《Raxil's Resurrection Book 1 : Bloodlines》 Chapter 17 Preview Wandering into the ¡®Head Hunter Association¡¯ Raxil flashed his silver status card at the clerk. The clerk eyed Raxil wearily for some time before asking the obvious question ¡°Who the hell are you stranger? Never seen you around here before, and at silver status at that.¡± Raxil was a at a loss for words, he never made a point of striking up a conversation with one of the clerks before but he was certain this guy had to have seen him at least half a dozen times now. ¡°What do you mean you have---¡± Raxil trailed off¡­ realizing that his radical appearance changes and new outfit had come into play. The clerk snapped back before Raxil had a chance to recover ¡°Ah well it doesn¡¯t mean fuck-all to me just pick your job and get out of my sight ya ugly bastard¡± After a momentary look of indignation Raxil just let out a small sigh and paced over to the silver section of the job postings. The bronze rank missions he was used to were all fairly simple and to the point, kill x amount of creature for x gold. The silver section offered a much wider variety of jobs. Just to name a few of the ones that drew Raxil¡¯s interest were¡­ Silver Status Postings Raxil liked that the caravan and extermination jobs would both be in Gormsey so it was only logical to take both the postings and reap the most reward for the shortest time but he wasn¡¯t really here for the money. At least not at the moment, he had come to snap up a quick job to gain some time in battle practicing his newly minted spells and skills. Thinking of traveling to another town had made him realize he knew hardly anything about the local geography. Raxil¡¯s shoulders slumped as he realized his mistake in overlooking such a simple tool. Raxil left to find a cartographer after accepting the Extermination posting, the loud mouth clerk told him he could try it alone or meet up with the first guy who took the posting. If the ¡°Ass-ling who wouldn¡¯t wait on back-up¡± was even still alive. The door bell jingled in the cartographer¡¯s small shop as Raxil strode in confidently. The small man must not have expected many customers or just didn¡¯t care. He was laboriously working on a large map stretched out on a round table not even bothering to look up at his new customer he didn¡¯t even turn to acknowledge the new presence in the room. ¡°Excuse me sir, I would like to buy a map.¡± Raxil spoke clearly and confidently. ¡°No¡­ you don¡¯t say!¡± ¡°I never would have guessed anyone would be coming into a cartography shop for a map!¡± The small man finally turned to glance at whoever had interrupted his work. Two things happened at once in this moment. One Raxil realized had just met his first ¡®Gnome¡¯ the little fella stood just shy of 3-foot-tall with child-like features. Two the gnome seeing how intimidating Raxil looked in his dark scale armor mistook him for a thief. The local thief and bands of cutthroats would occasionally come by and give the poor gnome a shake down for ¡°Protection¡± money. Galin the gnomes heart fell into the pits of his stomach, he pleaded ¡°No! please! I am sorry for how I spoke! I know I am short on this month¡¯s payment I promise I will have the money to you by tomorrow I am finishing an order now! He stammered out, sweat rolling down his anxiety-stricken face. Raxil guffawed ¡°Easy, easy, I¡¯m just here to buy a map.¡± Galin¡¯s face slowly returned to normalcy as he breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Ah I am terribly sorry, I owe the local ruffians a few G and I have to rush on this order to make my payment.¡± Raxil had overheard of this and similar occurrences from the patrons of the smelly dragon¡¯s inn so it came as no surprise to him. He casually retrieved the purse tucked inside his armor and jingled the coin at Galin. ¡°I am prepared to pay in advance¡± Galin perked up at this turn of events, he could pay his debt and rest easy for the day at least. ¡°Alright, alright, what kind of a map are you looking for?¡± Raxil thought back to his game playing RPG online and how the maps automatically updated as you explored the areas. When he asked Galin for anything similar his little eyes shone with a twinkle. ¡°Yes! Yes! I just so happen to have one enchanted map left in stock. You must be quite the warrior to be asking for one.¡± Raxil had not thought of the cost of such a thing beforehand but from the gnome¡¯s reaction he may have asked for more than he could swallow. Galin handed Raxil a rolled-up map and state plainly ¡°That will be 100G¡±. Mouth dropped open wide Raxil¡¯s vacant stare left the obvious question hanging in the air. Galin just shrugged ¡°Enchanted maps aren¡¯t cheap to make, there not cheap to buy.¡± The very idea of spending that was plain absurd for a¡­ map¡­ it was just too much! Raxil did in fact have the gold, he had accumulated quite a large sum of it since Nezoc had practically bank rolled him for the last couple of weeks while he himself turned in dozens job postings for the ¡®Head Hunters¡¯ and sold off all of the loot. Still though that was quite a large sum to part with and he still needed to purchase a new weapon¡­ After a moment¡¯s deliberation Raxil stumbled upon an idea. ¡°How much would it be worth to you if I eliminated the umm ¡°Weekly Protection¡± fine you seem to have acquired.