with all my mana. I gain another level in Mana Manipulation and Ritual Ward for my pain and a point of Endurance. Now with the improved ward up I pull back my hand and strike it doing 1 point of damage. I continue doing that until the ward collapses and I get a notification I was hoping for.
You have learned the skill Unarmed Combat, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1.
Excellent. I have tried this before but didn¡¯t get anything. I am not sure if I just needed a strong enough ward or if this is cumulative. I sigh as I watch the sun start to set. I almost forgot there is one more thing I want to check. While I was inspecting all the stones to make my weapons there was one that I sensed was different. I pick it up and take it over to a bigger rock and start smacking it as hard as I can. I see a durability appear on the stone of 40 and it drops 3-5 durability per hit. When the durability hits zero, it cracks in half and reveals a geode full of purple crystals. Several notifications greet my eyes.
Congratulations You have found a collection of amethyst. Take these to a jeweler to extract the maximum value. Your award for finding something of value in the Starter Glade is 100 XP. Fame increased by 5.
Nice, that¡¯s a great way to finish my time here in the glade. I recline back on my leafy bed and for the last time stare up at the night sky and wonder what tomorrow will bring. Arc1 Ch 5 - Leaving the Starter Glade Today is the day. I hop over to the stream for the quick bath. Then I equip my spear and check my inventory.
Inventory Loaf of Bread (5) Water Skin (5) Stone Dagger (2) Throwing Rocks (20) Pile of Sand (20) Collection of Amethyst (1)
It took about ten piles of sand to do a ward five feet in diameter, so I have enough to make two different camp sites. I approach the boundary and take a deep breath as I reach out to touch it.
Leaving Starter Glade Do you wish to leave the Starter Glade? You will not be able to re-enter after leaving. Leave or Stay?
I select Leave and suddenly the trees around me seem to shimmer for a moment and the barrier disappears.
You have found a new zone Starter Area, 10 XP awarded. This area has a level ten cap. You must leave the area within one day of reaching level ten.You can only remain in this area a maximum of thirty days. You will be killed if you violate either of these rules.
Yikes, I had better make sure I know how big this area is and how to get out well before the limit. When I turn around I no longer see the glade, just more trees. I realize I am now hearing bird calls and insects in addition to the wind rustling the leaves. Carefully putting one foot in front of the other to minimize noise I continue walking forward through the trees for about an hour before the trees start to thin out. I notice movement off to my right up ahead and start moving toward it while trying to use the cover of the trees as I get closer. As I get close enough to make out a small furry animal I get two notifications.
You have learned the skill Stealth, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have discovered a new creature, a baby Horned Rabbit, 5 XP awarded.
The baby Horned Rabbit now has a green outline and it looks just like a grey rabbit with a small 3-inch horn on its head. From gaming that would mean it is no higher than my level and it is a baby. Hopefully I am not making a mistake by readying my spear and approaching the Horned Rabbit. I can get very close without it appearing to care at all. I make a quick jab at the Horned Rabbit impaling it on my spear. The Horned Rabbit appears to be dead. There are several flashing icons.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
You have stabbed a Horned Rabbit for 11 points of damage. You have killed a baby Horned Rabbit, awarded 1 XP. You have learned the weapon skill Spears, Basic 1.
Suddenly I feel a shooting pain in my right leg. I almost fall as I look down. An Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit is pulling her 8-inch spiraled Horn from my leg. Quickly I swing my spear around and stab the mother Horned Rabbit before it could get far enough back to make another run at me. I manage to skewer it through its side when it suddenly becomes a blur and jumps at me. I barely manage to hold onto the spear and keep it from skewering my again. It is bleeding a lot now, but I couldn¡¯t pull out my spear because I am afraid it wouldhit me again. I continue to grip the spear with white knuckles while it blurs again and thrusts against the spear. After a minute it finally collapses and I quickly look around for any other Horned Rabbits before checking my notifications.
Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit Lightning Steps into you, doing 9 points of piercing damage, bleeding status - 4 hit points for the next two minutes. You have stabbed an Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit for 8 points of damage, bleeding status ¨C 4 hit points until spear removed. Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit Lightning Steps, Strength Check fails. Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit immobile, bleeding status ¨C 8 hit points until spear removed. Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit Lightning Steps, Strength Check fails. Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit immobile, bleeding status ¨C 12 hit points until spear removed. You have killed an Enraged Mother Horned Rabbit, awarded 10 XP.
Only 10 XP. I will have to kill 20 of these rabbits to level up. My health slowly regenerates post combat. The bleeding status disappears as the hole inmy leg closes. As I watch the hole in my leg close I think, that could have gone better. Thinking Loot at the two dead Horned Rabbits I get nothing for my trouble. That makes sense, what would an animal be carrying? After my leg finishes healing I take out one of my daggers and try skinning the baby Horned Rabbit. I have skinned and dressed a deer once with my step-dad. After I finish skinning and butchering the baby Horned Rabbit I get a notification.
You have learned the skill Skinning, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have found 1 small fur and 1 piece of Horned Rabbit meat.
Next, I skin and butcher the larger Horned Rabbit and get a level up to Basic 2 on my Skinning, 1 medium fur, and 3 pieces of Horned Rabbit meat. The blood and remains slowly fade away, which is convenient, since I made a bit of mess. I continue walking and try to stay away from Horned Rabbits for now, while practicing my Stealth. After a few hours the trees stop in front of a large clearing, which contains a small village. Finally, civilization, I start walking toward the village with a spring in my step. Arc1 Ch 6 - The Village P1 Thomas is bored out of his mind. He and Jacob took over as guards of the Southern gate to the Starter Village early this morning and would not be relieved until lunch. The southern gate was even more boring to guard than the northern gate. Any new adventures would enter the village from the north. There were no adventurers currently in the Starter Area so only the occasional Reborn would possibly come from the south. Thomas is trying to distract himself by thinking about having a juicy steak for lunch when Jacob nudges him and points. A Reborn is exiting the woods bordering the village and as Thomas focuses on him, he is amazed. He heard that Reborn sometime have a unique ability that lets them quickly advance, but he has never witnessed it himself. Thomas has lived an unexceptional life up to joining the Starter Village. On hitting age fifty, he realized that while he had made level thirty there was nothing special about his stats or skills. He didn¡¯t have a girlfriend or wife; life has just passed him by. Something changed when he realized that, which is why he volunteered for a Starter Village when the System posted notices for interviews for positions in the Starter Villages. When he arrived the line of people was long even though only level thirty or higher could apply. He waited his turn and considered all the other nervous people in line. The System could pay a person in many ways for working in a Starter Village. A sick relative could be cured, your debts could be paid, etc. The list was endless, only depending on the number of years of service you would have to pay. In Thomas¡¯s case while he didn¡¯t have a lot of money saved he also had no debt. Also, his immediate family was all dead, which just left himself. Thomas was interested in becoming young again to get a second chance at life. While there are potions and spells to make someone younger they are far too expensive for him to afford. When his turn came, he took a seat in the small room he was escorted into. A tall muscular elf with long golden hair dressed in richly embroidered robes was sitting across the desk from him. After the elf queried Thomas¡¯ status screen, he introduced himself. ¡°Greetings, I am Jason Greenbrook and I will be your System interviewer today. After looking at your stats and skills, you are qualified for a guard position in a Starter Village, but there are many others with higher stats and skills. Why should we pick you?¡± Thomas was sure this question would come up, so after taking deep breath, he gave the answer he stayed up late thinking about. ¡°I feel I have wasted a lot of my life, which is why I want a fresh start. I believe my mindset will stand me in good stead when dealing with new adventurers. I am very motivated to help as this is my only chance to turn my life around.¡± The elf looked at him thoughtfully. ¡°Here is what we will do. Your biological age will be set at 25, which makes you 25 years younger. While in the starter village you will not age. You will serve one year for each year you are made younger, which means 25 years of service. Since you are barely meet the level requirements, you will be assigned to Captain Varus¡¯s barrack to be trained and the training will be harsh. You will follow all his instructions to the letter and be helpful and courteous always. These are the only terms offered, do you accept?¡± Thomas accepted with tears in his eyes, feeling as if a heavy weight has been lifted from his shoulders. He went to the villagetwo months laterand met Captain Varus. Under Varus¡¯s brutal training, the skills that Thomas had not leveled in a decade started to increase again. The guards would rotate between training and standing watches on the two gates in the village. His current partner was here to save his son who contracted a magical illness and would have died without treatment he could not afford without this service to the System. Today while on guard duty he meets a young Reborn at level three and already possessing a weapon. George slowly approach the Village, which has a palisade of vertical logs about ten-foot high surrounding it, which tamper tosharpened points on top. There are two guards waiting at the open gated entry. It is obvious they have seen him and are patiently waiting him to arrive at the gate. George tries to Inspect both as he approaches, but doesn¡¯t receive any notification for his efforts. I guess I don¡¯t know how this Inspect is supposed to work. When I get near, the guard on the right who seems the older of the two says ¡°Good day traveler.¡± I return the greeting and check out their equipment. They both have spears tipped with bright steel, unlike mine. Both are equipped with chainmail with large thick leather belts that support a short sword and dagger. They are both sporting stout leather boots and leather helms with steel studs. The guards are staring at me intensely and appear somewhat surprised. The guard on the right speaks again ¡°Greetings, I am Thomas and this is Jacob, my partner. It is surprising to see you already at level three. You must have killed a lot of Horned Rabbits and you already have a weapon. Did you already enter the village from the north gate and then came back out to hunt?¡± ¡°No, I just came from the Starter Glade this morning.¡± ¡°Where did you get your weapon from then if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± ¡°I made it in the Starter Glade using the materials there.¡± Thomas and Jacob look at each other before Thomas asks. ¡°How did you do that?¡± It seems like my abilities maybe unique if they are acting this surprised. ¡°I have some skills from my previous life. Since I am new to this world I don¡¯t know much about what to expect, could you tell me a little about the village?¡± The guard seems like he wanted to continue his questions before he caught himself. ¡°Of course. This is the Village of Delvalle. It exists to help until you reach the tenth level. There is a Tavern where you get some starter quests and information about the Starter Area we are in. There is a Blacksmith, Tailor, Alchemist, Church, Bathhouse, General Store, and Barracks. There are clear signs on each building. I would start with the Tavern and you get the first seven days lodging and meals free.¡± ¡°Great, I could use a meal after having nothing in the Starter Glade. I¡¯ll start with the Tavern first. Thanks.¡± I head down the dirt street to the large well-built building constructed of whitewashed stucco. Dark wood beams support the red tile roof. There is no stable. I head in and pause at the door to allow my eyes to adjust to the lamp light inside. There are several polished wood tables with a huge hearth across the room. On the left is a long bar with the sole occupant polishing the bar. He is a large man with beefy arms wearing a large apron over a tunic. He gives me a big smile as he watches me taking in the room.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I walk over to him and he says. ¡°Greetings. I am John the owner of this fine Tavern. Looks like you are new, but already at level three, very impressive.¡± ¡°The guards said the same thing. I was hoping to get some lodgings and find out some more information about the world.¡± ¡°Sure, that¡¯s what the village is here for. To start with you will get seven days of lodging for free including 3 meals per day. If you are going out hunting or gathering let me know the previous night and we will have a meal ready that you can take with you.¡± He pulls out a key from under the bar and hands it to me. ¡°You are on the second floor, up the stairs to the left of the bar. It¡¯s the first door on the left. You also get access to the bathhouse the first seven days as well. On the bed in your room there is a backpack that is yours with some items to get you started. The room is five coppers a night after seven days, ten if you want to include meals. The bathhouse is two coppers per use. The backpack includes a small book that describes the world and some basic information. Why don¡¯t you go to your room, read that book, and then come down to get some lunch?¡± ¡°That sounds like a great idea. Thanks.¡± I head up the stairs and unlock the door. The room that greets me is spacious with an open window that lets in a nice breeze. There is a writing desk, one cabinet with a medium size mirror, along with a bed with a glowing lamp on the nightstand by the bed. I will have to ask how the lamp works. As promised a backpack rests on the bed. I take a seat on the bed which is softer than I expected. The backpack contains a coil of rope, fire starting kit, common knife, roll of bandages, beef jerky (5), canteen, bed roll, tattered waterproof cloak, and a small book. I put the cloak on, it has a nice hood. Then I crack open the book and start to read, which brings up a new prompt.
Do you wish to speed read this book, A Beginner¡¯s Guide? Yes or No.
I select yes and suddenly I lose control of my hands, which start rapidly flipping pages, while my eyes unfocused as they scan down the pages. It is weird that my eyes don¡¯t seem to focus on the words, but at the same time I know exactly what¡¯s on the pages. After a few minutes I complete the book as it crumps to dust and vanishes, getting a new prompt.
You have learned the skill Reading, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1. You have learned the skill Lore, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1.
I am especially interested in what Lore is, so I focus on this new skill.
Lore Basic 1 (0%) This skill works with the Inspect skill to allow the user to identify people and items covered by the knowledge this skill imparts. Currently only one book of Lore read. Read more books to increase your chance to identify new creatures and items you encounter.
This must be why my Inspect is not telling me much when I use it. I head downstairs after putting my spear in my inventory for now. I walk to the bar and sit down. The owner puts a large bowl of stew with a large piece of crusty bread down in front of me, followed by a large mug of foamy beer. ¡°Eat up.¡±, he says. ¡°I will fill you in on some information most beginners ask and then you can ask any questions you have. First, it¡¯s obvious you are one of the reincarnations, so you don¡¯t know much about this area or the world. The System maintains this area and all the people running the stores and maintaining the village are working for the System in exchange for rewards. The System creates this area for both the people reincarnated by the gods into the world and the people of the world who want to take up a life of adventure. This is a religious rite of passage to many. You will find most of the basic services, spells, and equipment available here. This area has a max level limit and you must leave within 1 day of achieving level 10. On death you will respawn in the cemetery on the edge of town. You will only have what is in your inventory and any soul bound equipment. Anything not soul bound outside of your inventory will drop with your body and anyone can loot it including yourself if you make it back to where you died before someone else. Also, half of the money on you drops. Once you get to a town you will want to open a bank account to deposit money, so you only carry as much as you need. Each time you die you also lose a level. If you are level 1 and die that will be your final death and you will not come back. You will respawn within one hour per level you had before you died. You can be attacked at any time. If you are attacked in the village the guards will defend you if they see the attack. There is no safe area except for certain dueling and arena areas, but none of those exists in the Starter Area, so don¡¯t worry about those for now. Now if you are interested in quests, all the shop owners have several you can ask for including myself. Now you have one serious decision to make. You are what we call a Reborn, which is a person reincarnated in a new body. As such while you are in a Harrow body you are not one. You will now see you have a Title of Reborn. Like any title you can hide it, which means new people will treat you as a Harrow. If you mislead them it may incur a negative favor with the System and you will seriously regret that if it happens. It is your choice though, but I would not hide it. That¡¯s it unless you have some questions.¡± I finish mopping up the last of the stew with the bread and gulp it down with a last draught of beer. ¡°That meal was great. You¡¯ve given me a lot to think about. Where would you suggest I start at?¡± ¡°Well you can earn more XP two ways, by taking gathering quests from the various shopkeepers or by hunting in the forests around the village. At your level the Horned Rabbits to the South will give low XP, but the Grey Wolves to the South East and South West will be hard with only one person. The last group that enter the Starter Area left three days ago, so currently you are the only new person here. If you want to hunt I would suggest grinding on the Horned Rabbits until you hit level 4 or take some gathering quests.¡± ¡°I have a question about language. I seem to be talking and seeing notifications in my native language. How does that work?¡± ¡°Well the System is translating for you and does that for everyone. Here there is only one common language for all intelligent creatures, which keeps things simple.¡± ¡°How about Lore? The book increased my Lore. Are there more Lore books here?¡± ¡°Yes. The standard set of five Lore books are available at the General Store for one silver each. They will teach you about all of the common creatures of the world and common items you may find.¡± ¡°I do have one other question, which is kind of embarrassing.¡± ¡°What about sex?¡± John says with a smirk. ¡°What? No, well that would be interesting to, but I haven¡¯t had to use the restroom, since I got here and while it sounds like there is somewhere to take a bath there is nothing in my room or around the Tavern to take care of that.¡± John, just looks at me confused for a minute and then wrinkles his face in disgust. ¡°Oh, you are from one of those universes that doesn¡¯t have magic? Here no one must use the bathroom. The magic system takes care of wastes from the body.¡± He paused and shivered as he said. ¡°I am really glad I am not in your old world. It just sounds disgusting.¡± ¡°It has its moments. What about transportation? Do you use magic for that too?¡± ¡°We have gates at the main cities, which can transport you to any other city for gold. There are teleport spells that are about twice the cost, but they can take you anywhere you have seen. Then there are magical mounts that can carry you quickly from place to place by air, land, or sea. Finally, there are more mundane mounts like horses, but they are the least favored by adventures because of their slow speed.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t think of anything else at the moment to ask, do you have any quests?¡± ¡°Sure gather 20 pieces of Horned Rabbit meat for me. You will get 1 copper per 2 pieces of meat.¡± ¡°Thanks, I will head over to the other shops before starting on that.¡± Arc1 Ch 6 - The Village P2 I head out to what must be the Tailor based on the large painted sign of a golden needle and spool of thread. I open the door to the sound of a small bell ringing. A short girl with a head of dirty blonde hair jumps up from a stool she was sitting on while adjusting a dress. ¡°Hello, I am Susan.¡± She greets me warmly. ¡°Hi, I am new to town, so I have no money yet, but I wanted to see all of the shops and of course check for any quests.¡± ¡°No problem. I don¡¯t have any quests for you but check back when you are at a higher level. When you get some money, I can offer you a good price on basic clothes that look great and will also increase your defense score.¡± ¡°Thanks. See you later.¡± I say as I head out and over to the Blacksmith next. The Blacksmith shop has a wooded sign with an anvil, but it is obvious with the sound of hammering coming from within. It also has a big brick chimney that is currently spewing black smoke into the air. I enter through the stout oak door. The sound of hammering intensifies. I see a large man with arms thicker than my legs. His strength score must be huge. As I watch he takes the hot piece of metal he is working on and puts it back into the fire. When he turns to get a ladle of water he notices me. ¡°Greetings, sorry I did not see you there, my name is Tal.¡± ¡°Not a problem, I was just admiring your work. I am new in town and I am checking out all of the shops to see what they sell and if you have any quests I may be able to help you with.¡± ¡°Well as you can see I sell all types of metal armor and arms. It you want leather armor you will have to go to the tailor. As to a quest I could use wood, which I create charcoal with for the furnace. It is always hungry for more. I will give you 10 coppers for 1 stack of wood from one tree. You can borrow my axe.¡± ¡°Great I will take you up on that.¡± I take the axe and make my way over to the Alchemist shop next. The Alchemist shop has a wooden sign with a purple potion bottle on it. The shop has a door with glass panels and I can see a room full of display cases. As I enter a gentleman sitting behind the counterglances at me. He has green scales for skin and his eyes like a snake. Besides that, he looks completely human. I try to inspect him, but I get nothing. He laughs saying. ¡°You will have to have a much higher level to successfully inspect me young one. Also, you should know that many higher-level people can detect you Inspecting them and will return the favor. In this case I am sure you are curious what I am? My name is Mathis. People with a mixed racial heritage like myself are collectively called demi-humans. In my case I am half human and half Salazar, which is a race of lizard men of the deep desert. We are very much in tune with nature, so we are very good at herbalism and alchemy. I take it you just arrived in the village and are here with little money and hopeful for quests?¡± ¡°Almost.¡± I reply. ¡°I have no money and I am in search of quests.¡± He laughs again replying. ¡°Of course. Well there are various plants that I need to create the potions that you adventurers seem to always need. If you are willing to collect these plants I will teach you basic herbalism so you can identify and collect them. In exchange you will get health and mana potions.¡± I accept and get a prompt.
Learning Herbalism Quest Accepted Bring the alchemist Fire Thorn (x10), Golden Lily (x10), and Sun Blossom (x10). Reward: Lesser Health Potion (x5), Lesser Mana Potion (x5) Penalty for not completing: No access to Alchemist Shop until complete.
Mathis reaches behind the counter to hand me a thin book titled a Beginners Guide to Herbs. He gestures for me to read it now, which I quickly do and receive another prompt as the book turns to dust.
You have learned the skill Herbalism, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1.Lore increased to Basic 1 (50%).
With that I take my leave to visit the Church. The Church has a set of double doors that are open. Stained glass windows decorate the side of the building, inset in the cut stone. As I enter a feeling of stillness and peace washes over me. Tensions I did not know I had seem to flow out of my body as I collapse boneless to a nearby pew. I hear a chuckle as a robe woman approaches me up the aisle. I take in the simple grandeur of the church with its high oak beams overhead to the simple polished mahogany pews. In the front appears to be a stone altar and a statue of a woman. I focus on what I assume is a priestess. She is wearing a grey robe with gold trim. She appears fit and in her thirties with brown flowing hair braided down her back, with striking green eyes and a ready smile on her face. She stops in front of me and says. ¡°I see the goddess affected you more than most. You must be from the Start Glade and decided to keep your memories.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct, but how did you know?¡± I answer in surprise. ¡°When you enter the Church the goddess influence lifts your fears and worries and for you to be so affected it is only natural to assume you have been uprooted from everything you know and placed in a different world.¡± I sigh, ¡°You have that right.¡± ¡°Well let me say you are always welcome in the Church of the Goddess Vera. She presides over all the other gods and keeps the balance for the System. You can come here for healing when you need it. On a more mundane note I have a quest for you if you are interested.¡± As I nod yes, she continues. ¡°The back corner of the church near the foundation has cracked and needs new stones to replace them. Around the wolf area there are several granite nodes you can mine for stone that we can use to make mortar to patch the damage. I have a pick you can borrow to mine the stone.¡± As I accept I get another prompt.
Stone to Repair the Church Quest Accepted Bring the priestess of Vera stone to repair a crack in the churches foundation. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Reward: 100 XP, fame +10. Penalty for not completing: None.
I thank her for the quest and I get a pickaxe from her, which I place in my inventory. I have a thought. This is not a game, but the real world, so changes to the quest should be possible. I ask her if I can see the crack in the foundation. ¡°Of course, but do you have some knowledge in masonry?¡± ¡°Something like that.¡± I reply and we walk out the front and to the back right corner, where the crack is obvious. It is cutting through three stones and there are signs of previous repairs. ¡°I ask if I can try to repair the stone itself.¡± She hesitates for a moment before gesture for me to proceed. I touch the bottom cracked stone and access my Stone Shaping.
Stone to infuse Stone Brick: 12¡± long, 6¡± wide, 6¡± high. Total 432 cubic inches. Base Mana required 432/1728 * 200 per cubic foot = 50 (Cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches.) Desired change simple, repair crack, no cost modifier. Shaping time: 1 min
This is perfect. With my mana regen over a minute I won¡¯t dip below 50% and pass out. I picture the cracked edges of the stone merging together. I feel a slight headache, but otherwise no ill effects. I smile as I see the stone looks perfect. The priestess claps her hands and says ¡°That is incredible. Will you be able to do the other two stones as well?¡± ¡°Yes, it will just take me about 12 minutes to refill my mana before I can do it again.¡± ¡°Ah, well then I can help with that.¡± She gestures and a wave of blue light envelopes me that sooths away my headache and refills my mana to full. I smile and turn back to the next stone. After which she renews my mana again and finally the last. As I sit there relaxingfrom her latest casting, which renews my mana a final time I seeicons are flashing again. I mentally acknowledge them and see a great message.
Stone to Repair the Church Quest Updated Permanently repair the foundation stones of the Church of Vera. Reward: 500 XP, fame +50. (Award increased x5, first time accomplishment.) Penalty for not completing: None.
Congratulations You have leveled up!!! You havethree free stat point to allocate, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +4 Intelligence, +4 to Wisdom, +2 to Strength. Rewards are doubled this level due to the blessing of Vera. This is a one-time increase. Endurance has increased one point. Fame increased by 5.
I reach into my inventory to retrieve the pickaxe and say. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t need this after all.¡± The priestess smiles and say. ¡°Please keep it. I will not be needing it either.¡± I laugh and put it back in my inventory. After dusting myself off I take my leave and head to the General Store. ¡°This must be the one.¡± The priestess Julia thinks to herself. The Goddess had given her a dream two 10-days ago that a special Reborn would arrive in our Starter Area. She thinks this is the one, since while it is certainly possible to change a quest in certain cases, it is hard to do. Also, the change usually just solves the quest in a different way, such as ¡®take the road to deliver a package¡¯, but instead you ¡®take a boat to deliver the package¡¯. In this case the repeatable quest has disappeared from her quest list and no new quest has replaced it, which she has never heard of. He must have a unique ability to allow him to repair the stone. She would really like to ask him more to satisfy her curiosity, but her Goddess was specific in the dream. Offer any quest in her quest list, but don¡¯t offer any other aide. She has served as a priestess of Vera for thirty years before she was picked to serve in a Starter Area, which is considered a high honor. In general, after service in a Starter Area for a year, she can expect to become head priestess of a Church and be granted the Title of Chosen. The Reborn are the reason the Starter Areas are so important. This is where they get the first exposure to the Goddess. Typically, special quests will be granted to try to increase their faith. In this case, she is to treat the Reborn just like any other adventurer. She watches as George walks away, wondering what the Goddess has in store for him. The General Store is different than the other buildings. It looks like a white adobe building with a red tile roof. It¡¯s interesting that it looks like some of the buildings from back home, but I guess it¡¯s not to surprising since adobe is just sun-dried earth.The main difference are the large windows along the whole front of the store. As I enter the store I smell leather, cloth, and some faint spices. I see a man up on a rolling ladder that goes all the way around the store. He is taking some items down from overhead to put on the shelf. He shouts a greeting and slides smoothly down the ladder before turning to face me. He is of medium build with black hair and a thick beard. He is wearing a leather apron over the cream-colored tunic, brown pants, and black leather boots. I wiggle my toes wishing I had some money to get some boots myself. He reaches out a hand to give me a firm handshake and says. ¡°Welcome adventurer to the General Store and no I didn¡¯t get to pick the name. My name is Howard we have a little of everything here including spell scrolls for aspiring mages, lock picks to disable locks and traps, Lore books, and various sets of leather armor that neither the Tailor or Blacksmith will carry. So, what can I do for you today?¡± ¡°Well, I would love to peruse your goods, but I am newly arrived and have not money yet. I am stopping by each store to check out what is available and to see if you have any quests I could perform for you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have anything right now but check back when you gain a few more levels.¡± ¡°Thanks, I will. Have a good day.¡± Next, I head over to the Barracks to find several guards sparring to the right of the building. Between them and the wall is a sandy area for the guards to train. An officer is yelling at one of the guards to straighten his sword arm as he practices striking a wood and straw dummy. I clear my throat and he turns to face me with a scowl on his face. ¡°What is it?¡± He barks. ¡°Excuse me sir, but the Tavern indicated I should stop by to see if you have any quests.¡± He starts to say something then looks at me more closely. ¡°Already level four are you. Well there is a quest you could do. The wolf population needs to be culled. You will get 2 coppers per tail you bring me.¡± I accept the quest and get a prompt.
Cull the Wolves Quest Accepted The Guard Captain Bail needs to kill the wolves to reduce their population. Kill (20x) wolves. Reward: 100 XP, 2 copper pieces per tail. Penalty for not completing: None.
After speaking he turns back around to bark another command to one of his men. Let¡¯s see, the last place to visit is the Bathhouse and since it¡¯s free for seven days I should take advantage of it. I walk over to the Bathhouse and enter an open room with large man sitting behind the counter. ¡°Greetings adventurer,¡± he says. ¡°I bet you are here for a free bath?¡± I laugh. ¡°How did you guess?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t hard. You get seven days of free baths. The baths are divided into women on my left and men on my right. I hope you don¡¯t get confused and try to go in the wrong one.¡± He says as he cracks his impressive knuckles. ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be a problem.¡± ¡°Ok, then here is a towel and a bag for your clothes. Go through the door on my right, put your clothes in the bag and hang it by a shower with your towel. Shower first, then take your towel and bag to the baths and hang them there for when you get out. Stay in the bath as long as you like. The bath tubs are enchanted to keep the water hot and clean.¡± I follow his directions, get a shower, and then soak in the hot tub, which is heavenly. I finally must make myself get out and dry off. I put on my clothes and returned the towel and bag to the Bathhouse owner. Well there are still a few hours left, so I head toward the south gate to practice on some Horned Rabbits. Arc1 Ch 6 - The Village P3 On my way out of the village I see an old man with a scowl on his face sitting in the shadows of his front porch. As I walk over he seems to tense up. I say ¡°Hello, I am new in town and I am looking for any quests you may have. Is there anything I can do for you?¡± ¡°Be on your way.¡± ¡°Really? I am happy to help, it¡¯s no trouble at all.¡± He now looks pissed as he leaps up and says. ¡°I said be gone.¡± ¡°You know you are the first person here who hasn¡¯t had a quest or indicated what the requirements are to get one. What is the deal here? I will be happy to leave after you explain.¡± The old man seems to deflate as he collapses back into his chair. I hear him mutter. ¡°Thrice asks and thrice heard.¡± He looks at me with a very depressed expression as he says. ¡°You may as well have a seat.¡± As I take a seat he continues. ¡°I am Cal and I am a jeweler, though there is not much need of it here in the village. I will offer you the chance to learn jewelry, but you will have to bring me twenty amethysts. Amethysts can only be found in the Gnoll area. They are the toughest creature here in the starter area. To get an Amethyst you must mine copper ore and one in twenty copper nodes you mine will have an Amethyst. There are only 6 copper nodes in the area and it takes a day before they regenerate. Each time they regenerate in a different location.¡±
Become a Jeweler Quest Bring twenty Amethysts to Cal the jeweler. Reward for Completing: Jewelry skill. Penalty for not completing: None. Do you accept the quest? Yes or No?
I accept as I say. ¡°That sounds like a very hard and long quest.¡± Glumly he says. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good thing I have this then.¡± I reach into my inventory, pull out the geode and hold it out to him. His shocked face is something to behold. He snatches the geode with more energy than I would have credited him with just a minute ago. He begins to laugh as I get an interesting new prompt.
Become a Jeweler Quest Update Bring twenty Amethysts to Cal the jeweler. You have completed the quest and revealed a hidden quest. Cal the jeweler is under punishment, exiled to the Starter Area for ten years. Each person who accepts the quest ¡°Become a Jeweler¡± but does not complete it will add one year to the jeweler¡¯s sentence. Seven adventurers have taken this quest without completing it before leaving the Starter Area adding seven more years. On quest completion Cal¡¯s exile will be reduced by a maximum of ten years. Then he will no longer be able to offer the quest. Reward for Completing: Jewelry skill. Reduce Cal¡¯s sentence by 10 years. Reputation increased with Cal to maximum. Penalty for not completing: None. Add one year to Cal¡¯s sentence. You are the first person to complete this Quest, 250 XP awarded. Fame increased by 50.
Congratulations You have leveled up!!! You have four free stat point to allocate, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +2 Intelligence, +1 to Wisdom, +1 to Constitution.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Fame increased by 5.
¡°How in the world did you find this geode?¡± ¡°I found it in the Starter Glade.¡± ¡°Incredible, well this is both our lucky day. Come on in and I will have something to teach you.¡± I follow him into the house, which seems hardly lived in. He heads into a study and gestures for me to take a seat. The desk has magnifying glasses, small clamps, tools, and some powerful lamps that focus light on various parts of the desk. He places the two halves of the geode on a felt covered pedestal and focuses a light and magnifying glass on the two pieces in turn. These have a deep purple color under the light. In a jovial voice he says. ¡°You have 27 Amethysts here, 12 medium flawed, 5 medium cracked, and 10 flawless. I will remove and polish these. While I do that I have two books for you to read.¡± He gets up and removes two thick books from his bookshelf. They are A Jeweler¡¯s Craft and Gems of all Kinds. ¡°Well start reading.¡± He says as he moves back behind the desk and begins to set out various tools. I focus on A Jeweler¡¯s Craft and get a reading prompt while once again feeling like something is possessing my body as I begin to flip pages at a fast pace. I finish the book, look up and see the smaller of the two geode pieces is now empty of crystal. Cal is now working on removing the crystal from the other piece. I greet a new prompt as I realize why he is using the cushioned pliers on the outer crystal.
You have learned the skill Jeweler, 10 XP awarded. Basic 1.Lore increased to Basic 2.
I pick up the second book and once again start reading. When I finish the second book I know all about every type of gem, their characteristic, and where they are found. I look up again. It is now dark outside and Cal is putting a final polish on the gem stones. The geode is now empty and a piece of felt is now covered with over two dozen gems. Cal stands up and stretches. He says ¡°It is getting late. I am going to need two more days to finish the stones, so come back then and I will teach you more about being a Jeweler.¡± I yawn and say goodnight as I head over to the Tavern. The owner asks how my hunting went and I admit I never made it out of the village. He laughs and says. ¡°No problem. That happens when you try to get all the quests at once. Let me get you some food.¡± After scarfing down another bowl of delicious stew and bread.After eating I am ready to pass out. I go to my room and fall right into bed after locking my door. I check out my Status Panel before allowing myself to drift off.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 5 XP to next Level: 1301/1500
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 115
Str: 14 Melee Damage Modifier: +4
Agi: 12 Range Damage Modifier: +2
Dodge: 2%
Con: 10 Health / Stamina: 50 / 50
Health / Stamina Regen: 10% per min
End: 22 Pain Threshold: 12%
Int: 26 Mana Pool: 130
Wis: 21 Mana Regen Rate: 5 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 23 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 35%)
Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 7, 23%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 6, 53%), Numbness, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 2, 50%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 3, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 53%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 4
Arc1 Ch 7 – Day 2 Starter Village P1 As I wake up I am momentarily confused. This room is close enough to my bedroom back on Earth that I thought it was just a dream for a moment. I sit up and stretch. The sunlight is streaming in through the shutters over the window. I decide to grab some breakfast and then head out hunting Horned Rabbits. At my current level the XP received will be less, but I can gather some herbs, while getting familiar with fighting creatures before taking on something harder, all by myself. I hop downstairs and greet the owner as I slide up to the bar for some breakfast. While I am waiting we make small talk about the weather and my plans for the day. I can tell that he notices my level up as he asks, ¡°How did you manage to get to level 5 without even hunting?¡± ¡°I did some quests in town.¡± I reply with a grin on my face. ¡°What quests would that be?¡± ¡°Sorry I can¡¯t reveal that, it¡¯s part of the quest.¡± He looked unconvinced but does not press me anymore. He places a large sandwich in front of me. After finishing my delicious breakfast, I pick up another sandwich for lunch and add it to my inventory before going to the Horned Rabbit area. I greet the guards on my way out and once more I am moving through the lightly wooded area to the south of the village. I ready my spear. I spot my first Horned Rabbit about an hour later. It is about the size of the mother rabbit I fought before. As I inspect it I see.
Mature Horned Rabbit, Level 3, HP: 15, Horn Damage: 3-6 Special Abilities: Lightning Step, can charge 10 feet in an instance for double damage. Must be facing target.
Now that is more like it. Beefing up my Lore is helping my Inspect. I enter stealth as I approach the rabbit until within spear reach and then skewer the rabbit in the side. It jerks and drops dead, which is a little anti-climactic. I check my combat log.
You have stabbed a Mature Horned Rabbit for 14 points of damage +%50 increase for attacking from stealth for 21 points of damage. You have killed a Mature Horned Rabbit, awarded 1 XP.
Wow, I am not going to get anywhere hunting these guys. I pull out my knife, start butchering the animal, and put the skin and meat in my inventory. I spend the rest of the morning stalking the rabbits, collecting thirty-nine more by lunch time. While hunting I have gathered fifteen of the Fire Thorn for the herbalist quest. I take a break to eat my sandwich, which gives me another 20% boost to mana regeneration for two hours. I head to the wolf area feeling this may be a little more difficult, but my Stealth has leveled to Basic 9, which should help. The trees get a little thicker and switch over to pine and cypress. Here I should find both the wolves and the two remaining herbs I need, Golden Lily and Sun Blossom. I enter stealth and try to keep my eyes open for a wolf. My approach is perfect, well except for when all the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and goosebumps walk up my arms. I slowly turn and freeze when I see a pair of blazing golden eyes staring straight at me from the shadows about twenty feet away. A huge grey wolf slowly emerges and I involuntarily gulp as I inspect it.
Lone Alpha Wolf, Level 7, HP: 95If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Crap. This wolf looks like it¡¯s been through a lot of fights. There are obvious scars on its face and shoulder from past battles. I stare at the wolf with my mind racing. I take a step to put my back to a large pine tree behind me, bracing the spear butt against the tree when the wolf blurs right at me. Even though I expect it, the impact still startles me. My back slams into the tree. I feel my spear thrum and turn in my hands. The wolf¡¯s jaws seem to fill my vision. My head jerks back so fast, smacking into the tree behind me as the wolf¡¯s jaws slam closed in front of my nose. My spear is nowplanted about two feet into the wolf¡¯s chest, holding it back just enough to keep it from ripping off my face. I try to keep the spear from moving as I reach into my inventory for a dagger. I see a flash of intelligence in animal¡¯s eyes as it yanks back unexpectantly pulling the spear from my grasp. It turns and runs off into the trees. I feel hope that I may make it out alive, up until it turns again, grips the spear in its jaws, yanks it out of its chest, and looks at me. I hear the spear crack in its jaws. The wound bleeds heavily, but I have a feeling it¡¯s not going to be enough to save my bacon. I pull my other hand out of my inventory, pour sand in a quick circle around me and push a little less than half my mana into the circle, hoping it¡¯s enough. The mana leaves my body in a cold rush. The wolf once again lunges and slams to a stop a few inches from my face. I grin fiercely as I plunge my dagger into the its right eye with everything I have. The wolf suddenly withdraws while howling and my body freezes up. The wolf jumps on me knocking me down and bites my shoulder and neck. The pain seems to free my locked muscles. I stab my dagger into the wolf¡¯s side as it continues to maul my shoulder and neck. I activate Numbness and the pain suddenly vanishes. A familiar pins and needles feeling courses through my limbs. I stab again and the wolf collapses. I frantically push it off as I watch my health bar drop to an ever-slimmer red slice. I pull bandages out of my inventory in a hurry and bind my wounds to stop my bleeding status, right before Numbness runs out. The pain and exhaustion then hits me like a ton of bricks and I pass out. I wake up and see trees overhead as I opened my eye, which is a good sign. I look over to my left. The dead wolf¡¯s body is laying boneless were I pushed it off me. I took a glance at my combat logs and whistle as I realize how close I was to dying.
You have stabbed a Lone Alpha Wolf for 12 points of damage. Damage doubled from wolf¡¯s Lunge for 24 points of damage, bleeding status - 8 hit points for the next two minutes. Lone Alpha Wolf rips spear from chest for 15 points of damage. 8 points of bleeding damage. Raw Mana Protective Ward Created, 2.2¡¯ diameter, 65 mana invested, Health Points: 7 Lone Alpha Wolf Lunges into Raw Mana Protective Ward for 18 points of damage. Raw Mana Protective Ward collapses. You have stabbed a Lone Alpha Wolf for a Critical hit, blindness right eye. Damage 12 damage. 8 points of bleeding damage. Lone Alpha Wolf Howls, you are Stunned. Lone Alpha Wolf knocked you to the ground and bit you for 18 points of damage, bleeding status - 4 hit points for the next minute. You have stabbed a Lone Alpha Wolf for 6 points of damage. 8 points of bleeding damage. You have learned the weapon skill Daggers, Basic 1. Lone Alpha Wolf mauls you for 20 points of damage, 4 points of bleeding damage, bleeding status - 8 hit points for the next minute. You have stabbed a Lone Alpha Wolf for 7 points of damage. 8 points of bleeding damage. You have killed a Lone Alpha Wolf, 210 XP awarded. Awarded 20 Fame.
I wonder as I look at the wolf. I think add to inventory and after a small pause the wolf vanishes. When I open my inventory, I see it is taking up 12 of the 22 squares. I then retrieve my dagger and my broken spear. With a last nervous glace around I leave the wolf area. Looking at my stats I need 39 XP to get to the next level. Since it is still early I decide to return to the rabbits until I get my next level. After spending most of the afternoon into early evening hunting I finally get the notification I have been waiting for.
Congratulations You have leveled up!!! You have five free stat point to allocate, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +1 to Constitution, +2 Strength, +1 Agility. Fame increased by 5.
I have had enough today, so I enter stealth and head back to the village. Arc1 Ch 7 – Day 2 Starter Village P2 As I make my way back to the village a feeling of relief comes over me as it comes into view. I exchange greetings with the two guards, and head to the Tavern to sell the rabbit meat and see what the wolf¡¯s body would sell for. As I enter the tavern John greets me, from behind the bar, otherwise the tavern is empty. ¡°Hi, looks like you have been busy leveling since I last saw you.¡± He says with a smile. ¡°I have been and have a few things to sell.¡± ¡°Great, come over to the bar and let¡¯s look at what you have.¡± As I reach the bar I start to pull the meat from my inventory when John laughs and then apologizes. ¡°Sorry about that. I forgot you haven¡¯t done any trading yet. Put the meat back in your inventory and think trade while looking at me.¡± A new window opens with two sets of side by side grids, with each grid 4 by 4 squares. It looks a lot like my inventory screen, with my name over the right-hand grid and John¡¯s over the left. ¡°Now think about putting the meat you want to trade into your side of the trade panel.¡± As I do 4 stacks of 10 rabbit meat appear in the window along with 4 in a separate stack from the rabbits I killed. ¡°Great and you have been busy. Our price we agree on is 1cp per 2 pieces of meat, so that comes to 22cp. Let me put that in my side of the trade window.¡± I see the pile of copper pieces appear in John¡¯s side. I get a panel asking if I accept the trade and as I do both panels vanish. My inventory now has 22cp and no rabbit meat. ¡°John what is the ratio of copper pieces to other coins?¡± ¡°Well, it is 100cp to the silver, 100sp to the gold, and 100gp to the platinum.¡± ¡°I have one more thing to trade, but not sure if you are interested. I killed an Alpha Wolf.¡± John¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°How did you do that? You are only level 6 and they are typically level 7 with a lot more health than you. Also, they are usually in a pack with up to eight other wolves.¡± ¡°I got a little lucky. It was just the one lone alpha wolf.¡± I say as I grin weakly. ¡°That makes a little more sense, sometimes an Alpha wolf in challenged for leadership of the pack and the loser is either killed or in this case forced out of the pack. So, you butchered it and want to sell the meat?¡± ¡°No, I had room in my inventory, so I have the whole wolf.¡± With a laugh he says, ¡°Well then follow me.¡± John leads me back to the kitchen with a dizzying array of pots and pans, chopping blocks, cast iron stoves, and a huge butchering table, which is where he gestures for me to put the wolf. I place the wolf on the table. John looks it over and says, ¡°Well this looks pretty good, so I will make a deal with you.¡± I look at him suspiciously, but say, ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°Oh, you look so suspicious of me, I should be offended.¡± He says with a grin. ¡°I have a very good Skinning skill compared to you, so I will get a very good quality skin and more meat than you would. I am suggesting you let me butcher the wolf. You will get the skin and I will get the meat.¡± That is a good deal, because with my low-level skinning I am still having trouble with lower level rabbits versus a higher-level wolf. ¡°That sounds reasonable. I want to keep the tail for a quest and can you show me how I can do a better job skinning as well?¡± ¡°That is no problem.¡± John removes a large skinning knife and sharpens it on a strap of leather hanging on the edge of the table. John switches to lecture mode as he begins to skin the wolf and then butcher the animal. I learn a lot and the System seems to agree as my Skinning skill goes up a level. I also see I now have a Trading skill I just learned from negotiating for the training and wolf skin. John hands me a Superb Quality Wolf Skin as he finishes. ¡°You should be able to take that Skin to the General Store and get a good price.¡± John says. ¡°How much would they offer for this?¡± ¡°You should use it as an opportunity to build up your own trading skills, but I will say it should get around a silver, see if you can¡¯t do better than that. Now off with you while I take care of all these delicious alpha wolf steaks.¡± I head over to the General Store. Burt is back up on his ladder going through overstock. He slides down as I tell him I have some skins to sell. ¡°Great, rabbit skins, right?¡± he says. ¡°To start with.¡± I say with a grin. ¡°Do you want me to open a trade window and add them?¡± ¡°That would be great.¡± I open a trade window with Burt and add the skins. I added 44 skins, 17 poor, 20 average, and 7 good.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Ok, I can give you 4cp for the bundle of poor quality skins, 7cp for the bundle of average skins, and 3cp for the bundle of good skins, which is 14cp total.¡± ¡°You make it 15cp and we have a deal.¡± ¡°Hah, I was being generous, but ok, 15cp it is.¡± He adds 15cp to his side of the trade window and I accept. ¡°Now I have a few things you can probably afford now.¡± He says as he starts to head over to one of the tables. ¡°Wait I have one more thing to sell.¡± ¡°Oh, really, what¡¯s that?¡± ¡°I have a Wolf Skin.¡± ¡°Great let¡¯s see it.¡± He says as he opens a trade window. I put the Alpha Wolf skin in the trade window and his expression is priceless. As he tries to wipe the surprised expression off his face, he says. ¡°How in the world did you kill an Alpha and get a superb skin off it?¡± ¡°I got lucky, so how much for the skin?¡± He looks at me with disbelief and then looks more serious as he says, ¡°I can give you 75cp for it.¡± I say, ¡°That¡¯s funny because when I was showing it at the Tavern I could swear John thought it would go for over a silver.¡± Burt frowns as he says, ¡°John should not be commenting on merchandise he is not dealing in.¡± I just look at him. ¡°Alright, 1sp is my final offer.¡± I grin as I accept the payment. ¡°Now I think we can look at some merchandise. First do you have any chalk?¡± ¡°Yes, 5 pieces of white chalk is 2cp.¡± ¡°Ok, I will take that. I would like to see some spells if you have any.¡± ¡°Sure, right over here we have the level one and two spells. Level one is 10cp each and level two are 30cp each. I can also teach you how to channel mana for 20cp. You won¡¯t be getting a different price for these.¡± I look at the scrolls and see the four level one spells there is Mend, Mana Dart, Ignite, and Light. The level two spells are Ice Dart, Fire Dart, Shield, and Minor Heal. ¡°What is the difference between level one and two, any prerequisites?¡± ¡°Only difference is the amount of power. If you have enough mana to cast level two spells you will also need to be at least Novice in Mana Manipulation.¡± ¡°I would like Mana Dart, Ice Dart, Fire Dart, Shield, and Minor Heal.¡± I open a trade window and put 130cp in it. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°I think that will do it thanks.¡± I accept the trade as he adds the spells and chalk. ¡°Thanks.¡± I say as I head out of the store and back over to the tavern for dinner. John serves me another delicious bowl of stew and bread as we make small talk. I can tell he is curious about what I got at the store, but he doesn¡¯t pry. I wonder if he will say anything after talking to Burt. After dinner I head up to my room, lock the door, and take the scrolls out of my inventory. As I review each scroll it turns to dust and I get a notification with the spell details.
Mana Dart, Level 1 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates a compressed dart of mana that explodes on impact for 2-8 points of base damage plus two points per skillTier level. Range: 30 feet plus 5 feet per skillTier level past Basic Cost: 10 mana
Ice Dart, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates a shard of ice that shatters on impact for 5-15 points of base damage plus five points per skillTier level.Can create an extra dart for each skillTier past Basic for an additional 15 mana per dart. Range: 50 feet plus 10 feet per skillTier level past Basic Cost: 30 mana
Fire Dart, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates dart of elemental fire that explodes on impact for 5-15 points of base damage plus five points per skillTier level past Basic. Can create an extra dart for each skillTier past Basic for an additional 15 mana per dart. Range: 50 feet plus 10 feet per skillTier level past Basic Cost: 30 mana
Shield, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates a shield of force to protect the caster. The shield will absorb 15 points of damage plus five points per skillTier level. Range: Self Duration: 1 hour plus 1 hour per skillTier past Basic Cost: 30 mana
Minor Heal, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell heals the target for 5-15 points of base damage plus five points per skill Tier level. Range: 30 feet plus 10 feet per skillTier level past Basic Cost: 30 mana
Great, I now should be able to handle creatures a lot easier on my own. I examine my stats while getting sleepier in bed.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 6 XP to next Level: 1580/2100
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 140
Str: 16 Melee Damage Modifier: +6
Agi: 13 Range Damage Modifier: +3
Dodge: 3%
Con: 11 Health / Stamina: 55 / 55
Health / Stamina Regen: 11% per min
End: 23 Pain Threshold: 13%
Int: 26 Mana Pool: 130
Wis: 21 Mana Regen Rate: 5.25 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 23 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 1, 50%), Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 7, 62%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 2, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 6, 53%), Numbness, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 9, 30%), Trading (Basic 3, 50%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Fire Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Ice Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Basic 1, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 53%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Basic 1, 0%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 5
Arc1 Ch 8 - Day 3 Starter Village P1 I wake up and feel excited. Today is the day I go back to visit Cal. I roll out of bed and head down to get breakfast and chat with John. Feeling my chin I am thinking about not shaving since arriving in this world. The description of Harrow indicates I won¡¯t have facial hair, but I haven¡¯t seen anyone else with any either. I ask John about it. He says, ¡°Facial will growth if you focus on it, but you really must want it. There are even barbers in the cities, but they don¡¯t have to cut as much as style your hair. This can give you a temporary charisma bonus.¡± What a strange world I think to myself. ¡°I did have another question about the spells I learned last night. They reference skill Tiers. What is a Tier?¡± John rubs his chin as he considers. ¡°When you advance your skill with a spell you will gradually advance from skill progression level one to one hundred. The one hundred levels of advancement are divided into ten Tiers, which are Basic, Novice, Beginner, Advanced, Adept, Expert, Master, Grand Master, Sage, and Legendary. You will have to advance ten levels within a Tier to advance to the next Tier. Most skills see the biggest advancement in power as you progress to the next Tier.¡± ¡°So, I will start in Basic 1 and increase up to Basic 10 before going to Novice 1?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got it.¡± ¡°Thanks John, I will see you later, have a good day.¡± I wave as I head over to see Cal. Cal is out on his porch drinking a mug of something steaming. He appears to be in a great mood as he greets me and invites me in saying, ¡°Great timing, everything is done. Come take a look.¡± He leads me back to his study. There is now a clear spot on the cluttered table with the lights focused on a long flat wooden box. The box itself is a rich mahogany buffed until it glows under the lights. He gestures. ¡°Go on and open it.¡± I open the lid and gasp at what I see inside. There are 10 copper rings and a necklace in the box along with a small velvet bag. Each of the rings has a braided copper band etched with runes and inset with a faceted Amethyst that flared under the lights. I don¡¯t know anything about runes, but it looks like there are two sets of different rune patterns for the rings in the box. The necklace is a copper chain that holds a copper amulet inset with seven Amethysts. One larger stone in the center of the amulet and six evenly spaced around it. ¡°Try the rings and necklace on and tell me what you think. The other stones are in the velvet bag and they are cut as well.¡± I place the rings on my finger and they fit perfectly. I drape the necklace around my neck and turn to a mirror he has on the wall. They all look great, but more important are the notifications that suddenly pop up.
You have found: Rings of Intelligence (x5) +1 to intelligence each Rings or Wisdom (x5) +1 to wisdom each Necklace of Mana Storage, this necklace can store up to seventy mana. When worn will increase the size of the user mana pool by seventy.
Cal then says, ¡°This is the best I could do without incurring a level restriction that would block you from using the items.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Are you kidding, this is incredible, but I didn¡¯t expect you would be doing this.¡± ¡°Consider it a bonus for completing the quest.¡± I open the pouch and see a beautiful collection of ten cut and faceted Amethysts. ¡°If you sell the pouch of gems at the General Store you should get fifty coppers per gem.¡± I peek at my Status and see my intelligence and wisdom have gone up 5 points each. ¡°This is great.¡± ¡°Glad you like it. The pouch has the remaining twenty-seven gems.¡± After looking in the pouch, I say. ¡°Isn¡¯t that too many? I thought there were only twenty-seven gems in the geode.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, but the larger stones can be cut into three smaller gems and the medium into two. The rings use smaller stones and the necklace used one medium and six small. This should give you enough money to buy spells and some decent arms and armor.¡± ¡°I already bought some spells.¡± ¡°Well I suggest you get them all and practice them in the yard by the barracks. There are practice dummies behind the building.¡± ¡°The captain didn¡¯t offer that when I talked to him.¡± ¡°He won¡¯t until you finish the wolf quest, but if you ask he will let you use them. Go and sell the gems, get the remaining spells, and then go to the tailor and get leather boots, pants, belt, shirt, and a cloak of concealment from behind the counter. At the blacksmith you should be able to get a bronze sword and dagger. These are of course just suggestions.¡± ¡°I am sure if you are suggesting it I should give serious consideration to it. Thanks again and I will head to the General Store first.¡± I wave good bye as Cal follows me out to take his seat on the porch. I walk over to the General Store and once again find Burt up on his ladder. He slides down and greets me as I enter the store, saying, ¡°Back so soon? Forget some supplies?¡± ¡°Actually, I have some more to sell.¡± ¡°You do? What did you do, go hunting at night?¡± ¡°Not exactly.¡± I pull the pouch out of my inventory and open a trade window with Burt, placing the twenty-seven gems in the trade window. ¡°How in the world did you get these?¡± Burt exclaims in surprise. ¡°I got this as a reward for a quest.¡± ¡°Impossible, there are no quests here for this.¡± I just raise an eyebrow and say. ¡°How much? I was thinking one silver each.¡± ¡°Ha, you jest. You may have surprised me, but you must think I am out of my mind to offer so much. Twenty coppers would be generous.¡± ¡°Now it is my turn to laugh. These are superbly cut stones with no flaws, I would only consider eighty coppers because we have done good business in the past.¡± ¡°Ridiculous, no one would be interested in such low-quality gems even if adequately cut, but because you are such a good customer, I will offer you thirty coppers.¡± I open the pouch on the counter under the overhead lights they seem to catch fire. ¡°Adequately cut? Look at the fire in these gems. Even taking seventy coppers for these beauties is a crime.¡± ¡°Crime? You are indeed a thief to try for such a price. Forty coppers will be my final offer.¡± ¡°It saddens me to hear you say that.¡± I start to pick up the gems one at a time to put back into my pouch and close the trading window. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°You said it¡¯s your final offer and it is not close to the gems value. A trader¡¯s word is paramount when making a deal. While we may embellish and show our products in the best night we must never lie to finalize a deal. Therefore, I will hold onto my gems until I find someone who recognizes their real value.¡± As I close the pouch a notification fills my vision.
Congratulations You have recognized a key tenet of the Merchant class. Merchant is now available as a secondary class. You have gained three levels in Trading. Basic 6, 75%. As a reward your next trade will receive maximum value.
I start laughing as I close the notification. Burt says. ¡°What¡¯s so funny.¡± ¡°Let me show you.¡± I say, as I open a trade window and offer the gems again. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I would like to sell these. How much will you offer?¡± Twenty-seven silvers fill his side of the trading window, which is one silver per gem. ¡°I also want to buy the three-remaining level one spells and the five Lore books.¡± As the spells slide into Burt¡¯s side of the trade window the amount decreases by five silvers and thirty coppers and I click accept. ¡°What the hell?¡± Burt says with a furious expression. ¡°How did you do that?¡± ¡°It was a reward.¡± Burt¡¯s expression looks to be equal parts surprise and anger. ¡°Thanks, now I have to be off to the Tailor.¡± Burt starts to open his mouth to say something then snaps it shut as he grits his teeth. I left the Store with a wave and head over to the Tailor. I took far too much enjoyment from doing that to Burt, but he just rubs me the wrong way. Arc1 Ch 8 - Day 3 Starter Village P2 As I walk up to the Tailors I see Susan the Tailor measuring cloth out on the counter through the glass paneled door. She greets me warmly. ¡°Nice to see you again. Looks like you have been busy leveling. What can I do for you today?¡± ¡°I would like to buy some leather boots, pants, belt, shirt, and a cloak of concealment.¡± She has a look of surprise on her face as she says. ¡°I have the leather cloths, but a cloak of concealment?¡± ¡°Yes, they should be behind your counter.¡± ¡°How do you now that?¡± She yells. Wow, that is serious transformation from sweet mild mannered to irate. ¡°I am sorry, that is information from a quest and I can¡¯t say any more than that. Now clothes?¡± She takes a deep breath, goes over to the table with neat piles of folded clothes and gets a pair of pants, and shirt. She takes a belt from the rack. Over on a shelf she retrieves a pair of calf high boots and finally reaches behind the counter to get a cloak. She opens a trade window and says it will be two silvers for the cloak and fifty coppers each for the cloths which brings it to four silvers even. That is non-negotiable. ¡°Ok.¡± I say as I put four silvers in the trade window and select accept. ¡°Do you have a changing room?¡± She grins and says, ¡°I am tempted to make you change under a blanket, but just look at the items in your inventory and think equip.¡± As I do that the clothes suddenly appear on my body and I check out my clothes.
