Over the next month, my training did not vary all that much, I got to know a few of the people around me and found that as I grew stronger, I no longer struggled as much to do everything. I kept on training each day, but after the first week I stopped doing the OAC wolf and herb missions and kept the pelts and herbs to work on trade skills after I was done in the evening. I still worked with Marla every day, and while she seems to put up with me, I would not qualify us as friends in any manner. She is good at being a mage, but that’s all she cares about, that and her image. I have been taking off every third day to recuperate and just relax, fortunately, while I am not making a killing, I do make enough from selling the armor I have made and the potions to stay at the inn and keep training.

About two weeks after I started I was finally able to finish the obstacle course for the first time, then a week later with the upped weight, I did it again. I am currently working with an extra fifteen pounds, and I think in the next couple of days I will be able to do it again and move up to twenty pounds. I have noticed that my bow is no longer hard to draw at all, in fact, it’s getting to the point where I have to be careful not to break it. I need to see about getting a better one soon, but I only have 20 silver to my name right now. I have my eye on a reinforced Jalo horn bow. Jalo lives out in the planes near where I am at. If I can kill one and get the horns from it, the bowyer will accept those and 30 silver in trade. Without the horns, though I would need 1 gold 30 silver, or 130 silver, which is what I would have right now had I bought no spells at all. The problem is that Jalo is level 10 so at my current level, I just don’t think I could do it.

This left my stats at

Spoiler: Spoiler

Personal Information

Name

Age

Class

Level

Faction

Alain

18

N/A

8

Vortex

Health

EXP /next level

Mana

70/70

18,275/25,600

70/70

Statistics

Strength

Stamina

Dexterity

Intelligence

Wisdom

11

10

14

10

11

Magic Affinity

Nature

Cold

Fire

Water

Light and Dark

14%

8%

1%

8%

3%

Combat Proficiencies

Stealth 18%

Dagger 16%

Archery 25%

Throwing 4%

Pugilist 2%

Acrobatics 16%

Sword 8%

Greatsword 6%

Defense Proficiencies

Dodge 13%

Parry 10%

Block 1%

Skills

Beast Taming

10%

Stat points remaining

35

Trade skills

Herbalist

14%

Alchemy

10%

Tailoring

11%

Cooking

18%

Right now I learned a nature-based healing spell, an ice shock spell that uses my cold and water affinities, and a nature-based root spell as well. In combat, I don’t really use the shock that much as I tend to lose concentration still with it. Root I have become pretty proficient with. I normally hunt for two wolves at a time lead off with a root spell, then hit the other with my bow till it closes to melee range. I then finish it off with my dagger after trying to get at least one shock off on it. Then I repeat the process with the other warg. I only get 5 experience per warg right now, and I know the next level will make them give no experience at all, but I have been able to get some spells and increase my tradeskill abilities with them, so I didn’t mind leveling slower than other people are, until I started having to worry about breaking my bow anyway. Now I need to level up so that I can take on a Jalo.

Last night the trainer at the mages guild told Marla and I that she had a task for us and that we should report to her after lunch instead of the normal 3PM. I am heading there now to see what she wants us to do. When I arrive, I head to the training room that Marla and I usually use and find the trainer is there, but Marla is not yet. She is usually pretty punctual, so I am not overly worried about it, so I ask the trainer about the task. She replies that it’s better to wait so that we can both hear the task and ask any questions that we have then. I decide to pull out my guide to the beasts here locally again to see if there is anything that I want to tame that could help me take on a Jalo so I can get the horns faster. I am pretty confident in my skills though I do not have much in the way of group skills right now. About 10 minutes later Marla walks in and the trainer motions for her to have a seat and then stand up and pulls out a couple of pieces of paper to hand to us.

Investigate the disturbance in the ruins (Group Task)

People and animals have been disappearing in ruins in the forest. Investigate this matter and if possible resolve the issue.

Rewards 8000 experience plus variable reward (how the mission is resolved affects the rewards)

She gave us a minute to look it over and then told us that we would be joined by a warrior recommended by the OAC trainers. Marla asked the trainer how we were selected for the task and the trainer responded that she had personally suggested Marla as the mage representative, the warrior was selected by the appropriate trainer at the OAC, and I was selected because of my training methods at both the OAC and mages guild gave me multiple approaches to help resolve the situation. At that moment I felt proud to be noticed and equally happy that the methods that Saila suggested were paying off.

I asked the trainer, “What does variable reward mean?”

The trainer responded “That just means that what you do on the mission will reflect in the reward you receive. If you just go out there and see what the problem is and return, all you will get is the 8000 experience. However, if you go out there and find a monster encampment, bandits or something like that and then take steps to put a stop to it, you could get bonus experience, money, or items in addition to the 8000 experience. It all depends on the effort you are willing to put into the quest.”

