Grim laughed at Zach¡¯s quip about the meat dress and spoke quietly. ¡°First, as Elders of the Village they get notifications on DP purchases for towns people. Now of course, if there were thousands of people here it¡¯s most likely that Milly and Andy would turn off their notifications or turn them on for only specific purchases.¡± Zach¡¯s eyebrows raised at Grim¡¯s last statement and Grim rolled his eyes before he explained. ¡°Listen everything is in the shop¡ everything. So if someone buys a powerful scaling weapon or mass murder spell, I would want to make sure I knew who they were.¡± All Zach could do was nod at Grim¡¯s statement.
¡°As for a Mushroom Goat? All animals have mana beasts they can evolve into. Well a Mushroom Goat is one of the few Mana Beasts that can be tamed and turned into farm animals. So when they bought them at the Store, I am guessing they bought the domesticated versions and are hoping to breed them. More specifically the Mushroom Goat is a goat the size of a small pony that has mushrooms that grow out of its body. It specifically cultivates earth mana, and if its flesh has been prepared by someone with the ¡®Cooking¡¯ skill it is said to have a mild strength boost effect or can help someone cultivate earth mana through the foundation stage. The problem with them is that they will eat everything and I mean everything if you can¡¯t provide enough food for them. A wild herd of Mushroom Goats would strip the forest of all its plants, bark off the trees, and even rocks in a couple of years. My best guess is that now that we have a Grain Golem increasing the growth of the crops and maybe harvesting them, a large portion of the grain will go to the Mana Beasts to keep them alive during the winter.¡± Grim seemed to shrug at his last comment and Zach soon realized that even though the farmers wanted to increase their holdings, they may end up starving through the winter.
Looking at Grim, Zach had to ask one final question, ¡°How did they know about the Grain Golem?¡±
Grim simply shook his head, ¡°A Tier 4 Grain Golem is around eight feet tall and looks like Scarecrow without clothes. My guess is that when Kheda and Khulboc started using the stored mana to build the Healer¡¯s Longhouse that they probably were noticed by the majority of the farmers. If some of them have migrated from a decent size City then Grain Golems were be relatively common, and probably shared the knowledge with others. Or one of them knew what a Grain Golem was and once he received the notification about 100 DP decided to be a selfish asshole. Other farmers decided to follow his example and it became one giant fuck up.¡±
Not sure what else to do or say, Zach brought up his log cabin and wondered what were the requirements to upgrade it. Asking Grim just to show him the requirements for upgrade.
| City Quest Name: | Upgrade Artificer¡¯s Shop to Lvl. 2 |
| In order to unlock the Chain Quest to make this an Upgradable building please provide the following:
1) An Artificer of significant level must be able to add additional runes and imbue one spell into the summoning stone. (0/1 Artificer of at least Lv 10 with the skills Arcane Inscription and Spell Imbuement)
2) Four Mana Cores of 100 mana each must be set into the corners of the building. (0/4 100 Mana Cores Placed)
3) 7 books of on Artificer Class and/or Summoning must be absorbed by the building. (0/7 books must be absorbed by the building)
4) One Arcane Material of 10 lbs must be placed in the center of the summoning stone. (0/10 lbs of Arcane Material)
Or
1) 90 DP can be used to purchase for the Chain Quest.
Reward: City Core will unlock the Chain Quest for the building and summoning stone to be upgradable. |
Zach looked at the quest and frowned. He needed books, Arcane material, and to be a certain level just to open the quest chain for the building to be upgraded. ¡°What the hell Grim, this is crazy! A level requirement for your house? What if I wanted to add rooms? Hell I can get one of the farmers to dig an outhouse for me, or do I need to get a bunch of books on how to dig a hole to take a dump in.¡±
Grim chuckled at the thought of book on digging an outhouse hole. ¡°Listen, before you go crazy there is a big difference between a built house and shop and one that is upgradable and recognized by the world. Let¡¯s say you build a house out in the woods with your bare hands. The mana realm would recognize your house as a fancy camp and keep creatures out, but if you want a house that can help you grow and sell goods that takes knowledge and mana.¡±
¡°For instance, I would guess that the mana cores are used to infuse the structure with mana. The books are used to create an arcane library and tell the house what types of tools or ingredients would help you in your crafting. I imagine that the level requirement is there so that a basic knowledge of tools found in the workshop or on the summoning stone could be used. As for the Arcane Material, it probably provides a bonus based on how rare it is.¡± Grim said in a calm voice. ¡°Why don¡¯t I bring up the newly made quest for a Mana Pylon so you can see difference?¡±
| City Quest Name: | Build a Mana Pylon |
| The quest can be completed by using one or all of the following methods:
1) Using an Earth Golem, bind them to the city and have them focus on this quest for 150 days. (0/150 days)
2) Using materials from a quarry have laborers construct a stone dais with a bench. (0/500 Stones Placed or shape into a platform and benches)
3) Summon the Mana Pylon by donating 2,500 mana into the city core. (0/2,500 mana)
Required: 1 Golem bound to a 200 capacity mana core with the agreement to cultivate mana and 1 city core.
Reward: City Core will be able to self-repair the Mana Pylon, City Core will gain a mana generation rate bonus, and decrease of city mana costs for repairs by 10%. |
Grim smiled, ¡°So already it¡¯s amazing that city rulers will have a decrease in repair costs, I had to check ourselves and found out that all repairs that require earth mana are constantly being fed by the Mana Pylon right now. This frees up the City Engineer from checking every building for repairs and allocating mana to them. Of course, it would still need to be done with a large enough city, but even then you are saving on huge sums of mana. Now here is the upgrade quest.¡±
| City Quest Name: | Upgrade Mana Pylon to Lvl. 2 |
| In order to unlock the Chain Quest to make this an Upgradable building please provide the following:
1) An Artificer of significant level must be able to imbue subskill Core Expansion into mana cores. (0/1 Artificer of at least Lv 5 with the subskill Core Expansion)
2) Eight Mana Cores of 10,000 mana each must be set into the corners of the building. (0/8 10,000 capacity Mana Cores Placed)
3) 3 Structural spells must be placed on the stone dias. (0/3 Structural spells imbued in the stone)
4) One Arcane Metal (List: Amebynite, Blalacum, Mithril, Orichalcum, Sarandium, and Stellarine) of 1 lb must be placed in contact with the City Core. (0/1 lb of Arcane Metal)
Or
1) 50 DP can be used to purchase for the Chain Quest.
Reward: City Core will unlock the Chain Quest for the Mana Pylon to be upgradable. |
Grim started to giggle at the blue screen. ¡°One pound of some of the most expansive metal in the world?! Thank the Gods and Goddesses that they set the bar so high. I get the feeling in seven years, we will be rolling in DP.¡±
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.Zach started hearing angry voices coming from the opening. As he looked around he saw Milly get up and look his way. Sighing to himself, Zach got out of the chair and walked with Milly to the outside. It took only a second for Zach to figure out where the shouting was coming from. Andy stood amongst an angry group of farmers with Courtney¡¯s father being the loudest voice amongst them all. Milly started walking to the group with Zach trailing behind as they got closer some of the shouting could be understood.
As Zach walked to the crowd, he saw a large metal being moving out beyond the boundary stones. As he looked at the metal monstrosity, Zach saw it had four legs shaped like the blade of a scythe, but moved like a spider. From the central hip joints appeared to be a suit of armor with two arms that were so long they could reach beyond its long legs. The blades that it held looked to be a Longsword and a Dao in the other. Children seem to run at the edges of the boundary stones watching the great steel golem as it moved it¡¯s steel helmet head back and forth as if looking for a something to kill. It was then that he heard snippets of what the crowd of farmers were saying.
¡°¡ chickens don¡¯t eat much and we will have the grain for winter¡!¡±
¡°Why¡¯s the Grain Golem working on a building?! It should be working on our fields?!¡±
¡°It¡¯s our DP granted by the Gods and Goddesses, so we can spend it however we wish Elder Andy!¡±
The last comment came from Courtney¡¯s farther, and who somehow made the world Elder sound like something dirty. Zach felt a draw on Earth mana and a loud boom sounded as Milly brought her hands together. The crowd stopped talking and opened itself up to face Milly, it was then that Zach noticed two large goats chewing on grass with half glazed eyes being held by Courtney. Courtney seemed to hide her face behind her long hair, while trying to keep hold of the black and white goats. As Zach tore his eyes away from Courtney, he started to notice the two headed chicks that seemed to be clucking in confusion in the shirt of a woman or the Red skinned with brown spotted piglets being herded by a couple of children. It was then that Zach realized that the full sized goats he thought Courtney had, were just kids and were likely to get a lot bigger.
¡°Markus, by all that is holy what were you thinking by buying a breeding pair of Mushroom Goats?!¡± Zach gazed up at Milly and realized that this was the first time he really was seeing her pissed. The gaze she was giving Markus, Courtney¡¯s father, would have wilted a redwood from its intensity.
Markus snorted and gave Milly a disgusted look, ¡°Just because you think you know what¡¯s best for us all, doesn¡¯t mean we agree! When we agreed to come here and setup a village with you Milly, we all agreed to certain terms. You can¡¯t tell me what crops to grow, because I ain¡¯t no damn slave of yours! And if I choose to buy a breeding pair of Iron Silkworms you can¡¯t stop me! Remember we know where you got the City Core from!¡±
Zach saw Milly¡¯s hand clench, ¡°First off, Iron Silkworms do best deep below ground with mineral veins to breed on. Second, you better keep your mouth closed or I will have Andy sew those lips closed with his chains!¡± Markus gripped Courtney¡¯s upper arm leading her and the other angry farmers away. Feeling a wave of possessiveness and worry started to mix with anger at her treatment. A feminine hand came to rest on Zach¡¯s wrist and as he looked over to find Alexa and James were standing next to him. The look in Alexa¡¯s eye told Zach they were concerned about him and his dark thoughts at seeing Courtney and her father.
The crowd continued to be angered at Milly and Andy and after several hours of talking the crowd mostly agreed with Milly¡¯s assessment. In fact some of the farmers bought skills and tools to be a miner, a blacksmith, and a brewer. Which to Zach seemed like a win of momentous proportions, compared to Markus and the few others that made up their mind with the livestock. Milly sighed as she watched the crowd disperse, ¡°Markus was a fool to have spent a gift of 100 DP on livestock in hopes that someone¡¯s wife has the ¡®Cooking¡¯ Skill. Alexa, we have something to discuss about your majority. James, can you go make sure Cassandra doesn¡¯t spend her DP on ¡®Mana Leech¡¯ or something else that she believes will make her more attractive. In fact, see if you can get her to invest in Alchemy or Tailoring at least then she could be some use. Instead of causing us so much trouble.¡±
When Milly made her statement about Cassandra, James took off with a look of worry. Milly walked over to Alexa and smiled, ¡°Zach, has done something wonderful for us. In our creation of the Mana Pylon, the Gods and Goddesses have seemed to bless our family by giving us a House.¡±
Alexa looked up her mother with surprise. ¡°We are now of House Ninniachel, in Ancient Elvish it means the Rainbow Soul. In order to understand the gift and curse we just received, Alexa, you need to remember your Elvish Myths. When the elves were first created on this world, we were meant to be guardians to the plane of Life. So we were given upon birth a complete foundation stage of cultivation with the plane of Life and the gift of ¡®Empathy¡¯ with creatures of Life. Therefore, elves have prided themselves on how much Life mana they could cultivate. As such the different races of elves focus on cultivating only two to three elements. So unless you are a noble mage, cultivating anything other than Life or another element is discouraged.¡±
Looking at Alexa and Zach, Milly spoke again, ¡°We were given by the Gods and Goddesses foundation cultivation techniques to all the realms of Mana and the skill Mana Imbuement. Unlike Spell Imbuement, which requires knowledge of the spell and its effects. You will be infusing mana into an object and as it slowly accumulates that object will gain spell like powers. So why the difference, between the two skills? A mage would reinforce walls with spell imbuement by placing three to perhaps a dozen spells on the walls. A mage with mana imbuement would simply put earth mana into the walls over and over again with the intent for it to become stronger. Eventually, the wall would react to all the forces acting against it and reinforce itself. The true strength of Mana Imbuement isn¡¯t that it reads intent and tries to work it out, but that it can create a Mana Node in this realm.¡±
¡°Alexa, I won¡¯t ask you to leave your dream of being a fighter, but with this skill we can truly make this city a Place of Power. Zach, would you be open to discussing the city¡¯s future with all of us?¡± Milly said as she motioned back to Mana Pylon. They walked with quiet purpose as they entered the Mana Pylon once more. Zach smiled as the rock wall seemed to once again downward and recessed into the ground. Andy was already there looking over several screens as Milly approached him. They briefly embraced as Alexa and Zach stood at the entrance.
Milly touched a blue screen that Andy had open and flicked it over to Alexa and Zach.
| City Quest I Rise to Power for Schoner¡¯s Creek!
A rich quarry of rose marble was founded long ago. The tools and golems used to work the quarry have turned to dust, but the mana enriched node has survived. Creatures big and strong have fought and died over the node. Atlas the current champion is known Stonetooth the First. As a mana monster that has cultivated to a fifth circle of earth, his skin has turned as hard as the marble and his claws grow sharp on the stone. Challenge the Champion and defeat him, once done speak the words: Vasih¡¯ il von Schoner¡¯s Creek.
Kill the Champion and claim the Quarry. (0/1)
Reward: Earth node for the city and a Quarry.
Do you accept the Quest? |
| Yes | No |
¡°Accept the quest. Once, the Golems have the Longhouse up, we go to kill Longtooth.¡± Milly said to Alexa and Zach.
Chapter 5.0 – The Spears Tip
There was an eternal moment of quiet. Zach felt the world around him as his limbs moved. The spear came down like a crane seeking a fish from the bay. Zach feet moved around with speed and purpose as the spear came up, the image of a crane carrying the fish into the air and forcing it down its throat came to his mind. His foot came down and a surge of strength started coming up from the earth through his feet into his hips. Zach felt his torso started to twist as the hands surged forward, and all of a sudden the energy paused at the tip of his spear. Zach mind focused at the tip and he felt as if all the power in his being had lite a flare at the tip of spear. With a completion of the thrust the power exploded at its end and the power in him released like a sonic boom.
Feeling as if all of Zach''s body was drained of all its power he went back to the starting position with the gleaming bronze point even with his eyes. A blue screen popped up in front of him.
| You have gained +1 to your Skill: Spear! You have reached Level 25 in Skill: Spear and advance from Initiate to Acolyte. As a secondary skill you gain 100 experience.
As you have practiced "A Cranes Dance" until your body recognizes each step without thought. Mana channels have been woven into your muscles and you have gained the Weapon Technique: Thrust.
Thrust allows you to pull mana through you into your weapon and add additional damage in your strike. |
| Weapon Technique: | Thrust |
| Mana Cost: | Variable |
| Technique Description: | "A Cranes Dance" has shown you the power of a speedy strike. Prior to any thrust of your spear push mana through your body into the tip of your spear before you strike. The amount of mana you push your through your spear tip will disregard the armor rating of your opponent. Any additional mana spent to overcome your opponents armor rating will be added to your damage one mana point per damage. Your companion will better be able to control the amount of mana use and focus it more precisely during combat. |
Zach sat down and placed his spear on the ground. Smiling he had accomplished what he had set out to do two days ago, when Milly had given them the quest to kill Longtooth. After accepting the quest, Zach had asked Milly and Andy what Alexa and himself could do. Apparently when a mana beast gained midlevel foundation stage they could summon elemental''s, so Alexa and Zach would keep to the sides and pick up any elementals that the beast summoned. It would give Andy enough space to use his chains and allow Milly to utilize her magic to the fullest.
Zach sighed thinking about the role they would take. There was no guarantee that Longtooth would summon elementals, but then again Andy was their tank and the long chains that he used would do the most damage when compared to a sword and shield. So based on the Weapon Master''s recommendation during the days Zach focused on getting his skill in the Spear up to 25. The night after the meeting, Courtney had come by with his stew and had asked Zach what he thought of the whole manner. Like a fool, Zach had told Courtney the truth that her father had been an idiot for buying the livestock and that he didn''t like the way her father had touched her, and then Courtney stood up asking to be excused. That was the last time Zach saw Courtney for Markus had his youngest daughter come, Branwen, by with his evening meal. It wasn''t till after Branwen left Zach had asked Grim what had gone wrong. Grim in his usual sarcastic way explain that perhaps insulting her father was not the best way to explain his opinion on the subject. In fact Grim started to list his previous relationships and several of the examples of him putting his foot in his mouth.
So now Zach sat in the grass meadow and watched the two golems put the finishing touches on the Healers Longhouse. Khulboc, was made of black granite that seemed to sparkle in the light as green flakes inside the stone caught it. The earth constructor golem didn''t have a body like an animal, instead it was shaped like a wagon with sphere for wheels and six arms that came out of the bed of the wagon. It would summon a large rose marble block on its bed and then lift it up with its arms and set it into place, and when it dig with its hands they would change into large buckets while the back arms would brace themselves against the ground. Right now, the golem had shifted it mass and had elongated its arms to help lift up wood beams and place into the roof.
Kheda, the grain golem, was a mixture of green and gold stalks that have been woven into different sheets that was assembled to look like a person. Yet when one looked closer at the Golden the woven sheets contained large grain stalks beneath them moving and growing on a wood frame. The grain heads seem to stick out from the joints, while the leaves and roots were interwoven into the stalk sheets. Looking directly into Kheda''s face was hard as the golem maker had created bundles tied together with bean vines and the eyes seemed to be made of large wheat seeds. You never knew if Kheda was actually looking at you or through you, but it was amazing to watch the Golem push a wood limb through the woven mats. Then the wooden limb would began to grow into a giant beam dried and ready to be installed as Khubloc picked it up and installed it.
In fact, Kheda was on the roof as Khubloc lowered the beam in place. As the beam stopped moving Kheda waved its hands and a circular hole appeared at the ready in the beam and its cross member. Slowly a small rod of wood grew out of Kheda and began to expand in the hole until Zach couldn''t even see the seam. As Kheda worked on another joint, Khubloc used its other arms to smooth the stone around the walls blending it until it looked like one giant piece.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.Over the last two days, Grim and Zach had gone over what the Village Artificer had access to. Zach could see the status of buildings, if they needed repairs and what would be needed to upgrade them. Additionally, if the building was designated for public use like a bathhouse or theatre then Zach could also access their magical imbuements. ''Building Status''? Zach said as he was looking at the Healers Longhouse.
|
| Building Name: | Healer''s Longhouse |
| Building Level: | 0, 87% |
| Time to Completion: | 14 hours and 23 minutes |
| Durability: | 4872+/5600 |
| Building Bonuses: | Over 90% of this buildings mana has been donated by the City Core: Bonus as the City Core has access to a Life Mana Node, healing in the Longhouse will be increased by 12%. Increase Life Nodes or the Building Level to increase this bonus.
Golems are being used to craft the components of the building instead of Summoning the building: -100 mana is needed to place wards and spells in the house. |
|
Zach saw James coming down the path to look at the Healers Longhouse. James nodded a greeting as he sat down next to Zach. "The longhouse is certainly coming together. It will be nice to finally have a home of my own, when did you say it would be ready again?"?
Zach smiled, ever since the golems had started building James seemed to want to when it would be completed almost every couple of hours. "Tomorrow morning. So I heard you decided to spend your DP on some new skills. Didn''t go with a new spell?"
James snorted at the mention of a new spell. "First off, the cheapest spell I could get is Remove Lesser Curse for 125 DP and even then the description says that Mana Theory would make it more potent. No, I went ahead and bought Alchemy, Animal Husbandry, and Forging. Those skills should help me create potions and herbal remedies, and with Animal Husbandry I should be able to heal all the new livestock."
Zach nodded, "James, I have a bunch of herbs to give you before we go. Hopefully that will help you gain a few levels."? James looked up at him and Zach smiled, when James had decided to put down his weapon and focus on healing the village Zach had felt disappointed in James. However, after thinking about it, he had to admit that James had done the right thing in putting down his weapon. He had decided to focus on the village instead of his own.
"So are you ready for tomorrow?" James asked.
Zach nodded, "I just received my first weapon technique. I have to admit that I feel pretty good."?
"So have you discovered your next two forms?"? James asked.
"Next two?" Zach turned his head to look at James for his answer.
James looked at him and nodded, "Yeah, Andy told me that when I became a Weapon Acolyte the next step was to receive two new weapon forms and to master them. You have to master both forms before you can become a Weapon Adept."
Zach grit his teeth at the bit of information, "I don''t suppose he told you how to receive your new forms?"
James bit his lower lip and spoke, "Well he did mention something. If I remember correctly, you start your first form and then at some point you will feel different steps."
Zach sighed, getting back up with his spear he cleared his mind. Zach took several breaths as mana began to flow through his body. Taking a step forward, the spear head moved and Zach could feel the moment where all he had to do was push mana into the thrust and it would activate his Weapon technique. As the spear moved forward and ended its momentum at the spot Zach had aimed their seemed to be a pause in the air. Zach waited for the mana to tell him where to go, when he felt the shadows around him.
The feeling of cold, fear, and aloneness came to Zach. Slowly he exhaled a breathe and white icy gas rose up in front of his vision. Zach could feel his mana pulling the spear head in a swift spin to his left. Zach shifted his feet in half circles back and forth as the spear head circled. As Zach retreated backward and used the butt of his spear to come upward and attack the midsection of his fake opponent. Zach''s breathe was ragged and all of a sudden his back leg took a large step back, while he thrust the spears butt into the ground, angling the spear tip forward as if accepting a charge.
Slowly the dark mana left him and he felt the mana pulling him back into the starting position. Standing up, Zach felt warmth coming back to his limbs as his ragged breathing came back under control. A blue screen showed directly in his vision.
| Congratulations! |
| You have just completed your second spear form "A Strike from the Darkness". As you practice your second spear form you will eventually gain the Weapon Technique: Feint.
Understand this! The darkness hides many things waiting for its chance to strike. Steel and Death await those without vision in the darkness. Reflect on the danger and surprise cause by Darkness as you practice its form. Its truth may lead you to new heights.
Reward: +1 to Spear |
Chapter 5.1 – The Overgrown Path
| Observe check has been successful! For more information increase your Observe Skill. |
|
| True Name: | Longtooth |
| Level: | 37 |
|
| HP: | 15670 | Mana: | 1223 |
|
| Skills |
| Bite Lv. 75 (13%), Claws Lv. 82 (49%), ??? |
|
| Spells |
| Shape Stone (100% Mastery), Summoning Earth Elemental (54% Mastery) |
|
| Enhancement |
| Oppresive Roar, ??? |
Chapter 5.2 – The Mountain should never be Chained
Zach saw Andy pull off his backpack and let it drop to the ground. Slowly, he began wrapping himself in his chains and switch out the club ends with blades. ¡°I will take Alexa, if you get Zach?¡± Andy asked. Milly nodded as Alexa tossed her backpack next to her fathers and jumped on to his back like a toddler asking for a piggyback ride. It would have been funny if not for the simple fact that Andy acted like the weight was nothing, and simply took a step back and began running at a dead sprint to the edge of the cliff. Then like some diving competition, Andy leapt forward keeping his feet together and his hands out. As the two of them began to fall to the hard quarry floor Andy¡¯s chains began to unravel and traveling from his arms with purpose.
The blades attached to the ends of Andy¡¯s chains struck the marble walls of the quarry, breaking the rock and wedging itself securely in as an anchor. It was one thing to watch old movies of Spiderman or Tarzan as they swung from one place to another on a web or vine, but to see Andy do it with his own eyes left Zach with childlike glee that in this new world all was possible. Zach began taking off his own backpack and looked at Milly wondering if she was somehow going to pull a Mary Poppins and have a gravity defying umbrella. Instead Milly seemed to have a small smile on her lips as she shook her head. ¡°Andy was always a bit of a show off. Well, come over here, I can only take so much with me when I cast Blink.¡±
As Zach walked over to Milly, he watched her slim frame take off the backpack and place it with the others. Long elven fingers settled on Zach¡¯s shoulder as Milly began a soft chant as she stared intensily at the Quarry, while Zach gripped his spear in his right hand. The light around Zach and Milly began to brighten and Zach started to feel like air around them cracked with energy. Soon the mana surrounding them began to flash in a strobe pattern as Milly¡¯s voice increased in volume. Milly finally shouted the last word of the spell and with a blinding flash Zach¡¯s surroundings changed from the Quarry¡¯s cliff edge to the Quarry¡¯s bottom. Disoriented, Zach looked around and saw that Longtooth was perhaps hundred yards in front of him and looked to be the size of a city dump truck. The named monster shook its great head and with a stomp of its feet that sent vibrations through the ground began to charge Milly and him.
Milly looked at the Zach and said in a calm voice, ¡°Get Alexa and defeat the elementals it is summoning. Andy and I will take care of Longtooth.¡± And without waiting for confirmation, Milly stepped forward and began chanting while her hands formed complex gestures. Taking a look at Longtooth¡¯s metal teeth and rock skin, Zach knew there wasn¡¯t anything he could do against such powerful beast. So he began moving his head back and forth trying to find Alexa or an Earth Elemental, when Andy swung down and touched the ground twenty feet from Zach. With a cry a pain the three party members turned to see a large shard of ice flying from Milly hands and striking Longtooths shoulder. Grunting, Andy pulled with his right arm on the anchored chain and Zach heard an explosion of rock as it came free. Andy seemed to swing his arm gathering up the slack of the chain around it, as Alexa slipped down from his back. The chains around Andy¡¯s body started to take on a cherry glow as a red haze began to shimmer along Andy¡¯s flesh. Longtooth gave a deafening roar that made Zach whip his head back to the creature. The ice clinging to Longtooths shoulder was causing the bear a great deal of pain as muscled locked and the bear stumbled into the ground. Yet the sound of ice breaking as sharp spikes of stone began to grow from the bears hide echoed off the walls of the quarry.
The glowing red chain from Andy flew pass Zach¡¯s vision and slammed into the Longtooth¡¯s shoulder. Steam burst forth from the hit as Zach hear the explosion of stone. Longtooth screamed as the hot metal buried itself in him, and with a giant paw threw marble gravel up from the ground as it took a swipe at Andy¡¯s chain. The screech of metal on metal rang out, as well as, a grunt from Andy as the chain pulled on his arm. Zach turned and ran towards Alexa as she stood frozen watching her mother and father fight the mana beast. With each step Zach took he felt the shifting of the ground as Longtooth moved. Right before reaching Alexa, Zach felt the instinct to throw himself to the side and roll. Trusting Grim to help him use his Awareness skill, Zach moved and saw a large stone slab come crashing down where he was. Of course, instead of being some grand martial artist that could roll out of a dodge and do a flying kick. Zach¡¯s right arm slammed into a rock on the ground and pain flared up his forearm as a stone shard punctured his flesh.
Zach¡¯s natural instincts screamed at him to get up, and like an drunken fool, he scrambled against the gravel earth to his feet. The large sandstone sheet began to crack and break as Zach looked on. Six arms made from broken stone began splinter off from the sheet and move under their own power. The dust that rose from the sheet began to swirl around the arms and with a few more cracks jagged thin crab legs formed.
Zach grabbed his spear from the ground and focused on the idea of pushing mana through the tip of his spear into the core of Elemental. As Grim recognized his intentions, dark smoke flowed from the skin of his hands into the shaft of the spear and formed a dark edge at its tip. When the bronze spear hit the stone Zach was expecting it to shatter, instead the spear point stunk into the rock, causing a faint brown haze to flicker out of the stone. Immediately, two arms dissolved into small pebbles as they dropped onto the ground around it, while two more grabbed the spear¡¯s shaft before Zach could move it back, and finally two large stone fists raised themselves in the air and began to fall.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Zach felt his instincts kick in and he twisted his body while letting his spear go. The dark mana that flowed from him stopped and a large fist slammed into his collar bone, creating a burst of pain that forced him to his knees. Screaming he looked up at the elemental to see his spear being pulled out and the arms raising again. Stone burst from its body as a steel blade came through it. Alexa shouted out a warcry as she moved the blade out and the two arms raised to kill Zach shattered into small pebbles that fell on his face. With an over arm chop Alex¡¯s sword came down on the rock once again, a flash of light came from the blade as it connected with the elemental¡¯s body and pebbles began to rain down on Zach.
Another roar, distracted Zach from his pain and made him look back at Longtooth. Andy appeared to have several large cuts about his chest and legs, but his chains were wrapped around Longtooth neck and front legs. Purple sickly light came from the chains as Longtooths skin opened up every place it touched metal. While Milly seemed to be springing into the air, casting Fireballs and Ice Lances down onto the massive beast. Blood began to drip from the chains around Longtooths neck as the bear jerked its head trying to bite Milly as she got close. Andy struggled to keep the bear in place as his feet dug into the hard ground. Feeling inspire by the sight of Milly and Andy, Zach got back up from his knees while cradling his arm. His eyes turned back to Alexa as she bent over to Alexa pick up his spear. Gritting his teeth Zach took the spear from Alexa into his left hand and scanned around the quarry.
Light seemed to catch Zach¡¯s vision as he looked towards a crystal on a rose marble outcropping. Slowly the crystal began to grow as the marble began to crack and shift. ¡°Alexa, over there I see another elemental.¡± Zach pointed with his spear. Red pyramids began to form into sharp dagger like points, while the clear crystals on the pink marble seemed to stretch towards the sunlight. Alexa turned and started to walk over to the growing mass, while Zach moved beside with her. The elemental was still creating its form, when Alexa swung the blade down like she was chopping a block of wood, and the elemental broke into pieces. Alexa shook her head and did another quick scan, ¡°Gem Elementals are tough as hell, thankfully we got this bastard before he could grow.¡±
Just as she finished talking, Alexa¡¯s eyes got wide, and she cursed before running toward her parents. Turning around Zach saw what had surprised her. Black tar appeared to be spreading in a great puddle that occasion a large jet would shoot up. Just as Alexa was a few feet away from the elemental multiple jets shoot up from the tar and it seemed to shift its pool closer to Milly and Andy. It was still ten feet away when a jet of black tar shot out at Milly while she was jumping to dodge a paw swipe. Scalding sticky tar splashed across Milly¡¯s robe as she completed a spell. A long spear of ice slammed itself through Longtooths hide puncturing a lung and driving itself into the ground. As the tar splashed around her robe, a look a pain shot across Milly¡¯s face and she fell to the ground in a heap. Zach gritted his teeth against the pain in his shoulder and ran towards the black pool of tar. He had taken no more than three steps when another spray came out and hit Alexa¡¯s shield splashing over it and covering her shield arm. She screamed as she fell to the ground looking at her arm.
Seeing that if he didn¡¯t act Zach pulled back his offhand arm and had Grim activate Thrust. Brown and black energy came from his hand and focused itself at the tip of his spear. Zach stepped into the pool to strike at the body of the spray instantly feeling intense heat around his boots. Screaming in pain and determination, he thrust the spear forward and just as it was about to hit the tar elemental the black liquid moved opening a hole in it¡¯s being as the spear went through. Zach immediately felt his instinct to jump out of the puddle and move away from the elemental as fast as he could. Turning, he forced himself to jump knowing that the landing would send him into agony. As he cleared the elementals pool, he sudden felt an explosion of fire and heat from the elemental right before he hit the ground. The impact jarred his shoulder and pain flooded his body making him see lights. Rolling over on reflex to get off his injured shoulder, he saw the tar elemental on fire as black smoke rose into the sky. Andy¡¯s chained had blue flames dancing on them as two of them moved from the body of the elemental.
Looking at Andy, Zach saw the man awash in purple, red, and brown energy. His chains no longer swung in the air naturally, but rose above him like they were alive. Andy screamed and his chains struck Longtooth like a viper striking a mouse. The blades at the end of his chains plunged deep into Longtooths flesh over and over again. Chunks of meat came out on the chains only to be set on fire and flung to the ground as they came down for another strike. Longtooth¡¯s legs gave out and the massive bear dropped to the Quarry floor mewing in pain. Blood soaked into the ground as Andy made an arcane gesture with his hand and the blades of this chain struck piercing Longtooth¡¯s heart and neck, finally ending the battle.