Equipment: Uncommon Leather Shirt, Defense: 5, Durability: 25/25, A sturdy well-made leather shirt. Uncommon Leather Pants, Defense: 5, Durability: 25/25, A sturdy well-made pair of leather pants. Uncommon Leather Belt, Defense: 2, Durability: 10/10, A sturdy well-made leather belt. Uncommon Leather Boots, Defense: 4, Durability: 20/20, A sturdy well-made pair of leather boots. Uncommon Leather Cloak of Concealment, Durability 25/25, A sturdy well-made leather cloak. Three times per day can conceal the user from sight if the user does not move. Certain skills can pierce the concealment. Chance of concealment increased when the stealth skill is in use.
¡°Now I have a Defense of sixteen, what does that mean?¡± ¡°Right, when you are attacked your defense is subtracted from the damage. If that means the resulting damage is zero or less you take no damage. The remaining damage reduces the durability of your items by one tenth of the damage taken rounded down. For example, you have a sixteen for defense and someone hits you for twenty points of damage minus sixteen for defense, which means you take four points of damage. Also, your clothes take four divided by ten durability damage, but since this is zero when rounded down you take zero durability damage. You would have to take ten points of damage or more to reduce a point of durability.¡± ¡°Ok, thanks. I am off to the blacksmith. Have a great day.¡± I twirl my cloak and exit the shop. As I enter the blacksmith¡¯s shop a blast of hot air hits me and I see the smith hammering a red-hot piece of metal. He then taps the anvil repeatedly. It is strangely soothing despite being so loud. After he puts the metal back in the fire I clear my throat politely. The smith jumps as he turns to look at me and says, ¡°Sorry about that. I get very focused when forging.¡± ¡°No problem, I liked watching you work.¡± ¡°What can I get you today?¡± ¡°I am interested in a sword and dagger.¡± ¡°Well based on your stats I would suggest a short or medium length sword and a stabbing dagger unless you are interested in a throwing dagger?¡± ¡°Stabbing dagger is fine and a medium sword.¡± ¡°A dagger will run you forty to eighty coppers depending if you want bronze or steel. I would suggest bronze because this is a starter area and that will work fine for anything here. After you leave you will have access to a lot of options including enchanted gear.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Ok, then a bronze dagger and medium sword.¡± ¡°Right, the dagger will be forty coppers and two silvers for the sword. You don¡¯t need to negotiate since I offer a fair price and I am the only blacksmith in the village.¡± I open a trade window and add two silvers and forty coppers, while Howard puts a dagger and sword in his side of the window. I select accept and look at my new purchases.
Equipment: Uncommon Bronze Dagger, Damage 12-18. Durability: 50/50. Uncommon Bronze Sword, Damage 25-40. Durability: 75/75.
A big difference over the stone dagger I created. I am starting to feel I could kill an Alpha wolf with ease. Howard turns back to his forge after I accept the trade. I say good day and he just grunts as he pulls the metal back out of the forge to the anvil. I head over to the barracks to get some practice. I see the captain is still drilling guards, who all glance at me hoping that my presence will distract the captain from yelling. He looks at me and says, ¡°You already completed the quest?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°Well what do you want then?¡± ¡°I would like to train on the dummies behind the barracks.¡± ¡°How do you know about that?¡± He asks sharply. ¡°It is part of a quest.¡± He looks at me suspiciously but says, ¡°Alright, but you better not miss the dummies and hit the building or wall.¡± ¡°Great, thanks.¡± I say as I quickly jog around to the back of the barracks. There are eight dummies setup made of canvas and straw. I pull the three new spells scrolls out and read them first. As they crumble to dust I learn the following.
Mend, Level 1 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell will repair the durability of an item. Mend can be casted once on each item. Repairs 5-15 points of durability plus two points per skillTier level. Range: Touch Cost: 20 mana
Ignite, Level 1 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates a spot of intense heat, which will ignite any flammable material. If casted on a creature will cause 3 points of base damage plus one point per skillTier level. Range: 10 feet plus 5 feet per skillTier level Cost: 5 mana
Light, Level 1 Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level) This spell creates a ball of light, which illuminates everything in 20 feet. Range: 10 feet plus 5 feet per skillTier level. Cost: 5 mana per minute
I rub my hands together and check out my character before starting.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 6 XP to next Level: 1580/2100
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 140
Str: 16 Melee Damage Modifier: +6
Agi: 13 Range Damage Modifier: +3
Dodge: 3%
Con: 11 Health / Stamina: 55 / 55
Health / Stamina Regen: 11% per min
End: 23 Pain Threshold: 13%
Int: 31 (5) Mana Pool: 225 (70)
Wis: 26 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 6.5 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 28 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 1, 50%), Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 7, 78%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 2, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 6, 53%), Numbness, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 9, 30%), Trading (Basic 6, 75%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Fire Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Ice Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Basic 1, 0%), Light (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Basic 1, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 53%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Basic 1, 0%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 5
I think I will start with spells. With the necklace and rings my mana pool has seriously grown. I start casting Mana Dart at a dummy. A swirl of faint blue light forms into small glowing bullet of energy in my right hand, and then snaps from my hand into the dummy¡¯s chest. A faint red minus five appears above the dummy. With that taking two seconds to cast, at ten mana a cast I will be down to half mana in under 26 seconds. I better sit down while I do this. I situate myself with my back to the barrack wall and start to cast as fast as I can. I get off twelve casts before I pass out. As I come to, I find myself slouched against the barrack wall. I sit up and grab my head. This mana induces headache, sucks. Looking at my clock I see twenty minutes have gone by since I started casting. Ok, time for some serious grinding. It¡¯s 9:25AM right now, so I will cast until noon and then get some food at the tavern and take a break before continuing. I stop at 12:05PM to get some lunch after passing out eight more times, which means I cast Mana Dart one hundred and eight times. My Mana Dart Level is now at Novice 4, 20%. The spell damage increases by two points and the mana cost goes down by a point. Arc1 Ch 8 - Day 3 Starter Village P3 After training so much I am starving, so I head over to the Tavern and join John at the bar. He brings me another bowl of delicious stew and some more crusty bread. In between bites I ask John about forming a party. While I don¡¯t have any one to form a party with I want to know how it works. John says. ¡°You can mentally invite someone. They will get a notification for the invite and can accept. If they accept you as the leader of the party you can set up rules to split the loot, which can be as complicated as you want. Then each person¡¯s mana bar and health are visible to each other. You can reveal anything else about your character you want. Max party size is eight people. Typically, you want a dedicated healer, two tanks, three damage dealers, and two spell casters. However, parties can vary a lot based on types of quests and the skills of the party members. Do you know what I mean by tank and damage dealers?¡± ¡°Yes, a tank would be someone able to absorb a lot of damage and keep the enemy focused on them. While the damage dealer could be either ranged or melee, who can generate or cause a lot of damage. Why list the spell casters separately since they can be damage dealers?¡± ¡°Good question. The spell casters would fill in as damage dealers or healers as needed, while also supplying buffs to the party and de-buffs to the enemy. You seem to grasp things very well, how about buffs and de-buffs? Are you familiar with them?¡± ¡°Buffs would be spells that grant some bonus to the party, while a de-buff would reduce the abilities of the enemy in some way.¡± ¡°Excellent. Well that¡¯s the basics, any other questions?¡± ¡°Nothing for now, thanks, John.¡± ¡°No problem, good hunting.¡± I return to the barrack and wave to the Captain as I jog around to the back and sit down against the barrack wall. I am going to switch to Fire Dart next. Before starting I check out my Mana Manipulation. It has jumped to Beginner 2, which reduces my mana cost by 11% and increases my mana regen to 6.85 per minute. That makes the spell cost twenty-seven mana, which means five casts before I pass out and twenty minutes to wake up and repeat. All right let¡¯s get back to grinding. After repeating the cycle for the fifteenth time I wake up to find the Captain standing over me.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Have you been depleting your mana and passing out all day?¡± He says. ¡°Yes.¡± I grab my head and look at my clock, which says it¡¯s 6PM.¡± ¡°I am impressed. Most natives usually need a trainer to keep them at it to increase their endurance.¡± ¡°Thanks, I believe it.¡± I say as he reaches down a hand to help me up. ¡°At this rate you will get the first level of the Numbness skill soon.¡± ¡°First level?¡± ¡°Yes, the first level lets you stay conscious for a minute after dipping below 50% mana or 25% heal. Subsequent levels awarded will increase the time you stay conscious.¡± ¡°I already got Numbness while I was in the Starter Glade.¡± ¡°Great job, I knew you were dedicated, but getting that on your own is impressive. Now even though I would be the last one to want you to slack off you should take a break and eat dinner.¡± ¡°Thanks, I think I will. Have a good night.¡± I walk slowly over to the tavern as my head throbs in time with my footsteps. I step into the tavern and over to the bar. Tonight''s dinner is a wolf steak. I look at John and he laughs ¡°No, not Alpha wolf, just a regular wolf." I dig in and it is very good. I feel much better after dinner and make small talk with John before heading up to my room. I sit in my bed and look at the clock, which reads 7PM. I am going to try casting Minor Heal for 3 hours before going to sleep. My Mana Manipulations is up to Beginner 5 now with mana cost reduced by 12.5% and mana regeneration at 6.9 per minute. That will be twenty-seven mana per cast and five casts before I pass out and twenty minutes to become awake. I cast once and see a golden glow outlines my body. All the little aches and pains of the day fade away. I sigh and start grinding again.At10PM Istop and take a quick look at the notifications I have accumulated during the day.
You have reached Novice rank in the Spell Mana Dart. 25 XP awarded. You have reached Beginner rank in the Skill Mana Manipulation. 250 XP awarded. You have reached Novice rank in the Spell Fire Dart. 25 XP awarded.
I have finally reached the Novice rank and got my Mana Manipulation up to Beginner. It was worth the hard days training. I collapse on my bed and fall asleep before even thinking to turn the lamp off. Arc1 Ch 9 – Day 4 Starter Village P1 As I slowly open my eyes I stretch out under the fluffy covers. I can¡¯t get over how I can get such a good night¡¯s sleep on what looks like a simple bed. I consider yesterday¡¯s event and I got very lucky with that Jeweler¡¯s quest and the rewards from it. Not to mention that Cal is my bestie for life, I think with a grin. Before getting out of bed I pull out the Lore books from yesterday and start reading them. They are a lot thicker than the Beginner¡¯s Guide and it takes me two hours to speed read all five as they crumple to dust one by one. I look at my Lore now.
Lore, Basic 3 (33%) This skill works with the Inspect skill to allow the user to identify people and items covered by the knowledge this skill imparts. Currently have access to Common Creatures and Items. Read more books to increase your chance to identify new creatures and items you encounter.
That should help my Inspect a bit. I head down to a late breakfast where John ribs me about sleeping in. I talk about the Lore books I had read, while I eat my sandwich. The food is simple with just eggs, bacon, and toast but tastes amazing. After I finish I ask for sandwiches to go for lunch and dinner. Then I go to the bathhouse to freshen up and get my clothes laundered. Finally, I return to the barracks to grind some more. I greet the Captain on the way back. He nods to me without breaking the tongue lashing he is giving one of the guards. I stretch a bit, but I am just procrastinating. I guess for some reason I am not looking forward to more mana headaches. After casting Fire Dart so much yesterday I had a thought and want to try Fire Shaping again. I take a seat against the wall and hold my hands in front of my lap. I focus on trying to diffuse mana into the air between my hands. I see a faint cloud of mana form between my hands as I focus on the sensation of the Fire Dart flame within the cloud. After a few seconds of focusing it ignites with a boom cracking my head against the barrack wall and leaving me with a sharp burning pain on my hands and face. Looking at my combat log I see I took twenty points of damage. I cast Minor Heal, mostly for the pain. This time I try hold up one finger and try to diffuse a thin trail of mana from my finger and then ignite it. Thirty minutes and a few burnt fingers later I succeed in creating both a small steady flame and getting the notification I was hoping for.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Shape Fire, Basic Level 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to diffuse mana outside the casters body and ignite it. 25 mana per 1 cubic foot of fire. Minimum cost 10 mana. Can change the diffused mana into any geometric shape. Mana cost reduced by one per every ten skill levels. As the skill progresses more options will become available. Cost increases for more complex object shapes. Shaping Time: 1 minute per cubic foot minus 10% per skillTier level past Basic. Range: Self Duration: Instantaneous
You have learned the skill Shape Fire, 20 XP awarded. Basic 1.
I have finally gotten fire, now I settle in to continue grinding and start with casting Shield. Basically, the same pattern as yesterday, with five casts of Shield before I pass out and twenty minutes to wake up. I want to get it up to Novice rank before switching to another spell. I cast sixty-six times before I hit Novice one, but I keep going to seventy before switching. That was almost five hours, so I take a break and eat a sandwich. Next, I start casting Ice Dart for another seventy casts. It¡¯s now a little after 7PM, so I eat my other sandwich as my latest mana headache begins to fade. Arc1 Ch 9 – Day 4 Starter Village P2 As I finish my sandwich, the Captain comes around the corner of the building and says, ¡°Finished for the day?¡± ¡°Yes, I got two more spells to Novice 1 today.¡± ¡°Very good, what about your Sword and Dagger skills?¡± ¡°I just have Basic 1 in Daggers and have not used a Sword yet.¡± ¡°Well then there is no time like the present. Draw your sword.¡± I jump up to my feet and draw my sword. I am not going to turn down free training. I almost regret that decision as we begin to spar. The Captain repeatedly has me make slow sure strikes at him. When I don¡¯t follow through to his liking, he hits me with the flat of his sword. After repeating the strikes for an hour, he then has me strike faster several times before continuing slow strokes. He also keeps hitting my legs, feet, and back to make sure I maintain the correct posture and situational awareness. It is well after dark when he lets me stop. Vera is up tonight as it gets dark and with my Dark Vision I have no problem continuing the training. I wonder if the Captain has a similar ability. ¡°Ok, that is a good start. If you continue practicing your spells tomorrow we can work on your dagger skill in the evening.¡± He says as he walks off. I ache all over. Wait a second, I have a spell for that. I cast a Minor Heal on myself. A wave of golden light envelopes me. I sigh in relief. Looking at my new Sword skill I see that in the last two hours I am at Basic 4. I amble back to the Tavern and have a seat by John at the bar. I think I can use a drink and want to ask John about Primary and Secondary classes. ¡°John, could I have an ale?¡± ¡°Sure, that will be one copper.¡± ¡°What? I thought food and drink are free the first seven days?¡± ¡°Three meals with drinks are free, but anything else will cost you.¡± I flip him a copper and, in a minute, he hands me a large mug with foam running down the side. I take a deep gulp and wipe the foam from my lips. ¡°I should have gotten one of these before.¡± John chuckles. ¡°We do have good ale here. So, how was your day?¡± ¡°I have been practicing my spell casting before I go back out hunting.¡± ¡°That is very smart. Most adventurers will enter the starter area as a group. With you being by yourself you want to make sure you have as many skills and spells as possible to deal with the creatures and situations you will find yourself in.¡± ¡°I was thinking the same thing. I did have one thing I intended to ask you yesterday, but it slipped my mind.¡± ¡°Sure, what¡¯s the question?¡± ¡°What is the difference between a Primary and Secondary class? Can you have multiple classes? How do you find out about classes? Are there teachers?¡± ¡°Whoa, definitely more than one question. You can¡¯t get a Primary class until you are level ten. It would be rare to learn a secondary class here in the starter area, but I am guessing you did get one offered?¡± I pause for a second. I can¡¯t think of any reason not to tell John. ¡°I got Merchant.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. John¡¯s eyes widen and suddenly he gives a huge belly laugh. ¡°That would explain it.¡± He says, as he wipes tears from his eyes. ¡°Explain what?¡± I ask puzzled by his behavior. ¡°Burt has been complaining all day that you somehow tricked him and the System into giving you a great deal.¡± ¡°I got a good deal, but that was a reward for getting the Merchant class.¡± John waves my explanation away saying. ¡°No need to explain. I am guessing you figured out a tenet?¡± I nod yes as he continues. ¡°Well this is great. I can string Burt along for a while. Please don¡¯t tell him what happened. There is so little entertainment here and this is just so funny.¡± ¡°I guess, but maybe I would forget to tell him if I got another ale.¡± John laughs saying. ¡°Ok mighty trader.¡± And he gets me another ale to replace the one I finished while we were talking. ¡°Back to the classes, can you give me any more information?¡± ¡°Sure, you get one Primary class and one Secondary class, but they can change over time.¡± ¡°You mean I can switch them?¡± He looks thoughtful as he says. ¡°No, it is more a progression. For example, a Basic class is Warrior, but over time you may acquire the knowledge and prerequisites to become a Defender, which is a Warrior specializing in defense.¡± ¡°Interesting, can I switch classes later?¡± ¡°You can but it is very hard. You must state you want to switch and the System will generate a quest. During the quest you will not be able to use any of your current class abilities.¡± ¡°So, don¡¯t screw up and pick the wrong class.¡± ¡°Right, also there are advanced classes you can learn that have a stronger progression path, but they are hard to come by. You need to find a special teacher or some guilds to have access to special classes. Even some royal families have special classes that you can only learn when you join their household.¡± ¡°Do people wait to hold out for the class they really want?¡± ¡°You can try, but your development will be seriously stunted without picking at least a primary class.¡± ¡°Well that gives me a lot to think about.¡± ¡°No problem and remember don¡¯t tell Burt.¡± I laugh as I climb up the stairs to my room. I was thinking about casting Minor Heal some, but I am beat. I just fall into bed after looking at my stats. I got another 50XP for getting Novice in Shield and Ice Dart.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 6 XP to next Level: 1950/2100
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 140
Str: 16 Melee Damage Modifier: +6
Agi: 13 Range Damage Modifier: +3
Dodge: 3%
Con: 11 Health / Stamina: 55 / 55
Health / Stamina Regen: 11% per min
End: 26 Pain Threshold: 16%
Int: 31 (5) Mana Pool: 225 (70)
Wis: 26 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 6.9 per min
Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0%
Per: 28 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 1, 50%), Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 8, 21%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Mana Manipulation (Beginner 4, 28%), Numbness, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 9, 30%), Swords (Basic 4, 33%), Trading (Basic 6, 75%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Fire Dart (Novice 1, 25%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ignite (Basic 1, 0%), Light (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Basic 9, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Novice 1, 33%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 5
Arc1 Ch 10 - Day 5 Starter Village I wake up early the next morning all refreshed. It¡¯s amazing that I get a good sleep every night. I hop out of bed and go down to the Tavern room. ¡°Good Morning.¡± I say to John as I take a seat. ¡°Let me get you some breakfast, one minute.¡± John says as he walks back to the kitchen. John puts a large plate of eggs, sausage, and toast in front of me with a large mug of ale. I dig while I ask John something that¡¯s been on my mind. ¡°John how come I am the only one here. Cal told me you only get one group a month, but I would of thought that with a large Empire that the starter area would have more people.¡± John looked embarrassed as he replied. ¡°All of the six domains have a starter area and they are all laid out the same way. So, there is no reason to go to one in a different domain. Also, each of the areas in a remote area of the domain. There are not gates setup in the outpost by the starter area, so you have to walk, take a mount, or teleport here.¡± John trails off after that as I chew thoughtfully I think I know why he is embarrassed. ¡°That means only the rich can get here.¡± ¡°Well not just the rich, but you have to either have someone of high enough level take you through the wilderness to get here, which means around level twenty, or be able to afford a teleport, which can be ten to fifty gold.¡± ¡°Hmmm, so what does that mean for me when I get out. I would guess someone is probably waiting for those that go into the Starter Area?¡± ¡°Sometimes, but many may be third or fourth sons and daughters that are given entrance to the Starter Area as a send off gift and then they are expected to make it on their own. There are exceptions of course where someone will be waiting for them. I expect you will be treated just like any of these others and asked to join a guild based on your stats, abilities, and achievements. I would say based on your progress so far your will have several offers to choose from.¡± ¡°Thanks John.¡± I say as I dig back into my meal and we turn to just some small talk, while I finish my breakfast. I ask for some sandwiches for lunch and dinner. I then go to the barrack for more training. On the way, I see Cal on his porch, so I stop and say hi. We chat for a bit as I fill him in on my last few days. I thank him again for the rings and necklace as I depart. The Captain nods at me when I arrive at the barracks. I jog around to the back of the building and take a seat. I am going to practice Light and Ignite today. Hopefully I can also cast Minor Heal a few more times to get it to Novice 1. I start out with Light, which requires nine mana with the mana manipulation cost reduction. I will be able to cast twelve times before passing out with twenty minutes to wake up, then rinse and repeat. It should take two hours to hit Novice 1. I focus and start casting. After I hit Novice 1 I switch to Ignite, which has the same cost and regeneration time. While useful it is utterly boring. I amuse myself by casting the light and ignite different parts of the dummies¡¯ limbs. After four hours I take a break to eat a sandwich and let the mana headache slowly fade. Ok only Minor Healing and Mend still need to get to Novice 1. I am not sure what I can do about Mend. I will ask John tonight if he has any ideas. Next, I will cast Minor Heal for twenty-seven mana, so I can cast five time before passing out, which will get me fifteen in one hour. I will need two hours to make it to Novice 1. I start casting on different parts of my body. It¡¯s the only thing I can think of to keep me interested for the next two hours. It looks like even my pinky or little toe is enough to get me healed. After two hours I now have everything at Novice 1 except for Mend. I get another 50XP for getting Novice in two more spells. Well, now what? I am not feeling motivated. I am probably going to regret this, but I circle around to the front of the barrack and wait for the Captain to be free. I say, ¡°I have completed getting to Novice 1 on all spells except Mend. Do you have a suggestion on what would be the most useful to level next?¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He looks at me and I am guessing he is using Inspect to check out my skills. The Captain says, ¡°I can think of something that would help you a lot, but you need to be able to endure the pain. Based on your endurance, you have what it takes, so how about it?¡± ¡°After that rousing speech I am afraid to ask. Ok, let¡¯s do it.¡± The Captain laughs and leads me to the back of the barracks after telling a Lieutenant to take over. When we get there, the Captain has me change back into my Starter clothes. He then describes what he is going to do as I break out into a cold sweat. ¡°As you know Endurance increases separately based on loss of mana and hit points. However, you can level both at once if you work with a teacher who can injure you enough to put you under 25% at the same time you deplete your mana. Of course, you need to trust your instructor not to kill you.¡± He says with an evil grin. "Now, draw your sword and start casting one of your second level spells, which should deplete your mana the quickest.¡± ¡°Cast at the dummy?¡± ¡°No, cast it at me.¡± ¡°All right, I will cast fire dart.¡± ¡°Good, you need to practice using spells and your sword at the same time in combat. Draw your sword and come at me while casting.¡± I draw my sword, take a firm stance on the balls of my feet, and cast with my left hand. I must think about it because I have been using my right hand up until now to cast. As I release my spell I lunge at the Captain¡¯s right leg. The Captain flicks his wrist and deflects my spell into the sand about ten feet to my left. He neatly parries my blade and then trips me as I over extend. ¡°Again.¡± he says with a serious and focused look on his face. I take a stance again and cast with a feint this time. He deflects my spell with ease and then ignores my feint to lunge at my left shoulder. I barely manage to get my sword up to ward the blow off in time. We then start to trade blows back and forth in a measured cadence like he did yesterday. ¡°What are you doing? Cast another spell.¡± He says. I blush as I hurry to start casting again while we trade blows. I lose track of the spell formation and must start again. Once again, he deflects it and start to trade blows faster. ¡°Again.¡± Sweat dots my brows as I concentrate on both casting and parrying the blows that are getting ever closer. As I cast he parries the spell with his blade this time. I immediately cast again as a mana headache starts to throb in time to the clashing of our blades. When I release the spell, he parries and then starts to hit me, leaving small cuts that do one to two hit points of damage. ¡°Again!¡± I cast again knowing this will be the one that knocks me out. I think about using Numbness, but he must know I have that skill and has not said to use it. With a twist of the left wrist, he evades my feeble defense, and drives the blade deep into my right chest. I feel a sharp shearing pain right before I pass out. As I wake up I feel a pulse of healing and mana regeneration course through my body. My stats indicate I am back at full health and mana, and the two spells of Lesser Mana and Health Regeneration restored my body. I open my eyes and see the Captain patiently standing by the barrack wall waiting for me to recover. ¡°Excellent.¡± He says, and with a gesture he discontinues the spells. Looking at my clock I see only five minutes have passed since the start of our fight. ¡°Get up and let¡¯s get started again.¡± He says as he draws his sword. I sigh and sit up. I feel a little stiff and shudder as I recall the sensation of cold metal entering my chest. I pick up my sword from the ground and took a stance to prepare for the next round of fighting. The Captain wants me to be acclimated to strikes in different areas of my body, so he skewers me eleven more times over the next hour. He is always careful when he hits me though. I am sure he could have killed me with one blow. ¡°Ok, that is enough of that.¡± He says much to my relief. ¡°Sheath your sword, draw your dagger and we will practice that for the next few hours.¡± The Captain spends the first hour instructing me how to grip the dagger for overhanded or underhanded blows. Then he demonstrates some maneuvers to strike people from behind with a dagger. We spend the next two hours practicing. Before taking a break to eat. I gorge on my sandwich with some weak ale in a water skin John gave me for dinner, and the Captain drinks from a bottle while ripping off pieces of some type of jerky. After the meal, he has me use my dagger while casting spells, and he stabs me in what I am sure is supposed to be very educational ways. After an hour of that he stops for the day and walks off, just saying to see him first thing in the morning. I lay there both mentally and physically exhausted on the sand. He leaves the last casting of the mana and health regeneration spells going. Although it feels good I still couldn¡¯t shake the stupor I seem to fall into. I see I have a few notifications about increasing my endurance, but I just dismiss them, it¡¯s not that important, until I reach fifty. After what seems like a long time laying there a look at my clock informs me it was only thirty minutes. I get up and walk back to the Tavern. I wave feebly to John as I walked up to my room and collapse on the bed. I don¡¯t remember anything after that until morning. Arc1 Ch 11 – Day 6 Starter Village The next morning, I awake before the alarm went off. Just a few minutes before, so it isn¡¯t worth going back to sleep. This is the first time I didn¡¯t wake fully refreshed. My stats indicate I am, but mentally I don¡¯t feel that way. I would stay in bed, but I am not sure what the Captain would do to me if I didn¡¯t show up promptly. I drag myself out of bed and after splashing some water on my face I head down to get some breakfast. As I slide onto a stool at the bar while mumbling a hello and asking for a meal, John looks at me and says. ¡°Why so glum?¡± I fill him in on my training with the Captain yesterday, as I stare at the sandwich he put in front of me. John gives a low whistle, as he states. ¡°You must have really impressed him. He has never trained anyone else before and only a Master can perform that kind of training. Usually it runs five gold a day. In another day or two, your endurance will break the fifty mark and then you can really start to learn some interesting skills.¡± I perk up a little at that but say. ¡°I gathered as much, but it really sucks.¡± John nods as he gives me a thoughtful look. ¡°I can help you out, but it will cost you two silvers, because I can¡¯t give this to you for free.¡± I look up at him, but he has a great poker face. ¡°Ok I am willing to try almost anything.¡± I say and put two silvers on the counter. John scoops the silvers off the counter making it disappear in his inventory. ¡°Be right back.¡± He says over his shoulder while jogging back into the kitchen. He returns in a minute with a brown ceramic mug full of some steaming and bubbling liquid. He hands it to me and says. ¡°Hurry up and drink that.¡± I bring it up to my mouth to take a sip so I don¡¯t burn myself when the smell hits me. I nearly vomit the sandwich I have been eating. ¡°Just hold your nose and drink it before it loses its potency. Just gulp it down, it¡¯s not hot.¡± I pinch my nose and take a gulp of the muddy brown bubbling concoction. The taste is like a combination of a strong bitter tea and flat diet soda, but at least I choke it down even though it continues to bubble in my mouth as I swallow it. I finish the mug and say. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Then I give a monstrous burp and clutch my stomach as it seems to flip around in my chest. John asks. ¡°How do you feel?¡± ¡°What? How could you ask after I swallowed that? It feels like my stomach is going to jump out of my body.¡± ¡°That will stop in a minute but check your logs. What does it say?¡± Bringing up my logs the last two lines appear to be relevant.
You have consumed an Iron Will potion. For the next twelve hours you are under the effect of Iron Will. Your intelligence is double with respect to mental fortitude checks for the next twelve hours.
I realize the funk I was in has lifted as my stomach starts to settle down. ¡°Ok, that seems to help. What is it?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say because that is not part of the normally available items here, but I happened to have a few of my own and before you ask two silvers is cheap. However, this type of potion is only useful in certain situations, this being one of them. Now finish your breakfast and get over to the Captain before he makes you regret keeping him waiting.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I gulp down the remainder of my sandwich as John hands me food for lunch and dinner with a large skin full of weak ale. I wave as I jog over to the barrack where the Captain is watching his men stretch before starting their training for the day. He wordlessly leads me to the back of the barrack while his lieutenant takes over. He looks me over in my starter gear. He says. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if you would make it over here today, but I see you are early with fire in your eyes. Shall we focus on getting your endurance above fifty before moving on to other training?¡± ¡°I am ready.¡± I say as I draw my sword. ¡°But I have a question. I had a notification yesterday that I was looking at on my way over here¡±. I describe it to him.¡±
You have successfully Dodged your first attack. You have learned the skill Dodge, 5 XP awarded. Basic 1.
He says. ¡°That makes sense, you have not been in much combat yet. You will see that your Agility attribute indicates your base dodge, which is your chance to dodge part of the damage. If you successfully dodge an attack it indicates the amount the damage reduction. If you succeed in dodging your Dodge skill will increase by one percent per every two levels you gain in the skill.¡± ¡°I see, thanks.¡± ¡°Very well, cast when you are ready.¡± We begin the grueling routine again and I start casting steadily to deplete my mana as the Captain cast the regeneration spells on me, so that I am unconscious the minimum amount of time possible. My clock says it was only four hours, but even with the Iron Will potion, I opened my mouth several times to say I need a break, only to have the Captain raise an eyebrow each time. I just clinch my mouth shut and push through. As I lay there recovering from my latest near-death experience, the Captain says. ¡°A good start to the day. Let¡¯s have some lunch before we continue.¡± I groan as I sit up and feel twinges in my chest. The Captain assures me my mind is just playing tricks on me. I relax in the shade and devour my lunch with the Captain in companionable silence. ¡°Captain?¡± I say as he turns to look at me. ¡°I am very happy that you are training me, but why are you?¡± The Captain looks away and I get the feeling he is gazing at something much further away than the practice dummies in front of us. He begins to speak softly. ¡°You may not know that most of the shop keepers and myself are all volunteers who the System places here to help new adventurers. We have standard quests we can offer, but we also have some leeway in training and quests we offer. I volunteered to get a resurrection for my son. The Imperial Guard selected him and I couldn¡¯t be prouder. One day an assassin made his way into the grounds. My son took a dagger intended for the daughter of the Empress. This was a soul cursed dagger that imprisons the soul to prevent it from respawning. The guard recovered the blade from the assassin¡¯s body, but only a God or the System can free a soul from such a blade. So, I bargained with the System for fifty years of service here for my son¡¯s release. I have twenty more years to go. You remind me of him with your determination. I offered to train him, but he did it on his own. Training you now helps reaffirm my commitment to freeing him.¡± ¡°Wow. I don¡¯t know what to say, other than thank you.¡± He looks at me and says gruffly. ¡°Finish your meal. If you have the energy to talk you have the energy to train.¡± I grin and scarf down the remainder of my sandwich and ale. I stand up, dust off my clothes, and draw my sword. I feel full of renewed vigor as I realize how much the Captain has invested in my training. The next six hours suck, but I don¡¯t feel tempted to even suggest quitting this time. By the time we took a break for dinner he says. ¡°You are close. If you can keep up this pace tomorrow morning, you will break fifty. If you do that, I will spend the afternoon teaching you some advanced skills that you can only learn once your endurance is above fifty.¡± ¡°I will be ready.¡± ¡°Good, I will see you in the morning.¡± I head back to the tavern feeling exhausted, but also a great sense of accomplishment. I am going to practice minor healing tonight. With the increase in endurance, I am feeling a decrease in the pain associated with my mana headaches. It still sucks, just not as bad. I take a seat at the bar, hold up a copper, and ask for some ale. John makes the copper disappear as he brings me a foaming mug. I take a deep pull from the mug and smack my lips in satisfaction. John asks. ¡°How did it go?¡± ¡°It went great. The potion really helped. Would you have another one for tomorrow?¡± ¡°You are a glutton for punishment. Sure, I will have one ready for you. It will be two more silvers.¡± ¡°It was worth it. I am going to head up early, it has been a long day.¡± ¡°If I may suggest a bath might be in order before heading up. Frankly you could use one.¡± I take a sniff under one arm and jerk back. I blush in embarrassment as I realize I reek. ¡°Thanks, I will do that.¡± I say as I finish my ale. I head over to the bathhouse and, after a long soak, head back to the tavern. I wave to John as I climb up the stairs and plop down on my bed. It about 8PM, so I will spend the next two hours casting Minor Healing. With each blackout, I am getting closer to my goal of breaking the endurance barrier. After two hours of casting, I get up and wash my face before going to sleep. Arc1 Ch 12 - Day 7 Starter Village I feel both excitement and anxiety thinking about reaching fifty in endurance as I stir in bed. I was never this dedicated about anything in my previous life. Suddenly it hits me that I haven¡¯t thought about my parents since I got here, which seems strange. Also, now that I think about them my feeling for them seems detached. Something is going on here. I get out of bed and rush down to talk to John. I say hello and ask for breakfast. After John brings me a bowl of stew and says he will get the potion after I eat. ¡°John, I have a question first.¡± ¡°Sure, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I was thinking about my family from before I came here. I realized that I haven¡¯t even thought about them until now, and it¡¯s been weeks. Then when I think about them, I don¡¯t feel much of anything.¡± ¡°Yes, that makes sense. The System does that when you reincarnate and keep your memories. It is a way to keep you from falling into depression and grief at losing everything you knew.¡± ¡°Oh. That makes sense, but I have lost both the happy and the sad memories. I should say they are still there, but I don¡¯t feel more than a mild interest.¡± John grasps me on the shoulder and says. ¡°Even when you hold on to your memories of your previous life, the System will force you to live this life as a new one without the baggage from the old. After all, it wants you to have a new beginning.¡± I nod in thought as he releases my shoulder and say. ¡°You are right, it just took me by surprise.¡± I finish my meal and pull out two silvers for the potion. John brings out another smoking mug. I know the drill. Pinching my nose I gulp down the disgusting bubbling sludge as quickly as I can. Once again it feels like my stomach is doing flip flops. After releasing another horrendous belch, my stomach finally quiets down. John hands me my wrapped meals for lunch and dinner and I head to the barrack. I wave to Cal as I jog by. The Captain is waiting for me. We circle around to the back and get ready for some more grinding. ¡°We will start with your Dagger today. Begin casting.¡± The Captain says as he draws his sword. I draw my dagger and then begin casting fire dart. With my reaching Beginner, I can summon a second dart for a 50% increase in mana. Not that it has helped. I have yet to hit the Captain with either a spell or blade. As we continue our training, I try to hit different parts of his body with my two darts and the blade at the same time, but it is no use. He deflects the spells with a twist of his wrist and then parries my blade. If I wasn¡¯t continuing to learn so much, I would be frustrated. He stabs me through where I am guessing my spleen is before I pass out from mana exhaustion. We continue the training, passing out, waking pattern until the notification that we have both been waiting for after three hours occurs.
Congratulations You have completed training in Endurance with the Start Area Village Captain. Your Endurance is now fifty and you will no longer lose consciousness when lower than 50% mana or 25% health. During this quest all XP awards were frozen until now. You have reached Beginner rank in the Spell Fire Dart. 50 XP awarded. You have reached Advanced rank in the Spell Fire Dart. 100 XP awarded. You have reached Advanced rank in the Skill Mana Manipulation. 500 XP awarded. You have learned the skill Numbness II, which replaced Numbness. This skill cannot be leveled, but when activated once per day will allow you to ignore all pain modifiers for five minutes. Completed hidden quest, Training with the Captain to fifty Endurance, award 300 XP and more training in Advanced skills. You have attained this level of Endurance without potions to alleviate the pain. You are awarded the skill Enduring Flame. This skill cannot be leveled, but when activated once per day will allow you and any party members to take half damage for one minute. Fame increased by 100. You have leveled up!!! You have leveled up!!! You have seven free stat points to allocated, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +5 Intelligence, +3 to Wisdom, +3 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Agility, and +1 Charisma. Fame increased by 10
¡°Holy crap, this is awesome. Hey wait a minute it says I did this without potions for the pain.¡± I say as I look at the Captain. ¡°Of course. The reward is much better without the potions.¡± The Captain says with an evil grin. I grit my teeth and let it go, it¡¯s done. The Captain says, ¡°Let¡¯s eat and then we can really get started.¡± I sit down a little grumpily and sulk as I bite into my sandwich. The Captain merely looks at me and says. ¡°Would you have taken the potions had they been offered?¡± ¡°That is not the point. It should have been my decision.¡± The Captain appeared thoughtful as he says. ¡°You accepted me as your trainer. When you do that you give up a measure of control and in this case, you literally put your life in my hands repeatedly. Are you now saying that you don¡¯t trust me?¡± I sigh and say. ¡°When you say it that way, I apologize. I thank you for the training and I apologize for my behavior.¡± ¡°That is all right. I understand your anger, but in this case, it is the only way we could have done this training here in the Starter Area. Also, now that you have Numbness II, you can use it to keep fighting with your health down to -10%, which is a tremendous advantage. Of course, if you don¡¯t get healing by that point to take you above zero you will die when it runs out or dips below -10%. In addition, you will pass out until you get back to full health. Now finish your meal and we will get started.¡± We remain seated after lunch. He turns to face me. ¡°Now that your Endurance is high enough we can practice the advanced skills.¡± The Captain says. ¡°What makes them advanced?¡± ¡°Advanced skills are dependent on first learning either another skill or a certain ability level. In this case Mana Manipulation must be Advanced and Endurance must be fifty. We will be learning the skill Channeling. This is the ability to focus more mana into spells for different affects based on your skill level. At the Basic level you will be able to Maximize a spell affect for double the mana cost. At the Novice level you will be able to double the spells damage and so on.¡± ¡°Sounds interesting. How do we start?¡± ¡°I am going to attach to your mana pool with a skill called Mana Chain, which allows multiple spell casters to combine their mana pool. You will learn this skill as well. After I connect I am going to forcefully drain your mana until you are empty and keep it empty until your channels are clear.¡± ¡°That sounds like I am going to have a whooping bad headache.¡± ¡°You would, but once you hit zero mana, activate Numbness, which should last long enough for your channels to clear. Ok, here goes.¡± I feel a weird sensation like a fluffy blanket enveloping my body and I get a notification.
The Captain is trying to join with you in a Mana Chain. Accept: Yes or No?
After I accept I feel the Captains mana pool, which is huge compared to mine and then suddenly my mana begins to drain. I feel a sharp pain spike through my head. I grit my teeth and wait for my mana to bottom out. When my mana hits zero, I trigger Numbness II. The numbness washes over me with a feeling of pins and needles. My mana drains away as fast as it regenerates. I am getting more nervous approaching the fifth minute, but suddenly a notification appears and the drain stops.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Your mana channels are now clear. You have learned the skill Channeling. Basic 1, 25 XP awarded. You have learned the skill Mana Chain. Basic 1, 25 XP awarded.
The Captain casts a mana regeneration spell on me. My mana quickly refills and my headache fades. ¡°Good, now I want you to focus on one of the training dummies and cast Fire Dart while trying to force more mana into the spell.¡± I start forming the dart in my hand while focusing intently on the mana, forcing it into the spell. The spell reaches its normal completion while I am trying to force more mana into it, and the dart explodes in my hand, causing twenty-three points of damage. ¡°Crap.¡± I feel a healing wave from the Captain casting a Minor Heal on me. I look at him and realize he has taken several steps away from me. I bet he knew that would happen. ¡°Do you know what you did wrong?¡± ¡°I was so focused on trying to add more mana that I lost focus on the training dummy.¡± The Captain nods and gestures for me to try again. On the second attempt, I am so focused on releasing the dart before it explodes that I fail to add more mana. ¡°Again.¡± I grit my teeth and try again. It takes ten tries to finally get it and a bad headache. With the Captain continuingly renewing the mana regeneration spell, it isn¡¯t until the seventeenth attempt that I am able to repeat my success. The Captain keeps me at it until I succeed multiple times in a row even with my mana pool heavily depleted. ¡°Good, you should be able to progress naturally with channeling, just continue to practice it.¡± The Captain once more turns and walks off. He is not one for long goodbyes. Well I could keep training or take a break, since this is my last free night before I start to pay for everything. I notice that when I rest after my mana bottoms out, it is regenerating five times faster than when I was unconscious. I will have to ask John or the Captain about that. I look at my stats before heading to the bathhouse.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 8 XP to next Level: 3000/3600
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 250
Str: 19 Melee Damage Modifier: +9
Agi: 15 Range Damage Modifier: +5
Dodge: 9% (+4%)
Con: 15 Health / Stamina: 75 / 75
Health / Stamina Regen: 15% per min
End: 50 Pain Threshold: 40%
Int: 36 (5) Mana Pool: 250 (70)
Wis: 29 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 8 per min
Cha: 11 Trade Modifier: 1%
Per: 32 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Channeling (Basic 4, 25%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dodge (Basic 9, 0%), Enduring Flame, Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 8, 37%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Advanced 4, 76%), Numbness II, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 9, 30%), Swords (Basic 5, 75%), Trading (Basic 6, 75%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%)
Spells: Fire Dart (Advanced 5, 0%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%), Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Novice 4, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Novice 1, 33%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 7
After a bath I head over to see Cal, since we have not chatted much while I have been training. He is sitting out on his porch reading a book and invites me to have some tea, which he brings out in two steaming mugs. I can feel myself unwind as I talk to Cal about my last few days. I ask Cal about my regeneration increasing by a factor of five over when I was unconscious. Cal laughs, ¡°Ah, I bet you increased your endurance above fifty now. If you are conscious and resting your mana regeneration will be five time faster. If you are active or unconscious it will be the normal rate.¡± ¡°That makes sense, thanks.¡± While we are talking, a group of eight people walk in from the North gate dressed in starter clothes much like I was when I arrived. Cal is watching them with interest and says. ¡°That¡¯s odd for them to be coming in so late in the day. This will count as their first day and they will lose most of benefit since it is already so late.¡± I look at them with renewed interest. They seem to move with a purpose into the tailor shop and then the black smith. They are all wearing much better equipment when they emerge from the shops. I ask Cal, ¡°How did they get equipment so fast?¡± ¡°Well you can enter the area with a single silver piece. Adventurers from poor families can¡¯t afford to do that, but all the rich families start with a silver.¡± Two carry bows with quivers of arrows, two in heavier leather armor than the rest, and last four are all wearing robes. Maybe mages or clerics. All together a well-rounded group. It looks like the mages and clerics gave some of their money to the tanks so they can start out with better armor. They head into the Tavern. Cal remarks that they are early. Typically, groups come in once a month to this Starter Area and the last group left three days before I arrived. It¡¯s recommended to enter as a large group because several of the quests are hard to fulfill without a group. ¡°I think it¡¯s time to teach you a new skill.¡± Cal says. ¡°What did you have in mind?¡± I ask. ¡°A skill called Veil. It will block Inspect if the person inspecting you has a lower intelligence than you do. It is a passive skill and cannot be leveled.¡± ¡°That sounds handy, but you seem reluctant to teach it, why is that?¡± ¡°If a higher-level character inspects you and they don¡¯t have a higher intelligence, you will look like a character with a higher level, which may get you in trouble.¡± ¡°I can see where that could happen, but overall the benefits outweigh the possible problems.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± Cal says and grasps my shoulder for a moment before I receive a notification.
You have learned the skill Veil. This skill will block Inspect if used by a person with a lower intelligence than you. It will reduce the knowledge gained by someone up to twice your intelligence. Magical bonuses apply. Awarded 50 XP.
Cal and I go back to chatting until I finish my tea and bid him a good night. I head into the Tavern and see the group is sitting at a large table drinking and joking. One of the mages notices me, and then they all become silent as they look at me walking over to greet John at the bar. I hold up my uneaten dinner sandwich and ask if there is any chance to have a wolf steak instead. John grins and says. ¡°Since it is your last free night I can do that.¡± He takes the sandwich and comes back carrying a large platter with a steak, roasted potatoes, and mixed steamed vegetables. I chat quietly about my success today as I dig into my meal. I can hear the group behind me start to talk in a low tone among themselves. John says. ¡°There is something off about this group.¡± ¡°Cal said the same thing. He said it was strange that they entered so late in the day.¡± ¡°If you go out hunting keep your eye out for more than the creatures.¡± ¡°Sure thing. Have a good night.¡± The group stops talking as I wish John a good night and head upstairs. I lock my door and look at my spells. Fire Dart can now generate 3 darts for double the mana cost. Mana Manipulation will reduce the cost by 20% now, which will help a lot. I think Fire Dart will be my go-to spell tomorrow. I almost forget to check out the details on the Channeling skill.
Channeling (Basic 4, 25%) Channeling can only be used on spells level two or higher. Also, the Tiers are assigned by the skill Tier level and the Tier level must be equal to or less than the spell level minus one to use that Tier levels effect. The following are the Tier levels by Skill Proficiency: Novice - For double the mana cost can double the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will double the damage amount range; for healing spells it will double the healing amount range; for area effect spells without damage or healing effect it will double the area. Beginner - For double the mana cost can maximize the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will cause the max damage allowed; for healing spells it will cause the maximum healing allowed. Advanced - For triple the mana cost can maximize and double the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will double the max damage; for healing spells it will be double the max healing. Adept - For the same mana cost can double the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will double the damage amount range; for healing spells it will double the healing amount range; for area effect spells without damage or healing effect it will double the area. Expert - For the same mana cost can maximize the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will cause the max damage allowed; for healing spells it will cause the maximum healing allowed. Master - For the same mana cost can maximize and double the effects of the spell; for damage spells it will double the max damage; for healing spells it will be double the max healing. Grand Master - Can channel a quarter of entire mana pool into spell, increasing the damage or healing amount by 10 per mana point over the base cost. Sage - Can channel half of entire mana pool into spell, increasing the damage or healing amount by 10 per mana point over the base cost. Legendary - Can channel entire mana pool into spell, increasing the damage or healing amount by 10 per mana point over the base cost.
Wow, this can be powerful at higher levels, but only with higher level spells. I lay back on the bed to get an early night¡¯s sleep. Arc1 Ch 13 – Wolves P1 I wake early. I don¡¯t even see any light around the shutters on the window. I get out of bed and splash some water on my face. I check my inventory and see I have three silvers and twenty-five coppers. I will have to start building up my money again now that I must pay for everything starting today. With that in mind I head down to the bar to greet John who is already up and polishing the bar. ¡°Good morning.¡± I say and take a seat at the bar. ¡°Morning. Ready for some breakfast?¡± ¡°Yes, but I have to see what this day is going to cost me first.¡± John grins and says. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right your free time is over. I totally forgot.¡± ¡°Very funny.¡± I say grumpily. ¡°Ok, a day¡¯s lodging is twenty-five coppers for a private room like you have and ten coppers for the common room, which has bunk beds and room for twenty people. That includes three meals in either case.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem too bad.¡± I say. ¡°It¡¯s not, but don¡¯t get used to it. Outside of the Starter Area, most inns will cost two to five times as much. Only the very cheap inns will be the same price, and you probably would not want to stay in them.¡± I take out twenty-five coppers for the day and place it on the bar, where John makes it promptly disappear. John asks. ¡°You want sandwiches for lunch and dinner or will you be coming back?¡± ¡°I will take the sandwiches, thanks.¡± ¡°Ok, be right back.¡± John says and heads back to the kitchen. A minute later he returns with a plate of eggs, ham, and toast, along with two sandwich packages. I put the sandwiches in my inventory and start in on breakfast. ¡°Has the other party come down yet?¡± I ask between bites. John leans on the bar and says. ¡°Not yet. They were up late drinking. There is something strange going on. Starting adventurers are always saving their money for better equipment, not spending so freely before they even start hunting. George like I told you last night, watch your back.¡± ¡°I will.¡± I say as I finish and say goodbye. I am going to hunt the wolves today to complete the two quests I have. After that I will check if there are any more quests that open. With my level and spells, I would be able to handle even the Gnoll area, which is the highest level. I will see how I do on the wolves first. I notice Cal is not up yet as I head to the gate and greet a pair of yawning guards on my way out of the village. I am excited about what I can do. I draw my sword as I reach the edge of the wolf area. I enter stealth and start looking for wolves. After a few minutes I found a trio of wolves to my left eating some rabbits. My Inspect reveals they are level five with fifty hit points each. I cast Shield, which will absorb twenty hit points of damage, just in case. I then cast Fire Dart, releasing three darts into the closest wolf, killing it with the series of fiery explosions. My combat logs show a total of fifty-five damage. It is just barely enough since I am down forty-eight mana already. Both the remaining wolves howl and charge at me. I try to keep my cool as I cast another Fire Dart into the wolf on my left. This time the wolf is badly damaged and stumbles. I brace myself and side step the wolf on my right, swinging a powerful backhand into its hind quarters. I turn back to the wolf that stumbled. It glows with a faint red outline and leaps at me, slamming into my Shield, which absorbs the blow. I plunge my sword into its chest and it collapses dead with a final yelp. I start to turn and feel a weight hit my back. My Shield collapses as the remaining wolf drives me to my knees. I strike it with my elbow, thrust my left hand, and smash its face with Fire Dart. I struggle to my feet pushing the dead weight off my back. I inspect each corpse to make sure they are dead while scanning the woods for other wolf. I sheath my sword, draw my dagger to skin these wolves, and claim their tails for the quest. After I finish collecting the skins and the wolf steaks I check my combat log.
You engage three Wolves Level 5 with fifty hit points. You have struck a Wolf with three Mana Darts for fifteen, twenty-one, and nineteen points of damage. Damage doubled from striking from Stealth for one hundred and ten points of damage. You have killed a Wolf, 5 XP awarded. You have struck a Wolf with three Mana Darts for eighteen, sixteen, and fifteen points of damage. Total forty-nine. You stabbed a Wolf for 32 points of damage. A Wolf strikes you for 16 points of damage. Your Shield absorbs 16 points of damage, 4 points remaining.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. You stabbed a Wolf for 40 points of damage. You have killed a Wolf, 5 XP awarded. A Wolf strikes you for 14 points of damage. Your Shield absorbs 4 points of damage. Your Shield collapses. Your armor absorbs 10 damage. You suffer 0 points of damage. You have struck a Wolf with Fire Dart for 19 points of damage. You have killed a Wolf, 5 XP awarded.
Looks like a Fire Dart is borderline to kill one of the wolves. I really need an area effect spell. The six points of damage did one point of durability damage. I must find a better way, else a larger group may just kill me. I stealth and search for the next group of wolves. After about twenty minutes, I almost stumble on a group of five wolves napping in the undergrowth. I look around and an idea come to mind. I climb a large nearby tree as quietly as possible. After getting about fifteen feet up with a clear view of the ground and the wolves, I begin casting Fire Dart. I hit two of the sleeping wolves, getting a bonus for successfully attack from stealth, killing one wolf and injuring the other. The remaining wolves wake with a howl and charge my tree. I am already casting another Fire Dart, focusing on the first to arrive under the tree, killing it. The wolves circle the tree howling, clawing, and leaping around the tree trunk. I picked a good tall, straight, and thick tree though. They fail to reach me in my perch as I cast another Fire Dart. It hits and injures another wolf, which survives, but looks very injured. I cast one more Fire Dart at that wolf, and two other darts into the other injured one. Both wolves die leaving just one wolf that is frothing at the mouth as it leaps and scrambles to find purchase on the tree¡¯s bark. The sight sends a shiver down my spine. I cast another Fire Dart killing the last wolf. I take a deep breath as my head pounds with a mana headache. I have almost completely depleted my mana pool. I settle in scanning the surroundings while entering stealth. I am not leaving the tree until my mana fully recovers. One advantage of my height is that I spot some Golden Lily and Sun Blossom growing near where the wolves were napping. After my mana pool tops off, I first collect five Golden Lilies and four Sun Blossoms. Then I carefully skin and butcher the wolves, removing their tails for the quest. Then I head out in stealth looking for the next group of wolves. I find another group of three wolves. I climb a tree and kill them with ease this time. After butchering them and adding their tails to my inventory, I find six more Sun Blossoms. I continue, and about thirty minutes later, I run into a huge group of ten wolves. Even with my new technique, I hesitate since I will need to kill some of them and then wait for my mana to recharge before killing the rest. I pick a suitable tree just a little thinner than the last one I used, but stout enough. After getting up about fifteen feet, I cast Shield. My mana will refill well before the Shield collapses, and with such a large group, I want to take no chance. I focus and cast Fire Dart, hitting one wolf with a single dart and the other wolf with two, killing one wolf and injuring the other. That stealth bonus is great. I then start casting as fast as I can, killing one, two, and three wolves. I injure a fourth, which nearly depletes all my mana. That leaves six wolves left with two badly injured. It also leaves me with a problem when a few minutes later they all start glowing faintly red. I am afraid they are going to leap at me as I draw my sword. But instead they do something unexpected. They begin to claw and bite the tree trunk and the tree begins to shiver. Checking my mana, I have just enough to partially cast a Fire Dart for two darts. I send one at each injured wolf killing them both. The remaining four continue to attack the tree. I rack my brain to think about what I can do and berate myself for not getting a range weapon. Even if I didn¡¯t do much damage I could weaken them. Four wolves are not great odds even though they look like they are tiring. I draw my dagger in my left hand and get ready to leap when the tree starts to fall. I jump down a branch and then onto the back of one of the wolves, which collapses under my weight as I strike for a critical hit. I roll off to the right when a wolf to the left leaps at me. The fallen tree shields my right side for the moment. I stab the wolf in the nose with my dagger as it snaps at me causing it to yelp and jump back. I take the opportunity to skewer the wolf laying in front of me, killing it. The other two wolves round the tree charging me, bumping off each other in their haste. I kick the one on the right in the head as I spin and plant my sword in the one in the center. The one on the left manages to leap on me. I stagger, but my Shield holds as I fall on my back and plant both feet on the wolf, pushing it over into the fallen tree. I only make it up to my knees when the other two wolves come at me again. I hit the one on the right with the pommel of my sword as the other latches on my left arm, shattering my Shield. I lean into my sword swing while on my knees and hit its neck for a critical, finally killing it. I hear the one behind me struggling to extract itself from the fallen tree as I engage the wolf in in front of me. I am sweating profusely. I try to get in a killing blow before its friend gets out of the tree behind me. I manage to kill it at the moment the other wolf emerges from the fallen tree, scratched and covered in leaves and twigs. I balance on the balls of my feet and as it leaps I kneel and plant my sword in its chest. Its weight slams me to the ground. I plant my dagger in its side over and over until it stops moving. I am gasping for air and I look around. I drag myself over to another tree and slowly climb it. After safely up in a new tree, I allow myself the luxury of holding my throbbing head. I wait for my mana pool to regenerate and my mana headache to fade before coming down to skin and butcher all the wolves. With this last group of wolves, I have everything for the Cull the Wolves quest. I still need a few more herbs for the other quest. I think I have had enough wolves for today so I avoid them as I continue to look for herbs. I leave the woods on the far side of the wolf area when I see the last of the Golden Lily I need. I must be getting close to the Starter Area boundary as I walk forward. Arc1 Ch 13 – Wolves P2 Around the starter area is a boundary. When I start to cross the boundary, I get a prompt.
Warning You are leaving the starter zone before reaching level 10. Do you wish to proceed? Yes or No?
I select No and decide to follow the boundary around to the North road into the village instead of dealing with the wolves. I leave my hand on the boundary, ignoring the warning that pops up again as I slide my hand along the boundary. After a pleasant thirty-minute wolf-free walk my hand suddenly vanishes up to my elbow and I nearly fall. I receive a new prompt.