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Galin snatched the map back returning to his work. ¡°If you got rid of that lot, I would give you this map free of charge, as if that would ever happen. Until I see a better option back to work it is.¡± Raxil didn¡¯t take the gnomes dismissing him lightly he didn¡¯t like being overlooked or thought of as incapable. If he couldn¡¯t stop some small-time thief, he wouldn¡¯t have any hope against the Armosian. He surreptitiously set a few G down on the counter and walked back out. Knowing that if anything happened to Galin his enchanted map would be in the wind. He wouldn¡¯t have wanted the poor gnome to be grassed up or worse even if he didn¡¯t have an enchanted map but the map was important, very important. Raxil returned several hours later and 50G poorer, after some serious haggling with the weapons smith he only managed to get the price of his new beauty dropped by a whopping 5G. An enormous great sword strapped to his back. Originally, he had went with full intentions of buying the best battle-axe his could afford. Then he had remembered that he only started using the battle-axe because of his lack of coordination left handed, as well as the fact that it was a weapon of convivence at the time. -High Steel Greatsword (Durability 250/250) (DMG 60-77) (WT. 30LB) The giant sword had been leaned against a wall in the back of the smithy collecting dust, as either no one was strong enough to wield a 30lb sword or no one cared to. A smile crept a crossed Raxil¡¯s face, in the waning afternoon light he made out the forms of the local ruffians come to collect on poor Galin through the shops window. Attempting to avoid damage to the cartography shop he activated ¡®Ethereal Shift 1¡¯ stepping out of the physical reality and into the ethereal planes. Everything was completely identical only seen in shades of grey instead of color. As a first test Raxil stepped right through the wall of the shop inside only feeling a slight resistance as he passed. He was elated at the discovery, this would make getting out of tight spots a breeze! As the timer on the spell neared the end Raxil made his way over behind a thug and got into a power stance, sword at the ready. In 3¡­2¡­.1¡­. The Greatsword flashed at a speed that shouldn¡¯t have been possible for its enormous bulk, its sharpened overweight edge passed effortlessly through the first thugs mid-section splitting him laterally before being buried into the spinal column of the second. Blood pooled the ground and Raxil burst with a loud laugh exclaiming ¡°Gods damn, I didn¡¯t realize how squishy you guys were compared to monsters.¡± The second thug tried turning and speaking but the severed spine left him paralyzed, Raxil gave the sword a few tugs before sighing and planting a foot on the thug¡¯s spine to wrench the blade free. Galin seeing the man casually decimate the two without any resistance stared wide eyed. The poor gnome had never seen blood drawn before little on the extinguishing of life. He stammered trying to get words to the surface that just resisted his mouths every attempt. Raxil¡¯s head drooped ever so slightly ¡°Damn, I had wanted to follow them back to their gang¡± shaking himself back into a better mood he beamed at Galin with a smile, laying a hand on the little gnome¡¯s shoulder and squatting to be eye to eye with him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Galin I will have the whole lot of them wiped from the city by dawn tomorrow.¡± Turning he strode out into the approaching darkness. As Raxil approached the slums of town he kept a wary eye out for anyone lurking nearby. To his disappointment no one had come out to corner him like they had the first and last time he ventured into this part of town. The 30lb sword strapped to his back was probably a natural deterrent though¡­ After the dark had fallen completely his dark vision kicked in, allowing him to see with the same clarity possible more than he had during daylight. He saw the form of a few men in a back-alley and started heading there. Repeating his new personal mantra aloud, just barely above a whisper to himself. ¡°Leave one alive. They don¡¯t respawn, leave on alive, they don¡¯t respawn¡± Raxil entered the alley to find 4 men holding down another, the larger of the 4 was waving around a bloodied knife as he made a show of see how many holes he could poke in the poor fellow before he would inevitable give up the ghost. Raxil had no sympathy for shit like this, and almost lost his personal mantra right there. He thought over his new spells and decided this would be a good time to try out a couple of things. First while still unseen by the group he cast ¡®Abyssal Flames 1¡¯ aiming the 10FT AOE to only catch 2 of the 4 men and leaving the would-be victim just out of the AOE range. Just as Raxil had hoped, the AOE range was pretty accurate meaning friendly fire wouldn¡¯t be a huge issue. He managed to channel the spell for a full 20seconds draining 100 mana and dealing 100 damage. The thugs must have all been pretty low level as they died just before Raxil cut off the spell. One of the men holding the victim down had booked it as soon as he saw his buddies get lit up like a funeral pyre. The man holding the knife though wasn¡¯t impressed by the display of magic, he whipped his head back and forth in the dark searching. Raxil activated ¡®ethereal shift 1¡¯ and strode over behind the guy. Once again taking up a power stance sword at the ready. 