Quickly, the mana flames around Andy died away and his normal healthy muscular frame looked pale and sickly. His chains that had been moving on their own, dropped onto the ground and quiet descended the quarry. Andy¡¯s head looked up at the sky and in a hoarse voice screamed, ¡°Vasih¡¯ il von Schoner¡¯s Creek!¡±
The words bounced off the walls of the quarry and then a burst of lights appeared, as chiseled crests appeared on the walls. Looking at the crest, it had lines like a tribal tattoo, yet on the sigil it showed a tree with a river flowing out of it. Underneath the crest was small simple words that held a power on their own, Forever Free.
It was then that a Blue screen appeared in front of Zach¡¯s face.
| Congratulations, you taken part in the battle to kill Longtooth and his summoned elementals! Know this that your battle has completed a City Quest! As you have fought in a party, are one of the Village Elders, and your opponent was the primary target of a City Quest; you may choose to defer your rewards to the City Core instead of you. This choice will increase the city¡¯s rewards but will not give you any personal gains. Should you choose not to defer your experience and mana gains, it will be split amongst you and your teammates.
Would you like to defer your experience and mana? |
| Yes | No |
Chapter 5.3 – No Rest for the Wicked, and the Righteous need None
Zach looked at the blue screen for a moment unsure which choice he would make, because a very small voice inside of him told him to grow in power and to take the experience and mana. So before he let that voice gain any more power Zach pressed the Yes button with his good hand dropping his spear. As the blue screen disappeared, Zach could now see Milly, Andy, and Alexa. Each of them press blue screens of their own, as Zach waited for their decision, and as Andy pressed the button on the last open screen another blue screen appeared in front everyone.
| Congratulations you have completed the City Quest: Rise to Power for Schoner¡¯s Creek 1! Your entire party as decided to defer personal experience and mana growth. City rewards have increased, personal rewards have been decreased. Know that your battle with the Stone Dire Bear (Longtooth) Level 37 has brought your city and you rewards!
You have gained +1 to your Dexterity!
You have gained +1 to your Endurance!
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Spear!
Your experience has been given to Schoner¡¯s Creek Core!
Due to the influx of experience Schoner¡¯s Creek Core has researched the following plans: Bridge (Simple), Fountain (Simple), Paved Street, Quarry, Statue (Simple), Stone Gate, Stone Motif (Simple), Stone Wall, and Rose Marble has been added as a material for all existing plans replacing the generic stone requirements.
Your Mana Pool increase has been given to Schoner¡¯s Creek Core!
All gains from mana have been used in the City Quest: Build a Palisade.
Your City has gained an Earth Node, any resident of Schoner¡¯s Creek will now enjoy an increase in cultivating Earth Mana.
Your loot has been given to Schoner¡¯s Creek Dungeon!
Longtooth has now become a named boss of your Dungeon, his level has been reset to your highest dungeon creature (Level 13). Continue growing your dungeon to increase his level.
All creatures and mana beasts killed by Longtooth have now become monsters in your dungeon.
Due to you dungeon having obtain the ability to summon 28.1% of all common creatures of Erirrian forest, Common Fauna (Erirrian Forest) will appear and grow in your dungeon. Continue to collect more living samples to gain the ability to grow more Fauna.
Mana Beasts added to your dungeon are as follows:
Copperbite Snakes
Earth Elementals
Gutrut Boars
Ironhoof Deer
Mosswood Wolves
Shadow Panthers
Stone Bears
Storm Foxes
Weak Earth Elementals
Resources added to your dungeon:
Calcite Uncut Gem (Common)
Iron Ore Seam (Common)
Quartz Geodes (Common)
Copper Ore Seam (Uncommon)
Ruby Uncut Gem (Scarce)
Gold Ore Seam (Rare)
Orichalcum Pocket (Mythical)
A new City Quest: Rise to Power for Schoner¡¯s Creek 2 has appeared at your City Core. |
After reading the blue screen, all Zach could say was, ¡°F.M.L.¡± Dismissing the blue screen Zach looked around the quarry and saw that light seem to flash here and there, as what he assumed was loot being magically devourer by the dungeon. Looking over at Andy, Zach saw him helping up Milly to her feet as part of her kimono towards her feet was covered in black tar. Realizing that Alexa had to be in pain as well, Zach went over to her. Seeing that the tar had splashed her shield and covered her leather arm greaves Zach tried to find the buckles that would release the shield. Realizing that the buckles were covered in black sticky tar Zach pulled his starting dagger from his belt. ¡°Thanks,¡± Alexa whispered as tears of pain made clean tracks on her grit covered face.
¡°There is no need to thank me Alexa. I should have backed you up.¡± Zach said trying to breathe through the pain in his collarbone as the sawing action seemed to be sending waves of agony through him. As the last little bit of the strap was cut through, the shield dropped from Alexa¡¯s arm onto the ground and Zach could finally see that the tar had poured over her bracer melting some of her flesh. Looking at the horrible wound Zach was unsure of what to do.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
¡°I wasn¡¯t talking about that.¡± Alexa said as her face grew with concern as Zach saw her fingers wiggle slightly. ¡°You don¡¯t think James is going to be upset with me do you?¡±
When Zach looked up from her arm to see the fear in her eyes, he finally understood how close of a bond he shared with Alexa. When he spoke it came straight from his heart, ¡°James loves you with all his being, so yes he will be upset that you are hurt and in pain. He may even say something stupid like, you shouldn¡¯t go back out on Quests or into the Dungeon. However, the only reason he is going to say that is because of that love and concern for you. So be prepared for the lecture when you are better, but give it some thought on how you are going to answer him. After all, all men fall to a beautiful woman with all the answers.¡±
Alexa smiled and then half laugh/snorted. The sound came out like a frog sneezing, at which point, both Zach and Alexa started to laugh in pain over the stupid noise. Zach could see through his hazy teared vision that Andy was coming over with Milly. Taking the back of his left hand, Zach wiped away the tears and looked up at them. Milly seemed to be floating a foot above the ground next to Andy as they walked up to them. While Andy looked like he hadn¡¯t had a thing to eat in a couple of weeks, as his normal muscular frame was hallowed out and rail thin. Andy nodded to Zach and looked down at Alexa¡¯s hand, a moment of concern passed his face before speaking. ¡°So what¡¯s gotten into you two?¡±
Zach shook his head, ¡°Nothing. Are the two of you ok?¡±
Milly looked down at the tar and spoke, ¡°The elemental burned my legs and I will have to use the blink spell all the way back home. Andy channeled a great deal of death mana through his body and chains, so he will need probably three or four weeks to recover. Looks like James is going to have to cut off that bracer of yours Alexa. What about you Zach?¡±
¡°Got hit in the shoulder by a rock elemental, I think I broke my collar bone.¡± Zach said. Now that he had calmed down and that the adrenaline had started to wear off from the fight, the broken bone was starting to become a throbbing pain.
Andy started to say something when he went into a hacking cough and his face went flush with red as he tried to recover. As the fit continue Zach began to get worried about his health until it finally died down. ¡°Milly, you and Alexa need to get back to village first. Burns can get infected and its going to take a while for James to treat the both of you. Zach and I can continue on foot after we go see if the bear had any treasure.¡±
Milly smiled and nodded, ¡°Well you boys don¡¯t take too long, and make sure Zach uses his Autoloot.¡± Andy laughed at Milly¡¯s comment and waited for the blinding flash of light that made Milly and Alexa disappeared. Andy came up to Zach with a serious look and pulled off his belt, for a moment Zach was almost afraid that Andy was going to beat him with it, but when he buckled it and looped it over his head Zach realized that it was a makeshift sling. Zach moved his arm into place and as the weight came off the shoulder he was able to sigh in relief and then thanked Andy for his kindness.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it lad. When you have dived as long as I have, you pick up a bit of knowledge, and you and I received minor aliments from the fight. The girls, on the other hand, needed to get back to James as quick as they could to heal their wounds and prevent any scar tissue from forming. You and me can get back to him in a couple of days and still be able to be patched up without any problems. Now, if Grim could join the conversation and if you could Autoloot my daughter shield I would appreciate it.¡± Said Andy as he threaded his chain through his pants loops.
Grim appeared as Alexa¡¯s shield disappeared, smiling and with a T-shirt with a blue cloud symbol on it with the words, ¡®There is no cloud. It¡¯s just someone else¡¯s computer.¡¯ ¡°Hello Andy, how many I be of service?¡± Grim said.
Andy looked down at Grim and spoke, ¡°Well, my boys, what do you think we could have done better?¡± Smiling he started a slow walk over to Longtooths cave.
Grim looked up at Zach, and Zach could tell that he definitely need to be the first to say something. Zach took a few moments to really think over the fight and come up with an answer. Finally as they were about to approach the cave, Zach spoke, ¡°I guess my biggest issue was that I didn¡¯t know what to expect or where the next elemental was going to come from. Grim saved me by getting me to roll out of the way before it crushed me. Still if I could have anticipated where my opponents were forming I could have stopped several elementals.¡± Andy looked over at him giving him a nod and then looked down at Grim.
¡°Well sir, instead of Zach using thrust on the tar elemental. He should have used the spell Spark instead.¡± Grim said, and as soon as he had said it, Zach realized that in the heat of the moment he had completely forgotten about the spell. In fact looking at the dark cave Zach realized that he had another spell that would be useful as well. Focusing on the spell, Light, Zach spoke the arcane words and a ball of light appeared overhead. Zach looked down at Grim to see him smiling back at him.
¡°Both are great points, first there are several party upgrades for Grim that can help with your battle awareness. In order to obtain them, we will need to go to a decent size dungeon and see if we can¡¯t get those upgrades from drops or shops as the old say goes. Still, your point about having a better understanding of what¡¯s going on in combat will help you stay calm and use your mind. To Grim¡¯s point, when holding a weapon in your hands you tend to think it¡¯s the only tool you can use. This is why mages either keep their hands free or have a wand, it helps them think about using their spells instead of trying to hit their target with there weapon. Spark may or may not have worked, tar is flammable and can catch, but the earth elemental may have stopped it.¡± Andy had started walking into the cave and stopped as talking and walking had given him a bit of a wheeze to his breathe.
¡°In¡ Either case¡ You both are correct. Still I think it¡¯s important for all of us to recognize that we did do several things right. You both were able to stop one of the elementals from killing my daughter and that you kept them busy while Milly and me killed Longtooth.¡± Andy took several deep breathes before starting again. Zach and Andy continued another ten feet when the light shone above a great deal of bones in a depression. All of a sudden a flash occurred from the pit and a blue screen appeared.
| Congratulations! Within the remains of several beasts, and perhaps a few other beings, you have found a hidden treasure cache!
You have looted a Orcish Ring of Burning Rage!
You have looted the Tiny Core of a Wood Pixie!
You have looted 10 Earthhorns!
You have looted 7 Shadow Claws!
You have looted 6 Iron Hoofs!
You have looted 2 Clumps of Wolf Moss! |
Smiling Andy tapped Zach on the shoulder and pointed over towards a wall. Dismissing the screen, Zach looked over and saw a large vein of different colors and realized that this was the real prize Andy was after. Andy walked over as he wrapped his fist around his chains. Taking a moment to take a deep breathe, Andy went ahead and began hitting the rock with his chained hand smashing with such force that the walls shook. Chucks of ore began to break off and went flying through the air, but Grim was able to loot it all before it even hit the ground. After a quarter of an hour, Andy finally had to stop in a fit of coughing and a blue screen appeared.
| Through hard work and back breaking labor you have mined several ores.
You have mined 20 lbs of High Grade Iron Ore!
You have mined 5 lbs of Medium Grade Iron Ore!
You have mined 3 lbs of High Grade Gold Ore!
You have mined 2 lbs of Medium Grade Orichalcum Ore!
Mine 1000 lbs of a specific ore to receive a bonus. |
Chapter 5.4 – A Time to Heal
Zach quickly rushed over to Andy, as the man slid to the floor. He could see red flecks of blood were around Andy¡¯s mouth as the coughing became less harsh but raspier like a man just trying to cough through some heavy congestion. Andy looked up at him with a soft smile as he placed his head on the back of the marble outcropping. ¡°Well lad looks like I am done mining for a little while.¡± Andy said as he closed his eyes and passed out.
¡°Shit! Shit! Grim what is happening?!¡± Zach said as he nervously started to shake Andy.
¡°Stop, Zach!¡± Grim shouted, as Zach pulled away from Andy. ¡°I have very little medical knowledge. Especially, since your focus was mainly on computer programming in your old world. However, using the information from TV hospital shows, Medical websites, and our knowledge of Mana Theory, my guess is that the Death mana that he channeled poisoned him.¡± Grim pointed to some yellow bruising and swelling about Andy¡¯s neck and arms. ¡°At this time we can do one of two things; do nothing and wait till he gets better, or we could try and use Mana Manipulation to channel Life Mana through him. Since he seems to be breathing on his own and resting, I think we should leave him be. The Reason being is if we try and manipulate life mana through him; it could disrupt his mana channels and end up killing him.¡±
Zach sat looking at Andy for a minute wondering if he shouldn¡¯t at least try pushing life mana through Andy. Yet Grim was right Andy, didn¡¯t seem to be sweating or spasming, besides the raspy breathe it almost looked like he was resting. Slowly Zach got up and stood back from Andy. When he started looking around for stone to create a camp site. Grim coughed, and Zach turned towards him. ¡°What?¡±
¡°Perhaps it might be better if we figure out a way to get to the backpacks and get supplies? I am sure Andy brought a blanket, water, and rations. It might be tough to drag the packs down here, but it would likely make him more comfortable.¡± Grim said as he pointed toward the way out of the large cave. Zach looked down at Andy and realized that he couldn¡¯t create a campsite without a firewood so he would need to leave him for a little bit. Nodding to Grim, Zach and him walked out of the cave back into the quarry.
Pink marble walls and an eerie silence greeted him as he left the cave. As Zach scanned the quarry, the soft crack of a rock echoed as it bounced down the walls. Zach found small switch back ramp that had been hidden from them when they first arrived at the quarry. The ramp apparently had been built for only a few people to get up and down it, but it was at least clear of debris unlike the main one. Sighing it looked like the from the cave to the backpacks using this ramp would be a quarter of a mile one way. That meant Zach needed to drag the four packs a mile back to the cave and hike a mile to get them. Seeing no better option Zach started his long hike.
For twenty minutes, Zach heard the crunch of gravel under his feet as he hiked up the quarry ramp to their backpacks. At just about half-way up the ramp, Zach heard a metal crunch as took a step. Stopping for a moment, Zach bent down to the gravel and started wiping away the pebbles, when a dull green and spotted brown flat piece of metal was revealed. Excited at the find, Zach dug until he found the edges of the metal and slowly pulled it up. The dull green metal was curved like a dome with interlocking rivets and plates that went down one side. When Zach turned over the plate, deep runes had been engraved in the metal that formed around a socket. After tracing the runes and recognizing a few, a blue screen popped up.
| Congratulations, you have found a Corroded Dwarven Golem Pauldron! Your Arcane Inscription, Golem Creation, Observe, and Mana Theory have been used to identify this object. By using three or more skills in identification of an item, additional information will be yielded.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
The Dwarven Race are Master Craftsmen of all things metal and stone. In order for them to fuel their passion for creation, they created golems to perform menial tasks like farming, hauling, tanning, and cleaning. However, in order for the golems to do the multiple of tasks that the Dwarves did not, their clan of Artificers came up with a plan. The plan was to create a basic frame for the elemental and mana core. The frame would then have specialize sockets, which when switching out plates or pieces of armor inscribed with different spells and skills, the golems could be made to perform multiple tasks.
From the corrosion of the metal, this Pauldron hasn¡¯t been used for a very long time seek a blacksmith or someone with a high enough level of Mend to repair the item.
This Pauldron is inscribed with the spell, Harden. When mana is applied to the inscription, the spell will harden all metal connected to the golem through the socket.
You have gained +3 to your Skill: Arcane Inscription!
You have gained +3 to your Skill: Observe!
You have gained +2 to your Skill: Mana Theory!
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Golem Creation!
|
Knowledge flooded Zach¡¯s mind as to how he could put the armor plate on a golem and lock it into place. Additional knowledge about how the locking of the socket had to be precise to stop mana loss when using a spell sparked an idea of his. Softly, he took a small amount of his mana and wrapped it around the socket. Earth mana seemed to soak into the runes and just before mana activated the spell Zach could feel the mana reach out for the rest of the connection. Turning slowly, he felt the trailing edges of that mana point to another spot. Smiling Zach powered down the Pauldron and began tapping the armor his hand for a second. Finally Zach spoke to Grim, ¡°Go ahead and place this in my inventory. I need to get the packs first and make sure Andy is ok. But maybe while I am getting the second pack we can go treasure hunting.¡± Grim nodded and with a flash of light the Pauldron was stored away.
For hours Zach went up and down the ramp dragging the backpacks back to the cave and checking in on how Andy was doing. After the second trip, Andy was sitting awake when Zach had come back. Zach gave him some water and was able to cover him up in blankets after the both of them removed Andy¡¯s chains. As Andy laid there in his bedroll he told Zach that he shouldn¡¯t worry and he would be able to travel in the morning. Zach took care to make Andy comfortable and place his rations from his backpack close to his head so that if he woke up he could feed himself. Still it wasn¡¯t all doom and gloom, by the time Zach had retrieved the last pack he had found another three pieces to the golem; a Breastplate of Mining, a Greave of Speed, and a Vambrace of Stone Shaping. With each piece his Mana Manipulation and Mana Theory increased.
So as Zach made his last trip down the ramp from finding fire wood and kindling, the sun was getting close to setting and the Quarry¡¯s walls began to cover the path in darkness. Taking a moment to cast the spell Light, his broken collar bone was finally telling him that this was the last trip out and he needed to get some rest. Thankfully, Zach had dropped everything from his inventory at the cave so that he could autoloot as much firewood as possible.
As he reached the bottom of the Quarry Pit Zach pulled out the Greave and felt the tug of mana as he started to walk along the wall. For almost another 300 yards Zach walked until he was lead to a large pile of large marble boulders. Carefully he began to dig around the loose gravel and small stones that the boulders had dislodge from the wall when he stumbled across some dull green fingers wrapped around one of the rocks he was trying to pick up. The fingers were made from the same bronze as the Pauldron and Vambrace, so Zach did his best to clear away the rubble around the fingers. Soon a hand and arm was found, and Zach began to clear way more gravel finding a faceless head and a leg with another vambrace on it. Stepping away from the inactive golem he looked up at the three ton boulder sitting right in the middle of the golem¡¯s torso.
| Congratulations, You have found a Corroded Broken Dwarven Golem! Without removing more of the boulder on top of the golem you are unsure of the type of damage or if repairing the golem is even possible. Autoloot is disabled until all debris is removed.
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Observe!
|
Looking at the blue screen, Zach decided that if the golem had been there for a couple hundred years, it could wait till the morning, and if Andy was ready to walk in the morning back to the village, then the golem could wait for them to be healed. So, with that decided, Zach went back to the cave and lit the fire and activating the camp site before going asleep.
Chapter 6.0 – The Dark Servant
Easy is the descent to hell;
All night long, all day, the doors of dark Hades stand open;
But to retrace the path;
To come you again to the sweet air of Heaven
There is the task, there is the burden.
-Virgil
Zach sat looking at the still broken bronze golem in front of him. It had been nearly two months¡¯ worth of work to get to this point, and as he held the last piece in his hands, he reflected on all that had happened. Remembering that first night in the cave, Andy had a few more fits of coughing but by mid-morning had be able to stand on his own and even carry some weight. So instead of pushing Andy to his limits, Zach had shown him the golem under the boulder. It had taken most of the morning for Zach to use his Stone Shaping spell, but after carving off small chunks of the bolder and having Andy help remove them they had recovered the twisted and torn remains of the golem. After finally uncovering all the rock and dirt around the golem, Zach recovered two additional pieces of equipment and small bits of broken plates that were destroyed beyond repair. After collecting everything Andy and himself carefully built an improvised stretcher from long skinny tree trunks and blankets to carry everything before resting an additional night.
In the morning, Zach use the AutoLoot function on the heaviest items until it said his space was completely full. The nice thing about Zach¡¯s Extra-Dimensional space was that it covert all the weight inside of it to one tenth of what it should have been. The problem was that the Ore, Andy¡¯s Chains, and everything else that was in his inventory still weighed sixty pounds. Piling the Golem Body and the rest of the supplies on the stretcher they started out. The hike back to the village was draining for both Zach and Andy, as they struggled with their ailments and the stretcher. Thankfully the old road and trails were easier to us, but still in the end he gained multiple strength and endurance points from the hike.
When Andy and Zach had finally returned to the Village, they dropped off their gear at their cabins and went to James¡¯ Longhouse. When Andy went inside, Zach saw Milly and Alexa bounce out of their beds and give him a big hug, as James ushered Zach to a stool. Apparently, James¡¯ Heal spell could put you back together quickly but that much forced healing would leave scars. So instead James had decided to use the ritual form of the spell and though it took close to two weeks for Milly, Alexa, and Zach to be healed, they had come out of the whole ordeal without scars or damage to their flexibility.
It was during those two weeks that Zach had used a simple bandage to rip into pieces, and cast the Mend spell repeatedly. Apparently, performing the spell a couple hundred times gains you the ability to thought cast it and raises your mastery level two. Knowing that he had to increase his cultivation level in Earth now, he asked for Milly¡¯s help. Zach had taken a month of 6 hours of mediation to breakthrough to the Foundation stage in Earth and Dark elements. Now that Zach was a higher stage in his cultivation, he could reach out to a ley line or node and fuel large spells with ambient mana. With the next level of Mend unlocked, Zach was finally able to work with metals like copper, tin, lead, and brass, as well as, non-mana infused wood. So Zach started working on the golem repairing when he had time. Soon the days flowed together as he worked with the city golems to finish the Palisade Wall, and then had them start on the smithy. Deciding to improve on his other spells, Zach worked on Shape Stone until his mastery of it reached the second level. Finally, in the evenings he would take a stroll with Courtney around the village listening to her day on the farm and how the goats were far more trouble than what they were worth, and then it was off to the cabin to work on the Golem for an hour before sleep.
Zach was quite happy that Courtney was back in his life. It turned out that after Markus had bought the two Mushroom Goats; they had torn all the grass from his pastures in a couple of weeks. The goats at a tremendous speed and either needed to be escorted out into the woods to other pastures, or someone with the Grow spell needed to work on his pastures every few days. So as Milly, Alexa, and Zach left the longhouse, Markus had come up and demanded that the Grain Golem be used on his field every couple of days.
The smile on Milly face left her and she said, ¡°Markus, I told you not to spend your DP on those goats, and because of your mistake,¡± she jabbed Markus right in the chest with her finger, ¡°You want to slow down everyone else¡¯s crop growth and have the Grain Golem just work for you?¡± Markus looked down at Milly like he was going to hit her. That¡¯s when Andy appeared behind him and Markus stood in absolute stillness. Milly took two deep breaths and finally spoke, ¡°My final and only answer is no. However, Zach does have the Grow spell, and if he chooses to use some of his mana that way I won¡¯t stop him, but he would be a fool not to bargain with you.¡± And with that Milly took a step out of Markus¡¯ reach and gave a stern look at Zach before leaving with Andy and Alexa.
It was at that moment that a deal was struck between Markus and Zach. First Markus wouldn¡¯t interfere with Courtney seeing him. Second, since the goats cost a hundred DP to purchase, then Markus had no claim over Courtney¡¯s DP and she could spend it anyway she wanted. Zach made sure that Markus won¡¯t tell her about the deal making him sign a magical contract, because all he wanted for Courtney was to make her own decisions and if she choose not to talk to him then at least he gave her a chance to make her own choices.
The next day, Zach was out in the pasture casting grow on the bare dirt, when Courtney came out to ask what he was doing at their farm. He told Courtney, how her father needed help and that he would help if he just had a chance to talk to her. So, he told her how he was sorry for saying those things about her father and that he was here to help. It took a few more days but Courtney started showing up with the meals again and they began to take their strolls shortly after.
Smiling Zach at his recollection of events, he held the dull green arm up to repair the last piece that was missing from the golem. Zach focused on the spell Mend, pushing mana through the spell, and a soft glow of threaded light played over the two pieces of the golem, showing Zach that he needed to twist the arm slightly to his left. Zach brought the two pieces together and he released the full amount of mana in a final burst sealing them. As the glow dimmed, Zach saw small holes left in the joining of the two pieces, so he picked up the trashed broken pieces of bronze plates and restarted the spell. Small motes of light peel off the broken pieces and settled in the open gaps, fusing themselves with the metal and resetting the corrosion giving the body a brown polish with flecks of red in the metal. Looking at the repaired arm Zach felt a sense of pride at a job well done, as he placed as last little bit of bronze left in a box. As he turned back to finally looked at the completed Golem, blue screen appeared.
| Congratulations, you have repaired the Corroded Dwarven Golem! The golems body will be reclassified as a Bronze Utility Golem Body. Due to your hard work in repairing the body, you can restore two of the golem¡¯s previous abilities.
Absorb Mana ¨C The golem can passively restore mana of its element type into all Mana Cores connected to its body. Without this ability the golem will require mana from its Master or City Core periodically.
Analyze ¨C By reviewing an action or task multiple times the golem will be able to gain that action as an ability. If the action or task requires a tool the golem will require the tool before performing the task.
Chopping ¨C The ability to chop down a tree, remove all branches and split tree into smaller sections. This ability requires tools and for the Master or City Core to designate how many pieces the final tree should be in.
Core Communication ¨C The ability to directly link with any Core. Once connected the golems ability to perform complex tasks and handle problems will increase.
Cutting ¨C This ability allows the golem to use tools to cut cloth in the most efficient manner for a specific pattern. The specific pattern and cloth must be shown to the golem prior to starting.
Harvest Crops ¨C This ability allows the golem to use tools or its hands in removing a ripen crop. Hauling is required to bundle or move crops to a central location.
Hauling ¨C The ability to perform the task of lifting and moving heavy object(s). The number of objects held or the speed of the movement can be increase with tools. This ability requires the Master or City Core to designate a final location for the object(s).
Plant Crops ¨C This ability allows the golem to till the dirt, prepare it for seeds, and cover the seeds. Plant summoning or Hauling is needed for it to drop seeds in the prepared holes.
Skill: Observation ¨C The ability to review information about an object. This skill allows the Golem to review objects around them and identify tools or targets.
Observation Update:
The Dwarven Race are Master Craftsmen of all things metal and stone. In order for them to fuel their passion for creation, they created golems to perform menial tasks like farming, hauling, tanning, and cleaning. However, in order for the golems to do the multiple of tasks that the Dwarves did not want to do, their clan of Artificers came up with a plan. The plan was to create a basic frame that was flexible in design and abilities which could be switched out to any number of tasks. Therefore, the clan created a frame with specialize sockets, which when switching out plates or pieces of armor inscribed with different spells and skills, the golems could be made to perform different tasks. One century ago, the golem was originally made and sold as a basic mining golem and sent to scout for a Quarry in the Erirrian Forest. When the golem was trapped under a marble boulder the elemental could no longer perform its contract and was released. Hidden by debris and slowly corroding local artificer found the body and repaired it. With the lost of some of its core abilities the Dwarven Stamp of Craftsmanship can no longer be used.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
You have gained +4 to your Skill: Arcane Inscription!
You have gained +5 to your Skill: Golem Creation!
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Observe! |
| Choose two Abilities to keep! |
| Absorb Mana | Analyze | Chopping |
| Core Communication |
| Cutting | Harvest Crops | Hauling | Plant Crops |
| Skill: Observation |
Zach ran his hand down his face feeling the stubble on his chin. The menial abilities of chopping, cutting, and farming just didn¡¯t make sense for Zach to keep. After all, he had a Harvest Golem that could take care of the crops and even did wood shaping which was much more efficient then chopping. He could always skill grind his imprint skill and so there really wasn¡¯t a reason to keep the observation ability. So with three choices left, he went ahead and pressed Analyze. His reasoning was that if the Golem could self-learn then there was always the possibility of it picking up other abilities and skills. The only reason why Zach didn¡¯t choose Absorb Mana was that in a couple of days they were going to head out to the nearest dungeon town with a hand carts filled with goods to trade. Subsequently, they would be headed home with a massive amount of goods and hopefully a few new families. So having Hauling as an Ability would help out the village and himself. Shaking his head he made a decision and pressed Absorb Mana, as a player of strategy games he was always one to play the long game even if it brought him trouble at the beginning so Absorb Mana was just too big of a ability to give up.
The blue screen winked out and soft light seemed to glow from the golem¡¯s body before disappearing. Zach walked over to the skeleton frame of the body, he always thought the body looked like a child had drawn a stick figure of a person and then added a bunch of weird circles at various places. As Zach reached down pressing the cold metal frame against his shoulder, he began to pick up the golems body. Through the weight must have been under a hundred pounds, carrying the metal from inside of his cabin to the summoning stone out back had left him winded. Unlike his first golem, where the circle had been drawn crudely with chalk, Zach had used Stone Shaping to engrave the circles and runes into the large stone stab. During the craving of the circle, Zach had found out that if one had a specific goal or paid attention to details that your skill level with the spell seemed to increase faster than just mindlessly performing the spell over and over again. Now there was a subtle hum to the air around the summoning stone as Zach felt mana bend and flow around the runes and circles. Going to the west cardinal point, Zach placed the Golem¡¯s body in the circle arranging it like a man in the fetal position. Next he went to the eastern circle and placed the large mana core with the imprinted skill of Core Expansion that he had created for this summoning. Zach had enlarged the core close to 600 mana over the last couple of nights by tapping into the Earth Node mana. Granted he couldn¡¯t expand the core past his skill and that if he used the Earth node more than a couple times a day he would start getting a migraine, but it was all worth it in the end.
Walking over the southern circle, Grim placed the contract in it and a blue screen appeared with all the contract language that a battle golem needed. Grim and Zach had review the contract repeatedly, as Zach wanted to make sure he understood the terms needed for the golem to protect him and his group. They added a cause in the contract that if the party needed to escape the elemental would hold their enemies as long as they could before severing there contract allowing the Golem to keep all gains from the contract and mana. Otherwise the contract allowed the Golem to gain all Dark Mana from the creatures that it slain and a standard time of twenty years was set for the end of contract.
Zach went before the blue screen and placed his hands on the edge of the engraved circle. Closing his eyes, Zach went to his mana pool and with the addition of water, his small rocky island in the void looked to be a starry night tropical beach. Zach smiled as he looked around the island with sound of waves rolling into the beach. He felt like he was in one of the photos about Hawaii or a Caribbean Island only instead of a blue sky it was a starry night. Having broken through to the Foundation Stage on Dark and Earth mana the sandy beach had turned into perfect off-white sand and a night sky seemed to cover the top of his island. The only thing that had been a little off putting was that if one looked into the water, large dark shapes seemed to be swimming. Zach sat down on the beach and took of his leather boots off to let the waves come in and barely roll over his toes. It was a moment to relax before he attempted to summon a Dark Elemental.
Unlike summoning one of the other elements that Zach had gathered, the element of Darkness didn¡¯t need a meta-physical representation on his island as it was already present. Apparently, when one first touched their mana pool, whatever element they were strongest in surrounded their mental landscape. For Milly, she saw a lush forest so thick and filled with life that not even the sun penetrated the canopy. While Andy saw endless red, orange, and yellow flowing energy which he had described as if you were staring into a camp fire. For Zach it was the endless void and he couldn¡¯t help but wondered if the gift from the Shadow Panther hadn¡¯t changed his affinity to the elements. Walking into the water, he ventured out to the boundary of his mana pool to see dark runes made from black obsidian as the waves struck against them. Zach reached out to the darkness with his mana and a cold feeling of emptiness came to him as dark mana flooded back into his mana channels. He felt like the cold was settling into his bones, as he every breathe he took came out like mist in the middle of winter. Slowly the Dark mana began to turn in front of Zach and as each complete cycle occur it started to go slightly faster. Zach intone the ritual¡¯s words. ¡°I bespeak the dark and those that dwell in it. I give back the mana that fills me to bring forth a creature willing to bargain. I seek a pact with them to in good faith and openness.¡±
The void turned faster now and Zach could feel beings slide around each other as if out there contained a great mass of slithering snakes. Slowly dark tendrils came out from the void, caressing the runes as they folded back towards the black mass that was at the edge of Zach¡¯s mana pool. The elemental had come because of an all-powerful hunger that required it to consume anything and everything. This elemental was different from the tiny sand elemental he had summoned, as Zach felt like the runes were just keeping it held back. A deep voice spoke, ¡°Food?¡±
Zach hands shook as he focused on the agreement and pushed it forward to the Elemental, writing began to appear on the water when the elemental growled. ¡°No. Consume all, not some!¡± The runes flashed with the backlash of energy as the elemental through itself against the summoning circle. After a few tense moments the being of the void began drifting away leaving the way clear for something else. It wasn¡¯t long before another elemental came, though Zach barely noticed as its essence was about hiding and obscuring, as a dark tendril came out of the void and curled its form in the runic circle. No noise or sound was made, and Zach had a feeling that this was as close of an acknowledgement as he was going to get. So Zach, once again pushed the contract forward and the writing began to appear, but instead of a hiss or a growl, Zach saw inky black shadows move some of the writing around and then it came back to him.