Warning Shaper ability accessed mitigating dimension damage to left arm. Your arm takes ten hit points damage per second. Shaper ability uses twenty mana per second. You have discovered a Dimensional Hole. You have gained the skill Dimensional Shaping, awarded 10 XP. Basic 1. This skill allows the user to distort space, either increasing or decreasing the available space within an area by 1% per skill level. This ability can affect a user¡¯s inventory space. 10 mana per minute.
I feel something in the hole besides the nauseating feel of my arm, which feels like it is stretching and shrinking. I make a grab as I pull my hand from the hole. The mummified remains of an adventurer fall to the ground as I realize what I have inmy hand. When the body hits the ground, it turns to dust leaving a rolled-up parchment and a modest pile of gold. I loot the items. Then there is a new notification.
Congratulations You have completed a Hidden Quest. Rescue Jacob Greenwood. You have freed Jacob Greenwood to respawn. Reward: 500 XP, +100 Fame, 591 gold, one Legendary Map. Unable to soul bind Map currently.
My eyes nearly pop out of my head as I see the word ¡°Legendary¡±. I check out the map. As I examine it, I realize I can zoom in an out at will. A flashing blue dot draws my eye and I zoom in realizing the flashing blue dot is my location in the Starter Area. It also has a flashing red dot in the center of the Gnoll Area. As I view the map I get another notification.
You have gained the skill Cartographer, awarded 10 XP. Basic 1. This skill allows you to map out areas and record them.
This is awesome, what a find. I look back to the area hiding the Dimensional Hole. I get another notification.
You have found a Dimensional Hole in the fabric of the Starter Area boundary. Do you wish to inform the System about this problem? Yes or No?
Wow, I need to think about this. My Shaper ability apparently helped me, but even so it was painful and damaging. If a Level one fell in, I am not sure what would happen. Also, it looks like it was preventing Jacob from respawning. With what Jacob dropped he must be a high level and if he respawns in here who knows what will happen. I nod to myself and select Yes. Suddenly there is a glow and pop behind me. I turn, and, to my surprise, the Captain is standing there. He says. ¡°You seem to live a charmed life, George. You are probably wondering what is going on. You selected to notify the System about a problem that is outside of the scope of the normal notification system. When that happens, the System searches the area for the creature with the greatest debt to the System that can address the issue, which for this area is me. Now that you have made us aware of this, we see that Jacob Greenwood attempted to penetrate the Starter Area and almost succeeded. He also managed to remove his respawn point, so with you freeing him, his respawn point switched to here. I have redirected his respawn to a System location to judge his punishment. This Dimensional Hole will be sealed.¡± The Captain waves a hand and the hole becomes visible before it snaps shut. ¡°Now you may keep the loot from Jacob¡¯s body. You also get a reward for informing the System. What would you like?¡± I stutter as I ask, ¡°What are the possibilities?¡± ¡°You can get an Advanced skill, a five-point attribute increase, a ten percent immunity to a specific type of damage, or a skill progression level advancement, for example.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± I say and consider what will be the best overall. I don¡¯t plan on being a melee fighter, so a partial immunity to damage will probably not help a lot. I can get my own skill progression. The attribute points would be good and the new Advanced skill would be nice, since they are apparently hard to come by. ¡°I have decided I would like an Advanced skill.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± The Captain says and new notification window opens.
You have gained the Advanced skill Parry, Basic 1. This skill allows the user to parry an incoming physical or magical attack. The chance of parrying the attack is based on the user intelligence in percent plus the user¡¯s own skill in the form of attack minus the attacker¡¯s skill level. A successful parry of a physical/magical attack costs 10 stamina/10 mana per skill progression level of the attacker minus the skill progression level of the user. The minimum cost is 10 stamina/mana. The following is the maximum percent chance of parrying an attack based on the user skill Tier level (Basic 10%, Novice 20%, Beginner 30%, Advanced 40%, Adept 50%, Expert 60%, Master 70%, Grand Master 80%, Sage 90%, Legendary 100%). This skill only affects attacks against the user, including parrying the portion of an Area effect attack that strikes the user.
The Captain continues. ¡°There is one more thing. The System is willing to offer you an exchange for the Map if you give it up. You can get a complete set of Master level light armor with no level restrictions in exchange if you accept.¡± This is incredible, but there is no way I will agree to that. If the System wants it back that bad, it must be worth a fortune. I just must figure out how. I hope I won¡¯t regret this as I say no. ¡°Very well, that is your right. This concludes our business. For your information, you are not to tell anyone about this, and I will not remember this after I return to the village, so do not try to discuss this with me. Farewell.¡± There is another pop and the Captain vanishes. That was intense. I want to get back to the village but first I take out a sandwich and eat it. I realize I am starving after that adrenaline rush. I use my new map to quickly head to the North road and then back to the village. I see the new group on my way, killing rabbits as I maintain my stealth. They don¡¯t seem to notice me when I stop to watch them. They are using the two tanks to pull two rabbits at a time. The archers then fire arrows at them while the mages cast the occasional mana darts. The clerics are watching the tanks and one casts a heal. The group seems to be working together well since there is a pile of killed rabbits stacked neatly behind them. They are waiting to skin and butcher a bunch at the same time. I continue to the village and head over to the Tavern to unload the wolf meat first. John is standing on a ladder dusting the rafters as I enter. He says. ¡°You are back early, any problems?¡± ¡°No, I finished the Wolf and Herb quest and thought I would ask for an opinion on increasing my Stealth, and any tips on hunting the Orcs.¡± John hops down and walks over to open a trade window. He is willing to give me five coppers for each wolf steak. I have ninety-two in my inventory, which comes to four silvers and sixty coppers as I finish the trade with John. John has a thoughtful look on his face as he stares at me. I am sure he is checking out my stats. He says. ¡°The best way for you to increase your stealth is to go to the Gnoll area. The Gnolls have patrols of three Gnolls every five minutes on the North side of their area. You should stealth and then time the patrol. After one patrol passes move to within ten feet of the path they patrol. Then activate your cloak of concealment while your stealth is active. After a day of that you should be at Beginner. For the Orcs, they are in groups of five. This will be difficult for you since your spells are more geared for single attacks.¡± ¡°Yes, I had the same problem with the large group of wolves. Is there any chance anyone else has some more spells?¡± John frowns and says. ¡°Burt will have some, but it won¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± I ask puzzled. ¡°Well, the first and second level spells are very cheap here. You get them for ten and thirty coppers, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°That is one to ten percent of what they typically cost. It is why there are only a few for sale. First level spells are usually one to two silvers, depending on their usefulness. Second level spells are three to thirty silvers. A third level spell will be twenty silvers to two gold. Also, these prices are if you are in a guild or part of a household that has access to the spells. Otherwise, they are ten times as much and Burt would sell them at the higher prices.¡± ¡°So, Burt would be trying to sell more second level spells for thirty silvers to three gold?¡± I ask. ¡°Yes, which means waiting until you leave the area and join a household or guild is definitely the way to go. Otherwise, you would have to kill so many creatures to get the money that you will reach the level ten cap first and have to leave.¡± ¡°Ok, thanks for explaining. That is definitely good information to know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome, anything else?¡± ¡°Not for now. I am going to hand in the other quests.¡±Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Very well, see you later.¡± John says and climbs back up the ladder to continue his dusting. I head over to the Alchemist shop. The small bell rings as I enter. The smell of dried and fresh herbs washes over me. Mathis the shopkeeper pushes a curtain aside and comes from the back of the shop. ¡°Good afternoon, can I help you?¡± ¡°Hi, I have the herbs for the Learning Herbalism Quest.¡± ¡°Great.¡± He says and opens a trade window. ¡°Place the herbs in the window.¡± I remove the herbs from my inventory and place them in the trade window where Mathis places ten potion vials. After Mathis and I accept the trade, I have five potions of Minor Healing and five potions of Minor Mana Regeneration for 50 points each. ¡°Anything else I can help you with?¡± Mathis says with a slight hiss. I swear his tongue has a fork. I tell him that is it. Then I head over to the General Store to see if Burt has some more spells. As I enter the store I see Burt is out on a ladder. The man seems to spend all his time up there. He greets me a little warily as I walk up to the counter. ¡°What can I do for you today?¡± He asks. ¡°I want to purchase some more spells.¡± I say. Burt frowns and says. ¡°You are wasting your time. I don¡¯t have any other spells to sell you.¡± ¡°Really? You can truthfully say you have no more spells for sale?¡± He stiffens at my wording. He says. ¡°Nothing that you can afford.¡± ¡°Oh, and how do you know I can¡¯t afford it before you offer it to me?¡± ¡°Enough of this. You would need to have at least one hundred gold for me to take you seriously.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± I say. ¡°Ok what?¡± He says confused. ¡°Ok, I have one hundred gold.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible. Prove it.¡± I open a trade window and I say. ¡°Very well, but I expect a good deal for all you are putting me through.¡± I place one hundred gold in the window. It looks like his eyes are going to pop out of his head. ¡°There is no way you got that on your own, someone is helping you.¡± He accuses as his face turns to an angry red. ¡°That is a serious accusation to make.¡± He says. ¡°Then tell me where you got that money.¡± ¡°That is not possible.¡± I say. ¡°I¡¯ll just bet it is. Well we will just see about this.¡± He waves away the window and pulls a glowing green crystal from his inventory. The stone pulses in his hands. He says. ¡°I must report a System violation.¡± A pulsing blue ball forms in the air and speaks in a deep voice. ¡°State the nature of the violation.¡± Burt seems to take great delight as he accuses me. ¡°George Peterson has over one hundred gold on his person, which is more than any starting adventurer can bring into or earn in the Starter Area. Someone must be helping him.¡± Even though the blue light has no eyes, it seems to turn to me as it says. ¡°There is no violation.¡± ¡°What? That¡¯s impossible. How could he have gotten the money without a violation?¡± The blue ball thrums as it says. ¡°Silence. There is no violation and you will not question or speak of this again.¡± With that the blue ball vanishes. Burt is white as a sheet when I ask. ¡°So, spells?¡± ¡°What?¡± He replies in a daze. I am enjoying his discomfort too much, but he was delighting in trying to report me just a second ago, so I don¡¯t feel too bad. ¡°What spells do you have?¡± He shook himself, ¡°I have Level 1 Burning Hands, Level 2 Fireball, Level 2 Lightning, Level 2 Concealing Mists, and Level 3 Ice Storm. The level one is ten gold, the level two is twenty gold and the level three is forty gold.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± I put 110 gold in a trade window while he adds the spell scrolls. I select accept and left without another word. I head over to the Captain to hand in my last quest. Near the barrack, I hear the Captain complementing one of the men practicing. This is the first time I heard him do that. He has a light smile on his lips as he notices me. ¡°What can I do for you today, young adventurer?¡± He says with a twinkle in his eye. ¡°I am here to turn in the Cull the Wolves Quest.¡± ¡°Ok, let¡¯s see how many tails you have.¡± He opens a trade window with me. I place the twenty wolf tails in the trade window. He adds forty coppers and we both accept. I am now up to 481 gold and eight silvers. I say, ¡°Great, now I want to ask you about more training.¡± ¡°You did a great job with the training I gave you, but I can¡¯t offer you anymore free training.¡± ¡°I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to imply I wanted free training. I am happy to pay for it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you have any idea what training actually costs.¡± The Captain says. The guards are watching us more than they are paying attention to what they are doing. I ask if we can continue this discussion back by the training dummies. ¡°That will be a waste of time, but all right.¡± He leads the way to the rear of the barrack. ¡°So, I don¡¯t know what you want to discuss. I hope you don¡¯t think your trade skill is high enough to try to get a deal.¡± ¡°Not at all. I just want an honest answer on how much you would charge per day to train me in an Advanced skill?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyebrows both shoot up. He stares at me hard and I get a notification that my Veil has been pierced. ¡°How did you get that skill?¡± ¡°I am sorry I can¡¯t say. Now how much to get training in this skill?¡± The Captain continues to frown at me rubbing his chin. He suddenly jerks as if started. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°Believe what?¡± I ask. ¡°Never mind. It will cost ten gold per day to train this skill, but in addition to the gold you have another problem.¡± ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°You are getting close to level nine and Advanced Skills award a lot of XP as they level. In a few days you will hit level ten and then you will have to leave. After you leave I would not tell anyone you have that skill. They will want to know how someone just out of the Starter Area managed to get it and will not take no for an answer.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think of that. Is there any way I can level up the skill while decreasing the XP I earn?¡± ¡°Well, I could always kill you to lower your level.¡± He says, as I look at him in horror. ¡°Relax I am just joking. Seriously though, I can defer you XP awards like I did when training you in endurance. I can only defer a max of one month. If you just focus on leveling this skill, that should get you to Adept before I must award you your XP, but you will have to leave the area the day I do.¡± ¡°That sounds great let¡¯s do that.¡± ¡°First you must pay one week in advance, which is one hundred gold. I will also require one gold for materials.¡± I grin and open a trade window. I put one hundred and one gold in it and watch his eyes widen. ¡°I am guessing it will do no good to ask where you got this, so I won¡¯t ask. First, we are going to spend the rest of today practicing with different weapons. You need at least some skill in each of the weapons to increase your chances to parry. I will use a gold to buy cheap swords from the blacksmith for practice tomorrow.¡± ¡°Why all of the cheap swords?¡± ¡°If you use a weapon to parry a spell, the durability of the weapon will decrease by the level of the spell parried. Since the sword is the most useful in parrying both spells and another weapon we will focus on that after raising your skill with several other weapons.¡± The Captain then proceeds to pull out a Broad Sword, Long Sword, Bastard Sword, Mace, Crossbow, Short Bow, and Long Bow. He even pulls out three different spears and daggers to have me practice with. ¡°You are familiar with a Sword, Dagger, and Spear. Using different kinds of swords will improve your skill quicker so we will start with those.¡± He hands me the Broad Sword first and then casts two spells. The Captain casts Bull Strength increasing my strength by eight points. The Captain casts Lesser Haste, which increases my speed by 50%. We then start several grueling hours of training. As I become fatigued the Captain refreshes my Stamina. He also refreshes the buffs on me, so that I can keep up. He has me try to parry every blow. Only successful parries increase my skill. We stop briefly to eat some dinner before continuing with my practice late into the evening. ¡°Very good. We can continue this tomorrow morning.¡± The Captain says as he adds the weapons back to his inventory and walks off. He is not one for small talk, I think as I walk to the Tavern. When I arrive, the group at the table quiets down to watch me walk over to the bar. John is leaning against the bar when I slide onto a stool and order an ale while placing two coppers on the bar. John makes the coppers disappear and slides a cold foaming mug in front of me. The group starts to talk, but more subdued. John and I just make small talk, neither of us wanting to discuss anything important that the group may overhear. After I finish my beer I head upstairs. The group once more falls silent as I walk by. After I get in my room I pull out all the scrolls I bought and learn the following.
Burning Hands, Level 1 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates an arc of fire from the user¡¯s spread hands,up to 10 feet wide, causing 2-8 points of base damage plus two points per skill Tier level. Range: 30 feet plus 5 feet per skill Tier level Cost: 10 mana
Fireball, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a small bead of fire that flies to a target where it explodes for 5-15 points of base damage plus four points per skill Tier level. The fireball will explode prematurely if it strikes something before it reaches the desired target. Radius: 10 feet plus 2 feet per skill Tier level Range: 50 feet plus 10 feet per skill Tier level Cost: 30 mana
Lightning, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a bolt of electrical energy from the caster¡¯s hand that strikes everything in a straight path for 5-15 points of base damage plus four points per skill Tier level. A solid surface, such as a stone wall will reflect the bolt. Range: 50 feet plus 10 feet per skill Tier level Cost: 30 mana
Concealing Mists, Level 2 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a cloud of thick mists that reduces visibility to five feet. The mist does not affect the casters view. Range: 50 feet plus 10 feet per skill Tier level Cost: 10¡¯ x 10¡¯ x 10¡¯ area times skill Tier level per 30 mana.
Ice Storm, Level 3 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a cloud of icy projectiles that pummel the ground in a circular area for 20-45 points of base damage plus six points per skill Tier level. Radius: 30 feet plus 5 feet per skill Tier level Range: 100 feet plus 20 feet per skill Tier level Cost: 90 mana
After the scrolls turn to dust I wash up as best as I can. I will have to get a bath in the morning. I look over my stats while laying in bed.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 8 XP to next Level: 3595/3600
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 350
Str: 19 Melee Damage Modifier: +9
Agi: 15 Range Damage Modifier: +5
Dodge: 9% (+4%)
Con: 15 Health / Stamina: 75 / 75
Health / Stamina Regen: 15% per min
End: 50 Pain Threshold: 40%
Int: 36 (5) Mana Pool: 250 (70)
Wis: 29 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 8 per min
Cha: 11 Trade Modifier: 1%
Per: 32 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 2, 25%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Channeling (Basic 4, 25%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%), Dodge (Basic 9, 0%), Enduring Flame, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 8, 71%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Advanced 4, 82%), Numbness II, Parry (Basic 5, 25%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Novice 1, 66%), Swords (Basic 9, 60%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil
Spells: Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Concealing Mists (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Dart (Advanced 5, 9%), Fireball (Basic 1, 0%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%), Light (Novice 1, 66%), Lightning (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Novice 4, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Novice 1, 33%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 7
Arc1 Ch 14 - Day 9 Starter Village My alarm startles me and I fall out of bed onto the hard wood floor. Well, that was graceful. I am glad no one was here to see that. I guess I should have tried my alarm before using it. The description made it sound like a regular alarm clock. It doesn¡¯t so much make a sound as vibrate my bones. Not something you can sleep through. I saw the alarm feature in my menus, but never tried it before. Sunlight has yet to start showing around the shutters on the window when I make my way downstairs. I want to get a bath before anything else to wake me up and loosen some of my stiff muscles from yesterday¡¯s training. After a quick hot shower, I walk back to the Tavern. John puts a big plate of sausage, eggs, and toast in front of me, and hands me two sandwich packages for lunch and dinner. I give him another twenty-five coppers for the food and lodging. We chat a little then I jog to the barracks. The sun starts to lighten the sky when I arrive. I see the Captain drinking from a steaming mug. The aroma smells just like a French Vanilla coffee from back on Earth. The Captain finishes his coffee and we head to the back of the barracks. ¡°Today we will focus on spells.¡± He says staring at me. ¡°I see you picked up a few more spells last night, which will help. Let¡¯s start with Fire Dart, since that has your highest skill progression. I will cast a single fire dart and you will parry it with mana. Then you will use your sword to parry it with stamina. We will continue to alternate those two methods.¡± He casts a Haste, Mana Regeneration, and Stamina Regeneration spells on me before hitting me with a fire dart. After he gets me down to half health he heals me. We continue until we take a break for lunch. He averages two fire darts per minute, with the time lost to rebuff and heal me. I take this opportunity to ask him, ¡°I am Novice 1 now with Parry. It looks like I have been making about ten percent of the parries, which is the max I could make at Basic level. Your skill is much higher than mine, so shouldn¡¯t I be failing more?¡± ¡°That is correct, but as your instructor I can fight at a lower level to allow you to learn faster. Otherwise, I could strike you down in an instant, and you would not learn much from that.¡± ¡°Ok, that makes sense.¡± After lunch, the Captain renews the spells on me, and continues to strike me repeatedly with a fire dart, deep into the evening hours. The Captain suddenly stops casting and says ¡°That is enough for tonight.¡± I collapse to my knees, shaking and shivering uncontrollably. The Captain dispassionately watches me and asks if I want to stop training. I try to get a grip on myself, force myself to look at him, and practically spit out a ¡°No!¡±. The Captain smiles faintly and says to meet him at the same time tomorrow. I pull myself together after the Captain leaves and walk slowly toward the bath house. Hopefully a long hot shower will help. As I am walking not really paying much attention, someone grabs my shoulder and start to whip around. A dagger immediately materializes in my hand from the inventory. I recognize Cal as I pull up short and start apologizing profusely. Cal drags me back to his place, pushes me down in a chair in this study, and runs inside. He is back in a minute with a steaming mug, which has an unusual aroma. It smells like vanilla, roses, green tea, and lemons. He tells me drink it all. I take a sip and then a bigger one. It is strange, but the liquid seems to disappear before it reaches the back of my throat. As I finish the mug, I see a notification indicating I am under the effect of Iron Will, and I immediately feel better. ¡°Thanks.¡± I quietly say while handing the mug back to Cal. ¡°No problem, but you should be taking one of these potions before each training session. That bastard didn¡¯t even offer one, did he?¡± ¡°Who? The Captain? No.¡± ¡°He is over level hundred and is a legend for his brutal training regimen. It¡¯s one the reasons his son went off to learn on his own.¡± ¡°The Captain said his son wanted to train on his own.¡± ¡°Well sure he did. Just imagine the Captain is your father and wants you to train from dawn to dusk without any potions, with the minimum of healing.¡± I shudder just remembering the last few days with him. ¡°I see what you mean.¡± ¡°You need to ask John to brew you up a potion each morning. The price of the potion will be more than worth it. Now what in the world are you training in and how did you convince the Captain to do it?¡± ¡°I am sorry, but I can¡¯t say anything other than that I am paying him to train me.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°He would cost a fortune to train you.¡± ¡°Like I said I can¡¯t discuss it.¡± Cal sighs, ¡°Alright. How are you doing now?¡± ¡°A lot better, thanks.¡± ¡°I knew something was up as I watched you drag your sorry ass down the street. When I called out, you didn¡¯t even hear me. Also, it was exciting when I gripped your shoulder. I thought you were going to skewer me.¡± ¡°Yes, sorry about that.¡± Blushing in embarrassment. ¡°No problem. Well, it looks like you need to get a shower. As your friend I have to say you need one.¡± I feel myself blushing even deeper. ¡°Great, you¡¯re such a good friend.¡± Cal laughs and pats me on the back. He takes a seat on the porch, and I left for the bath house. A long hot shower helps me feel a lot better. As I enter the Tavern, I greet John and look around. The other group is not present. I ask John if they have come back yet. John indicates they are still out hunting wolves. ¡°This is a good time to ask you to start brewing up an Iron Will potion for me each morning.¡± I say. John leans on the bar and says. ¡°I can do that, but it¡¯s going to cost four silvers, since you wiped out the ones I had on hand. Now I will have to brew up more.¡± ¡°Alright. Can you have one for me tomorrow morning?¡± Holding out four silvers. ¡°Sure, that won¡¯t be a problem.¡± He says making the silver disappears. ¡°How about a wolf steak tonight if you still have some?¡± ¡°I can do that. Be right back.¡± He pulls a cold foaming mug from under the bar before entering the kitchen. It is so tempting to peek under the bar to see where he gets these ales from. John returns in a minute with a beautifully seared steak with roasted potatoes and greens. It is so good. Every now and then I still think about home, but the food here is so much better. Maybe it¡¯s the magic. In between bites, I ask John if there is any other way to increase my Stealth while I am training. I don¡¯t see myself getting free to try his other suggestion with the Gnoll. He looks at me considering, ¡°You could spend money on the problem.¡± ¡°Oh? How would I do that and would you be the recipient of the money?¡± John laughs, ¡°Not in this case. You can increase your Stealth while training with the Captain.¡± I raise an eyebrow, ¡°How is that possible?¡± ¡°Well, I admit is looks funny when you are watching it. If he turns away, you can enter Stealth. He would face away, then you would stealth. When he turns back, he will penetrate your stealth. It sounds easy, but you will of course be in a lot of pain. Trying to focus on parrying and entering stealth is a mental strain. It is also harder on the teacher, timing everything and maximizing your time in stealth. The Captain will charge you more, but I am not sure how much. It will also slow down your skill progression in Parry some.¡± ¡°Hmmm, sounds like it is worth discussing with the Captain.¡± We both turn to the door when the other group enters the Tavern. They halt upon seeing us. They are all at level three now and look a little worse for wear. I turn to John and wish him good night. The group slowly heads to a table, calling for food and ale. John has given me a lot of things to consider as I settle for the night. I need to get to bed early tonight. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be even harder. I slowly open my eyes and check my internal clock. Still a few minutes until my alarm time. I get up and go to the bath house for a hot shower. I wave to John on my way down. I wonder if he ever sleeps. For a mere five coppers, a hot shower and laundered clothes make me feel like a new person. I get some breakfast with John. After that he hands me a potion of Iron Will. I drink the nasty concoction and ask. ¡°Why is your potion so disgusting, but Cal¡¯s was much better?¡± ¡°Probably a different recipe. I am guessing he did not offer more either because he did not have more ingredients or it is too expensive for you to purchase.¡± I grunt as my stomach settles and I see the timer on Iron Will reset to twelve hours as it was still in effect from last night. I wish John a good morning and make my way over to the barrack enjoying the cool morning air. The sun begins to light the sky to the east. I pause for a moment realizing I have just been assuming the sun is rising in the east. I check my map quickly and the compass does indicate the sun is rising in the east. I am going to have to be more careful not to make assumptions. This one turns out to not be bad, but there is no telling what may get me killed. At the barracks, I find the Captain slipping another steaming mug. I talk to him about the suggestion John had on increasing my stealth. The Captain listened impassively as I described the idea. Then he surprises me by a deep belly laugh, nearly spilling his drink before he recovers. ¡°What, it¡¯s not possible?¡± I ask. As his laughter subsides, he chuckles. ¡°Not at all. I was just laughing about finally meeting someone even more crazy about training than I was at your age.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°We can do that, but it will cost you fifteen gold a day, so forty more gold for the rest of the week.¡± I hand the gold over and he leads me to the back of the barrack to begin our practice. There are five swords staked into the sand. He gestures for me to pick one up. We discuss the sequence, which will be stealth, parry fire dart as a spell, stealth, and parry fire dart with a sword. We proceed with that until lunch. I check my stats while we eat lunch in companionable silence. My Parry is now in Beginner and my Stealth has jumped several levels. We get up and dust ourselves off. I pick up my third sword. These swords have high durability, but low damage to make them last longer. We continue until dinner. I must admit it does look funny watching the Captain turn in place to allow me time to enter stealth in between fire darts. I hit the showers at the bath house before entering the Tavern for an early dinner. I finish before the group returns from their hunting for the day. I settle into bed and I try to relax before falling into a dreamless sleep. Arc1 Ch 15 - Day 16 Ambush I awake to my alarm and after silencing it I lay there thinking that I have one more day until the end of my first week of training my Advanced skill. I have been considering working on my Shaper ability, but I can¡¯t pass up this opportunity to focus on my Advanced skill training with Captain Varus. I yawn and I walk down the stairs to the bar to get some breakfast. I have been developing a rhythm the last several days as I try to just make my way through one day at a time. I slide onto a bar stool slapping down another twenty-five coppers for lodging and food and four silvers for the Iron Will potion. I wait for John to return with breakfast I give serious consideration about continuing training after tomorrow. It has been a grueling week and I am not sure if I can keep the pace up even with Iron Will potions. While I sit there I hear quiet footsteps on the stairs. The group enters the Tavern and I think to myself that they have never been up this early before. I watch them settle around a table. I can see them eyeing me in the reflection from the bottles John keeps up on the shelf behind the bar. John drops off my plate on his way to their table to get their orders. I dig in and brace myself for another grueling day. To take my mind off it I bring up my stats to take in my improvement over the last week.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 8 XP to next Level: 3595/3600
Class: None Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 350
Str: 19 Melee Damage Modifier: +9
Agi: 15 Range Damage Modifier: +5
Dodge: 9% (+4%)
Con: 15 Health / Stamina: 75 / 75
Health / Stamina Regen: 15% per min
End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44%
Int: 36 (5) Mana Pool: 250 (70)
Wis: 29 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 8 per min
Cha: 11 Trade Modifier: 1%
Per: 32 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 2, 25%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%)
Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Channeling (Basic 5, 66%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 8, 90%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Advanced 8, 23%), Numbness II, Parry (Advanced 10, 25%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Advanced 7, 50%), Swords (Advanced 7, 76%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil
Spells: Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Concealing Mists (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Dart (Adept 5, 23%), Fireball (Basic 1, 0%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%), Light (Novice 1, 66%), Lightning (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Novice 4, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Novice 1, 33%)
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 7
I finish my breakfast and the foul bubbling Iron Will potion. Great progress in Fire Dart, Parry, Stealth, and Swords. I have enough money for about 2 more weeks of training. No matter what, I want to take a break after I finish this week¡¯s training tomorrow to check out that red dot on the map in the Gnoll area. My stealth should allow me to navigate the area without discovery. I causally look at the adventures which have named themselves the Night Blades and they are all at level five now. Hmmm, I didn¡¯t know you could name your party. I make my way out of the Tavern after wishing John a good day. I meet the Captain and stake out three swords in the sand for training today. I pick up one of the swords and stealth when the Captain turns away and whirls to send a fire dart at me, which I try to deflect with mana and then repeat with my sword. I must pay careful attention to time the Stealth to minimize the time needed between parries. After about 2 hours of training I suddenly get a notification that covers my field of view, which throws of my timing. The Captain pauses before releasing a Fire Dart while I look at the notification.
Save the Starting Adventures Quest The Adventures group called the Night Blades has set an ambush to kill a new group of Adventures that are entering the Starter Area. Stop the Night Blades from succeeding. This is a timed quest starting in thirty minutes. Rewards: Variable. Do you accept? Yes or No?
I select Yes, which starts a timer in the upper right of my field of vision, and quickly tell the Captain about the quest. He says he cannot interfere unless it happens in the Village. I ask for the best buff spells he can cast and flip him a gold coin. He looks thoughtful for a moment after he catches the coin then nods and casts Greater Haste, Greater Stamina Restoration, and Traveler¡¯s Veil. This gives me forty-five minutes of 100% increased movement speed, 100% boost to stamina regeneration for sixty minutes, and plus thirty to stealth for four hours. I say thanks opening my map and see a blue marker at the North entrance to the starter area. I start to run, which would usually take about fifty minutes to get there, but with the haste I should be able to make it in twenty-five. This will leave me five minutes to try to kill eight level five characters. At about five minutes out I will cast Shield. I wish I had been casting Fireball now, so I could hit several at once with enough damage to take them down. I am not sure how they will have deployed, but the archers will be the deadliest, with the mages next, but it will be key to kill the healers if I can¡¯t kill them with one spell or the healers will just heal them up. I wish I had inspected them in more detail this morning to get their hit points. I have Fire Dart at Adept level now, which means I can cast 5 fire darts at 21-31 damage per dart. Figure the archers are 60-80 hit points with the mages at 50-65 hit points. So, I can hit one archer and one mage with three and two darts respectively, having a good chance of killing both. Then repeat for the other archer and mage. That will leave the two tanks and the two clerics. I could probably handle the two tanks with my sword if it wasn¡¯t for the clerics. The tanks will probably be at 120-140 hit points with the clerics in the 70-90 range. I can¡¯t imagine that their endurance is better than fifty, but they could have the Numbness skill to keep them up when they drop below 25% health. To be safe I will need four fire darts to kill a cleric, so two casts while the tanks will be rushing me. I can do a concealing mist and then cast from within the mists. I will be very low on mana at that point and will have to engage the two tanks with a sword with maybe a little spell damage. I am nearing the marker on my map so I slow and engage stealth. With my current stealth and the boost from Traveler¡¯s Veil I leave no trace while I quickly walk up the hard-packed dirt road without a sound. A few minutes later I see the two cleric and mages split on both sides of the road behind a boulder on the left and a thick fallen tree on the right. I will hit the ones behind the boulder first, since they are crouching and ready to stand versus the other pair laying behind the tree, but first where are the others? I see the archers perched in trees on the right side of the road. The tanks are both standing behind trees on the right of the road. All right this is it. I get ready to cast and I get a popup that I quickly dismiss indicating a timer update to zero. I see a shimmer on the road about eighty feet in front of the tree hiding the two tanks and ninety feet from the archers. Crap, I quickly cast Fire Darts at the Mage on the left and the closest archer on the right. It is a little difficult to focus since I haven¡¯t selected two targets so far apart before. My darts leave my hand striking both targets causing them to drop silently, though the archers body makes a heavy thump when it hits the ground. The party instantly turns toward me as I drop out of stealth in the middle of the road. I ready another Fire Dart and yell for the new adventures to take cover. The mage is staring at me wide eyed, but the archer reacts quickly drawing and firing an arrow at me, which I try to parry with my sword to no avail. The arrow strikes in my right shoulder for 34 hit points of damage, which is mostly absorb by me Shield. I finish my fire dart before he gets another arrow off killing both the mage and archer, leaving the two tanks and clerics. A tank, who I am guessing is the leader say ¡°Kill him quickly.¡± Then he starts running right at me. The two clerics and the other tank hesitate for a moment looking at the new adventures diving off the road into the underbrush before running at me. I cast concealing mists which envelope me before the tanks reach me causing him to skid to a halt just outside the mist. I pull the arrow from my shoulder and cast another fire dart sending four darts into the closer cleric killing them. I inspect the remaining three while I switch to a bow and begin firing at the cleric who dives behind the two tanks after taking a hit to the arm. I see him pull the arrow out and heal himself while the two tanks block my arrows with their shields. I stop and pull a mana potion from my inventory and drink it. Then switch back to firing arrows. They surprise me when the tank and cleric turn and start running for the new adventure group. The remaining tank cries out using a skill to prevent me from firing on the running tank and cleric. They are forcing my hand, I don¡¯t have a choice, I must stop them, so I switch to a Sword and stealth. I quickly run behind the tank who is just starting to nervously look around, since the arrows have stopped coming from the mist. I strike the tank in the lower back with my sword getting double damage for attacking from stealth dealing a whopping 97 hit points of damage. I then slam into the tank carrying him into the mists. Then I step back and stealth again. The tank cries out again causing a red aura to envelope him. The aura is not enough to save him when I strike again from stealth causing him to collapse when he falls below 25% health. I immediately run from the mists toward the remaining cleric and tank. As I do I focus on another Fire Dart sending four darts into the clerics back bringing her down. The tank is chasing one of the new adventurers while the others throw stones and branches at him. Two have longer branches and move to intercept him running as fast as I can. I see one of the branch wielders go down with a bad cut to the chest. Even when a projectile or branch strikes the tank they are doing little tono damage. I get there just in time to parry a cut successfully this time and then start to engage the tank in earnest. The tank¡¯s armor and skills are good, but no match for my own. I rapidly whittle his health down below 25% percent, but he has Numbness and holds on until I reduce him to zero health. Despite the buff spells I am still breathing heavy and covered in sweat when I turn to the downed adventurer. I pull a health potion out of my inventory and hold their head to pour it in their mouth as they swallow and breath it in. That is the beauty of a health potion, you don¡¯t have to worry about choking someone. I see an icon in my lower right flashing put ignore it to ask if everyone else is all right?Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. A young man addresses me. ¡°We are fine, but what was all of this about?¡± I haven¡¯t tried this before, but I try to share the notification window text for the quest and ask if they can see it. They all nod while they read it and turn to look at each other in fear, but I notice not in confusion. They know why they¡¯re targeted. ¡°Do you know why they were here to ambush you? They entered the area one week ago.¡± The young man says. ¡°I cannot say why they would have been waiting for us, but you have our thanks. Unfortunately, we have very little we can offer to you in the way of a reward.¡± ¡°That is ok. You saw there was no specific reward specified and I did this because it was the right thing to do.¡± They all looked at me strangely. ¡°Well loot the dead and then we can take the two left alive back to the village for questioning by the captain.¡± The young man said ¡°That will not be possible.¡± He gestures behind me and I see that the other has killed the two that were still alive. I turn and Inspect him seeing the following panel. Name: Justin (Human) Health 70/70, Mana 50/50 ¡°Very well, then loot them and arm yourselves.¡± I say. ¡°You saved us and by rights all of their equipment is yours.¡± ¡°That is fine and I will feel better if you can all attack using something more than stick and stones.¡± Justin turns and he and the others silently gather the equipment and split is among themselves. After that is accomplished we start walking to the village. The Night Blades will be respawning in about five hours and I need to discuss what happened with the Captain. While we walk I check out the other members of the group and see they have already picked Silver Thorns for their group name.
Justin (Human) Health 70/70, Mana 50/50 is the obvious leader of the group. Sara (Human) Health 50/50, Mana 75/75 is a short but well-built female who I remember seeing jump on the tanks back during the fight to distract him. Nora (Human) Health 60/60, Mana 60/60 was one of the ones wielding a rock and the tank seemed to be trying to get to her when Sara jumped on his back. Frank (Human) Health 70/70, Mana 50/50 was wielding a branch along Joe to try to fend the tank off. Joe (Human) Health 50/50, Mana 80/80 was the downed adventurer that I used the healing potion on. He jumped in front of Nora to take a sword stroke intended for her. Mary (Human) Health 65/65, Mana 60/60 was throwing rocks to distract the tank. Jill (Human) Health 55/55, Mana 70/70 was finding rocks for Mary and Nora to throw. Sam (Human) Health 60/60, Mana 50/50 found a curved branch and was trying to trip the tank with it while I killed him.
I try to probe them for more information, but they are not forth coming with anything more. So, I take the time to look at my Notification.
Congratulations You have completed Save the Starting Adventures Quest. You rescued all 8 members of the group and killed all members of the Night Blades. Reward: Deferred while training.
I am glad to see the Captain at the North Gate as we approach the village. I greet him and fill him in quickly on the battle. I finish and Justin steps forward and says. ¡°Greetings Captain Varus. We were not aware you were serving in this Starter Area.¡± ¡°I just switched here after the last group left.¡± The Captain said, as I say softly Varus to myself. ¡°How will you deal with the Night Blades when they respawn?¡± Justin asks. The Captain gravely replies. ¡°That has already been handled by the system and they will respawn in a different location where they can be dealt with.¡± The Captain turns to me and asks if I am ready to get back to my training. I sigh and say. ¡°Yes.¡± I say good bye to the Silver Thorns and follow the Captain at a jog. ??? While I head to the rear of the barrack Justin gestures and Silver Thorns head to the General Store first where they combined their money to buy spells for Joe, Sara, Jill, and Nora. Then they started out to the Rabbit Area leaving by way of the North Gate. They are engaging in an interesting conversion in party chat while they walked at a brisk pace. Justin: Which do you think will be better, to level as quickly as possible to level ten or to stretch is out until the next group enters? Frank: I think it will depend on if we can get George to exit with us. Justin: Why do you say that? Frank: He is training with the Captain and he just took on the Night Blades by himself. I don¡¯t want to kid myself into thinking we were of much help. Jill: He did very well and he has to be an Adept in Fire Dart to generate five darts and his sword skill looked nearly as good. Also, he blocked the sword slash at Sam at the end. Nora: That was a Parry. Justin: What? How can that be, it is an Advanced skill? Nora: The sword slash at Sam was deflected, not blocked. There is no skill George should know to allow him to do what he did in the Starter Area, but since he did it would have to be Block, Deflect, Reflect, or Parry. Block would stop the slash, Deflect always has a tale tell spark of metal on metal, Reflect would have had the slash rebound against the attacker. That just leaves Parry. Justin: That makes sense, which would also mean his skill with it must be very high to succeed even against a level five attacker. Frank: Maybe through his training with Captain Varus? Jill: How is he getting training though. Training with someone like the Captain would cost a fortune and where would he get it in here? Justin: Enough, we need to focus on the Rabbits. The gear George allowed us to loot will improve our progression a lot. Everyone will fight melee today and then tonight we will sell the meat and skins. Then get a meal at the Tavern. Hopefully we will run into George and we can find out more of his story. ??? Meanwhile I was continuing to get the snout kicked out of me by Captain Varus. We continued the same pattern for the last few days until we break for dinner and the end of training for the day. The Captain says. ¡°That is enough for today. You are almost at Expert in Fire Dart and Adept at Parry. There is one day of training left out of the ten days of training you purchased. Will you wish to continue for another week and change focus?¡± ¡°I will want to purchase another week of training but want a day or two before we start again.¡± ¡°That is not a problem, but you will need to pay for the next week before we stop the current weeks training, so that I can continue to defer your XP awards.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± I say opening a trade window and deposit 150 gold within. The Captain accepts and with a nod he starts to leave before surprising me by turning back to face me. ¡°You should know that Burt is no longer working in the General Store. Trent took over for him. Burt was helping the Night Blades advance and the System is dealing with him now. Do not mention Burt¡¯s replacement.¡± With that the Captain turns and walks off. After thinking about what the System maybe doing to Burt I shiver and then I make my way over to the bathhouse. After getting clean and laundered I am about to walk into the Tavern when I see the Silver Thorns talking to Cal on his porch. I frown in disappointment to think they would try to get the quest from Cal and increase his years of service. I walk over even though I am sure Cal can handle himself. Cal breaks off his conversation. ¡°Here is the one I was talking about.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on Cal?¡±, I ask. ¡°The Silver Thorns were apologizing, they wanted to get my quest and actually finish it, but now with the attack on them when they entered and not knowing what will greet them on the outside they don¡¯t feel they can take on the quest. Imagine their surprise when I said the quest was already fulfilled by you.¡± I blush when the whole group stares at me. ¡°Oh.¡± I say intelligently. ¡°I just wanted to make sure everything is ok. I am heading to the Tavern to get something to eat.¡± Cal says, ¡°Thanks George, have a good meal.¡± I beat a hasty retreat to the Tavern. Nora asks, ¡°How did he fulfill the quest by himself?¡± Cal smiles and says. ¡°You will have to get that story from him if he is willing to tell it. Now all of you go get washed up and get dinner.¡± They all wave good bye and enter the bathhouse. They will stop by the Tavern after bathing. Meanwhile John is laughing at me when I enter the Tavern and make a beeline to the bar. He asks, ¡°What set your tail on fire?¡± I blush even deeper mumbling something into the bar. ¡°Ha, this has to be the new group. What did they do?¡± ¡°They were talking to Cal about his quest. I am guessing you know it?¡± ¡°Yes, that was a nasty piece of work. You did a great job completing the quest. I am sure they are interested in getting the story and you should be able to get some free drinks out of it.¡± John says with a grin. ¡°It feels to much like bragging to talk about what I did.¡± ¡°Well if that¡¯s the case you ask them for stories about their lives. People from this world will not only know but will have experienced a lot of things you have only read about. It would be good to have allies when you leave here that can help you when you get started in the real world.¡± I am considering his words when the Silver Thorns enter the Tavern. John greets them and they settle around a large table. Justin walks over and asks me to join them for the meal. I follow Justin over to the table. There is an empty spot both next to and opposite Nora. Justin settles into the one next to Nora and I take the one between Sam and Jill. Cal takes all our orders and I order another ale. Justin smiles and says thanks again for saving us. ¡°Your welcome. I never liked the Night Blades.¡± I say, taking a drink of my ale. ¡°Oh? Did they do something to you while they were here?¡± ¡°I could tell they were not happy that I was here, but they avoided me. I was sitting out with Cal one night having some tea when they came back into town and walked right up to Cal and asked for his quest. They even left their party to do it, so he would have to hand the quest out eight times. They even taunted him saying they were getting a gold each for the quest and not fulfill it. Imagine their surprise when Cal said no.¡± ¡°Similar to our own surprise.¡± ¡°I suppose.¡± John brings out our dinner, which are wolf steaks with roasted potatoes and onions and crusty bread with butter. ¡°I actually got lucky. While in the Starter Glade I was inspecting every stone to increase my Inspect skill. One stone felt off. It didn¡¯t weight what similar stones weighted. I broke it open and found out it was a geode full of amethyst. Later when I got Cal¡¯s quest I was able to satisfy it right away much to his surprise.¡± I look around and see no one has touched their food yet and John is there leaning against another table listening in as well. All of them are smiling making appreciative sounds while they cut into their steaks. ¡°Who would of thought.¡± Justin says around a mouth full of steak. Everyone ate companionably in silence for the next several minutes. When we finished Justin cleared his throat and asks. ¡°We also had another reason for asking you to join us. We are not sure what will greet us when we leave, so we are going to push to level ten as quickly as possible and the leave. Even on death we will respawn in the Outpost Cemetery, which should be safe. We would like you to join us to increase our odds.¡± ¡°Do you expect someone wants to kill you enough to use soul eating weapons?¡± I ask. The group shifts uncomfortably and it is Nora who answers. ¡°It is possible, but such blades are very expensive. It is unlikely they have more than one or two.¡± ¡°That would imply that one of you is the actual target. Would you care to fill me in on who that is and why?¡± Justin answered. ¡°I am sorry, but we cannot.¡± ¡°Very well, what is it would want from me?¡± ¡°We would like you to join us when we leave.¡± I was not expecting that. ¡°I thought eight people is the max size for a party.¡± ¡°It is, but many dungeons need larger groups, so parties of eight may join into a raid group of any size depending only on the quest limitations.¡± ¡°Well I will have to think on that. Also, I will be continuing my training here for at least another twelve days before I can leave.¡± Justin says. ¡°That is reasonable. We did not discuss a reward for your help but know we can offer unique training opportunities, access to a well-stocked library, and several unique dungeons.¡± I finish draining my ale before taking my leave for my room. They have given me a lot to think about including the very real danger of ending up in the same situation as the Captain¡¯s son. I doubt anyone would be spending the effort to free me though. I lay back on my bed, but sleep comes slowly tonight. Arc1 Ch 16 - Day 17 Last Day of Training My alarm suddenly jarred me from my sleep. Even though my status shows well rested I felt anything but. I couldn¡¯t wait for the mindlessness of leveling my skills today to take my thought away from joining the Silver Thorns. I quickly make my way down to the bar not seeing the Silver Thorns. My apprehension must have been apparent to John who said. ¡°They haven¡¯t been down yet this morning. Don¡¯t let their offer bother you. They have a real reason to worry if someone went to such lengths to kill them. It is very likely someone is waiting outside for the Night Blades or the Silver Thorns as a backup.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me feel any better.¡± I say as I take a seat. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong it sucks, but do you really think you can add enough to handle whatever is waiting out there? They won¡¯t be low level and they will capture you and take you somewhere they can control your bind point and then kill you time after time until your final death.¡± I shiver at John¡¯s cold assessment and say. ¡°Isn¡¯t there anything we can do?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, no, there is no way to send a message out and while we can contact the System nothing has been done in this area to be addressed, just guesses on our part. Well let me get your breakfast and potion.¡± I sit there racking my brain, but John has a lot more experience with this world and its political structure than I do and he can¡¯t think of anything. John brings out my favorite biscuits with gravy, eggs, and bacon. We shift our conversation to lighter topics. Apparently the six domains that make up the empire compete in a sport that resembles football, with multiple passes allowed and of course magic. The magic can buff the players or affect the terrain, but not directly affect the other team. John¡¯s favorite team the Hydras from the Domain of Water were last year¡¯s winners and he has been dying since he can only catch up on the games when new adventures come in. I laugh to hear his passion as he describes the final match were the Hydras turned a section of the field into mud and then boosted their main player with agility and hit them with repeated wind blasts sliding him across the muddy field out running the defense to the goal. Wow I wonder what football would be like back on Earth with magic, images of the front line literally turning to stone temporarily and the quarterback vaulting ten feet up with boosted strength and agility throwing the ball 100 yards. I gulp down my potion holding my noise and run out as my stomach flips over. I meet up with the Captain and we head to the practice field. Today I ask if we can work on Shield as well and he says that is fine, it would just slow Endurance training, but that is already at a crawl. I draw a sword and cast Shield. Then the Captain¡¯s turns his back, I Stealth, and then alternate parrying with the sword or with magic. When a dart hits my shield, I renew it. And so, the day passes through an all to brief break for lunch and then finally dinner time where we stopped. The Captain says, ¡°You have a few days until we need to start training again, so just let me know when you want to start again and what you would like to focus on.¡±, as he turned and left. First a stop at the bathhouse where I quickly wash up and then a trip to the blacksmith where I fine him working on a sword. He was just quenching the blade in water when I enter so he notices me right away. ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t my best customer. Do you need some more swords?¡± He says with a smile.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Not this time, but I would like to buy a long bow, 60 arrows, an axe, a mace, and a spear.¡± ¡°Ok, you want them high durability like the swords or regular weapons?¡± ¡°Regular weapons for these.¡± ¡°I have all of those. It will be a silver per weapon and two coppers per arrow, which will come to five silvers and twenty coppers.¡± I open a trading window and put the money in the windows as he fills his side with the weapons and we both hit accept. ¡°Thanks, have a good night.¡± ¡°Sure, and you too.¡± He says as he picks up the quenched blade and starts pumping the grind stone. I have everything I can think of for my trip tomorrow to find out what is at the blue dot on the map. With that done I enter the Tavern where the Silver Thorns are already eating. I see they saved a space so I make my way over and ask if I can join them. They greet me warmly as John brings over food and an ale. I inspect them quickly and see they are all at level four. I congratulate them on how quickly they have advanced. Justin replies. ¡°Well that was made possible by the gear you gave us. It has made it much quicker to level. We just started on the wolf area this afternoon, but not going to deep yet.¡± I wave away his remark saying. ¡°I think it has just as much to do with teamwork and how you use that equipment.¡± Justin asks. ¡°Have you considered our offer?¡± I sigh and say. ¡°I have, but I will need another two or three days before I decide, which is when my next round of training starts.¡± My comment raises several eyebrows. ¡°Is there any chance we may avail ourselves of training as well?¡± Nora asks. I give her a serious look and say. ¡°I am sorry, but the situation is unique to my circumstances. If I knew of a way for you to obtain the training as well I would not begrudge sharing knowing what may wait outside.¡± Everyone says some quiet thanks and, in an effort, to switch topics I ask about the Hydras. I see John straighten and pause as he polished the bar. Hah, I knew he was listening. Nora asks. ¡°How do I know of the team?¡±, which is a great way to pull John into the conversation. It appears the Silver Thorns are all Drake fans, which is the Air Domain¡¯s team. They are currently leading in the initial matches this season much to John¡¯s disappointment. The conversation becomes heated, but friendly as the night winds on. It is very relaxing. I also catch Nora looking at me a few times, maybe my perception score coming into play. I do find it interesting she is the only one that addresses me other than Justin like the others defer to her. We stay up late talking before we break up and head to bed. It really felt nice to interact with people other than the shop keepers. It is late when I finally make my way up to bed. I sit there thinking about the pleasant evening, I really wish I could help the Silver Thorn¡¯s out. I have been saving my unallocated points for when I hit level ten and pick a class to either meet the class stat requirements if necessary or to increase the classes primary stat. I would really like to either get a unique Mage class or a hybrid mage/melee fighter, but I don¡¯t expect to be able to get that until leaving the Starter Area and joining a guild. It is expensive to get the training I have been going through with Captain Varus, so many guilds and houses should be interested in getting me to join assuming I can get out of the Starter Area without being killed. For now, I will check out the blue dot on the map and try to get my skills and level up as high as I can, whether I end up going with the Silver Thorns or not. I have trouble getting to sleep tonight, tossing and turning for a while before finally falling asleep. Arc1 Ch 17 - Day 18 Fate I start the day early and grab some breakfast and another potion. Who knows what I will find, so I might as well prepare as best I can. I start off at a steady jog, then switch to walking when my stamina hits half way until it is back to full and then pick the pace back up. I reach the edge of the Gnoll area in one hour and then stealth and make my way to the dot on my map. I pause and let several patrols of two to five Gnolls go by. I inspect them and they are all level ten with around 170 hit points each. My Fire Dart is at Expert now, so I can summon six darts, which would allow me to kill one and badly injure a second when coming out of stealth, but for now I avoid them. I really don¡¯t want to earn any more XP while training, even though Captain Varus told me when he deferred XP that includes all XP. The System doesn¡¯t try to differentiate between what is earned by actual training. The deferral of all XP will last until Varus indicates it¡¯s done more the max length of the deferral expires. After about another hour in stealth I reach the source of the blue dot. There is a small camp fire and three Gnoll are roasting some meat over a fire and the blue dot appears to be the large oak tree they are sitting under. Now that I am in front of it I can see a blue glow through the bark. I carefully case the whole area and just have the three Gnolls. I place myself behind them about fifty feet away and summon a shield, followed by casting Fire Dart with four of the darts hitting one on the left and the other two hitting the one in the middle. The one on the left drops dead and the middle is badly injured as I summon another set of fire darts, directing all of them into the uninjured Gnoll who drops before making it fifteen feet. The last Gnoll while injured is running toward me as I calmly summon four more darts, which drops him at my feet. I quickly loot them and move to the tree. It feels like a regular tree and the glow appears evenly all around. Well I can think of only one thing to do and get the axe from my inventory. I take a swing at the tree and get a small red negative twenty-three. As I inspect the tree now it indicates hit points 9977/10000. I sigh as I see that, so I am going to have to pay attention to my surrounding between swings both for patrols and the group I killed respawning. I take another swing, pause to listen, and take a quick look around. At such a slow chopping rate my stamina hard drops and I only get in about 120 swings before the 3 Gnolls respawn. I am partially around the tree from them as I cast Fire Dart with all the darts focused on one Gnoll, killing it. The second goes down the same way before reaching me. The last gets in a good hit before I cast a final Fire Dart killing it. My Shield spell is at Beginner now, so it absorbs twenty-five points damage, which handles the blow just barely. I recast the Shield and go back to chopping the tree. It takes me a little more than three hours to finish cutting the tree down and I kill three more sets of Gnolls, with only one of them doing me a little damage. As the giant oak cracks and starts to fall it vanishes. In its place is a wooden stump with a fist size blue crystal embedded in the center with a stack of twenty-five wood to the side. I step on the stump and inspect the crystal which reveals nothing. I reach down to touch the crystal, which shatters to dust leaving a small wooden box covered in beautiful decorative swirls. I lift the box carefully and open it and receive a notification.
Congratulations You have found the Legendary Deck of Fate. Your Legendary Map is now soul bound to you.
How helpful. I then get a sudden prompt to select my primary attribute: Intelligence, Wisdom, Strength, or Agility with a counter counting down one minute. Crap, I select Intelligence and get another prompt to select my secondary attribute: Wisdom or Charisma with another countdown. I select Wisdom and then get a final notification.
Congratulations You are now the current owner of the Legendary Deck of Fate. + 20 to primary attribute selected + 10 to secondary attribute selected You now have the unique class Arcane Shaper based on attributes selected and your special ability Shaper. It will take one year for the Deck of Fate to become soul bound, but you can accelerate this process by one day per 1000 XP. You have the option to channel XP from killing creatures into the Deck of Fate. Select the percentage of XP to be redirected to the Deck of Fate. Currently 0%. Warning: You currently have deferred XP accrued. All currently earned, but deferred XP cannot be redirected.
Too bad, I could have stayed in the Starter Area longer if I could redirect my deferred XP, but that still wouldn''t help the Silver Thorns, so probably better not to be tempted. Then suddenly there is a trumpet sound and bright red text appears in the sky.
System World Event The Legendary Deck of Fate has been discovered. A one-year timer has started. The Deck of Fate will drop on the holder¡¯s death and the counter will reset with the next person to pick it up. If picked up by a previous owner the timer will continue from the last time it was in that person¡¯s possession. After the timer reaches zero the Deck will then be soul bound until final death of the holder. If the owner loses the Deck all special abilities granted will be lost.