3¡­2¡­1¡­ Reality shifted back into focus, Raxil yelled from behind the thug. ¡°Hey Doc, shows cancelled!¡± Raxil¡¯s side slash tore him apart laterally, before his air-born top half could hit the ground Raxil cast ¡°Mana Blast 1¡± only having time to channeling 30MP into the spell before activation. The concentrated blast of mana burst the thugs falling torso apart sending a wide arc of blood, bone, and nasty everywhere. 17.5 Mardok had arrive in Syrindale the previous night, he had ventured far from his clan remote home in the east. Mardok was an outcast among his people, more often than not his existence was tolerated but ignored. Of the simple-minded people making up half his genetic tree their intelligence paled in comparison to his own. Intelligence however was not a respectable trait for any Orc. The ¡®Blackrot¡¯ clan territory encompassed the majority of the ¡®Ponset Wetland¡¯ the clan numbered nearly a thousand strong. The great clan had slowly but surely conquered the nearby clans. Being part of the original Blackrot family was a great honor for any Orc. Mardok wasn¡¯t just any Orc though, unfortunately. As one of the less attractive 16 wives won by chief Yatur upon the defeat of chief Urul Mardok¡¯ s mother received little to none of the affection of her newly appointed husband. In orc culture the more wives one could provide for the higher their status in the clan. Being the chief of an orc clan meant having to provide for many, many wives. Mardok was the unfortunate by product of his mother tickling her fancy with the occasional Elysian slave. The Elysian¡¯s had long since been traded from clan to clan as a work force and entertainment interest. Never before though had an Orc and an Elysian produced a child. In that regard Mardok had been somewhat of a wonder. His features resembling both and neither. Unlike his orc brethren he was much smaller, he stood at only 6 foot tall. Weighing only a paltry 200lbs he lacked the necessary size to contend with any adult Orc, even the females. His interest wasn¡¯t set on physical might and swinging around large clubs though, for as long as he could remember Mardok loved creating useful items. Items that of course had served no purpose to his clan. He remembered vividly the first time he had spent weeks working on a multi-shot crossbow only to be made a laughing stock. For days his brothers in arms would point at laugh at him bellowing in their deep scratchy voices ¡°Look it Mardok, he must be elf brain play with toy all day!¡± Mardok¡¯ s many inventions had largely just been brought him criticism from his clan members. After suffering through years of daily ridicule and the occasional whop to the head for ¡°playing with toys¡± he had long since set his sights on leaving his home. With hopes on the horizon he set out to the human cities hoping to pursue his craft. As the swamp provided little in the way of crafting components, he would never be able to bring his passion into fruition in the down trodden bogs of the wetlands. His foray into the human territories had proven to be useful, having spent months bouncing from city to city paying for travel with the trader¡¯s caravans. Mardok had advanced his crafting prowess to new heights. It was to his great dismay that he had hit a road block.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. To reach rank 5 as an artificer he would need to lay hands on some particularly rare components. Mardok had spent so much of his time, effort, and small supply of money into the skill he had not taken the time to advance his combat capabilities leaving him unable to harvest ingredients by himself. As rumor had it rank 5 came with the impressive perk of 25% increase in effect to all his creations regardless of what low quality components, they were derived from Mardok was filled with sorrow that he didn¡¯t see any way possible to reach his goal. Due to his unique crafting skills his personal arsenal was quite different from any Orc you would meet. He carried a simple iron staff for deflecting close range attacks, a repeating crossbow slung into a finely crafted shoulder holster. The worn leather cloak he wore also served to conceal several vials of acid concussions he had yet to find any way to weaponize aside from lobbing them like a rock at his enemies. Mardok¡¯ s luck and good fortune having seem to ran out he drowned his sorrow in cheap ale from a local inn. He had pleaded with a few local head hunters in accepting his crafting services in exchange for a bit of power leveling but was rejected by nearly everyone he encountered as they were naturally distrusting of orcs. Even as he attempted explaining that he was only half- orc it hadn¡¯t seem to matter to them. So, as he stumbled out into the city with his racial inheritance ¡®Dark Vision¡¯ active he aimlessly roamed in a drunken stupor mulling over his thoughts. He stumbled over something in the alley landing flat faced onto the rough graveled ground. The smell of blood filling his nostrils helped to rouse him from his drunken stupor. With his vision finally coming into focus he made out the shape of a couple of mutilated bodies sprayed a crossed the alley. Clumsily regaining his feet Mardok heard the faint sound of screams and explosions nearby, curiosity getting the better of him he headed toward the commotion.