Grim appeared standing on the water with a piece of paper in his hands. ¡°The elemental has some other desires and is willing to extend the contract time and teach you the skill Imprint Abilities, if you work on a its Hide ability with it. Its main concern is that it can be detected by other mana¡ I think it wants you to debug its ability and upgrade it.¡± Grim seemed surprise.
¡°Wait¡ how does it know I can do that? And can I do that?¡± Zach asked as he looked over at Grim.
¡°Well I certainly guess you can. I mean technically Mana Theory allows you to read the runic language and I can help with the translations. You have some knowledge of circuits and an overabundance of working computer logic. If we start framing it like that then it does seem possible and even profitable. As far as, how does it know? Dark elementals tend to find hidden desires and knowledge, it¡¯s possible that it felt your ability to help it as you feed the dark mana back into the void. However, I think we should ask it for the skill Imprint Attributes, instead of Abilities. It might be costlier, but we should be able to make plates like the dwarves did.¡± Grim said quickly.
Zach shook his head and said, ¡°Try to get both and another ten years on the contract. I wasn¡¯t reborn in a new world to do my old job, so if I am going to do it, then I want a serious paycheck.¡±
Grim made the alterations and pushed it back to the elemental. Quickly, the elemental looked over the contract and change some text. Zach watched as Grim and the elemental sent the contract back and forth asking his input on the changes only occasionally. Finally, a deal was made and Zach felt the contract being accepted.
As such a blue screen popped up in his field of vision.
| Congratulations you have reached an accord with a Medium Shadow Elemental!
The Medium Shadow Elemental has a mana pool of 150 and will be placed in a mana core of 600. The core has the Skill: Core Expansion, therefore the Shadow Elemental will continue its expansion until the core reaches 11,000 mana at which point it will breakthrough to its next cultivation level. The contract will still be in effect should the elemental grow larger.
As per the agreement, the Medium Shadow Elemental will fight all designated targets by you, or should you be incapacitated, it will follow instructions of your Grimoire. It will not directly or indirectly target or harm anyone in your party, and will pass all experience gains to you. The contract duration is set for 40 years and has a cause to add more time and favors if both parties agree. Should the Mana Core be destroyed or the Last Stand order be issued, the contract will be broken and the elemental will be given a total of 24 additional attributes from yourself. Lastly, the contract states that the Shadow Elemental will teach you the following skills:
Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Ability
Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Attribute
As recompense you will devote time in reviewing and improving the Shadow Elemental ability Hide. Improvements should be focused on divination spells and mana movement. As no specific time was set aside per week, you must show progress to this goal within the first month after learning both skills.
Please select which 24 attributes will be removed from you to complete the ritual. |
| STR | DEX | CON | END |
| INT | WIS | CHA | LUCK |
Chapter 6.1 – I’ll be your Huckleberry
Zach looked at the blue screen for a few seconds reviewing several strategies on what attributes he should put into the golem. Strength, dexterity, and endurance; all seemed to be attributes that he could easily gain through spear practice and general combat. It would be easy for him to gain back those attributes over the long journey to the dungeon town and depending on his luck in the dungeon, exceed them. Yet when he had reviewed that plan with Grim, Grim mentioned the hidden quest for the village when they had first donated their mana. The quest had been called Nature¡¯s True Balance I and had unlocked some DP for him and the utility spell Mend. Grim suggested that by evenly giving up Attributes he might be able to unlock something as well. Grim and Zach both agreed it was a gamble that there would be a hidden quest or reward, and risk if they were wrong would mean three to four levels to make up the attributes not easily gained.
So now that the time had come, Zach decided to split the difference between the two plans. Pressing each attribute once a little plus one appeared next to each category. Seeing that nothing had happened Zach went ahead and pressed dexterity and endurance eight more times to complete the total loss of twenty four attribute points. The blue screen disappeared and the dark elemental vanished from his mana pool. Zach opened his eyes to see the dim light from the moon reflected off the brown metal as it began to move.
Like a new born animal, the golem was having trouble with coordinating its limbs. Shaking, its arms and legs twisted back and forward until a hand placed itself under it¡¯s body and pushed itself upward. In a few more seconds, the golem was finally standing, then its skeleton frame took its first steps toward Zach stepping out of the summoning circle. As soon as its body left the circle a blue screen appeared.
| Congratulations, your Bronze Utility Golem has now been activated!
Due to one of each attribute being used in the creation of your golem, it has gained the ability Fast Learner! Fast Learner will increase the golems learning a new ability by 10%.
Due to using 8 or more points of dexterity your golem has gained the ability Fluid Movement! Fluid Movement will allow your Golem to have increased speed and grace. +50 to Golems Dexterity.
Due to you using 8 or more points of endurance your golem has gained the ability Harden Body! +300 to Golems HP.
|
| True Name: | Hayze |
| Material: | Mana Enriched Bronze |
| Class: | Utility |
| Tier: | 2 |
|
| HP*: | 430 | Mana: | 600/150 |
|
| Body | Soul |
| STR: | 32 | INT: | 22 |
| DEX: | 87 | WIS: | 25 |
|
| Active Abilities |
| Absorb Mana; Analyze; Hide; Shadow Strike |
|
| Available Tasks |
| Teach: Imprint Ability | Assign? |
| Teach: Imprint Attribute | Assign? |
| Attach Armor | Assign? |
| Protect | Assign? |
| Attack | Assign? |
| Absorb Mana | Assign? |
| Hide | Assign? |
|
Zach dismissed the screen instead of making a choice. He needed to first imprint the skill ¡®Spear¡¯ into Hayze. So placing his right hand on the featureless forehead of the golem; he went to his mana pool. Now instead of having to go into the cold water, Zach saw the elemental Hayze as a black snake that was coiled up on the ground. Hayze appeared to be a black anaconda, while its thick body seemed to spill over with coils. Zach kneeled and focused on doing the movements of his spear form over and over again. The concentration on the skill made Zach¡¯s right hand began to glow in a yellow light. Slowly the light collected in his hand and formed into a spear. Carefully, Zach moved his hand in front of the Hayze¡¯s head and the elemental struck with lighting speed. In the blink of an eye, the elemental snake open its mouth and swallow the glowing spear whole. Light moved around the dark mass of the elemental, as it shuddered and black skin began to molt. The castings were translucent with a purple tint, as a few black scales turn to brown causing the elemental to have a diamond pattern on its body. The elementals long body began to rub against itself causing more of the casting fell off. Feeling bad for the creature Zach reached down and began to help peel dead skin off of the elemental as it slithered around Zach¡¯s feet. Soon all that was left was a little patch on the back of its tail and Zach pulled off gently. Flinging the skin away Zach didn¡¯t see the elemental open its mouth and extend its two-inch-long fangs. He did however feel the piercing pain as they sunk into the back of Zach¡¯s calf.
Zach screamed in pain, as the small glade in Zach¡¯s mana pool began to change. A black boulder of granite began to rise out of the ground. Zach fell against the boulder, until the pain subsided enough that Zach could feel the cubby holes that had been chiseled out in the granite. Looking at the chiseled holes, they were little glowing runes and items inside of them. Finally, the elemental removed its fangs from the back of Zach¡¯s calf and instead of bloody wound, the flesh and cloth were whole. Hayze slithered off into the undergrowth of the island, as Grim appeared and looked at Zach cursing and hitting the rock. Grim, dress in his usual manner, appeared in chuck taylor¡¯s, well-worn jeans and a T-shirt that said, ¡®If you type ¡°Google¡± into Google you will break the Internet.¡¯ Looking down at Zach, Grim smiled and said, ¡°Sorry, seems Hayze wants you starting on his ability as soon as possible.¡± Grim offered Zach a hand and Zach took it slowly coming up to his feet and looking at the boulder.
Limping slightly Zach as he put weight on his leg, he stared into the cubby holes and asked Grim what he was looking at. Grim pointed at the glowing spear icon and spoke. ¡°Apparently, when Hayze imprinted you with the two skills he felt like you needed some sort of system to categorize everything you can imprint instead of trying to summon it. Here watch this.¡± Grim pointed at a cubby hole and a rune floated out as two screens appeared. One showed some type of Gordian Knot of runes on multi colored threads. The second screen asked if Zach wanted to imprint a point of Strength into Hayze. Quickly dismissing the second screen and focusing on the first, Zach had the idea of trying to write a circuit schematic.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
¡°Grim,¡± Zach said, ¡°can you pull up several screens of mana paper and help me?¡± As several blank blue screens appeared, Zach began speaking with Grim on what he wanted. On one of the screens Zach asked Grim to draw the spell like a circuit diagram, having the threads of mana act as wires while writing large blocks for the functional parts of the spell. One sheet turned into eight, as the diagrams quickly became coded to their mana type and different inputs, while Grim placed the runes that were written on each thread to the side of the wires. Another window Zach asked Grim the copy book about runes and how they were supposed to be written into a quick search text page. As the page began to fill, some of the runes changed to words on the diagrams. Finally Zach had Grim open the function runes that housed the main part of the spell into another electrical diagram. Slowly the screen began to expand more and more as large runes were broken down into smaller ones and then into lines, resistors, switches, inductors, grounds, and a dozen more symbols. The screen was as big as a house now and hundreds of runes were next to electrical components. Zach zoomed in on one of the components and saw even more runes attached to Sources and leads, the wealth of information in the spell was incredible. ¡°Well¡ I don¡¯t see any quick answers Grim. I thought that maybe viewing a spell or a mana skill would help me see that a computer programming language was behind everything, but from the looks of it we don¡¯t even have a machine code right now. I mean I see a bunch of gates, energy sources with feedback loops, I even see inputs, but all of it is meaningless as the runes see to govern the type of input or how a switch will act.¡± Zach threw up his hands in the air with disgust.
Grim sat there looking at the schematic for a while until he finally spoke, ¡°I don¡¯t know about meaningless, but I do think we are going to have to build our own machine code and then programming language. Some of these inputs you were talking about have runes next to them with language stating target or chosen object. My guess is that the runes force each conduct into a specific power type that needs to be linked up.¡± The schematic began to change notes began to appear on the schemetic giving inputs names along with movement of data. Snatches of code and new symbols were being made that Zach briefly remembered from his college days.
Grim sighed before speaking, ¡°Well, trying to distill this down to a programming language is going to take a while. I now understand why runes tap into the power of the subconscious, it¡¯s the only way normal beings could control the changes in physics while not doing a couple trillion calculations in your head. Its going to take me quite a while to piece through your college memories to come up with a working theory that you and me review.¡±
Zach wished Grim a good night and brought himself back to reality. Once he did, another message appearred in front of him.
| Congratulations you have Imprinted Skill: Spear into your Golem! Your Imprint Skill can be used on Hayze again in another 8 days. In addition, you have received two new skills per your contract.
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Ability!
You have gained +1 to your Skill: Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Attribute!
Golem has now been set to Protect.
Your Grimoire has started to actively deconstruct and assemble a higher language for spell crafting. Such has not be done since the beginning of this world. Be careful in your pursuit of knowledge, because knowledge without wisdom is worth nothing. Should you be able to make any spell more efficient or come up with a new spell, a request for store purchase will be sent. Should you or your Grimoire come up with an effective higher language, please consider putting your skill and/or knowledge for purchase on the Divine Store.
Beware! As you are the creator of the Mana Pylons and have started actively on this path of knowledge the lowest class of divine beings have taken notice of you. They may not harm or hinder you in anyway, but know that you are now being watched.
You have gained the Enhancement: Divine Notice (Tier 1) ¨C The Divine Host recognizes you as having the power to change the world for better or worst. You now have an increase 16% chance to find hidden quests that have DP as a reward. |
Zach reread the message and wanted to scream and curse. His contract with his golem had started him on a path that the Gods and Goddesses had noticed. At least the blue screen said he was just being watched and they couldn¡¯t harm him, but it still felt like someone was holding a knife to his balls. Of course, if he and Grim only focused on the Hide ability he could also gather some strength before their notice went from idle curiosity to active hunting. Zach started walking back into his cabin, listening to the heavy footprints behind him. Wanting to try and talk to Grim privately, Zach focused his thoughts on Grim. ¡®Grim, did you see the message I just received. What the fuck?!¡¯
Zach could hear Grim¡¯s voice as he whispered, ¡°I told you that the servants to the Gods develop spells and abilities. So take a deep breath and chill the fuck out. It¡¯s going to take me years of deconstructing abilities and spells before I come up with a lexicon of runes and context. We will need that before we even get close to coming up with a programming language. Besides it was only matter of time before you got their notice, you have so many ideas and concepts from your original world rattling around that it was bound to happen¡ Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!¡±
Zach stopped dead in his tracks waiting for Grim to say something more, yet Zach only heard the soft creaking of the golem behind him. ¡°Grim?....¡± Zach said quietly.
¡°Sorry, I am back.¡± Grim said. ¡°Those divine assholes must have looked at my Divine Store search history and data searches, because the store just got an update after six thousand years.¡± A blue screen appeared in front of Zach.
|
Welcome to the Divine Shop (Individual)! You have 0 DP to spend.
Press one of the following options: |
| Character Enhancements | Skills | Spells | Items |
| Grimoire Upgrades | Bloodlines | Divine Favors, Blessings, and Curses | (New!)Package Deals! |
Zach pressed the Package Deals and started seeing hundreds of packages of skills, items, blessings, upgrades and everything else wrapped into 100 Divine Point blocks. In fact, the pricks even seem to copy Grim¡¯s formatting choices on the packages, and the list kept growing. However, as Zach started to look through some of the packages he could automatically see problems. Some packages focused on skills and gear, while others had a spell and some items, but none of them were showing the slick advertisements of ¡®Hot Deal¡¯ or ¡®Value of 200 DP¡¯ to help lure people into buying one package over another. ¡®Oh and they should have a little Item Bought counter so people can sort through the most common packages purchased.¡¯ Zach thought.
All of a sudden a blue screen opened with a bunch of writing and closed, along with the Divine Store window. ¡°Grim, what the hell man?¡± Zach said, and then a new window appeared.
| Thank you and your Grimoire for your suggestion.
A sold counter has been added to every item in the Divine Store. Additionally, the Divine Store now allows deals to be set up in the packages section. Divine beings responsible for items on the Divine Store can now temporary lower prices in package deals up to one month and not influence the standing price of an item. Icons for ¡®Hot¡¯ and ¡®Best Value¡¯ Sales have been added.
As a thank you gift a total of 500 DP and credit for one scaling item under 300 DP has been added to your account. Any more suggestions are welcome, but will no longer gain DP or credit, as we already have a ton of work to do. |
Chapter 6.2 – Never give a Sword to a Man who can’t Dance
Zach looked at the blue screen for a full minute trying to understand exactly what just happened. His first thought was to blow the 500 DP on skills, enhancements, bloodline upgrades, or even items. He could buy the books that were needed for his house quest; or buy passive cultivation techniques like he received with the shadow panther; or he could buy more extra dimensional space and leave his auto-loot function on. In fact, now that there was a new Packages section he might be able to get all three, and he was even able to get a scaling item for 300 DP. Daydreams of scaling weapons that slowly expanded a person¡¯s power came to him from all the VRMMORPG¡¯s that he had played. Dismissing the screen he went into this cabin to start looking through all the wonderful things he could buy.
Looking through the list of stuff, he was starting to wish he could have a shopping cart feature, but instead of asking for one, he just brought up a piece of mana paper and began writing down what caught his attention. When he came across an Enhancement item for males, he started to laugh that even in a fantasy world the male ego was still strong. Looking at the item, Zach pressed the button to look at the description and realized that for 30 DP he could be ready for the Adult Film Industry. Closing the item, Zach couldn¡¯t justify giving up three skills worth of DP for his male ego and continued on looking for other items.
In skills and spells sections Zach found several things that he wanted to ask Grim¡¯s opinion. So he wrote down several combat casting skills and a few spells like Fireball or Ice Dart to ask Grim in the morning whether he thought they would be useful. Opening the items section, Zach pressed the credit icon and the millions or billions of items went away to just a few hundred. He saw items that would scale according to his skill level and provide bonuses in crafting whether it be golems or other items. Weapons seemed to be popular and would increase in damage, as well as, abilities as ones level grew. He was even able to find a scalable Golem parts that linked to Zach¡¯s mana pool, which when looking at the description he almost hit the buy button.
|
| Divine Store Item: | Modular Scaling Breastplate for Dwarven Golems |
| Divine Store Cost: | 315 DP |
| Item Description: | This item is a modular component for a Dwarven Golem. Upon choosing this item a skill must be chosen for the focus of the scaling magic. As the Golem¡¯s Master increases their mana pool; the main skill, abilities, and attributes will increase on the breastplate. When reaching specific milestones the magic will change the material of the breastplate increasing the golems damage reduction. |
|
Zach pondered if the skill had to be one of his or could be anything. If it could be anything, then why not a blacksmith to help him make golem bodies. Writing it down as a top item that he would have to spend a little more DP to get. He went ahead and started looking through the Grimoire Upgrades. Seeing all the party upgrades he could get and Zach began writing down their names; Shared Map, Designate Roles, Role Upgrades, Team Member Sense, Party Telepathy, Small Party Tactics, Party Experience Rules. Reviewing the descriptions made Zach almost purchase each and every one of them but he stopped because he wasn¡¯t sure how common some of them were in dungeons. The Shared Map upgrade allowed Zach¡¯s auto-mapping feature to take input from all of his team members. While the Role assignment, with upgrades, allowed the leader of the group to give out buffs to damage and healing. Party Telepathy was pretty cool as it linked up a small chat room in everyone¡¯s head that allowed shared senses, ideas, and information, but coupled with Small Party Tactics it would make the team move and act almost seamlessly. Lastly with Experience Rules the leader of the Party could set up who and how much mana and experience each party member got for a kill, allowing them to power level a member instead of sharing it all equally.
Taking a moment to put on his night clothes, Zach went head and had Hayze stand guard at the door to his cabin. Taking out the pieces of armor, Zach attached them to each of the sockets and heard a clicking sound as armor turned the socket. Turning to his bed, he lifted up the light cloth blanket he had and laid down on the pile of Horned Rabbit furs that acted as his bedding. It was always hard to find a comfortable spot, as the leather hides were firm but would bunch up or create lumps. Andy had suggested he get a bit of straw or deadfall from the forest and then throw the hides over them but Zach felt that his cabin already had a damp smell to it, he didn¡¯t need the decaying mass of plant matter to add to the aroma. Besides, what Zach really wanted was his space age material mattress back on earth that somehow felt like it had conformed to every curve of your body, while gently rocking you to sleep.
Feeling an uncomfortable lump in his ass, Zach went through the items section for a bed, finding hundreds ranging from 2 DP to 100 DP. Fantasizing about a goose feathered bed with pillows and bedsheets that costed about 40 DP he went ahead and looked at others. While for 100 DP, the goose feathered bed would come with a blessing by the God of Sleep to ward away nightmares and cast a light cure spell. As Zach shifted the furs around he gave up hope of going right to sleep, so instead Zach opened up the Bloodline section hoping that reading it would allow him to drift off to sleep.
Instead what showed up, almost made Zach jump out of bed. Back when he had just arrived in this world, the only item available for purchase was Grim. After he purchased Grim, he had seen other options available but hadn¡¯t really looked in depth to it because of the high DP cost. So now that he was really looking at the section the first item on the list had caught his eye.
|
| Divine Store Item: | Dragon Touched Quest |
| Divine Store Cost: | 200 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item creates a quest chain in which you and other family members will be directed to the nearest dragon in need. Through your interactions with the dragon and performance in the quest chain the dragon may offer you and your family a Blood Bond. A blood bond with an ancient dragon will give each family member innate enhancements associated with the dragon. Beware, most dragons are highly intelligent and wise, but if angered they will kill the offending party. |
|
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
There were maybe a dozen others like Fey Courts, Divine Beings, Elders, and Titans. Each item merely said that it started a quest chain that would create a Blood Bond. Scrolling down, Zach saw other items that seemed just as powerful in their own right.
|
| Divine Store Item: | Family Head |
| Divine Store Cost: | 100 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item creates an organize Hierarchy in your family. The Head of the Family can set what abilities are available for family members upon their majority; as well as create Family Quests, accept minor bloodlines into the family, and has the ability to Disown family members. Additional roles and abilities can be purchased. |
|
| Divine Store Item: | Spirit Totem |
| Divine Store Cost: | 300 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item creates a spiritual bond between an Ascended Mana Beast and your bloodline. An Ascended Mana Beast is a sentient mana beast that has reached the sixth level of cultivation in an element. The Mana Beast will help guide all future generations through advance cultivation techniques for its chosen element and will issue Quests in seeking aid. The Beast will always work towards a mutual beneficial state between you and them. |
|
| Divine Store Item: | Elemental Connection |
| Divine Store Cost: | 150 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item creates a spiritual bond between your bloodline and an elemental plane. This connection will cause 80% of all your offspring to be strongest in this element and they will not be able to cultivate the opposing element. Elemental connection allows for you and your family members to open a dimensional rift to travel to and from the elemental plane. Elementals of the same type will naturally be inclined to like you, while those of the opposing element will actively hunt you down. |
|
| Divine Store Item: | Bloodline Spell Trigger |
| Divine Store Cost: | 300 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item gives your bloodline the ability to embed wards, spells, enchantments, imprints, or runic circles with a spell trigger that requires someone of your family to be present for it to activate. The spell form is automatically placed in the mana structure by your Grimoire based on your desires. |
|
| Divine Store Item: | Bloodland |
| Divine Store Cost: | 800 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item gives your bloodline the one time ability to claim a forty acre plot that is connected to your family. No unauthorized magic can be used on the land without your family¡¯s permission. All mana cultivation on the land is reduced by 90% for anyone not of your family, and is increased by 175% for all family members. Should a City Core be installed on your families land, it will create a family estate and a family dungeon.[/ |
|
| Divine Store Item: | Grimoire Companion Bloodline 3 |
| Divine Store Cost: | 600 DP |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item upgrades the intelligence within your Grimoire Companion. Additionally, the intelligent companion will be able to communicate once per month to the collective subconscious of your race. By purchasing this item your offspring will be able to choose up to 200 DP of inherited abilities upon their majority for free. |
|
¡°What the fuck?¡± Zach said at one of the last items in the Bloodline section. He knew that he had chosen Grim when he first got here, but it wasn¡¯t like he had another 600 DP to spend on the second upgrade. Just to be sure Zach looked at the dulled out items and saw that he indeed had the second upgrade.
|
| Divine Store Item: | Grimoire Companion Bloodline 2 |
| Divine Store Cost: | (Purchased) |
| Item Description: | Purchasing this item upgrades the intelligence within your Grimoire Companion. Additionally, the intelligence will be able to passively cultivate your mana by 1/10 your current cultivation speed. By purchasing this item your offspring will be able to choose up to 100 DP of inherited abilities upon their majority for free. |
|
Scratching his head, Zach just couldn¡¯t figure it out so he had to ask Grim, ¡°Grim, can you help me out here. When the hell did we purchase second companion upgrade for you?¡±
Grim appeared in the cabin with a Spiderman onesie on and a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. Looking at Grim, Zach started to laugh at the sixteen-year-old boy. ¡°Fuck you!¡± Grim said as he pulled the tooth brush from his month. ¡°You do realize that the way I dress comes from your subconscious memory of clothes, and just because you¡¯re a DC fan doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t enjoy the struggle of Peter Parker. A flawed teenage boy trying to help his Aunt and love interest, while juggling the responsibilities of his mutant power. Besides three words! Mary¡ Jane¡ Watson! Red heads are just plain hot!¡±
Zach shook his head, ¡°Dude, Iris West in the comic books was a red head too! Besides the Flash was part of the Justice League¡ and that¡¯s just plain awesome!¡±
Grim shook his head. ¡°Alright! It is crazy late and you are going to have to walk like 10 miles tomorrow. So to answer your question, I got the upgrade when you built the Mana Pylon. Remember how my self-image increased, and how I started passively began cultivating your mana, about that time?¡±
Zach closed his eyes as he tried to remember that day. Slowly a vague memory of surprise that Grim was no longer a ball of light came back to him. With everything that had happened with Courtney¡¯s father and her, Zach had never really questioned Grim¡¯s change in appearance. Opening his eyes, Zach shrugged, ¡°I guess that makes sense. I mean a lot was happening that day and I just took it for granted that you had changed form and all.¡± Just as he finished what he was saying Zach yawned as he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. ¡°Still its pretty cool, I could start doing quests for a Dragon and get like wings or something.¡±
Grim shook his head, ¡°Go to bed Zach. We are both tired, and now is not the time to discuss buying anything. I have your memories of Shake Weights and midnight buying sprees. When we wake up in the morning, we can go over all our options while you pack.¡± Zach said goodnight and went to sleep dreaming of Dragons and Courtney in a very tight leather rogue outfit.
Chapter 6.3 – Make an Interesting Choice Now and Again
Zach woke up stretching his sore muscles. Looking around Zach saw Grim sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him. Today, Grim had settled on the brand Boo Berry and was munching happily on blue ghosts and marshmellows. The T-shirt of the day was black with the saying, ¡°I Believe in Silicon Heaven!¡±, on it. Grim greeted him with a warm morning, which Zach only grumbled at and went over to a clay jug to poured himself some water to wash his face. The cool water hit his face and he instantly became awake wishing for a warm shower, hot breakfast burrito, and a cup of coffee. Instead the breakfast that he was going to have was in a rock stew pot that kept he dumped his left over meals in every day. Pulling out a clean bowl Zach scooped up the thick stew and used the spell Clean Water to add some more liquid to the stew.
¡°Silicon Heaven¡ I don¡¯t get it.¡± Zach said as he sat down at the table.
Grim looked up from his bowl of cereal and snorted, ¡°Its where all the calculators go.¡± Grim said like it was a inside joke, but all Zach could do is bring his spoon out of the stew and let the thick broth dripple back into the bowl.
¡°How about we sit down sometime and come up with a spell to make breakfast burritos?¡± Zach said as he finally took another spoonful of stew. The broth of the stew was flavorful, after all he had been throwing ingredients constantly in it allowing it to become richer and richer. The problem was that it was pretty much the only thing he had to eat for the whole time he had been here. Looking at cereal, Zach wished Grim wouldn¡¯t summon food props as it reminded him of what he was missing. Grim shook his head and then flicked his spoon at Zach. A small droplet of blue milk came flying towards Zach and in a blink of an eye it expanded into a blue screen.
| Thank you for reviewing the new Divine Store Upgrades. If you have any feedback please let us know! |
Zach snorted at the screen. Perhaps it was ache in his neck from sleeping poorly, or the fact that Grim could have cereal in the morning and he was basically living on meat and vegetables, but Zach decided to unload a bit of his frustration on the little screen. ¡°Yeah I have some feedback! It¡¯s great that you include Packages now, but how about a search and filter feature. It took me ten minutes of scrolling last night to find beds, and even then, I didn¡¯t really know if I found them all. Besides you need a timer on your Package deals to tell someone how long they have to buy them. Oh and if you want to be like the big websites, an editor¡¯s choice would be nice to show off items that would be useful to the person¡. And a wishlist section so people can day dream about buying things.¡± Zach said to the air with a bit of annoyance and grump.
The metal spoon that Grim was holding dropped into the ceramic bowl with a clattering and he gave Zach a dirty look. Grim opened his mouth as if to say something but then the world just seemed to pause for a moment. Like a video having trouble downloading there seemed to be a moment that should have continued but instead jumped. ¡°Dude, what the fu¡¡± Grim started staying as the time return to normal. But what had stopped him wasn¡¯t the skip but the blue screen that was in front of Zach.
| THE WORLD SPINS ANEW!
Know this the Divine Store has been updated!
A Package Section has been added to the menu. You will find deals and savings on multiple items offer the Divine Store in this section.
An Expert Pick¡¯s Section has been added to the menu. Expert¡¯s in their fields will be chosen to determine what is the best items for your class. If you do not have a class, then the Expert Pick¡¯s Section will not appear.
A Search function has been added. There are two search functions basic and advance. Basic allows you to search Divine Store sections for words in the name or description. Advance Search is based on your knowledge of what you are searching for. If you lack the knowledge to help identify useful items they will not appear.
A Saved Item section has been added to the menu. Due to this section being added, all sentient creatures will have access to the Divine Store 2 months before their majority. At the time of their majority they will receive their DP as normal, but with the added feature now can plan their buys.
Do to the size of the update, you may have experience a small time skip. Enjoy the updated features.
Personal Message attached: Thank you for your feedback, and don¡¯t worry we didn¡¯t put anything in your stew during the time skip. |
Zach looked down at the bowl and realized that the next time he felt being a little pissy, to shut the hell up. Getting up he poured out the contents of his bowl outside of his door and came back realizing that the message had said stew and not just the stew in his bowl. Sighing he sat back down as the cereal box and bowl disappeared. ¡°I know! I know! I screwed up ok?! I shouldn¡¯t have been an ass and¡¡± Zach stopped as Grim pointed up in the sky like Zach should be apologizing to them.
¡°I am sorry to whoever runs the menus and screens. I am having a bad morning and took my anger out on you. I will do my best to treat you with the respect you deserve from now on.¡± Zach said to the air in the room.
Grim nodded and spoke, ¡°Well, if that¡¯s done, perhaps we can talk a little before spending all that DP you have?¡± Zach nodded as he sat back down. ¡°So I reviewed your thoughts from last night and ideas about how you want to spend them. Thank you, for wanting to including me and ask my opinion. I think we should state our goals in order to prioritize. Short term goals, I have get to the dungeon town, trade what we can and get drops, items, and a few people to come back with us. A personal goal, is to pick up Courtney¡¯s bride price, which I believe that has changed from a couple of milking cattle to either a grain golem for Markus or fence post warding for more pasture land.¡± Zach nodded and kept quiet about the bride price, to him it felt like he was somehow buying Courtney from her father. Whereas Grim had told him that originally the bride price was because you were taking away a set of hands from the farm. In order for the bride to leave her family it was expected to try and replace those hands with tools if you could. Besides it was a local tradition and even though he could marry Courtney without a bride price, she would expect that Zach would take care of her family.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Grim continued, ¡°As a medium goal, I think you would agree that upgrading our living conditions would be preferable. We should also get something that could help you with your class, and maybe help complete quests around the city. Long terms goals are work on the runic language to see if it can¡¯t be turned into a programming language, and amass some wealth?¡± Grim made the last little bit sound like a question instead of a hard statement, but Zach couldn¡¯t argue with him. After all he really hadn¡¯t thought beyond just making a nice house to live in and having enough power to be relatively safe.
Grim thought for a moment and spoke, ¡°Well we do have the Ward Construction Skill, we probably need a book on specific wards to help protect the land from roaming beasts and other things. We may also want to bump up the skill a couple of points but we really don¡¯t know by how much until we get the basic design and try it. As for the cabin, if we upgrade it to a shop we would need seven books and ten pound of an arcane material, you can create the rest of the materials for the quest after the dungeon. I get the sense that if we go above and beyond the requirements we might get extra perks from the quest.¡± Grim paused for a minute as a blue screen with writing running across it appeared and then disappeared. ¡°Alright, how about this for a couple of packages!¡±
| Your Bloodline Companion has assess your skills and goals. The focus was set on low DP items. Of the thousands of items that fit your current needs a small set of Packages have been generated.