I put the wood in my inventory to give to the blacksmith. Then I enter stealth and make my way back to the village. I have a lot to think about. I spend hours wandering the forest on autopilot before realizing it is getting dark and I never ate lunch. I drop off the wood and the axe collecting twenty-five copper for my trouble, which seems like a small amount now. Then I hit the bathhouse and the Tavern to sit with the Silver Thorns. All of them are a buzz about the World Event, trying to guess who may have found the deck. I listen and ask a few questions and find that there hasn¡¯t been a World Event in over a thousand years. The last was for a demonic invasion in the Domain of Fire. After dinner I go for a walk and climb up on the back side of the Tavern to stare at Vera as the little moon makes its way across the sky. I nearly jump out of my skin as a soft female voice says. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± I say as I turn to look at the young female figure sitting on the tile roof next to me. As she turns to face me I see her eyes, which are completely black with small pin pricks of light. I try to inspect her and nothing happens. She laughs gentle, which is a truly enchanting sound. ¡°I am sorry for interrupting your meditation, but I really cannot afford to wait. My name is Vera.¡± ¡°Like the moon?¡± I ask. Another gentle laugh as she says. ¡°Well more like the moon is named after me.¡± ¡°Then you are the Goddess?¡± I say with a squeak to my voice. ¡°That correct, I had to talk to you about the Deck of Fate you found.¡± ¡°Oh, are you here to take it back?¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Not at all. I merely wanted to tell you some of the history behind the deck. You could get this from others, but you seem very distracted since getting the deck. You haven¡¯t even looked at your status page to see what changed with your new class. Why is that?¡± ¡°Because I am doomed. With the attention on the Silver Thorns there is no way I am getting out of the Starter Area without someone noticing my unique class or that I have the deck and killing me for it. They will probably want to kill me to a final death as well to make sure no one else knows they have the deck.¡± ¡°Hmmm, that is possible, but you should be aware that no one can examine a legendry object except its owner or those they wish to allow to do so. Also, in the case of legendry objects that are not wore they will not appear in your inventory to those skills that allow someone else to inspect your inventory. Finally, unique classes appear as the closest basic class when someone successfully inspects you.¡± I perk up a bit after hearing this. ¡°It still leaves the problem with whoever is after the Silver Thorns.¡± ¡°That is true, but you are aware more than most that this life is not the end. How do you want to live it? Do you wish to hide in here if possible after the Silver Thorns leave and see if you can sneak out safely? Or will you befriend them and stand with them? It is totally up to you of course.¡± I sit there thinking for a while without realizing how much time goes by until she says. ¡°While you are thinking on that I have a story about the decks history. Long ago two gods made the Deck. These gods were twins and sons of the Goddess of Light and the God of Fire. The twins were inseparable and instead of having separate churches had one they shared. They ran their church well and did many great works. Later they created the deck for their champion. Over time their powers grew. Their powers grew so great their father became jealous and is known to of killed one. The others fate is not known. The Deck was lost during the battle between their champion and the Fire gods champion in which they both lost their lives. The fallen god¡¯s name was Garth and the other was Poth.¡± ¡°They were your grandchildren, weren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± She says softly. I look at her considering and say. ¡°Do you have a quest for me?¡± Another soft laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t have a quest for you.¡± I can¡¯t help but feel there is something here. The Goddess does not just stop by to chat. ¡°You say no one knows what happened to Poth?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± ¡°The Deck was created by him. Can I use it to find him?¡± She does not answer and just continues to look at me. It suddenly clicks. ¡°You can¡¯t answer, can you?¡± She starts to smile and sit there silently as I say. ¡°Everyone, no everything is governed by the System, so there are rules everything has to follow, even the Gods.¡± I reach into my inventory and take out the box containing the cards and open it. I try to take the deck out of the box and they won¡¯t budge. I inspect the deck and again get nothing. I try to think. I hold the deck and say. ¡°It sounds like Poth was a nice god and if you can help me, I would like to find him.¡± Nothing seems to happen and then I receive a notification.
You have received a Hidden Quest. Take the Deck of Fate to the first church of Garth and Poth. Discover what happened to the Twin Gods. Reward: Unknown
I see tears in Vera¡¯s eyes when I look up. ¡°Worry not, these are tears of joy. I didn¡¯t think anyone would attempt to find out the fate of my grandchildren. I wish you good luck on your quest. I leave you my mark. If you have need, my churches will help you.¡± She says as she fades away from in front of me. I see a faint moon crescent, which is Vera¡¯s symbol on the back of my right hand, which quickly fades. I climb back down and go up to my room locking the door. I finally open my character sheet to see what¡¯s changed, focusing on Arcane Shaper first.
Class: (Mage) Arcane Shaper Arcane Shaper is a unique class, which will appear as Mage to anyone else. Arcane Shapers have an intrinsic knowledge of how to shape elemental energies and use these energies to cast spells. As a result, they earn ten mana per point of intelligence and .5 mana per minute regeneration per point of wisdom. Base spell cost is halved. Each of the six elemental domains will have a shaping proficiency of half of the highest spell proficiency under that domain plus one tenth of every other spell under that domain. The domain proficiency acts like the Channeling skill for that domain. At Novice twice the mana can be expended to double the damage range. At Beginner for double the mana the max damage can be inflicted. At Advanced for triple the mana the spell can be maximized for double damage. At Adept for double the mana the spell becomes so intense it reduced any immunity/resistances by 50%. At Expert the spell costs are reduced by half, minimum cost 1 mana. At Master this spell can be blended with another adjacent element for double damage and the same mana cost. At Grand Master for ten times the mana the spell may affect legendary creatures not normally affected by this spell. At Sage up to half of the user mana pool may be used to cast the spell resulting in ten damage per mana point spent. At Legendary all the user mana pool may be used in one casting combining any three adjacent elements doing twenty points of damage per mana point. The Shaping ability is now split by the six domains and the cost and skill with which this is done will be determined by the domain proficiency. Also, repeated castings of the same shaping can result in discovery of a new spell.
Holy crap, this class will be overpowered when I level it up. With the cost reductions and increased mana pool size I can now pour a lot of mana into a spell if my domain proficiency is high enough.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 8 XP to next Level: 3595/3600
Class: (Mage) Arcane Shaper Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 350
Str: 19 Melee Damage Modifier: +9
Agi: 15 Range Damage Modifier: +5
Dodge: 9% (+4%)
Con: 15 Health / Stamina: 75 / 75
Health / Stamina Regen: 15% per min
End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44%
Int: 56 (5) Mana Pool: 630 (70)
Wis: 39 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 21.5 per min
Cha: 11 Trade Modifier: 1%
Per: 47 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%), Fire Shaping (Beginner 5), Water Shaping (Basic 7), Earth Shaping (Basic 1), Air Shaping (Basic 1), Light Shaping (Basic 7), Dark Shaping (Basic 1)
Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Channeling (Basic 5, 66%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 9, 23%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Adept 1, 41%), Numbness II, Parry (Adept 2, 32%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Adept 1, 32%), Swords (Adept 1, 11%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil
Spells: Fire Shaping - Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Dart (Expert 1, 42%), Fireball (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%) Water Shaping - Concealing Mists (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Novice 4, 0%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Basic 1, 0%) Earth Shaping - Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Stone Shaping (Basic 3, 75%) Air Shaping - Lightning (Basic 1, 0%) Light Shaping - Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Shield (Beginner 5, 19%) Dark Shaping - Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%) Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) - Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 7
I settle back on my bed. I need to get a good night¡¯s sleep and start training my spells with the Captain tomorrow as quick as possible. Arc1 Ch 18 - Day 19 Training After cleaning up and grabbing a quick breakfast, I jogged over to the barracks where I see the Captain drinking his morning beverage. He has a smile on his face as he sees me. ¡°Ready for your next round of training?¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± He says while walking to the practice area. He looks at me expectantly saying, ¡°What do you want to focus on?¡± ¡°Can you inspect me first? I have a few updates since we finished training.¡± He looks surprised when he focuses on me and then curses as he makes a gesture. I notice his hands are now adorned with several rings and his arms with a pair of beautifully etched bracers. ¡°You have managed to get yourself a class and bump up your intelligence and wisdom a lot. I don¡¯t suppose you will explain that to me?¡± ¡°I have thought about it and as long as you are willing to give me your word you will keep it a secret I am willing to share with you, but we would have to do it in party chat.¡± ¡°Hmmm, as your instructor I can justify forming a party with you for training. I give you my word I will not discuss or share what you reveal to me. Is that sufficient?¡± He says sending me a party invite. After I accept I suddenly see Captain Varus with a health of 1212 hit points and mana of 350. I am guessing with a full set of equipment he would be much higher. George: I am the one who found the Deck of Fate, which boosted my intelligence and wisdom and gave me a unique class based on a unique ability I have. Varus: How in the hell did you find that? George: The System is restricting me from discussing that, but I can say I found a map indicating where something was, which turned out to be the Deck of Fate. Varus: Incredible. George: So, my new class gives me many of the abilities of a Mage, but also groups all my spells under the different elemental domains. Under each domain as I get more skill proficiency I get more abilities that are like the Channeling skill you taught me originally. In addition to that I have the agility to shape each element in unique ways. I am still exploring this ability. Varus: Allow me to access your full character sheet. I hesitate for a moment and then mentally grant him access.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. George: Can you see it now? Varus: I can, give me a minute to go over it. I wait patiently while Varus reviews my character sheet. Varus: Ok, your class is unique. You have gained the increased mana pool of a Mage class, but you also have all your base spell costs cut in half, which is a huge bonus. You lost Channeling as a broad category skill, but still have a modified version of it available on a domain by domain basis with no tier limit like Channeling has. I would suggest based on this that you quickly level your Shield, Minor Healing, Ice Dart, Ice Storm, Fireball, and Lightning spells to at least let you have access to the ability to double your damage/healing or maximize it. We will have to get at least one spell in each of the domains to Expert to allow you to do that. With your Fire Dart spell, the Fire domain is covered but learning Fireball at a higher level would still be worthwhile since it is an area affect spell and the damage range will increase. I will cast Improved Mana Regeneration on you and Haste. Then we will start with Ice Storm and Fireball alternating until you run out of mana and then rest until you are fully restored and start again. We will spend the first six hours on that, have lunch, and then the next six hours on Shield and Minor Healing. I receive a notification that Varus has left your party, when he says. ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡± I start by casting Fireball, which has a base cost of thirty of which I pay half. Mana Manipulation will further reduce this cost to twelve mana. This means I can cast fifty-two spells until I run out of mana. I can cast 10 fireballs a minute during which time I regenerate forty-three mana, which means I can cast for slightly over eight minutes before I need a rest. This is a grueling pace to maintain. I am glad for the break at lunch. The Captain even turns out to be a little chatty indicating that this training will come as a surprise to anyone I encounter outside the Starter Area but be careful who I reveal it to. I ask him what about the Silver Thorns? He considers for a time and says. ¡°Many good people can be tempted and what you have is very tempting. I would limit people¡¯s exposure to that temptation, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t help them.¡± I am a little disappointed, but then I realize the Captain has never told me what to do. He has given advice and help on reaching goals, but never straight up said this is what I should do. ¡°Enough talk.¡± He says as he casts Improved Mana Regeneration on me again. I hurry up and get to my feet and start casting Shield followed by Minor Healing. By dinner time I am mentally exhausted. The Captain merely nods as we end for the day. I collapse on the sand after he walks around the corner. I must have lain there for half an hour before I pull myself up to get a hot shower at the bathhouse. As I enter the Tavern I see the Silver Thorns have finished their dinner and are just sitting around chatting. They have left the same chair open for me, so I join them as I ask John for some dinner. Tonight, it is a thick stew with crusty bread and ale. They all rib me good naturedly about my apparent lack of energy. They are familiar with how grueling training can be, but I do see envy in several of their eyes. As I finish my meal I tell them that I plan to join them when they leave. My training will complete in nine more days if they think they will be ready. At most the level cap will force me to leave within a day after that. They all look at each other and nod their heads, they will be ready. I inspect them and see they are all at level six now. We chat for another hour before we call it a night. We all have a hard number of days ahead. After I get up to my room I just fall into my bed, asleep instantly. Arc1 Ch 19 - Day 29 Leave Taking As I slowly open my eyes and stretch I think tomorrow is the day. I will be leaving the Starter Area with the Silver Thorns. They all should hit level ten today and we will leave tomorrow morning. This will also complete my second ten days of training with the Captain. I will be getting all my XP rewards. I am excited to see what level I will achieve. After a quick breakfast and potion of Iron Will I run over to the barrack. After meeting the Captain on the practice field, we start out with Minor Heal, then Shield, Fireball, and finally Ice Dart as I hit Expert in each. I complete each by lunch, so we continue practicing the others until dinner time, where I am practically jumping for joy despite being exhausted. The Captain says, ¡°I formally complete your training. You are no longer my student.¡± A huge notification pops up.
Congratulations You have reached Adept rank in the Advanced Skill Parry. 250 + 500 + 1000 + 2000 XP awarded You have reached Expert rank in the Skill Stealth. 100 + 200 +400 + 800 + 1600 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Weapon Skill Swords. 50 + 100 + 200 + 400 + 800 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Fire Dart. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have reached Adept rank in the Skill Mana Manipulation. 1000 XP awarded. You have completed Save the Starting Adventures Quest, awarded x8 50XP for killing each Night Blade Member, x8 100 XP for saving all members of the Silver Thorns. Enduring Flame has increased to Enduring Flame II and the effect now lasts five minutes. Three Gnolls killed for 150 XP. You have found the Deck of Fate, awarded 40,000 XP You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Fire Ball. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Minor Heal. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Ice Storm. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Lightning. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have reached Expert rank in the Spell Shield. 200 + 400 XP awarded. You have leveled up six times!!! You have 13 free stat point to allocate, choose wisely. For your actions during your level progression your reward is: +10 Intelligence, +10 to Wisdom, +10 to Constitution, +5 Agility, +2 Charisma, +5 Strength. Fame increased by 1455. You fame has surpassed 1000. For each 1000 fame your Charisma is increased by 1. Unique Feat Achieved. Highest Level in Starter Area Achieved. Exceeded previous highest level by over three levels, award increased proportionally. Awarded Advance skill Shadow Step. This skill allows the user to step into a shadow and out of another. Range thirty plus five feet per skill Tier level. Base cost is thirty mana. At the Beginner level can take one other person with them for double the base cost.
Holy crap, this is far more than I expected. I can¡¯t resist looking at my character sheet.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 14 XP to next Level: 57,945/58,800
Class: (Mage) Arcane Shaper Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 1805
Str: 24 Melee Damage Modifier: +14
Agi: 20 Range Damage Modifier: +10
Dodge: 14% (+4%)
Con: 25 Health / Stamina: 125 / 125
Health / Stamina Regen: 25% per min
End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44%
Int: 66 (5) Mana Pool: 730 (70)
Wis: 49 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 27.75 per min
Cha: 14 Trade Modifier: 4%
Per: 57 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%), Fire Shaping (Advance 1), Water Shaping (Advance 1), Earth Shaping (Basic 1), Air Shaping (Basic 1), Light Shaping (Basic 7), Dark Shaping (Basic 1)
Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame II, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 9, 42%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Expert 3, 27%), Numbness II, Parry (Adept 2, 32%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Adept 1, 32%), Swords (Adept 1, 11%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil
Spells: Fire Shaping - Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Dart (Expert 1, 42%), Fireball (Expert 1, 7%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%) If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Water Shaping - Concealing Mists (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Expert 1, 20%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Expert 1, 12%) Earth Shaping - Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%) Air Shaping - Lightning (Basic 1, 0%) Light Shaping - Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Shield (Expert 1, 23%) Dark Shaping - Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%) Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) - Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 13
After doing a little dance while the Captain looks on amused I let the Captain know I am now level fourteen as I dump all my unallocated points into intelligence. The Silver Thorns, John, Cal, and I have been discussing the best investment of the points I have. If we encounter high levels fighters I am going to need to pour spells out like water to have a chance. My new Shadow Step skill may help. I will have to practice that tonight and tomorrow before we leave. If I can get Shadow Step to Beginner level I can take one other person with me. Also, I need less than 900 XP to get to the next level. If I can get Shadow Step to Beginner and Concealing Mists to Beginner should get me to level fifteen. I rub my hands together in glee thinking about the possible reward for getting another level in the starter area. After thanking the Captain for all the help, we part ways and I hit the bathhouse before meeting the Silver Thorns at the Tavern. I find the Silver Thorns already sitting around and enjoying drinks at the table as I enter the Tavern. I joined them at the table and they all looked at me expectantly as I said I made level ten. Justin said ¡°Good. We are ready to leave after lunch then. We can meet in the morning at sunrise to practice in a raid group.¡± ¡°I agree, but I have a new skill that may be helpful I want to drill with too.¡± I say with a wide grin. Justin just raised an eyebrow. ¡°I got Shadow Step.¡± That caused an uproar with questions coming in left and right until Justin asked for quiet as he said. ¡°Can you tell us how you got that skill?¡± ¡°I am sorry, but that is related to quests I cannot discuss.¡± I felt slightly guilting, but with not knowing what will happen after we leave tomorrow I want to keep some things to myself. I also can¡¯t afford for anyone to guess I have the Deck of Fate and a jump to level fourteen would be a dead giveaway. There are disappointed looks and muttering from the others, but no one presses the issue. I notice Nora appears to have a thoughtful look. Justin breaks the mood by calling John over to take our orders for dinner and to get us another round of ales. As we eat steaks we go over the plans for tomorrow, such as they are. The main problem of course is that anything could be waiting for us and there are a lot of ways for high level characters to disable us before we can make it to the outpost outside the starter area. I also voice a thought I had, since I can cast some area affect spells with a lot of damage, why don¡¯t I just kill all of us as we exit the area? We would then respawn at the outpost. Justin says. ¡°Unfortunately, there are some rare items that can temporarily change the respawn point within an area. We just can¡¯t take the risk they will have one of these, because if you die within the area of effect of the item you will respawn wherever it is. So, they could kill us and then will have ten hours to move it somewhere else before we respawn.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I finish my meal and get up to go practice Shadow Step. As I am leaving the Silver Thorns continue to relax and unwind. Justin jumps up as I am leaving and asks me to wait a minute and walks over as I pause in the doorway. Justin says. ¡°I have a favor to ask.¡± ¡°Sure, ask away.¡± I say intrigued. ¡°If things go bad and you can get out please try to take Nora with you. If you get your Shadow Step up to Beginner you can take a second person and that may be just want you need to get away.¡± ¡°You want me to abandon everyone else?¡± I ask surprised. ¡°I am saying too much by telling you this, but I need to make sure you understand the importance. All of us in the Silver Thorns would give our lives to protect Nora, so yes save her if you can.¡± I sigh as I looks at his serious expression. ¡°I promise I will do everything I can to save her, but I am not giving up on you all.¡± I say determinedly. Justin smiles saying thanks as he walks back to the group. First, I make sure my XP is not going to the Deck of Fate. Then I turn and start Shadow Stepping around the village. Most of the buildings have dim lights outside their front doors, which cast long shadows ideal for practicing my skill. After dump all my unallocated points in intelligence I have 860 mana and at thirty mana per Shadow step I can step about twenty-nine times before depleting my mana. After I run out of mana I sit and rest, which increases by regeneration rate by a factor of five. Within seven minutes I am full again and ready to start with only a slight remainder of a mana headache. It takes me three hours to get to Beginner, which earns me another 750 XP. Then another two hours casting gets Concealing Mists to Beginner earning me another 350 XP pushing me to level fifteen.
Congratulations Update to Unique Feat Achieved. Highest Level in Starter Area Achieved. Exceeded previous highest level by over four levels, award increased proportionally. Previous award Advance skill Shadow Step improved to Temporal Shadow Step. This skill allows the user to step into a shadow and out of another. Range thirty plus five feet per skill Tier level. Base cost is thirty mana. At the Beginner level can take one other person with them for double the base cost. At the end of a shadow step the user gets one second of subjective time per skill Tier to perform any non-combat action including chaining another Shadow Step. This subjective second only passes for the user of the Temporal Shadow Step, to everyone else no time will pass. Example: A user at the Beginner level could take a shadow step and then will have two seconds to consider their next move, which could be to identify another shadow to shadow step to. The result of shadow step chaining will appear to be instantaneous to others observing the use of the skill.
That is a nice upgrade to my skill. It will greatly improve my chances of getting away or attacking people from behind increasing my chance to attack from stealth. I put my new unallocated stat point in intelligence. I look around the tavern as I enter to go to bed. The Silver Thorns have already broken up and must be in their beds as well. I wave to John as I take the stairs to my room. I have achieved Beginner in Shadow Step and will be able to take fourteen steps while taking another person along. I hope I don¡¯t need to as I settle into bed and offer a silent pray to Vera. I have never been that religious, but there is no doubting the Goddess exists and hopefully she is watching over us. With that thought I drift off to sleep. Arc1 Ch 20 - Day 30 Last Day P1 After breakfast we gather outside the North gate where Justin shows me how to join their raid group as a separate party. As I do I see icons appear for each of the others in the upper left of my vision. I mentally group them by tanks, archers, clerics, and mages with Nora¡¯s mage icon made slightly bigger to make it easier to focus on. The others exclaim as they see the size of my mana pool. Justin grins and says ¡°We may just make it after all.¡± Everyone¡¯s mood improves, but I feel a chill run down my spine as I realize how much they are counting on me. We go into the rabbit area to practice targeting. Justin will select a target, which then appears as an icon and can have different color outlines. He says typically only three different targets should be selected at a time, otherwise it is too distracting. Multiple creatures can be grouped into one target. We practice quickly changing focus between targets. Target icons and colors are assigned to groups in our party to focus on, which is basically me in one group and the Silver Thorns in another. Justin is very skilled. When I ask he says they were all taught a lot about this before entering the Starter Area, but there are many more advanced techniques to learn. We quickly work through all the rabbits before moving on to the goblin area, which I never went to. The goblins spawn in groups of eight to twelve, which makes it a little more challenging. Still, with our levels there is never any real danger. I typically cast fire dart and then shadow step behind the group, which allows me to enter stealth again to get the bonus for attacking from stealth. As I shadow step around the goblins they charge at me effectively running in circles, while the rest of the Silver Thorns pepper them with arrows and spells. We typically kill them so fast the tanks aren¡¯t getting much combat time. After an hour of that, we switch to a more standard configuration with the tanks in front to pull the goblins to them, while the healers keep their health up and the rest of us use ranged weapons and spells on them. I even take a turn as a tank, with my higher level and skill with a sword I can hold my own. However, I lack the area affect skills like battle cry the tanks have, which pull the goblins to them. We continue practicing until noon and then all of us hit the bath house before getting some lunch. We find all the shopkeepers in the Tavern and we have an impromptu party. I give Cal a hug. I will miss our talks on his porch. I look at the Captain and he frowns as he sticks out a hand making it clear a hug is unacceptable, which of course makes me want to really give him one. But I control myself and stick with a handshake. After we stuff ourselves with food and drink we all relax and chat for an hour. No one is in a hurry to leave and Justin doesn¡¯t seem concerned with delaying our timetable some. Finally, he does motion for us to leave and the shopkeepers walk with us to the North Gate of the village and wave as we walk to the Starter Area boundary. Justin hits the boundary and we all prepare ourselves with weapons in hand. Justin accepts leaving the area and the world shimmers around us. The air is suddenly hot and humid and the summer heat hits us. The forest around us thins out and the terrain changes to rocky ridges and ravines. I think this is a great area for an ambush just as a horrible pain strikes me. My health plummets to 24% as all the Silver Thorns beside me collapse to the ground. A quick glance at the party icons shows everyone at 24%, which means they all crossed the 25% health limit and passed out, since their endurance isn¡¯t close to 50% like mine. I start to see people emerging from the shadows around me. I quickly pick up Nora from where she collapsed. Justin had ordered the group¡¯s layout, which happened to put Nora by me. I summon a fireball and cast it at the movement to my right and shadow step to my left with Nora in a fireman carry. The Temporal Shadow Step really comes in handy now. I get two seconds at the Beginner level to consider my next shadow step as I chain them together, but to everyone else it seems instantaneous. This gives me time to quickly pick another shadow before anyone can react. Justin thought most people seeing it would think I had Shadow Teleport instead of Shadow Step, which will likely cause them to overestimate how far I got away. I move from shadow to shadow, after ten jumps I enter stealth, and continue jogging as I pull a mana potion out and drink it. I wish the starter area had something better than mana potions that restore fifty mana, but I will take what I can get. I continue to use a shadow step to cross ravines, streams, and other obstacles while heading almost directly north. The outpost is to the north west, but the direct route may have scouts and ambushes setup. After the ten-minute cool down on the potion expires I take a stamina potion. Twenty minutes later both my mana and stamina bottom out. I set Nora down and rest. When my mana regains half, I cast heal on Nora until she is at 100%. Her eyes flutter and open shortly after that. I place a finger on her lips as she starts to ask a question. Next, she starts using the raid chat.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Nora: What happened? George: We were all hit with a blight spell that lowered our health to 24% and you all passed out. Nora: You didn¡¯t? Your endurance is over 50%? George: Yes, that was part of my training. Nora: We can talk about that later. Where are we? George: We are a little over two miles north of the attack. I was going to head north ten miles until we are north of the outpost and then turn west two miles and then south to the outpost, which will be about a mile. That will take us into the outpost from a different direction that hopefully is not being watched. Nora: Very well. First, we must both leave the raid group and then rejoin our own party, so that no one can use our current raid group to track us. We both leave the raid group and then I send an invite for Nora to rejoin my new party. Nora: Let me know when you are ready. George: It will take six minutes to reach full mana and then another minute to heal. I would feel better if we were further north. So, let¡¯s go and we can rest in another mile. I lead the way and grab her hand occasionally to Shadow Step quickly past a terrain feature. We go another twenty minutes and have a break. I rest a full ten minutes and heal up before we go. This allows us to make much better time as I use Shadow Step more frequently. We stop around dinner time to eat under a large rock overhang that both offers some protection and shade from the evening sun. We have covered about half the distance to the outpost. Moving with care and constantly stopping to listen for pursuit is slowing our progress. While we are eating Nora and I discuss what we are going to do in more detail. Nora: We will not know who in the outpost is compromised. We can¡¯t even use the Gate without help from a member of the Mage guild. George: From talking to Cal before there should be a temple to Vera at the outpost, right? Nora: There will be, but they won¡¯t get involved in something they see as purely secular. George: I think I can convince them to help. I have a Mark of Vera. Nora just stares at me blinking slowly before continuing our conversation. Nora: You are just full of surprises. Well with a mark you should be able to convince them to help. They should have a teleport circle setup in the temple which should allow us to get to another city easily. I must admit I didn¡¯t see how we were going to make it. George: We will make it. Then we will see if we can¡¯t find a way to help the rest of the Silver Thorn¡¯s. Nora seems pensive when I remind her of them, but then perks up. Nora: You are right, we have already accomplished more than I thought possible, so I won¡¯t give up hope yet. George: Great, well let¡¯s get going. I was hoping if we get there at twilight I can easily shadow step us into the outpost. We both dust ourselves off and continue to make our way north until we are past the outpost. Then we head west until we run into a ravine about 100 feet deep and sixty feet across, which is further than my shadow step can cross. Standing on the edge, looking to the right and left, the ravine stretches a good distance north and south. I check my map and see a wide stream, but it does not indicate the ravine it rests in. I rub my chin in thought and poke my head over the edge to look before pulling back. George: I think we can make it. I can shadow step down the side of the ravine and then up the other side. Even though it¡¯s vertical it should be fine if I jump to the next shadow before the two seconds are up. Nora: Ok, let¡¯s do it. Nora holds out her hand and I quickly grasp it and lean over the edge to jump down to the first shadow. It takes eight shadow steps to make it up to the top of the other side. After that we must go another mile west and south to reach the edge of the forest. We crouch down in the bushes while we look over the outpost. I see a patch of tall grass here, a bush there, an old log, which all leave spots of shadow I can use to Shadow Step up to the wall and then into the gate. I am just not sure what¡¯s on the other side of the gate. We talk it over and decide we don¡¯t have any other choice. I should have enough mana for four more steps once we are inside. I take her hand and we flash across from shadow to shadow. Inside the gate there is a wagon, a lamp post, a doorway, and finally an alley. We then head to the church as we discussed, thinking this is the safest place to find out what¡¯s going on. Arc1 Ch 20 - Day 30 Last Day P2 We find the temple doors are locked when we arrive. After knocking, a priest opens the door. When we explain why we are here he wants nothing to do with an obviously political problem. I must show my Mark of Vera to get us in. The priest says there are lots of Imperial troops all over the area, but no one is talking. The head priest Bran takes us through a secret door behind the altar down into an underground room containing supplies, two double beds, and a small table with four chairs. We take a seat around the table with Bran, while his apprentice closes the door to the room. Bran says the troops arrived yesterday and split up with half heading to the Starter Glade and the rest staying in town. This afternoon the troops remaining in town poured out of the tavern where they were staying. They took up positions at the gates and started patrols around town. We explain that we want to get to the capital if possible. He says it would be very hard to make it to the gate, but there is a teleport circle upstairs in a room adjoining the main temple. They can teleport us to another temple in the capital. I will need to chain cast with them to get enough mana. It is already evening, so we decide to stay here out of sight overnight and we will teleport in the morning. We each take a bunk bed, but before I fall asleep Nora says. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°Your welcome. Good night.¡± ??? While Nora and George were fleeing to the outpost, a different scene was unfolding at the ambush site for the Silver Thorns. Captain Markus looks over the sprawled bodies of the Silver Thorns with a frown while he waits for the other seven members of his team to report. Over the next thirty minutes they report in that there is no sign of their target or the mysterious ninth person that teleported away with her. After considering, he commands his lieutenant to bind the Silver Thorns to the respawn stone. Captain Markus: We will take them back with us to the outpost and then to the capital. Lieutenant Howard: Should we kill them? Captain Markus: No, I want to be able to question them right away when we get back. We know someone was trying to kill Nora. Apparently, they were scared off by our troops. Contact the group at the outpost to be on the alert for anyone entering and hold them until we get there. Lieutenant Howard: Very well, sir. Jerald, levitate the Silver Thorns and everyone form up in a standard diamond pattern. Everyone mounts up on various pets, that not only supply transport, but also provide additional combat support. They form up in a diamond formation with the Silver Thorns floating unconscious bodies in the center. It should take four hours hard riding to reach the outpost. Two hours into the run disaster strikes from the trees along the dirt road to the outpost. From the trees on the right a chain lighting is skillfully directed to hit three of the mounts, while on the left a series of green balls of fire strikes two of the mounts. All five mounts throw their riders as they collapse and thrash around in agony. Only the last of the three riders manages to stop his mount before plowing into the downed mounts. As his reward he and his mount are both hit with a hail of arrows, which are covered in a paralytic poison. Markus barely makes it to his feet when an imperial energy web flows over him snapping his arms and legs together as it rapidly constricts around him. He could hardly turn his head enough to see the others on his right similarly restrained. He finds the party chat blocked when he tries to check on the other members of his team. While Markus lies there a series of shadows emerge from the woods surrounding them to reveal figures in elite armor of the Empress¡¯ own guard. Wild thoughts shot through his head that these are the ones behind the assassination attempt, but that would be crazy, no one can corrupt the Empress¡¯ guard. ¡°Captain Markus, what are you doing with this party?¡± Markus could just make out the Captain¡¯s tabs on the armor in front of him, but his face is covered in the shadows of his hooded cape. ¡°I could ask the same thing, we are acting to protect the Silver Thorns.¡± The other Captain gestures to the floating unconscious bodies of the Silver Thorns. ¡°You have a funny way of showing it. Why didn¡¯t you heal them already?¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°We rendered them unconscious as the quickest way to handle the situation and get them to the capital.¡± ¡°I see and the ambush we discovered and took care of was not part of your group?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about.¡± Markus said. The Captains voice dripped with sarcasm. ¡°There was a group of high-level assassins waiting here when we arrived two hours ago. They were set to ambush you when you passed by. Assuming you were not working together. Open a portal and take these through with the Silver Thorns. Sam, Paul, Rachel are with me. We will head to the outpost and check out the group there and meet up with the other squads headed there.¡± ??? After we wake in the morning and wash up with some well water we sit down with Bran and have a cold breakfast of bread, cheese, and apples. He says the head priestess in the Capital is Christine Wilmore. She should be able to supply a lot more help than Bran can. Bran says the original group of soldiers left last night to be replaced by an even larger group of imperial elite forces. He talked to one of his friends at the tavern this morning and heard there was a very heated argument before the original group was escorted through the portal. Nora and I look at each other, but there is really nothing we could add that isn¡¯t pure speculation. After breakfast Bran walks us up to the teleport chamber. We both thank him for all his help as we take our places in the teleport circle. I am going to contribute 500 mana for the teleport. Usually a visiting priest or priestess would help supply the mana for a return trip from the outpost, since Bran and his apprentice¡¯s mana pools are not large enough. We stand in the middle of a rune covered circle as Bran and his apprentice start to chant. I feel a draw on my mana pool while I channel mana into Bran. The rune gradually brightens with a deep blue glow until the teleport spell activates with a sudden jerk and a cracking sound. Instead of arriving in another temple¡¯s teleport circle, we appear lying on a cold stone floor with a large grinning demon standing fifteen feet in front of me. My body throbs with pain and I have a 30% movement speed penalty as well as a negative five to strength and constitution. Nora is unconscious beside me. I pick myself up and am violently nauseous. I turn my head to vomit on the cold granite floor. The demon seems to grin wider as I turn and Inspect him.
Name: Crackos Title: Demon Lord of the Veil Hidden Title: Suit 49 of the Deck of Fate
¡°You are part of the Deck of Fate?¡± I rasp as I wipe my mouth as my stomach seems to settle. His grin now reveals a double row of shark like teeth as he speaks. ¡°So, you are the holder of the Deck. Too bad for you, my master will rip the deck from your soul.¡± ¡°You should be serving Garth and Poth, who is your master?¡± The demons face turns stormy saying. ¡°The God of Fire is my master now that Garth and Poth are no more. I was taken when their champion perished.¡± ¡°But Poth may still live.¡± I object. The demon waves dismissively. ¡°I saw their dead bodies before the God of Fire destroyed them utterly.¡± ¡°Then why do I have this quest, which I received after talking to Vera?¡± As I say this I mentally focus on sharing my quest to find Poth. The demon curses and says. ¡°How can this be?¡± ¡°Well we are dealing with Gods, right? They could make us see what they want us to see.¡± The demon¡¯s face flickers between different expressions as he stares at me. Suddenly I get a notification.
Crackos Demon Lord of the Veil has rejoined the Deck of Fate. New Quest received, reunite the other missing cards with the Deck of Fate to restore its full power. Missing cards: Ralth Demon Lord of Shadows, Suit 47 of the Deck of Fate Salazar Demon Lord of Pain, Suit 48 of the Deck of Fate Mathias Demon Lord of Fire, Suit 50 of the Deck of Fate
¡°Pick her up, we need to hurry.¡± Crackos moves to a pillar on the right side of the otherwise featureless room. He gestures and runes begin to light up over its surface. Then a swirling portal begins to open on my left. ¡°The God of Fire had me watch for the Deck of Fate moving through gates or portals to track its location. You moved through a personal teleport however, which was easy to divert to here. If you move through any teleports or gates they will track you. I could conceal you, but to do that you would need the complete deck and be the holder for at least of year to bind the deck to you. I am opening a portal to the first church of Garth and Poth in the Dunvar mountains. This is on the edge of the Domain of Light. Be careful, the level for this area is in the mid-twenties and you are very low level, but we don¡¯t have much choice.¡± ¡°What will happen after we leave? Will they be able to follow us?¡± ¡°No, I will overload the portal, which will explode. I will be joining the Deck, but until you get the other missing cards we will not be able to speak again.¡± ¡°Thank you for your help.¡± ¡°No! Thank you! You have given me hope.¡± Crackos makes a final gesture and the runes flare with a deep ruby light before he transforms into a streamer of blue light that hits me in the chest. I just know he is now back in the Deck of Fate. Moments later the runes pulse and the room around us vanishes. Arc1 - Epilogue A woman with golden shoulder length hair and piercing blue eyes with a frustrated look on her face stands before a large stone basin containing swirling blue waters, lit from within by a bright blue glow. She slams her hands on the basin, which causes the ancient stone to shivers under the impact. An iron bound oak door opens into the otherwise unadorned room made up of large granite blocks. A dim light outlines a figure as it quickly enters the room closing the door behind them. ¡°Well?¡±, the woman asks as she straightens her rich robes. A soft male voice answers from the shadows, ¡°There is no sign anywhere.¡± ¡°What about that fool who tried to capture them?¡± The soft voice betrayed no emotion as he replied, ¡°Caption Markus has committed final death. General Amos has taken in Markus¡¯ wife and son into his household saying his suicide cleaned the stain of honor.¡± ¡°I just wonder if the suicide, like the bungled capture attempt was his idea or someone else''s?¡± ¡°There is no way to know now. I take it the scrying attempt failed?¡± ¡°Yes, the protective spells are still in effect, so we cannot track her, but no one else should be able to either. What did the Silver Thorns say?¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°We are keeping the Silver Thorns in protective custody for now with the promise of some unique training opportunities. They have no idea where Nora or George could be. They do not seem to know a lot about George. What they do know indicates someone with very unusual abilities, advanced skills, and unique training by Captain Varus. They did not tell him who Nora actually is.¡± ¡°Yes, both a Harrow and Reborn, so he will definitely have some unusual abilities.¡±, she says with a worried frown. ¡°She is well trained for this and it sounds like he has been as well by Captain Varus himself.¡± She waved his words away, ¡°Training can only do so much when they are still such a low level. Let me know if our spies report anything and make sure no one else gets the news before me.¡± The figure opens the door and leaves silently with this dismissal, leaving the woman staring blankly at the swirling waters in worry. ??? In a brightly lit room a young woman has just finished smashing a large intricately decorated vase as she yells at a figure prostrate on the floor to her left. ¡°Stop cowering there and finish your report.¡± ¡°She is nowhere to be found and there is no trace of her party.¡± ¡°It has to be mother.¡± She says grinding her teeth. ¡°What about the Oracle?¡± ¡°The Oracle continues to say the same thing. Your sister is the one destined to take power.¡± ¡°What about the Reborn?¡± ¡°No sign of him either, but there is an interesting development. One of our spies in the Domain of Fire has indicated everyone is the priesthood is to be on the lookout for a Reborn Harrow.¡± ¡°Hmmm, well that will complicate matters for everyone. If the priesthood is involved they will be watching every portal. Have our spies concentrate on the gate and portals.¡± ¡°Very well my lady.¡± He says backing out of the room. She turns to face the shattered vase, which reminds her so much of her plans. ¡°Where are you sister?¡± She whispers. Arc2 - Prelude A portal opens in the air as a beautiful young woman looks up from the complex mana weave she is working on. As another young woman steps through the portal she gestured dissipating the weave. ¡°Hello daughter.¡± The new woman greets as she gestures closing the portal behind her. ¡°Mother. So, she survived?¡± The daughter leans back on the comfortable seat she was relining on as her mother Vera takes a seat across from her. ¡°Yes, for now, though the path they are both on is a dangerous one.¡± Her daughter frowns. ¡°But you were the one to start him on the path were you not?¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The Mother sighs. ¡°Yes, it was the only way.¡± ¡°So, it was a true prophecy?¡± the daughter questions with a raised eyebrow. ¡°That seems to be the case. I need you to tell your priests to help them if they show up at one of your temples.¡± ¡°I can do that, but is that likely?¡± ¡°I think so. They will have to travel to the Temple of the Seven Moons.¡± ¡°I see. Then they will show up in my lands at some point.¡± ¡°Indeed, have a good day daughter.¡± Vera says as she gracefully stands and without a gesture this time, disappears. As her mother vanishes the Goddess of Water could not help running the lines of the prophecy through her head. Twice Born Wielder of Fate Three times will he save her Thought lost, a twin will be found An empire to save or destroy A God to kill Arc2 Ch1 - Quest P1 We arrive at the site of the first church of Garth and Poth. I stand on the edge of a forested cliff that dips fifty feet to a desolate area of dried grass and stunted bushes. In the distance I see figures slowly stumbling around below. Nora begins to stir on my shoulder so I gentle set her down. ¡°What happened?¡± As she groans and holds her head. I tell her a servant of the God of Fire redirected our teleport. I was able to convince the servant to release us, but I am unable to discuss how I was able to do that. They will trace us or redirected us if we take any more gates or teleports. Nora appears terribly upset and suspicious. Nora: Did you have to make a promise or oath to get our freedom? George: No. It turned out the quest ¡°What Happened to the God Poth?¡± was important in getting our freedom, which is why we are here. This area should have the first church for the twin gods. She seems calmer after hearing that. Nora: Promises and oaths made with the System as a witness will incur negative favor if broken and negative favor is a very bad situation to get into. I was just worried what type of oath they exacted from you. A blood oath for example can result in your permanent death by the System if broken. Definitely good information to know and I can see this could be a solution to keeping the Deck of Fate a secret from her and perhaps her own secrets. For now, I dismiss these thoughts and I take this opportunity to inspect the closest creature below and see.
Corrupted Shambling Mound Level: 20 Hit Points: 300
About a mile away is a ruin set atop a hill, which from my map is the church we need to head to. I turn to Nora. George: Can you see what I see? Nora: Yes, when a party member identifies a creature we can all access that information. George: It looks like a good separation between the creatures, so if we are careful we can draw one at a time and kill them. Do you know if they are fast? Nora: I don¡¯t know, we are low level, which will increase the threat radius. Also, they could be any speed. There are quick and slow and don¡¯t assume that if this one is either fast or slow that the others will be the same. George: Any weaknesses? Nora: Destroying the head will kill it, which will take 50% of the hit point in damage to the head, but this increases your chance of missing. Typically, the dodge of a creature governs if you miss, but if you focus on a limb including the head or a specific area of the body dodge is increased by a factor of four. George: Ok, I can cast 6 fire darts in one casting. I should be able to kill it with a stealth attack if I channel to double the damage range. I will make sure to have a second spell ready in case it doesn¡¯t kill it. You just have a Mana Dart spell, right? Do you want to cast it as well to build up your skill progression or save your mana for an emergency? Nora: I should leave the party before we start fighting.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. George: What? Why? You will get great XP. Nora: Exactly. I can see Nora staring at me expectantly. George: What do you mean? Nora sighs and gestures to have a seat by the edge of the cliff away from the wandering shambling mounds. Nora: I am guessing you never had a discussion on perfecting level progression? George: No, I haven¡¯t, but it sounds like you are going to fill me in. Nora: Yes, well let me go back to the Starter Area. Typically, most people never get above level five before leaving and some don¡¯t even get above level three. As you know you get one unallocated point per level and some points based on what you did prior to leveling. The minimum you want when leveling is two points in addition to the unallocated point you get when leveling. Three is average. Four or five is the goal. Anything higher than that is incredible. So, if you engage in combat getting XP as fast as possible, by killing creatures as quick as you can you will only get 2 points, which is what happened when we rushed to level ten, but we didn¡¯t think we had any other choice. As a result, I am way under what I had hoped to have at this level, so I don¡¯t want to continue this. This means I should leave your party and just stick close until we get to the church. If things get bad I can join your party quickly. George: Wow, I had no idea. It makes sense. I will also need to focus on training skills and spells after we get through these mounds. Nora: That is the best way to maximize your level progression. ¡°Very well, the cliff looks like it has a good place to get down on the right about 100 feet up. What do you think?¡± I say out loud and see a notification that Nora has left my party. ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡± She looks left and right, then nods. ¡°I see nothing better.¡± They both walk over and carefully climb down to the base of the cliff. The cliff face is a little treacherous, but we took it slowly keeping an eye on the shambling mounds. As we reached the base of the cliff, we are about 150 feet from the closest shambling mound. We entered stealth and walked along the cliff until we were parallel with the closest Shambling Mound. Then we walked until I am in range to cast fire dart. I cast six darts channeled to double damage into the Mound, which didn¡¯t even have time to turn before it collapsed. Looking at my combat log, I see I did 342 points of damage. Without the stealth bonus, I would have needed two casts. In two minutes, I regenerate my mana back to full. I collect a corrupted seed from the body as loot, which is disappointing. I look at Nora holding up the seed and she shrugs, so I just put it in my inventory. I got 150XP and after my discussion with Nora I wish it was less, but there is no help for it, we need to get through to the church. Luckily, I can channel all the XP into my Deck of Fate. We enter stealth again and move back to the cliff. Then we take the next Mound on the right, we want to clear a path three wide as we make our way to the ruins of the church. We proceed for the next hour clearing a path three wide and ten deep, which gets us one fifth of the way there. At that, point we notice the first Shambling Mound we killed respawns. From what we can see another four hours should get us to the ruins. We continue at the same cautious pace for the next two hours, which has me thinking about stopping to eat a quick lunch when the ground lurches out from underneath of us. I grab Nora¡¯s arm and shadow step to the shadow of a bush on our right. Luckily, we were just getting ready to move back to the right to attack the center of the next row. We both cautiously look over the edge into a thirty-foot-deep pit lined with spikes at the bottom. As we are standing there, the four edges fold back up and the surface shimmers changing to match the surrounding terrain. I catch both Nora and myself looking at each other as my heart rate starts to come back down from that close call. Nora says. ¡°That is an illusion spell. Can you see through it? I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t either. Can I spot it with Perception or by Inspecting the ground?¡± ¡°Using Inspect you would need a Lore of at least mid-range Novice to spot an illusion and part of the Lore skill progression would have had to come from books dealing with illusion.¡± ¡°Ok, well we should hold hands then and be ready to shadow step if we need to. I was getting ready to suggest we eat something. Why don¡¯t we eat quickly and then continue?¡± ¡°Good.¡± Nora says as she pulls a sandwich out of her inventory. I pull a sandwich and a skin of ale out for lunch. After eating, we continue, being even more cautious. I make sure as we move that I always have a shadow in range for a shadow step. As we get closer to the church the Shambling Mound level increases to level 25 just outside the church. I now must use channel to double and maximize the damage to make sure I kill the Mounds with one casting. I am not sure what they could do to me, but I am sure I don¡¯t want a Corrupted Shambling Mound hitting me. Arc2 Ch1 - Quest P2 The church looks like a giant wielding a sledgehammer has totally pulverized the building. There are stone blocks scattered around and throughout the church. Each whole block must weight 500 lbs. As we stand in the crumbling archway entry to the church, I see the destroyed main chapel. The altar is in fragments and the pews have long since crumbled to dust. Behind the altar are the remains of two statues. Only the feet of the statues remain, with everything else broken off at the ankle and shattered. We pick our way through the ruins to the altar without any encounters. This is a bit of a letdown. Since there doesn¡¯t appear to be any threats I re-invite Nora to the party when we receive a notification.We continue our conversation in party chat just in case there is anything around that may be attracted by the noise.
Congratulations You have completed the Hidden Quest Take the Deck of Fate to the first church of Garth and Poth. Award Deferred. You have discovered the hidden quest ¡°What Happened to Garth and Poth?¡±. Find out what happened to the Twin Gods. Reward: Unknown.
Nora: Any ideas on how to continue? George: No idea. Nora: Did you check your quest to see if it updated? I look, and the quest has updated. It now says repair the church of the twin gods. I look at Nora and share the change with her. We both look around at the church and I can see it in her eyes. Neither of us knows what to do to repair this church. It is huge. George: Before we do anything, else let¡¯s look over the whole ruin to make sure it is safe to camp here tonight. Nora: Ok. We continue to hold hands as we carefully go over the whole church, which takes about two hours. Other than seeing how complete the destruction of the church is, we find no creatures in the church. We also observe the nearest shambling mounds follow paths away from the church and they are not attracted by Nora and myself walking around the church. I am ready to at least try repairing the church altar, since it is obviously a significant piece. I sit in front of the altar¡¯s shattered debris and pick up a piece of stone. I use stone sense to get a feeling for the stone. Then I reach out to the other stones. As I feel them I try to picture them as they use to be, while my mana pool begins to rapidly drop. The altar was a large table of stone three feet wide, six feet long, three feet high, and six inches thick with four curved legs, which comes to 8 cubic feet. This will be the biggest object I have shaped. I continue to pour in mana, as fast as my mana pool replenishes, into the altar as the stones seem to liquefy and flow together to meet the fractured base of the altar. After it completes I just collapse on my back as I hold my throbbing head, exhausted. It took thirty minutes to complete. Unlike when I did this back in the Starter Glade I can keep adding mana as it regenerates, since I am not passing out. There are several flashing icons clamoring for my attention. Nora: How did you do that? George: It¡¯s an ability I have. Nora: That is some ability. That object was huge and broken into thousands of pieces. I think you could complete this quest after all. Rather than answer I look at my notifications.
Congratulations You have reconstructed the Altar of the Twin Gods. This altar is level 1 and will need 100 faith point to reach the next level. As the holder of the Deck of Fate you have access to the altar and can draw faith points from it. Current Altar abilities: Once per day Minor Heal ¨C 1 faith point Once per day Minor Blessing ¨C 1 faith point Convert up to 10% of the altar¡¯s faith point capacity to mana - 50 mana per faith point. Once per day Sacrifice item/creature to the twin gods ¨C faith points awarded based on item/creature sacrificed. Can set your respawn point here.
I convey everything except the Deck of Fate to Nora and ask her what she sees when she inspects the altar. All she sees is an altar to the Twin Gods and that it is a respawn point. I am sure the Deck of Faith must be what allows me access to the altar¡¯s special abilities. It seems limiting to only be able to sacrifice once a day, but Nora does know the answer to that. Typically, the altar is a focal point to gather faith energy from followers and the higher the level the altar the greater the distance it can gather faith from. The System also allows a limited ability for the God to gather more by their followers making a sacrifice. Many of the Gods will hold competitions among their followers to find the most powerful item to sacrifice and as a reward the one donating the item will get a portion of the faith points for their use. Faith points are very valuable and can be used in special enchantments and to cast certain spells granted by the Gods. After my mana is back up to half I stand up feeling much better and approach the altar. We set our respawn point to here. There is no telling where we would respawn if we die. Then I take one of the corrupt shambling mound seeds, place it on the altar, and select Sacrifice and Inspect the altar.
Name: Altar of the Twin Gods Level: 1 Durability: 1000/1000 Faith Points: 2/100 Faith Needed for Next Level: 100
That got us two faith points. I wonder. I take out 10 corrupted seeds, hold them in my hand, and try wood shaping them into one seed. I feel resistance and pour more mana into the shaping and gradually the seeds flow together until I am holding a larger seed that swallows the light. I put that back in my inventory and will try to sacrifice it tomorrow, which leaves me with 140 seeds.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Nora: What was that about? George: We got two faith points for sacrificing the seed, but that means 50 days until we can level up the altar. I wanted to see if I could create a larger more potent seed, which we can sacrifice tomorrow. Nora: Increasing the potency of something corrupted is extremely dangerous! What if the corruption spread to you? We don¡¯t have access here to a high-level healer. George: I understand, but I took a calculated risk that ten seeds would not be too much. Tomorrow I will make another until in five days we level up the altar and see what options we then have. Nora: I guess you should be ok, but don¡¯t try adding more. George: Ok, I won¡¯t add more without talking to you first. Now I want to try a statue next. We both take a seat on the altar, which is the one clear spot now, as I pick up a piece of the statue on the right. I open my earth sense to find the pieces of the statue and then begin to shape the stones together. The cost rapidly balloons, since the statue is much more complicated that the altar. An hour later I am clutching my aching head as Nora admires the statue. I Inspect the statue.
Name: Statue of the Twin God Garth Description: This is a statue created by the Twin God Garth for his worshipers. It still has a faith aura of celestial energy, which links it to the god, which made it allowing a follower of the Twin Gods to see their status. Durability: 750/750 Status: Dead
Wow, I share the results of the inspection with Nora, which confirms Garth is dead. Nora can¡¯t see the status, but I am guessing I can because of the Deck of Fate. Now I really want to start on Poth¡¯s statue, but it is too late, and I am mentally exhausted. I use shaping to gently move the debris away in a fifteen-foot circle, so we can setup camp. After my mana recovers I create a ward using the sand I still have in my inventory from so long ago. Nora: I suppose this is something else you learned in your training? George: No, I figured this out myself in the Starter Glade. Nora: Is all of this from your earlier life experiences? George: Not at all, we don¡¯t have mana and magic where I came from, so all of this is new. However, that means I don¡¯t have any assumptions about what should be possible. Nora looks thoughtful as she pulls out her bedroll. We eat a cold dinner of rabbit meat and bread with some ale. I love the inventory, since it keeps everything fresh. Nothing appears to age while in my inventory. I have never been great at making small talk, so I try asking Nora some questions to fill the silence. George: Can you explain the political structure of the Empire? Nora gives the first full laugh I have heard from her. Nora: You are not asking for much are you? Where to start? There are six domains within the Empire outside of the capital, which is not part of any domain. Each domain is dedicated to one of the Major Gods or Goddesses. There are two to four clans in each domain that have major influence outside of the church. There will be many guilds within and across the domains and smaller households as well that typically live in just one domain. Everyone is always trying to grow their influence and power. George: What is an example of a guild that crosses domains? Nora: The Jeweler¡¯s Guild is one such. It crosses all the domains and its members cut and appraise gems. They also work with different Merchant houses to get precious metals and stones that they craft into jewelry. Many clans have members that are part of the guild and are constantly vying for more influence. George: How do the smaller houses survive then? Nora: Well many smaller households are allied with a clan, have members in a guild, and may supply some unique skill or ability. George: If everyone is trying to get an advantage how do you know who to deal with? Nora: That is the problem and it is truly relevant to our current situation, since I could not know who it was safe to talk to in the Outpost we tried to leave instead. George: Hmmm, when we finish the quest here what would you suggest we do? Nora: I would not try to plan anything yet. Completing this quest seems like a monumental task even with your abilities. After you complete it we will see what the reward is and if there is a follow-on quest. George: Good point. Nora: Well that is enough tonight, you have a lot of reconstruction to do tomorrow and I will spend my time training. George: Ok, have a good night. We both settle back in our bedrolls trusting the ward to wake us if there is a problem tonight. With all the updates to the quest I take out the Deck of Fate under my cover and inspect it to see if there is any change and I am amazed at all the information that is now displayed. It must of either have updated from the quest updates or because of my recreating the altar or maybe the statue.
Item: Deck of Fate Description: The Deck of Fate is a Legendary Artifact crafted by the Twin Gods of Fate Garth and Poth, sons of the God of Fire and the Goddess of Light. The Deck has many powers and was used by the chosen champion of the Twin Gods. The Deck was one of the reasons the God of Fire fought with his sons. Their champion was able to defect the God of Fire¡¯s champion three times reducing the number of worshipers for the God of Fire and greatly increasing the Twin Gods powers. Everyone agreed that the God of Fire chose his champions poorly, but the God of Fire didn¡¯t see it that way. Status: Soul Bound (17% Progress) - Percentage XP Channeled (100%) A one-year timer has started. The Deck of Fate will drop on the holder¡¯s death and the counter will reset with the next person to pick it up. If picked up by a previous owner the timer will continue from the last time it was in that person¡¯s possession. After the timer reaches zero the Deck will then be soul bound until final death of the holder. If the owner loses the Deck all special abilities granted will be lost. The timer can be shortened by one day per 1000 XP earned that is channeled to the Deck of Fate. The following powers are available: ¡¤ + 20 Intelligence ¡¤ + 10 Wisdom ¡¤ Grants Unique Class: Arcane Shaper ¡¤ Grants Access to Holy Items of the Twin Gods ¡¤ Faith Point Total (0/500) The following powers are locked until the Deck of Fate is Soul Bound: ¡¤ Summon a celestial creature from the Deck of Fate. The following creatures can be summoned for one faith point per suit (e.g. a Suit 10 would cost 10 faith points to summon a level ten celestial creature). Note that celestial creatures are effectivity more powerful that mortals by a factor of ten (e.g. a level ten celestial creature is equivalent to a level 100 mortal) o Suits 1-10 - Summons a celestial creature from the deck, levels one through ten. There are four suits in the deck and only one can be summoned from a suit at a time The following powers are locked until the Deck of Fate is complete: ¡¤ Unable to summon the following creatures. Suit 40-50 are unique creatures that can be summoned at any time (Warning three cards are missing and you will be unable to summon these creatures until the cards are returned). Once the missing cards are returned to the deck one faith point per suit needs to be spent to summon the associated creature. o Suit 47 - Ralth, Demon Lord of Shadows o Suit 48 - Salazar, Demon Lord of Pain o Suit 50 - Mathias, Demon Lord of Fire
It takes a lot of faith points to charge up the deck, so I will focus on the altar first to see what happens when I get it up to level two before thinking about trying to get faith points into the deck. I put the Deck back in my inventory and try to get to sleep, which is difficult with all the possible opportunities that will occur in a few days when I level the altar. Arc2 Ch2 - Rebuilding With no walls to speak of, the sun hits me right in the face in the morning waking me from a sound sleep. I check the ward and the duration has decreased, but no damage. I sit up and stretch while I look around the church. The altar and statue look totally out of place within the ruined church. I guess I will start working on the foundation today, since I will need to make sure it is sound before starting on the walls, but first I have the other statue to work on. I take out a sandwich from my inventory and eat it while drinking from a skin of weak ale. When finished my simple breakfast I walk through the ward. I receive a prompt asking if I want to add my party to the access list for the ward? I add the party, which is a nice feature. I was thinking I would have to remove the ward, so Nora could get out. Next, I walk over to the altar and place the new seed I created yesterday on it and select sacrifice. This larger seed produces twenty-five faith points. Now just three more days until I can upgrade the altar. I take a seat on the altar as I focus on the other statue. The process goes quicker now that I have done it once, but it still wipes me out and gives me a mana headache, which is not the best thing to start the day out with. I inspect the statue, which give me the first proof that my quest may not be in vain.
Name: Statue of the Twin God Poth Description: This is a statue created by the Twin God Poth for his worshipers. It still has a faith aura of celestial energy, which links it to the god, which made it allowing a follower of the Twin Gods to see their status. Durability: 750/750 Status: Alive
This is great news, Poth is alive, now I just have to find him somehow. Hopefully rebuilding more of the church will give me more clues. I walk over to the remains of the wall. Using earth sense to get a feel for the foundation, it feels like the wall sinks two stones deep into the ground as a foundation. Many of these stones are showing signs of stress and cracking. Nora woke up about thirty minutes later while I was working my way around the foundation checking what I would need to repair. I walked over and make sure she could leave the ward without any problems. When she was eating, I went over my thoughts on building up her endurance first. ¡°I was thinking I could teach you how to create a raw mana ward. I can make it the exact size needed to consume all your mana and even though you pass out it will drain all your mana. If you are feeling up for it I can set the ward bigger, so it will drain your health down to 20%, so that you will be training endurance with both your health and mana. There should be no risk as long as you wait to fully recover both your health and mana before starting again.¡± She frowned as she thought about it. ¡°Is this how you trained your endurance?¡± ¡°I could not drain my health in Starter Glade, but I did use it to increase my endurance by fully draining my mana. Captain Varus trained me in endurance in both health and mana.¡± ¡°Did he give you potions to numb the pain?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t, but I did use Potions of Iron Will. I have several of these on me that we can use for your training, but of course it will still hurt. Training this way, you should get the Numbness and then Numbness II skills. Captain Varus told me if you use Numbness II before hitting zero health you can keep going until the skill duration runs out or you go below -10% health.¡± ¡°I had not heard that. Very well, let¡¯s try draining both my mana and health to level as fast as possible.¡± I take a Potion of Iron Will out of my inventory and hand it to her. ¡°You will probably want to hold your noise when you drink it.¡± She pulls the stopper and smell hits me from where I am standing. She takes my advice and holds her noise as she finishes. ¡°By Vera that is horrible. Whose recipe is this?¡± ¡°That was the Tavern owner John.¡± I say as I move over to the best section I have found of the wall, so she can rest against it when she passes out. I reach out with my earth sense and shape earth to clear the area of debris, so I can chalk in a circle for her to cast her ward in. After chalking in the ward, I walk her through casting a ward. After about 30 minutes, she can successfully cast the spell, while I am chain casting with her. I nervously watch her mana and then health drop ready to pour mana into the casting if her health goes below 20%, but everything goes smoothly. I leave her resting there regaining her mana and health, while I continue to walk around the foundation. It takes about one hour to finish examining the foundation. The foundation is the most damaged in the front of the building and the least in the back. I walk over behind the altar and start repairing the foundation. One stone block is about 500 lbs. and is 3 feet long, one foot high, and one foot wide, so it takes 100 mana to shape it. In most cases, I am repairing cracks and some chips. In cases were the stones have just lost durability I use Mend, finally having an opportunity to level it. The church front and back are sixty feet wide and it is 100 feet long. The foundation is two feet thick, so the entire foundation is 6000 square feet and 12,000 cubic feet. I continue to work on the foundation until lunchtime and then caught up with Nora for a lunch break.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. She has already increased her endurance by two points. It looks like she is holding up well. I remember vividly how leveling endurance sucked. Creating wards is a little easier than what I did with Captain Varus. At least she passes out at half mana and then doesn¡¯t wake until her mana and health are restored, which means she goes unconscious right when the pain is getting bad. We both go back to our respective tasks after lunch. It is taking me 100 mana per cubic foot to fix a stone, with each stone being three cubic feet. It takes three minutes to regenerate the mana and continue to the next stone. From my review of the foundation there are about 1300 stones out of the 4000 that make up the foundation that need repair. That alone should take about sixty-five hours of work. Hopefully my leveling up Shape Stone will help improve the speed. Also, I hope the altar will give something to help repair the church when I level it up. As we break for a late dinner I have finished about 20% of the foundation stones and Nora had reached 6 on endurance, which is really good progress. We spend the remainder of the evening talking more about the Empire and its neighbors. There is a collection of city-states to the south with a god of nature protecting them from the Empire. To the east is the ocean, which has several islands that foster both a lot of trade and piracy in equal measures. To the north in a frozen tundra full of monsters and a collection of unique dungeons that are only accessible on certain days of the year. These are unique in that tent cities will spring up around the dungeon when they open and several open at the same time forcing adventurers to choose, which one they will delve. To the southeast is a high mountain range claimed by the dwarves. Northeast of us is a mountain range with passages to the other side where a tribe of elves populates a huge forest. Directly west of the Empire is a large desert that borders the domains of fire and light. It turns out that while most of the population in the Empire is human, about 10% are elves, 5% dwarves, and another 5% a mix of other races. It is a lot to take in. I finally broach a topic I have wanted to discuss. ¡°Nora you mentioned blood oaths before and that breaking them can cause permanent death. Can you tell me more about that?¡± ¡°Very well, a blood oath is taken by two or more people invoking the System and cutting themselves letting blood spill on the ground. They speak the oath and are bond by it until all who take the oath together revoke it. They are typically used for personal guards to ensure their loyalty. It can also be used to swear vassals, but this is frowned upon.¡± ¡°Then two people could use a blood oath to promise to keep each other¡¯s secrets?¡± Now Nora looked at me suspiciously. ¡°Whose secrets are you talking about?¡± ¡°Ours of course.¡± I say grinning. ¡°Before you deny it I know you are interested in know many things about me and my abilities. I can curious about what you are hiding. I am fine with you knowing as long as we just keep them between us. I was thinking an oath like the following. I swear to hold the secrets passed on to me by George Petersen, not divulging them to anyone without his permission. I will also share the secret of why people are out to kill me as long as I judge its value is equal or less than the value of the secrets he has shared with me.¡± Nora gave me a considering look, ¡°You would leave it up to me to judge the value of the secrets you share against mine?¡± ¡°Of course, only you can make that determination.¡± Nora surprised me by standing up and then clasping her hands together bowed from the waist to me. ¡°I am honored by your trust and will return it as best as I am allowed. I agree to take an oath.¡± We both draw daggers and cut our hands to spill blood on the church floor as we speak our oaths to guard each other¡¯s secrets. As I watched the blood seems to vanish into the floor as a burning sensation runs long the palm of my hand healing the cut but leaving a faint scar. As I look up from my palm I catch Nora staring at me hungerly. ¡°Well out with it.¡± Laughing I take a seat and gesture for her to do so as well. I think back over the last several weeks and talk about being reborn, my Shaper ability, solving Cal¡¯s quest, training with Captain Varus, finding the dimensional pocket, the legendary map, and the Deck of Fate. By that part she is staring at me in shock. I go on to describe my meeting with Vera and how I met the Demon from the Deck of Fate, which brought us here. ¡°Well what do you think, worth your secret?¡± I say with a grin as I enjoy her obvious discomfort. I am sure she never expected my secrets would involve so much. ¡°Yes, they are worth it, but I must admit I never expected that would happen.¡± As she sat there thinking. I don¡¯t push her as she is obviously considering something important. ¡°I am the daughter of the Empress of the Tassan Empire.¡± Maybe it is a holdover from Earth and my never having to deal with any powerful authority figures, but I can¡¯t help blurting out. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± She frowns and says. ¡°There are many that would use me against my mother or my own sisters who want to remove me as a rival. There are also some who would try to control and help me in hopes that their investment would be returned many fold if I became the Empress.¡± ¡°I am sorry, I was just caught by surprise. So, people are after you, but we are not sure why. I am guessing we need to get you back to the capital and your mother?¡± ¡°Something like that, but we will have to be careful who we talk to. Without being able to travel via portals it will be sometime until we can get to the capital. For now, we should focus on our level progression and the quest.¡± ¡°I have something I was hoping to ask you. When I got the Deck of Fate it awarded me a lot of intelligence, but I don¡¯t really feel smarter. I gain mana of course, but isn¡¯t there something more to it?¡± ¡°That is a very good question to ask. It is not a linear progression. Instead it takes an exponentially higher intelligence to increase your raw intelligence. Mana is a linear progression based on your intelligence, which is why it seems an increase in intelligence is only increasing mana. A number of people have studied this and they concluded that the System doesn¡¯t want a group of super geniuses with great power running around at the higher levels.¡± ¡°Ah, that makes sense, thanks. I wanted to ask that question before, but didn¡¯t want to explain my high intelligence.¡± As we settle in for the night, I renew the ward it hits me again how far from home I have come. I stare up at the moon Vera while she moves across the sky with my eyes get heavier and I fall to sleep. Arc2 Ch3 - Altar Over the next three days I continue to sacrifice the enhanced seeds I create from ten of the original corrupted seeds. Then I go about my task of fixing the foundation, while Nora works on her Endurance. Instead of spending a lot of time with Nora talking about the Empire I spend time in the evenings working on new uses for shaping. Nora is exhausted from her training, so I let her get as much rest as possible. I focus on trying to create more forms of air shaping. I still have dreams of one day running through the air from one air shaped step to the next. For now, I am trying to shape platforms, walls, and thin bands of solid air. I am thinking that most of the air shaping are very hard to see even in full sunlight, so I could make bands or air to break a charge by making them at knee level. They just must be strong enough to survive the impact, which would cause some damage to whoever hits it. Especially if it is a mount, it would probably throw the rider. This occupies my evenings, but despite getting better and quicker and summoning the different shapes I still have not received a spell and I am not sure why. On the morning of the third day I wake early and sacrifice another seed reaching 100 faith points and I choose to upgrade the Altar to level two and as I inspect the altar I see the following.
Altar Level 2 Faith Point Capacity 0/1000 The Twin Gods may now access the Faith Pool New Powers: Sanctify - Allows the user to remove any corruption/curse from a creature, range 1000 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points Heal - Allows the user to fully heal one creature, range 100 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points Cure Disease - Allows the user to cure one creature of any disease, range 100 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points Sacrifice Upgraded to two uses per day Upgrade to Level 3 needs 1000 faith points
Ah, I pull out ten more seeds to fuses them together and then sacrifice it on the altar for the second use of the day. Now as I inspect the altar I see 25/1000. Wow to get to level three is going to take a while unless I merge more seeds together. I start to turn to work on the foundation, when the altar shimmers and an open book with a quill as a bookmark now rests upon it. As I cautiously approach the Altar and the book I can see writing appearing on the exposed page of the book. Book: Dear reader, I am Twin God Poth and I must thank you for raising my altar. I am using the faith points you gained to communicate with you, but I must be quick as this form of communication will use one faith point per minute. The book itself cost ten faith points to create and holds ten points. It will drain points from the altar, while it rests upon it. You can write a response using the quill. I must now ask for your aid. My father has imprisoned me and I need your help to escape. Whether you accept or not, you must leave by tomorrow morning. My father will sense the altar now that it is level two and will send someone to check on it. Poth stops writing, so I pick up the quill and write the following. George: Greetings, I have a quest to find out what happened to you, which led me to your church. I could tell Vera where you are. Poth: The System restricts Vera from getting involved in the affairs of the other Gods, even in this case sadly. George: Very well I accept, what do I need to do? Poth: I am held in the Mountain of Fire and the only way to get here is through the Temple of the Silver Moon, which is in the land of the Fae. If you can make two sacrifices tomorrow I should be able to make a container for forty faith points, which is what I will need to break my bonds. George: I can make two sacrifices like that tomorrow. Can you erase the text in the book in case anyone else finds it? Poth: I can, but I will leave it up to you. Just place your finger over the area to erase and think erase to wipe the text out. I glance over and see Nora still sleeping, so I turn back to the book. George: I have the Deck of Fate, can you tell me how to use it? It is currently missing three cards. Poth: Incredible and it makes sense, how else would you get the quest to find me. Tomorrow place the Deck on the Altar and it will absorb all remaining faith points. After that you can use up faith points to draw a card, but I will need forty to break my bonds so please only draw a card that will keep that amount remaining. After it is charged with faith you will get a menu to select that should explain its uses. George: Thanks that will help. Poth: Very well. We should stop talking as this has already used two faith points. Remember only use the book if you absolutely need to, as it cannot be recharged. After I put down the quill I get a notification.
Congratulations You have completed the Quest ¡°What Happened to Garth and Poth?¡±. Rare item awarded, Stone of Enhancement. The Stone of Enhancement allows the user to boost any one skill by three skill tiers for one minute. This is a one-use item and is not soul bound and will be lost on death. You have discovered a Hidden Quest ¡°Rescue Poth¡±. Free Poth from his imprisonment. Reward: Unknown.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
I don¡¯t need to wake Nora; the notification already has. I show her what is written in the book before erasing it. We discuss where to go. Nora says based on the map I have we are in the north west corner of the Domain of Light. If we head to the southeast for about twenty miles we will reach the town of Tierva. From there we can get a ride to the city of Fairun. Then on to the Capital. Nora knows someone that may be able to get us to the Temple of the Silver Moon in the Capital. We go back to training, Nora working on her endurance and I switch to trying to use my Fire Shaping in combination with Fire Dart to see if I can come up with something more powerful. I take a seat and summon a fire dart in my hand without releasing it like when I first learned to channel with the Captain. Next, I reach out with my Fire shaping and try to make the dart burn hotter. My first experiment is a failure as the dart flares and pops burning my hand. As I cradle my hand casting minor heal on it I think about what I observed. By feeding more mana into the dart using my shaping it became unstable. I summoned another dart and this time I tried to sense the fire with my fire shaping ability. I can feel the threads of mana from my hand into the dart. When I tried to add more mana to make it burn hotter I was adding more channels into the dart outside of the spell. This time I try to feed more mana through the existing threads of mana. I see them swell with mana, but get a notification I am channeling, which is not what I want. I dismiss the dart and sit there thinking on the problem. I cast fire dart again and this time I try something different. I focus on the existing dart and without adding more mana I try to compress the dart making it more powerful by increasing the mana density. My first attempt causes the dart to flicker and wink out. I try again and this time I slowly increase the pressure and try to feed in slightly more mana. I must repeat this several times to find the right balance. After several hours of this I have a headache, but also get a new notification.
Congratulations You have discovered a new level three spell, awarded 1500 XP, fame +15 , Level 3 Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a compressed sphere of elemental fire that explodes on impact for 15-45 points of base damage plus five points per skill Tier level past Basic. Can create an extra compressed sphere for each Tier past Basic for an additional 30 mana per bolt. Range: 90 feet plus 20 feet per skill Tier level past Basic Cost: 60 mana Please assign a name to the spell.
Nice, I select Fire Bullet as the spell name. I stand up and walk outside the temple to target the scattered stones around the church. Now that I¡¯m not going to be rebuilding the church after all. I cast for another three hours. During that time, I manage to cast fifteen fire bullets before having to rest for six minutes to be able to cast again. I cast fire bullet 240 times before taking a break with Nora. This raises my skill with fire bullet to Beginner 1. I talk to Nora over lunch and when she finds out about my advancement she seems a little grumpy mutter something about my oversized mana pool. This pops my bubble until I remember how much leveling endurance really sucks. After lunch we both go back to grinding. Six hours later I have managed to cast fire bullet 480 more times and I am bored out of my mind. I have taken to running around the church ground jumping and doing cart wheels while shooting stones. I am now up to Advanced 7. Very nice progress. I get Nora and we eat some dinner. I see that she is just slowly and methodically eating, so I try not to talk about my advancement. I must ask her several times to find out where she is in her training. She says she has an Endurance of 12 and gained the Numbness skill. I congratulate her and she just grunts a response. She is gaining much faster than I did on my own. I make her stop and go to bed, since she is mentally exhausted. We need to be fresh when we leave tomorrow. I go back to practicing my fire bullet, but just aim at the dirt to reduce the noise, so Nora can sleep. I get in another three hours until it gets dark reaching Adept 3. I go to my bedroll and as I relax I bring up my Character Sheet to review all the changes. My XP is all still going to the Deck of Fate, so no change there.
George Peterson Age: 16
Level: 15 XP to next Level: 59,045/67,500
Class: (Mage) Arcane Shaper Race: Harrow
Titles: Reborn Fame: 1805
Str: 24 Melee Damage Modifier: +14
Agi: 20 Range Damage Modifier: +10
Dodge: 14% (+4%)
Con: 25 Health / Stamina: 125 / 125
Health / Stamina Regen: 25% per min
End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44%
Int: 80 (5) Mana Pool: 870 (70)
Wis: 49 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 27.75 per min
Cha: 14 Trade Modifier: 4%
Per: 64 Favor: 0
Abilities: Night Vision, Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%), Fire Shaping (Advance 2, 21%), Water Shaping (Advance 1, 0%), Earth Shaping (Novice 1, 56%), Air Shaping (Basic 1, 0%), Light Shaping (Basic 7, 0%), Dark Shaping (Basic 1, 0%)
Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame II, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 9, 72%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 53%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 2, 50%), Mana Manipulation (Expert 6, 26%), Numbness II, Parry (Adept 2, 32%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Adept 1, 32%), Swords (Adept 1, 11%), Temporal Shadow Step (Beginner 1, 91%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil
Spells: Fire Shaping - Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Bullet (Adept 3), Fire Dart (Expert 3, 37%), Fireball (Expert 1, 7%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%) Water Shaping - Concealing Mists (Beginner 1, 2%), Minor Heal (Expert 1, 20%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Expert 1, 12%) Earth Shaping - Mend (Novice 8, 23%), Sense Stone (Beginner 2, 13%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%) Air Shaping - Lightning (Basic 1, 0%) Light Shaping - Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Shield (Expert 1, 23%) Dark Shaping - Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%) Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 93%) - Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward
Equipment: *
Unallocated Status Points: 0
Arc2 Ch4 - Tierva P1 I wake up before dawn and get up quietly. I didn¡¯t discuss it with Nora, but I get up to practice Shadow step before we leave. I should be able to get it to Advanced before the sun comes up by using a light spell to create some shadows. I make my way outside the church and start practicing. I didn¡¯t want to discuss it with Nora because she strikes me as being very stubborn and I was afraid she would push herself to much and try to continue training while I was training instead of going to sleep. I feel guilty about not involving her in the discussion, but after going through the same type of training I know she was not in a good mental state to be making discussions. About ten minutes before dawn I hit Advanced, which should help a lot with avoiding pursuit. Nora wakes up with the dawn and I explain about my training this morning and she frowns before putting on her poker face. ¡°Well say something.¡± ¡°There is nothing to say, it is done. I will say I understand you reasoning, but you should have discussed this with me in the morning when I wasn¡¯t mentally tired.¡± I scratch the back of my head in chagrin and admit. ¡°I didn¡¯t think of it until nighttime.¡± She laughed. ¡°Very well, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± We both take food out of our inventory and eat breakfast while watching the sun rise. After eating breakfast, I sacrifice two seeds on the altar I place the Deck of Fate besides the book. I write that we are leaving and will contact Poth again when we reach the Temple. He wishes us luck. I place both the charged Deck and Book in my inventory as we get ready to leave. When we finish I take her hand and we jog at a steady pace to stretch out our stamina. We opt out of fighting more Corrupt Shambling mounds, since it will just delay our leaving the area. Since I reached Advanced in Shadow Step the skill description changed cutting the mana cost in half. After forming a party, I will Shadow Step us through the creatures. I can step forty-five feet for thirty mana while taking Nora with me. With my mana pool at 860 I can step twenty-eight times. The plan is to enter stealth and run through the area. When a shambling mound detects us, I will take a step past it. With my mana regen I should be able to do four extra steps before I running out of mana taking us through thirty-two of the 250 creatures we will have to make it past. We will then use our cloaks of concealment to rest until I regain my mana. After using the concealment on our cloaks of the last time we will still be sixty creatures short. After our last rest Nora will leave the party and stay in stealth while I kill them with Fire Dart. Killing just a line of individual creatures as we leave. This should leave a wide enough path with Nora staying in stealth to not draw any other creature into attacking us. We also plan on heading to the North first as any one coming here will probably come from the south. The plan works very well as we use the cloaks at the end of a run and the last Shambling Mound loses interest when we conceal ourselves. I just must kill the last group of Shambling Mounds after resting to get to the base of the cliff. After we climb the cliff there is a series of booms behind us and at once we duck behind the edge of the cliff. We can see several explosions moving steadily toward the church from the south. It looks like the Fire God¡¯s minions have arrived. Nora and I start jogging at a pace to make sure our stamina does not get below half. I occasionally Shadow Step over ravines, streams, and other obstacles. We make good time and by lunch, we are half way to Tierva. We just take a short break to eat a quick lunch. As we move through the woods we spot several creatures but keep stealth. The few times the creatures spot us, we were able to Shadow Step several times to lose them. It is around dinner time when we crest a hill and Tierva comes into view. It is a town with twenty-foot stone block walls dotted with round tower standing thirty feet tall. There is a large gate house built around the gate, which is doing a brisk business with wagons, mounts, and people on foot moving through in both directions. We make our way down the hill and take the road to the gate house. The guard charged us a two-copper entry fee per person otherwise we get little attention. I do notice a man on the wall staring at each person as they enter, probably trying to inspect each person as they enter. I wonder how much luck he had with me but keeping in mind what John told me in the Tavern I don¡¯t try to inspect him in case he can detect it. We really don¡¯t want to draw attention to ourselves.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! As we enter town we are greeted with a prompt to set out respawn point, which we both accept. I am sure respawning back at the church would be a bad idea. I let Nora lead the way. She immediately turns to our right after we enter the town heading to a building with a large sign of a wagon wheel hanging in front. As we enter through the door we step into a large open room with wide counters and an open area to the right that leads to some offices. We pass one person leaving as we enter and Nora walks up to the counter. Nora says, ¡°Hello. I was hoping to book travel for two people to Fairun.¡± ¡°Hi, my name is Hal. We have several options. You can go by coach, which takes three days and costs twenty silver per person. You must pay your own lodging and food. Another option involves the latest batch of Taraven, which is a large lizard that runs on all fours and masses about three times a good size horse. They will be in town tomorrow to be sent to Fairun. If you are willing to be guards, you can ride for free, food will be supplied, but you will be camping out. Pay is five silvers for the trip. Travel time will be two days. Finally, you can get a teleport, but it will be much more expensive at ten gold per person.¡± We decide to take the Taraven choice. Nora and I go to the general store to restock on food. We get a room with two beds at the inn for the night. We will meet up with the other riders in the morning after eating breakfast. While I am relaxing in bed, I look at my status and ask Nora something that is bothering me. ¡°Nora, I have Cartographer as a skill, but it hasn¡¯t leveled at all.¡± ¡°Well you would need an actual map, not just a quest map before you can level that.¡± ¡°Ah, well I have an actual map. I got one when I got the quest for the Deck.¡± I can hear her say something that I could swear sounds like ¡­lucky bastard¡­ ¡°What type of map is it?¡± ¡°Type?¡± ¡°Common, Uncommon, Rare¡­¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Legendary.¡± I must admit I may sound a little smug saying that. ¡°Ok, open your map and concentrate on the Starter Village and then follow the path we took to get here.¡± When I open the map, which just had the flashing dot for the Starter village it now contains a lot more volume even through the only area visible is the one we traveled. As I follow the path, I am zipping along at great speed through the terrain we followed. I can stop at any point and go back to look at the area we were in. This is incredible. After I finish Nora tells me to look at my status again. My Cartographer skill has jumped to Novice 8. ¡°You can study the map in more detail trying to use your perception to notice things you didn¡¯t notice before. That will raise your skill level even more. Now get some sleep we have a busy day tomorrow.¡± When Nora and I walk out the city gate there are twelve riders including us that gather outside the city walls. The Taraven have been herded into a temporary pen outside the walls. The Ride Master yells to get out attention as he jumps on a crate. ¡°Hello, I am Ride Master Hank Thompson. You are going to be riding the Taraven to Fairun. I will be riding the Alpha and all the other Taraven will naturally follow the Alpha. You are mostly here as guards in case someone tries to take the Taraven. To my right is Ride Master Sam and he will be following in the rear of the group to make sure there are no stragglers. We have 40 Taraven we are taking to Fairun. You will all be riding the ones around the edge of the group. It is unlikely any monster will attack a group this large, but we will be setting a rotating watch each night.¡± ¡°Everyone, please line up in front of Ride Master Sam to get your gear and then his two riders will show you all how to set the saddle on the Taraven. Make sure to keep your eye on the Taraven. If they think you are not paying attention they will bite. Alright, let¡¯s get started, so we can get on the road. We will take a break at noon by the river to water the Taraven and then eat some lunch.¡± Hank jumped down from the crate as we line up in front of Sam to get our gear. We got the saddle and tack. Then Nora and I watched one of the riders who introduced himself as Steve hit the Taraven beside his sensitive nose as it tried to take a bit out of him. After that the Taraven gave him the evil eye while he strapped on the saddle and tack. Steve watched us as Nora and I did the same to our Taraven. As I watched the Taraven I could practically see the wheels moving as it looked for an opportunity to take a piece out of us. When the riders are geared up we climbed into our saddles. Hank and Sam guided us through the basics of riding and I gained a skill.
You have learned the skill Riding, 5 XP awarded. Basic 1.
Arc2 Ch4 - Tierva P2 We all started out and as the morning continued everyone¡¯s riding got noticeably smoother. Nora and I stayed in our party, so we can keep talking without anyone over hearing. We reached an open area by the river and took all the Taraven to the water in small groups. Nora and I grab some lunch after getting a hunch of meat for our mounts. We eat while watching our mounts rip off chunks of meat and swallow them whole. When we finish eating everyone stretches. Then we saddle the Taraven and continue our trip to Fairun. The ride is uneventful, but we continue to keep our eye open for any monsters. About an hour before dark we arrive at our camp site, which is under a circle of large oak trees near a stream where we water the Taraven before we settle in for the night. Each of the Taraven gets another hunch of meat for dinner. Nora and I are on second watch, so we both try to get some sleep before our watch. I fall asleep watching Vera rise wondering if Vera is watching us from up in the heavens. ¡°Of course, I am.¡± I hear as I turn and realize I am standing in a cozy study. The room is full of the smells of old paper and ink as I turn to Vera who is rising from behind an elegantly carved desk. ¡°Please have a seat.¡± She says gesturing to the chair next to me. ¡°Where are we?¡± I ask as I take a seat in the comfortable leather chair. ¡°You are in a dream and I am just sharing it for a time. Don¡¯t you recognize this place?¡± I look around and sudden I do recognize it. ¡°This is uncle Martin¡¯s den.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± She says with a smile taking a seat again behind the desk. ¡°Not that I don¡¯t appreciate a Goddess taking the time to say hi, but I imagine there is more to this meeting?¡± Vera laughs saying. ¡°You are right. With your completion of part of the quest to find Poth I find that I can give you some information that may be helpful, but I still can¡¯t help you.¡± I sit there puzzled. ¡°Do gods take a class in confusing mortals?¡± Vera laughs again. ¡°Not exactly. The System will prevent me from helping or giving you any information that directly relates to your quest. However, I was thinking as a reward I could show you a story.¡± ¡°A story about what?¡± ¡°Well it is a story from about one hundred years ago that takes place in the same church you were in. This story would take the place of the last of the three dreams Reborn receive. Would you like to see it?¡± I am sure it must be important or she wouldn¡¯t be going to this much trouble. ¡°Ok. You¡¯ve got my interest.¡± ¡°Excellent.¡± She says as the room seem to fill with fog and shadow before I hear the sounds of fighting. Suddenly I am in the middle of it. Daniel barely managed to parry the demon¡¯s claws with his shield before executing flame sweep, which cleaved the demon¡¯s chest open, exposing its heart to the holy flame where it turned to dust. There was a momentary lull around him as he turned and saw Garth take a blow meant for Poth. The blow from the Fire Gods hammer drove Garth through the right corner of the First Church and out the other side. Poth screamed as his spear flared with a brilliant light as he managed to hit his father¡¯s shoulder despite his father immense speed. I thought of the Deck of Fate and as I brought it to mind. I have twenty faith point left in the deck and as I watch Poth fighting his father I know he is out matched. The priests and paladins are still fighting, but there are far too few left. As I consider the Deck only the strongest demons of the final Tier stored in the Deck would have any chance against the God of Fire. Since I am the owner of the deck I can summon them as will spending faith points to do so. I summoned forth four of the most powerful demons: Ralth Demon Lord of Shadows, Salazar Demon Lord of Pain, Crackos Demon Lord of the Veil, and Mathias Demon Lord of Fire. As poured from the Deck in clouds of smoke and fire I saw Poth struck with his father¡¯s hammer driving him through the front wall of the church into the interior.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°We need to stop him.¡± I said to the four demons as they looked at me like I was crazy. ¡°This is outside of our power.¡± ¡°Well we must do something to help Garth and Poth.¡± I say. I see Garth has sat up and looks dazzled, but this has caught his father¡¯s attention who turns from entering the gaping hole in the church to gather flame around his hammer as he faces Garth. ¡°If you can¡¯t stop him then distract him to give them a chance.¡± ¡°Very well Champion.¡± Mathias says. ¡°Crackos veil us and we all strike together. Hit his right leg at the back of the knee.¡± All the demon¡¯s nod and with a gesture from Crackos they all vanish. I pull out my most precious potion and an amulet I won from Vera herself when I defended the Empire against the Rift Devil¡¯s three decades ago. I turn to watch and wait for my time to strike. The God of Fire raises his Hammer high just as Garth starts to pull himself to his feet, but before the God of Fire can strike there is a flash of light and shadows that strikes the back of the God¡¯s leg causing it to buckle. The blast from his hammer levels the right side of the church instead of Garth. The God is not down for long as he sweeps his hammer through the four demons before they can move away causing them all to shatter and dissipate. I feel the Gods attention turn to me as the summoner. I drink my potion in one gulp and wrap the amulets chain around my wrist as the God gestures at me and torrent of fire pours over me as I activate my skill divine might and block it with my hammer. The flames seem to last forever but it is only ten seconds. The divine flame parts around my hammer which is now glowing white hot as I drop it on the ground. The Gods eyes widen in surprise as he sees me still standing. The Potion of Infinite Might live up to it name as it enhances my next spell to the level where I can even block a Gods blow. I pull my sword from my inventory and active every skill that is not on cool down, Haste, Quick Step, Lightning Lunge, Phantom Walk, and Winds Embrace as my stamina plummets. As I move the battlefield becomes oddly quiet as everything else seems to grind to a halt as I speed toward the God. However, the God seems hardly slowed as he ready¡¯s another blast of fire. When I see his hand wrapped in flames I activate the amulet praying it live up to what I was told. ¡°In Vera¡¯s name I smite you.¡± I say as my body is enveloped in crimson light and the God turns his hammer to try to block the blow that I deliver. My sword shatters but knocks the God back hard enough to plow a furrow in the ground over 100 yards long. I collapse as all my stats drop to three from using the amulet. I can barely turn my head as I see Garth stumble to his feet and Poth stagger from the maw in the front of the church. I feel hope stir. We may have a chance, but then a blast of fire explodes from the God as his hammer flies back into his hands and the dents and scars on his armor heal. He stands and clutches the hammer in both hands as he blocks a bolt of fire from Garth¡¯s sword and light from Poth¡¯s Spear. The God¡¯s hammer then hits the ground with such force my body is throw into the air. The shock wave crushes Garth and smashes Poth back into the church collapsing the roof on him this time. Tears fill my eyes as heavy footsteps approach. ¡°You worm, you thought to strike a god? I will take the Deck of Fate from your dead body and make sure your soul suffers for eternity.¡± I start laughing as the God draws back momentary in surprise. ¡°You will not have me. I call upon the System to witness. I sacrifice my soul for the Twin Gods, let the Deck of Fate be hidden from all.¡± A blue ball of light appears speaking. ¡°So, witnessed.¡± As the man named Daniel the III, Holder of the Light and Champion of the Twin Gods vanished in a clap of thunder. ¡°No!!!¡± screamed the God of Fire. As suddenly as it started I was back in the Study. ¡°I hope the tale was informative.¡± Vera said with a sad smile. ¡°Yes, thank you.¡± ¡°Well it is time for you to wake up.¡± Vera says as the study seems to tremble and I open my eyes to Nora shaking me awake for our watch. I shiver as I get out of my bedroll and take my place behind a large tree that gives me a good view of the approach through the trees. Nora takes a position on the opposite side of camp facing toward the road where there is more natural light from the small green moon. Arc2 Ch5 - Ambush We wake up as the camp starts to stir. I would really enjoy sleeping in, but we need to break camp and get some breakfast for us and our mounts. We finish storing our equipment in our inventories and are sitting down when we are attacked during our morning meal. Our attackers are all dressed in black and several either have very high stealth or were invisible as they materialize in the camp striking at the Ride Master and his assistant. Several of the attackers are running at us from the trees as I jump to my feet, draw my sword, and cast a Fire Dart at the bandit stabbing the Ride Master. I channel to double the maximum damage as I send all six darts into the bandits back killing him. I cast Shield on myself as I turn to face the five bandits running toward me. I quickly use inspect on them noting they are all in the low twenties with 300 to 400 health. I see from my combat log I got a 25% bonus as a flanking attack for the bandit I killed, but even so they are squishier than I expected. Focusing on casting an Ice Storm I center it on the five bandits channeling double the maximum damage, which hits them all for 150 points of damage. I immediately hit them with another spell and one drops dead with the others badly injured as they desperately engage us. I knock one sword aside and take another in the side counting on my Shield to absorb the damage. I charge another bandit, slamming him into the ground while releasing a flurry of fire darts into the two opponents still standing in front of me, killing them both. Nora is fighting defensively as at level ten she is no match for her opponent. I ignore the one on the ground as I turn and stab Nora¡¯s assailant in the back getting a flanking bonus. Turning to face me is a fatal mistake, since Nora takes this opportunity to finish him with another stab to the back. Nora yells. ¡°Behind you!!!¡±, just as I feel my Shield spell collapse and a dagger sinks into my back. Luckily my Shield and armor absorb most of the blow as I turn sweeping my blade into the last bandit, which he deflects with a pair of daggers. He uses a skill as he blurs and tries to take me through the heart with his dagger, but I manage to Parry the blow as his eyes widen in shock. I unleash a channeled lightning bolt into his chest which knocks him back ten feet slamming him into a tree. I receive a notification of another kill, which means I can safely turn my back on him this time. I see several riders are down, either dead or badly injured. I summon fire darts to take down an injured bandit about to drive his dagger into a rider. I repeat the cast two more times taking down two more bandits when a lightning bolt strikes me through a failed Parry attempt. It takes a chunk out of my health as three bandits¡¯ approach. I inspect them seeing one level thirty-three mage, and two level thirty-one warriors. I cast a shield as I stand in front of Nora, which absorbs most of the Fireball that hits me. A Channel doubles the maxim damage of the next set of fire darts I fire at him. His own shield, which is a much more powerful version of mine absorbs 100 points of damage before failing. The mage curses, ¡°Kill him!¡± The two warriors break into a sprint. I use party chat to tell Nora to help the others and she doesn¡¯t hesitate as she sprints to help the ride master deal with his two assailants. I wait until the Warriors are almost to me when I shadow step three times to put me behind the Mage and cast Concealing Mists, which envelopes us both. Entering Stealth, I use the Conceal on my cloak. The Mage instantly blows the mists away with some type of dispel but doesn¡¯t notice me concealed right behind him as he turns in a circle. He turns back to Warriors as he signals them to return to his side. As he turns away from me I focus another set of darts into his back getting a bonus for attacking from stealth. His shield absorbs another 100 points, but this time he screams as he collapses dead. I can¡¯t help grinning as the two Warrior sprint again. When they get close I cast concealing mists, which envelopes us all. I quickly attack with bursts of fire darts, which briefly light up the cloud before entering stealth. The same Warrior is hit again and again. They finally give up and start running, but I summon a wall of earth using my Earth Shaping to trip them. I cast two more groups of fire darts into the injured warrior killing him before the other scrambles up off the ground running without looking back. I let him go as my mana is seriously depleted. I walk out of the Mists and find we have 7 dead riders and all the others are injured including Nora who is cradling her arm. I cast minor heal on her and then the others, so no one is in danger of dying. It takes us two hours to gather up all the extra gear of both the bandits and our fallen riders. The riders will respawn in town and the Riders Guild will hold their equipment until they can collect it. The bandits gear will be sold and the money will be split among the riders. Everyone is very impressed with my skill and I catch several speculative glances as we saddle up after having to calm down the Taraven. They are very excited by all the blood. With just the five riders left the rest of the trip is a pain. Luckily the Master Rider Hank is still with us and can control the Alpha, otherwise I don¡¯t know how we would make it. We stopped at pond fed by a small stream, to water the animals during lunch, but we are all on edge and can¡¯t really relax. We continue riding until about an hour before sunset when we come upon the city suddenly as we round a bend in the road. Everyone visibly relaxes as the city walls come into sight. We ride up to the pens that are setup to the right of the gates for the Taraven. There is a group of handlers already there who go from happy to worried as they take in how few we are.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After talking to the handlers for several minutes Hank and Sam walk over to the other rider Jacob paying him and saying a few words before he nods and heads into the city. Nora and I wait patiently as they make their way to us. ¡°I have your pay here.¡± Hank says as he hands me a small bag. ¡°You will be getting a bonus with the sale of the bandit equipment and for doing such a good job fighting off the bandits, but I will need to talk to the local Guild leaders before I can do that. Here is a token for each of you for a one week stay in the Golden Taraven, which is a Tavern the Guild owns. It will cover meals, a room for each of you, and access to the bathhouse.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± I say. ¡°No thank you. We would have been killed if not for you being there, which would have meant losing the whole herd. I know you wanted to travel on for the Capital and there is a caravan leaving in three days that I am sure I can get you work on if you are interested. Feel free to ask around to get other options of course.¡± ¡°A very generous offer to non-Guild member Master Rider. We will retire to the Tavern and be spending time in town before making any decision.¡± Nora says bowing. I copy her bow. Apparently, the offer is a bigger deal than I thought. Hank just nods to us as Nora turns to the gate and I hurry up to follow her. As we approach the gate I ask in party chat. George: Why was his offer such a big deal? Nora: Guild members should treat non-Guild member fairly, but no more than that. Our share of the profits and a bonus for the fighting would be typical, but then offering to get us on the caravan would require a recommendation from the Guild, which means they are willing to put their reputation on the line for us. That is very rare, since we are not Guild members. George: I see, thanks. Nora: Lets go to the Tavern and get a bath and food. I want to change into some clean clothes, everything I own smells like Taraven. George: Do you know where the Tavern is? Nora: We both do, when he gave us the tokens your map updated with its location if you look. After I finish blushing and Nora wipes the mischievous smile from her face we walk to the Tavern, which is close to the gate and has a large attached stable. The Tavern has a large common room laid out with stout oak tables that seat six to a table. A few groups have joined tables for larger parties and the noise of numerous conversations wash over us when we enter. A man approaches us as we enter. ¡°Greetings, I am Patrick owner of this fine Tavern. What can I do for you today?¡± I gesture for Nora to go ahead as she is much smoother chatting people up. She shows our tokens and says we would like baths, food, and a room with two beds. The last part catches me by surprise, since I thought she would get her own room. Patrick says. ¡°Of course.¡± Raising a hand summoning a server to take us to the baths. At the baths we each enter the different doors for the men and women, which is guarded by an Amazon of a women. We drop off our clothes to be laundered and enter the baths. Our party chat still works while we are close, but neither of us is in the mood to talk as we relax in our baths. After about an hour soaking and nearly falling asleep we, both reluctantly remove ourselves to change into our clean clothes to get some food in the common room. It is still busy, but we get a table near the wall as we are served a platter of a poultry that tasted like chicken that is served with five different sauces. The hottest sauce does one point of damage when I try it, which is crazy. As we eat both of us relax as we checkout out the crowd. There is a mix of people who are in the rider¡¯s guild. They all sport silver pins shaped like a Taraven. Mixed in with them are dwarves, elf, and two lizardmen. George: We just going to get some sleep after this? Nora: Yes, that is a good idea. We will want to get up early tomorrow. George: We doing the dungeon as we discussed? Nora: We should head there first thing. Before the ambush Hank indicated the dungeon is open to all, but there is a one silver entrance fee. George: That¡¯s still not bad for what we want to use it for. Since it is an instanced dungeon you said time runs four times faster in there? And we can just use the beginning area to level our skills. Nora: Yes, the dungeon is only level fifteen and we will get more from it just leveling skills than fighting the monsters within. I nod and we head up to our room, which is a simple affair. There are two beds, a desk, dresser, mirror, and covered pitcher of water with a basin. ¡°Why get one room?¡± I ask. ¡°It is simple. It shows we are together without being a couple and we trust each other. That will deter trouble.¡± ¡°Thanks, makes sense.¡± We both get into our beds and I fall into an exhausted sleep right away. Arc2 Ch6 - Fairun Dungeon George was suddenly startled awake. He realized it was just Nora getting out of her bed when he looked around with a dagger in his hand. Having someone else in his room will take some getting use to. Even in college he had a single dorm room. ¡°Morning.¡± Nora nodded while she dressed and used the basin to wash her face. It sounds sexier in his head than it actual was. Having a pretty woman get dressed in front of him that was. However, with an inventory one can switch a whole set of clothes on their body without revealing anything. After she finished George washed up and then they both wordlessly went down to get something to eat. Nora ordered eggs, sausage, and toast, which sounded good to him. Then she got a drink called Karva, which from her description sounded like a caffeinated drink. He got one as well and it tasted a lot like coffee. Nora added cream and honey to hers, but he just stuck with cream. It woke him up better than coffee. Nora explained it must be strong or the System caused the status effects to wear off quickly. George hadn¡¯t considered that side effect of how quickly they healed. After they finished breakfast, they make their way to the dungeon where it cost them one silver each to enter. The entrance was a set of wide stone stairs that led down to a cave entrance. After entering the cave, they found themselves in a large cavern thirty feet across and sixty feet long. The ceiling was irregular some fifteen to twenty feet high. The end of the cavern tapered down to a tunnel ten feet wide and tall, that continued seventy feet before turning to the right. This was the perfect place for them to practice and with the time acceleration of the dungeon Nora should be able to get to an endurance of fifty quickly. George used Earth Shaping to make three stone circles for her to cast Ward on. With the assorted sizes she will be able to switch to larger circles when her Mana Manipulation improved. Nora took one of Iron Will potions out and George hurried down the cavern to avoid the smell. He started to cast Fire Bullet down the tunnel, which struck the tunnel wall where it bent to the right, with a small boom. George wanted to get his Fire Bullet up to Expert, so that he can significantly increase his damage output. While he did ok with Fire Dart during the ambush he may not be so lucky next time. They both cast for six hours before breaking for lunch. Nora is dragging, even with the potion. After she finished lunch he stopped her from beginning to cast Ward. He had a new idea he wanted to try first. By using Chain Cast to cast the Ward spell together, he would be able to use the Chain to push mana into her mana pool. Then when her mana pool was full he could cast Minor Heal on her. This should get her mana and health back to full within two minutes. That would allow her to cast the ward every six minutes instead of every half an hour. She just stared at him with much the same expression that he must have given the Captain during his training. They both knew getting her to a higher endurance would give them a lot more options, so she nodded yes even though she was not to enthused by the suggestion. They got comfortable and George placed his hand on her shoulder. Nora started to cast while he Chain Cast with her. He watched her mana and health deplete until her health dropped under 25%, which took about two minutes. Then he channeled mana into her. The Ward completed, and her mana pool started to rapidly fill. Awesome, it worked like he thought it would. Once her mana pool was full George switched to casting Minor Heal until her health was fully restored. Shortly after that she woke up. Then George begun to rest to regenerate his mana, which only took two minutes. They then started the cycle again. After one hour they managed to repeat the cycle ten times. This almost exceeded what she accomplished during the morning training. With this success they continue training for the next five hours until dinner. George was extremely bored, but he didn¡¯t feel right complaining, since Nora suffered so much. After they eat Nora collapsed on her bedroll totally burnt out and George went back to casting Fire Bullet for the next four hours. He did keep an eye on her, but even the sound of his Fire Bullet impacting the wall didn¡¯t wake her. After he finished he felt a great sense of satisfaction. They planned on being in the dungeon for four days, which would only be one day on the outside. Nora wouldn¡¯t get to fifty before they had to leave the dungeon, but she would make some great progress. When their alarms wake them the next morning they continue the new pattern of Chain casting to refill her mana pool and then Minor Heal for her health. They only took breaks for their meals and her endurance continued to shoot up. She was averaging four endurance points per day, which got her to thirty by the end of the fourth day. On the morning of the fifth day they departed the dungeon. Their next stop was the Rider Guild. The guild was supposed to have their money from the bandit equipment available today. While we walk over to the Guild Hall George noticed Nora seemed to be less tense and had more spring to her step. Probably because she was getting a break from training. She led the way into the Guild Hall and stepped up to the reception desk. ¡°Hi, I am Nora, and this is George. We are here to see Master Rider Hank.¡± Nora smiled at the young man sitting behind the front desk. ¡°Hi, my name is Samuel and we are expecting you. Please have seat and I will contact someone to escort you.¡± They both took seats in comfortable leather chairs as Samuel¡¯s eyes become unfocused for a moment. He was probably using party chat or something similar. ¡°Justin will be down in just a minute to escort you up.¡± Samuel said as his eyes focused on us again. It was just a minute before Justin walked up and introduced himself. George inspected him. His skill told him Justin was a level sixteen Rider with a secondary class of Animal Handler. He asked us to follow him probably not even noticing I used Inspect. They went up a set of stairs to the end of the hall. George took in the Guild Hall while they walked to the Master Rider¡¯s office. It was very nice, with polished wood floors. The walls are highlighted with brass magic lamps providing the lighting. There are rich tightly woven carpets on the floors and large framed paints on the walls. The paintings appeared to show different animals the Rider Guild has dealt with. Justin led them to a solid oak door with a brass plate engraved with Master Rider. He knocked and opened the door without waiting for a reply. Then he ushered us in and closed the door behind us. Hank stood up from his large comfortable looking leather seat, behind a polished dark wood desk, to greet us. He indicated they should take the two seats in front of his desk. When they do so George took in the view out the floor to ceiling window behind Hank¡¯s desk. It looked out on a snow covered peak that dropped down into a snow sweep valley, where small houses dot the sides of the valley. Hank caught George looking. ¡°It is beautiful isn¡¯t it? It is my home village in the mountains to the north. I only get to visit every other year or two, but I have this view to remind me.¡± The rest of the office is filled with shelves covered with interesting knick-knacks from his travels. ¡°I am glad you both stopped by. We sold the bandit equipment to the city guard for twenty-seven gold, which we split equally among the twelve riders.¡± He opened a trade window with each of them and put two gold and twenty-five silvers in his side of the trade, which they accepted. ¡°The bandits were wanted by the city guard and there was a ten-gold bounty. The guild decided it should go to both of you for your outstanding performance.¡± After trading the gold to them. ¡°We also wanted to extend an offer to you both to either join our guild or we have two sister guilds, the Jade Knights and the Flaming Arrows. I would be happy to recommend you both.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Nora: Can I answer this one? George: Yes, please do. ¡°We are honored that you would offer us both a place in your guild and a recommendation for others after the short time you have known us. However, we both have commitments to family that we must address first before we could accept such an offer.¡± Nora can carry the conversation much better than he can, George thinks. It is probably from her royal upbringing. Hank nodded and looked happy at her response, which she will hopefully explain to me later. ¡°Very well, please let us know if you will be free to take us up on the offer when you have had a chance to talk to family.¡± ¡°We will do so, hopefully we will be able to discuss this with them after we reach the Capital.¡± ¡°Ah, that brings me to our final topic. We will be escorting the Taraven as part of a caravan to the Capital in two days. If you are interested in another position as rider and guard. Food will be included along with two silvers each on reaching the capital. We will be camping out and should reach the Capital in four days, which is fairly quick, but the caravan is carrying some goods that are wanted in the Capital quickly that will not survive a teleport or gate.¡± Nora and George look at each other. Nora: This sounds ideal for us. Do you agree? George: Yes. Nora turned to look at Hank. ¡°It would be our pleasure to travel with you again.¡± ¡°Excellent.¡± He reached into his desk to pull out two pins made of bronze in the shape of Taraven for us to wear. ¡°These are temporary badges that will let everyone know you are trusted and employed by the Rider¡¯s Guild. It will also allow you free access to the Dungeon, if you want to continue to avail yourselves before we leave. Your lodging and food are still covered at the Tavern as we discussed. Please meet us in the morning at 6AM outside the North gate by the Taraven pens, in two days.¡± They all get up and shake hands before wishing Hank a good day. Before they leave Hank fastened the pins on their shirts. Justin was waiting in the hall outside Hank¡¯s office and escorted them to the lobby where he wished us well. While they walked back to the Tavern they continued their discussion in party chat. George: I should be happy with the invite to the guild? Also, why did Hank take your turning him down so well? Nora: This was an amazing offer. Especially since we have known them for such a short time. The Rider¡¯s Guild doesn¡¯t have many pure combat classes and gaining two skilled fighters would be a great asset. Typically, they farm out the need for guard to their two-sister guild, which are the ones he would recommend us to. He accepted our reason for deferring his offer, because we did not actual turn the offer down. We just indicated there are prior commitments. However, we showed we took the offer seriously by stating we would discuss it with our family at the earliest opportunity. George: I see. So, what now? Nora: Well we have two days and as much as I am not looking forward to it, if you can continue to help me, I would like to continue to level my endurance. George: If you can put yourself through the training the least I can do is continue to help. Nora: Let¡¯s get more food from the Tavern and then go back to the dungeon. After stopping at the Tavern and getting eight more days¡¯ worth of food they head back to the dungeon. The guards in front of the dungeon eye the pins Hank gave them and then wave them through. After setting up in the cavern again and Nora drinks another potion of Iron Will. It takes seven long boring days, but she finally makes it to fifty in endurance. Since they have some time remaining they decide to go through the dungeon. With all the training she did her next level should give her a lot of attribute points to make up for the last several levels she rushed through. Also, George could use more XP for the Deck of Fate. This dungeon is rated for up to a group of eight at level fifteen to complete. It¡¯s first level was for level eleven adventurers and it has five floors, with each floor one level more difficult. The dungeon is mostly stone tunnels and caverns without traps, but with groups of four to eight creatures. The first level in populated by goblins in groups of four, level two has individual slimes, next level has pairs of spiders, followed by Gnolls on the four floors in groups of six to eight, and finally individual rock trolls on the last floor. Nora and George equipped their swords and stealth before entering the main dungeon. Only a few minutes later they spotted four goblins which have not noticed them. George gestured and hit two of them with three fire darts each, which does double damage from stealth killing them. They wait with their swords ready while the remaining two goblins run at them. While fighting they tried to dodge as much as possible. This resulted in them taking more hits, but that¡¯s the only way to improve dodge. This is fairly safe against such easy opponents. Also, this will let them earn some strength and agility with their next level. Even with all the dodging they both kill their goblin after about fifteen minutes of fighting. George cast Minor Heal on them and they enter stealth to hunt their next batch of goblins. When they finished their twenty third group Nora got her next level. This earns her +6 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom, +2 Constitution, +1 Strength, and +1 Agility. She smiled ear to ear with that accomplishment, which goes a long way to offsetting the low number of attribute points she earned up until now. With her level we turn back and leave the dungeon. They both want a break after days of training. They have a late lunch at the Tavern and talk in party chat. After lunch they stopped by some of the stores to get supplied for the trip. George was thinking he wanted some more quivers of arrows, food for emergencies, rope, and some drop cloths to be able to setup a better camp. The first store Nora took him to was interesting. It was a potion shop and has an incredible selection versus the small shop in the Starter Glade. Nora wanted to get some healing and mana potions. He lets her do the talking. When we enter the store a small Gnome walks out from behind a display case. ¡°Greetings, we are two poor adventurers looking for some quality healing and mana potions.¡± ¡°You are in luck I have a new batch of minor healing and mana potions that are only five silvers each.¡± ¡°Five silvers, surely I misheard you. You must mean greater healing and mana potions.¡± Laughing. ¡°I must thank you, I haven¡¯t laughed so hard in weeks.¡± ¡°I am glad I could bring joy into your life.¡± Nora said smiling. They both resemble wolves while they verbally spar with each other. It wouldn¡¯t surprise George if they started to circle one another as they looked for an opening to exploit. ¡°Because you have made me laugh I could go down to four silvers.¡± ¡°I would laugh myself if you were not trying to steal us blind.¡± They continued to go back and forth for nearly an hour before agreeing on five silvers for three potions. Nora bought twelve potions taking six each mana and healing. George would never have had the patience to haggle that long. Their next stop was for general supplies, which Nora didn¡¯t even bother haggling over for the drop clothes, rope, and dry rations. He asked her about that and she said the General Stores rarely have much markup, so it is not worth trying to argue down a few coppers. Finally, we stop in a ranged weapon shop full of different types of bows. Nora talked them down quickly to one copper an arrow. They got 200 arrows to split between us. There was still some time before dinner, so she took George to one place the city was famous for. There was a line of people and they had to wait about an hour to enter the walled garden. Apparently, a powerful mage courted the daughter of the baron running this city over one hundred years ago. She liked music, so he created a crystal garden that would play different songs. She married him and years later they moved to the south and the garden was opened to all. They only allow twenty people in at a time to listen to one song. On their groups turn everyone moved in quickly before the next song started. The garden has a beautiful mixture of crystal and rare plants. The music is more complex than George envisioned. It sounded a lot like several pianos playing at once from different locations in the garden. It is very nice and relaxing standing there listening to the music. He wished they could stay and hear the other songs, but they are rushed out to make way for the next group. Both happy with Nora¡¯s choice they take their time walking back to the Tavern for dinner. It is nice to unwind after the stress and boredom of leveling Nora¡¯s endurance. For dinner they get a local dish that is very spicy. This one doesn¡¯t cause any damage, thank goodness. He really liked it and the pudding like desert they serve with it. After dinner, they just relaxed chatting about nothing important. It hits George that he has been really enjoying his new life, even the boring parts, because he has had someone to share it with. He never had any close friends in his old life and definitely no one he would kill to protect. He shook himself out of that line of thought for now as they both went to their room to get an early night¡¯s sleep before hitting the road tomorrow. Arc2 Ch7 - Travel to the Capital - Day 1 We both rise early to get some breakfast and meet in front of the tavern were the other riders gather. There are twelve members from the Riders Guild including us. After we are all together everyone walks out the city gate to the Taraven pens. We will be taking twenty Taraven mounts with. Outside the gate another group with wagons pulled by horses is gathering. There are supposed to be ten wagons with twenty guards riding horses. In addition, two riders will be in each of the covered wagons. After getting our mounts settled Hank breaks us into pairs with three pairs in front and back of the caravan. It doesn¡¯t take long before we are moving and within an hour everything is running smoothly. To pass the time I ask Nora, something I have wanted to for a while. George: What is life like as the daughter of the Empress? Nora: What is it like? That would be a long story. George: We have four days until we make it to the Capital, so we have plenty of time. Maybe just tell me what a typical day is like. Nora: Hmmm very well I will tell you what a typical day is like. Let¡¯s start with the day before I departed for the Starter Area. It all started when I woke up. ??? I opened my eyes for the last day of my life. At least that is what I tell myself at the start of every morning. Before I open my eyes, I try to keep breathing steady and slowly slide a hand under the pillow for the dagger I keep there when my wrist is seized by a vice like grip. I open my eyes to see my Guardian Julia smiling down at me. Julia says. ¡°That was very good Sandra, but your breathing is still changing rhythm when you wake up.¡± ¡°I still think it would be better for me to pull my dagger from my inventory.¡± ¡°You know there are skills to block your access to your inventory.¡± ¡°True, but I could try my inventory first and then reach for my dagger.¡± ¡°You could do that, but some of the skills that block your inventory would allow their users to be able to sense that you tried to access your inventory.¡± I sigh. ¡°Very well, I will continue to practice.¡± ¡°Good.¡± She says releasing my wrist and takes a step back. Having a Guardian assigned to be your bodyguard is a sign of favor with the Empress. Only ten Guardians are assigned to the Empress and her family per the agreement with the Harrow. It is also extremely annoying since they take their duty very seriously. Since Julia has already stopped one assassin, I am definitely glad to have her. She opens the door, while I get out of bed, to let the servants in to get me ready for breakfast with my mother. After a quick bath I am dressed and made presentable. Julia looks me over for weapon placement and easy of movement, always making sure I can defend myself if things turn to the worst. We start down to breakfast in the East Atrium with Julia trailing behind me until we get the room. I stop to allow her to enter first and check the room before she signals for me to enter. My mother has not yet arrived, but my younger sibling is already seated with her Guardian standing to the right of her chair. We nod to one another when I take a seat with Julia assuming a position behind me. It is not long until my older sister joins us but does not even acknowledge us when she takes her seat shortly before my mother arrives. ¡°You should all eat.¡± Our mother said when she becomes visible. After having her do this so many times none of us show any outward signs of surprise. She is so good at invisibility spells you can never tell if she is already there watching us or not in the morning. After the servers put food on our plates, I use my poison and magic detection bracelets to make sure the food is safe. My mother is in a sky-blue dress today that offsets her golden hair and brings out the blue of her eyes. My magic detection bracelet shows ribbons of magic entwining the rings, bracelets, and her very body before I turn it off. Looking at her with it on is enough to give me a headache. My mother starts the morning routing with Silvia, my oldest sister. ¡°How are the negotiations with the Yola going?¡± Silvia finishes her current bit of food before saying. ¡°They want more tariffs for the passage to the Whispering Isles. We have agreement on everything else. There ambassador is claiming that the chaos winds around the islands have steadily gotten worst over the last month, which is requiring more mages to maintain a passage to the islands. We have several members of the Mages Guild confirming that.¡± ¡°The winds are still blocking any portal or teleport to the islands?¡± ¡°Yes, so we will have to take a ship through the passage the Yola are creating to reach the dungeons on the islands.¡± ¡°Hmmm, are you thinking of increasing the taxes on the adventures to cover the costs?¡± ¡°That is the thought. They will complain of course, but the seven dungeons on the islands are the some of the highest-level dungeons in the known world and with our agreement with Yola only adventures register with the Empire have access. Based on our estimates a five percent increase would be acceptable without an impact to revenue.¡± ¡°Very well. ¡° ¡°Tina how is the planning for the festival?¡± Tina is the closest to me in age. She is also my closest rival. She has been put in charge of the Moon Day Festival in one month. I was surprised when I hear she volunteered. There must be something she will be using the Festival for to increase her influence and power, but I don¡¯t see what it is. I am sure my mother allowed her to have it to find out as well. ¡°All of the decorations are planned and ordered. They will be hung one week before the Festival starts. Food orders are all placed, and we are checking their progress each week. Finally, the entertainment from the Deep Hill Gnome clan is booked. They will be supplying the fireworks and illusions. The Mage Guild is booked to supply security. The Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Yola ambassadors have accepted their invites along with two dozen other major houses and guilds.¡± ¡°Very good.¡± ¡°Sandra how are your preparations going for your trial.¡± She asks me. I am the youngest and have yet to take my trial in a Starter Area. ¡°My group and I are ready. We will be leaving tomorrow morning taking a temporary portal to the outpost and then enter Starter Area.¡± My mother nods and then continues eating thoughtfully. ¡°Do any of you have any questions?¡± No one says anything when my mother finishes eating and stands. We all follow suit and after she vanishes we all part ways to be about our day. Julia and I enter the gardens for the last time before my trial. We walk to the small cottage in the center of the garden. This cottage is part of the secret of the Empresses family¡¯s advancement. The cottage has a small basement that is wrapped in many spells that reduce the amount of XP earned for the first Tier of each skill to just one XP. This allows people to training in skills without gaining a level before they enter the Starter Area. Also, this allows the first level gained to grant a lot of attribute points, because of the amount of work it needs to gain the skill in the first place.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Julia is going to teach me one last skill before I leave for my trial. I am going to learn Piercing Sight, which is a passive skill that increases the effectiveness of Perception, primarily to pierce stealth. Since it is a passive skill it will increase continuously. This means that I needed to wait to learn it, so that the XP earned from leveling it would not push me to level two, preventing me from entering the Starter Area. Only people who have never reached level two can enter a Starter Area. To learn the skill Julia will slowly stealth herself while I watch. It is easier when you have a teacher that has stealth at a high enough level to allow them to use it at a lower level, which allows me to perceive stealth affecting how I perceive her. We spend four mind numbing hours with Julia entering and leaving stealth before I get a notification I was expecting.