(Package One) Common: A total of 8 books and 10 lbs of common mana infused material have been chosen to meet your short and medium-term goals. The title of the Books are; Practical Warding, Weaving a Golem, Elemental Personalities and Locations, Balancing Mana Channels, Elven Wood Shaping, Alternative Summoning Circles, Mary¡¯s Guide to the Best Golem Components, and Odds and Ends. For the material, 10 lbs of Mana Harden Glass which blocks mana leakage has been chosen. Total DP Cost 60.
(Package Two) Uncommon: A total of 8 books and 10 lbs of uncommon mana infused material have been chosen to meet your short and medium-term goals. The title of the Books are; Geraset¡¯s City and Country Wards, Lorn¡¯s Ancient Study of Circles, Elemental Titans and Servants, Dwarven Golem Primer, Review of Argos Runes, River of Mana, Doll Shaping and Alignment, and Todd¡¯s Useful Stuff. For the material, 10 lbs of Alkahest which dissolves and separates all components into its purest form has been chosen. Total DP Cost 130.
(Package Three) Rare: A total of 8 books and 10 lbs of rare mana infused material have been chosen to meet your short and medium-term goals. The title of the Books are; Unnamed Journal I, Clan Stonehand Schematics, Clan Stonehand Infusions, Runic Alternatives, Setting Mana Channels in Molds, Unnamed Journal II, Tome of Pathways, and Analyze Commands. For the material, 10 lbs of Creation Clay, the clay sculpts itself from the user¡¯s thoughts has been chosen. When used in Golem Creation, stat increasing potions can be mixed into the clay and replace of the requirement for the Artificier¡¯s stats to be used during binding. Total DP Cost 380. |
Zach¡¯s eyes got big at the Rare package. It was a lot of DP, and there weren¡¯t really tangible benefits just the fact that Grim felt like using rarer ingredients would increase the rewards. So Grim and Zach compromised, talking about each package and the books. Grim had apparently used Zach¡¯s skills to find the books, so they both trusted the fact that something within the books had to deal with his class. So Zach and Grim worked out a package so that was little less DP but would still have the Creation Clay as a material. Pushing the accept button, 235 DP went away in a flash.
| Purchase Multiple items confirmed!
You have gained Balancing Mana Channels!
You have gained Elemental Personalities and Locations!
You have gained Geraset¡¯s City and Country Wards!
You have gained Lorn¡¯s Ancient Study of Circles!
You have gained Review of Argos Runes!
You have gained Dwarven Golem Primer!
You have gained Clan Stonehand Schematics!
You have gained Analyze Commands!
You have gained 10 lbs of Creation Clay!
Your current DP is 265! |
Zach asked Grim to go ahead and setup buying the Scaling Breastplate, as he wanted the skill of Blacksmithing to help build additional Golems for the next forty years. Grim suggested that they keep at least 100 DP for emergencies, so Zach went ahead and opened up the new package section trying to find a deal. Though there was nothing for Artificer class in the 100 DP range, but he did find something that he liked. Grim nodded at his selection and Zach confirmed the purchase.
| Purchase the Merchant Package!
You have gained Level 10 Trade!
You have purchased a 10x Grimoire Upgrade: Extra-dimensional Space!
(Current Extra-dimensional Space 5¡¯x5¡¯x5¡¯)
You have purchased a 1x Grimoire Upgrade: Weight Reduction!
(Current Extra-dimensional Space weight reduction 20:1)
You have purchased a 1x Grimoire Upgrade: Pocket Wallet!
And you have purchased Modular Scaling Breastplate of Blacksmith for Dwarven Golems.
Your current DP is 150! |
Zach smiled, the merchant package wouldn¡¯t help them fight in the dungeon or build golems, but with close to 125 cubic feet of space, Zach won¡¯t have to worry about running around with a backpack. After the purchase Grim just snapped his fingers, and Zach¡¯s packing was done by Auto-Loot. Digging out the Breastplate, Zach wanted to inspect it before putting it on his golem.
| Congratulations, you have purchased a Modular Scaling Breastplate of Blacksmith for Dwarven Golems! Your Golem Creation, Observe, and Mana Theory have been used to identify this object. By using three or more skills in identification of an item, additional information will be yielded.
The Dwarven Race are Master Craftsmen of all things metal and stone. In order for them to fuel their passion for creation, they created golems to perform menial tasks like farming, hauling, tanning, and cleaning. However, in order for the golems to do the multiple of tasks that the Dwarves did not, their clan of Artificers came up with a plan. The plan was to create a basic frame for the elemental and mana core. The frame would then have specialize sockets, which when switching out plates or pieces of armor inscribed with different spells and skills, the golems could be made to perform multiple tasks.
This Breastplate is wholly embedded with a scaling infusion. No additional wards, enhancements, spells, skills, attributes, or auras may be placed on this Breastplate. The infusion is set to Zachry Alan Lee of House Ridhurja¡¯s mana pool. In order for the Breastplate to be reset Zachary Alan Lee must either die or willing give it to the next person. Current level is 4 and your mana pool is 329.
The Breastplate gives the Skill: Blacksmithing Lv 4!
The Breastplate gives +2 Strength!
Achieve level 10 for a new enhancement! |
Putting the breast plate on his golem, Zach left the cabin to go meet Andy, Milly and Alexa before heading out.
Chapter 7.0 – Dungeon Town
When Zach had written his fanfiction, travelling was always easy, or if it wasn¡¯t easy at least it was fun. Plot hooks like stumbling onto a den of thieves or being ambushed were staples of any good story and there was a reason why they were pretty much constant, because no one wanted to hear how hiking through a forest and eventually on a path to a road was exhausting and boring.
So as Zach, Alexa and Andy stood in a line waiting to go into the dungeon town, Alexa placed her hands on the small of her back and stretched. Looking over at Zach, she smiled, and said. ¡°It will be nice to sleep in a bed again.¡± Laughing, Zach thought he couldn¡¯t agree more, for the past three weeks they had been travelling from their small hamlet to a couple of villages and finally on this road. Most of the villages had a tavern, but it was mainly for the locals to drink at and not really setup for guests or adventurers as the village didn¡¯t want or need them. So instead they negotiated with farmers to use their barns, and were left sleeping with the musky smell of animals and manure while staying dry and warm on a pile of hay.
¡°Personally, I am looking forward to a bath and some washed clothes. I feel like my entire body is caked in an inch-thick layer of dirt and grime.¡± Zach said, as he looked down at his muddy trousers and blackened hands. Zach had never realized how scarce water was when following a path or road. From Schoner¡¯s Creek to Willsden, it had been a narrow dirt path through the woods with no break in the underbrush until their first stop. The campsite was nothing more than a small glade that had been created by the dead fall of a giant tree.
The next day, they finally crossed slow moving stream, and since Zach had the Clean water spell, he filled up his water skins and used the spell to remove everything that wasn¡¯t sweet water. The third day started with rain that lasted for close to four days. Finally coming out of the forest, they found the small village of Willsden, and spent a day in the village to trade some of their rabbit hides and extra crops for little bit of money before moving on. During their time their, Andy had told Zach not to expect much in trade as they headed to the Bellmare, the dungeon town. After all, most of their trade goods were food stores that they could give up. The hare hides and alchemy components would be sold in town as they had the classes to process the items reasonably quickly. No the stop was to talked with farmers and village elders to see what they might need from Bellmare and to ask if any families wanted to move out to Schoner¡¯s Creeks. Andy had some luck and found out that iron tools, salt, and cloth were needed supplies and even had found two families willing to pick up and head out to the Hamlet when they came back.
After Willsden, they headed onward to Woodpine, Dewborne, and Holton. Each village getting slightly bigger and each path become more defined and used. At each stop Andy was able to secure a family or two to head towards the Hamlet when returning, but the list of goods became less as each village was closer to the town. During each of their stops, children and adults came out to watch Zach¡¯s bronze golem. Zach let the children swing on the golems arms, or even let everyone watch as Zach had the Golem Analyze him using his spear skill. It wasn¡¯t until later on the road to Holton that Grim told Zach that Hayze was probably the first golem villagers had ever seen. Whereas Holton had a few grain golems and one constructor in the village.
Finally, walking out of Holton they were officially on their first gravel road heading to Bellmare, and though they picked up speed by hitching a ride on the back of a wagon. It still took several days to travel as the donkey seemed to kick up dust and dirt as it marched on. It was midmorning when the town of Bellmare appeared over the horizon. The town had a large brown stone wall that encompassed a heavily built populace. Off to the east, Zach saw two massive obelisks as wagons rolled out of a large teleportation gateway. Surround the gateway, were farms with warded fencing preventing mana beasts from approaching the gateway. Slowly the road merged with the one connecting the gateway to the town and lines of merchants and farmers stood outside the gates, as guardsmen walked up and down the road.
Once the merchant in front of them cleared the checkpoint at the Gatehouse, a large peppered haired Guard waved them forward. ¡°Place your hand on the crystal, and state your business.¡± The guard said in deep voice. Andy, Alexa, and Zach each took their turn at the crystal and stated that they were here to trade and do a couple of runs in the dungeon.
A blue screen appeared in front of the guard each time one of their hands touched the crystal. Quickly looking over it, the guard waited for Zach to remove his hand before speaking. ¡°Alright, here¡¯s Bellmare¡¯s rules. Outside of the dungeon it¡¯s illegal to have Auto-loot on, if your caught with it on the guards will assume you are stealing. No destructive spells are allowed outside of dueling circles, if caught using a destructive spell you will be expected to pay for all damages and serve as hard labor to the city. You have general access to the merchant and dungeon quarters, therefore do not cross the inner wall for any reason. The Bellmare¡¯s Adventurer Guild runs the dungeon, go there to buy your entrance passes and to find any information about the dungeon. To get to the Guild just follow the red signs. Inns closer to the gate and to dungeon rent for more. Based on your total trade goods, two silver will cover the trade tax.¡± The Guard said as he patted a steel box that he was sitting next to him. Andy pulled out the silver and dropped it in the box, signaling for Zach and Alexa to come along, they entered the crowded streets of Bellmare.
As soon as they entered the city, a wave of stink and decay hit them. Butcher shops, Tanners, and Livery stables were all located next to wall. Stuck in the enclosed space the smell had no place to go even with the Clean Air wards sparkled above the shops and corrals. As they went further down the street the smell lessen, shops gave way to warehouses and several lots for parking wagons. Vocal tradesmen and women were yelling out prices for storage of goods and repairs to wagons. At the entrance to the warehouses, strong men loaded and unloaded the long line of wagons, while bulk traders dickered over prices for their goods. As Andy, Alexa, Zach and his golem broke through the warehouse block, the crowds thinned out and inns could finally be seen in between general stores and several brothels. Perhaps it shouldn¡¯t have surprised Zach as much as it did, but the men and women out on balconies displaying flesh with fake smiles that never quite made it up to their eyes, made Zach lose the hope with magic in this world, humanity would somehow be uplifted instead of falling for their old vices.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
So Zach averted his eyes from the balconies and saw his first orc in front of the brothel entrance. The orc had grey ashen skin behind primitive hide and fur clothing. The creature carried a large crude metal club that was cradled in its heavily muscled arms, as it leaned its back against the wall next to the entryway. A hood covered the top of its face, but the bottom jaw was so massive that the thick tusks yellowed with age stuck could still be seen. The orc watched the patrons of the brothel, flexing its muscles now and again as shouts came out of the establishment.
Curious Zach began to look at the other bouncers for the brothels, when he saw what had to be beastkin. When Grim first told him that there was a beastkin race on Argos, his imagination thought of big breasted cat women that were mainly human except for little furry ears on their heads, backward legs, and a tail. Instead, what he saw was a Hollywood movie werewolf that was slightly taller than six and half feet. Black, grey, and white fur covered the beastkin¡¯s massive frame, as the only piece of clothing was a kilt covering its lower half. Colorful beads and symbols were interwoven into the beastkin¡¯s kilt, as it hung from a large leather belt. The beastkin had no weapons on him, because his hands ended in inch long claws that reflexed the sunlight.
Just as the beastkin¡¯s eyes met Zach¡¯s, Andy¡¯s hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder. ¡°Come on, boy, never get caught staring at a war dog. They view it as a invitation to duel.¡± Andy said as he halfway pulled Zach off the street into a side alley with Alexa. The alleyway was far less crowded than the street, with only a few people carrying goods to the back of the shops. Andy checked over Zach and Alexa briefly making sure no harm had befallen them before asking if everyone was alright.
Alexa and Zach nodded as Andy pointed to a pipe that seemed to be draining a dark blue liquid. ¡°Seems like there is an alchemist shop nearby. We will follow the pipe down this group of alleyways, that way neither of you will get lost in the crowd.¡± As Andy started walking, Zach felt as if this was more dangerous than being out in the main street. Every story he read always had thieves and cutthroats in back alleyways ready to take your money, but as Andy moved on most of the people they met were just average men and women pouring rubbish into the sewer system or taking deliveries. The one time that they did cross someone unsavory was a bunch of people and an orc that looked like giggling anorexic models. As one of them open up his hands to beg, Andy slapped the man¡¯s hands away, saying, ¡°Damn dusters, find your pixie fix from someone else.¡±
After a few turn, they arrived at the alchemist shop, as a young apprentice was pouring out green frothy liquid from a barrel. ¡°Hello there.¡± Andy said, as the apprentice looked up. A sour look crossed his face, but he returned the greeting. Smiling Andy continue, ¡°Your master won¡¯t be in would they? We have quite a few herbs and beast ingredients to sale.¡± The young lad looked at Andy for a moment and then called out for Mistress Rown.
An old woman with sharp eyes came out and she seemed to look them over for a moment before speaking. Turning to Andy, she spoke each word quickly in a high voice, ¡°Alright, you have my attention. I assume from the dirt on your clothes that you want to sell me some ingredients. Depending on what you have, I might be interested but I only buy in the mornings. So just give me a quick list and I will tell you if it¡¯s worth my time.¡± Andy nodded at the woman and motioned to Zach. Grim loaded up the list of goods on a blue screen of mana paper and had it appear in front of Mistress Rown. A small thoughtful hum came out of the Alchemist as she scrolled down the list, finally she closed the screen. ¡°I assume that you have the ingredients in an extra-dimensional space?¡± Zach nodded. ¡°Good! I can take perhaps a third of the ingredients tomorrow morning. If you want to get rid of it all, the bulk apothecary is towards the Adventurer¡¯s Guild at the end of the block. They will give you a horrible price, but can buy everything. If the herbs and beast ingredients are decent quality then I will buy up what I can and suggest a couple other shopkeepers who wouldn¡¯t mind cutting out the middle man. If there is nothing else, I have a brew to get back to.¡±
Andy bowed to the woman, as Alexa and Zach did the same. When she left, Andy looked at the young apprentice and spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could tell us what the bulk apothecary prices are, and a decent inn that we can rest in?¡± The apprentice looked up, as Andy pulled out a silver coin from his pocket.
The apprentice brought the barrel back up and spoke, ¡°There are several decent inns around town, the closest is the Ugly Elemental. If you take the alley way south, you will get to Iron Street, take a left and the Ugly Elemental will be two blocks down on the right. It mainly serves the blacksmiths, but a few iron and coal traders will stay there for a night or two before heading back out. To get back here take Iron Street to Diver¡¯s Row and then right onto Potions Block, but be sure to be here no later than an hour or two after dawn.¡±
¡°As for the price for your goods, check with the bulk apothecary down the street. They post their buying prices on a board for all to see. Mistress Rowan is not going to cheat you, but I won¡¯t help you to cheat her.¡± The apprentice said as he looked at Andy. Andy shrugged and tossed him the coin, he motioned for everyone to follow him as they walked out onto Potions Block. Stepping out into the street was slightly disorienting as stone and wood walls turned into brightly colored store fronts, with small booths manned by young apprentices called out common potions for sale. As Zach looked around he saw several armored individuals with weapons strapped to their sides as they went from booth to booth.
Andy rolled his shoulders and said, ¡°Alright, lets stop at the bulk apothecary figure out the prices for our goods and then we will find the Ugly Elemental.¡±
Chapter 7.1 – The Ugly Elemental
As the party began to walk down Potions Block, yells about the best items and prices in town came from the street vendors. ¡°Elemental Cultivation Pills! One silver to breakthrough through the foundation stage!¡± ¡°Heal Potions! Three Silver, the next life it saves might be yours!¡± ¡°Stat increase salves! One gold for three stats!¡± ¡°Slime counts Increase! Ten Silver, get that special ability!¡±
Zach¡¯s head turned at the sound of potions and what they could do. The cultivation pills and stat increase salves sound like something that could increase his power significantly. Zach looked at this Pocket wallet and a little blue screen showed him that he had two hundred and three silver in which he could use, and the nice thing about a pocket wallet was that if a person placed dungeon coins in it, they could convert the coinage in any manner that they wanted. It also help merchants by allowing them to trade coins through their wallets instead of having to carry around large chest of coins.
The group walked out into the tee intersection, a large bank looking structure sat at the entrance to the street as the electric feeling of mana surrounded the building. Above the stone steps, runes were etched into the columns as blue screens floated between them. Andy, Zach, and Alexa approached the building and saw price lists floating in the air for ingredients and quantity wanted. There was even a quest board that seemed to be floating between the central pillars. Taking a step onto the bulk apothecary¡¯s stone entryway made a blue screen appeared.
| Auto-Loot and Extra-dimensional Space Detected!
You have discovered the following Quests!
Herbal collection (Quantity possessed/Quantity willing to buy):
Wild Lifestem (13/5)
Blood Bonnets (3/7)
Mana Tears (34/8)
Blindrot Mushroom (4/1)
Shadow Stalk (24/17)
Murk Lilly (2/1)
Modark Root (6/18)
Voidcone (13/1)
Firebloom (16/7)
Wolf Moss (2/1)
Ingredient Collection:
Earthhorns (24/2)
Lighthorns (8/9)
Darkhorns (3/18)
Firehorns (7/21)
Lifehorns (19/10)
Waterhorns (2/15)
Airhorns (17/4)
Deathhorns (1/25)
Iron Hoofs (6/12)
Shadow Claws (7/25)
The appraised value of your items are 12 gold 13 silver 93 copper and 2 iron bits.
As you possess several items that are hard to find, a total of 1500 Exp will be given on turning in the items.
Would you like to turn in all items? |
| Yes | No |
Zach pressed no and stepped back to examine the building.
| Building Screen |
|
| Name: | Bellmare¡¯s Bulk Apothecary |
| Material: | Granite |
| Speciality: | Unknown |
| Tier: | 4 |
| Abilities |
| Auto-Trade; Core Communication; Dungeon Link; Extra-Dimensional Space; Job Board; ??? |
|
| Building Description: | Bellmore¡¯s Bulk Apothecary handles the massive amount of herbs and components gathered from the dungeon by Adventurers. Additional permissions needed for more details. |
Looking at the screen, Zach realized that the rulers of the city didn¡¯t want anyone receiving more information about a building then absolutely necessary. However, the fact that the building had abilities made Zach wonder more about what they actually did and how they were affected by the quality of ingredients. ¡°Grim, did you get the pricing information?¡± Zach said as he thought over what his artificer shop would become if he continued to work on it.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°Yes, I did.¡± Grim said, ¡°I also started looking into the buildings spell structure. Its massive and more complex than the simple Hide ability, but it is a little helpful to compare the two different rune structures. The building gave me access to some more of its rune structure when it try to auto-trade with us. Its almost as if¡¡± Grim voice trailed off as the party continued down the street. Looking left and right, shops were selling wards, enhancements, spells, skills, books, food, maps, weapons, armor, golems and even mana cores. Zach truly felt overwhelmed by the amount of goods that he wanted to look at, but Andy had told the both of them that shopping was to be done after one got out of the dungeon not before.
Finally taking the left on to Iron Street, the sound and smell of weapon and armor smiths filled the street. Slate slabs were hung up above the customer heads with a crude chalk price lists. ¡°Grim, you have been really quiet, what the hell are you thinking.¡± Zach said after waiting several minutes for Grim to complete his thought.
¡°Zach, do you remember the Melissa Virus?¡± Grim asked. Zach had to briefly go back into his cyber security history to even vaguely remember what it was. ¡°Its ok, there were a lot of popular trojan viruses that you were quizzed on.¡± Grim said when Zach didn¡¯t answer, ¡°The virus was an email attachment that briefly rewrote security protocols on operating systems email program and then sent itself out again. I was thinking that if we could inject a curse in the aura of one of the herbs that the building auto-trades, you could technically curse the city core.¡±
Zach stopped in the middle of the street at what Grim was proposing. ¡°What?!?¡± Zach said loudly enough that people stopped and looked at Zach.
¡°Calm down and continue walking.¡± Grim said in his ear. ¡°Listen,¡± Grim continued at Zach once again started walking, ¡°its not like I want us to go black hat and destroy a race or something, but when you asked the question about what kind of specialty and abilities the building had, I started thinking about the job board and inventory system. What if the inventory system moves the item and tracks the item like giant database, but in order for it to do that, it has to read the item¡¯s aura. If you could setup a virus in its aura, like the Melissa Virus, you could then curse the core of the city. As far as what type of curse, I was thinking what if the curse merely transported a few herbs, mana, gold, or whatever once a day to our city. It wouldn¡¯t amount to much at first, but eventually it would accumulate over time.¡±
Zach started thinking about it for a while, and a memory came to him. ¡°Your taking about the plot of Office Space.¡±
Grim laughed, ¡°Actually, I was thinking more of Bx1 where he stole from a lot of banks and gave it away, but office space works. Additionally, I was thinking that if we could see the actual changes that occurred because of the ingredients, we could start creating our own information database and even publish it. Besides its not like I can whip this up in ten minutes, I would have to spend years figuring out how to do this.¡±
Zach nodded at Grim¡¯s last comment, a computer virus took a lot of research and understanding the system you were invading, that¡¯s why the movies had it all wrong. Usually they would have a guy type on a keyboard for a few minutes and then hit the ¡®enter¡¯ button before launching some kind of attack. The truth was that the guy typing would have spent week to months getting to know the system and then writing a program that would take advantage of its weak spots. Of course, Zach did know where he could find a curse that was effective against a city core and clone some of it to speed the process.
As Zach was thinking about spell firewalls or quarantine spells structures; Zach heard a loud bang that jerked his head up. Andy and Alexa had stopped in front of a three story building that had chipped plaster on its sides revealing interwoven twigs underneath. The loud bang came from the inn¡¯s door crashing open and two individuals were brawling on the ground. Zach had to say individuals because the person on top was perhaps 4 to 5 feet tall, thick muscled body with a mohawk on his head. Zach had to assume that this was a dwarf, but instead of a thick growing beard, the dwarf had a mustache and what appeared to be a weeks¡¯ worth of growth on his jaw. His skin also had a weird shine to it and when the dwarf brought up his fist, Zach caught what looked like fine wire running through the dwarf¡¯s skin.
As the fist came down, Zach heard a loud crunch and then a hiss. Lifting up his fist, the dwarf gave Zach a view of a lizardman down on the ground. Zach would have thought that it would have a lizards head, Instead it appeared much more human in appearance accept for the fact that its nose was flush with its cheeks. Black oil seemed to spread across the lizardman¡¯s blue green scales, and just as the Dwarf was about to continue his ground and pound; the lizardman slam a large scaly fist right into the dwarf¡¯s crotch.
The dwarf quickly rolled off the lizardman while holding his groin, as a round of loud laughter burst out from the crowd. Looking to where the laughter was coming from, a bunch of dwarves with large mugs of dark liquid were laughing and exchanging coin. As the glint of yellow light caught Zach¡¯s eye, he looked down at the dwarves hands and realized that unlike the downed dwarf, their entire hands and forearms seemed to be made of metal. Some of the dwarves had the brown bronze that was Zach¡¯s golem, while others had silver or steel. Another difference was that they all had long beards with rings woven into the hair. Each ring seemed to be made from the same metal as their hands and had intricate Celtic patterns on them.
A dark shadow went over the two fighters and Zach looked up to a see what appeared to be a large human but with jarring points of stone coming out of his face, neck, shoulders and arms. ¡°Enough,¡± the half-man half-rock elemental bellowed, ¡°Jason, get back to cooking!¡± A large stone finger pointed down at the dwarf without a beard. The hand turned towards the lizardman making him freeze in fear as the finger leveled itself with its chest. ¡°And you! I don¡¯t give a shit if Jason is clanless! You don¡¯t go around beating up my staff! Now you can pay up and leave, or I can take up the debt with the city guard?¡± As the lizardman looked down he began reaching into his pockets for some coins.
Seeing as the fight had been broken up, the crowd began to disperse. As people started moving away, Zach overheard one of the dwarves speaking as he paying off the bet he had lost. ¡°Damn Silverveins, never should have bet on him winning the fight!¡±
| You have discovered a hidden Quest! Death of the Silvervein Clan Part 1!
Having read the journals at the abandoned Dwarven campsite, you know that the expedition was comprised of several Silvervein members. The reason why they were seeking the capital city of Yrasis was to recover something critical to their clan. Jason seems to be a member of the Silverveins clan, talk to him about the death of the clan and the abandoned campsite.
Gain Jason¡¯s trust and speak to him about the abandoned campsite. (0/1)
Reward: ???
Do you accept the Quest? |
| Yes | No |
Chapter 7.2 – Bubbles are for Beers and Dungeons?
Zach accepted the quest and started moving through the crowd towards the dwarf, but as people began getting back to what they were doing, Zach was force to stand still. Just as the crowd thinned enough for Zach to move, he realized that the dwarf had disappeared back into the inn. Giving it a few more minutes, Zach walked up to Andy and Alexa before heading into the Ugly Elemental with everyone else. As the doors opened and Zach walked through the wooden door frame, he found himself on a small landing that had stairs leading up and down. It seemed that in order for the inn to have more space. They had come up with a spilt level floor, going down the stairs Zach saw a wooden floor with several lower tables and benches that the dwarves were settling around; while the upper level contained a deck with several open windows for light and a slight breeze to come in.
Andy pushed past Zach towards the main bar on the lower deck; while Alexa, Zach and his golem made their way up the stairs to a small table near an open window. As they sat down, Zach looked down to see Andy talking with the half-man half-elemental. ¡°He has earth corruption from being petrified.¡± Alexa said. Turing back to Alexa, as she motioned to the innkeeper. ¡°My mother told me about it. Strong earth mana beasts can inject a poison or have an ability that causes your earth mana to replace your body with rock. If you are strong enough earth cultivator than you can use the mana channels in the rock to still move and function with the Stone Shaping spell. There really isn¡¯t a cure for it, the venom actually attaches to the earth element and force all the other types of mana to leave the area. In order to heal it, people have to cultivate all the other elements to a higher level than the mana beast that bit you. My guess is he retired from adventuring to do just that.¡±
Zach turned to her and arched an eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s one hell of a guess? What makes you think of any of that?¡± Alexa pointed over to a small wall mounted display and Zach saw a map of the Bellmore Dungeon mounted with a shield and hammer. The map three main circles just touching each other, inside of the first two circles black lines and symbols lined the map showing traps, creatures and even boss rooms. There was a small date scored into the board below the map along with the words, ¡®There is always a path.¡¯
Zach was just to about to ask Alexa about the map when Andy came up to their table and placed a three of mugs of ale and two keys down on it. ¡°Ok,¡± Andy said, ¡°I got us rooms for the week and information on the dungeon.¡± Zach looked up at Andy. ¡°The innkeeper was a previous adventurer and did solo runs in the Bellmare Dungeon.¡± Zach turned to Alexa and saw that she had a smug smile on her face. Andy ignored the two of them to sit down in an empty chair.
Zach picked up his drink and started taking a sip when Andy let his bombshell drop. ¡°It a pretty standard dungeon for the first twenty floors. The first four floors are sewers, basically the tunnels twist and turn allowing for swarms of rats, slimes, dire rats, spiders, ghouls, and leeches. The floors are heavily travelled as the slimes give the ability of Mana Sight after killing a hundred of them. Most teams of adventurers will focus on them; the rats and leeches are left alone as their abilities and loot isn¡¯t anything great; while some of the spiders and ghouls drop the more common party grimoire upgrades, like mapping, roles and rules. Otherwise, most of the beasts will be weak against fire and bright flashes of light usually stun them. The last boss of the sewer node is a Decay Jelly, most adventurers do not attempt the jelly without a mage or a lot of disposable equipment as it eats equipment.¡±
Andy took a long drink from his ale, reminding Zach that his own drink was untouched. The ceramic mug reached Zachs lips and a warm but slightly fruity drink greeted him as he took his first slip. After a few drinks Andy started back up, ¡°After the Decay Jelly the dungeon turns into an earth node with long tunnels of rock with bits of ore and gems that occasionally turn into a cavern or dangerous pitfalls. The next eight levels are filled with earth elementals, lizards, kobolds, goblins, and rock trolls. The majority of the bosses tend to be Earth Elementals with ore mainly dropping in the boss room. The bartender never made it pass the eighth floor as the boss had a couple of lizards with a poison bite. What he heard though is after the earth node is down it goes into a death node, which is organized into a huge necropolis. Lot of the regular groups farm the war plains but hardly go pass that as it becomes city warfare. However, if you can get pass the boss at the gatehouse a lot of books and items for city quests can be found in shops and homes of the necropolis, so every once in a while someone will make an attempt to strike it rich.¡± Zach had to admit that it did sound like a great place to loot all kinds of stuff, if they could get that far.
Andy took another drink and looked at the two of them. ¡°From the sound of the power levels, the both of you could probably handle everything up to level eight. The Decay Jelly would be a tough fight without a fire or ice spell, but with the lost of some cheap equipment and a careful spell or two, doable. The eighth level boss is a medium earth elemental with a pair of rock lizards. The rock lizards have a petrifying bite that can leave some serious earth corruption if your not careful, and without a serious spell caster or hammer, the elemental is going to take a while to break up, which increases the chances of being bit. So unless we can figure out a way to kill those lizards fast, we won¡¯t be going beyond.¡± A sour expression turned on Alexa and Zach¡¯s face at thinking about how they would stay in the beginning levels, and never get any real loot.
¡°So I will go confirm this with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, pay our fees, and get a map of the floor layouts up to tenth floor. First few floors will be crowded, but I think we should focus on getting the both of you Mana Sight if possible as for our first goal, any beast cores or extra upgrades, we keep and feed to our dungeon. If the both of you really want to test yourselves in the Necropolis for things to help our city core; then Zach, you should look around for a Life and Fire mage tutor. See what they charge for Kotan boards for healing, flesh renewal, and offensive fire spells. Alexa, go ahead and look for a few hammers or maces, they usually do the most damage to earth creatures. Otherwise,¡± Andy said as he finished up his ale, ¡°spend a little bit of money on whatever, and meet back here before the sun sets. How¡¯s that sound to the both of you?¡±
Zach and Alexa both nodded their acceptance of the plan and sat drinking the ale. Zach looked back at the map and decided to ask Andy a question, ¡°Why the circles?¡±
Andy finished this drink and looked over to where the map was and nodded. ¡°The theory is that a dungeon is in an extra-dimensional space which is fueled by an elemental plane, or like a bubble of reality. When a City Core establishes one, it forms this bubble and as mana beasts enter it, the bubble is shaped by their experience and power. Given enough mana and time the bubble expands, until it touches another bubble or another node. So when a node is linked to a dungeon it begins to create pathways to the opposite side. Adventurers call a subsection of the pathways a floor, because the last room or creature in the subsection is identified as a floor boss. The node boss is that final creature of the entire node and has the most say over what the node looks like. At least that¡¯s what Milly told me, then we got really drunk one night and she told me the mages theory on dungeons sharing nodes and how they can be jump points to different cities.¡± Andy looked at Zach as got out of the chair and stroked his unshaven weathered face and said, ¡°If you want my opinion, it¡¯s because when a dungeon has an open section it¡¯s always a big circle. So most people just think every node is a big circle.¡± Andy got up and headed out, and Alexa soon followed him to put away her gear into her room leaving Zach to drink alone.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
It took about ten minutes for Zach to find his room as the staircase to the third level was on the outside of the building. His room was maybe sixty square feet with a bed and a wooden chest to place things in. Zach cursed the size of the room, as feeling of closing walls came to his mind. ¡°Man, I really should have wrote a fantasy harem story where the inn rooms were closer to the downtown Hilton suites.¡± Zach said.
Zach heard a snort as Grim appeared on the bed. ¡°At least you¡¯re not bedding down in the stables or in the common room. Besides lets face facts, Courtney is more woman that you can handle, and giving you two slave girls would only mean the awkward silence afterward would be twice as bad.¡± Zach sighed as some of the equipment he was carrying was placed in the chest and a little bit of weight left his body.
¡°Well someone is in a mood today,¡± Zach said to Grim. Grim was wearing a brown T-shirt with a red and yellow bullseye on it that said ¡®Shiny¡¯, as he held a paperback copy of ¡®I, Robot¡¯.
¡°Just tired of working on the Hide ability, after working out the basic plan a month ago. You can¡¯t believe how long of process it is too slowly draw out each component and function, translate it to machine specification and then figure out coding for it. Thankfully, as I get one structure down I can translate more of the spell, but it still a boring process that takes a while to even guess the functions of new runes. No wonder anyone working on a spell borrows other people¡¯s work even if it¡¯s more inefficient, trying to come up with just the basics is exhausting.¡± Grim said as he laid back in the bed and opened the book. The shift in weight on the floor boards creaked gently as Hayze entered through the door. Grim lowered his book slightly as he gave Hayze a dirty look and then started back up in it.
Feeling the uncomfortable tension in the air, Zach realized it would be better to leave and do a little bit of shopping now to force Grim back into his mind. Zach put a few more items in the chest and walked out onto Iron Street. He could see Alexa already haggling with one of the many dwarven smiths around, so he decided to go ahead and see if he couldn¡¯t find an Artificer or Mage tutor. Turning around, hoping for a sign post, Zach just finally gave up and started to ask people for directions. Thankfully someone took the time to explain that Bellmare only had an artificer shop in the inner city, in which he was banned from, but the Mage College was two blocks away from the dungeon.
It took Zach about an hour to get to the Mage College as he browsed the goods of some of the shops along the way. As Zach got close to a couple of four story buildings with a few Minarets on them, he finally got the blue screen he was waiting for.
| Building Screen |
|
| Name: | Bellmare¡¯s Mage College |
| Material: | Granite |
| Speciality: | Unknown |
| Tier: | 3 |
| Abilities |
| Core Communication; Dungeon Link; ??? |
|
| Building Description: | Bellmore¡¯s Mage College handles the education for aspiring mages. This facility is only available to Bellmare citizens. Additional permissions needed for more details. |
Surprised that the building would be restricted to only people in the town, Zach began to look around the shops lining the street. There were shops for ritual supplies, magical pets, cultivation techniques, and skills books. But it wasn¡¯t till he found an open park with Kotan boards setup next to stone chairs that he finally found what he wanted. As mages and students sat around the boards placing color beads here and there, Zach finally found a mage sitting by himself with a little slate chalkboard that gave rates on spells. Zach looked at the rates and saw that the man could give Zach three tries on a Kotan board for a spell at ten silver, or for eighty silver, you could learn a spell by getting tutoring from the mage.
After asking what spells he could learn, Zach paid a hundred and sixty silver to learn the spells, Fire Arrow and Purge Poison. Apparently, the Mage College held the secrets to restoring petrified flesh, and they kept a monopoly on it milking the adventurers for all that could get. Zach was glad that he paid the extra money as it took six tries on one of the spells even with the guidance of the Mage. The mage explained that Kotan boards changing based on who was playing them forcing mages to help tutor someone in a spell. So after talking with the man a little more and losing a Kotan game against him, Zach left with two new spells and with very little silver. Thinking that he would need to ask Andy and Alexa if they wanted him to buy the healing spell for pertified flesh with DP instead, Zach made his way to the inn as the sky darkened.
Zach arrived at the inn and saw that Andy and Alexa were at a previous table and were having a dinner of herb roasted meat surrounded by vegetables. Zach pulled up a spot at the table and they sat down to share in the food that his companions had ordered. After having his first plate, Andy asked what he had bought and Zach flicked the two spells screens over to Alexa and Andy as he carved off some more of the meat.
| With help of Kizar the Broken you have learned two new spells. |
| Spell Name: | Flaming Arrow |
| Spell Mastery: | 0 |
| Spell Cost: | 15 mana |
| Spell Description: | By focusing on the element of fire you can summon a small orb of flames and sending it shooting in a direct line. Upon hitting the target it will use its intense heat to burn a hole into their flesh. Armor and auras may lessen the damage. |
| Spell Name: | Purge Poison |
| Mana Cost: | 15 |
| Spell Description: | You can now hook this spell in the aura of someone for eight hours. Should the person be poisoned a small air pocket will form around the poison and shoot it back out of its entry point. This spell can be cast on a person up to three times in their aura. |
|
Chapter 7.3 – Dungeon Entrance
Zach felt the light grease from the meat coat his tongue with flavor, with each bite the taste of herbs and salt magnified the savory firm, but not overly done, piece of steak in his mouth. After chewing the first piece for everything it was worth, Zach opened his eyes to see the flick of Andy¡¯s wrist dismissing the screen in front of him. Spearing a few purple finger potatoes and white carrots, Zach continued his culinary adventure as Alexa cleared her throat.
Zach bit down on the waxy potatoes and carrots as they burst in his mouth spilling out their juices that had melded with roast. Zach noticed that Alexa¡¯s dirty blonde hair showed a natural shine with combed straight lines. She must have had it cleaned and trimmed, Zach thought, as Alexa came back up holding a pair of maces made with pitted black iron. ¡°Found these at a local blacksmith shop. They¡¯re apprentice work and I was told that after a dozen strikes on the Decay Jelly they will be useless. Their master suggested that a stone sledgehammer is preferred, but the general store was out of them.¡± Alexa placed the two maces down on the table with a heavy thud. Zach placed his fork down on the clay plate and picked up one of the maces. The first feeling that came over him was how heavy the iron shaft and its head was. Taking his other hand to support the weight, Zach¡¯s fingers ran over the misshapen head of cold metal. Large hammer strikes had dented the globe so much that it looked more like a deformed orange, with the occasional red spot of rust in its pitted surface.
Looking over to Andy, Zach saw the man merely bobbing his head in agreement as the juice from his meal fell off his chin. Taking a dirty cloth napkin from his pocket, Andy wiped the juice away before taking a swallow of his food. ¡°Good. The both of you did nicely today.¡± Andy moved the roast off to the side so that Alexa and Zach could continue to eat, while Alexa picked up the maces and put them back in her pack. Andy laid out several maps on table and organized them in a fractal spiral. Each map was of one large circle with lines that represented pathways. Symbols and occasionally numbers were placed next to each pathway and a list was off to the left side of the map. Zach heard the drawing of a pencil on paper coming from his left, as he felt some of his reserve mana drain away from him like the feel of water rushing down a pipe.
Andy pointed at a symbol that looked like circle with two arms coming out of it, ¡°This is the Dungeon entrance, from here we can venture into a small safe zone of hundred feet before getting to the first intersection.¡± As Andy¡¯s hand moved over a green line unto a black line that split into three new paths, ¡°From here, we need to decided what is the most profitable and best place to get experience.¡± Going to what looked like a small box with a number, Andy then moved his hand over to the side of the page with numbers and data on it. ¡°Here, see the box with the number seven, well if you look over at the other side of the map the note shows the following: swarm of rats, twenty, one, two iron bits, minor disease resistance. This means that the most common enemy we will find there are a swarm of twenty level one rats, that normally drop two iron bits, and if we kill a hundred swarms we will gain the ability minor disease resistance. The numbers at the start and end of the line refer to depth; since they are both zero, then this is a level tunnel with the entrance.¡±
Andy then moved his hand over the map to a red square with a number in it, ¡°This refers to a level boss, while the Red square with a cross through it refers to the node boss.¡± Andy¡¯s finger came down on a far off square, tapping it three times as if to drive home the point. Andy sat down and tented his fingers briefly staring at the map, Zach returned his gaze to the map and started to roam through it.
Thinking about their goals, Zach moved his eyes away from the map started looking down the numbered sections trying to find a slime nest that they could camp. As his finger slid down the notes column, Zach found an entry for four slimes at level three that would drop a slime sample. Looking at the map, Zach¡¯s finger slid across to the numbered note and circled it. ¡°This seems like the most reasonable place for Alexa and I to sit and kill slimes, if that¡¯s our goal then we should aim to go there.¡±
Alexa looked at the map and with a slimmer finger then Zach¡¯s, she placed it on a small black box with horizontal stripes next to the numbered one. ¡°Father, whats this symbol mean?¡± Alexa said, as her eyes roamed the map.
¡°It means that this location is connected to a sub floor,¡± Andy went over to the next circle in the spiral and pointed to a small branching area that lead to several other sub floor entrances and exits, ¡°See right here,¡± Andy touched a note showing a much higher concentration of slimes with higher levels. ¡°My guess is that this is the slime breeding subfloor. It connects several areas throughout the node, and even has a slightly higher level per slime. The only problem is¡¡± Andy tapped a red lantern symbol, ¡°its trapped, and the note says that the floor is covered in mucus making it a severe trap hazard. It might be better to stick to the sub floor hallways and merely kill the slimes that are going to the next level.¡±
As Zach was looking at the lines leading into the subfloor and back out of it, the background noise of the inn lowered and Grim¡¯s voice came over softly. ¡°Alright, I think I might have something using your Automap function.¡±
A blue screen appeared over the table, inside the screen Zach could tell that the map had translated into a bowl-shaped plane. As Zach moved his hands out of the screen the view point on the map rotated slightly. Thinking of it like a popular map app, Zach began to scroll in and out using his hands. Twisting the map to show the sub floors, Zach could see a complex network of tunnels that all terminated at the lowest point of the node boss room. Suddenly a yellow line moved down a set of tunnels to where the Zach had pointed out the Slime room and continued into the subfloor. A small excel chart appeared off to the side with the title best route for experience. Zach looked up at Andy and Alexa to see stunned faces, as he gave control over to Andy.
After a moment of silence, Andy spoke as his hand adjusted the map. ¡°I assume Grim helped you with this?¡± Zach nodded as Andy continued to work on the map, ¡°Grim, what upgrades do you need for something like this?¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Grim¡¯s voice came from the screen, as a small white silhouette appeared in the corner of the map, ¡°Well Andy, you would need only Mana Paper Upgrade to receive and update the map manually. If you want Alexa¡¯s companion to update her map, and even plot the best routes I would suggest the following: Automatic Map Drawing Upgrade.¡±
Andy nodded at Grim, ¡°Thank you, Grim, that was very helpful and we will have to see about getting Alexa those upgrades. Can you explain the reason why this is the best path?¡±
Grim nodded as the bright yellow line disappeared and then adjusted along another path. ¡°I made a few assumptions based off the data on the map and some of your comments. The path I plotted right now is the highest slime encounter path, the problem I saw was that a lot of Adventurers will be walking this path. So if I remove highly desired corridors and adjust for lesser used corridors I get the following.¡± Another line on the map appeared but this time in orange. ¡°My guess was that since slimes have a breeding subfloor, it is likely that a few escape down connecting tunnels and every once in a while they pop up elsewhere, which is why random Adventures do find them.¡± A brown line appeared that melded the two lines together, ¡°This is the best compromise between the two that I could get, best chance for roaming slimes, while allowing us to kill leeches and rats.¡± Grim gestured to the line and how it led into the slime sub-floors.
Andy nodded, while folding up the maps. ¡°It¡¯s a decent guess, Grim,¡± Andy said as he chewed his lip. ¡°I can¡¯t think of a better idea, so tomorrow morning after we sell the herbs that is the route we are going to take. When we get down there, we will have to see how detailed the Guild¡¯s maps are.¡± Andy then placed two large wooden planks painted white with a leather strap wrapped around it. Zach picked one up feeling the smooth wood grain and saw a coin with a rune pressed into the middle of the plank. Andy tapped the coin making Zach looked up at his face, ¡°The coin is an imbued rune for the guild, the white gives us general entry after midday. We couldn¡¯t afford any of the special perks like designated hunting grounds or early time slots. They are good for the next three days, and if Grim is right about the path then we can make a little bit of profit. If not on the third day we will attempt the first level boss, and try to go deeper. I suggest you two finish up the rest of the venison and head to bed I have the feeling it¡¯s going to be a long day tomorrow.¡±
Zach dismissed the blue screen by a flick of his wrist and focused on opening his extra-dimensional space. A white light began to build around the pass, becoming so bright that it was like looking at a light bulb, and then with a pop, the light went out and the pass was gone. Zach sat back in the wooden chair, feeling the polished grain from so many siting in the chair before him. With the sound of a grunt, Zach turned to see Alexa slicing the roast into portions for the both of them. ¡°Waste not, want not,¡± Zach said as he speared another piece with his fork and carefully moved it over to his clay plate.
**********
Zach looked over to Andy, to see him running a thumb under the edge of his chin. For perhaps the twentieth time, Zach moved forward against the back of Hayze as another person had pushed him from behind. Sighing, Zach righted himself and looked over at the entrance to the Bellmare¡¯s Dungeon. The Bellmare¡¯s Dungeon Entrance reminded Zach of an ancient roman amphitheater. Stone stairs and benches lead to a grand sand stage with two gate ways sitting opposite of one another. People who had arrived early were sitting on the stone benches talking, while latecomers were crowding the dirt stage floor in front of the entrance gateway. The dungeon entrance was a stone circle about 8 feet in diameter. Looking past the two burly guards in leather studded armor, was a black void that had streaks of colored light at the edges of the entryway. As Zach tried to hold back another yawn, again he felt a sharp push in his back as a low hush came across the crowd.
Zach watched the purple robed guild representative walk across the stage about the entryway holding a white flag. Anticipation and excitement flooded Zach¡¯s tired mind at the thought of finally going in. He had stayed up late talking with Alexa about what she thought the dungeon would be like, and after having trouble falling asleep, he was awoken early by Andy to get to the alchemist¡¯s shop. The haggling went well and Andy gave them some time to wonder the city before meeting at the dungeon¡¯s entrance. However, the days excitement wore off quickly when Zach came to the dungeon¡¯s entrance early and found that hundreds to people already sitting down and standing around the entrance.
The crowd went dead silent around Zach as the guild representative raise the white flag. ¡°Hear this!¡± shouted the purple robe man, ¡°All white pass adventurers will have seven hours to go through the dungeon before it is closed off for the night. Mana notifications will be sent out giving you warning on when the dungeon will be sealed. If you are trapped in the dungeon make your way as quickly to a jump point as possible, and leave during the morning. Do not attempt to hunt while the dungeon is sealed! In four hours, the dungeon will be opened to all citizens of Bellmare. Good Hunting!¡± And with that the man planted the flag above the dungeon entrance as people started to move forward. Group after group showed the guards their passes as people then walked through the entrance.
Zach gritted his teeth as more and more people entered the dungeon, until Andy, Alexa, Hayze, and Himself were finally let through. After showing the guards his white pass, like a teenager being let in to the backstage of his favorite band, Zach faced the black entry way. There was a small external pull as he stood there facing it, and as he looked around the inside there seemed to be nothing but a black void. Taking a deep breath to calm his fear, Zach closed his eyes and took a step forward. As his foot came down, he felt the jarring impact of the hard floor as it was raised by a few inches. Stumbling forward, Zach opened his eyes to see a grey stone floor.
¡°Watch your step, Zach.¡± Andy said as he grabbed Zach¡¯s arm to help steady him. ¡°Jump points have floating floors, so most adventurers do a little hop as they go through the entrance.¡± Zach looked up at Andy and saw that behind him a grey expanse of fog seemed to surround them. Turning his head, Zach found out that they were on a small circular stone floor that was maybe twenty feet in diameter. Stone benches were stationed on the outer edge with gaps in between them. Looking behind him, Zach saw the fog part and the view looked out onto the Bellmare Dungeon entrance area, except instead of people facing them, they all seemed to be turned away going towards the other gateway.
A clang of metal made Zach turn his head to see Hayze going to the opposite of the circle floor. As the golem got close to the edge, the grey fog started to lighten up until Zach could see what looked like a tunnel made with small paver stones that a green blue light played across. The sound of pouring water came from the opening in the fog, as well as, a foul stench that made Zach¡¯s eyes water. Coughing, Zach covered his mouth and nose with his arm. ¡°By the Gods and Goddesses! What¡¯s that smell?!¡± Zach shouted through his arm.
Andy took a deep whiff and laughed, ¡°That my boy is the smell of a dungeon. Now come on let¡¯s wait for Alexa to jump in.¡±
Chapter 7.4 – Dungeon Level 1
Zach felt a gentle swaying motion under his feet, as a few seconds passed while Andy and him waited for Alexa to arrive. By closing his eyes, he felt the floor softly drift downward a couple of inches before drifting to his left. Now that Zach was concentrating on what he felt, there was a small tingle of energy coming from this right followed by the intense sense of a heavy object moving towards him. Opening his eyes, Zach only saw the exit portal, until the moment that Alexa appeared out of the gray mist. Zach briefly pulled back in surprise as Alexa stumbled forward. Once again, Andy was there to help and giving her the same advice that Zach had received.
While Zach briefly checked over Hayze, out of the corner of his eye he saw Andy and Alexa prepare their weapons. Nodding to each in turn, Zach moved to the dungeon entrance and hopped over the boundary, with a small splash of greenish water, Zach found himself in brick tunnel as a soft light came from the inch-tall lazy flowing water in the spillway. Looking down, Zach saw the water slowly draining away in front of him, as paved stones covered in muck and debris would randomly pop up showing a soft green light emitting from the stone. Seeing a stone walkway off to his right, Zach started to move that way as another splash came from behind him. Turning around to see Andy, Zach continued to move, until he felt dry ground under him.
Zach entered six-foot-wide paved path with a wet smack of his boot leather. The arched sewer roof came down on his right, forming small arched sections that at times created a small alcove that was pitch black. More splashes of water came, as Zach began to hear the faint sounds of fighting drifting down the tunnel. A soft cry of pain and striking of metal came down as Alexa and Andy took point. Zach watched at Andy and Alexa shuffled forward, Andy with his chains wrapped around his chest and arms had a short sword in one hand and a mace in the other. Alexa though was supporting a round shield and mace instead of her normal sword, as she took a step forward making sure to never cross her legs.
Quietly, they made their way to the first bend in the sewer and as they turned, Zach could see a group of teenage boys fighting what looked like ten or so rats, the size of a house cats, darting back and forth. Zach saw a rail thin teen dressed in roughly spun clothing take his quarterstaff and swing it back and forth keeping three rats at bay. Another teen with dirty blonde hair and perhaps a foot shorter than the thin teen with the quarterstaff was using a dagger and makeshift cudgel to attack any of the rats that got through the quarterstaff¡¯s guard. Lastly, a teenage boy dressed in rags with a mop of red hair and a pencil thin mustache started to rotate his sling faster and faster as he took aim at one of the pacing rats outside of the quarterstaffs strike zone.
The group of boys looked desperate, as the sling released and missed the hissing rat. The rat surged forward, going for the red head. The rats black hair was slick with moisture and its long bare tail flicked the water back and forth, as it ran forward and pounced. The red hair boy gave a cry like a girl, while the boy wielding the quarterstaff, spun around and smashed the end of the staff downward on to the spine of the rat. A load crack echoed throughout the tunnel as the rat fell to waterway bouncing twice before finally resting. Soft shrieks of pain came from the creature as lay in the murky water trying to move. The boy with the quarterstaff, turned around and lashed out with rough leather work boots, striking several of the rats that had taken the opening in his defense.
Zach, Andy, and Alexa began to pass the group that was fighting in the waterway. Back and forth, the teenage boys fought off a rat or three as they would occasionally get lucky and get a damaging stroke on one of them. With another loud crack, Zach turned to see the red haired youth hit a rat in the face, bending its neck in an unnatural manner. A small look of triumph came over the boys face, as his hand went into a satchel to grab more ammunition. Turning back around, Zach followed Andy until they arrived at the first intersection.
The sewer tunnel opened into a room that was a close to a thousand square feet. Clay pipes came out of the ceiling, as dirty water and occasional debris fell out of it and splashed into the middle of the intersection. A large stone platform with grates, broken clay pipes, block and tackle, lever and drag chains was in the middle of the intersection connecting the walkways with some heavy wooden planks. Walking over the plank, Zach saw that the water was much deeper as it feed into a gate system around the intersection from the connecting water ways. A load crack of wood sounded against a rusted grate as it broke itself apart against the current.
Andy stopped in the intersection and spoke quietly, ¡°Grim, which way?¡±
Zach turned his gaze from a rusted iron lever, back to Andy, as Grim spoke, ¡°Left.¡± Andy and Alexa turned towards the left and started to head off, as Zach took a moment and looked through a grate that was at the middle of the platform. Large iron doors hung over openings as Zach saw slime coated chains connected to a massive gear shaft. Why, put a water channel mechanism in a dungeon? - Zach thought as he continued to move with everyone else.
As the group moved away from the intersection, the roar of water and sound of fighting faded away and gave way to the sound of pouring water coming out of numerous pipes. As the group neared the half way point of the tunnel, three large splashes caused everyone to turn their heads toward the middle of the spillway. Zach noticed the water from a clay pipe stop flowing, right before a large plug of debris shot out of it into the water way. As Zach looked on at the mass of hair, cloth, and wood it slowly began to move. A black piece of blackish slime the size of his hand slid off the debris and into the water exposing raw flesh of some animal. More splashes continued and the water that was being blocked by the debris began to overflow onto the stone walkway.
Zach looked at Andy for a moment to see the him looking intensely out into the sewer water, when all of a sudden, an intense searing pain coming from his left calf caused Zach to scream out. Out of pure instinct Zach raised his foot to look at what was causing the pain, only to find a large slug like creature with a black slimy body wrapped around his shin. The creature¡¯s body pulsed and Zach felt the pain slowly go away as his leg began to feel cold. Zach felt his back hit the brick wall behind him, as Grim¡¯s voice screamed out, ¡°LEECHES! HAYZE ATTACK!¡±
Andy and Alexa start to shuffle backwards, as they raised their swords and maces bringing them down into the water. Hayze went from a standing guard position by Zach¡¯s side, to attacking an approaching leech in a blink of an eye. Zach looked down at to see Hayze¡¯s spear point in a black wiggling leech leaking dark red blood from its wound. The leech lifted its head showing Zach a small circular mouth the size of a quarter with sharp pointed fangs encircling a dark maw. As the leech splashed about dying, Zach saw more of the black forms slithering through the water towards them.
Reaching out with his right hand, Zach form the first-hand gesture of [Flaming Arrow]. Words of unknown origin began to come out of his mouth, and his wrist rotated while his fingers twisted to make another sign. Zach felt like his body was moving on its own speaking arcane words as a burning energy gather from outside of his body channeling itself through another set of veins and form a ball of flames in front of him. As the last words fell from his mouth, Zach point at the mass of incoming leeches. The ball of flames formed itself into a thin pencil arrow that shot straight at the leech he was aiming for. Flames flared up as the magical spell hit its target, then as the slime around the leech caught fire another ignition occurred from a leech that got to close.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Zach started with another [Flaming Arrow], as Hayze darted back and forth. Zach target was another grouping of leeches, when dark shadows into the water began to converge around a leech in the group. Darkness flared out around the leech and a dozen thin cuts opened across its flesh as it stopped moving. As Zach moved his eyes to another leech, Alexa screamed out, forcing Zach to keep his focused on the mass of leeches coming. Another blast of fire came from Zach, hitting the leech in the center of their slithering black mass. Flames quickly started to spread over the mass turning it into a flaming pile of death. Zach could hear the high whine pitch of something, almost like a gnat buzzing in his ear, when he realized that the leeches were screaming in pain. A leech rolled out of the flames splashing into the water catching Zach¡¯s attention. Flames slowly extinguished themselves as the black flesh of the slug turned into an angry twitching red mass of blood and flesh.
Zach broke his gaze away from the leech, and took a look around the battlefield to se that Alexa had two leeches wrapped around her right leg. Alexa was using her sword to cut the body off of the one that was around her thigh as Andy pressed forward. Andy step forward with his chains rotating in fast small circles, one leech approaching him become bloody pulp as the rotating chains and blades acted like a blender. Seeing no immediate threat to Alexa, Zach looked at his golem to find that Hayze had several bodies of the leeches pierced on his spearhead. The golem moved its brown head as if scanning the area before it began to walk out into the water and attack some of the masses in debris piles.
Grabbing the polished wood handle of his dagger, Zach used his left hand to grab the body of the leech around his shin and pull it away from him. The leech¡¯s body began to pulsed again, making Zach¡¯s entire left leg numb and weak as a sense of coldness spread deeper. Grunting Zach unwrapped the leech from him until he could feel his skin stretch where its mouth was attached. With a quick downward stroke, the dagger sliced half way through the leech, stopping as it caught on some meaty tissue. Red blood began to pour out of it as Zach came down again severing the monsters body. Zach left the small two inch head still attached to his leg as he wanted to make sure no other creatures were around him. Red blood dripped down the severed body on to moist stones as Zach realized the water had receded back into the channel. Throwing the leeches body down in disgust, Zach looked around for any more to attack.
Seeing movement at the edge of the walkway, Zach shuffled over to it, as two more leeches propel themselves forward like worms. Zach realized that without water, the leeches had to move their bulk by thrusting forward a few inch at a time, instead of swimming through the water. Wasting no time, Zach placed his boot heel down on the body of one of the leech and saw it try to twist itself to attack him. Quickly, he slashed open the leech and moved to the next one, killing it in the same manner.
Seeing no additional threat Zach saw Alexa sitting on the ground with two bleeding wounds in her leather armor. Putting away his dagger, Zach felt the muscles in his leg began to tighten, flexing as hard as they could until a uncomfortable stillness stop the muscles from moving. Just as he was about to see if he could help Alexa a red screen popped up.
| Warning! |
| Your left leg has been paralyzed from poison. You will regain the use of your leg in ten minutes. |
After dismissing the red screen, Zach saw the loot screen come up as flashes of light from his [Auto-loot] appeared across the sewer.
| Congratulations and your party has fought off your first opponents in the Bellmare Dungeon! Know this that your battle with multiple Paralyzing Leeches has brought you rewards!
You have gained +2 to your mana pool!
You have gained +16 to your experience!
You have gained +1 to your Wisdom!
You have gained +1 to your Constitution!
You have gained +3% to your Mastery of [Spell: Flaming Arrow]!
You have looted a Mana Core containing Death Mana!
You have looted 4 drachms of Paralytic Poison!
You have looted 3 Copper Coins and 2 Iron Bits!
As you have killed your first Paralyzing Leech, you have gained 1 mana point. Kill another 84 Paralyzing Leeches to receive another bonus! |
¡°Zach!¡± Andy shouted, making Zach look up from the screen. Andy was bent over Alexa, as she applied bandages to wounds. Zach hopped over to Alexa and placed his shoulder to rest against the brick wall. ¡°Be careful with your Auto-Loot, if we run across another group they might think we are stealing from them.¡± Andy said as he carefully helped Alexa off from the ground so that she could tie the bandages around her leg.
The sound of metal footsteps told Zach that Hayze had returned from attacking the debris piles, and Zach choose to use the golem to help steady himself. A faint glow of light began to take shape of a teenage boy as Grim¡¯s avatar appeared. ¡°Andy, per the Guild map the next intersection isn¡¯t a spawn point, but then again there shouldn¡¯t have been a leech spawn point here.¡±
Alexa stealth her sword and placed an arm over her father¡¯s shoulders. With a gentle touch Andy place a hand on his daughter hip to help keep her steady. ¡°It¡¯s alright, Grim. My guess is that very few people even try the leech and rat tunnels. From the looks of the reward table, I am guessing Alexa and Zach barely got 1 experience point from two leeches. If that¡¯s the case then the monsters could be slowly building up down these tunnels.¡± Andy helped turn his daughter and they quietly talked to one another before hopping towards the next intersection.
Gripping Hayze¡¯s armor Zach hopped behind Alexa and Andy, ¡°Actually that¡¯s a good question, why aren¡¯t there hundreds of people in here right now? I mean the entrance square was choked with people.¡±
Andy sighed for a moment, pausing to let Alexa balance herself, before he answered Zach¡¯s question. ¡°The best theory is that nodes are in a pocket dimension that don¡¯t quite share the same timeline as the outside world. So when we hopped in, we started a new timeline with a few other adventurers. Every dungeon seems to be set up that way, so when the dungeon meets some magical number of people in it, it will wait for others to leave. Why it does this, and how it synchs up our times? No one knows, but when they send the hour warning that they are closing the dungeon we need to get out of here.¡±
Alexa as she hopped forward, ¡°How about instead of talking about time and dungeons, we talk about what the hell happened in the fight?¡±
Andy grunted a laugh as the two of them continued forward down the walkway. ¡°It looks like the leeches spawn from the pipes coming down into the spillway with the debris. Once the debris was cleared excess water briefly flooded the spillway, allowing leeches to swim to us. Next time we start hearing splashes, we can go ahead and have Hayze attack the debris piles, while we try and run beyond the splash zone. Since we will be upstream and the current will sweep away most of the excess water, we shouldn¡¯t have to worry about them swimming near our boots again. Once the splashes stop, Zach can start helping Hayze with the debris piles using his fire spell. While Alexa and myself kill any that come onto the walkway.¡±
As soon as Andy said it, Zach knew that it was a good plan; because it took away the advantages of the leeches and coordinate everyone into a simple task that didn¡¯t put them in great risk. Quiet agreement descended back over the group as the limped along the next few hundred feet to a new intersection. Looking pass Andy and Alexa, Zach saw what appeared to be a cave in from one of the sewer tunnels. Brick, dirt and clay pipe built a small dam blocking the water flow from the opposing tunnel and sending it down another one. The sound of hard rushing water echoed throughout the chamber, as small eddies of foam broke against the edge of the stone platform washing rubbish over the lip.
As the group crossed over to the stone platform they pushed aside the scraps of cloth and broken woods chips out of their way. Zach eased himself down on the platform, as the feeling of water soaked into the back of his pants. Taking out his dagger, Zach pressed the point against the leech¡¯s mouth trying to figure out the best way to pry it off.
Chapter 7.5 – Dungeon Level 1 cont.
As Zach moved the dagger down his deaden calf, Grim appeared next to him in his usual jeans and a tee. Zach gritted his teeth, angled the dagger point towards the head of the leech and pushed down into the leeches soft head. Blood dripped out of the leech¡¯s stump, as its mouth loosened on Zach¡¯s flesh. Grim looked at Zach making a face like he would throw up as Zach reached into his inventory for a bandage. Zach placed the clean rag around his wound, as he looked up at Grim, ¡°Thanks for all the help, damn Leeches nearly overwhelmed us.¡± Zach said through his teeth as he applied pressure to the wound.
¡°No problem, we are kind of joined at the hip.¡± Grim said as he looked over the platform. ¡°You know¡¡± Grim continued, making Zach look up at him, ¡°since the Leeches have a poison you could cast Purge Poison on everyone, that way if anyone gets attacked we won¡¯t have to wait for the poison to be neutralized.¡±
Zach sighed as he tied off the bandage. He felt stupid and guilty as to not having cast the spell before they had left the jump point. Just as he was getting up the slimy head of the leech dissolved into a small pool of what looked like black tar. Zach stared as the small black specks floated up from the pool into the air to drift away. Zach scooted his body over to Alexa and Andy as Hayze patrolled the waters around the platform. Alexa and Andy looked over at Zach has he continued to move towards them.
Finally, as Zach seemed to settle down in one place, he looked over at Andy as the man bit his lip trying not to laugh. Shaking his head, Zach wanted to move the conversation forward. ¡°Grim reminded me thatI have a new spell Purge Poison. Ijust¡¡± Zach realized that everything he wanted to say was an excuse. He had screwed up, and he needed to own it. ¡°I am sorry. Next time before we enter I will use the spell.¡± Andy and Alexa both smiled and nodded their acceptance at his apology.