You have learned the skill Piercing Sight, 1 XP awarded. Basic 1.
This is a goodtime to grab some lunch, so we both head through the winding paths in the garden when Julia suddenly says in party chat. Julia: I am picking up someone in stealth behind the statue on our right. I am summoning the guard. Get ready to retreat to the cottage. I casually look at the statue, which was twenty feet ahead on the right. Opposite the statue was a small decorative fountain spewing water from the mouths of four stone frogs into a stone basin about three feet across. The statue was of the Goddess of Light and I wondered if she would take offense to an assassin using her for cover. As we approach the statue Julia must have used her ability to manipulate time because one moment she was next to my side calmly strolling along and the next she had two daggers embedded up to the hilt in the assassin¡¯s neck. He was dressed in form fitting black leather that snuggly hugged his body, while not restricting his body movements. An ebony and silver half mask covered the lower half of his face. It is rumored that the masks blocked the air borne poisons the assassins use. Unfortunately, the assassins were smarter than we expected. The body of the dead assassin vanishes and three other assassins appear from the ground around the fountain. One of the assassins collapses to his knees in obvious pain. I am guessing he used a clone spell or skill, which transferred part of the damage back to his actual body. I focus on the two still standing. Both charge Julia, which causes alarm bells to go off in my head. At least one of them should have headed to me. I turn quickly just catching another assassin appearing from the hedge behind us. He has two daggers drawn, but my daggers are in my hands in an instant. I jump to the side when he uses a skill to close the distance to me. His skill moves him to where I was instead of following me. Not a very high-level skill to be dodged so easily. While he was turning I plant one dagger in his left arm causing him to drop his dagger. I jumped back as he swipes at me with his other dagger. This is to easy, the other two are keeping Julia busy, and a high-level assassin should be able to kill me quickly, but his movements are something I can handle. Oh, they want me to kill this assassin, which will get me enough XP to level up. Then I wouldn¡¯t be able to enter the Starter Area, which would destroy my chance at being a successor to the throne. It is a brilliant move, letting me live, but no longer a rival for the throne. It has to be one of my sisters behind this. I continue to dodge and block the blows from the assassin. I have to make sure I don¡¯t kill him. I dodge the assassins next attack and throw a handful of powder from my inventory into his eyes, blinding him. This would only be temporary, but it gave me enough time to sweep his legs to take his down. Then I drop all my weight behind my elbow into his stomach, which leaves him gasping like a fish on the ground. I pull a needle from my inventory and stab it into the side of his neck. He goes unnaturally still when the poison on the needle paralyzes him. I then turn my focus back to Julia. One of the assassins is dead with a dagger through his left eye. The other two are both injured, but so is Julia. I can see several guards running toward us. They should be here in under a minute. I pull a stone from my inventory and sprint away from the pair engaging Julia back toward the cottage. I here Julia shout ¡°Now!¡± and activate the stone. The world seems to stutter while I am frozen in time for a minute. When I turn there is a pile of guards manhandling an assassin who is spewing black blood from his mouth. The other assassin Julia was fighting is also motionless on the ground. That is why assassins are so expensive. They have numerous means of escape, but when they are unable to they commit suicide. In the case of the palace where their respawn point can be controlled they take a poison, which causes final death. Julia and I spend some time talking to the guards before they take the bodies away. Julia decide to take lunch in my rooms where we can discuss things in private. While lunch is served and we eat we talk in party chat. Sandra: I think they were trying to get me to kill the assassin that attacked me so that I would level. Julia: I think you are right. They should have been able to make a much better attempt at killing you. It wasn¡¯t until you subdued the assassin attacking you that the others pushed to attack you. Sandra: It had to be one of my sisters. Julia: It also could be one of the groups that wants to curry favor with them. Sandra: True, I guess there is nothing we can prove and nothing we should change before tomorrow. Julia: Yes, we should go about your normal routine and then after dinner retire to your room. So, we did exactly that. I stopped by the library to read some more works of fiction. I could not look at the maps and other books on monsters because I would up my Lore and Cartography skills to the point where I would level up. It is frustrating waiting for the trial before being able to take advantage of all the things available to me as a princess. After reading in the library for several hours I went to the music hall were several individuals practiced and played at all hours in preparation for festivals and balls hosted in the palace. I find it relaxing listening to the music even though it is often interrupted when they start over again and again while they learn new pieces of music. It may not be as smooth, but it is genuine. Julia then says it is time for dinner, which is a more private affair with Julia and several of my tutors. We review my proposed build and leveling plan while in the Starter Area. We discuss things over two hours and I listen again to the arguments of the two main camps, magic versus melee, damage versus defense. We don¡¯t bother talking about support, since no Empress would ever consider such a build. I then make it back to my suite of rooms were my servants help prepare me for bed. I end up laying in bed for a long time before falling to sleep. I am well prepared for this but can¡¯t help but worry. ??? Nora: And that is a typical day in my life. George: Holy Crap, that¡¯s not normal, that¡¯s crazy. Nora: it is what it is. George: I did have a question if you don¡¯t mind? Nora: Sure, go ahead. George: You mentioned your personal guard is a Harrow and could affect time? Nora seemed to pause before replying. Nora: Yes, she is a Harrow and their racial ability allows them to affect time. George: Do you know how they learn to do that? Nora; Yes, someone very skilled must unlock their potential first and then they can start to learn how to control the ability. George: Ok, thanks. The group reached a stream with a large clearing where we could break for lunch and feed the Taraven. Lunch was uneventful and after the animals were feed and watered we got back on the road. I spent most of my time inspecting all of the plants and animals I could see, which increased my inspect several levels. I also practiced creating steps of air above my head. They were invisible and made no noise but allowed me to increase my air shaping while we moved. I still had dreams of running through the air leaping from one step to another. I gained several levels in air shaping by the time we reached our camp site for the evening. It was another clearing with a nearby stream. This clearing has a large rock outcrop on the north side, which we use when posting a lookout. This gave a much more defensible position on the north side with a great vantage point. There is bard in the group of wagons and he plays several songs on his lute while we eat dinner. His name is Tom Evermore from the Southern City States. He is very good and tells several tales in between the songs. After we all clean up and settle in for the evening Nora and I unroll out bedrolls by the wagons. During the night we heard a pack of wolves howling, but nothing approached the camp before dawn. Arc2 Ch8 - Travel to the Capital - Day 2 A woman stands before a large stone basin filled with swirling blue waters lit from within. Her golden hair partially obscures her piercing blue eyes. She gives a frustrated sigh. The sole door in the otherwise unadorned granite walled room opens silently outlining a man as he quickly enters the room shutting the door behind him. ¡°What was so important we had to meet?¡± The woman asks. ¡°We have an interesting development with your daughter. The Vice-Captain of the capital guard placed the following up throughout the city.¡± The man quietly says, handing her a piece of paper he withdrew from his inventory. ¡°Where is he and why did he post this without bringing it to our attention first?¡± She says while staring at a wanted poster of the princess¡¯s kidnapper. A 1000 gold pieces reward for his apprehension alive. ¡°He had the posters put up right before he left on travel yesterday. My sources show he vanished on the road to the Domain of Light. He is obviously in someone pocket. With his absence they must want your daughter or her companion found in a bad way to reveal their hand so blatantly.¡± ¡°The poster has a good likeness, but no name. They must be having the same problem we are with trying to scry them between my daughter¡¯s protective spells and his Veil skill.¡± ¡°Yes, but your daughter¡¯s spells will start to fade over the next month.¡± ¡°She is aware of that.¡± She says with a thoughtful look. ¡°We should use this situation. Spread the wanted posters to each of the domains and have imperial squads ready to take custody of them. Make sure to stress there is no reward if he is dead.¡± ¡°Is that wise?¡± ¡°Yes, I am sure the posters have already made it into the hands of the guilds and they will be searching across the domains anyway. By publicly placing the posters in each domain we give my daughter some warning.¡± ¡°Very well my lady. I will take care of it.¡± The man bows before turning and leaving through the door, closing it behind him. She turns back to the basin thinking that this is bigger than just her daughter¡¯s sibling rivalry, but is this the work of another group or is one of her daughters working with someone else now? While she pits her daughters against each other to make them strong it looked like at least one of them is taking it to far and will have to be removed assuming she can prove which one it is. ??? We both have the last watch this time, so we continue to keep our eye out as the camp begins to wake up. The camp begins to stir when I see several dark shapes moving close to the ground. My high perception and Night Vision are paying off. I sound the alarm and cast a fireball at the closest cluster of shadows revealing them to be several darkly clothed figures. It is amazing that any trade gets done with all these bandits. Several of the figures are patting out flames while they run toward the camp ignoring me on the stone outcrop, which I find odd. I have the best field of view of both the camp and the approaching bandits after all. Voicing my concern to Nora she turns to face my back in case we are attacked. Before starting guard duty I used Stone Shaping to form a ward around us. Then it was empowered enough to absorb 50 hit point damage. That should be enough to stop an initial stealth attack. Focusing back on the approaching bandits and I cast a maximized double range fire bullet into one of the figures who pitches dead. Immediately I cast another fire bullet at the remaining figures, when they begin to dodge, which doesn¡¯t help the bandit I nail with my next spell. With two dead they are still ignoring me, which is making me more and more nervous. I get ready to cast another spell when there is a sharp crack behind me, which I know all too well. Something has broken the ward spell. Nora grunts and bounces off my back as I turn and see a huge black clad figure who has locked swords with her. Since I was already casting the spell, I discharge the fire bullets into his face while leaning over her shoulder. This gets me a perfect critical hit directly to the head. He drops to the ground dead revealing a pair of wide eyes on a much smaller black clad figure. I can¡¯t help myself and laugh out loud and turn back to the bandits below feeling Nora push off my shoulder toward the wide-eyed figure with her sword raised high. There are several spells being cast at the bandits now from the camp and figures are drawing weapons when I cast another fire bullet, bringing down the bandit closest to the camp. While casting I keep an ear on Nora¡¯s fight behind me, which sounds evenly matched. There are still at least two dozen bandits closing on the line of defenders. I notice the bandit¡¯s swords are all glossy with some substance, most likely poison. They are not using any magic, which is odd. I am guessing they want to take the people alive either to get items from their inventory or because they are slavers. I heard the other guards indicate some slavers use a poison to incapacitate their victims. Rather than try to kill one or two more bandits I try my hand at something more ambitious. I use Air Shaping to form a solid band of air forty feet long at knee height, one foot tall. It would be invisible even in daylight and at night there is no way they will see it. It is a sight to see when they run full tilt into the band of air 10 feet in front of the line of guards. Some of the bandit¡¯s face plant, others somersault into the line of guards. I dismiss the shaping and chug a mana potion while casting fire bullet into the first bandit to rise. The guards manage to take down nearly half the bandits before they recover. Two of the bandits manage to flee the guards after awkwardly feeling for the Air Shaping. I hit and kill both with fire bullet spells before they get away, which almost wipes out my mana pool.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I turn to look behind me to see Nora cleaning her sword on the bandit behind us. Over the next few minutes the guards finish off the bandits and collect all their equipment. None of the bandits are taken alive. The few captured use poison capsules to kill themselves. After we examine the bandits weapons they are found to indeed be covered with a paralytic poison. Nasty. Nora and I get high praise for our guard duty. I think we may be in for another award when we reach the capital. After everyone¡¯s wounds are tended to we mount up and continue our trip to the Capital. While we ride I think about the bandits and how the battle went. My use of air shaping paid off in a way I did not expect. A wall of fire would have been useful too, but the light would have given it away. I wonder if I can summon fire and change its color. Then maybe take away its color to make the flames black. If I can do that then I can use my fire-based spells at night without giving away my position. I tell Nora I will be experimenting. Then I summon a small flame on my finger and work on changing its color. This proved to be both easy and difficult. I was able to shift the flame between red, yellow, blue and even white, which are colors that I have seen a flame take, but other colors like green and the black I suffered a mental block on. I know I should be able to change the color, since I could do it with the other colors. I try a different approach by envisioning smoke coming from the flame. Even though these flames don¡¯t seem to be burning anything they are consuming mana, so why shouldn¡¯t there be smoke. After an hour of trying different attempts I got a wisp of smoke. I continued repeating this, until it got thicker until I got a notification.
You have learned the spell Dark Flame, 5 XP awarded. Basic 1.
Looking at the description for Dark Flame I see the following.
Dark Flame, Level 1, Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a small flame of dark fire covering the casters hand, which will ignite any flammable material. Will cause 3 points of base damage plus one point per skill Tier level. This is a spell of the Fire and Darkness Domains. Range: Self Cost: 2 mana
Not very useful as a combat spell and not exactly what I was trying for. Instead of the color being black I created a flame composed of both fire and darkness. Hmmm, well I have seen a flame burn black now, let me see if I can still change the color to black, without changing the spell to use the Darkness Domain. I continued to experiment until we stop for lunch. It has gotten easy to change the color of the flame from a deep red through the whole rainbow up to barely visible violet. Also, I can make it white, but still not black without using darkness. We eat lunch by a modest size pond which has a stream about five feet across feeding into and out of it. Several of the mounts jump in the pond and roll around before getting out of the water. It is getting warm and the road is dusty. I almost wish I could do the same thing. After we finish our lunch sitting in the shade, under the oak trees around the pond, the caravan continues to our evening camp site. I take a break from my spell experimentation to talk to some of the people on the wagons. Most are merchants transporting goods in cheap oversized chest of holding. They are bulky, but can hold a lot more than their inventory. Only the most valuable items are kept in their personal inventory. There are three notable exceptions riding the wagons. One is the bard Tom from the southern city states who has been entertaining us in the evenings. Another is a slim confident young man called Justin also from the southern city states. He has been adventuring in the north with a group that perished with him being the sole survivor. The final person of interest is a tall well build man who is an obvious fighter traveling from the far north named Frank. During the ambush Tom played a song that boosted everyone¡¯s speed and stamina. Justin used light-based spells to blind several bandits and healed several of the injured. Finally, Frank was deadly with a spear as his preferred weapon. He took out one of the bandits with a spear throw through the head at fifty feet in the dark and then killed three after they hit the air wall and captured another. We have a good group between the guards and the passengers in the wagons. They don¡¯t talk much about themselves, but they do talk about the southern city states and the far north. The far north sounds like lots of tundra broken up by ravines, canyons, and rocky terrain. Just north of the Tassan Empire is a large forest that is divided by a mountain range to the west behind which the elves have a large empire of their own. To the east are just small communities with one small city state on the east coast. There are lots of higher-level monsters in the forest, so it is impressive that Frank has made it so far south. For the rest of the ride until we camp I try a new approach. I must tell the other guards and wagon drivers what I am trying, so they don¡¯t panic. I start summoning wards into small Stone Shapings I make, but this time I try to infuse fire into the ward. When the ward is damaged I want it to cause fire damage. I try several different formations, but nothing is working. The wards either take damage from the fire I am trying to infuse into them or the collapse. I try a different approach, which finally succeeds. The new ward is thinner than the Raw Mana Wards I have been creating. They are also more efficient, causing a lot of damage versus the amount of damage a Raw Ward can withstand. I am quite happy with the new Ward, which I receive as a new spell.
You have learned the spell Ritual Fire Ward, 100 XP awarded. Basic 1.
We finally pull into the camp site which is on a large flattened hilltop. This offers us a good view in every direction, but we must stop to water all the animals first and then gather water in our inventory for the camp before heading up the hill. Nora and I are not in the watch rotation tonight, so we can get a full night¡¯s sleep. We start the rotation again tomorrow with the first watch. We both sit back and enjoy Tom¡¯s music and stories while we eat before settling in for the evening. Arc2 Ch9 - Travel to the Capital - Day 3 I wake up early feeling a burning sensation. When I focus on it my inventory opens and the Book of Poth is glowing. I quickly look around and then step behind a tree. I pull the book from my inventory and open it. The page already has some writing. Poth: Greetings, I can sense a source of power one mile to your North. This should greatly help you in your journey if you can make it there. If you get there then write me and I can try to guide you further. George: Thanks, we should be able to do that. I will get Nora and go. I step back to Nora and gentle touch her shoulder and in party chat say. George: Nora, Poth contacted me and says there is a place of power about a mile to the North of here that could help us with our quest. I am going to check it out. Do you want to join me? Nora: Yes. Nora opens her eyes and quickly puts her bedroll in her inventory and we both enter stealth leaving the camp avoiding the guards around the camp. Vera the small green moon is just setting on the horizon and dawn should arrive in another hour. We make our way North through thick forest cover. After about thirty minutes we arrive at the waypoint I added to my map a mile North of the camp and pulled the book from my inventory and write. George: We are here. Poth: Ok follow my directions quickly. Go 500 feet north. Ok now turn right and go 200 feet. Now turn left and go 50 feet. Almost, go 30 feet north. It should be 10 feet to your right. Nora and I both stare at the area. I take a tentative step and then another and see a faint ripple in the air. Another step and see an oval ripple six feet high and three feet wide is in front of me. I reach out to touch it and get a prompt.
You have found the entrance to the Dungeon of Lord Toroth. This dungeon will not respawn once cleared. This dungeon will be scaled for a full party of eight and will have a level ten percent higher than the party¡¯s average level. Time dilation of this dungeon is 1000 to 1. Do you wish to enter this dungeon? Yes or No.
I hurry and write Poth that we found the Dungeon before the minute is up and he wishes us good luck. I turn to Nora and share the notification and she looks disappointed. Nora: If we go in there and succeed in clearing the Dungeon I am sure we will get a great reward, but the amount of XP I will clear will level me so much that it will destroy my build. George: I see and I can go in because I am channeling my XP into the Deck of Fate. Nora: Exactly, you have an XP sink and I don¡¯t. George: Well can we both channel XP to the Deck? Nora: I don¡¯t¡­. She trailed off, so I pulled the Deck out of my inventory and thought about adding Nora to the XP channel. I receive an interesting notification.
Add Nora to the Deck of Fate XP channel. Cost 5 faith points. Confirm? Yes or No.
Well that will still leave us with more than the 40 faith points we need, so I select Yes. Nora¡¯s eyes jerk when she gets a notification. George: So, can you channel XP to the Deck? Nora: Yes, I can. George: Great, before we go in Dungeon¡¯s are considered Places of Power? Nora: They can be. A Place of Power is an area of high mana density. Dungeons commonly form in such locations, but they can also spawn unique monsters or resources. George: I see, well let¡¯s go. Nora: This will be dangerous, there are only two of us and it is rated for eight people. George: I know, but Poth thinks this will help us a lot and we have people still hunting both of us for different reasons. Nora: Very well I am ready. I turn to accept the prompt when someone clears their throat and Nora I both turn without swords draw to see Frank and Justin standing by a small tree to our left. ¡°Sorry to startle you, but it looked very suspicious when you both ran out of the camp.¡± Frank said holding up his unarmed hand in front of himself. ¡°You must have impressive skills to follow us while we were stealth.¡± Nora responded for us both. ¡°Actually, that is Justin he has some hand spells for tracking. So, it looks like you somehow knew a one-shot dungeon was here. That is a neat trick, mind sharing how you did that?¡± ¡°Sorry that is related to a quest we have.¡± ¡°Of course, of course. Well it looked like just the two of you were going in, but isn¡¯t that rather dangerous, since the dungeon is a scaling dungeon for eight?¡± ¡°Probably, but we have handled harder situations.¡± ¡°Well, Justin and I were wondering if we could join you. I am actually specialized in dungeon clearing and Justin and I joined up in the north and he is very versatile as well as being a good healer.¡± George: What do you think? Nora: It would be helpful and he is correct about the difficulty. Also, one shot dungeons will offer each party member a unique item when we defeat the boss, so we don¡¯t lose anything by having them join. ¡°Very well, even split on the loot and if we come across something unique we will do round robin on it. We will roll before entering to see who is first in the rotation.¡± Justin and Frank look at each other grinning. ¡°That is very fair, I wish every adventuring group was this reasonable.¡± I sent both invites and they joined our party. I started turn again to the dungeon entrance when there was another voice from above us. In the large tree to our right the bard Tom was sitting on a branch about ten feet above our head.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°As long as you are taking invites, I would like to offer my services. I am skilled in countering mages and am an excellent scout. Also, during battle, I can offer a number of useful buffs.¡± ¡°Maybe before I accept, I should check it there is anyone else around first?¡± Which causes Tom to laugh and jump down from the tree landing lightly on his feet. ¡°There is just me here, I made sure no one else followed.¡± I looked at Nora and she nodded, so I sent another invite to Tom making us a party of five. I am level fourteen and Nora is elven. Justin is level thirteen, Frank level fifteen, and Tom is level sixteen. This should mean the dungeon level will be fifteen making it harder for use, but hopefully easier with our new party. We roll using out status interface a set of dice with Justin having the highest roll, so he will start the loot rotation. I turn and accept the prompt for the dungeon and suddenly the oval cracks open revealing a swirling blue portal. I step into the portal followed by the rest of the party and the portal slams shut behind us. We have stepped into a small square room about twenty feet on a side with a fifteen-foot-high ceiling. The lighting is from four crystals embedded in the walls, which gave off a golden glow. The walls, ceiling, and floor are unfinished stone. Inspect didn¡¯t show me anything more about the room or the archway placed in the wall opposite us. It stood eight feet tall and covered in blue glowing runs along its edge. I started to advance toward the archway when Nora grabbed my arm. Nora: Wait, I am not familiar with the runes, but this type of setup indicates this is a safe room. Some safe rooms will lose their protection when the archway is crossed, so we should make sure we are ready before we casually do that. George: I will make sure to not cross the archway and just look. Nora releases my arm and I walk up to the archway feeling slightly dizzy when looking at the runes. Frank joins me in looking them over without touching anything. I focus on the corridor that the archway leads into, which is illumined with the same crystals. The corridor stretches for fifty feet before turning to the south before turning to the right. Unfortunately, this gives us no idea of what we may be getting into. After discussing it between ourselves there is no choice, but to go through the portal. Before doing so Justin interrupts us. Justin: Everyone look at the entrance. We all turn and there is no entrance anymore. I turn to look at the suddenly white faces around me. George: Sorry, but I am new to this, what happened to the entrance? They all look at each other and Nora answered. Nora: This is a closed dungeon, which means our spawn point has changed to the dungeon and we cannot leave until we defeat the boss. George: How is that different than before? Nora: Very few dungeons do this, but those that do are very hard and if we die in here the dungeon level will be the same and if we die enough there is no way we will succeed before final death. The System creates these dungeons to handle problems that it cannot handle itself. When we entered it configured the dungeon to match a problem with our level, but typically the problem is harder than the level would suggest. George: Well then, we will just have to win. We draw our weapons and enter stealth. Then Frank and I step through the archway, while Nora watches the runes. They continue to glow, so we have a permanent safe room. We cautiously walk down the hall pausing at the turn in the corridor. Tom peeks around the corner and thirty feet around the turn the corridor stops in archway into another room. We walk along the wall and after quickly peeking into the room we see four creatures. Each was a little over six feet tall, covered in short golden fur where they are not encased in a full suite of leather and bronze armor. Each has a sword and dagger sheathed on a belt around their waist. They are seated at a small oak table playing a game of cards. I could see four spears leaning against the wall behind them. They were drinking from ceramic jugs while they joked, dealing cards for some complex game. I signal the group to move back up the corridor indicating I want to try something in case they are harder than they appear. We retreated up the corridor where I can use Earth Shaping on the corridor floor, walls, and ceiling creating a line bisecting them all. I repeated the Shaping three more times. While shaping the stone I let Nora know my plans, which turned her worried frown into a grin. Nora then knelt touching the line in the stone closest to the door, pouring her mana into a ward. By the time she completed the first ward I completed the second and third. Then I sat meditating while she completed the final ward. Hopefully this would give us the added time we would need to whittle down their numbers. The others are all grinning when they realize what we have done. Now we just need some bait. We all prepared ourselves to engage them, while I sneak back up to the room. I started out with a barrage of maximized double damage fire bullets that all struck one of the guards killing him. The other three reacted much more quickly than I expected grabbing their spears, while mana shields sprang up around them. I hate competent opponents. Everyone was already waiting down the corridor. I ran the twenty feet to our wards, which were spaces one foot apart. I turned actively Inspecting the creatures which ran down the corridor toward us.
Thesian Common Guard, Level 15, HP 750
That is a lot of hit points. I dump another barrage of max double damage fire bullet into the leading guard right before he slams into the first ward shattering it. The guard¡¯s mana shield collapses under the stream of fire bullets. Nora curses in party chat at how tough the guards are. I hit the injured guard with another round of fire bullets sending him reeling, but still alive. This is going to be close. The next guard swings his sword into the next ward destroying it. I hit the first guard again just when he gets another mana shield up, but it manages to kill him anyway, while the next guard strikes the next ward, which cracks, but does not break. I put almost twice the mana in the third ward. I switch to fire darts which do slightly less damage but consume a lot less mana. The guard¡¯s mana shield drops when several darts hit his body. I hit him again when his next blow destroys the third ward. The injured guard pauses to raise a mana shield when the last guard attacks the last ward, destroying it with one blow. I cast a final round of fire bullets at the injured guard destroying his mana shield and killing him, which seriously depletes my mana bring on a fierce mana headache that I ignore. Frank¡¯s spear sword blocks the guards first blow, but he staggers under the strength of it. I try to flank his attacker, but the guard uses a skill and for a moment there seems to be two guards attacking us. We are both caught off balance. Frank¡¯s opponent hits him with a kick knocking him down, while my opponent crosses sword and then slams my back into the wall before vanishing. I quickly try to get to my feet. The guard swings at Frank, while starting to glow red from another skill. I could see Frank¡¯s eyes get big. He tried to get his spear up in time. I gritted my teeth, blowing the last of my mana to Shadow Step and smash into the guard¡¯s side when he lunged at Frank. We both land on the floor, but the guard¡¯s strength easily out weights my own. He grapples with me pushing my own sword toward my neck. Suddenly the guards body shudders, once, twice and he collapses on top of my before I scramble out from under him. I am breathing heavily while staring at Tom¡¯s bloody sword and the two deep gashes on the guards back. George: Thanks. Tom: Your welcome, but that was stupid. George: Ah¡­ What was stupid? Tom: Your Shadow Stepping into him. George: But he would have hit Frank. Tom: Most likely he would have and it would have hurt, but then while he was fully engaged with Frank you could of Shadow Stepped behind him and stabbed him in the back getting a flanking and back stabbing bonus. At that point he would have had to turn to defend himself while both of you attacked him. I bet you just saw someone in danger and just rushed in to help them. Don¡¯t get me wrong I really appreciate the sentiment, but you must be smarter or we will get killed. If we are killed we will respawn, but we will be in a worse position to finish this dungeon. George: Ok, I will try to focus on the overall battle next time. So, lets gather up the drops and go back to the safe room to talk over how we proceed. Tom: That sounds good. We quickly strip the bodies of equipment and money. There is also a small pile of money on the table where the guards were playing cards. We are careful not to approach the stout oak door in the room that must lead further into the dungeon. I even pick up the table and ask Frank to get two chairs, which causes Frank to look at me in surprise. We take the furniture back to the safe room and unload the equipment on top of it. The equipment is all uncommon with some good stats. Nora, Justin, Tom, and I switch our clothes for the best armor, swords, daggers, and spears from the guards we killed. When looking at my equipped gear I like what I see.
Uncommon Thesian Guard Leather Pants, Durability 40/50, Defense 40, +1 Strength Uncommon Thesian Guard Leather Shirt, Durability 40/50, Defense 40, +1 Strength Uncommon Thesian Guard Leather Gloves, Durability 40/50, Defense 16, +1 Strength Uncommon Thesian Guard Leather Helmet, Durability 40/50, Defense 24, +1 Strength Uncommon Thesian Guard Leather Boots, Durability 40/50, Defense 16, +1 Strength Complete Thesian Guard Set 5/5, +5 Strength
This explains the guard¡¯s strength and part of the reason why they are so tough. Arc2 Ch10 - Dungeon Crawl After leaving all the extra equipment and supplies on the table in our safe room we go back to the guard room. Tom listened at the door and inspected it before we proceed. Frank opened the door, followed by me, Justin, Nora, and Tom. The door opened into a wide corridor lined with doors. The walls where made of cut granite with an arched stone ceiling that vaulted fifteen feet overhead. After we all enter the corridor Tom moved up to check the first door. We go through ten rooms in all. Each is setup the same way with a small bed, dresser, writing desk, magic lamp embedded in the wall, and a single chair, but no occupants. At the end of the hall we have a choice when the corridor branches to the right and left. The left-hand branch leads to a door while the right continues for fifty feet before taking a sharp right. Tom enters stealth and looks around the bend which leads to a set of stairs going down. We decide to check out the door before taking the stairs. The door is of thick oak with bands of steel. It has no lock but doesn¡¯t move when we try to open it even with Frank and I both straining to open it. After discussing it I try to open it with a creative use of shaping. I first raise a shield and ask everyone to stand behind me. I pull ten water skins from my inventory and pour the water on the floor in front of the door. I then shape the water, which flows to the door. Since it is wood, I can force the water into the pores. It takes about fifteen minutes to finish and about half of my mana. The entire time the door is creaking and popping. I then use a fire shaping to pull the heat from the water into the stone floor. The door practically explodes into fragments as it freezes and the water expands. It nearly takes down my shield. We enter what appears to be a store room for weapons while Tom checks over the door. There is an excellent selection of swords, daggers, spears, maces, bows, and crossbows. Also, several hundred bolts and arrows. They are all non-magical, but of Uncommon quality. We fill our inventories as you can never have enough weapons. Tom explains that the door had an internal locking mechanism, which probably could only be opened with some form of magic. After collecting everything not nailed down, we take the other branch of the corridor to the stairs. The stairs ended in a platform about ten feet on a side with a waist high stone wall straight ahead before turning down a corridor to the left. Tom has the highest skill with stealth so he cautiously peeks over the stone railing. We can hear the sound of drums and chanting from down the stairs. Tom: There is a huge open room about 200 feet across with a large ritual diagram in the center surrounding a raised dais. The Dais has a huge being covered in green flames kneeling and I think chanting, but I can¡¯t make anything out from here. The room has 180 guards grouped in concentric rings outside of the diagram, which is probably why this floor is so empty. Also, probably why no one came when the door exploded. George: Well this is good and bad, this means the floors are probably lightly defended, but the downside is that when we get to the bottom level there are too many for us to handle. While we are discussing what we found a new notification pops up.
Quest: Stop Lord Toroth Lord Toroth is trying to open a gateway to return the Elder Gods. These are being of great power that roamed the universe long ago. The Gods and System sealed them away and a new war will start if the Elder Gods are freed. Reward: Increase your three most advanced skills by one tier level or increase your most advanced skill by two levels. One rare item.
We decide to continue down the stairs, ducking when we approach the overlook for the large chamber. The stairwell descends to an archway leading to a long open room. There is a large set of doors at the far end of the 100-foot-long room, which is thirty feet wide and fifteen feet tall. There are fluted columns running down both sides of the room supporting the ceiling. Tom enters stealth and makes his way along the left wall. About half way down he seems to trip and suddenly two figures detach themselves from the shadows thrown by the columns raising daggers as they rushed Tom. I make a split decision and shadow step three times. Then I grab Tom and shadow step back to the archway we entered. Tom has a long dart protruding from his side. He gets Frank¡¯s help pulling it out while Justin casts a healing spell. Tom was poisoned, which Justin has a potion for. Nora and I face the room, which has several figures moving rapidly from shadow to shadow. This makes them hard to count. I think they heard the door break upstairs and just set an ambush for us. I cast Concealing Mists while telling the others to get back further from the entrance. Frank surprises me by jumping up onto the ceiling, doing a flip in midair. I enter the mists to get a sneak attack bonus. Two figures enter right away, running through the mists. I hit the one on the right with Fire bullets getting a critical hit, which drops him with a thud to the floor as three more enter the mists. I jump to the side barely avoiding the wall. Then I fire another set of fire bullet into the closest guard, who takes serious damage, but it still standing. He turns in my general direction gesturing and a whip of fire slashes out hitting me in the chest. It shatters my shield spell, but my armor absorbs the remaining damage as he pulls the whip back for another slash. I hit him with fire darts this time, which finishes him off extinguishing his fire whip. A new group of five enter the mists and I use Air Shaping to summon a low wall of air, which catches four of them across their knees. I gesture at the floor using Earth Shaping and cause the ground to soften allowing them to sink into the floor. I catch three before they manage to get to their feet partially binding them to the floor. The other two are running out of the mists as I hit one in the back with fire bullets causing him to stumble. Another three enter the mists and all hit the wall and fall on the three already stuck in the stone floor. Several of them strike out at each other before realizing they are guards. I hit them all with two ice storm spells before the new group manages to get to their feet. I pick ice storm because it will not burn away the mists like a fireball will and it¡¯s an area affect spell. I see what appears to be the last group of two more running toward the mists. I use Air Shaping to make a wall of air parallel to the floor at neck height. Both run into it, which takes them across their throats. It doesn¡¯t decapitate them like a horror movie, but I can tell it hurt. I turn and use most of my remaining mana to hit one of the two with a fire bullet spell killing him. I run toward the other and get in a solid hit with my sword as the mist starts to dissipate. From that point it takes a dozen blows to kill him and I took three good hits to my body, which takes me down to 75% of my health. I turn to find my party members finishing the three stuck in the stone. We are all injured, through Justin is healing everyone. We quickly gather up gear and items from the fallen guards. Then we run back to the safe area and drop everything off. Two of the guards had better armor, which we give to Frank and Justin. Frank because he is our tank and Justin because he is our healer. Everyone is happy with how we handled ourselves in the fight and Tom personally thanks me for getting him out when he was hit. With that many guards they probably would have killed him. We rest in the safe area just long enough to regenerate our mana and stamina and then jog back to the long room. Tom takes the lead again, but this time we all enter and follow the right-hand wall. Tom find three traps like the one that hit him. We make it to the door, which opens easily. It leads down a short corridor to a wall that branches to the right and left into barrack rooms, while continuing to a left-handed bend in the corridor. We check each of the barracks, but decide to not search the rooms. We can¡¯t afford the time to run loot back up to the safe room or spend the time to search the room. We are all concerned that more guards could be sent at any moment. I find out from Nora that Frank was amazing. He would run along the walls and ceiling stabbing the guards with his spear and the jump to another wall to engage another guard from behind when Tom and Nora were having trouble handling a guard. We continue down the corridor, which branches every fifty feet into another pair of barracks. Finally, we make it to a final set of doors that we can hear chanting through. This must be the set of doors we saw entering the main chamber.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Tom: This is it. I am guessing that the guards chanting are not going to be able to stop or the spell will be disrupted. It will then either need to be started from scratch or backlash on the guards. Even with that, there are twenty guards watching that can attack us not including Lord Toth who was watching the spell formation. We don¡¯t have any way to kill twenty guards in the open chamber. Even if we lead them into the corridor, we will be so badly injured and drained of mana that they can finish us off. We all look at each other trying to think of what to do, when I have an idea. I quickly tell the others and they all look at me like I am crazy, but they can¡¯t think of anything better. We run back to the barracks to gather supplies. After working on my plan for several hours while the others gathered materials, we were ready. I am mentally tired and decide to drink an Iron Will potion to make sure I am alert for the battle to come. We make it to the door again. After we all check to make sure everyone is ready, we throw the door open with enough force that it slams into the wall. All the free guards immediately focus on us as we enter and spread out in front of the door. Lord Toth looks us over and snorts before turning back to the spell formation. He is obviously not impressed. As the guards charge us, we use the surprise I prepared for them. I have spent the last few hours casting fire wards on helmets we collected from the barracks. Originally, I thought to use arrows, but the fire ward I could put on the arrow only did a dozen points of damage. The larger helmets have enough surface area to do 200 points of damage and the I became skilled enough to cause splash damage on the last eight I made. We throw the ones with splash damage first into the groups of guards that charge us. We have thirty helmets and manage to hurl twenty of them before the first guard reaches us, but that is enough. Half the guards are dead before they get to us and most of the others are injured. We are spread out and I case concealing mists to the right of us and enter the mist to deal with a clump of three guards while Frank jumps over the guards to land behind them. Everyone closes their eyes as Justin sets off a flare to blind them for a few seconds, which allows us to get in several important blows to finish off four guards quickly. The six remaining are quickly dealt with two of them dying in the mists and the other four are killed while we only take some minor injuries. Justin and I drink mana potions, but our mana pools are almost full and everyone else downs a stamina potion, but with the short fight they are nearly full as well. Lord Toth yells. ¡°Fools you have just earned yourselves a final death.¡± He pulls a huge axe from his inventory and rushes us before we can regroup from our fight with the guards. Frank jumps and uses an advanced skill that blocks any single attack. Toth strikes his spear with such force that the spear bends and creaks. I thought for sure it would break, but Frank shifts around the blow deflecting it to the side. I start spamming fire bullets, which do about 100 hit points of damage, which isn¡¯t great, but Toth has great armor and good resistances. Justin hits Toth with a light lance, which is the one combat spell he will use saving the remainder of his mana for healing. Justin signals Toth has no vulnerability to light-based spells. If he did, we would of switch Justin to attack and me to healing. Nora pulls a bow from her inventory and begins to shot fire warded arrows, which are largely absorbed by Toth¡¯s armor, but it is doing more damage than anything else she can do. Tom starts with a song on his lute that boosts our constitution by ten percent. Then he switches to a song that boosts our movement speed by ten percent. Toth begins to glow and starts to shout when Tom uses his ability to silence him causing the glow to fade. Toth¡¯s face twists in anger as he swipes at Frank several time, which lines him up with Tom, who plays a sharp cord on his lute that sends a sonic attack that ripples the air. Toth is stunned for a few seconds, which gives Frank his first chance to make one of his attacks sink home deep in Toth¡¯s chest. Before Frank can withdraw his spear Toth grabs it with one hand and backhand Frank with his axe sending him flying with twenty-five percent of his health remaining. Toth then pulls the spear out and snaps it over his knee. I wince, that was a rare weapon Frank got from a dungeon boss drop, so it¡¯s loss will really hurt. I hit Toth with more fire bullets bringing him down to sixty percent health. This also gaining his focus. I wait until he is almost on me to shadow step to the right and fire another fire bullet. I get off another before he can turn and charge me again. This pattern repeats for another five casts, which has nearly exhausted my mana pool. I drank a mana potion to give me a final shadow step after my next fire bullet. I see Frank is back on his feet, healed up by Justin and wielding a new spear. He signals me and I cast a shield and prepare to try to parry with my sword. I should be able to survive one blow, I hope. Toth is down to thirty percent health. Toth charges me, but this time I will not shadow step. I accept Toth¡¯s blow on my sword and fail to parry. The blow knocks me flat and Toth pulls back to hit me two handed with his axe. This puts him in the perfect position for Tom to stun him with another sonic attack that is boosted by his skill Song Strike. Frank is already in the air, fifty feet up. Wow what a jump. He activates three skills in sequence, Falling Arrow, Nightmare Drop, and Thunderous Fall. This entire body is enveloped in gold and blue bands of light, which curl up around his spear before he plunges into Lord Toth. There is a flash as Frank strikes and I see Frank slide twenty feet over the floor. Frank¡¯s spear however is lodged in Toth¡¯s upper back with one-foot protruding from his cheat bisecting his heart. Toth staggers and spits up a mouth full of blood before collapsing. We all receive a notification we hoped for.
Congratulations You have completed the quest Stop Lord Toroth. You have one week to select to increase your three most advanced skills by one tier level or increase your most advanced skill by two levels. Loot Lord Toth¡¯s body to received your rare item.
As much as we would like to relax, we quickly loot lord Toth¡¯s body and prepare to run as the spell formation starts to fade and collapse. The 200 guards begin to stir around the dais. The guards stagger to their feet and we cautiously move back to the door. I am planning on stone shaping the floor around the door to create a lip that will prevent it from opening after we close it. I should have enough mana for that. The guards are muttering and talking to one another in low voices when two of them leave the scattered groups and walk over to us without drawing weapons. Both bow to us and say. ¡°Thank you all. Lord Toth enslaved our people to be his guards and servants. In our world he in a criminal and we find his punishment just. The System has notified us that we will be transported back to our world. We can offer you a choice to come with us if you wish. You will find our people grateful and our world full of adventure and opportunities for great growth.¡± We talk among ourselves in party chat, but no one wants to abandon family and friends on this world. Also, I want to complete the quest to free Poth for Vera. We politely turn down their offer. They nod acceptance as a glowing blue portal opens and the guards begin to walk through. We watch until the last of them go through and then turn to each other when a new notification appears.
Warning With the completion of this dungeon your party will be ejected in three hours. This is cause damage because of the forceful ejection. Please leave before this time.
¡°Are you all thinking what I am thinking?¡± I ask. ¡°You mean strip the place bare?¡± Tom says. Nora giggles and the others are all smiling. We spend the next three hours going over a set of rooms on the far side of the large spell chamber, which must have been Lord Toth¡¯s suite. We find over 1000 gold, several mana and stamina potions of medium strength, and some nice decorations that were not too bulky that should sell well. We head back up to the safe room, which now has an exit doorway and pack our inventories with everything we can carry. After we have everything, we exit the dungeon and the ripple in the air marking the entrance fades away. All together that was worthwhile. Together we make our way back to the camp, where we sneak back to our bedrolls leaving everyone in the party so we can discuss things in the morning. We have earned some sleep tonight. Before falling asleep I look at the two items I got from Lord Toth¡¯s body. One is a stone that can increase my skills, which is soul bound and will disappear if not used in one week. The rare item is a soul bound sword. The sword is level restricted to level twenty, so I can¡¯t use it yet. I am very excited as I check out its special ability, which allows it to absorb XP and increase my Parry skill. Arc2 Ch11 - Travel to the Capital - Day 4 Nora and I get up when the last watch ends. This is the most likely time of an attack, so we would rather be awake just in case. The sun is just starting to rise and several others are also up, probably for the same reason. I think we are all a little jumpy after all the ambushes. This will be the last day of travel before we arrive at the Capital. I can¡¯t wait to get there. With how sore my legs are from riding I should be showing some damage in my combat log. This has been an interesting trip. Nora and I have increased our skills a lot and the XP from the dungeon got me close to unlocking the Deck of Fate early. Our party is awake and we talk in party chat while eating. Tom: If everyone is ok, I will talk to some of the caravan merchants about buying some of the items we gathered from the dungeon. They will have spare inventory space in their wagons and many of these items will sell well in the Capital. I feel we will get a good price with the merchants we know instead of having to haggle with the ones in the Capital. Everyone agrees, so Tom will work on that today. Tom: Another question for everyone is are we going to stay a party? I am planning on heading south back to the city states. Justin: Me to, I want to visit some family and then hit some dungeons in the south now that I am higher level. Frank: I will be going with Justin. Nora: George and I have commitments here in the Empire. If you won¡¯t mind splitting the cost of a communication crystal it would be nice to stay in touch. We all worked very well together. Everyone agreed to splitting a pair of communication crystals after I displayed my ignorance as to what they were. Nora: Communication crystals are magical items paired with each other that allow long distance communication. You hold one crystal and invest mana in it. The further they are apart the more mana needed. If they are in the southern city states I will probably take 100 mana to activate and then ten mana per minute to maintain. After you hold and invest the mana it will pulse the other crystal. If someone is holding it or has it in their inventory, they will be aware someone is trying to talk to them. The downside is that anyone can use them and you never know who is on the other end. We will come up with some code words to verify we are talking to each other. George: That sounds very useful. With that settled we all do our part to break camp and get ready to hit the road. We decide to stay in our party and join the war party for the caravan. The guards are fine with Nora and I moving back and to the left to be near the wagons Tom, Justin, and Frank are riding in. Justin relays the conversations between the merchants and Tom. He is an expert and manages to trade for gold or in a few cases some small gem stones that we split. By the time we stop for lunch almost everything is sold except for a few items Tom and Justin want as gifts for their relatives. One of the merchants even has a pair of communications crystals they are willing to throw in the deal. Lunch is uneventful and after watering the mounts we are back on the road. To pass the time Tom tells us some stories. One that I find interesting is about a young dwarf. Apparently, the dwarves claim the mountains to the west along the border of the Domain of Water and Air with the ocean. Dwarves live for several hundred years, so they are considered young for a much longer time than humans. The tale starts 120 years ago. ??? Hyo woke to the sound of hammering, which was nothing new. His father was a master smith like his father before him. The sound annoyed Hyo because he wanted nothing to do with smithing much to his father¡¯s chagrin. Hyo got up and after washing up went down to fix breakfast for his father and himself. His mother had died giving birth to Hyo from some rare complications. His father had some paintings of his mother, so he knew what she looked like. He often wondered if things would have turned out differently had his mother been around. Breakfast was a simple affair of eggs, biscuits, and thick slices of salted pork. He took a plate to his father and gathered up the dinner plate while dropping off breakfast. His father didn¡¯t even look up as he dropped the food off. After eating his own breakfast in the kitchen, he cleaned everything and got ready for his day. He was only fifty-four years old, so he still attended school. Schooling was very different from what we heard the humans did. For a dwarf, hands on training was the only way to do it, not sitting in some classroom reading books. So, after dressing in loose fitting armor with a helmet and putting several picks and bags in his inventory he made his way to the mine tunnel entrance. There were five other students. Today was supposed to be more interesting. They were going to go into one of the deeper shafts and would get to see some low-grade silver ore, which was the most valuable metal they have handled so far. Their teacher arrived carrying a huge double headed pick axe. After making sure we were all equipped and had light crystals attached to our helmets they headed into the tunnel. Our teacher, weapon master Ko, never tired of explaining how dwarves were superior to the other races. Just take the light crystals we used for example. Dwarves can see in the dark using the heat present in every object. The light crystals sent out beams of low-level heat that reflected off the tunnel walls. This allowed us to see even further in the dark without giving off any light a surface dweller could use. I find these devices much more interesting than smithing weapons and armor. Unfortunately, very few dwarves work as engineers making devices. Ko leads through the tunnels to the lower levels. Every time we run into an ore deposit or a change in the rock formations that make up the tunnel¡¯s walls, he would quiz us. Sometimes he would make us close our eyes and just use our other senses to feel, smell, and even taste the rock. Whenever we approached a support beam, he would inspect it carefully. Then he would have us do it and discuss different ways it could fail. Finally, on the lowest level we found what we came for, some old low yielding silver ore that was not worth the time of the clans seasoned miners. It was great for training us in mining though. We just unlimbered our picks to take turns at the ore when the stone rippled, knocking all of us off our feet except for Ko. The stone above our heads cracked and we lay there helpless as the stone continued to ripple and shutter. Ko staggered to the nearest two students and grabbed one in each hand and threw them across the room back into the main tunnel. He grabbed two more and was throwing them when the roof gave way. I could not stand, so I had started rolling toward the tunnel and made it about half the distance when a cloud of dust covered everything and the rock stopped moving. I could hear coughing and groaning down the tunnel. I felt around in the dust filled gloom. There was a small boulder not one foot from my head. I called out for Ko and heard no response, so I carefully crawled until I came to a pile of stone where I found Ko. He was partially crushed under a large flat stone that separated from the tunnel ceiling. It must have broken his ribs and was preventing him from even drawing a breath. I was thinking desperately how to save him. Unlike humans, dwarves don¡¯t respawn at a safe place they are bound too. When we die, we respawn back in the last place we died, so if we die somewhere that can kill us again, we will keep dying in an endless cycle until final death. I could see his arms straining to try to push the stone. If his strength could not move it what chance did, I have, but I couldn¡¯t just sit there and watch him die. I pulled two picks from me inventory and wedged the heads under the stone and pushed on the handles to lever the stone up. I called for the others to help, but just heard confused voices and groans in response.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I focused on pushing on the handles with everything I had, leaning my whole weight on the handles. These picks were crafted by my father and had extremely high durability. I even started jumping up and leaning into the handles bruising my ribs. At the time I didn¡¯t consciously think about it, but I just wanted to add more weight. If I just had more weight, I could lever the stone up and then it happened. I jumped up to push down on the handles when I felt a draining sensation becoming slightly light headed. More importantly the handles bowed and the stone lifted several inches. I could hear Ko suck in a breath as I reached down and grabbed his arm. He did most of the work then pulling himself out. Then as quick as it came the draining sensation stopped and I was thrown off the handles a good fifteen feet. I heard the double crack of the picks snapping as I lay on the ground stunned to look up and see Ko ripping off his crushed armor and downing a high-level healing potion. He walked over and lifted me to my feet. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you did that boy, but I owe you a full life debt.¡± Ko says. I am stunned. That is a very serious burden for a young dwarf like myself to carry. Unlike other races dwarfs feel a life debt is carried by the receiver rather than the giver, because the receiver is the one who took responsibility for the life that is given. ¡°Come let¡¯s gather the others and see if the passage is open back to the clan.¡± We slowly made our way back and had to dig out in two places. It took us five hours to travel what should only take two, but we made it. The clan had sustained damage, but despite some deaths everyone was able to respawn without dying again. Everyone naturally helped with the rebuilding, contributing time, and money to repair the buildings, smiths, and mines. It was about two weeks later when the major repairs were complete when the clan heads Ja and Ko both showed up. I was sure they were here for my father, but they said they were here for me. We sit at the kitchen table and Ko said they wanted to discuss Ko¡¯s life debt. Ko suspects I used an ability in the tunnels and wants to train me himself, but before that is discussed they need to see what ability Hyo has. Dwarves cannot access their character information until they have a class, which puts them at a disadvantage at lower levels compared to most of the other races. Dwarves have worked around this with a skill their clan leader has. The skill allows them to view a dwarf¡¯s stats and abilities. I am interest myself, so I hold out my hand and Ja pulls a stone dagger which he uses to cut open my hand. He then cuts his own hand and clasps mine. I feel a strange sensation, almost like the pins and needles you get when you sleep on your arm wrong and cut off circulation. Ja has his eyes closed as he focuses on his skill and then starts chuckling. He releases my hand and there is no trace of any blood and only a small scar as a reminder. ¡°You have an interesting ability young one. You can make things heavier including your own body, which is what I am sure you did in the tunnel based on Ko¡¯s description. It uses mana, which is a rare type of skill for a dwarf. Most of our skills are based on stamina.¡± ¡°What use is that ability other than of course what I did to save Ko?¡± I stamper. Ja looks as Ko, who replies. ¡°Offhand I can think of a few things. If you made your pick heavier right before you strike it will hit harder. The same with a weapon I imagine. If you can make an opponent¡¯s weapon heavier so they can¡¯t hold it or their shield that would be useful. Making loose dirt heavier to pack it down would also be useful. If you ever become an adventurer being able to make the floor in front of you heavy can set off traps before you trigger them yourself.¡± I sit there stunned, thinking of the possibilities and start to smile. This is the perfect ability to train, which will open so many more paths than smithing. ??? ¡°Good story, what ever happened to Hyo after that?¡± George asks. ¡°Well that is a tale for another time, maybe when you buy me a beer or two.¡± Tom says. George laughs and says. ¡°It sounds worth it.¡± We split back up and swap with some of the other guards to give them a break. I decide to level my air shaping some more. I still want to be able to run through air. I hand off my mount to another guard and start jogging along with the wagons. I focus creating a step in the air and jump on it. I create another barely in time to take another step. Over the next two hours I end up supplying quite a bit of entertainment to everyone in the wagons. I would make it up in the air thirty, forty, and sometimes fifty feet before I either missed a step or couldn¡¯t form one in time. It hurts falling fifty feet on hard packed dirt. I learned to cast shield to help break my fall. After two hours in the middle of the air I get an awesome notification.
Congratulations You have learned the advanced skill Air Jump. Awarded 100 XP. You have created a new level 2 spell Air Step. Awarded 100 XP.
Unfortunately, this happens while in midair, which distracts me, so I have plenty of time to stare at it as I fall to the ground. I here a few cheers from the wagons and I swear Tom is taking bets. I stagger to my feet and grab my left arm with my right and jerk it back in its socket before casting minor heal. I learned the hard way you don¡¯t want the spell to pop your arm back in its socket. It really hurts and causes you to fail while casting. Then you suffer from backlash as well as a dislocated shoulder. I was about to look at my new skill and spell when trumpets sounded and golden letters wrote themselves across the sky.
System Event Update The Deck of Fate is now soul bound to its owner.
Crap, I forgot how close I was to completing the binding of the Deck of Fate. I look around and everyone is excitedly chatting, but no one is paying attention to me even Nora. I don¡¯t look at my notification in more detail now, not wanting anyone to make any connection to my getting them at the same time as the System Event. As I get back up on my mount, I take some good-natured ribbing and Tom seems very happy. Maybe I should ask for a split of the proceeds. I take my place back with the guards and the rest of the ride is uneventful. We make camp about an hour before sunset. We will be setting extra guards tonight. With this being the last camp before reaching the Capital we want to take no chances that we will be attacked unaware. Nora and I have first watch and setup in a tall oak to the south of the camp that gives us a great view. We switch the direction we are watching every thirty minutes to stay awake and focused. It is a relief when the next shift of guards arrives and we hand of guard duty to them. Both Nora and I are tired and immediately hit our bedrolls despite being excited about almost reaching the Capital. Before falling to sleep I look at my new skill and spell.
Air Jump (Basic 1) This skill allows the user to jump between two surfaces composed of mana infused air. The jump distance is strength times skill tier. This is considered an advanced skill because stamina can be used to increase the jump distance by one foot per five points of stamina used times the skill tier.