Sighing, Zach focused on the [Purge Poison] spell, as arcane words and hand gestures came to him, a small part of his concentration split and he felt like there was another way to perform the spell. The details were hazy, but a focus, chant and an octagon came to mind. Pushing the strange knowledge away, Zach completed the words for the spell and felt a small ball circling around him. The feeling was of cool air blowing over your skin, yet instead of staying in one spot it moved around him and had the feel of a circle.
Starting again, Zach chanted the spell eight times in a row giving each member of their party the buff. As he completed the last spell, he felt a mental fatigue settle about him. As Alexa spoke Zach turned his head to focus on her. ¡°¡ how much¡. Mana¡.¡±
Zach took a large yawn as his eyes shut close. He needed three, maybe four minutes of rest, and then he could get up and walk around. As Zach felt his arms and neck relaxed, his body fell against a rough surface keeping him upright. Hard hands gripped Zach¡¯s face and forced open his mouth. Struggling Zach tried to push away the hands as he choked on a liquid that was a mix between blueberries and leather. As a little of it went down his throat, he felt like a wave of caffeine went through his entire body.
Zach drank the potion in theclay bottle as he looked up to see Andy holding his head roughly while pouring the potion down his throat. ¡°There you go Zach, you nearly passed out from using all of your mana. Thankfully, I bought a few mana and heal potions in case we got into trouble.¡± Zach weakly took the potion from Andy and Andy slowly backed away from him. As Zach continued to drink the bizarre tasting potion, the sense of energy filled his body. It was like drinking a cup of coffee on an empty stomach. It filled you up, but it also gave you the sense it wasn¡¯t what you needed.
Taking the last sip from the bottle Zach offered it back up to Andy. "Nay lad,toss it against the wall or throw it in the sewer stream. Let the dungeon claim the bottle andwhatever is leftin it, it may reward us for adding to its loot table."Andy said.Unsure what to say, Zach threw the bottle into the water to watch it float for a few seconds before sinking into the current.
¡°You act like the dungeon is alive, Andy?¡± Zach said as he felt a small tingle of pain going down his paralyzed leg.
¡°Can¡¯t say it''s not, Zach. I know that the City Core controls the dungeon, but there are a few wild ones out in nature. Elemental monsters come out of them and they change the surrounding land until someone notices and then they send in as many people as possible to kill the dungeon.¡± A dark look passed over Andy as he spoke about dungeon killing. ¡°It¡¯s a right bloody mess. People dying left and right, mana monsters coming at you. Natural dungeons don¡¯t have jump points either, so there is no rest until someone finds the exact center of the dungeon and pulls the crystals from its pedestal, and once that happens the extra dimensional space around the dungeon becomes unstable. Massive mana pulses wash over you and you have tobe strong enough to harness the mana or become corrupted. If you are lucky enough to survive the mana pulses and dying mana beasts to get to the entrance, you find a bunch of other adventurers watching you leave with a crystal that someone can sell for a small fortune.¡± Andy turned to Alexa and Zach and smiled, ¡°Thankfully, City controlled dungeons don¡¯t have a dungeon heart.¡±
Zach, Alexa, and Andy sat in silence as the poison slowly worked out of the two young adventurer¡¯s systems. Once the poison wasneutralized they continued down the series of tunnels fighting two more ambushes of leeches. Thankfully, the plan to not get caught in the overflowing water worked and everyone was unhurt. It wasn¡¯t until the sixth platform they encountered rats.
Zach looked out from the stone walkway across to the platform to see around twenty rats the size of cats pawing through a large garage pile on the platform. The black and gray rats with open sores seemed to dig through scraps of cloth, broken wood panels, and unrecognizable junk with their long pale paws. Small fingers seemed to grab bits as their large mouths chewed on the rubbish to see if it was edible. Zach pulled his eyes away from the closest rat to a mound that seemed to move. The back end of a rat came out of the pile that was twice the height of a surrounding rats. As the creature continued to move backward more of it came into view, as large growths appeared all over its body, while its tails seemed to be chopped in half and on the end, it exposed a spike of bare bone.Stolen novel; please report.
¡°Shit, a Dire Rat! Alexa cover the platform. Zach I need you to back up.¡± Andy said.
Yet with morbid fascination Zach watched as the Dire Rat brought out its head with a torn bloated arm in it. The monster looked to the group, and the rat had one clear black eye, while the other one looked to be sealed close in pus and damage. They heard the loud growl that came out of the Dire Rat¡¯s throat over the rushing water and Zach finally moved behind Hayze and Alexa.
¡°Zach, cast at anything that moves!¡± Andy said as one of his spinning chains shot out of from location and the bladed end pierced the Dire Rats shoulder, making it drop the arm it held. As the Dire Ratscreamed in pain, Zach started tocast [Flaming Arrow]. Rats appeared from behind the garbage pile as the ones in front sprinted towards the wooden board that served as a bridge between the platform and walkway. Zach could see Andy¡¯s chains flying out and breaking limbs, while Alexa crouched down sword in hand waiting for the rats to come.
Zach finished the hand gesture and aimed at a rat leaping across the board to attack Alexa. A line of red light flashed forward going into the side of the rats neck. Instantly in a spray of blood and gore, half of the rats neck weregone and the remaining flesh smoked. Zach looked for his next target as Alexa slammed her shield in the next rat that was coming forward.
Hayze stepped forward into Zach view of vision and thrust his spear into the incoming swarm of rats. Zach powered through the spell, and another [Flaming Arrow] went into the mass of the rats. Flames spread on the slick fur of the rat that Zach had hit, but instead of catching more rats on fire the pressing bodies of the rats smothered the flames. Zach released spell after spell, trying to keep a few seconds between casting, until he got a stabbing ache behind his left eye. The spell killed another rat as they choked the heavy board walkwaywith dead bodies. Feeling useless while he waited for his mana to regen, Zach looked over at the stone platform to see that Andy had used the club end of his chains to break the Dire Rats legs and skull.
Over the next few seconds the stabbing ache went away as Zach¡¯s teammates killed three more rats. Zach felt useless as Hayze stabbed another rat through the neck and pushed its dead body forward blocking more rats on the wooden walkway. Alexa and Hayze were using their weapons to their advantage and keeping the rats at bay from over flooding the walkway that everyone was one. Zach realized that small group tactics played a large role in dungeon diving then high powered spells or overpowered weapons. Looking over at Andy, the man was rolling up his chains to attack rats that fell off the board and were swimming in the water. Could Andy solo this dungeon?- Zach thought.
Casting another [Flaming Arrow] at a rat in the water, Zach felt the stabbing ache return. No, Andy couldn¡¯t solo this dungeon. The reason is that he needs additional people to block rats or force them into a specific place. It''s all about crowd control and picking the best advantage of your team. It was an epiphany for Zach as he felt something unwind in his mind.
|
Congratulations! You have truly learned your first skill without DP or the help of your Grimoire. To truly possess a skill, one¡¯s mind and soul are connected to it. You have gained a bonus for having learned the skill on your own.
| Divine Store Item: | Skill: Small Party Tactics |
| Skill Level: | 1 (0%) |
| Item Description: | The skill allows the individual to feel his teammates and the flow of battle. By spending a small amount of mana he can influence his teammates to take advantage of the terrain and formulation by giving them subconscious feelings on where to step, defend, or attack. This skill has been enhanced, for everyday of active fighting and training, the party will gain +1 to one weapon, dodge, and armor skill (max bonus equal to the [Small Party Tactics] skill level). |
|
Zach dismissed the window to see that all but two of the rats were now dead. Alexa, quickly gave brutal slashes to the rats, opening deep cuts that showed viscera. As the last rat died. Alexa and Andy looked covered in sweat. ¡°Good job everyone, the dire rat was a surprise, but we were able to hold them off.¡±
Light flashed back and forth as Grim activated auto-loot as no one else was around. The stabbing ache in Zach¡¯s eye spread to his the top of his back molars as Grim continued to use his mana. Leaning up against the wall, Zach waited as Andy and Alexa moved over the board to the platform. It wasn¡¯t over thirty seconds before Zach once again could move and headed over to join the rest of his party. Walking over Zach looked down at the arm that the Dire Rat was eating. It looked human, and so he walked over to the garage pile and moved aside the debris. Having pushed aside most of the rubbish, Zach saw blonde listless hair under a damp rag. Clenching his teeth and readying himself for the shock, Zach removed the rag and saw what looked like a young boy with missing bits of flesh on his face. Before another thing could happen, a blue screen appeared.
| Congratulations and your party has killed multiple rats and a Dire Rat, you have gained multiple rewards! Know this your curiosity about the body of the boy before you has opened a new quest!
You have gained +4 to your mana pool!
You have gained +32 to your experience!
You have gained +2 to your Wisdom!
You have gained +1 to your Constitution!
You have gained +5% to your Mastery of [Spell: Flaming Arrow]!
You have looted 3 Mana Cores containing Death Mana!
You have looted 7 lbs of Rat meat!
You have looted 1 Dire Rat Fang!
You have looted 7 Copper Coins and 8 Iron Bits!
As you have killed your first Swarm Rat, you have gained 2 mana points. Kill another 79 Swarm Rats to receive another bonus!
As you have killed your first Dire Rat, you have gained 3 mana points. Kill another 99 Dire Rats to receive another bonus! |
You have discovered a hidden Quest!
Quest name: Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Deep in the Bellmare first level, they have left the rats and leeches to their own devices. Due to the inactivity ofAdventurers,the Bellmare dungeon has evolved them into tougher opponents. During this evolution, a Rat King has been born in the dungeon and has challenged the current boss of the floor with his minions. You are the first Adventurers to have entered his domain since his birth.
Main Objective: Find the Rat King¡¯s nest and tell the Adventurers Guild about its location. (0/1)
Reward: 4 Silver Coins, +25 Slime Kill Count, +50 Swarm Rat Kill Count, and +35 Dire Rat Kill Count
Optional Objectives:
- Kill the Rat King. (0/1)
- Kill the Rat King in less than two hours of accepting the quest. (0/1)
- Map all new tunnels and spawn points (2/18)
- Collect 6 Dire Rat Fangs to lay them at the feet of the Rat King (1/6)
- Before the Rat King dies, break his crown in front of him (0/1)
Reward: Variable.
Do you accept the Quest? |
| Yes | No |
Chapter 7.6 – The Rat King
Zach looked up from the blue screen at Alexa and Andy waiting for their opinions on the quest. Andy smiled as he spoke, ¡°Aye, let¡¯s kill this pompous rat. Since it''s timed, let me take point and I won¡¯t hold back. Alexa, kill anything that gets pass me or tries to attack Zach. Zach, keep up with the long-range spells. Blast whatever you can and have Hayze back up Alexa. I need the both of you to keep together and stay in strategic locations. Ready?¡± Andy raised his finger above his blue screen, as both Zach and Alexa nodded their heads everyone accepted the quest.
**********
Zach sat on a pile of stones as he massaged his head. For an hour and a half, Alexa and himself had been chasing after Andy in a wild frenzy dash. Taking a moment to look at Alexa, he saw her tilting her head back to drink a health potion as open wounds sealed shut. The last battle had taken a lot out of everyone. Looking over to Andy, he stood vigil wrapped in blood and gore caked chains waiting for the potions to work on Zach and Alexa. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Zach thought back to what happened after they had pressed the accept button.
Andy became a whirling dervish with his chains causing death to monster they struck. He switched out weighted ends with blades and even attached two more chains to the main link fastened to the center of his back right before taking off on a mad dash. For most of the earlier hallways, Alexa and Zach had to run to the fight before Andy¡¯s six chains killed everything in the area. As Grim auto-looted and called out directions for Andy to turn towards, Zach saw more and more corpses in the waterways and platforms. The bodies were always young fit people that seemed to have rich clothing on them. He also noticed that though the rats were devouring the corpses, there didn¡¯t seem to be any blood from the wounds. Still with no time to examine them, Zach kept running from fight to fight.
As the last few hallways and platforms were discovered, Andy finally slowed down on his killing spree as the Dire Rats had appeared more frequently, while Leeches joined the fight with the Swarm Rats. Now that the fight was taking longer, Zach could cast more [Flaming Arrow]s, while Alexa kept the Leeches from reaching either of them. It was all going so smoothly that when Grim told them that the final hallway would lead to the nest they were joking with one another.
Of course, that¡¯s when the whole thing turned sideways. As the group turned around a curve in the corridor, they saw several streams of water splashing down onto collapsed pile of bricks. Dead bodies bobbed up and down in the deep waterway as rats of various sizes swam, or lounged in nests made from the cloth of the dead men and women. As Zach saw Andy let loose his chains, five pipes above the broken bricks belched large debris piles that plunged into the waterway. Immediately, Zach stopping moving forward and cast [Flaming Arrow] at closet rubbish mass. As the flaming light left his hands, Zach saw Alexa and Hayze take up a defensible position on the pathway, waiting as the screaming fury of rats died down.
It was during that screaming that Zach failed to hear splashing of the water near him. Just as he cast his second [Flaming Arrow] a small clawed hand grabbed him by the leg in an iron grip and pulled him into the water. Zach felt his head crash against the hard stone right before he felt the cold-water wash over it. The iron grip on his foot became two as it grabbed onto Zach¡¯s pants keeping him from turning or swim above water. Sharp teeth found purchase on his thigh, and Zach screamed in pain as water rushed into his mouth. Twisting his head around, he saw a small form the size of an eight-year-old child clutched around his leg in the greenish tinted water. As Zach struggled to remove his dagger, he felt the spell [Purge Poison] activate, and in an explosion of bubbles the creatures head blew away from Zach¡¯s thigh. With a dagger in hand, Zach pumped his arms twice and his head rose above the murky water to gasp for a breath. He made a quick grasp at the stone walkway when he felt clawed hands grab onto his belt. Swinging wildly with his dagger, Zach felt the metal plunge into meat and a hand let go of him. Screaming in fury, Zach pulled out the dagger and kept thrusting the blade down again and again. As the other hand let go of his belt, a body floated up water. Zach pulled himself back up on to the pathway to see that while he was in the water he had floated several feet down from Alexa and Hayze.
The golem and fighter were attacking a tide of rats as another child like monster began to quietly rise out of the waterway behind them. The creature appeared human, except for the almost rail thin body covered in black marks and hands that ended in black claws. Zach stepped forward and plunged his dagger into the neck of the creature. Hissing the creature turned around making Zach lose his dagger as it swiped at him. Claws left furrows in his leather armor for him to take a step back. It was in that moment, Zach saw the horror he was facing. Coal-black eyes stared at Zach, as the monster opened its lipless mouth displaying long fanged teeth and black tar-like drool. It made a hissing sound as it snapped at Zach¡¯s outstretch hand.
Pure instinct called out and Zach lifted his leg and slammed it into the chest of the thing before him. Zach heard the crack of bones as the four-foot-tall creature fell onto the ground. Looking down at the spasming thing, Zach saw that its chest had caved in and its flesh had torn loose. Muscle slick in black mucus pulled back and forth as Zach could see small wiggling leeches crawl from the wound. Zach quickly kicked its body, breaking open its flesh and bones as if the creature was made of twigs and paper. As Zach¡¯s foot broke open the head of the monster a scream cut through the battle, and Zach looked up to see Alexa covered in three rats. Jumping over the corpse, Zach ran to Alexa and pulled the first rat off the back of her shoulder to slam it against the side wall.
Zach felt the furry body in his hands twist and turn as he smashed it against the wall again. Claws scrapped his hands and fingers as Zach finally got the leverage on the rats legs to crack its head directly into the wall. The body went limp instantly from the impact, and Zach turned to see Alexa throwing the rat that had been clawing and biting her face into the waterway. Letting go of the rat¡¯s body, Zach kicked more rats into the water as they moved pass Hayze. Sparing a moment to glance at his Bronze Golem, he could quickly count four to five rat tails in the golems armor trying to find flesh to strike at.
Zach kicked another rat off the stone walkway to find that Alexa and her sword had returned to the line. Stepping back, Zach looked around for his next target. At first his eyes fell to the twenty to thirty more rats that were trying to overpower Alexa and Hayze, but as Hayze plunged the spear through the ribcage of an advancing rat, Zach looked beyond the swarm and saw that more rats were coming out of various pipes and openings in the walls. Looking over to Andy, he saw the man moving his arms over the chains as he whirled about. Andy¡¯s chains flew in graceful arcs, as a small furred creature jumped through the gaps of the chains as it tried using small daggers to attack Andy.
Zach watched the fight for a few seconds, seeing the brown furred humanoid rat jump and spin to just dodge a blow from Andy. For a second the creature jumped onto a large stone showing it was maybe three feet tall, with a slender, agile body covered in tattered rags for clothing; and instead of having a long snout, its mouth and nose only protruded from its face by a few inches, as black coal eyes watched the dancing chains. Upon its head laid a small copper wire crown made from bits of jewelry that had been twisted together. Zach suspected that the only reason the crown was still on the king¡¯s head was due to wire being caught in his fur. Seeing an opening the Rat King jumped back into the swirling maelstrom of chains and leapt back and forth before creating a tiny slice on Andy¡¯s skin.
Zack¡¯s gamer instincts kicked in and he spotted a large pile of debris near pipes that were sending out additional rats. Casting [Flaming Arrow] into the pile, Zach waited to make sure that the debris caught a flame pushing smoke and heat into the nearby pipes. The sound of high pitch screams started from the pipes, and Zach took aim at another of the piles. In less than thirty seconds, four small campfires of burning trash were blocking reinforcements from getting to Alexa and Hayze. Black dots floated in Zach¡¯s vision as the swarm of rats in front of Alexa and Hayze thinned. The two finally could push forward over the blood-soaked walkway, instead of just holding ground.
As the final rat died at the stroke of Alexa¡¯s sword, the three ran over to the fight between Andy and the Rat King. Andy had a few new cuts on his arms and legs that had black ooze coming out of them. While the Rat King looked to have four large cuts about his torso and left arm. Seeing an opportunity, Zach summoned the six Dire Rat Fangs and tossed them into a spot that the Rat King occasionally rested at. Watching the Rat King dodge, Zach chanted [Flaming Arrow] hoping overwhelm the Rat King¡¯s dexterity.
As Zach¡¯s pain increased with every cast of the spell, the Rat King finally stopped at the location that Zach had placed the fangs at. The harden pad of the king came down on one fang and for a moment it looked down to see the six fangs presented at its feet. The king¡¯s eyes widen and he jumped back further, as a load howl came from his mouth. Soon the pipes around the collapse tunnel echoed with chirps and squeaks of rats. Zach watched the rat king scramble over a pile of stone and head into a small hole right before a blue screen appeared.
| You have started a timed event! The last defenders of the Rat King have died by your hand. Knowing the Rat King and his subjects can¡¯t survive the next wave of slimes without his Dire Rats, he has pulled back his forces into their spawn points. Every five minutes, for the next thirty minutes, a wave of five slimes will come to kill the Rat King. Either kill the Rat King to stop the slime waves, or kill the slime waves and allow the Rat King to re-spawn his defenders. If neither is chosen the Rat King will die and all quest rewards will be reset to normal.
Enhance rewards are now in place.
Good Luck! |
Silence descended the collapsed hallway as Zach read and dismissed the blue screen. Looking around the water that had been draining from the collapsed ceiling and pipes slowed and finally come to a stop allowing the waterway to drain. As the feeling of exhaustion came over Zach, he sat down and drank a mana potion.
Out of the corner of Zach¡¯s eye, he saw Andy check over Alexa before moving on to him, ending Zach recollection of events. ¡°Everything all right lad?¡± Andy said.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Tilting the potion back to drink the rest, Zach gulped it down and then threw the clay bottle into one of the rubbish piles. ¡°Besides taking a bath in the sewage from a creature that had tar blood. I am doing great, how about you?¡±
Andy chuckled, ¡°Not too bad, all things considering. I am still breathing and still moving, so I can¡¯t complain. I will give you a minute or two for the potion to work, then we will head down into the subfloor. Five slimes is too much for our group to handle without more spell casters.¡±
Nodding his head, Zach watched the water drain through a big pipe, drying out the 8 foot deep waterway. Skeletons and half eaten bodies laid at the bottom of the drainage area as less pleasant muck settled over them. Grim was working the auto-loot when with a flash of light from a corpse caused another blue screen to appear.
You have discovered a hidden Quest!
Within the last year, a small gang of cutthroats have been operating out of the Bellmare¡¯s Adventurer District. Their targets have been low level adventurers that had a minor success in the dungeon. Killing and robbing their victims, they then throw the bodies into the sewer system which empty into the dungeon. The bodies have increased the growth rate of the rat population and lead to the unexpected birth of the Rat King. Hidden amongst the bodies was a soul enhanced dagger for one of the cutthroats. The city watch can find with the use of a mana tracker spell, the owner of the dagger.
Main Objective: Turn in the dagger and quest to the Bellmare City Watch. (0/1)
Reward: 400 experience points and 2 silver coins.
Alternative Objectives:
- Seek your own brand of justice.
- Blackmail the gang of cutthroats.
- Join the gang of cutthroats.
- ??? (Hidden)
Reward: Variable.
Do you accept the Quest? |
| Yes | No |
Zach shook his head at the quest and accepted it. -No matter what world I am in, the wolves will always attack the sheep.- A well of anger in him came up with that thought. Through the evil of some men, they had killed young men and women trying to create a better life for themselves. It screamed of injustice, and that feeling of anger at the unfairness of the world made Zach get up from stone floor and ready himself against the Rat King.
Andy wrapped his chains in tight and had Zach follow him with Hayze as they entered the drainage pipe. No bricks of light were in the pipe, so it forced Zach and Alexa to cast the spell [Light]. Small orbs of lights appeared above their heads brightening the surrounding area. As Zach looked past Andy, he saw draped chains over the exit of the pipe that led into a large basin. Andy brushed the chains aside and inside the room, large nests on the lip above the pipe contained mewling pink baby rats. Zach took a moment to look around the room.
They were in a circular room around seven hundred square feet. Around the edge of the room a ledge of ten feet came from the wall and dipped into a basin containing three large pipes that someone blocked with rusted metal coverings. Zach could see that the water was collected in the basin and removed by a drain in the middle of the floor. On the ceiling and walls, hundreds of smaller clays pipes dribbling out insignificant amounts of water into the basin as rats dragged food through some of the pipes to their screeching children. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Zach turned to see that Andy was pointing to a side corridor above the lip of the basin that had a green flickering light coming from it. As the team moved through the room, rats hovered over their children watching the adventurers.
Carefully Zach pulled himself over the lip after Andy and Alexa when they had made it to the area below the side corridor. Hunching over, they walked through the small entryway into a dark square room. Someone had draped large cuts of cloth from chains in the ceiling as the green light source stones flickered off more than on giving off a strobe light effect that was muted by their own orbs of light. As the group made their way to the center of the room, Andy spoke, ¡°Zach, don¡¯t cast your Flaming Arrow spell. This room will catch ablaze and kill us all. Pull out whatever weapon you got, we fight back to back. Alexa hack at the cloth, we need room to see.¡±
As the weight of the crude mace appeared in Zach¡¯s hand, a shout of pain came from Alexa. Turning his head Zach made out the form of the Rat King stepping back into the drapes of cloth. Not wanting to be stabbed by the little shit of a monster, Zach grabbed at the closest cloth and ripping it from the chains. As the second sheet ripped loose from its hooks, Zach saw a quick movement to his left. Just on pure instinct Zach swung the mace like a baseball bat and saw the Rat King flex his head backward to dodge the mace. A spike of pain from his stomach flooded his mind as the Rat King had punctured Zach¡¯s armor with his dagger. Reflex kicked in and Zach released the mace as the pain made his hand open. However, before the Rat King pulled back, Zach lashed out with a foot to hit his highness in his leg. Zach saw Rat King stumbled briefly from the kick while he took a moment to put pressure on his wound.
As the Rat King regained his feet, Andy''s hand reach out and grab the Rat King''s crown. Tangled in his fur, the Rat King twisted and jerked as Andy ripped the poorly braided jewelry from the Rat King''s head. Not caring about the pain or the quest, Zach bull rushed the king and slammed his shoulder in the small chest of his opponent. Zach felt the small body hit the ground and felt the daggers scrape across his leather armor. As the two opponents struggled on the ground, Zach could feel every twist and turn of the body below him as he used his body weight to crush his opponent. By pure luck, Zach caught one of the Rat King''s arms in his grip, as half of the monster¡¯s body flatten and twisted out from Zach''s chest.
A loud scream of pain came from under Zach¡¯s chest, forcing Zach to take a chance and look up to find Hayze above him with the bronze spear sticking out Rat King''s gut. The golem leaned into the spear as Zach punched the Rat King''s head several times hoping to stun him. As the little arms and legs of the Rat King stilled, Zach rolled off of him and grabbed the other arm pinning the monster to the ground. ¡°Alexa, put the blade over its heart!¡± Andy shouted.
Zach saw the bloody steel of Alexa¡¯s sword hover over the chest of the king, right before he heard the ting of metal breaking. Foam raised from the Rat King¡¯s mouth as his eyes turned red with blood. The king thrashed wildly right before Alexa thrust her sword hard into the chest of the enraged King. Zach was certain that Alexa had cut the King¡¯s heart in two, but his struggles only became stronger as he pulled one arm free and his small clawed hand raked across Zach¡¯s face. Screaming Zach pulled away as Alexa brought down the edge of her shield into the face of the king. A bloody crunching sound came from the impact, and Alexa roared a battle cry as she brought the shield up again.
Zach scrambled backward in pain as Alexa slammed her shield repeatedly downward. Watching in shock, slowly the pain of his stomach came back, and he placed a hand over his wound. Feeling his ragged breath causing more pain, Zach tried to calm down as Andy pulled out clean bandages from one of his belt pouches. Zach watched as Andy poured half of a healing potion on the bandages and then came over to him. Feeling the leather straps to loosen the sides of Zach¡¯s armor, Andy finally had enough slack to lift the armor and apply the bandages directly to the wound. As his flesh felt like it was burning, Zach screamed out in pain. ¡°That¡¯s right Zach! Let it out, let the pain wash out of ya!¡± Andy shouted over Zach¡¯s screaming.
Finally, the pain went away, and Andy gave Zach the rest of the healing potion to drink before going over to Alexa to care for her wounds. Zach laid on the ground for a moment drenched in sweat and shaking from intense pain he felt. Looking at his light, a blue screen finally came up.
| After a long running battle you have completed optional objectives for a hidden Quest in Bellmare¡¯s Dungeon! |
| Quest Name: | Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown |
Deep in the Bellmare¡¯s Dungeon first level, they have left the rats and leeches to their own devices. Due to the inactivity of Adventurers, the Bellmare dungeon has evolved them into tougher opponents. During this evolution, a Rat King has been born in the dungeon and has challenged the current boss of the floor with his minions. You are the first Adventurers to have entered his domain since his birth.
Main Objective: Find the Rat King¡¯s nest and tell the Adventurers Guild about its location. (0/1)
Optional Objectives:
- Kill the Rat King. (1/1)
- Kill the Rat King in less than two hours of accepting the quest. (1/1)
- Map all new tunnels and spawn points (18/18)
- Collect 6 Dire Rat Fangs to lay them at the feet of the Rat King (6/6)
- Before the Rat King dies, break his crown in front of him (1/1)
Reward:
You have gained +83 to your mana pool!
You have gained +374 to your experience! You have leveled up!
You have gained +7 to your Intelligence!
You have gained +3 to your Wisdom!
You have gained +2 to your Strength!
You have gained +2 to your Endurance!
You have gained +1 to your Constitution!
You have gained +38% to your Mastery of [Spell: Flaming Arrow]! You have gain over 50% Mastery of [Spell: Flaming Arrow]. The Spell will no longer require a verbal component to cast.
You have looted 64 Mana Cores containing Death Mana!
You have looted 22 Mana Cores containing Earth Mana!
You have looted 13 Mana Cores containing Dark Mana!
You have looted 3 Mana Cores containing Life Mana!
You have looted 1 City Core Shard: Dungeon Enhancement!
You have looted 4 [Grimoire Upgrades: Compass]!
You have looted 2 [Grimoire Upgrades: Clock]!
You have looted 1 [Grimoire Upgrades: Small Party Roles]!
You have looted 1 [Grimoire Upgrades: Small Party Experience Rules]!
You have looted 84 lbs of Rat meat!
You have looted 12 Dire Rat Fangs!
You have looted 13 drachms of Paralytic Poison!
You have looted 2 Minor Health Potions!
You have looted 1 Minor Mana Potion!
You have looted 1 [Alchemy Recipe: Increase Dire Rat Kill Count Potion]!
You have looted 2 Organcarver Daggers!
You have looted a Cowl of Shadows!
You have looted 1 Soul Enhance Dagger (Quest Item)!
You have gained the [Aura Enhancement: Terror (Rat)]!
You have gained the [Trophy: Broken Rat King¡¯s Crown]!
You have looted 2 Gold Coins, 19 Silver Coins, 97 Copper Coins and 2 Iron Bits!
Your Bellmare Dungeon Pass has been upgraded from Basic to Standard!
As you have killed your 100 Swarm Rat, you have gained an [Enhancement: Minor Disease Resistance]. Kill another 853 Swarm Rats to receive another bonus!
As you have killed your first Ghoul, you have gained 5 mana points. Kill another 98 Ghouls to receive another bonus!
As you have killed your first Rat King, you have gained 75 mana points and 3 intelligence points. Kill another 99 Rat Kings to receive another bonus!
By completing the optional objectives the Bellmare Dungeon will now have the following repeatable quests:
|
| Quest Name: | The King is Dead! Long live the King! |
| Two bosses now battle for control over Bellmare Dungeon Level 1. Either kill six Dire Rats and summon a wave of slimes every five minutes for thirty minutes to attack the guards of the Rat King, or kill seven Corrosive Jellies and summon a wave of Swarm Rats every five minutes for thirty minutes to attack the guards of the Royal Slime.
Reward: 20 Experience and 5 Mana |
| Quest Name: | We are not retreating! We are just regrouping further back. |
| Two bosses now battle for control over Bellmare Dungeon Level 1. Once every hour a flag with each Boss¡¯s Insignia will drop and can be placed at any spawn point to change the creatures it spawns. Kill all creatures at the spawn point and place the flag to activate it. After three hours the spawn point will return to creating appropriate creatures.
Reward: 10 Experience and 2 Mana |
Zach laughed as he read the screen, Andy would lose his shit over the rewards.
Chapter 8.0 – Crystal Rewards
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson, ¡°Ulysses¡±
Zach took the last sip of healing potion out of the clay bottle.The healing potion tasted like a strawberry smoothie with an aftertaste of old gym shorts. Swallowing a sip of water hoping that the rank taste would go away, Zach pulled up his character screen to view what he needed to spend his points on.
| Character Screen |
|
| True Name: | Zachary Alan Lee |
| Race: | Human |
| House: | Ridhurja |
| Level: | 5 |
| Exp till Next Level: | 2/1300 |
|
| HP*: | 148 | Mana: | 398 |
|
| Body | Soul |
| STR*: | 17 | INT: | 27 |
| DEX*: | 13 | WIS: | 24 |
| CON*: | 16 | CHA: | 11 |
| END: | 18 | LUCK: | 10 |
| *If creatures are smaller or larger then you stats may change depending on size during combat. |
|
| Skills |
| Appraisal Lv. 9 (27%), Arcane Inscription Lv. 19 (13%), Awareness Lv. 10 (22%), Camp Creation Lv.15 (15%), Core Creation* Lv. 15 (68%), Core Creation Subskill Core Expansion* Lv. 4 (16%), Foraging Lv. 4 (15%), Golem Creation* Lv. 18 (23%), Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Ability Lv. 1 (0%), Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Attribute Lv. 1 (0%), Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Skill* Lv. 3 (12%), Light Armor Lv. 22 (57%), Mana Manipulation Lv. 27 (5%), Mana Reinforcement Lv. 19 (13%), Mana Theory* Lv. 24 (2%), Observe Lv. 26 (1%), Running Lv. 29 (13%), Small Party Tactics Lv. 1 (0%), Sneak Lv. 5 (13%), Spear Lv. 27 (17%), Spell Imbuement Lv. 3 (13%), Trade Lv. 10 (0%), Ward Construction Lv. 22 (39%) |
| *Inheritable Skills |
|
| Spells |
| Clear Air (9% Mastery), Clear Water (48% Mastery), Flaming Arrow (51% Mastery), Grow (95% Mastery),Light (36% Mastery), Mend Tier 2 (35% Mastery), Purge Poison (13% Mastery), Shadow Strike (2% Mastery), Shape Stone Tier 2 (22% Mastery), Spark (35% Mastery), Summoning Grimoire (6% Mastery) |
|
| Enhancement |
| Silent Shadow
Divine Notice (Tier 1)
Minor Disease Resistance
Aura: Terror (Rat) |
| Abilities |
| Hide |
| Weapon Techniques |
| Thrust (Spear) |
| Golem Contracts |
| Mana Pylon (Tiny Sand Elemental Unnamed)
Bronze Utility Golem (Medium Shadow Elemental Hayze) |
Zach looked at his character screen and felt a little saddened by it. Since creating Hayze he had only increased his endurance and strength back up to his original scores. What little practice with the spear he had, was to get Hayze to pick up the skill and so his dexterity had lagged. However, when he looked at his intelligence and wisdom it seemed like they were growing with every spell he cast. With a sigh, Zach told Grim to increase his dexterity by three and his luck and charisma by one. A small flow of power traveled through his body as his attribute points were spent.
¡°Excellent.¡± Grim said, ¡°Now what about your class advantage?¡±
Zach stopped for a moment, ¡°Wait¡ my what?¡±
¡°Your class advantage? Every five levels you get a class enhancement or ability that helps you with your profession. So let me see what is available in the store for us.¡± Grim said nonchalantly. While Zach waited for Grim to finish up what he was doing, he had to say if he had known obtaining level five would have given him something useful, he would have focused on killing more Horned Rabbits. In fact, now thathe thought about it he must be getting close to the hundred mark on them, just as he was about to ask about his kill counts and why the hell Grim hadn¡¯t told him about the class enhancement or ability, a blue screen appeared.
| A review of your actions has taken place. Based on the recordings from your Grimoire, Personalized Class Enhancements and Abilities have been chosen instead of your standard Class Advantages. You may choose one of the following as a Class Advantage. |
| Divine Store Item: | Ability: City Core Servant |
| Item Description: | You are the City Artificer of Schoner¡¯s Creek. When creating a Golem you can make contracts on behalf of your City Core. Your City Core will now be able to store attribute points in which you can use to summon golems, instead of buffing creatures in the dungeon, on its behalf. Choosing this ability will unlock new city core menu items. Should you stop being Schoner¡¯s Creek City Artificer you may choose another class advantage. |
| Divine Store Item: | Ability: Synchronicity |
| Item Description: | You have found an unusually high number of hidden quests. Whether by some guiding hand or random events, hidden information seems to find itself attracted to you. Once per day you can spend 100 mana and feel a physical pull to the closest hidden quest or item. This pull will last for one hour and will be in a direct line to the target. If this ability is activated within ten feet of a hidden quest or object, you may spend half of your mana pool to receive a clue as tohow to complete or receive the quest/item. |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Golem Beacon (Defender) |
| Item Description: | You have trained a Golem in a weapon skill for your defense. Any golem learning combat skills from you will take 20% less time to learn. Any golem within 20 feet of you will increase its ability to dodge blows by 5%. You may purchase this Enhancement multiple times to increase the dodge and learning bonus. |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Golem Beacon (Mana Guide) |
| Item Description: | You have worked at helping an Elemental with their ability and created a new golem. Any golem using abilities or spells within 20 feet of you will decrease its cost to use that ability or spell based on your cultivation level of the element. At level one, or Attunement, spells and abilities will be decreased by 2%. At level two, or Foundation, spells and abilities will be decreased by 6%.You may purchase this Enhancement multiple times to increase the range. |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Golem Mana Transfer |
| Item Description: | You have worked with balancing mana between your golems and yourself. You can transfer mana to or from any contracted golem¡¯s mana pool to yourself with a thought. When a Golem has zero mana, it will stop functioning and you may be in violation of your contract. You may purchase this Enhancement multiple times to reduce the transfer rate cost. Current cost is for every 2 mana transferred 1 mana is lost to the connection (2:1) |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Golem Restore |
| Item Description: | You have worked with repairing a golem¡¯s body. You can transfer HP directly to any contracted golem. The cost to restore one hp for the golem is based on the rarity of the material and level of craftsmanship. Review of your current golem¡¯s shows that Hayze would require 10 HP for every 1 HP you wish to restore. While the mana pylon would require 1 HP for every 2 HP you wish to restore. By using this method of repair, anyrepair will beat the maximum level of craftsmanship when the golemwas created. |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Spell Focus |
| Item Description: | Your focus on creating a more efficient ability for your golem has shown your dedication to magic. When choosing this ability, your mana channels will slowly shift based on your most heavily used spells. You will receive 25% reduction in the mana cost for your top five used spells, while all other spells with have a 25% increase in mana cost. Upon casting one spell 1000 times it will become an ability where the mana cost will decrease by 50% and you will only have to think to activate the spell. This Enhancement may be purchased multiple times, each additional purchase will decrease the mana cost for your top five spells and open one more spell to become an ability. |
| Divine Store Item: | Enhancement: Skill: Core Creation |
| Item Description: | Your invention of the Mana Pylon and new use of a Mana Core has lead you to push the skill of Core Creation and its subskills. Should you choose this Enhancement a one-time bonus of +20 will be added to the Core Creation Skill. Every core you create will act as if your skill level is +5. This Enhancement can only be purchased once for every skill you possess. |
As Zach read the list for his Class Advantage, he realized that having Grim had changed his choices from standard Artificer Class Advantages. ¡°Grim, what are the associated cost of each advantage, if I was to buy them in the store.¡± Zach asked as he looked over to Alexa and found that the blue soft light of her Grimoire was out as she worked her own screen.
¡°Well Zach, Synchronicity is a hundred and fifty DP, the Golem Beacons and Spell Focus are around thirty DP, the Skill enhancement is twenty-five DP, Golem Mana Transfer and Restore is fifteen DP, and the City Core Servant is five DP.¡± Grim said.
Zach really had to think what was best for him at this point. He had been careless as to his choices before and if anythingthe litrpg light novels he wrote taught him; he needed to have a long-term plan.Synchronicity is a high cost and has great rewards, but if the hidden quests are higher than my class level or ability to fight, then I could be led into a trap and killed. The City Core Servant might be nice for unlocking more menus and being able to create more golems, but that does absolutely nothing for me right now or the next month in the dungeon. Besides, I could just buy the Ability later. I have to admit that the Golem Beacons really appealto me. It would be pretty awesome surrounded by a bunch of my golems casting spells in the middle of a battle. The problem is that I have one golem right now and the bonuses aren¡¯t enough to see a noticeable improvement quickly. You would have to get Defender Beacon several times for the dodge bonus to be noticeable in a fight, and the spell one requires a great deal of cultivation. The skill enhancement is great for a crafter, but I will be in combat so pass. Likewise, with Mend I can restore Hayze with some bronze so Golem Restore is redundant. So that leaves Spell Focus and Golem Mana Transfer.Zach sighed as he looked at the two Advantages closely.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Golem Mana Transfer allows me to use multiple golems as batteries in battle, or I can juice up Hayze so he can do his shadow strike more often. The problem is that the amount of mana consumed in the connection. If I was to dump a hundred points of mana into him, he would only get fifty. I could buy the enhancement a couple of times with DP, but that would prevent me buying a spell or live saving item if we need it. With Spell Focus, I only have eleven spells so the increase in cost for the other spells isn¡¯t a terrible burden. I can always focus on the combat spells to increase them and if[Flame Arrow]becomes ability I could spam itcreatinga magical gun.Not seeing a better option to improve his combat ability quickly, Zach selected the Spell Focus Enhancement. A sense of raw energy flooded around him as a small motes of light, like fireflies lighting up at night, blinked into existence. As the last light died a blue screen appeared.
You have chosen[Enhancement: Spell Focus]. Your top five spells and spell counts are:
- Mend Tier 2 (Cast Count: 176)
- Shape Stone Tier 2 (Cast Count: 146)
- Grow (Cast Count: 98)
- Flaming Arrow (Cast Count: 49)
- Clear Water (Cast Count: 48)
It will take 24 hours for your mana channels to realign, the reduction in mana cost will occur slowly over the next day. Thank you for your patience! |
Zach shrugged at the message before looking up to see that Andy was waiting for him a few feet away. Zach thought it was nice that this world expected privacy when looking over the World Prompts. His first reaction had been to share everything until Grim had told him that people believe the prompts came from the Gods and Goddesses and were meant to be private if it dealt with your class or choices. ¡°Thanks for letting me choose my Class Advantage. So what do you want to talk about?¡± Zach said.
Andy grunted as Zach mentioned his Class Advantage. ¡°Aye, Lad, I am glad you had time to think about it. Anyway, I wanted to talk about some loot items we received. From the list you gave me, we received a Trophy, several grimoire upgrades, and a City Core Shard?¡± Zach nodded at Andy to confirm that they had received those items.
¡°Hmmm, well I would have you and Alexa use the Compass and Clock upgrades. Should help the both of you with your companions as for the Trophy and City Core Shard I would like to inspect them.¡± The way Andy said it, made Zach think it wasn¡¯t really a request. Holding out his hand, a glass sphere the size of a baseball appeared. Looking closer Zach saw the three broken pieces of the Rat King¡¯s Crown suspended in the glass. Reaching out Andy picked up the sphere and with another flash of light a small gem appeared in Zach¡¯s outstretch hand. The crystal was a dark purple that formed an octahedron with small indented triangles on its faces.
As Andy closely studied the glass sphere, a blue mana prompt jumped up in front of him. Making Zach look closely at the sphere and activating his own[Observe]skill.
|
| Divine Store Item: | Trophy [Broken Rat King¡¯s Crown] |
| Divine Store Cost: | N/A |
| Item Description: |
This item is not for purchase. A Trophy exist as a record of the fight between an elite dungeon creature and an individual or group. When a trophy is placedat an Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall with training rooms, the creature will become available to fight and train against. If placed in another building, different benefits may occur (Increase your skill level in Mana Theory for more information). |
|
Zach was a little surprised to see the first item ever that you couldn¡¯t buy at the[Divine Store]. Curious about what the dungeon core had to say; Zach looked downto his hand.
|
| Divine Store Item: | City Core Shard: Dungeon Enhancement |
| Divine Store Cost: | 80 |
| Item Description: | A City Core Shard is an upgradable crystal for a City Core. By placing the core next to City Core this item will enhance one Dungeon. Depending on the Dungeon this can include new quests, items, puzzles, traps, or mana creatures. If no dungeon has been created by the City Core, this Enhancement will create one.
Congratulations! Your Arcane Inscription, Core Creation, Core Expansion, Mana Theory and Spell Imbuement have been used to identify this object. By using three or more skills in identification of an item, additional information was obtained.
Arcane Inscription and Core Creation: It is possible for you to recreate this object using your current skills. By creating a ritual circle and placing various objects and mana core¡¯s around the circle you can draw in their mana to create an exact copy of this item. Items must be infused with enough mana to exceed 33,000 mana points. Review of your Skills and Attributes show you have a 3% chance of success and will require 4 weeks to channel enough mana.
Arcane Inscription and Core Expansion: Besides creating a copy of the core shard, you can try to increase the shards knowledge of items, quests, intelligence, or creatures. By creating a ritual circle you can access the shards drain and learn featureto sacrifice items or cores to it. Depending on the level, quality, and uniqueness;multiple items maybe needed of the same type for the core to learn.
Core Expansion, Mana Theory and Spell Imbuement: By accessing the core learn feature you can cast any spell you know in the general area of the shard and have a chance for the shard to learn the spell and offer it to creatures or as loot. All spells have a 0.1% chance of learning regardless of a user¡¯s mastery. |
|
¡°Holy crap!¡± Zach said as he read about the dungeon core.
Zach saw Andy look up from the trophy and smile. ¡°What quality is it?¡± Andy asked as he handed back trophy to Zach and Zach gave him the core.
¡°Quality?¡± Zach said.
Andy smiled and examined the crystal until his blue screen popped up. ¡°Being able to read an items quality takes the third level of cultivation, Movement or Circulation. The first three realms of cultivation are; Attunement or Sensing, Foundation or Formation, Movement or Circulation. To first attune we had you mediate and slowly sense the mana in you. As you build your island into something more and practice basic spells your mana channels began to strength against the use. As you circulate your mana through your mana channels, your body will hardened allowing new pathways of energy to exist and grow. These new pathways feed you perceptions about the true nature of an object, person, or place. Hmmmmm¡ low quality, still enough for a gold.¡± Andy handed back the core to Zach and Grim placed them both back in his inventory.
Zach felt a wave of air from Andy clapping his hands together before speaking up, ¡°All right Alexa and Zach, one of the most important rules of being in a dungeon is never assume your safe. Time to get up and move we have slimes to kill!¡±
Zach dusted off his clothes and waited as Alexa stood up. Alexa seemed to have a thoughtful look on her face as she turned to her father. ¡°Mother and you have taught me about mana and cultivation since I was five, but I thinkthat''s the first time you have mention the third level.¡± Alexa said as she pulled her sword and readied her shield.
Andy bit his lip slightly as he turned from Zach vision to face Alexa. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. Let''s start walking and I will give you my reason for it.¡± Andy said as he motioned for Zach to lead the way. Zach pointed back from where they had come from and the party walked watching for anything dangerous. It was strangely more quiet then Zach remembered as they entered the Rat¡¯s Nest, instead of hundreds of rats squealing or chittering their teeth, the nests around the rim of the basin were abandoned. Slowly, the party made their way across the basin to the exit.
¡°The third level is perhaps the most dangerous level in cultivation.¡± Andy said in a hush voice as they continued forward. ¡°The best way I can describe it is like a child learning to walk. At first the babe does not understand how to move, they are just picked up by their parents and placed where ever. Eventually by seeing enough and feeling their own strength, they began to tryto move. Slowly they build up the muscles and began to kick or try to stand on their own. If their muscles are strong enough, they stand up or push themselves around on the ground, if not they fall over¡.¡± Andy quieted down as they exited out into the pipe. Water was once again filling the pipe slowing down their speed as they walked through it. By the time, they were out of the pipe, Zach saw a giant blob of something on the corpses near the entryway.
As a child, Zach had gone to the VR aquarium to see the thousands of extinct fish that had died in the early parts of the 21st century. What had struck him as a child was seeing the jellyfish float about without a real mouth, eyes, or recognizable organs. The large barrel size creature in front of him looked just as much of an alien as his memory of a jellyfish. Slick liquid covered the transparent shell of the slime as white internal organs seemed to move. Looking down at the corpse, Zach saw that where ever the slime covered it, anything organic was dissolving, as a purple bioluminescence seemed to travel throughout the slimes body. Raising his hand to shoot a[Flaming Arrow], he felt Andy¡¯s strong grip upon his wrist forcing him to lower it.
¡°Slowly back into the tunnel, two other Slimes have seen us.¡± Andy said in a hush tone, using a simple nod to make Zach turn his head and see several other slimes moving to them. Unlike slimes rolling towards their prey, these slimes seemed to use their flexible membrane to push itself forward, almost as if the mana monster was using its internal mass to fling itself in the direction it wanted. As the group retreated backward, the slimes picked up speed as they waded into the water and bubbles formed around them.
¡°Give them everything you got Zach!¡± Andy cried out.
Raising his hand, Zach felt, in his mind, the words of the spell vibratedown his arms, as his fingers moved. Heat and light formed in front of Zach¡¯s hands and with a final gesture the ball of energy formed into an arrow leaping from his hand into the closest slime. The streak of fire lit up the pipe they were in as it hit the center mass of the slime. Just for a second the flames spluttered before the airsurrounding Zach briefly sucked towards the slime and its entire coating caught on fire. The water around the slime splashed and steamed as it tried diving its body into the shallow current.
Seeing that the slime on fire had stopped its forward momentum, Zach cast another[Flaming Arrow]at the other one. Flames erupted from the other slime that had just entered the pipe¡¯s entryway. ¡°Retreat!¡± Andy said as orange and green flames licked the pipes ceiling. Green tinted smoke filled up the pipe as the party splashed back into the basin. As Zach left the pipe, the smell of burning tar and rotten eggs hit him.
It was that smell that made Zach¡¯s eyes water as a harsh cough left his throat. Zach felt mucus come out of his nose as the burning in his throat became painful. The coughing continued as Zach felt his legs give out.I need to breathe!Rough hands grabbed his head and pushed it back painfully. Zach widely fought the person as liquid was being poured down his mouth. Trying to inhale, Zach felt the cooling liquid rush down his air pipe before it disappeared. Zach gulped the strawberry liquid down and gasp for breathe. Sweet air filled his lungs as he opened his eyes to see Andy over him. The pounding of Zach''s heart blocked the yelling that Andy was saying, so Zach weakly raised a hand.
It was a few seconds before Zach settled down enough to look around and realize that Alexa, Andy, Hayze and himself were on the edge of the basin as black smoke came out of the pipe into the ceiling. Zach looked around for a moment wondering how the hell he had even gotten up on the edge to begin with. Looking over to Andy, all Zach could do was say, ¡°Thanks!¡± in a rough voice.
Andy nodded and then spoke, ¡°Well the good news is that we know that the Slimes are flammable. The bad news is that we cannot hunt them in their nests with fire, if the smoke nearly kills us. Also, we are out of healing potions.¡±
¡°Shit,¡± Zach said thinking Andy really buried the lead on that one, ¡°What are we going to do now?¡±
Chapter 8.1 – Really Could Have Used a Healer
Zach watched as Andy turned to him. ¡°You haven¡¯t gotten a world message on the death of the slimes yet have you? That means even with fire, the damn slimes take a while to kill. We either wait for the slimes to come in here and have you cast your Flaming Arrow till they are dead or we need to find another exit.¡±
Zach looked around at the room to realize that most of the ceramic pipes were too small for a human to crawl through, only three pipes were large enough for Andy and Zach to crawl through, but Alexa would have to take off her heavier leather armor and drag her shield behind her as she crawled. Looking back over to the main pipe they entered from; the purplish black gas was getting thicker and an orange glow lit the muddy clay of the pipe. ¡°Andy!¡± Zach said trying to keep his voice from raising like a little girl¡¯s. Andy quickly turned around from his own search of the brick walls to see what Zach was pointing at.
¡°Everyone move back to the entrance to the Rat King¡¯s Lair! Zach, as soon as you see them start casting!¡± Zachback to the doorway as the heavy black smoke and the purple light came closer and closer to the spillway¡¯s entrance. Zach made his hands ready to cast as his foot crunched something under his heel. Taking a moment to look down Zach saw broken pieces of a ceramic pipe and he felt a slight pull at his mind. He felt like he was forgetting something about ceramics but couldn¡¯t remember because of his own fear. A warmth flowed over him and he could feel Grim reaching into his mind and removing the obstacle from this memory.
The memory was of sitting in Material Chemistry lecture writing notes, the only reason he was so studious of the lecture was that Cindy Temple couldn¡¯t make it to class and she desperately needed him to take notes. His mind wasn¡¯t on the content of the lecture, more like Cindy in her low-cut top and that this was just some boring engineering elective for his programing degree. Then Professor Yue spoke, ¡°Most Ceramics are resistant to most acids, this facthas been popularized by the TV show ¡®Breaking Bad¡¯. However, just like glass certain strong acids can break it down depending on the silicate compounds. The following slides are about ceramic polymers and how certain acids react to them.¡±
Zach snapped back to the present and realized that weapons and armor made out ceramic pipes could penetrate the slimes and kill them. Zach picked up the clay pipe pieceand focused his mana on the surrounding pipes. Casting [Shape Stone], Zach could feel his mind and the spell struggle to move the ceramic material over Hayze. As Zach poured more mana into the spell and focused on pulling the material; the pipes softened into a puddle on the floor, before becoming a stream of clay that moved over and upward onto Hayze, coating his spear and armaments. As the clay harden, Zach commanded Hayze, ¡°Attack!¡± The clay coated golem jumped down into the basin. Zach watch Hayze for a moment as cracks formed over his armor from the hard landing, but as the golemstraighten only a few small pieces splashed into the water below.
As Hayze walked through the swirling water, two slimes came out of the spillway on fire. Black smoke with purple flames came from them as they continued to hop forward. However, instead of being as large as barrels the slimes had shrunk in size of a mop bucket. Zach could see Hayze closing in on one, so he cast [Flaming Arrow]. A flaming bolt leapt from this hand and hit the small slime right in the middle of its mass. Chunks of slime exploded and pieces of it hit Hayze. Looking over to Hayze, Zach saw the clay on the golem sizzle slightly as the flames died out. Hayze thrust the spear into the middle of the slime and penetrated the gooey membrane shell. Acidic liquid poured out of the slime as it caught on fire coating the water around the slime in a ring of fire. Zach wasn¡¯t sure what was going on until Hayze used his [Shadow Strike] to puncture more holes into the creature creating a fountain of flames as the creature died.
¡°Fuck! Shadow Strike!¡± Zach said as Hayze¡¯s slime became a pancake like corpse. Zach realized that [Shadow Strike] was the perfect weapon for slimes. It could puncture the slimes membrane from a distance and even if the acid ate away the shadow substance, it didn¡¯t matter as Zach could just cast it again. Shit, Zach thought, how the hell do the rats protect their lair? After all the rats were supposed to be guardians and if they die to these things then how in the world can they protect themselves? They are made of death mana; maybe the rats have a poison or ability that kills the slimes?
Zach tore his attention away from his thoughts as another Slime came out of the pipe, this one was thankfully not on fire. Learning from his previous mistake of using the spell [Flaming Arrow], Zach switched to [Shadow Strike]. Barbs of darkness came out of the water and pierced the Slimes membrane, spilling clear liquid into the water and causing the water to foam up. Smiling Zach cast the spell again and again as Hayze moved up to the slime and swiped at it with his spear. In all it took Zach and Hayze half a minute to kill the thing, but at the end of it a blue screen popped up.
| Congratulations, you and your golem have killed three Medium Slimes! As per your contract, your golem will receive the total mana pool rewards of shared kills!
You have gained +9 to your experience!
You have gained +30 to your mana pool!
You have gained +2 to your Intelligence!
You have gained +1 to your Wisdom!
You have gained +3% to your Mastery of [Spell: Flaming Arrow]!
You have gained +8% to your Mastery of [Spell: Shadow Strike]!
You have gained +3% to your Mastery of [Spell: Shape Stone Tier 2]!
You have looted 12 Mana Cores containing Pure Mana!
You have looted 2 vials of Mana Alkahest!
You have looted 6 Slime Filaments!
As you have killed your first Medium Slime, each Medium Slime is worth 10 Slimes, you have gained 30 Slime Kills and 30 mana points for killing your first slime. Kill another 70 Slimes to receive another bonus! |
Zach watched as the corpses of the Slimes went down the drain in the middle of the basin. Andy stepped out of the Rat King¡¯s entryway to cast a spell of his own. A ball of light appeared in the spillway pipe and showed the pipe to be clear of anymore slimes. However, the water was definitively rising as Andy, Alexa, and Zach jumped into the basin and hurried towards the exit. Cold water soaked Zach¡¯s pants up to the middle of his thighs has he pumped his legs back and forth against the current. Heading into the pipe, Zach shook as more cold water came up to his waist. Finally, the group made it through the pipe as they entered the drainage pool. Twenty or sopipes were spilling water into the pool as shrieks of rats echoed off the wall. Quickly the group made their way over to stone steps and climbed out of the pool back onto the walkway. Taking a moment Zach looked around to see fifty or more rats battling ten mop bucket size slimes. It was a strange sight to see a rat glowing green or the dark shadows bending over its skin as it lunged and tore at the slimes. However, as chucks of gelatinous member few off the slimes, hair and skin dissolved off of the rats.
Zach felt a tap on his shoulder and noticed that Andy was signaling them to be quiet and leave. With care Zach turned and followed Andy and Alexa as they made their way back through the tunnels to a safer location. It was a tense half an hour before they found a main corridor that had plenty of foot traffic, by then Hayze¡¯s clay coating had started to break apart and fall off his bronze body. Taking a moment to sit, Andy spoke, ¡°All right, we need to head back up to the surface. We have no more healing potions, but we have loot. So if we go now, the shops should still be open and then we can head to the inn for an earlier supper.¡±
A part of Zach wanted to say no they should keep going, but the logical part of his mind said it was only because he wasn¡¯t hurt which was why he wanted to go on. However, he was tired and exhausted, besides he could turn in the quest at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, and maybe look for a healer for the group. After all it would lessen the burden and expense of healing potions. Slowly they go back up and Grim helped them to find the entrance in which they came from. Andy kept them in silence as he wanted to be sure they wouldn¡¯t be ambushed or fall into a trap on their way out. It wasn¡¯t till they finally came to the portal that the silence was lifted and joy came back to the party. Jumping back over the threshold Zach noticed that the Jump Point had changed. Instead of a small circular stone floor that was twenty feet in diameter, it had expanded to thirty feet with small stone benches arranged around the circumference. Additionally, there appeared a small round stone table, supported by a center leg carved in the likeness of the Rat King in the middle of the floor with a small blue screen.
As Zach came near the table, he noticed a large silver plate on the table below the screen. Looking up from the plate, he read.
| Standard Dungeon Pass detected!
Important Announcement: Greetings Adventurer from the Bellmare Adventurers Guild. As you have bought the Standard Dungeon Pass, you have been given permission to use the Dungeon Points System and Dungeon Quest System. The Dungeon Points System allows you to place any unwanted item on the plate and for the Dungeon to reabsorb it. Once done, the dungeon will award you points for an item. To redeem the points press the button label [Dungeon Shop] below. If you wish to keep your hard fought loot but want to increase your Dungeon Points please press the button label [Dungeon Quests]. If a quest requires a component,merely place it on the plate for completion of the quest, otherwise the Dungeon will track all objectives. Good luck and if your luck turns bad may your death be a swift one! |
| Dungeon Shop | Dungeon Quests |
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
¡°Well, that¡¯s fucking morbid!¡± Grim said as Zach turned over to see his Grimoire wearing a Lambda Lambda Lambda Greek shirt, with an Adam¡¯s Atoms sweats on. Laughing slightly, Zach nodded and then touched the [Dungeon Shop] button. Just like the [Divine Shop] thousands of items were listed. However, Zach could already tell that it wasn¡¯t a complete list of every item in the universe. The problem was that unlike the [Divine Shop] there didn¡¯t appear to be a search function or even a sorting function. Grim¡¯s hand reached out to the blue window and the list quickly scrolled down. ¡°All right, got it. Assuming a one-to-one point conversion, if we were to give it all our loot we could get somecool stuff. However, Andy and Milly said this was a harvesting run for our town¡¯s dungeon, so we probably can sacrificesomeof the meat as we have close to a hundred pounds.¡±
Zach looked up to see Andy and Alexa both looking at the table and the screen. ¡°Well, what do you think? Want to see if we can exchange it for healing potions or if nothing else some coins?¡±
For a moment Andy sucked in his mustache and chew on it as he thought. When he released it he smiled, ¡°Aye lad, keep around fifty pounds of the meat, twenty for us and thirty for me to bargain with the inn, with any luck they have a mana chef that can unlock the meats essence. If they don¡¯t have a chef, we can also return here to exchange it tomorrow or sell it someplace else.¡± Just as Andy gave his consent, flashes of light appeared on the silver plate as Grim operated Zach¡¯s [Auto-Loot] feature. A small blue screen saying they now had five dungeon points popped up and then disappeared.
¡°Damn,¡± said Grim, ¡°to buy ten pounds of rat meat would require ten points, but we only get one for trading in. What kind of crazy exchange system do they have here?¡± Grim said, as tons of items disappeared from the list and only a few they could afford showed up.
Andy shrugged for a moment, ¡°Most guilds and towns want their adventurers to come out with loot for the local economy. So they probably have a hidden tax in the exchange of goods, besides the dungeon trying to keep better loot rewards from being exchange for a few hundred pounds of meat. Still ten for one seems a little high.¡± Looking at what they could buy with five points, it quickly became obvious that it would have been better to barter the meat for coins. The only thing that even Alexa suggested was to spend it on increasing their slime kill counts. For two points they could increase one of their kill counts by one.
Sighing, Alexa spoke, ¡°This looks like the only way for me to increase my slime kill counts. My armor can¡¯t stand up against the acid from the slimes, and I don¡¯t have an acid resistance enhancement to protect me.¡± Shaking her head, Alexa touched the [Dungeon Quests] tab and found that most of the quests involved killing a certain number of mana monsters and getting a ten point reward. Grim was slightly more upbeat about it and pointed out to Alexa that average loot with the kill counts would only mean a week or two of killing leeches, rats, and ghouls. ¡°I feel useless, Grim.¡± Alexa said. ¡°I mean at least Hayze can attack the slimes with his clay armor, even my dad can kill them from a distance with his chains, but I can¡¯t get close without a splash of them dissolving a hole right through me.¡±
¡°Alexa, I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± Zach said and Grim seem to wince at his words. ¡°I wish I had the answer to help you, but I know thatwithout your help we would have been overwhelmed by the ghouls and rats. Also, you were bad ass taking out the Rat King.¡±
Alexa laughed and shook her head, ¡°I am not sure what my ass had to do with killing the Rat King, but I will take your words in the spirit in whichthey were given.¡±
Zach blushed for a moment realizing he had spoken a phrase once again from his previous life. ¡°Thanks Alexa, I guess I was trying to say I know I would have died against the Rat King. You,on the other hand,impaled that ugly monster like it another day around town. If we need to spend two weeks killing rats and completing quests, then that¡¯s what we will do.¡± Shrugging like it was the only answer left to say. Zach caught Andy smiling for a moment right before he placed his own hand on his daughter¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Alexa, understanding what to fight and when to run is an important first step in every dungeon diver¡¯s life. There are always ways to get what you want, but the only thing you can¡¯t buy is your life. Like Zach said if it takes two weeks then it takes two weeks. Now that both of you have gotten experience fighting rats and other things, I will leave the party tomorrow and try to get as far as I can in the dungeon to gather more materials and components for us.¡± Andy said as he looked down at his daughter.
Startled Alexa looked up at Andy, ¡°But¡ I thought you would lead us for the first week.¡±
¡°I was going to, but I realized that we pushed harder than what we should have today. Alexa, Zach, the two of you understand how to kill rats and leeches. It might not be fun, but it¡¯s relatively safe and it will allow you to develop your own skills faster. I sensed neither traps nor magical curses in the areas we covered today, and the only thing the two of you couldn¡¯t have handled was the Rat King. So I will go out with the money and buy you both healing potions and focus on information about the next few levels. Daughter, you will be ok! You are a strong fighter and Zach is getting a handle on his magic, I trust you to be safe and to come back out.¡± Andy said as he looked deep into his daughter¡¯s eyes.
Grim coughed slightly, and it shattered the moment for everyone. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t mean to interrupt, but perhaps Alexa and Zach can head to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to drop off the quest while you go shopping? I can give you all the money we earned today.¡± Laughing at the fact that everyday life seemed to force the heavy atmosphere back to something more normal. Getting up Zach handled over all the money from today¡¯s run to Andy and jumped out of the portal back into the Romanesque Amphitheatre. As he left the portal wet clothes turned dry and the stench of raw old sewage left his body. The problem was that a new scent of unwashed bodies came over him as he landed.
People still seemed to enter the Dungeon, but instead of well-equipped fighters and mages, the line comprised of people in rags with a knife or club. Zach remembered that for a few hours a day the Bellmare Dungeon was open to the public, and as he looked over the crowd he realized that the town was sacrificing their beggars and desperate to the dungeon. Passing a man whose hands were trembling and the stench of old alcohol on his clothes, Zach looked back to find that Hayze no longer had his clay coating on his armor and Alexa was hugging her father before joining him. Looking back over the people, a worm of guilt came to his mind, These poor people. They have no one or any means to take care of themselves. So the city just feeds them to their dungeon to strengthen it. I feel like I should do something, but where do I start? Do I start with the old woman that is coughing, or how about the young man with the dead eyes? How do I stop something like this from happening?