Air Step Level 2 (Basic 1) This spell allows the user to create a small pad of air to support their weight. Up to one pad per limb can be summoned at the same time. Distance: 10 feet plus skill level in feet Casting Time: Instantaneous Mana Cost: 5 mana plus 1 mana per minute to maintain Duration: 1 minute
I haven¡¯t been focusing on building up my strength, but even with a strength of twenty-four I can jump twenty-four feet with no stamina cost. I will just have to level up Air Step to match that distance and I should be able to really move. Doing some math in my head. I can jog at about eight miles an hour now for a long time without depleting my stamina, which is about 400 steps per minute. That¡¯s with a stride of about two feet, so if I can increase my stride to twenty-four feet, I will be moving twelve times as fast. I am sure it won¡¯t work out that easy, but I can¡¯t wait to try. For right now I want to keep a low profile until we leave the caravan, so I will have to wait to experiment. I turn on my side and feel a lot better about Nora and my chances. This should really help improve our survivability. Arc2 Ch12 - Capital This morning is the last time we will be breaking camp, since we should arrive in the Capital by mid-afternoon. The day is cloudy and promises rain at some point. After breakfast we saddle up and assume our guard posts around the caravan. It is doubtful that someone would ambush us this close to the Capital, but we don¡¯t want to drop our guard when we are this close. When we crest a hill, the Capital comes into view in the distance. We are still ten miles away with the land between us and the capital carpeted with farms edged with trees serving as wind breaks. When we head over the hill the Capital is hidden by the trees. The guards begin to chatter in excitement with the trip ending soon. Everyone has already decided to eat lunch while in the saddle today. The animals will be fed and water when we get to the city. The dungeon group split our party this morning so Nora and I can discuss things privately. In party chat I asked Nora about the Capital. George: I know you said there is someone you thought could get us to the Temple of the Seven Moons, where are we going first? Nora: We should go to the Rider Guild get our pay and get a room at their Tavern. Then you will wait there while I go see about passage to the Temple. George: Isn¡¯t it dangerous for you to go by yourself? Nora: I would prefer that you go with me, but the person I am meeting would be able to tell you are around and would not meet with me. George: I am worried that someone will be watching for you. Nora: The Silver Thorns swore an oath to protect my identity and the spells protecting me will still last a few more weeks. George: Ok, but I don¡¯t like it. Nora nods and we both travel in silence for the rest of the trip. When we come out of the last line of trees about one mile from the city walls it really hits me how big this city is. The walls are eighty feet tall with circular towers topping out twenty feet above that. There are large crystals floating above each tower that Nora tells me project a shield over the whole city, which also blocks any teleports. Nora is not sure if it will block my shadow step too. I can see patrols on the wall with several sentries on top of towers, no doubt using skills and spells to watch all approaches to the city. Hank leads us to pens setup outside the gates, where we unsaddle and say good bye to these mean-spirited mounts. After we hand off the mounts, we walk to the city gates and Hank pays the entrance tax for everyone. Then we all head over to the Rider¡¯s Guild Tavern to get rooms and collect our pay. After we get our rooms, Nora and I talk to our dungeon party. This is where we will part company. They are all planning on heading to the city state to the south. I will miss them and if we didn¡¯t have the quest for Poth, I would enjoy accompanying them. After hugs they collect their pay and head to the river to get passage on a boat heading south. Nora and I go up to our room. Both of us have keep our hood up just as a precaution, which no one thinks odd with the mist and occasional rain we are getting. Nora says she should be back in a few hours and to wait here, either relaxing or training. We leave our party because Nora says her contact will be able to check that. After she leaves the room, I open the window shutters. Then I shadow step down to the end of the alley to the front of the building and activate my cloak of concealment. I wait and see Nora leave heading down the street. I have thought about this and while I won¡¯t try to follow her into a building, I am not leaving Nora to deal with the dangers of the city alone. I guess I am just a little stubborn. After she gets ahead of me, I follow un-stealth, since remaining stealth would attract unwanted attention. My perception lets me spot her in the crowd easily. She walks through the busy streets for almost an hour before walking into a store. I duck into an alley across the street where I can keep an eye on the storefront. Nora is in there five minutes before I feel a sharp sting on my neck. I stagger and start to turn when my knees buckle and someone catches me as everything goes black. As I start to wake up, I hear voices, one of which is Nora¡¯s. ¡°He will be fine, it¡¯s his own fault for sneaking around.¡± A male voice says. ¡°You are not making the best impression to a potential new student.¡± Nora says. ¡°Him, you would have to pay a lot to have me take him as a student.¡± ¡°Really? Then I guess you don¡¯t have your edge anymore if you think he is not an interesting student.¡± ¡°Hmmm, well he is awake now so we can just see if he is interesting.¡± I sit up and hold my head as the room spins. Nora is standing by a tall figure. He is six feet tall with deep blue skin. Otherwise he looks human except for his most striking feature which is a bald head and a face covered with long slim tentacle that resemble a beard, except this beard moves. He casually leans against a wall wearing loose pants and a short sleeve shirt. He is staring at me very intently. I get the same sensation I have felt before when someone is using one of the inspection skills, but this time I get a prompt.
Deck of Fate power discovered. Advanced Veil discovered. Advanced Veil while owner of the Deck of Fate. Blocks all information about the owner. Can only be pierced by Divine Sight or if Piercing Sight is used with an intelligence ten times greater than the owner. Warning Piercing Sight detected and blocked.
¡°Greetings I am Krell and I will be your teacher.¡± Nora is grinning, so I am guessing this is a good thing. ¡°Yes, I will teach you many things.¡± I turn and Krell is standing behind me. I turn back and forth and there are two of them. ¡°Is one of you an illusion?¡± I ask. Nora answers. ¡°Krell is a Flinat, which is a very rare race. His species splits while in the egg. In Krell¡¯s case he split into five before he hatched, which is on the high side. So, there are five of him around. He likes to train unique abilities. He is exceptionally good at figuring out how to use abilities in new and exciting ways and will not charge for the training if the ability is unique enough. He has trained several members of the Empresses family in the past being a long-lived race, which is how I met him. There are rumors that he has some unique skill that is leveled by training unique abilities, which is why he does it for free.¡± Krell doesn¡¯t seem offended by what Nora says, but doesn¡¯t comment. ¡°So, what does it mean to get training?¡± I ask. ¡°That will depend on your abilities. Since you have the ability to block my viewing them unaided you will have to show them to me.¡± Krell says while his facial tentacles are quite agitated. ¡°We still have some negotiating to do before that happens.¡± Nora says. Krell throws up his hands. ¡°What else is there to discuss. I will train him.¡± ¡°You will also train me as well.¡± ¡°You have no unique skills and I am guessing no money to pay me.¡± ¡°He is more than unique enough to be worth training both of us.¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°So, you say. If that is true let me examine his character stats and I will be fine with training you if what you say is true.¡± ¡°Come George, he is not really interested.¡± Nora gestures toward the doorway and I start to follow her when Krell shouts. ¡°Wait!¡± ¡°You and your family are a real pain. How you ever came to power I will never know. Fine, I will train you both.¡± ¡°Your word on it.¡± ¡°You have my word insufferable woman.¡± ¡°Very well, George you can share your stats with him.¡± I look at Krell and share my character stats. I can see Krell¡¯s eye darting back and forth and glancing over my shoulder I see he body behind me is doing the same. Looking back and forth they seem to be reading different things at the same time. Krell would be a fearsome opponent. After about ten minutes while I watch Krell¡¯s tentacles twitch and wiggle, which would be distracting if I were to fight him, he sighs. ¡°You were right Nora.¡± Krell says with a very predatory look in his eyes as he stares at me. I don¡¯t look, but I am sure the one behind me is also staring at me. Very creepy. ¡°How much time do I have to train him?¡± ¡°Three days.¡± Nora says. ¡°What??? That is nothing. I will need weeks, even months to properly train him.¡± ¡°We have a quest chain to fulfill, which is part of what made him so unique.¡± ¡°So, he will get even more unique than he is?¡± ¡°That is quite possible.¡± I didn¡¯t think Krell¡¯s stare could get any creepier, but I was wrong. I almost took a step back, but I knew he was behind me too. ¡°Very well, if we only have a few days then we will focus on things that will let you kill and defend yourself against much higher-level opponents.¡± Krell says. ¡°That sounds great to me.¡± George says. ¡°Come with me and we will start your training. Nora will remain here and start her training.¡± ¡°Before you go be aware both of us just completed a one-shot dungeon while channeling XP into the Deck of Fate to complete it, which we did right before getting to the Capital. When we next level expect a much higher than usual attribute point award.¡± Nora says. Krell appears thoughtful. ¡°Thank you, I will take that into account during the training. Follow me.¡± I follow the Krell that has been talking and I see Nora head toward the one behind me. I end up going down the hall to a door and then down some stairs to another room. The room is a cube fifty feet on a side. Assuming we are still under his store Krell has a huge training area here. While the walls and ceiling are made from stone the floor is made from something a lot like rubber. Krell walks out into the center of the room and sits cross-legged in front of me and gestures for me to do the same. ¡°Our time is short, so this training will be intense. I am going to help you expand your Shaper Abilities to improve your chances of surviving against higher level opponents. In some cases, this will mean you can kill them. In others it will mean you can get away from them. Do you have a problem with either?¡± ¡°No, I hope I just recognize the situations where it is smarter to run.¡± Krell nods. ¡°Your ability is now focused on the six domains, but as you found with Dark Fire these domains can be combined. However, that will take too much time to do right now, but it is an area where you need to focus in the future. For now, we are going to build out your skills with general shaping and learn some more spells.¡± ¡°Learn?¡± ¡°Yes, we will use your shaper ability to learn new spells.¡± ¡°I am all for that, but it took me a long time to learn Air Jump and the Air Step spells.¡± ¡°Describe when you took the first step in the air and how many hours you did it before you received the skill and spell.¡± After describing the training, I did the last day before arriving in the Capital Krell was smiling. ¡°So, it only took a few hours.¡± ¡°But I have cast lots of air shaping.¡± ¡°True, but you were not using them to perform a specific task. General shaping is fine, it will improve your overall skill, but focusing on repeating an action with focus on a desired result is key.¡± ¡°Now let¡¯s get your Air Step and Air Jump up to Beginner. I will create a small glowing area in the air and you will create an Air Step there and then do an Air Jump until you run out of mana. I will continue to creating new glowing areas and you will keep jumping between them. It should be easy.¡± I think to myself, sure it will be easy, that¡¯s why you just told me we would be doing intense training. I stand, while Krell remains sitting. The first spot is five feet in the air two feet in front of me. After that first jump Krell led me around the room gradually gaining height until I was thirty feet up then he created one against the wall, which almost caused me to fall. Krell says. ¡°Look at the orientation of the spot.¡± I looked at my feet and see the illuminated spot is parallel to the wall. ¡°Now let¡¯s try again, but this time watch the orientation of the spot and create your air step to match.¡± Krell says, still maintaining his seat on the floor and from here I could see his eyes were closed. ¡°But I will fall if I do that.¡± ¡°Will you? So, you are the teacher now?¡± ¡°No, teacher, I will try.¡± ¡°No!! You will give it your all. I doubt you managed to get where you are by just trying, now do it!¡± Another spot appears ahead of me oriented toward the floor. I circle the room again before he switched the orientation again and I almost fall, not because I slipped, but because of what happened. While I am standing sideways sticking out from the wall it feels like gravity has switched to point to the wall instead of the ground. In fact, as I look up at Krell above me on the floor, which is now a wall I feel dizzy with vertigo. Krell says. ¡°Why have you stopped?¡± I look and see another spot now leading along the wall. I jump to it and now Krell has me jumping along the walls and then ceiling and floor interchangeably. I can¡¯t help myself. I laugh out loud, this is so amazing, but then that of course is when I ran out of mana and smashed into first a wall and then the floor. Krell is standing over me. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I ran out of mana.¡± Krell poked me with a staff he suddenly had in his hand. ¡°What does that have to do with anything? You should have been able to halt your jump and jump back to your previous position to get to the ground. Your air steps last for one minute and air jump does not need mana, so you should be able to get to the floor easily. Also, even without that you could of air stepped using stamina to make the floor in one jump. Now sit and recover your mana. After it is full, we will continue.¡± I sit and after my mana is recharged, we continue. Krell has me jumping from one wall to another and forming air steps when I get close to the wall. Also, with my agility I can do simple gymnastics with no problem. I can jump and flip in midair landing on a step. This is simply amazing. I can now appreciate more what Frank could so with the more general Jump skill. After a few hours going faster and faster with longer and more complex jumps we take a break. Krell begins to summon Air Elementals. They are blobs of mostly transparent air. I realize my high perception is paying off, because I can spot them easily even though they should blend in with the surrounding air. ¡°We will now continue your training, but the four Air Elementals will try to stop you. You are not allowed to fight them. You can create additional steps as long as you end up in the spot I mark before the mark fades. Ready?¡± ¡°Ready.¡± The first spot appears and I am off. The Air Elementals don¡¯t seem to do anything, but I feel something from the closest one and my step disappears. I manage to summon it back before I get to the spot and now the elementals continue to dispel my steps, so I start creating them just before I get to where I need them and jump to the next spot before they dispel it. After a few minutes of failing to stop me they change their tactics. Two continue to dispel the steps, but the other two begin to move and create focused blasts of air. This is harder to counter, because when in the middle of a jump I can¡¯t change direction. I try several different moves, but all of them involve taking more shorter jumps in zig zag patterns to avoid their attacks. All this dodging depletes my mana quickly. Krell seems to know when I am tapped out, but he still expects me to land gracefully. We keep doing this and he adds more elementals. After we hit twelve, I must burn through mana like crazy and still take a lot of air blasts. There are just too many directions to focus on. Then suddenly I begin to feel the air blasts as they approached. It is still a lot to focus on, but now I no longer need my eyes to do it. This feeling continues to get stronger until I could feel the air elemental forming an air blast and I realized something that almost made me fall. The air blasts and even the elementals were mana infused air. I tested this on the next air blast, which I jump on. It was squishy, but it held my weight. When I jumped from it the air blast was defected. I wondered, I could not attack an elemental, but I think this may not count. I had to time it right, but on my fourth attempted I deflected an air blast into an elemental which damaged it. Krell didn¡¯t say a word, so I continued, even getting more ambition and jumping off an elemental. That was different. It was more like a balloon and bounced me off nearly out of control. It took a long time to finally kill one of the elementals. They healed nearly as fast as I could defect an air blast into one. Also, it was hard to keep avoiding them while defecting blasts into just one. When I finally managed to kill one Krell called a halt to the training for the night. Looking at my clock I see it is almost midnight. ¡°Come we will eat and get you to bed.¡± When Krell mentioned food, I realize I am starving. We get some food from a pantry with cold food already prepared. Then he takes me to a small room with a shower and after a long hot shower I am ready for bed. We will start training again in the morning. Looking at my notifications I have reached Advanced in both Air Step and Air Jump. Also, I discovered a new skill Air Sense that allowed me to sense mana infused air, which must be what allowed me to sense the air blasts. I am too tired to go over my character sheet right now, maybe in the morning. I quickly fall into an exhausted sleep. Arc2 Ch13 - Unique Training I wake up realizing something disturbed my sleep. When I open my eyes I nearly scream. Krell is sitting perched on the end of my bed. ¡°You sleep to deeply, especially in an unknown place. You didn¡¯t even setup any wards to warn you.¡± I blush and retort. ¡°Is this place so unsafe that I need to.¡± ¡°While we are training you should take nothing for granted. If I thought you would learn a valuable lesson from it, I would not hesitate to kill you.¡± I felt a chill run down my spine with how matter of fact Krell sounded. ¡°Get up and let¡¯s get something to eat before we continue training.¡± I follow Krell to a different room. This one is twenty feet wide and tall, but 100 feet long. There is a side table with sandwiches and we both eat standing. There is a pot of hot tea and we both drink several glasses. I am feeling more awake now. ¡°Today we are going to continue to build up your Air Domain spells. You are currently using Shield to protect yourself, but this is a very inefficient spell. It uses raw mana to create a shield, which is a lot less efficient that using elemental energy. I want you to walk half way down the room and turn to face me. I am going to fire spells at you and I want to you summon a wall of air I can hit. You will experiment with different types of walls to get the best at absorbing damage. Now go.¡± I walk half way down the room and summon an air wall big enough to cover my body. I frown as I finish creating it. Now that I have Air Sense, I can feel the wall is thin and hard. Krell hits is with a blast of focused mana, which shatters it and hits me taking 30% of my health. I mentally curse. That hurt. I cast minor heal until I am back up to 100% and summon a different wall this time. It is more like the air blasts the elementals fired at me. Thicker and squishier. When Krell hits it this time it holds, though not by much. I create a new wall and this time I try to make it less squishy more like a series of layers. This holds much better when Krell hits it. We spend most of the morning doing this between recharging my mana. Krell also started using different spells, so that I could feel how the shield handled different attacks. He wanted me to create a generic defense that would protect against several attacks. As I got better, he had me form it around my whole body just like the current shield spell I use. Then he started using area affect spells. By lunch time I got the notification he was no doubt expecting.
Air Shield, Level 3, Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level) This spell creates a shield of mana infused air to protect the caster. The shield will absorb thirty points of damage plus ten points per skill Tier level. Range: Self Duration: 1 hour plus 1 hour per skill Tier past Basic Cost: 25 mana
This is more mana efficient that the Shield spell and absorbs more damage. ¡°Very good, we will use this in your training after lunch.¡± Krell pulls more sandwiches and another pot of tea from his inventory. After eating in silence, he takes me back to the training room we used yesterday. ¡°We are going to work on your Dodge skill today and the new shield spell you learned.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t leveling Dodge very time intensive?¡± ¡°Not the way I teach it.¡± Krell¡¯s tentacles are wiggling excitedly, which I don¡¯t think is a good sign for me. ¡°Now I am going to create six energy spheres. Each will project blasts of a different elemental energy at you. You will try to Dodge them. You can move anything except your feet. We will use air step to climb the wall and maintain yourself on the same wall until I tell you to switch. Summon an air shield and get up on a wall, your choice.¡± I climbed a wall and Krell created six spheres about the size of basketballs. I stood ready when the white sphere fired a blast of light. Needless to say, I failed to Dodge and took it on my shield, which failed. I took 15% damage to my left leg. I healed myself and got ready to dodge again and this time I succeeded. We continued training and I noticed something strange is going on. My Dodge skill is very low, so I shouldn¡¯t be able to dodge that much successfully. It took me awhile to figure it out. Krell is aiming at a very specific area of my body, which focuses all the damage and improves my dodge chances. When he hit though, I suffered several debuffs like crippled limb until I healed myself. My skill with air shield rapidly increased even with the improvement in my dodge, because of how many times I was hit. We finally took a break for dinner, which was more sandwiches and tea. After eating, Krell said we would practice the Lightning spell, which I have had since the starter area, but not used much. His version of training it of course would not be as easy as just repeat casting. Krell gestures and a portal opened. A midnight black shaggy dog like creature stepped out into the room. When inspecting the creature, it was a Wind Runner, but I got no other information, which usually indicates it was much higher level than me. ¡°You will try to avoid the Wind Runner¡¯s attacks and use only lightning to fight it.¡± Krell went over and scratched it behind the ears, which it obviously enjoyed, but it kept looking at me the whole time. It even started to purr. Krell walk to the center of the room and sat down. ¡°Begin.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. I barely got into the air with the Wind Runner chasing me. It was very fast and could walk and jump in the air with ease. I could sense the flow of air around it and it was a lot smoother than my own air steps. It started to dispel my steps much like the elementals did, but it was even quicker. I didn¡¯t even have time to cast a Lightning spell at it. I had a hard time just staying ahead of it. I finally got a chance to get off a spell and that¡¯s when things really went bad quickly. When I hit it with lightning it formed a connection and started to draw more and more mana. The Lightning kept shooting out of my hand hitting the creature and as more mana was drawn the bolt thickened and got brighter. There was a snap and over half of my mana pool was now gone. The creature then opened its¡¯s mouth, which began to glow and small lightning bolt began to arc between its teeth. I must admit I panicked a little then starting to zig zag like crazy, which is probably what saved my life. The Wind Runner spat a bolt of lightning that crossed through the air craving a line in the wall stones several inches deep spraying rock shards everywhere. I almost made it, but it clipped me shattering my shield and smashing me into the wall followed by a short fall to the ground as my limbs danced to the electricity cracking through them. Krell is chuckling petting the Wind Running. ¡°You did much better than I expected.¡± ¡°Better than you expected. I just lost 60% of my health.¡± ¡°Like I said you are doing great. What is your Lightning skill at now?¡± ¡°Holy¡­ it went up a whole skill tier.¡± ¡°Yes, Razor here really pulled on the mana to feed the spell allowing you to deepen your spell channel much faster.¡± ¡°You call him Razor? What is a spell channel?¡± ¡°Yes Razor.¡± Krell says while scratching behind Razors ear again. ¡°No one told you about spell channels, by the Gods I am amazed you are still alive. Ok have a seat and I will go over that before we continue your training.¡± After we both take a seat Razor lays down by Krell. ¡°When you learn a spell, it imprints in your mana opening a channel for that type of spell. Then when you cast it the mana flows through that channel until enough mana fills it and then the spell manifests. As you cast the spell it increases how clearly you visualize your spell channel. This process is called deepening your spell channel and is tracked by the System as spell skill level progression.¡± ¡°So, when the connection formed with Razor, he pulled mana out in a continuous stream keeping the spell active allowing me to gain a much clearer focus on the spell, which is why I got such a quicker spell progression.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got it, so let¡¯s get back to training.¡± ¡°But, then why did he try to kill me, he could have just shot the lightening into the wall, couldn¡¯t he.¡± ¡°He could of, but he doesn¡¯t like you. I wouldn¡¯t take it personally though, he doesn¡¯t like many people.¡± I think to myself that Krell is more than a little crazy, but he does get results. I stand back up and Razor jumps back to his feet. I don¡¯t even wait for Krell to say go and I am off. This time I try to focus on maintaining my lead on Razor. I try to strengthen my air steps to prevent Razor from disrupting them, but he is to strong. Next, I try throwing up air walls in front of him, but he just disrupts those just as easily. I finally grit my teeth and hit Razor with a Lightning bolt. This time my hand aches with the amount of mana being drawn through it. The only good thing about it is I do manage to avoid being hit this time and Krell signals to rest to regenerate my mana. Almost 70% of my pool is gone this time. I ask Krell about the big increase. ¡°Your tier went up to the next level with the spell, which allows more mana to naturally flow, increasing the total amount Razor could draw from you.¡± Krell has us get back to our game of dodge and fry George. After two hours of it I suddenly get a new notification that I check out while I am regenerating my mana.
Congratulations Your Lightning spell has been upgraded to Enhanced Lightning. Enhanced Lightning works the same as the Lightning spell, except that it can be cast continuously on a single target. The casting cost changes from a one-time cost to a cost per second.
Interesting this will do a tremendous amount of damage quickly to one target. Krell seems to be aware of my upgrade and creates a portal that Razor walks through. ¡°You now have a good set of basic skills and spells in the Air Domain, but now you need to stretch to get the most out of your general skill in Air Shaping. To do that you are going to get up to the center of the room. I will then create stones that will be hitting you and you will hit them with lightning to destroy them. You cannot dodge, but you can use Air Shield. I will be creating some barriers that will cut off your line of sight, but you should still be able to use Air Sense to detect them.¡± I take a few air steps to get up the center of the room. Krell summons panels of pure darkness in irregular shapes and sets them throughout the room in multiple layers. I close my eyes and can sense infused air pockets moving toward me at a steady pace. I try hitting one through the planes of darkness, but the darkness just absorbs the damage. I try to rack my brain on how I can stop the stones. There are now several dozen and they are not moving too fast, but they will all be coming around the last barrier at the same time and even if I destroy the first couple, I don¡¯t think I can handle them all before they start to pummel me. ¡°Why do all of my students always think in straight lines.¡± Krell says below as he stands near the door. I suddenly get it, I need a curve ball, except with lightning. I sense the closest infused air pocket and try to curve the lightning around the barrier. I don¡¯t succeed before the first stone comes into view and I destroy it. I keep trying until I am hit hard knocking me off my air step platform. I recover before I hit the floor, but Krell indicates I should land and recover my mana. While I am resting Krell moves the barriers around and resets the stones. I situate myself back in the center of the room and continue to try to bend my lightning around corners. It takes several more stone beatings before I finally figure it out. I was over thinking it. The spell works on a single target and I know where the target is. I just have to think about hitting that target and the lighting naturally flows around the barrier to strike the stone. It is so easy. I start destroying stones left and right, so Krell begins to make it more interesting. He begins to move the barriers around me. Also, if a stone comes into line of sight, he shoots it at me with a burst of air, so I can no longer sense a shell of mana infused air around it. I did sense something cutting through the air around me as it got close. The stones also started to move faster and there were more of them. We continued training until midnight again and even though he lets me recharge my mana I am mentally exhausted. He gives me a fruity drink which is really refreshing before I go to bed. It only took a few moments to fall asleep as I wonder how Nora is doing with her training. Arc2 Ch14 - Darkness I wake up sore, but I am happy with my progress. I wish we could stay longer. I can only imagine how powerful I would grow with several months with Krell. After Krell and I eat another cold breakfast with tea he takes me down another corridor to a teleportation circle. I warn him that the servants of the God of Fire are watching for me to use a portal or teleport, but he says I should not worry, we are shielded. They can¡¯t track a teleport if the space it traverses is shielded. The teleport takes us to a large natural cave that extends as far as I can see. ¡°You have ignored Darkness Shaping except for dimensional shaping and even that you have foolishly ignored.¡± Krell stated with his facial tentacles twisting in a way that seemed to imply disproval. ¡°Well dimensional shaping just increases my inventory space while I maintain it. The cost drains me enough that I don¡¯t see using it in combat, since I would have to stop using it to fight. That would cause me to drop random items from my inventory.¡± ¡°With your current intelligence I thought you would be smarter, but maybe its inexperience. When you enter a dungeon do you know that in many cases the first room is a safe room to let the party member gather and regroup?¡± ¡°Yes, I know that.¡± ¡°So, if you use a high level of dimensional shaping you would expand your inventory to take more items into the dungeon and drop them off in the safe room for use in the dungeon. Also, you could gather items in the dungeon and drop them in the safe room until you are ready to leave and then place them in your inventory temporarily until you exit the dungeon.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Ha, a very succinct summary.¡± I am sure he is laughing at me as he continues. ¡°Now ignore that for the moment. We are going to focus on learning what darkness is and having you shape it. Darkness is not just the absence of light. You have created a Dark Flame spell., which is a mixture of Fire and Darkness. I am sure that was an interesting learning experience, but forget all about it. We are going to focus purely on darkness. What do you think darkness is?¡± ¡°I would have said the absence of light, but based on what you have said that¡¯s the wrong answer. I guess it is the darkness element, like the air or fire element.¡± ¡°That is not a bad guess. Darkness is the infusion of darkness aspect mana. The six elements can occur in nature, but for the purposes of magic they have no meaning without mana. Some will argue that spells can be used to create an element without it being infuse with elemental mana and that is true, but those spells all use raw mana to generate an effect, which generates natural energy in the form of an element.¡± ¡°I am not sure I follow that. Can you give me an example?¡± ¡°Sure, there a spell Light Lance that generates a condensed beam of light and heat. The spell itself uses mana, but the resulting lance is purely natural light and heat. It would pierce a shield designed to just stop magic and is very useful for that reason.¡± ¡°Ok, thanks.¡± ¡°Now, I am going to put out my light and we are going to sit here and I am going to start to manipulate dark infused mana. I want you to try to sense what I am doing. Don¡¯t let yourself slip into using Air Sense. It would be easy to do. You must focus on the darkness. Now take a seat. I will also be channeling some of the mana through you, so you can feel it with your whole body. You can resist this only by using darkness if you can figure out how, otherwise you will have to endure the debuffs you will suffer.¡± I take a seat and shortly after that Krell puts out the glowing ball of light floating by his shoulder. I can feel air movements around me, but I resist using Air Sense. I feel something icy hit me in the chest and I see I now have a 20% reduced movement rate from Shearing Darkness hitting me. I am not sure how many times I was hit by Shearing Darkness, but I haven¡¯t been able to sense anything until the next time I am hit. When I am hit, I have been preparing myself by infusing mana into my body. When the spell hits, I try to infuse my mana into the spell. It takes two more hits before I can match my mana to the same favor of the spell for lack of a better term. I try to infuse my body with the same type of mana now, which still inflicts me with the same debuff, but when the spell hits me it bounces off. I hear Krell laugh. ¡°That is one way to learn how to use dark mana.¡± I now try to extend the mana outside my body were it rapidly thins out and disperses. I focus on making it more compact and extend it as tendrils, until the next spell hits. It bounces, but rips through the thin tendrils I have created. Something good comes from it though. When the tendrils are severed, they hold together for a few seconds and I realize I can sense them and feel them disperse into the air. I try to repeat this just waiting for another spell to hit. After another hit, I get the hang of it and make a tendril that I sever on my own. Next, I start forming balls of darkness and throwing them. They dissipate quickly, but some hit barriers and other spell formations of darkness around me. I begin to sense the spell formation around me as I try to make different shapes out of darkness mana and throw them away of myself. I try to maintain a connection with them as they get further away. I finally get to the point I sense one of the Shearing Darkness spells heading toward me and I generate a large ball of darkness, which it collides with, shattering both spells. I feel a wave of dizziness and something wet on my lip. I use my tongue to get the coppery taste of blood. Looks like I gave myself a noise bleed.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Krell tells me to take a break and regenerate my mana. After my mana pool is full again Krell starts firing condensed balls of darkness at me, but I can dodge these and I am getting better at sensing them, especially since it really hurts when they hit me. Krell has me try to create shapes made from darkness to deflect and absorb the balls he is throwing at me. I am only partially successful by the time he calls a halt and summons a dim light, so we can eat lunch. Krell never seems to be uncomfortable with eating in silence. I can¡¯t think of anything to ask him that doesn¡¯t sound contrived. After we eat, he extinguishes the light and continues to throw balls of darkness at me, but they are moving faster now and hit harder. That motivates me to get better at generating a shield. Unlike the Air Shield layers don¡¯t work. The layers just merge together. I try several different things and while I can make a shield thick enough to absorb the balls of darkness it is consuming a lot more mana that the air shield does. After struggling for a while Krell yells. ¡°Why do you think it should remain static? Move.¡± I try to get the darkness that makes up the shield to move. I try making rings on the surface, but they just thin out in the center. I finally hit on bands rotating around my body and that works great. Once the flow is going it is easy to maintain and I can tell it¡¯s much more mana efficient. Krell changes strategies and starts firing blobs of dark mana that stick and smear across my shield slowing its rotation. I must push more mana into the shield to keep it spinning. It takes me several tries, but I figure out that if I surge mana into the shield, I can blow off the outer layer and maintain the shield, while shedding the dark mana blobs. I must repeat doing that until I run out of mana and Krell has me rest. I try to figure out a new approach while resting. The blobs stick to any dark mana they encounter. Any dark mana I hit them with either gets absorbed making it bigger or it blows through it only removing a part of the blob. I have an idea, which may work. This time when the blobs approach, I start shedding a layer of shield, which propels a thin sheet of mana at the blob, which wraps it. As soon as it is covered it contracts and dissipates, which is much better than I expected. I continue to shed layers to wrap the blobs of darkness. Not all of them cleanly enfold the blobs of darkness, but I am getting better at it. On our next break Krell says he is going to switch to using a combination of Light and Dark magic on my shield. Assuming I can handle that he is going to start using fire as well. I find myself thinking Krell and Captain Varus would get along great with each other, which elicits a small laugh. Krell stares at me with his tentacles oddly still. I hope my laughing didn¡¯t piss him off. After I finish regenerating, he starts sending tentacles at me, but this time I try forming thin tendrils of dark mana that whip around my shield. When a blob hits one I sever the tentacle, which sends the tentacle slashing through Krell¡¯s dark magic, breaking it apart. This approach is much better for me. I don¡¯t have to focus as much and can spend more time watching for approaching spells. Shortly after I succeed with my new shield my shield is hit by a compact ball of darkness. When the tendril rips the ball open it explodes with light and erodes my shield and severs over half of my tendrils. I quickly change my shield back to a more compact spinning mass. The next ball that hit explodes when it hits my shield and nearly punches a hole. I can feel three more balls approaching, so I try something I haven¡¯t done since I started forming the shield. I gather a ball of darkness in my hand, which is a slow process while maintaining my shield. Another ball hits before I have my own ball ready, which I throw at Krell¡¯s ball of darkness. When they hit, they both explode, but well short of my shield. Krell begins to send the spells faster and I manage to take out about every other one, which gives me enough breathing room to maintain my shield. We spend the remainder of the evening with Krell sending more and faster ball of darkness incased light. He never does switch to using fire. I am not sure if he just said that to throw me off or not. As we are heading back to my room, I take a moment to look at the notifications I have flashing.
You have learned the skill Dark Sense, 100 XP awarded, Basic 1. You have learned the spell Dark Shield, 100 XP awarded, Basic 1. You have learned the spell Sphere of Darkness, 100 XP awarded, Basic 1. You have reached Novice rank in the Skill Dark Sense. 200 XP awarded. You have reached Novice rank in the Spell Dark Shield. 200 XP awarded. You have reached Novice rank in the Spell Sphere of Darkness. 200 XP awarded. You have reached Beginner rank in the Skill Dark Sense. 400 XP awarded. You have reached Beginner rank in the Spell Dark Shield. 400 XP awarded. You have reached Beginner rank in the Spell Sphere of Darkness. 400 XP awarded.
Very nice. This is some very quick advancement. I wait until we get back to the room, so I can shower and get ready for bed. I ask Krell if I can see Nora and he says maybe tomorrow. She is in the middle of training. Sitting on the edge of my bed I look at the descriptions of the new skill and spells.
Skill: Dark Sense, Beginner Level 5 (23% progress to next level) This skill allows the user to sense Dark Mana within one foot per skill level. This skill also allows the user to sense their surroundings while in darkness within five feet per skill tier.
Dark Shield, Level 3, Beginner Level 3 (57% progress to next level) This spell creates a shield of dark mana to protect the caster. The shield will absorb thirty points of damage plus ten points per skill Tier level. Range: Self Duration: 1 hour plus 1 hour per skill Tier past Basic Cost: 25 mana
Sphere of Darkness, Level 3, Beginner Level 1 (11% progress to next level) This spell creates a sphere of compress dark mana that can be hurled by the caster at any target in line of sight. The sphere will cause thirty points of damage plus ten points per skill Tier level. Range: 10 feet per skill Tier Duration: Instantaneous Cost: 30 mana
These should all serve me well once I leave the Capital. Training with Krell has been worth it. I lay back on my bed and it doesn¡¯t take long before I am soundly asleep. Arc2 Ch15 - Wanted P1 Today we all had breakfast together, before Nora went off to her own training. We didn¡¯t get a chance to talk much. She looks tired, but happy. I imagine we will both get a great attribute boost when we next level up. Krell takes me down a corridor under the store today rather than teleporting us to the cavern. We end up in front of a door with a hand print outlined beside it that matches Krell¡¯s hand. He places his right hand on the outline, which glows blue and after a loud thunk of bolts the door opens inward with hardly a push. The room we enter is twenty feet on a side and ten feet high. There are several statues done up in flesh tones around the room. All are human in various poses. Krell invites me to look at the statues, which puts me on guard right away. My gut reaction is to blast them with a spell. After the way he has been training me that would probably be the safest thing to do. ¡°They are very detailed statues.¡± I say as I walk over to join him in front of a table set on the side of the room. There is a large piece of paper upside down. I can make out that there is writing on the other side. Krell indicates I should flip the paper over and after I do so I stand there in shock. It is a wanted poster with my picture and name. I am wanted for the kidnapping of Princess Sandra. The reward is for 5000 gold, wanted alive for questioning, no reward if dead, unless bound to a respawn object. Krell says. ¡°We will be working on concealing your identity today or you will be lucky to even make it out of the Capital.¡± I frown. ¡°So, illusion or some other skill like Veil to conceal my features and name?¡± ¡°No, we will be using your shaper ability. Since your Veil was upgraded by the Deck of Fate it would be impossible to teach you something that could top that. Instead we need to change how you look and show you how Veil can show a different name or stats.¡± I look over at the statues. ¡°You want me to use them as models?¡± ¡°Something like that.¡± Krell says smiling and leads me over to stand in front of male human statue about my height in his early thirties. ¡°Touch the statue¡¯s face.¡± Well, this set off alarm bells. I tentatively reach out and touch the statue on the cheek and almost jerk back. The statue is firm like stone, but also warm to the touch. Krell is smiling and I say. ¡°These are real people, aren¡¯t they?¡± Krell laughs. ¡°Excellent guess. These are people who down the years have crossed me and now I use them for training, though this will be the easiest training I have done using them. At least from their perspective.¡± ¡°Are they aware of us?¡± ¡°Not at all, the series of spells on them have suspended their life functions and time is not passing for them in this state. In fact, the warmth you felt touching them is generated by the spell, not their body heat. Now let¡¯s get to it. I am going to release the one in front of you and then use a spell to make him unconscious. You will then infuse your mana into his body and use it to sense everything about him. Skin, muscles, tendons, bones, everything. Then we will start with one of your fingers. You are going to try to shape your finger to exactly match his.¡± Somehow, I don¡¯t think it will be as easy as Krell is making it out to be. Krell gestures and a bracelet on his arm glows a warm yellow, which matches the aura that appears around the man. The man¡¯s eyes start to flutter open when Krell touches him temple and he starts to collapse. Krell catches him and lowers him to lay on the stone floor. ¡°Now have a seat and hold his left hand in yours. Start infusing mana as slowly as you can into his hand.¡± I picked up his hand in mine and started to infuse mana into it, but ran into a problem right away. The man¡¯s body is rejecting the mana I was trying to force into his body. I try pushing a little harder, but just met more resistance. I hear Krell sigh. ¡°You are thinking you are going to hurt him by forcing your mana into him, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t want to apply to much force.¡± ¡°By thinking your mana will harm him you are flavoring your mana with your intent and his body is picking up on that. That causes him to resist. Relax and don¡¯t worry about hurting him. Just try surrounding his hand with a cloud of mana and don¡¯t try to force it into him. Just allow it to naturally seep into his hand.¡± This turns out to be easier said than done. It takes almost an hour before I feel some of my mana slip into the man¡¯s hand. I then try to use it to sense the shape and form of his hand. I can feel the separate layers of skin, muscle, tendons, and bones. I begin to feel the flow of blood through his hand and as I concentrate on it, I feel my mana slowing flowing up his arm. I feel the longer bones and tendons in his arm connected to his wrist. I was never interested in anatomy, but it is totally different when you can feel the body and what it is composed of directly. I don¡¯t even feel the passage of time until suddenly my concentration snaps and I feel light headed. I just ran out of mana. I look at the man¡¯s body and feel almost half of the body is heavily infused with my mana. It is slowly being absorbed by his body, but I should regenerate my mana before even a small part is absorbed.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Krell is happy and says I should regain my mana and then continue until the man¡¯s whole body is saturated with mana. After resting up I do exactly that. After completely filling the man¡¯s body with mana it¡¯s like a window opens and I can close my eyes and see his entire body before me. Krell now wants me to focus on one of his fingers and the same finger on my hand. ¡°Compare them and focus on the differences and the parts that are the same.¡± Sometime later he directs me to try to shift my finger to match the man¡¯s. I can easily see the differences now, but I don¡¯t have a clue how to start changing my shape. After struggling I try something different. My mana in the man¡¯s hand knows his form. I try to duplicate the pattern of the man¡¯s mana in my finger. The mana squirms through my grasp resisting the shift to match his form. I apply more pressure and feel a sharp pain. When looking at my hand my finger in shredded and has a bleeding status. I cast minor heal and it feels strange. After it heals, I see my finger is longer and holding it next to the man I see it now matches. ¡°That was an unusual way to shape change. I wouldn¡¯t suggest trying that for your whole body. I don¡¯t think you would survive it. Now what did you do wrong?¡± ¡°I applied to much force.¡± ¡°Not exactly, you should not apply any force. You need to just will the change to occur. I bet you didn¡¯t even envision your finger changing to match his.¡± Krell says gesturing to the man¡¯s hand. I blush and admit. ¡°I didn¡¯t think of that. I just tried to get my finger to match his mana signature.¡± ¡°Yes, I guessed as much. That is very much like grabbing a stone bowl and trying to crush it into the shape of a plate. Now you need to fill your finger with mana and shift the signature to match his finger. Do it again.¡± ¡°But it already matches his finger.¡± ¡°You do have nine more fingers, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± I blush even deeper. I try to calm myself and being infusing mana into another finger. After the density matches the man¡¯s finger, I shift the mana to match his finger or at least I try to. I takes a long time before I succeed and I have another finger that matches the man and a serious headache. This isn¡¯t a mana headache. I think it is the strain of having to apply so much mental focus to tune my mana to match this man¡¯s body. Krell says. ¡°Rest until you regenerate your mana and then replenish the mana in his body and continue doing your remaining fingers, then the toes, hands, and feet. We should then be ready for some lunch.¡± I sigh, this is going to be much more mentally challenging than the previous training. The time goes by slowly and I can feel sweat start to drip down the sides of my head and shirt by the time Krell tells me to break for lunch. I have managed to completely change my hands and feet. I stood to walk over to the table Krell is setting lunch up on when I fall. I curse. When I fell, I tried to catch myself fumbling with unfamiliar hands. Krell chuckles. He knew that was going to happen. I thought it strange he would setup lunch on the table, when the last several days he just handed me some food and tea. After staggering over to the table Krell watches me slowly try to pick up my food. ¡°It is just as important to get familiar with the new limbs you shape or you will draw just as much attention to yourself as if you maintained your original form.¡± He has me walk around while I am eating my sandwich and drinking my tea. By the time lunch is done I am starting to feel familiar with my new limbs. After lunch he has me start on my legs and arms. These are large areas to change and the wrist and ankles both give me a serious challenge with all the bones. After that Krell doesn¡¯t give me a break instead we get right into my chest. The organs are a nightmare. I must do them one at a time and the feeling of them moving around inside my body makes me nauseous. It is starting to get late when he has me work on my head. This makes me nervous. The eyes were disturbing when I get to them. I feel like they may pop out, since the man¡¯s eyes are apparently bigger than mine. I am exhausted as Krell pulls me to my feet and slowly walks me around the room in my new body. After I can stand on my own, he summons a full-length mirror and I must admit I have done a good job. Except for the clothes I look just like the man on the floor. One of the biggest benefits is that I look human now instead of harrow, which was a dead giveaway. I skip my XP notifications for now and look at my skill notifications.
Skill: Flesh Sense, Beginner Level 4 (31% progress to next level) This skill allows the user to sense the body structure of another humanoid creature within one foot per skill level. This skill also enhances the skill Flesh Shaping.
Skill: Flesh Shaping, Beginner Level 2 (7% progress to next level) This skill allows the user to shape their body to match the body of another humanoid creature. Mass of target creature must be within plus or minus 10% of the user¡¯s body per skill tier. Target must have the same number of limbs as the user. Range: Touch or within range of Flesh Sense. Cost: 500 mana Duration: Until Flesh Shaping is used to reverse the changes Time: 10 minutes minus one minute per skill tier past Basic
Arc2 Ch15 - Wanted P2 I think it¡¯s time to see if I can get Krell to help conceal Nora, since her concealment spells will start to fail in a week or two. ¡°Krell you think if I made it to the Advanced Tier in Flesh Shaping, I will be able to change Nora¡¯s appearance?¡± ¡°You should be able to do it now, but you would need hours to practice shaping her and you don¡¯t have enough time left before you leave.¡± ¡°Krell you know that the spells on Nora to shield her from detection will give out soon. I bet you have a different way like my Veil that could conceal her.¡± ¡°Yes, but you cannot afford that help. I have already been generous in training her.¡± ¡°Well that all depends on what you really get out of training me in my unique abilities.¡± ¡°I cannot discuss what I get out of training you. I don¡¯t discuss that with anyone.¡± ¡°I think we need to discuss it. I have a possible way to increase my skill quickly, but if I do that and don¡¯t have a way to conceal Nora¡¯s stats and name it would be wasted.¡± Krell stood there with his tentacle twitching left and right. I have never seen them so agitated. He began to speak very slowly. ¡°We need to go to another room and you will swear a soul oath.¡± ¡°I am familiar with a blood oath, what is a soul oath?¡± ¡°If you try to divulge the information, I am about to impart to you the System will destroy your soul. Do you accept?¡± ¡°Very well, let¡¯s go.¡± Krell leads me through several corridors we haven¡¯t gone down before to a thick metal door. The door opens to Krell¡¯s hand revealing it is over a foot thick. The room, which is ten feet on a side is covered in the same metal, which is inscribed with runes. Krell places his hands on the wall and begins to empower the runes, which takes over ten minutes. As the last one fills with the blue light of mana there is a flash and everything goes black. With me recent experience with the Domain of Darkness it is just the absence of light. Reaching out with Sense Air the air in the room still has the same dimensions, but there is nothing beyond. Krell summons a ball of light and we are standing in the middle of an empty space that goes on beyond the limits of the light. Krell says. ¡°It is safe to speak here. We are in a pocket dimension isolated from the rest of the universe. Now sit and give me your hand.¡± Krell sits in front of me and holds out his hand facing down over mine with a six-inch gap in-between. ¡°Don¡¯t resist.¡± I feel a sudden pulling sensation and mana pours out into the air between our hands. Mana begins to pour from Krell¡¯s hand to mix with my mana. ¡°Now speak this oath. I George Petersen swear on my soul to never divulge what Krell and I discuss in this pocket dimension.¡± I speak the words and the small cloud of mana suddenly thins to a thin line spearing through both our hands. ¡°Now we can speak. I hope for your sake it is worth it, because if it is not you will still be paying me.¡± I felt a cold shiver down my spine with his pronouncement. I hope I haven¡¯t guessed wrong in how valuable advancing my skill will be. Krell shares a skill with me.
Skill: Krell This is a unique skill. Only one member of the Flinat race may have this at a time. This skill was originally discovered by Krell and after his death it took his name. This is a passive skill that allows the user to take one student per tier level. The Student will receive a 25% bonus to learning unique skills and spells based on the unique ability of the student. This skill advances one level per each student with a unique ability taught. Abilities taught must be unique across all students taught. Per unique skill/spell taught this skill awards the user one stat point of their choice times the skill tier the student achieves. This is additive per skill tier. Example: Student is caught Glass Fist skill at the Basic level and user receives 1 stat point. Student advances to Novice and gains 2 stat points. When advancing to Beginner gains 3 stat points, for a total of 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 stat points.
I think my eyes were going to pop out of my head after reading that skill. ¡°Wow, I am a gold mine for you then.¡± Krell smiles grimly. ¡°Only if you live to step out of this room.¡± ¡°I have a soul bound item from a one-shot dungeon that will grant me an increase to my three most advanced skills by one tier level or increase my most advanced skill by two levels. I could use this on three of the skills you taught me to jump to Advanced or on one to jump to Adept, but I need a way to conceal Nora¡¯s identity in exchange for using this on the skills you taught me.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°I see, that is an interesting offer.¡± Krell said while running his left hand through his tentacles, which try to wind around his fingers. ¡°Very well I will give you a device to shield Nora¡¯s identity and you will train to be able to shape her flesh. To do what I have in mind we will have to gather all my bodies and Nora will join us. You are going to increase three of your skills by another level and then use the stone to increase them all. Do you agree?¡± ¡°That sounds great, but how will we get that done by tomorrow?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. Let me take us out of this pocket dimension and then I will need your help recharging the runes for this room.¡± Krell gestures and touches each wall in several places. As he sits in the center of the room there is a wave of vibration that passes through the air and I can feel we are now back. Krell gestures me to sit in front of him. ¡°Place your hands on the floor like me. Then push raw mana into the floor. The runes will do the rest.¡± I push mana and feel the runes greedily suck up the mana. We both keep pushing mana into the floor, but I must rest several times when I run out. On the third time charging the floor Krell¡¯s other four bodies arrive with Nora. It is starting to get crowded in this little room. They all take a seat and start pushing mana into the floor. I see Nora can push much long than I thought she would be able too. The training must be paying off. The runes are not just illuminated with the glow of mana like the last time Krell activated them. As we continue to charge them, they are glowing a bright white and starting to hum. The other four bodies stand and remove short rods, which insert into each of the walls. After the rods are inserted the runes rapidly start to fade. My ears pop like there was an altitude change and suddenly there is an archway opposite the original door we entered. Krell walks through and gestures us to follow. The archway leads into a huge dome shaped room that must be 200 feet across and 100 feet high. The walls and floor are made from a softly glowing white stone. Four of the Krell body sit and the stone floor rises to form seats for them. Krell says. ¡°We are now in another dimension, with some similarities with a dungeon. Time is running twenty-five times faster here, so we can spend a whole day here for only one hour of real time. The System prevents us from staying more than one day in here, so we will have to hurry. We are now going to train three of George¡¯s skills up to Advanced and he will use the dungeon stone to then increase them to Adept. He should be able to disguise Nora and we will give Nora a bracelet that will conceal her stats and allow her to change her name while she wears it. Since we have this extra time, we will continue to train Nora, while we work with George. Now let¡¯s get to it.¡± One of the Krell¡¯s stand and escort Nora to the other side of the dome. Krell turns to me. ¡°We will train Air Sense, Dark Sense, and Flesh Shaping. Starting with Air Sense and then Dark Sense. After we finish those, we will bring Nora back to work with you to train Flesh Shaping on her.¡± The training for Air Sense is totally different than before and Krell says this is the quickest way to level. First, I am blind folded and Krell forms tentacles of air that lash at my body. I must sense and dodge them. He mixes in wind blades that he throws at me. Every now and then he hurls rocks, which I must sense as an absence of air. When he starts to thicken the air around me it reduces the range of my Air Sense making me strain to sense his attacks. After several hours of this I make it to Advanced and he calls a break to drink some tea. After my mana and stamina are topped off, we switch to working on Dark Sense. I take off my blind fold for this training and Krell enfolded a large area in darkness. The training is very similar to the Air Sense training just using darkness mana and of course I still can¡¯t use any shields. He wants me motivated and seems to think pain is one of the best motivators. I must admit I take a perverse pleasure in the challenge. I finally hit Advanced in Dark Sense and Krell calls another break. Now I must level up Flesh Shaping. Krell leads Nora over and explains what we will be doing. She doesn¡¯t say anything and has such a poker face I am not sure if she is mad at me for not discussing this with her first. However, this is my award to do with as I want and it does also increase my abilities, so it¡¯s not like it is wasted. Krell pulls a small figure out of his inventory, which expands to a full-sized human female. She has long brown hair and is attractive, but not too eye catching. Nora sits in front of me and I hold her hand as I infuse mana into her. It is easier than infusing mana into the man was. Maybe because he was unconscious and was not actively trying to assist me. I focus on Nora and the woman Krell is having me use as a test subject. While the mana seems to flow easier it takes just as much time to Flesh Shape Nora. She doesn¡¯t complain or voice any discomfort. We take breaks after each limb to get her familiar with her new body. When I finally finish, I get a new notification indicating I have hit Advanced in Flesh Sense and Flesh Shaping. Perfect. I take the skill stone from my inventory and use it to advance Air Sense, Dark Sense, and Flesh Shaping taking me up to Adept in each. As I do so, Krell is enveloped in golden light and I see Nora¡¯s poker face crack, so she apparently knows what this means. The light surrounds Krell for about a minute and I ask. ¡°What was that?¡± Krell looks very pleased. ¡°That was the side effect of increasing one of your stats by an increment of 100. Every time you increase by 100 you get a special bonus from the System. I must say your training was worth it. Here is my final part of the payment.¡± Krell hands Nora a bracelet, which she puts on her arm. Krell takes her off to teach her how to use it. ¡°Now for you we need to show you how to use Veil to change your name and stats. By default, it blocks everyone from seeing any stats or your name unless they exceed the required intelligence. Concentrate on the skill and think menu.¡± When I think menu, I get a list of stats and my name with arrows next to my stats and a quill next to my name. The quill lets me change my name and the arrows allow me to increase or decrease each stat by 50%. ¡°This is great Krell, thanks.¡± ¡°You have earned it and you have an open invitation for more training. There is a lot more you could learn from me.¡± After Krell is finished teaching Nora about the bracelet we exit the dimensional pocket and we both take showers before crashing in our beds. I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. Arc2 Ch16 - Domain of Water I am excited and still tired when I wake up. I decide to take a cold shower in the hope that it will wake me up. I can hear Nora in the other shower when I get out. Krell has arrived and says everything is prepared for the trip to Deepwell. We plan on visiting the Temple to the Goddess of Water which has the portal to the Temple of the Seven Moons. Anyone can take the portal, but they should only do so if invited. Nora seems to think we are interesting enough that we will be able to visit without an invite. We sit down together to eat and catch up. The plan is to take the Silent Wave, which is a river boat bound for Deepwell mid-afternoon. Deepwell is apparently located in the center of a large bay on the coast. With Nora and myself disguised with Flesh Shaping we shouldn¡¯t have any trouble getting there. Also, I changed my name using Veil and I am going under the name Kel Salazar. My stats I set to 50% of their actual value, which is the lowest I can change them. I send Nora a party invite, so we can speak in party chat during the trip. Then we say our good byes to Krell after breakfast and make our way to the harbor to board the river boat. The boat is eighty feet long and thirty feet wide and made entirely out of wood. It has a rear mounted paddle wheel like an old fashion steam boat. I am curious what they use to propel it. The sides of the boat and the cladding around the paddle wheel are covered in runes. We go up the boarding ramp with the other passengers and are shown to a large room with a pair of small beds, a desk, and two end tables with magic lamps. There is an attached shower for washing, which uses filtered river water. I asked Nora about the paddle wheel, but she is not sure how they move it, other than runes are used. Decades ago elementals were used before they switched to runes. After checking out our room we both go on deck and people watch. There are several adventurers getting on the ship and two cranes are being used to load whole wagons into the cargo hold. Apparently since the wagons already have dimensional storage it is cheaper just to load it in the hold rather than transfer the material to a different container. About an hour after we board the ship gets underway. I go to the back and observe the large paddle wheel start to rotate. There is no drive shaft, just an axle. As the paddle wheel starts to accelerate, I begin to make out faint runes glowing on the paddles. Also, I see a faint glow being reflected onto the paddles from the rear of the boat, so I am guessing there are more runes covering the rear of the boat behind the paddle wheel. Maybe this is just one large rune-based motor. Rubbing my chin in thought, these runes look interesting. When I discussed runes with Nora earlier she looked at me like I am crazy. The study of runes takes a life time to get good at it and to get a lot out of it you need a class that specializes in runes. That is disappointing to hear, but I will keep an open mind. I will still want to learn some for myself to see what they are like, but I will have to put that off to a later date. The boat will take two days to get to Deepwell, with two stops on the way to pick up and drop off passengers. All the cargo is headed to Deepwell. The boat passenger setup is interesting. The top deck is kept open with a trellis setup to shade everyone from the sun. Nora tells me that canvas would be stretched across the trellis in the event of bad weather. Under the trellis are tables and chairs in various small groupings to seat two to twelve people. The tables have different squares engraved into their tops for various board games. I see one group already has a card game going. Some other passengers are just sitting in the shade reading. The front of the top deck has an enclosed grill where they cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner at reasonable prices. We take a pair of seats that give us a view of the river side as it goes past. We will grab a late dinner, but first I want to hear how Nora¡¯s training went. Nora leans back in her chair and starts to fill me in on her training with Krell. ??? While I was being led away to training Nora was taken by Krell to a large room that contained nearly every weapon imaginable along the walls. Krell gestures. ¡°Your family has always focused on magic, but I will train you in a number of specialized skills that use some of the weapons on these walls.¡± Nora frowned as she thought that over. Her mother and sisters were all focused on skills related to magic and mana use. Having a weapon focus would be different and there for useful, but it would throw away a lot of the utility she could gain from the training her family had access to. Krell must have known what I was thinking. ¡°All of these weapon skills will complement your later development with magic and mana-based skills.¡± I sigh, why couldn¡¯t he have said that to start with, sometimes I think he is trying to irritate me on purpose. She just puts it off as being part of a different race with a different world view. ¡°Very well, what do we start with?¡± ¡°First we kill you.¡± Krell says as the last thing I saw before I could dodge was his fist smashing into my chest. ¡°Wow he is so brutal.¡± A soft female voice seems to say in my ear. I try to open my eyes but I see nothing and realize I don¡¯t feel anything either. I must be dead, but before respawn I shouldn¡¯t experience anything. ¡°Please just relax, I won¡¯t keep you long.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± I realize I am not speaking out loud and I am not actually hearing anything either. It is all mental. ¡°I am Atia, Goddess of Water.¡± ¡°Why would you be speaking to me?¡± ¡°I am speaking on behalf of my mother who can¡¯t involve herself anymore with you or George. I want to let you know that the head priest and priestess in my temples will offer you add if you ask them for help.¡± ¡°Why would you help us?¡± ¡°Poth and Garth were wonderful nephews until my brother the God of Fire took them. Now that I know Poth is alive and you are both trying to help him, I am offering what aid I am allowed by the System.¡± ¡°Thank you, that will definitely be helpful when we travel to the Domain of Water.¡± ¡°No, thank you both, this is a very dangerous quest you are on in addition to the problems centered on you princess.¡± ¡°Is there any chance you can do something about that?¡± ¡°No, I have already done as much as I can, but you have done well to get Krell to help you even if his methods can be harsh. I will leave you know and before you know it you will be respawned.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I suddenly am back in my body on the floor with three of Krell¡¯s bodies standing around me dispersing a complex weave of magic. I see several flashing icons in the corner of my vision. Before saying anything to Krell I may regret I check out my notifications.
Krell struck you with the skill Siphon Soul draining you to level 2. You have lost eight levels. You have lost all attribute points, skills, and skill levels gained from the levels lost. Krell struck you for 923 points of damage killing you. You have lost one level. You have lost all attribute points, skills, and skill levels gained from the level lost. Krell captured your soul with Soul Prison. Krell casts Inject Soul increasing your level by eight levels. Krell casts Distill Soul on you. You have lost seven levels. Krell teaches you the advanced skill Flowing Blade. Krell teaches you the advanced skill Timeless Step. Krell teaches you the advanced skill Jump Step. Level Up! You have gained seven attribute points in intelligence, three in wisdom, two in strength, and two in agility.
¡°So Krell?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I see I am at level two now. Mind explaining what happened and why?¡± ¡°Very good, you are much more controlled than George is. I killed you to strip most of your levels and distilled them to increase your attribute gains. This is not an efficient way to train, but it allows me to reset your progress and wipe out the levels you were obviously forced to gain too quickly. We should now be able to level you quickly with skill growth to recover your levels.¡± I think that this is an incredible gift. I thought I would be forever stunted in growth from losing the chance to level efficiently in the Starter Glade, but now I will be able to recover lost ground and have three Advanced skills. I look at the skills quickly before Krell finishes dispersing the magic pattern around me.
Skill: Flowing Blade, Basic 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to spend stamina to take an instant step when attacking with a bladed weapon allowing the weapon to do double damage. This can be chained, but each step must be associated with an attack by a bladed weapon. Cost: 100 stamina minus ten stamina per skill tier beyond Basic. Range: Self Duration: Instantaneous
Skill: Timeless Step, Basic 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to spend mana to pause time for one second before taking a step. While time is paused the user can move as usual, but can only affect things on their person. Steps can be chained. Cost: 100 mana minus five mana per skill tier beyond Basic. Range: Self Duration: Instantaneous with a one second pause plus one additional second per skill tier beyond Basic.
Skill: Jump Step, Basic 1 (0%) This skill allows the user to spend either mana or stamina to take one step using a jump movement. Jump movement is based on strength divided by four in feet plus agility divided by six in feet. Cost: 50 mana or 50 stamina minus five per skill tier beyond Basic. Range: Self Duration: Instantaneous
Interesting and complementary skills, these will help a lot with melee-based attacks, but will also be very useful in any form of combat. Krell must be getting more out of training George than I imagined to offer so many advanced skills. ¡°Now we can begin to train in earnest. First drink this.¡± Krell said as he held out a glowing purple potion. I hesitated for a moment, but he literally had my life in his hands a moment ago. I think I can trust him with the potion too. I drink it while look at my log and see it is a potion of energy. These are rare potions and will give me the energy to stay awake for 24 hours. If he has more, I can do that for up to one week before I will have to rest. I will be able to get in more training that I anticipated. Krell gestures and spears appear floating in the air above his head. He gestures again and I feel refreshed as both high level stamina and mana regeneration spells boost me. ¡°Let¡¯s being, try to stay alive.¡± A spear shoots at me and I barely have time to take a Timeless Step to dodge it. In the second that time is paused I see another spear is already moving toward the direction I am stepping. I take a Jump Step to the side and then another Timeless Step when something crashes into my side taking my health down by 50%. I skid across the floor and take another Timeless Step to get a second to catch my bearing. That almost costs me my life when I look up and see a huge hound only ten feet from me moving at a full run with its mouth open wide. I take a Jump Step to the side drawing a dagger and then enter Flowing Blade to strike two times along the hounds flank before it runs past and starts to turn. Even with my regeneration rate increased my stamina and mana are starting to run low. I run toward the hound and Jump Step on top drawing another dagger. A Flowing Blade lets me plant both blades firmly in it neck by its shoulders. I hold on for dear life as the hound thrashes trying to dislodge me. One blade comes free and I use another Flowing Blade to plant it deep again. ??? I interrupt asking. ¡°How did you manage to get out of that situation?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t, Krell dismissed the hound while I was on it, spilling me on the floor. After that he let me rest and the started another round of spear dodging and attacks by different creatures. He dismissed them before I could kill them. Krell didn¡¯t want me to get XP from killing creatures, so that my attribute gains would be as high as possible.¡± I looked at her level and saw she was at level twelve now. ¡°I didn¡¯t really look before, but you gained back all of your levels and then some.¡± ¡°Yes, I am back on track to having a great build and I have you to thank for that. I won¡¯t forget it.¡± I blushed and didn¡¯t know what to say to that. I was never good at receiving praise. It always made me uncomfortable. I trying to ignore my embarrassment by asking Nora. ¡°What skill level did you get up to in your advanced skills?¡± Instead of answering Nora shared her three skills.
Skill: Flowing Blade, Advanced 1 (11%) Skill: Timeless Step, Advanced 3 (45%) Skill: Jump Step, Advanced 5 (17%)
¡°That is great, Advanced in all three. I bet your stats increased a lot as well using all three skills.¡± ¡°They did. Krell also taught me Fireball, Lightning, Fire Dart, Ice Dart, Stone Skin, and Enchanted Weapon. We drilled on those while using my skills. Enchanted Weapon was especially good with Flowing Blade. The skill doubled the enchanted damage to.¡± ¡°What does Enchanted Weapon do?¡± ¡°Here look.¡±
Enchanted Weapon, Level 3, Advanced Level 2 (23% progress to next level) This spell enchants a weapon held by the user. The weapon is now considered magical and can be used to strike creatures that can only be hit by enchanted weapons. The weapon will do an additional ten points of damage per skill tier. This additional damage is treated as base damage and can be modified by anything that affects the base damage of the weapon. Example: Sneak attack doubles the base damage of the weapon and would also double the damage from this spell. Range: Held Weapon Duration: 1 minute Cost: 50 mana
¡°That looks like a great spell combination with your skill. Krell really came through. I feel a lot better about our chances now.¡± Nora talked a little more about her training and then we both got up to try the food at the grill. We both got roast Grog, which was a water monster found in this very river near Deepwell. It was slathered in a spicy sweet sauce that went great with the dark ale they served. The side salad and dinner rolls were a nice touch as well. After dinner we sat along the rail and Nora point our different creatures and plants. The boat made good time and pulled into the town of Greenwater about an hour before dark. We would take on more passengers here and depart after it got dark. With spells that let you see easily in the dark there was no reason not to continue at night. After watching the passengers board Nora and I retired to our room to get a good night¡¯s sleep. Arc2 Ch17 - Assassins Guild Jeb didn¡¯t think they needed so many members of the guild to complete this mission. A mission would usually have one member with a backup team for research and to assist entry to a target. However, they also looked out for bounties to be claim, though usually it was dead or alive with the preference on dead. Their target had a very low level, only fifteen or sixteen. The girl with him was only around level twelve. The target George was known to use a lot of fire magic, which wasn¡¯t surprising. May low level mages think fire is the best way to go for damage output. It is quicker, but not the best in the long run, at least in the guild¡¯s opinion. Well in all fairness the guild didn¡¯t typically want to draw attention to themselves either. They boarded the Silent Wave, which was a river boat doing the run between the Capital and Deepwater. They boarded at the small town of Greenwater. It was the first stop after leaving the Capital and will give them over a day to grab their target before the boat reaches Deepwater. Jeb wasn¡¯t sure how the Guild found out George would be on the boat, but it must have been some seriously powerful magic. Typically, his team would have a tracking device for their target, but not this time. That told him George and his companion must have powerful concealing magics. Still it didn¡¯t matter how strong his concealing magics were if his team knew he was on the boat. Also, they had a nice picture and his current name, both of which were totally different than his wanted poster. The guild members took two cabins and then separate on the top deck spotting George and Nora quickly. They just keep a different member of the team with an eye on them periodically until they retired to their cabin. The team will take them tonight after midnight to give them time to fall asleep. They retired to their own cabin to prepare. All the guild members have a protective stone that will absorb 500 points of fire damage, though the guild master hoped they would not have to use them as they were very expensive and would cut into profits. Each was dressed in clothing that blended with the walls greatly increasing their stealth. Each was also armed with a dagger and darts coated with a poison that would knock someone unconscious quickly. As midnight approached, they make their way from their cabins to stand in front of George and Nora¡¯s. Jeb had the honor of picking the lock on the door as he had the highest lockpick and trap detection. He detected no traps, which did not surprise him. His team had absurdly high levels for this mission. Jeb was level forty-six, Kal was level fifty-three, Jason was level twenty-two, and their lowest member Anthony was level twenty. Anthony should be able to handle them by himself. Frank lead the way into the room and that¡¯s when things began to go wrong. As soon as Frank crossed the threshold there was a flare of fire mana surrounding him that his stone absorbed, but the noise woke their targets. George and Nora woke to a bright flare of fire covering a man standing in their doorway. He was dressed in black that seemed to briefly try to match the color of the flame before it died leaving him unharmed. George cast Concealing Mists and used Shadow Step to grab Nora and then Step to the far corner of the room. At the same time, he arrived in the corner he heard a sharp thump as darts appeared in the bed where they had both been laying a moment ago. The man in the doorway has some serious protection against fire. Let¡¯s see how he handles lightning. George: I am going to hit him with Enhanced Lightning. I activate an Air Shield and then a Dark Shield, which just deepens the shadows around me as I maximize and double my Enhanced Lightning spell taking him in the chest. He turns and hurls a fan of darts at me striking my Air Shield shattering it, but my Dark Shield absorbs the rest. He draws two daggers and charges me, which is what Nora was waiting for. She executes a Jump Step to the Bed and then another behind him. He ignores her as a threat as she executes a flowing blade planting two enchanted daggers to their hilts in his back. That staggers him and now he takes notice of her and turns even while I am still frying him. She uses a Timeless Step to dodge and then plants another enchanted dagger in his shoulder before Jumping to the other side of the room. He turns back to me with a grunt of frustration and then starts to glow a deep violet and I realize I am not going to be able to kill him before I run out of mana. He is just too high a level, so I switch tactics and divert all my remaining mana into one action. Mana infuses the air and darkness around me as they funnel down and strike the man who is rushing at me once again. This time I am not trying to injure him. Instead the blast of darkness and air lifts him slightly from the floor and propels him out through the doorway. I see his surprised and angry face disappear over the rail and here a distant splash from the fire below. Nora just starts to draw another dagger when a sphere is thrown in the room that explodes releasing a cloud of gas. Notifications begin to flash at the edge of my vision as I try to Shadow Step to Nora to grab her and escape to the river, but I have completely depleted my mana reserves. I take one, two steps, and collapse at the same time Nora does. Everything goes dark as I see a pair of feet in the doorway. Jeb cautiously stepped into the room after giving the gas some time to work. His team is immune to the gas that was still filling the room. He could hear shouting outside the cabin and they needed to depart with their targets quickly. Kal grabbed George and Jason grabbed Nora and they jump over the rail and land lightly on the rivers surface. They run toward shore meeting a wet and singed Frank. Together they run into the woods for several miles before coming to a cave entrance. This was one of the remote safe house¡¯s setup for the guild members to use as needed. They were to lay low here and notify the guild they had the target before getting orders on what to do. The guild wanted to see what attention if any was raised by their targets acquisition. Jeb was sure he would get an earful about how messy it turned out.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! They put George and Nora in a quiet room, which was shielded from magic with a reinforced door and walls that should handle any stamina-based skills they had. Obviously, they had excellent builds for their level. Jeb found it much more believable that George was involved in kidnaping the princess now. After they drop George and Nora in the cell, they gathered in the main room to share in the after-action report. They tried to all be candid about how the mission went and they all had to share some blame about being overconfident. Frank shared his combat log and the damage was impressive. The fire ward did 400 points of damage when Frank entered the room and the Enhanced Lightning spell hit him for a continuous 300 points of damage a second. Nora struck him for 600 points of damage between her three daggers while avoiding any counter attack. If Frank hadn¡¯t had such a high resistant, armor, and constitution he would be dead. If George had known how close he was to death he may have continued to attack instead of throwing him out into the river. Of course, Frank had some tricks left that should have handled George and Nora, so George really did the smart thing. Now we just had to wait for the gas to wear off. Typically, we avoid using the gas because there is no cure other than time to make it wear off. It should take about six hours before they regain consciousness, then we will see what they have to say. Even though Frank is maintaining a good poker face I have no doubt George and Nora will come to regret injuring him so badly. Jason was maintaining a watch when George begins to stir. Everyone gathered and we opened the door to the cell, which held us all easily. George and Nora were laying on the cold metal floor while we leaned against the walls by the door. I have the only key and with the door locked they weren¡¯t going anywhere. George opened his eyes and held his head when he sat up. I know exactly what he is feeling. Before we are given out immunity to the gas, we are each dosed with it, so we know what to expect from those we use it on. I start the ball rolling while he is still disoriented. ¡°George, we have some questions for you.¡± George removed his hand from his head and looks at me ignoring the discomfort he must be feeling and then stands up, which is impressive. I expected him to vomit from the effort. I still can¡¯t see any of his stats or anything except his fake name when I inspect him. ¡°George? I am afraid you have the wrong person.¡± I smile. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. You and Nora are exactly who we are after. Now you would save us a lot of trouble if you would tell us where the princess is?¡± George surprises me by chuckling. ¡°You are after the princess? Who sent you on this wild goose chase?¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Do you have a way to sense if I am telling the truth?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡®Then use it and I will help you understand why I am laughing at this situation.¡± I gesture to Jason who pulls a truth stone out and tosses on the floor at George¡¯s feet. ¡°Pick it up and put a drop of your blood on it.¡± George picks it up and draws a dagger from his inventory and pricks his finger before putting the dagger back. He smears his blood on the stone, which glows blue. ¡°I have never kidnapped or even assisted in any way kidnapping the princess. At the time the wanted posters were put up I was traveling with Nora here. I am a Reborn and I know very little about this world yet, but I know enough not to get involved any anything like what I am accused of. Finally, I suspect someone put up the wanted posters to distract from what is going on, but I don¡¯t know enough about this world yet to guess at what that could be.¡± Then entire time the stone glowed blue leaving the assassins speechless as George tossed the stone back to Jason. ¡°Well crap.¡± Jeb said. ¡°You can see why this is pretty frustrating for me and why I am trying to hide, but apparently not good enough, since you found me. So now are you letting us go?¡± ¡°No. We will have to communicate what you told us to our leaders and see what they want us to do.¡± Jeb can guess that will be a final death for George and Nora, if for no other reason than to cover up what a colossal mistake the guild has made. Jeb is unlocking the door when it is blown off its hinges by a column of water taking him into the far wall just missing George who side steps toward Nora. The three remaining assassins remove daggers and flatten themselves against wall, while George scoops up Nora and heads to the far corner. George makes it right before twin streams of water cut through the walls and two of the assassins before they can move slicing them in half. George feels the wards on the room fading allowing him access to mana again, so George raises an air shield and Air Steps to the other corner avoiding the last assassin who looks at him starting to open his mouth to say something when a giant tentacle of water shoots into the room and bends sideways hitting the man so hard, he pops like a balloon. George wishes he hadn¡¯t had to see that. George settled to the ground as a figure in bright blue robes with silver trim entered the room. He has short cropped blond hair with piercing green eyes that took in the room with a glance. His face split into a smile when he looked at Nora and myself. ¡°My name is Harry and I am the Head Priest of the Goddess of Water in Deepwell. May I see to your companion?¡± George considered the man, but with the power he had displays just a few moments ago there would be nothing he could do to stop him. George gently set Nora down and Harry kneeled in front of her taking her hand. He cast a spell that caused golden lines of power to follow her veins from her hand and up her arm and into her chest. Nora opened her eyes shortly after that and I filled her in on what had happened. I turn expectantly to Harry. ¡°Thank you for helping us.¡± ¡°That is not a problem. My Goddess told me to expect you and help in any way I could. When I sensed a group running from the boat on the river and hear about the attack and your disappearance it was easy to put together that you were abducted. It just took me some time to find this location. Now I suggest we leave. Far too much power has been used here and who knows what attention it may bring. Come.¡± Harry takes us outside and he throws something on the ground in front of us that rapidly expands into a huge leaf. Harry walks on the undulating surface and gestures for us to do so as well. We all take seats as the leaf rises into the air. It doesn¡¯t take us long to reach the river and then continue to follow its course. We are moving swiftly, but the wind we feel is no more than a stiff breeze. The view from the air is breath taking and I hope that my Air Step will one day evolve into something that lets me accomplish the same thing. Both Nora and I sit and relax as we continue down the river to Deepwell. Arc2 Ch18 - Deepwell It only takes an hour to make it to the bay. Flying above the bay, Deepwell comes into view and it is the most beautiful city I have seen so far. It sits in the middle of the thirty-mile-wide bay. The city is at least five miles across and is made of a combination of crystal and a white stone. Harry tells me that the bay is 200 feet deep where the city rests and all the towers along the edge of the city have crystal windows that have views of the bay, both above and below the water. There is a lot of wild life that fills the bay, which supports a strong fishing fleet and several guilds that specialize in underwater dungeons and monster hunting. Harry takes us in an arc around the city to land on a large square building. While we descend, we see dozens of boats docked along the edge of the city and several patrol in the water and flying above. This city has more obvious protection that the Capital and Harry says it is needed because of the occasional incursion of monsters into the bay from the ocean. We land gently on the roof and after carefully walking off the floating leaf it shrinks and slides onto Harry¡¯s left forearm where it joins a tattoo of a winding vine that climbs from his left wrist up his arm and under his sleeve. After seeing this I wonder if the tattoo is camouflage for the leaf that flew us here or if it also serves some other purpose. Harry leads us to a door on the corner of the building and down a set of stairs to a corridor. The corridor has several fine oak doors and is decorated with portraits. The indirect lighting it tastefully done. The carpeted floor is soft with a plush red and brown patterned weave. Harry leads us half way down the hallway to a right-handed door. He unlocks it with a large brass key and gestures us to go in first. The room is dominated by a tinted window made of thick crystal that looks out over the bay. It is a lovely view and the room complements it nicely. The wood floors and walls make the room warm and comfortable. Instead of an office desk several sofas and plush leather chairs decorate the room. A floor to ceiling book shelf covers one wall, which is half filled with books. However, decorative items covering the other half are of far more interest. There are weapons, crystals, a brass lantern, and a large pool of red liquid that is swirling around a center point six inches above the shelf. There are other items that I can¡¯t readily identify, hopefully I have some more time later to look them over. ¡°I will get you rooms here in the Temple and then in the morning you can take the portal to the Temple of the Seven Moons after breakfast. The portal only opens at dawn. Until then I thought we could show you some of the city.¡± ¡°Do you think that is safe?¡± ¡°I think it will be. I will assign our guardian to escort you.¡± I see Nora looks impressed. ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t know the significance of a guardian being assigned to us. What is a Guardian?¡± ¡°A Guardian is a mortal, usually an adventurer, who merges with a celestial spirit. Their two personalities join into a new being. The mortal will no longer age and gain many invulnerabilities of the celestial spirit. The spirit gains the chance to experience the mortal realm. Many times, the two are companions before they join, but not always.¡± ¡°Based on the name they guard or protect something?¡± ¡°Correct, the Guardian I am referring to protects the Temple and on occasion such as this they will protect someone chosen by the Goddess, such as Nora.¡± I must admit I was thrown by his specifying Nora as the chosen of the Goddess, but then I calmed down. I am developing an ego if I have trouble having a Princess be the chosen of the Goddess of Water instead of me. Hopefully I will be able to keep a sense of perspective. ¡°Now why don¡¯t you follow me and I will hand you off to a guide that can get you settled in your suite and then show you around the major sites of the city.¡± ¡°One moment, before we go can you tell me what that is?¡± I point to the swirling red liquid on the shelf. Harry laughs and says. ¡°A man after my own heart, so curious they can¡¯t hold it in. That is a red mist elemental. It is the only known one in existence and was formed on a battle field after many people were killed by water and air magics. It feeds on blood, water, and air magic and has been a fascinating elemental to study.¡± ¡°Wow, thanks.¡± I say as I focus on little elemental and with my perception, I faintly sense it straining to reach me before I jerk back. Harry chuckles and says. ¡°Don¡¯t worry the binding spells are very strongly enforced. Now let¡¯s go.¡± Harry leads us back out into the hall and down two floors of stairs to a lobby where a young woman in white robes sits behind a small oak desk reading from a book. As Harry comes down the stairs she stands and bows. Harry tells her. ¡°These are the guests we were expecting. Please take them to their rooms and then see to their needs. Introduce them to the Guardian and then they are free to tour the city.¡± The young lady bows again and Harry gestures to her. ¡°Gloria will take care of you and I will meet you at breakfast tomorrow morning to open the portal. Have a nice stay and may the Goddess be with you.¡± We both say thanks and Harry smiles as he walks back up the stairs. Nora and I turn our attention to Gloria. ¡°Hello, I will take you to your rooms and get you access wards for the Temple, unless you are hungry or have another need?¡± I look at Nora and she takes it as the queue to take the lead. ¡°Seeing our rooms would be nice, so we could wash up and then I could take some food if possible.¡± ¡°Of course, this way, please.¡± Gloria turns to a side hallway and leads Nora followed by me through a maze of twists and turns. I check my map and see it is not recording anything in the Temple. I watch Nora¡¯s posture and stance change as we interact with Harry and Gloria. I think it is her Princess persona asserting itself. She is probably use to being deferred to in the Palace. I just take the time to marvel at the temple which is very beautiful and richly decorated. The floors are hardwood covered with tightly woven carpets. The walls have polished braze holders for the magic light crystals and walls are tastefully decorated with paintings and wall coverings. We finally stop in front of a door and Gloria pulls out a bronze plate about the size of a card from a poker deck placing it against a larger plate on the door. There is a click and then she opens the door. She hands us each our own card and has us repeat the steps she just went through. Gloria explains the door is now keyed only to our cards. She leads us into the room, which is a richly appointed living area with small coaches and sofas. There is a bar on the left wall with many different bottles of liquor behind it. To the right is a set of glass doors leading out onto a terrace with an outdoor dining table and six comfortable looking lounge chairs. She shows us there are two bedrooms with large comfortable looking beds. Each room has a large master bathroom with a tub and shower. The ceiling is domed in each room with different scenes painted across the ceiling. The living area has a painting of Vera and a young woman that I am guessing is the Goddess of Water based on the surroundings. The bedrooms each have different night sky scenes. Gloria leaves a small bell we can ring for service and takes her leave while we both get washed up and ready to tour around the city. I feel excited. This is the first time I have felt relatively safe since come to Burra and I can¡¯t wait to enjoy the city. After drying myself off I take a seat in one of the sofas in the living room while I look up at the painting of Vera on the ceiling. The painting is very well done and I find myself checking out her legs when she winks at me. I jerk and look at her face for several minutes until Nora joins me. I must have been mistaken. I pick up the bell and ring. Gloria shows up a few minutes later and we are led down to a large dining area. It is a little late for lunch and the room is big enough to seat over 100 people, but two dozen people are sitting at tables with most already being served. When we take a seat a young man in light robe robes brings menus before taking orders for drinks. We all get a dark ale based on Gloria¡¯s recommendation. Each of us decides to try a different dish, so we can share and try several dishes. Gloria says to stick with the sea food, since it is fresh from the bay and ocean. Also, the cooks are incredibly skilled, because of all the materials they practice with. I am curious if any of these meals will give us buffs and Gloria look shocked at my question. Nora rescues me. ¡°He is a Reborn and still has many gaps in this education.¡± ¡°Of course, that makes sense. Food itself cannot hold mana. There are powders and potions that could be mixed with food, but doing so would just dilute the magic. Food is just food unless its source is celestial or infernal. Celestial food can purify the body and infernal can corrupt.¡± I am blushing at having asking another question, which is common knowledge and take a deep gulp of ale to hide my embarrassment. Lunch turns out to be some of the best food I have had so far, but Gloria says dinner tonight will be incredible. I am guessing she is right given her level of excitement. It is an excuse for her to go to a great restaurant on the Temple¡¯s tab. After lunch Gloria takes us through the maze of halls again to the room of the Guardian. She knocks and I admit I am disappointed. The man who answers the door is five-foot-tall and dressed in simple black robes with a braided rope belt. He is expecting us and shuts the door behind him. He has a disinterested expression and doesn¡¯t say anything other than nod to Gloria when he in introduced. Gloria asks us to hold his hand for a moment. He can become invisible, but grant immunity for a limited time to someone he touches. This way he can escort us without drawing attention and we will be able to see him, so we can follow his direction if necessary. I feel no different after holding his hand. Gloria leads us out of the Temple followed by the Guardian, who floats above everyone on the street. I imagine we would have gotten a lot of stares if anyone else could see him. Gloria is going to take us to the Singing Fountains first, then on an underwater tour, before dinner at the Grove. It¡¯s supposed to be a great restaurant. This will be followed by shopping in the merchant district. The streets are busy, but not packed and we walk for about an hour, being led through different districts. Gloria talks about the history of the city, which was formed by water mages in alliance with the Dalb. The Dalb are a sentient marine race whose main city is twenty miles off shore. Trade with the Dalb was the genesis of the city¡¯s initial growth. Most of the buildings have submerged lower floors that cater to the Dalb. Our first stop is the Singing Fountains. There is a line to enter the square where they are located. Stairs lead up to an archway over the entrance to the square. Only locals can walk through the archway. Tourist must climb the stairs and they can watch one song before the next group goes up. Gloria takes us around to the other side were a smaller archway is guarded by the city guard. We are waved through with Gloria and after climbing the stairs we see a large square about 100 feet across lined with restaurants. About half of the square is taken up by concentric rings of tiered water. As we watch notes of a song begin to play and the water begins to ripple. As the song begins to play the water in the pools begins to jet up into the air over the tops of the buildings surrounding it. As the song progresses animals of water shoot out of the pool swimming and running through the air around loops of water. For the finale four large birds of water crash into each other high above the fountain sending a shower of water toward everyone that at the last-minute curves back into the pool.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°That was awesome.¡± I say. Nora is smiling. ¡°It is an incredible display of power and skill.¡± ¡°Come. I think you will like our next stop even more.¡± Gloria says, walking down the stairs. I am excited, the next stop is supposed to be an underwater tour. It takes us about thirty minutes to get to the dock. We turn before the dock into a fifty-foot-tall tower on the right. It is cool and dimly lit inside and half the room is covered in water. A man with thick white hair pulled back into a pony tail is sitting on a stool behind a metal desk. ¡°Hi, Gloria. Is this the group for the tour?¡± ¡°Hi, Val. Yes, this is Nora and George. As we discussed they should see the area around the bay and some of the interesting sights. We do have a dinner reservation at 6PM, so we want them back in time to change and get washed up.¡± ¡°Not a problem. That will give us plenty of time to see some great sites. Greetings I am Val and I will be taking you on a tour today. We will be riding a Tallus Eel, which if you have never seen one, is a site all by itself. I will be casting water breathing and water proofing spells on you, so you won¡¯t need to worry about breathing or getting wet. We will meet Gloria back here around 4:30PM, which should leave you plenty of time to make it to dinner.¡± ¡°I will leave you in Val¡¯s capable hands and see you later.¡± Gloria says as she leaves. The Guardian in standing inside the doorway and I am guessing he will continue to follow us. ¡°Now let¡¯s get the spells on you.¡± Val gestures and I see notifications that the Water Breathing and Water Proofing spells are active for the next six hours. ¡°The spells will also allow you to talk normally while we are underwater. Ok, follow me.¡± Val jumps off the stool and walks down a set of stairs into the water. We both follow him finding the water to be warm and we have no trouble breathing. It just feels like we are wrapped in a warm blanket as we walk through the water to the lower level of the tower. Val takes us through a doorway and outside the tower. We can look up and see the surface clearly. The bottom of the bay around the tower is lined with cut granite and a creature is laying on the stone. The creature is huge and has what looks like the top half of a wagon fastened across it¡¯s back with large leather straps. It looks like a giant eel with a long sleek green body and a pair of dinner plate size eyes. It yawns revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. There is seating for six comfortably. ¡°This is Zoya, hop on.¡± Val says as he climbs up the straps, which have hand holds built into them. He settles in the front seat while Nora and I take the seats behind him, fastening harnesses around ourselves. After he tugs on our harnesses, he touches a globe to his right and Zoya wags her tail quickly picking up speed. The water around the city rapidly deepens to 200 feet. We can see schools of huge fish swimming in lanes through the growths on the bottom of the bay. We look to be 100 feet down and can clearly see the ripples and waves on the surface of the water. I can¡¯t get over how clear it is, especially since a large river empties into the bay. ¡°Val it is amazing how clean the water in the bay is. I would not have guessed we would be able to see this far.¡± Val says. ¡°Water Mages use spells to settle any silt in the water. Water based spells are more powerful when impurities are removed. Not to mention it is just a more pleasant place to live.¡± Val points out different rare creatures and plants. There in a rare form of coral only found in the bay that¡¯s very colorful. It¡¯s host to lots of small creatures that look like glowing jelly fish, but they feed on microscopic plants and does have stingers like jellyfish. We even swim slowly through a school of them, which is incredible. Glowing colors in every direction and they gentle bump into us as we pass through them. One creature I like is about three feet long and looks like a furry sea horse. They are very playful and quick. They swim around us and Val pulls some fish from his inventory and has us feed them by holding onto the fin with our arms held out. They zip by and nip the fish out of our hands quicker than you can blink. After feeding them they swim off in spirals around themselves. Finally, before we head back, we dive down to the bay floor and hover in front of a pile of silver spheres. They are in a mound fifty feet long, fifteen feet wide and ten feet tall. Val says. ¡°We are very luck to see this.¡± He pulls a glowing green stone from his inventory. They are the eggs of the giant sea serpent. They slowly absorb mana until they get enough to hatch. This stone contains enough mana it should cause them to hatch now. Val throws the stone which lands ten feet in front of the mound and when it hits the bottom it sends out a pulse of green light in a bubble around it. As the light hits the mound the spheres begin to crack. Shortly small creatures that look like snakes hatch and begin to eat their shells. When they hatch, they are black, but as they eat their shells they begin to change and their scales begin to become like polished mirrors. It is a dizzying affect as thousands of mirrored bodies reflect the bay around them and each other. When they finish their shells, they begin to swim toward the ocean in a large school reflecting the scene around them. After that Val takes us back to the tower and we say good bye to Zoya. It has been an awesome tour of the bay. Val leads us up the stairs to the lobby where we find Gloria sitting on a chair waiting for us. She smiles when she sees us. ¡°I hope you had a good time.¡± Nora gives a rare full smile back. ¡°We did.¡± I nod in agreement. ¡°Great, well let¡¯s stop at the Temple and get changed and washed up for dinner. Have a great day Val.¡± Gloria takes us back to the Temple keeping up a conversation all by herself. I must admit I am a little tired after running all over the city. When we get back to our rooms I am tempted to crash in my bed, but force myself to get a shower and change my clothes. When Gloria shows up twenty minutes later, she is practically bouncing. It is hard not to smile seeing how excited she is. She takes us back into the street where we reacquire our Guardian companion. It is about a twenty-minute walk to the restaurant. The Grove has a modest store front. There is a hanging wooden sign with the picture of a grove of trees surrounded in a gold circle. The glass front is tinted and we can¡¯t see into the restaurant, which is different than the other restaurants on the street that allow you to see the people dining inside. Outside the door a small podium stands with two people that address us when Gloria steps up to greet them. ¡°Reservation for Harry Palison¡¯s party.¡± ¡°Yes, Julia can escort you to your table.¡± The man on the left gestures to Julia, who takes us into the restaurant. Inside is a different world. Everything is indirectly lit and the restaurant is full of large trees and plants. We are following a stone pathway that takes us through the trees to our table. Along the way we see some servers, but no other tables. If I hadn¡¯t seen us walk in, there is now way I would know we are in a building. All of plants are setup to shield the tables from sight. I look up and the trees seem to reach up to the sky. Gloria says. ¡°All of the trees are real. This space is a dimensional pocket. Even the elves like coming here, when they disdain most human restaurants.¡± Julia seats us around a table and takes our drink orders based on Gloria recommendations. While we are waiting for the drinks Gloria shows us how to look at the menus. It is a feature build into the restaurant. We just must think Food Menu and its popups up like a System menu. ¡°You can buy options like this, in some buildings to add System interfaces.¡± The Menu has a lot of interesting options and is heavily slanted with seafood. I end up picking Fillnar with sides of roasted vegetables and a rich creaming soup Gloria recommends which is a specialty they are known for. The Fillnar is a local fish like creature, but it has no bones and is served as a fillet. Gloria talks about the Elf that created the restaurant to bring a little bit of home for the other elves living in Deepwell. The setting and the food have since made this one of the trendiest restaurants in the city. While Gloria is talking a group of servers each carrying one plate arrive and like a well-choreographed dance place the plates before each of us and depart. Julia arrives to make sure we have everything we need and to top off our drinks. I dig into my Fillnar and it is delicious. It has a nice crust on the skin and the meat reminds me of salmon, though instead of a pink interior it is a pale green, which throws me off. I am still surprised at some of the fundamental differences to Earth that occasionally remind me that I am on an alien world. Everyone enjoys their food. Nora gets a plate that has a pile of golf balls on it. At least that is what it looks like to me. She lets me try one of the Rackworm eggs, which don¡¯t appeal to me, but I try them, since she seems to be enjoying them. They are very good. They have been cooked and the shells removed. Unlike boiled chicken eggs the egg is light and fluffy were the white would be and the yolk has a creamy consistency like a custard that is slightly sweet. There is a spicy sauce that goes very well with it. Gloria has a steak of Razorbeak, which is a large aquatic bird. The bird is apparently at home either flying through air or water and is a very difficult monster to fight. They nest on the North shore of the bay and need to be aggressively kept in check or they will attack the ships in the bay. She lets Nora and I try a piece and it is excellent. Very tender and it absorbs the sauce it is served in giving it a smoky slightly acidic taste. We sit around the table after finishing and get a dessert they are famous for. It¡¯s called Sals¡¯ol, which is very similar to deep fried ice cream, but with magic the ice cream is perfect and the flaky pastry that surrounds it is delicious. The ice cream is close a vanilla coconut with shaved chocolate flakes throughout. I don¡¯t know if I can stand after eating all of that, but the System rapidly helps me metabolize all the food and drink. Next, we are headed to the shopping district. Julia escorts us out and Gloria takes us on a leisurely walk to the shopping district. ??? Fred can¡¯t believe it. George Peterson is walking down the street with two beautiful women without a care in the world. He has the different face and name that was sent out yesterday, but it is definitely him. He must think he is safe from the agents of the God of Fire in the center of the Domain of Water. Well this is Fred¡¯s luck day. He should be able to teleport George to the safehouse and then take him out of the city before anyone can track him. Once out of the city he can signal his superior to open a portal to the Domain of Fire. It is risky, but he can already picture the 5000-gold reward and they say the God of Fire himself wants George. The man who brings George in will be greatly rewarded. Fred carefully pulls a stun stick out of his inventory keeping it cupped in his hand while he casually walks up behind George. Suddenly he in wrapped in bands of golden light from behind and above him. He can¡¯t move a muscle or active his teleport stone. He can see out of the corner of his eye two men who were buying snacks from a vendor rush over to haul him away. He sees George¡¯s surprised face and Paul realized George is being used as bait to catch agents like himself. ??? George catches a flash of gold light from behind and when he turns, he sees a man behind him is encased in glowing bands of light by the Guardian. The man is holding a tube of some kind in his right hand. Two men break off their discussion with a vendor and rush over to scoop the man up before hustling away. People all around are gesturing and looking in their direction. Gloria directs George and Nora to continue and the people gradually lose interest as they move away and nothing else happens. I suddenly realize Nora and I have been used as bait all day to draw out agents after us. I feel stupid for not realizing this sooner. I think I am still too trusting. I will have to talk to Nora about this tonight. I am guessing she probably knew this was going on from the beginning and just assumed it was obvious without telling me. The shopping district is an abrupt transition from the area containing restaurants we are leaving. All the stores have upper floors that are obviously residences with rooftop gardens. The streets are cut stone with high gutters and decorative stone lamp posts. It will be getting dark in an hour, so we will have a chance to see the area in the dark as well. The storefronts all have awnings to shield from the sun and weather. The sidewalks are as wide as the roads. Some of the shops even have covered walkways joining two buildings together. Each store has magical signs like Xavier¡¯s Enchanted Goods, which is the first store we see. Gloria is practically skipping as she takes us from one store to another. I am excited, since this is my first opportunity to shop since the Starter Area. Gloria makes a beeline for Tasha¡¯s Gifts, which has the picture of a large wrapped package with the stores name in golden letters. As we enter the store a small silver bell rings and a slim twentyish something man sporting the first goatee I have seen greets us. The Store has several tables in the middle with shelves along the wall and a glass case that serves as a counter along the whole right wall that the sales clerk was standing behind when we entered. I wondered around while Gloria and Nora looked at some clothing on the tables. The store had a wide range of goods, such as fancy candies and expensive bottles of liquor. Also, anything from bolts of cloth to ready-made attire. The glass case has the few things I would be interested in. Some rings, bracelets, and several miscellaneous items. Some of the more interesting ones are glasses of true sight, wands that emitted variable width lights, much like a flash light, and several small one-use crystals which would give temporary boosts to stats. Gloria apparently had a budget she could use and we end up getting a few of the small crystals for Nora and myself and Gloria got a scarf that keeps the user warm even in freezing weather, which she can¡¯t wait to use in the winter months. After Tasha¡¯s we stopped at one of each type of store. A potion, armorer, weaponsmith, and three different enchantment stores. The prices were extremely expensive. I am not sure if the prices are typical, but we would do better to keep hitting dungeons. I got spoiled with my windfall in the starter area and with the low prices there. We get back to the Temple late and after a hot shower I went to bed after saying good night to Nora. We have an early day tomorrow and today has been a good distraction to relax before what will probably be a stressful day. Arc2 Ch19 - Temple of the Seven Moons When I wake up from my alarm I don¡¯t want to get out of bed. It is by far the most comfortable I have slept in so far. I force myself to get up and get a shower. When I walk out of my room to the living room Nora is already sitting on a sofa reading a book. She looks up and smiles, gesturing to the bell. I ring it and Gloria shows up in a few minutes to take us to breakfast. Breakfast wasn¡¯t in the dining room we ate in before. Instead it is served privately on a terrace facing the bay. When we arrive, Harry is already sitting in front of a table laden with food. There is sliced fruit, sandwiches, eggs, bacon, several types of pastries, and baked bread similar to bagels without holes. Nora and I grab seats on the end of the table facing Harry and he waves him hand for us to dig in. Over breakfast Harry asks us about our day and we describe the highlights from yesterday. I think he is enjoying just taking a break from his routine. Breakfast is delicious. While we are stuffing in the last bite the sun crests the horizon. ¡°It is time, follow me.¡± Harry says opening a portal in midair. We follow him into a small chamber with a metal archway embedded in the wall. Shortly after we arrive a beam of sunlight comes in through a window on the upper wall striking a round depression at the top of the archway. As the light strikes the archway a glowing blue portal opens with a crackling noise. ¡°It will not stay open long. Good luck to both of you and may the Goddess bless you.¡± Harry says standing beside the portal. We quickly pass through the portal, which closes with a crack like ice breaking behind us. Lights around the room start to brighten and we find ourselves in a large hexagon shape atrium about one hundred feet across and open to the sky. The light is supplied by large crystals embedded half way up the wall. As the light increases, we see there are twelve statues surrounding us in a circle about thirty feet from us. They are beautifully detailed and depict different humanoid races: Dwarf, Elf, Gnoll, Harrow, Gnome, Lizardman, and several others I am not familiar with. Inspecting them reveals nothing, but when we both take a step toward the closed double doors in the wall on the right, they all turn their heads to face us and draw weapons. We both freeze and they don¡¯t make any other move. After taking a step back they, all sheath their weapons. I could Shadow Step to the door, but it may not open and I am sure they would do more than draw weapons if I did that. ¡°What do you think we should do?¡± I ask Nora while I turned to look at all the statues. ¡°Hello. We seek entrance to the Temple of the Seven Moons.¡± Nora says in a slightly raised voice. ¡°Now we wait.¡± She says in a normal voice. ¡°While we are waiting, I never thought to ask, why is this called the Temple of the Seven Moons?¡± ¡°Look up. Three of the moons are in view right now. The Fae realm has seven moons that move across the sky at night, but there is one place were all seven moons cross and this temple is built directly beneath it. It is said that this place enhances the powers of each of the domains associated with the moons.¡± ¡°There are only six domains, right? But there are seven moons, so what is the seventh domain?¡± ¡°It is the domain of the soul, but no one but the Fae know how to use that domain.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± I say as I fall silent looking up at the moons overhead. Each was a distinct size and color. About ten minutes later the doors open and two people enter. One is short at about five feet with long flowing silver hair. The hair didn¡¯t just have a silver color, it looked like fine silver wire. The eyes were red with gold pupils. Otherwise she had an athletic figure covered in fine leathers with a scepter hooked onto her belt. The other person was over six feet tall with hair so dark it had blue highlights. It was bundled into a single braid down his back. He didn¡¯t have any weapons visible and was dressed in loose silk pants and shirt. Two gold bands encircled his upper arms. They both advanced to the end of the statues and then stood there watching us. I tried to inspect them, but again got nothing. After I tried to inspecting them, I felt a weird sensation on the side of my body facing them. Almost like grass blowing against your skin, but all over the side of my body facing the pair. Nora bowed from the waist and I followed suite matching her bow as she said. ¡°Greeting, may I have the honor of knowing whose presence I am in?¡± The female answered. ¡°You appear to at least know enough to greet us, but you did not know enough to not come uninvited.¡± ¡°It is hoped that an invitation will be extended once you here our request.¡± ¡°That is very arrogant of you to assume such.¡± ¡°No, merely necessary.¡± The male then spoke, ¡°I like her, but her companion knows nothing. Perhaps we should educate him in the depths of the possible insult offered by their presence.¡± Nora appeared alarmed but did not say anything as I tentatively said. ¡°I know enough to keep my mouth shut and trust in my companion¡¯s judgement.¡± The male grinned at this revealing red teeth and black gums, which was jarring in his otherwise human appearance. The female gave the male an irritated glance as she said. ¡°You may call me First and him Fifth. You will follow me, and we will take you to a priest to discuss your invitation.¡± First turned and started toward the door, while Fifth stepped to the side. I followed a half step behind Nora as she followed First out the door. I glance at Fifth who followed five paces behind. We moved through wide corridors crafted of beautifully carved stone depicting different nature scenes of forests, meadows, rivers, and lakes. When following First, out of the corner of my eye the scenes seemed to move, like the plants being blown by a soft breeze or the water rippled over stones, but when I turned my head to look, they appeared frozen. It was very distracting, but I tried to ignore it. We finally stood in front of a pair of beautiful silver doors. The doors open on their own revealing a large circular room crafted from a gold veined marble. Large columns support a domed ceiling that arches high overhead. In the center of the room sits an unusual child dressed in white robes. The child looks to be elven or twelve years old with long white hair and vivid purple eyes that are visible from where we enter the room. I am not even sure the child is a male, but First indicated she was taking us to a priest. The child is gesturing and a glowing oval about three feet long and two-foot-wide rests in the air in front of her obscuring her legs from our point of view. The oval is pure black on the side facing us, but from the flickers of light reflected in the child¡¯s eyes something is showing on the other side. When I try to inspect the child, I get nothing. When First leads us to the dais the child is sitting on the child gestures dismissively and the oval vanishes. The First bows deeply and after a short delay both Nora and I follow her example. ¡°Great one, these two seek an invitation.¡±, First says. ¡°Hmmm, typically invitations are granted before the visitors arrive.¡± The priest says with a smile. I wait for Nora to speak for us. She doesn¡¯t look nervous at all as she bows once more and addresses the priest. ¡°Great one, I am the daughter of the Tassan Empresses. My companion is the holder of the Deck of Fate. We had heard you extend invitations to unique individuals and if you find them worthy you grant them access to the Timeless Gate.¡± I cringe as she mentions our secrets so suddenly, but we have discussed this privately and we have nothing else to bargain with. The child-priest sits up straight staring at each of us in turn and I can feel something probing my stats. ¡°You are correct, you would both merit an invite, but you are incorrect about how access to the Timeless Gate is granted. The Gate itself tests the supplicants and if it finds you wanting you will never be heard from again.¡± As the priest is speaks, I hear a quiet noise behind me and turn slightly to see Fifth sheathing his swords. I have a feeling if an invite was not forth coming, we would have been dead rather quickly. Nora looks at me and then turns to the priest. ¡°We expected that could be the case and we are ready.¡± ¡°I doubt you are, but we will see.¡± The priest gestures. ¡°First and Fifth will take you to the entrance. I will not see you again and you will not survive another trip to the temple assuming you survive the Gate. Know that failure during the test means final death. Good luck, you will need it.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Nora and I bow and we follow First out of the audience room taking another door to the right. It is beautifully decorated with numerous worlds, each depicted with a gateway opening in the center. The door opens as we approach and closes after Fifth who follows behind us. The corridor winding in a downward sloping circle and we walk for about ten minutes before we arrive in front of a blank stone wall. First turns to us and says. ¡°We are here. After Fifth and I leave the test will begin.¡± Nora and I watch as they start walking back the way we came when there is a loud grinding noise behind us. We both jerk around and there is now a large archway leading into a dimly lit hallway. I realize there is something wrong with the hallway. With my dark vision I should be able to make things out easier, but everything is shrouded in shadow. George: I should go first, since I can use shadow step. I will cast light and you hold my left hand. ¡°You will be tested.¡± A deep baritone voice speaks from the air as we enter the hallway. Nora and I look at each other and advance down the hallway while trying to keep an eye on everything. We leave a trail of dusty foot prints behind us and overhead I can see cobwebs softly swaying in the slow breeze that comes toward us carrying a musty odor. The hallway ends in an archway covered in runes that seem to move anytime you are not looking directly at them. Through the archway is a large room, that is easily 200 feet across and double that in length. A stone walkway about ten feet wide stretches across the room to the far side to a platform containing a glowing crystal formation. Large blue crystals are spaced randomly on the ceiling, which provide dim lighting for the chamber. We cautiously step on the walkway and looking over the side but see only darkness. I reach out with my Dark Sense and it feels unlike anything I have felt before. Not exactly dark mana, but it does feel familiar somehow. I try to describe what I am feeling to Nora when the walkway vibrates, and we find the archway is now a solid stone wall. This is turning into some bad horror movie, but we have no choice now but to advance. I ask Nora to wait when I extent Earth Sense into the stone of the walkway or I should say I try, but it is not really stone and rebuffs my efforts. ¡°Nora this is not actual stone. I was going to try to shape it to make sure I would know if something is trying to collapse it under us, but I can¡¯t sense or affect it.¡± ¡°Ok, then get ready to use Air Step if the walkway collapses. You should be able to carry me with you to the platform, right?¡± ¡°Yes, that shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± We continue down the walkway and I sense the air around us, but the strange darkness below the walkway prevents me from sensing anything below. About halfway across large dark tentacles sweep out of the darkness below attacking us. I cast fire bullet into one of the tentacles severing it and air step to grab Nora, but my Air Step doesn¡¯t form, and I stumble as a tentacle smashes into me knocking me to the edge of the platform. Nora side steps the two tentacles aimed at her and grabs my arm to pull me up when the last tentacle that attacked me takes her in the back and sweeps her over the edge into the darkness. I pull myself up and yell her name. The remaining tentacles all sink back into the darkness when a voice addresses me from behind. ¡°You may now proceed to the next part of the test.¡± I turn and see a cloaked figure shrouded in shadows that resist my Dark Sense much like the darkness below. ¡°What happened to Nora?¡± ¡°She is in the Shadow Realm now and is no longer part of the test.¡± ¡°Will she be returned at the end of the test if I proceed?¡± ¡°That will be up to her, but the chances of her escaping the Shadow Realm are very low.¡± ¡°How do I get to her?¡± ¡°That is not wise, you may be able to escape with your skills, but it is unlikely you would be able to get her out as well.¡± ¡°Well I am going to try, so how do I get to her?¡± A low hiss seems to come from the cloaked figure. ¡°Very well, just jump. The area below is a portal to the Shadow Realm.¡± I don¡¯t hesitate and jump off the walkway and on entering the darkness I realize why it felt familiar. It is the same feeling I get when using Shadow Step to enter the Shadows. I try to Shadow step and feel a connection, which is different than a normal step getting a prompt.
Do you wish to leave the Shadow Realm? Yes or No.
I select No, but this looks promising. The problem is I don¡¯t know where I will exit. Is the Shadow Realm adjacent or overlapping? Can I end up in the middle of a rock or in mid-air? Well I can deal with that later. I am still falling, and my Dark Sense is still clouded. Suddenly I see something below me right before I hit the ground or what passes for it here. Other than startling me it doesn¡¯t hurt. The ground feels spongy and gravity doesn¡¯t feel as strong here. I hear a cry that sounds like Nora to my left. I can only see about twenty feet before the dark haze in the air obstructs my view. As I strain to see I notice I can gradually see further, but I don¡¯t have time to wait for my vision to clear. I start jogging in the direction of the cry. The ground is smooth with some spikey dark growths about fifteen to twenty feet apart that stand nearly my height. The growths sway as if in a breeze, but I don¡¯t feel any air currents. In fact, as I jog, I don¡¯t feel any air flowing over my skin. After jogging for another minute, I hear Nora cursing much closer than before, so I pick up speed, while keeping a wary eye on the growths around me. A few minutes later I come upon a strange sight. Nora is rolled up in what looks like a bundle of inch thick tentacles and is laying on a pile of longer tentacles that are undulating across the ground. I cast a fire bullet spell hitting a different tentacle in the pile with each bullet. Each tentacle I hit is severed and dissipates in a cloud of dark vapor. The other tentacles in the pile immediately dump Nora on the ground and start merging together. That explains where the large tentacles went. I hit the larger tentacle with a fire bullet spell, but as more merge in the wounds close rapidly. I think I am going to need some heavy guns for this thing, so I back up and cast shield, air shield, and dark shield. Then I wait for all the tentacles to merge together before hitting it with Enhanced Lightning. The tentacle practically melts under the onslaught. I hold my ground continuing the Enhanced Lightning as the tentacle rushes across the ground to strike me. My shield and air shield both shatters right away, but my dark shield is holding up remarkably well. I only have 15% of my mana remaining when the tentacle collapses. I notice the tentacles around Nora release her and wiggle off in different directions when that happens. ¡°Are you ok?¡± I ask when she gets to her feet. I am still looking around to make sure nothing else is sneaking up on us. ¡°Yes, just bruised. How do we get out of here?¡± ¡°I am not sure, but let¡¯s try to get back to where we entered and see if we can get out from there.¡± We head back at a jog that won¡¯t drain our stamina, which also allows my mana to start recovering. I don¡¯t want to sit still trying to get a faster regeneration rate when we don¡¯t know what else may come after us. It turns out Nora can only see about five feet and I can now see about forty. It takes us about thirty minutes to get back to where we entered according to my map. The mapping function just shows us location, but no terrain of other features at all. I see a line on the map going straight up. I try a quick Air Step and it only holds for a few seconds before dissipating, but that should be enough if I keep moving. ¡°I am going to try to Air Step us back up to where I entered. I should be able to carry you if you can hold onto my back.¡± Nora hops on my back and wraps her legs around my waist, so I can keep my arms free in case we are attacked. As she is getting settled the ground starts shaking, so I don¡¯t wait another minute to leap in the air and start jumping up as fast as possible. I form air steps right at the top of my jump allowing me to leap up again. I watch the map and when I get to the point I entered I trigger shadow step getting the prompt I was hoping for.
Do you wish to leave the Shadow Realm? Yes or No.
I select Yes and light blossoms above me as I step up onto the walkway. The shadowy figure is still standing in the same place. ¡°You have passed the test, congratulations.¡± ¡°This was the actual test?¡± ¡°Yes, one of you had to pass to allow you to both proceed. You may now advance to the end of the walkway where you will meet your companion.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Nora is¡­¡± My voice trails off as I see Nora body begin to turn to smoke and stream into the darkness below.¡± ¡°Your companion entered their own test as soon as you both entered the hallway. A duplicate was made to observe you during the test.¡± ¡°So, Nora was never in any danger then?¡± ¡°Oh, you both were in danger. If either of you had failed the test you both would have never left the Temple and you would come to serve it much like I have.¡± I shiver thinking about it. ¡°Now please advance to the end of the walkway and stand before the crystal formation to be reunited with your companion.¡± I slowly walk to the crystal formation keeping a careful eye around me. You never know if this is still part of the test. After stepping in front of the crystal I receive another prompt.
You have passed the Test of the Timeless Gate. Do you wish to proceed and be united with your companion? Yes or No.
Well not much of a choice. I pick Yes and the room around me vanishes to be replaced by another. This must be the Timeless Gate. It is amazing. Nora and I are in a room that seems to stretch out in every direction forever. In front of us are two fifteen-foot-tall pillars made from some glistening black stone. On closer look the pillars are covered with small insects like ants that are moving constantly. That is kind of gross, but the amazing part is between the two pillars. Different views are showing places on Burra. As the different views appear, I know what is being shown and where they are. There are some beautiful places shown. One is a cave with a sleeping dragon full of treasure. Another is a beautiful island covered in plants made from crystal. Then there is a palace floating in the sky. The world is limitless and we can go anywhere in it we wish. However, we came here for one reason and that is to rescue Poth. First, I ask Nora. ¡°Are you ok?¡± Nora nods, but holds herself with both arms as I look at her. I guess we will defer talking about our tests until we are out of here. ¡°We should focus on finding Poth and see if the Gate can find him.¡± Nora nods and we both focus on the gate, which has been slowing shifting between different views every few seconds. Now it flickers and shows us the view of a cavern lit by flames. In the center of the cave is a raised dais of stone covered in runes and in the middle is a figure in filthy clothes bound at the wrists and neck to the floor by large lengths of chain. As we see him, we know this is Poth. We glance at each other and pull our weapons and join hands as we step into the Gate. Arc2 - Epilogue ¡°Well, where are they?¡¯ The God of Fire demands of the man kneeling before him. The man is trembling as he contemplates his answer. His calm is not helped by the small piles of ash in the room, which were all that was left of others that displeased his master. ¡°We tracked them in two places in the Domain of Water. In both cases they moved before any of our agents could get there.¡± The God leaned back in his throne and room got a few degrees warmer as he considers the information. ¡°Where are they now?¡± ¡°They are in the city of Deepwell.¡± ¡°Mother seems to have found a way to protect them for the moment. Track them if they leave the city and capture them when they do.¡± ¡°Of course, my lord.¡± ¡°You may go.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Thank you, my lord.¡± The man says as he considers what he can do. The city of Deepwell is the capital of the Domain of Water and they have few agents there. There is no way they have enough agents to watch for George and Nora leaving the city. He will have to setup an agent to take the fall for not tracking George and Nora, otherwise he will become another burnt pile of ash in the Gods throne room. ??? The Goddess of Water arrives in a flash of light. Her mother doesn¡¯t lookup from a small basin of water she is staring at. ¡°I see they made it.¡± Her mother says with a smile. ¡°Yes. They made it to the Timeless Gate.¡± The Goddess of Water says excitedly as she takes a seat in a chair that appears out of thin air across from her mother. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any major new activity from the God of Fires agents, so I don¡¯t think he is aware of their target was the Temple of the Seven Moons.¡± Vera says. The Goddess of Water scoffs. ¡°He is so arrogant, he rarely credits mortals with enough intelligence to be a threat.¡± ¡°Hopefully they are able to free Poth and get out quickly before he reacts or this will all be for naught.¡± ¡°I will have my agents ready, but who knows where they will surface with Poth.¡± The Goddess of Water gets back to her feet. ¡°I will stop at my head Temple to talk with my priests before scrying my lands.¡± Her mother nods and the Goddess of Water vanishes. Vera goes back to looking in the basin with a slight smile on her lips.