As they walked away from the entrance of the dungeon Alexa spoke, ¡°I feel like we should do something. At Schoner¡¯s Creek, if someone is sick or can¡¯t feed themselves we give them food to help. We all know one day we could be in the same situation, so we help, and if someone is lazy or doesn¡¯t want to help, then they know they can expect the same attitude back at them.¡±
Zach looked at Alexa and smiled. It was a simple answer, a pure one, but his previous life had jaded him. He thought about the VR addicts, the drug and alcohol addicts, he thought about the news reports of elderly people dying from heat exhaustion because they couldn¡¯t afford AC. Thousands of welfare programs, countless volunteers and nonprofit charities couldn¡¯t solve this problem, yet they tried every day. ¡°I don¡¯t know Alexa.¡± The look of astonishment on her face told Zach that he had been misunderstood. ¡°I mean, I don¡¯t know how we can help. Should we offer them food and drink? We could give up a little of our loot and buy one or two people meals, but that only feeds them today. Should we teach them to fight? We barely know what we are doing and your mother and father taught us. Should we group up with the most helpless of cases, let them have some of our experience as we risk death to get it? Alexa, I don¡¯t know what to do¡ the only thing I can think of is that when we get back, we tax dungeon loot and use it for those who need it. However, it doesn¡¯t stop this, and it doesn¡¯t stop it from happening in Schoner¡¯s Creek.¡±
Alexa looked at Zach and nodded, but before she took another her gaze fell on someone in line. Instead of walking another step she held out her hand. ¡°Zach, you still have those cheap maces?¡± Zach turned to follow her gaze and saw a small woman with three children holding on her skirts crying as she waited in line. The bruises on her face and arms either said this wasn¡¯t the first time she had entered the dungeon, or some other monster lived at her house. It was then he noticed the bruising on the children and he knew what the answer was. Whatever private hell the woman was going through when Zach looked into her eyes he saw the cold determination thatshe would fight until there was no more fight left in her dead body.
A black iron pitted mace appeared in Zach¡¯s hand, ¡°Grim¡ give me a couple of silver out of my stash.¡± Alexa looked over to Zach and gave him a grateful smile as he handed her the mace and coin. ¡°Tell her¡ tell her to come with us to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and the Inn.¡±
¡°Are you sure? We know nothing about her¡ taking her into dungeon we might not be able tokeep her alive.¡± Zach could hear the question in Alexa¡¯s voice. It was the same question he asked himself; if the mother died who would take care of her children? Of course, if they didn¡¯t help teach the mother something then it was much more likely that the children would die. Besides the woman something about the woman demanded Zach¡¯s attention and help. Perhaps it was because he hated bullies hurting innocent people; or perhaps he had savior complex that demanded he try to help no matter what the cost. Whatever it was, it overrode his modern view of turning a blind eye to those in need.
¡°No, I am not sure, but we can¡¯t save them all but maybe we can give that family a chance.¡± Alexa nodded and walked over to the woman talking to her softly and handling her the mace and money. The woman quickly pocketed the money and with tears in her eyes kissed Alexa¡¯s hand. Before Zach could hear the woman¡¯s reply a blue screen appeared.
| Goddess Yone has seen your actions! The Goddess of the Hearth and Family offers a quest! |
|
| Quest Name: | Protection of Christina Beoman and her children |
| Goddess Yone has seen the horrors of what has happened to Christina and her children. Yet it is not in her domain to punish the offender or help Christina fight in a dungeon. By offering your charity and providing a chance for Christina and her family the Goddess asks you to protect her and her children for the time you are in Bellmare. You only have to protect Christina when in the dungeon and provide a room for her and her children. If you decline the quest, no punishment will occur. Should you go above the request of the quest, additional rewards may apply.
Reward: 1 Ward of Warmth over your residence for 5 years.
Do you accept the Quest? |
| Yes | No |
Zach looked up from the quest to see a small girl of two looking at her mother crying. Her dirty brown hair hung limply as her green eyes were bloodshot. Yellow bruises could be seen on the little girl¡¯s arm through her torn dress, and as Zach¡¯s heart broke over the face of the little girl, he hit the accept button. ¡°Fuck! What kind of man would I be if I can¡¯t protect one person and her family?¡±
Chapter 8.2 – The Adventurer’s Guild
The blue screen in front of Zach disappeared from his view to show that the orderly line around the woman was now watching her as she stepped out of it. Slowly, a soft murmur started and unwashed hands reached out to Alexa. People asking for money or help in the dungeon surround them. Going from an outstretched hand to physicallygrabbing their clothes. Voices of desperate people asking for coins, food, weapons washed over Zach as he felt the press of people get tighter. Zach could just barely hear over the crowd the loud crying of a child. Then something changed, the crowd became angry as someone shouted to take their gear and in that instant the crowd changed. A fist came out of nowhere and slammed into the back of Zach¡¯s head. Blows continued to rain down on his body, but the leather armor protected him from most of the force. Someone kicked the back of Zach¡¯s knee and as he fell, he felt a sharp pain slice into his side. Screaming out in pain, Zach felt hot liquidpour from him.
BOOM! The sound of thunder shook Zach¡¯s entire body as people clapped their hands over their ears. Looking towards the dungeon¡¯s entrance portal, Zach saw a large man in a Bellmare¡¯s guard uniform shouting and directing other guards into the surrounding crowd. The men that came down, used wooden clubs and lifting full-grown men with one hand. Back and forth they worked throwing people left and right until they finally made their way down to Zach. A rough hand lifted Zach upwards as a sharp slap across his face loosen some of his teeth in their sockets. Zach gazed at the man as stars lit up in his eyes. The guard was missing quite a few teeth as spit flew from his mouth onto Zach¡¯s face. Closing his fist around Zach leather collar, the guard draggedhim across the stone floor towards his leader. It wasn¡¯t till Zach felt the dull edge of the rough stone steps thathe even had enough wits to get his feet under him. Looking back, the guard saw Zach struggling and stopped, giving him a moment to get back on his feet.
¡°Come on, ain¡¯t got all day!¡± The guard said as he pushed Zach towards the street. As Zach walked, the pain in his side flared up and he looked downrealizing that someone had stabbed him.
¡°Oh Fuck! Oh Fuck! Someone stabbed me!¡± Zach shouted in a panic.
The guard gritted his teeth and pushed Zach forward. ¡°Quit your yelling! We going to see the healer! Your lucky the crowd didn¡¯t tear yeah to pieces! Stupid Git! I ain¡¯t getting paid enough to protect farm boys from spilling out their guts!¡±
Zach put pressure on his wound hoping to stop thebleeding. As they walked across the street into a tiny shop, Zach realized that it wasn¡¯t a shop at all. The room they entered had five small tables and around fifteen chairs sitting around a large desk. Alexa and Christina were huddled together as another guard brought the two of them cups of water. Behind the desk someone had nailed a small map showing streets and shops of the Adventurer¡¯s district to the wall. Stacks of paper, bottles of oil and various tools laid on a table below the map. A white sheet covered a staircase in the back as an older man in a guard¡¯s uniform with a white strip came out. As the older man came over, Zach felt a rough hand force him into a chair.
¡°He¡¯s been stabbed, Martin, and acting like a dragon has come calling. The sarge says to heal him up and get them out. We going to be having a bunch of folk that need healing for their cracked heads.¡± The guard seemed to snicker as he left Zach to Martin¡¯s care. Martin, for what little it was worth, shook his head and placed a hand over Zach¡¯s wound closing his eyes. The man chanted a spell as the pain deaden and Zach could feel the flow of blood stop.
Opening his eyes, Martin looked at Zach, ¡°How¡¯s it feel?¡±
Zach nodded, ¡°Better, I don¡¯t feel anything right now.¡±
Martin snorted, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t. I temporary stopped the blood flow, but I will have to clean the wound before applying the heal spell, and that will hurt like someone stabbing you with a hot poker.¡±
Zach looked surprised at Martin for a moment, ¡°Wait, why not just give me a healing potion and be done with it?¡±
Martin laughed as if Zach had said the funniest thing he had heard. After settling down, Martin took a large pitcher and washed out Zach¡¯s wound making him feel a slight pulling sensation as the water ran red onto the floor. ¡°Boy, you don¡¯t know the first thing about healing, do you? Potions are great for the dungeon because of all the mana used in the healing process is in the air. It can pull flesh and blood out of itlike no one¡¯s business. Use it out here and a potion uses a person¡®s mana pool to create new flesh. That can build corruption in your pool or create a nasty infection in the flesh. Besides damn things are expensive and too many people need healing as it is. But enough with the stupid questions. Let me heal you before the Stabilize spell wears off.¡±
Before Zach said anything else, Martin chanted another spell as his hand hovered over Zach¡¯s wound, and then the pain started. Zach felt like two rough hands squeezed his flesh together and thenburning the flesh close. Tears fell from his eyesby the time Martin was done casting the spell. ¡°There, now off with you lot, the Guard has better things to do then break up beggar riots over a few silvers.¡±
Zach got up to look at his wound and notice nice clean pink skin. [Mend] could fix the clean-cut hole in his armor, but Zach had the feeling they all needed to get to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild before the other guards decided they were being a nuisance. Checking the map, he headed out with Alexa, Christina, and her children in tow to the Guilds location.
As they left Dungeon Square, Christina¡¯s children complained about how they were hungry or how their feet hurt. Christina tried keeping them quiet, but Zach finally had them stop for a moment. ¡°All right, how about we go to the inn first and let everyone take a nap, while the adults go to the Guild?¡± Zach tried smiling as he looked at the children and Christina hugged them close.
¡°That would probably be for the best, sir. I can carry Maggie, but would it be possible for you or your Golem to carry young Billy here?¡± Christina had a surprisinglysoft voice for someone about to face death in a dungeon. So Zach relented and picked up the boy as they headed to the Ugly Elemental.
They took perhaps half an hour to make it to the inn and rent Christina a room. During the walk young Billy had entered the phase of asking questions about everything, which had wore Zach¡¯s patience paper thin. Thankfully, Grim helped him cheat by using his [Appraisal] skill and just pop blue screens for the boy to look at. Which brought on questions about what was this word or that one. After finally reaching the inn, Zach was able to purchase a room for a few nightswithout hurting his budget. Looking at his dimensional wallet,he wasn¡®t sure how much a Standard Dungeon Pass would be or if he could just get her a basic one without affecting Alexa and himself.
When they finally got back outside, Christina looked like a weight had finally been lifted from her. Smiling, she looked up at the sky and sighed with relief. ¡°Thank you both for what you have done. I was out of money and we had already slept outside last night¡. I didn¡¯t know what else to do.¡± Christina smiled with tears in her eyes.
Alexa gave her a small pat on the shoulder, ¡°Christina, this is just the first step. Why don¡¯t you tell us why you were going into the dungeon to begin with, instead of trying to find family or friends to help you?¡±
Christina looked at Alexa and nodded her head as few tears dropped from her eyes. ¡°My husband used to be a level ten Scout before we got married. He always brought out money from the dungeon and used to tell me tales of how to fight the creatures in there. He said he was one of the best trap finders in the city until a mana beast bit off his arm. When he drank, he would say how easy it is and that he should have gone back in and taken care of all our debts. I always thought he would do it, and when debt collectors came by or he needed a drink he would head in and kill a few rats with a dagger. So I thought if he could do it blind drunk, I should be able to do it stone sober. As far as friends or family go, my parents died a while back and Charlie didn¡¯t like me going out of the house too often.¡±
Awkward silence hung over the group for a moment before Zach quietly asked, ¡°And what is your class and level?¡±
Christina looked Zach in the eyes with a seriousness that made him feel like death was a moment away, ¡°Level three, Hearth Warden.¡± Perhaps it was his absolute ignorance of this world that save Zach from putting his foot firmly in his mouth, but he nodded at information.
¡°That is not a class I have heard of, I don¡¯t suppose you could help me understand a little more about it?¡± Zach said watching Alexa, hoping for some help.
Christina sighed, ¡°I really have no weapon skills and the only spells I have are Spark and Sharpen. My plan was to cast Sharpen on my blade and slit the throats of any rats I could find. I planned on killing only a fewrats and leaving with whatever meat I could get to feed my family.¡±
Zach ears picked up as Christina mentioned a new spell, but he no idea if Christina had the needed fifty percent mastery of the spell to teach it. Truthfully, Zach thought, it might be easier to teach her Shape Stone or Flaming Arrow. Both spells have a little more combat utility and it wouldn¡¯t involve her getting up close to a dog size rat. She should have the cultivation needed for Flaming Arrow as it¡¯s a tier one spell like Spark. As for Shape Stone, I am hoping Sharpen is an earth spell and not something else.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°How do you cultivate Christina? Usually your technique can help us understand what type of weapon skills you might have?¡± Alexa said.
That detail surprised Zach, after all,his cultivation technique was The Seed that Grows. How did that have anything to do with my spear skill? ¡°It doesn¡¯t,¡± Grim whispered to Zach, ¡°The cultivation technique builds the foundation for more advance life techniques that might have weapon skills.¡±
Nodding at Grim¡¯s words Zach nearly missed what Christina had to say next. ¡°I really don¡¯t have a cultivation technique, my class allows me to gain mana and experience from everyone that cultivates under my roof. Right now without a real house or property, I can¡¯t cultivate at all. The only thing I can do to gain mana or experience is to kill monsters.¡±
Alexa seemed shock at the revelation, and it made Zach wonder specifically what type of class the Hearth Warden was. Alexa closed her mouth and patted Christina¡¯s arm, ¡°Well that¡¯s ok, I can teach you mine or Zach¡¯s and walk your through his. Either way, lets start off with the spear, it¡¯s a simple weapon that gives you some distance.¡± Zach bristled up at Alexa¡¯s words. He had practice long and hard to learn the spear and even learned his first weapon technique.
Alexa saw the sour look on Zach¡®s face and made shooing motions with her hand asking Christina to some shopping for weapons with her. Heading to the Adventure¡¯s Guild, Zach had to admit that being free from Alexa while she went shopping for weapons was a blessing from the Gods and Goddesses. The walk through the small streets was interesting as Zach stumbled across bakeries, fletchers, cobblers, and quite a few tailors; but as he got closer to the Guild, the shops became fancier and offered rarer goods. Heck, Zach thought, even the general store across from the Guild is selling corruption removing potions for twenty gold. Pushing his way through several people haggling prices with store owners, Zach saw his first glimpse of the Guild.
The Guild was a four story building with large windows and a few balconies on the third and fourth floor. Purple drapes would flutter around open windows as the sounds of combat or yelling came from them. Signs pointed Zach to a large courtyard that had a small stable and pen area for animals and golems set into the wall of the guild. Someone set tables and chairs outside as serving men and women dress in purple uniforms brought food and drink to Adventurers. Looking around Zach saw groups of Adventurers staring as blue screens on the tables, gambling, or telling a dirty joke. Stopping a waiter Zach had to ask where he could buy a dungeon pass. Sneering at Zach, the waiter told him that the bartender could take care of any business he needed. Wondering why the waiter acted like he was an asshole, Zach walked through the courtyard into the Guild. Inside, Zach saw hundreds of tables and a perhaps a hundred foot bar where people were sitting and staring at blue screens. Walking over to the closest bar stool, one of a dozen bartenders came up and looked at Zach and his golem.
¡°Hello, can I get you something to drink or eat? Or do you justneed access to the Guild Board?¡± The man said with an easy smile.
¡°Ummmm, I am not sure. I came here looking to buy a dungeon pass and turn in a quest.¡± Zach said looking around the huge bar.
The bartender smiled and pulled out a metal plate framed in wood. Placing the plate down on the table the Bartender asked Zach to place his hand on the plate. As Zach set his hand down a blue screen appeared.
| Bellmare Adventurer Guild Crystal connecting¡
Identifying Adventurer¡
New Adventurer found¡
Standard Dungeon Pass Detected¡
Welcome Zachary of House Ridhurja! You have permission to perform the following tasks: |
|
| Quests | Personal Journal |
| Guild Services | Group Member Postings |
| Would you like to grant permission to your Grimoire Companion to use this screen? |
| Yes | No |
Zach looked briefly up from the screen to see that he bartender had turned his back and was organizing something on the shelf. Pressing ¡®Yes¡¯ quickly, Zach saw the blue screen flicker as new screen after new screen opened and closed for several minutes. Finally, a new screen opened upand stayed open long enough for Zach to read it.
| Complete main objective of ¡®Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown¡¯?By pressing ¡®Yes¡¯ your map of the dungeon will be given to the Bellmare Adventurers Guild. |
| Yes | No |
Not seeing much choice Zach pressed ¡®Yes¡¯ and a new screen appeared.
| Congratulations, on completing a hidden quest! The Bellmare Adventurers Guild has been updated on new quests available in the dungeon. Having received enhance rewards from the Rat King you have been awarded 32 Dungeon Points to your account. Assessment of your map shows thatit is Apprentice Skill level, you may choose 20 silver or 50 Dungeon Points. |
| 20 Silver | 50 Dungeon Points |
Grim snorted in disgust, ¡°Cheap Bastards! We should have gotten experience and mana from turning in the quest! Instead, they are crediting us with dungeon points! On top of it, my maps are a heck of a lot more accurate than theirs! Just because we don¡¯t have the advance mapping upgrade, you¡¯re saying my work is shoddy!¡±
Thankfully Zach noticed that the bartender had moved on to another customer and Grim was making sure that only he could hear him. ¡°I am sorry buddy. So¡ 20 silver or 50 Dungeon Points?¡±
Sighing Grim spoke, ¡°Honestly, fifty points will make a decent impact on Alexa¡¯s slime count, but that means we will have to pay around a gold for Christina¡¯s dungeon pass.¡±
¡°A gold?¡± Zach said feeling like someone had just kicked him in the nuts. ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous, I wanted to spend some of the currency we found in the dwarven camp, but a gold? How long will the pass last, the whole month? Can¡¯t we get her the cheapest one?¡±
¡°Apparently, the major expense is buying the pass and if we get her the cheap one all of our passes will be downgraded to basic passes in the dungeon. So, the standard pass is around eight hundred silver, and each day added is ten silver. However, I would like to point out thatyou already spent the dwarven silver on spells. We only have around thirty pieces of silver right now,and we will have to sell one bundle of wolf moss to the guild for a gold piece.¡±
Zach just nodded, ¡°Could you please just take care of it? I feel like I am dealing with a cable TV company with hidden fees and poor service.¡±
Grim laughed, ¡°Actually it¡¯s a lot worse than that. As I was scanning the services and functions of the Guild Interface, I realized that their Personal Journal system is just a file directory without real permissions. I have access to the entire Journal System and saw that the top Guild Officials open it up periodically to review new journal entries. Talk about an invasion of privacy!¡±
Zach face palmed himself in total despair. The Guild is fucking over everyone! He thought. ¡°Wait, does that mean¡¡±
¡°No, I didn¡¯t hack the Guild¡¯s Core Crystal. I am not even sure another Grimoire Companion would see the same thing. The only reason I can see the permissions and who had accessed the files is because of your background in computer programming and my work on spell improvement. I can detect the filling system and the pathways to all journal entries.¡± Grim said as several screens popped open and closed again asking if he wanted to sell a bundle of wolf moss and purchase a standard dungeon pass.
Zach shook his head as another bartender came over with a small wooden box. ¡°Sir, your dungeon pass.¡± The man said and laid the box down for Zach to open it up and inspect the contents. Instead of a wooden token the medallion was made of copper and had several runes etched around the rim. Once the bartender was away from the box, the medallion vanished in a flash of light.
¡°I don¡¯t suppose you can please look up healers in the Group Members Posting tab?¡± Zach asked.
¡°Of course! Just give me a couple of minutes.¡± The blue screen vanished as Zach sat there thinking about how much money he had just spent on trying to complete Christina¡¯s quest. He still wanted to help, and it was the right thing to do, but he could have bought Courtney¡¯s bride price with that money, or even improved this own weapons and armor.
¡°Hmmmm¡¡± Grim said as it broke Zach out of his money depression. ¡°Well, almost all the healers available right now are asking insane looting rights and mana bonuses. The few other healers not asking for fifty percent of the loot and twenty percent of the experience or mana, only want to go to the second or third level. I am afraid that the pickings are rather slim, I can give you two candidates. Want to see their postings?¡±
Zach rubbed his temples at the thought of what can ofprice tag would be involved in getting a bargain healer.¡°Sure, lets see what we are working with?¡±
| Adventurer Looking for Party |
|
| Name: | Dirue Daemaris |
| Level: | 6 |
| Skills |
| Mana Manipulation Lv. 29, Mana Reinforcement Lv. 44, Physiology Lv. 34 |
|
| Spells |
| Heal Tier 2 |
|
| Special Notes |
| I am only interested in getting the Slime Kill counts necessary for becoming a mage. I have no ability to regenerate limbs, remove magical curses, or poisons. I will require 30 silver a day for expenses. Please contact me at the Jaspers Tonic locatedon Alchemists Street. |
| Adventurer Looking for Party |
|
| Name: | Jason Silvervein |
| Level: | 4 |
| Skills |
| Axes Lv 40, Mana Manipulation Lv. 35, Physiology Lv. 12 |
| Spells |
| Stabilize Tier 2, Purification Tier 1 |
|
| Special Notes |
| I only require 32 Mana Alkahest vials dropped from slimes and equal share in experience and mana. Contact me at the Ugly Elemental. |
Chapter 8.3 - End of a Hard Day
Looking over the first screen Zach felt lack luster about Dirue. They were honest about wanting slime kills, but the thirty silver a day was just too much money for their little group to afford. Looking over the second application he made it to the Ugly Elemental before he realized that Jason was the dwarf thatZach had a hidden quest to talk to. By getting him to join Alexa and his group, it would at least offer opportunities to talk to the dwarf and see if he couldn¡¯t complete the quest. The only two problems he saw with choosing Jason, as their groups healer, was that Jason didn¡¯t have a real [Heal] spell and he had no idea what the drop rate was for Mana Alkahest.
Pushing the matter to the back of his mind, Zach idly looked at other guild services as he did the mental math. Zach thought about how many rats and leeches that Alexa and himself could kill versus having a few more people in the group as he opened the training services offered. He thought of dozens of scenarios and cost of health potions and passes added up quickly. Looking at the guild services, they had a long list of items like enchanting one¡¯s gear or training someone in a skill or weapon, but the price tag for each service was incrediblyhigh. How was anyone supposed to make money from the dungeon when the guild was ready to take it all away?
¡°You¡¯re not supposed to make money.¡± Grim said. ¡°The guild just gives you the illusion of money. I have been reading every item price and quest reward they are showing, and the simple answer is that it would be next to impossible to make money from just collecting a few ingredients from the first level of the dungeon. For what I can see posted, the guild is using the dungeon sewer level as a human meat grinder. Here let me show you what I mean.¡±
The screen that Zach was looking at adjusted and showed how many dungeon points or coins one could get for a hundred pounds of rat meat. ¡°So because of our passes we know that the dungeon exchanges the rat meat on a ten to one ratio, but here in the Guild it¡¯s closer to a fifteen to one ratio. At fifteen to one ratio you would need to kill around thirty rats to get a kill count on a slime. They are forcing the poor and weak to take on tougher creatures like the slimes to make just enough money so they can survive, and the simple fact is that Christina might have been able to kill a rat or two, but there would have been no way for her to take on a slime.¡±
Zach lifted his hand over his mouth to speak, ¡°So what do you want to do, Grim?¡±
Zach heard Grim sigh softly. ¡°I don¡¯t know Zach.¡± Grim said as a feeling of disappointment echoed in Zach¡¯s mind. ¡°I thought maybe we could set up a vendor shop outside the dungeon and buy the drops from the people for slightly above what the guild does and then turn it into the dungeon for a profit. However, we would run out of money before we could buy enough things to even pay for the cost of the dungeon passes. We also have the advantage of auto-loot, and therefore can get most of the loot that forms from the creatures. While, most people have to dig through remains and trash to find their loot slowing them down or making them lose it. Because most of the loot is absorbed back into the dungeon, I don¡®t know if people will have enough items to sell us to even make a profit. I thought of a few other schemes, but there just doesn¡¯t seem a good way to break the Guild¡¯s hold on these people. I guess I wish there was a way to screw them over.¡±
Zach nodded softly, he could feel Grim slowly going over hundreds of news reports on stock scams, movies about con games, and even his hacking knowledge to determine if there was anything they could do. Yet Zach could feel the disappoint keep growing as Grim reviewed a memory and then discarded it. Getting up from his stool, the Guild bartender smiled at him and removed the Guild access plate and then wiped the counter. Looking around Zach realized just how much money and magic was being sunk into this building. Magical lights hung from the ceiling, blue guild screens hung everywhere, waiters and waitresses came out carrying wooden boxes or food depending on the adventurer¡¯s purchases. A strange memory came to Zach as he was watching the room, it was a quote from a movie he once saw long ago. ¡°The spice must flow.¡± Zach whispered.
Pushing past the tables, Zach headed out of the Guild with the quote ringing in his mind. Loot had to flow out of the dungeon and into the hands of the Guild. It was the only way they could sustain the magic and their lifestyles. Closing the dungeon turned off the money spout, no wonder Andy had Zach close the dungeon when it first appeared. He wasn¡¯t just building it up; he was making sure that the sudden influx of wealth didn¡¯t make the village dependent on the dungeon. Loot was the key to this town, it had built itself around it and couldn¡¯t figure out what to do if the dungeon wasn¡¯t producing it.
Stepping out into the bright daylight his eyes took a moment to adjust before heading out of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild courtyard. ¡°Zach, why don¡¯t you head over to the City Guard¡¯s station and turn in your quest.¡± Grim said as Zach¡¯s vision came back.
Tucked away between two large shops was a small grey building that showed a City Guard coming out of. Quickly Zach made his way between the wait staff and across the street to the Guard station. Entering the small city guard¡¯s post, Zach noticed the large similarities to the other one near the Dungeon entrance. However, instead of being dragged in by some guard, Zach had walked in and saw several guards pushing someone to the stairs. Coughing, a Guard at the large desk brought Zach¡¯s attention to him. ¡°Hello, Adventurer, is there something I can help you with?¡±
Sighing, Zach pulled up a chair and told the guard the story and about the quest he had found in the dungeon. As he finished the tale and placed the dagger on the guard¡¯s desk, two blue screens popped up, one in front of Zach and the other in front of the guard.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
| Congratulations, on completing a hidden quest! The Bellmare City Watch have been issued a quest to find the criminals. As you have allowed justice to be served by the Guard, the City Core recognizes you as an upstanding citizen! You can now become a citizen of Bellmare. If you wish to change your citizenship just head to the Council Hall.
You have gained +400 to your experience!
You have gained 2 Silver! |
Gruffly the guard thanked Zach as he escorted him out. Without further distraction Zach made his way back to the Ugly Elemental to see Alexa and Andy drilling Christina in a spear form. It was almost painful for Zach to watch as Christina stepped forward with too much weight on her back foot and thrusted the spear. Zach could feel his skill wanting to correct Christina¡¯s form while another part of him analyzed her moves and predicted where her next strike would come from and how to counteract it. Noticing Zach staring at Christina, Andy motioned him to come over as he called Christina to stop.
Andy looked to Alexa and Zach in a deadly serious way before saying anything, ¡°I leave the two of you alone for an hour and you decided to add to the party. I am upset and proud with what you have done. I am proud because after listening to Alexa and talking with Christina for a few minutes, I have realized that she and her family should be helped and you two did that together. I am upset because she is a giant liability in a dungeon. She has no mana regeneration without a cultivation technique, she has little natural talent for weapons, and should you fail to protect her you will orphan several children. Yet what upsets me the most is that you assume she should go to the dungeon, neither one of you asked her what her skills were did you?¡±
A look of surprise and confusion came over Zach¡¯s face. He was certain he asked her what her skills were. ¡°Actually, you specifically asked if she could explain a little more about her class to you. She then told you she had no weapon skills, and a few spells. Alexa was the one that asked about Cultivation Technique.¡± Grim whispered to Zach as Andy just seem to allow the dead silence to stretch out.
¡°I am very sorry, Andy. I¡ I fell into the same trap as the rest of the city and thought the only chance she had was to go into the dungeon.¡± Zach said as he decided the top of his boots looked really worn and could use a shine.
Andy snorted at that, ¡°Pretty words Zach, but you do not understand how dangerous of a trap that Dungeon is. This town is nothing more than a hand to feed people to that Dungeon. All these shops, marvels, coins, weapons¡. It¡¯s all because of the dungeon. They aren¡¯t gathering resources anymore, or trying to patrol the surrounding areas. The only trade caravans they have are for the small hamlets around them to help bring in food. However, in order for enough iron to be mined in the dungeon, people have to die trying to get at it. For every herb the alchemists use, someone risked their lives to get it.¡± Shaking his head, he looked from Zach to Alexa.
¡°I expect the both of you to do better. At least with Christina in tow, you won¡¯t go after the slime boss or try to press too far into the dungeon. Now, Zach, since you have the spear skill go over every movement for the next hour with her. I will get herbs, casings, and potions so that Christina can use her cooking skill and make the rat meat into something we can sell.¡± Zach and Alexa looked up at Andy in surprise.
¡°That¡¯s right, she had the cooking skill. I negotiated with the innkeeper for the use of his kitchen after talking with Christina. After she makes the sausages, we split the profits three ways, a two-fifths goes to the innkeeper and Christina, while we keep the rest. Since he hasn¡¯t sold mana laced dishes in a while we should be able to get a gold or two depending on the effects. Christina will probably get a couple hundred silver, enough for a mana potion and some extra to feed and house her family.¡± Andy seemed to calm down after saying the last bit, ¡°The dungeon should never be your first option, but I agree that having her go in there and gain a little bit of experience and mana will be beneficial for her and her family.¡±
Grim slowly brighten between Andy and Zach. Zach couldn¡¯t help smile as Grim wore his usual jeans, converse shoes, and t-shirt that had a gravestone on it with the words ¡®Buffy Anne Summer¨CShe Saved The World A Lot¡¯; but to Alexa and Andy he looked nothing more than a light with the shape and size of a twelve-year-old boy. ¡°I am sorry to interrupt, but Alexa, Zach and even myself were thinking it would be best to get a healer to help out. Zach and myself were able to find a candidate when we went to the Guild to turn in the Rat King quests.¡± Two screens appeared in front of Andy and Alexa and out of the corner of Zach¡¯s eye he could tell it was the posting for Jason Silvervein. ¡°I know that he doesn¡¯t have the Heal spell, but with stabilize Alexa and Zach can be more effective killing rats as they won¡¯t stop from pain or bad wounds.¡±
Andy dismissed the screen and looked down at Grim. Shrugging for a moment Andy spoke, ¡°It¡¯s not my call, I am going to push tomorrow soloing as much as I can. Alexa, why don¡¯t you two talk for a moment and decide as a team. Zach, please help Christina, she might not have the mana right now to spend on learning the skill, but if she gets the movements down, it should be a lot easier for her to learn the skill when she does.¡± Zach felt Grim activate his auto-loot skill and pass the little money they had to Andy as he left to buy components for Christina¡¯s cooking recipe.
Alexa looked over the screen again as the skin between her eyebrows bunched up as she thought. ¡°Was there no one else?¡± She finally asked after a full minute of looking at the screen.
Grim coughed slightly like he was clearing his throat. ¡°There were a few other candidates, but to secure their service we would have to spend more silver per day than we could earn from the dungeon. In fact, Jason was the only healer asking just for an equal share instead of a higher share of the loot or experience. His request for the slime drops is small compared to some others.¡±
Alexa bit her lip in frustration, but nodded deciding that they were both right. ¡°Ok, I will trust your judgement. Zach review Christina¡¯s spear form and I will talk with Jason about joining our group.¡± Zach opened his month to interrupt, but before he could say a word Alexa pointed at him. ¡°No¡ No to whatever you are thinking! You have the spear skill! You need to teach Christina, I can handle any negotiations, that¡¯s our jobs.¡±
Zach nodded, ¡°You¡¯re right, I wanted to finish what I started, but keeping Christina alive is far more important.¡± Seeing Alexa nod, Zach braced himself for a long evening of spear training.