I then asked how far away the ruins where, and when we would leave. She replied that the ruins were about 1 full day away which means that camping is the best option. She gave us a map and told us that it would most likely be better to depart this afternoon, camp overnight, then finish the mission around midday tomorrow. If all goes well, you could be back as soon as the day after. She then told us that the warrior was going to meet us at the west gate of town at 1:30 PM so we headed out to pick up any supplies that were needed. Honestly, I was nearly ready to go as it was. In fact, I had about 30 of the warg meat sandwiches in storage at the moment, I just needed more water to be ready to go. I ended up at the gate first then Marla joined me, and we waited for the warrior. At 1:35 another person showed up at the gate. He was wearing chain gear and had blue skin. His name was Alexandre, and he was of the race called Kioth. He said he naturally saw well at night and underground and that he had trained to use a sword and shield exclusively. He was level 10 and had almost 200 hit points with only 25 mana. We talked tactics between Alex and us decided that Marla was going to be our dedicated healer and ranged damage dealer. She had light based healing spells as well as dark and fire based damage spells. Alex was going to be our tank, he had abilities that would increase the anger of his targets toward him and was able to hold them to him. I, on the other hand, was going to be flexible. Because of my stealth, I would be the one who would scout ahead of us. I would also in combat either stay at range or move in close and use my dagger to damage the enemies. I would also heal and root when needed to take pressure off. We also discovered when we joined each other in a party that we knew where each other was instinctive. It was almost like a map in our heads leading to each other. This would make things easier for me as the scout. I left about 10 minutes ahead of them and led them around obstacles and mobs that we didn’t need to fight. Eventually, I found a small cave about 6 in the evening and stopped there for us to make camp. When they joined me in the cave, I was surprised to discover that Marla and Alex appeared to have become friends when I could not accomplish that task in an entire month with her. When I listened to them talking, I found out it’s because like her, Alex came from an affluent family and thus she found him worthy of being friendly to. They were not exactly rude to me, but the let me know that I was considered beneath them in subtle ways, with off-color remarks about orphans and such.

I decided that I would keep the first watch rather than listen to any more of their garbage, that way when it was time for me to be relieved I could just go to bed and not have to deal with it. My watch was uneventful. Some wargs came to investigate but I killed one, and the other ran off quickly. At eleven I was relieved by Alex who said he would take watch till 4 when Marla would pick up watch. I went back to my tent and laid down until my alarm went off at 6AM. I got up and packed up my gear. Marla was sleeping on watch, so I woke her and she had the grace to appear embarrassed. She then went into camp and started packing her stuff and woke up Alex as well. I told them I was going to start scouting ahead and started heading towards the ruins. About twenty minutes behind me I felt them starting to get on the move. I knew from the map that it would be approximately noon before I got to the ruins, so I kept moving forward until I was about half an hour away. I then started looking for a spot for Alex and Marla to wait while I scouted out the ruins. Eventually, they caught up to me, and I explained what I wanted to do. They agreed that it was best for me to try to sneak in and see what we were up against.

I left them and started heading towards the ruins. Eventually, I saw them in the distance in a clearing in the forest. I could hear talking though I was far enough away that I could not understand what was being said. I realized then that I was up against humanoids at least. That meant that there were most likely sentries placed that I would need to avoid or take out. I moved closer watching the trees and ground warily for any movement. I never did see them, but eventually, right at noon, I saw a person coming from the ruins who relieved the sentry that was only about 200 yards ahead of me. I decided that if I took out that sentry, then I would have several hours before he was missed as they just changed shift. I watched the sentry’s location carefully while I moved into position to take him out. I was finally able to see him clearly, and I inspected him to see

Level 11 Forest Bandit (Kyle Newberry)

Seeing that he was 3 levels higher than me I started to have second thoughts, but I figure if I can get in close with my dagger maybe I can silently kill him with one stab. I was not going to trust something this important to my bow skills alone. I went to the side of him and used the trees to screen my approach until I was able to approach him from the direction of the ruins behind him. This meant I was visible to anyone leaving the ruins, but it couldn’t be helped right now. I got within 5 feet, and it seemed like he either heard or felt my approach as he started to turn. I lunged forward with my dagger and took him in the throat he reached up to grab his throat with his eyes going wide, and a gurgling sound and I stabbed him again in the chest. I stabbed him a couple more times in quick succession just to make sure then eased him into cover so he would not be found. I then decided to loot him and found he had a better bow than mine, some extra arrows, and a few silver. I took it all and immediately equipped his bow. I then moved towards the ruins again, moving quickly to get to the wall, I then went to one of the openings and found that there were several more bandits inside the ruins. I listened to them talking for a while and found that the bandit chief was level 13 and his camp had 10 other people, well 9 after the one I killed. I decided that was enough information, but I wanted to help our odds out a bit. There were 5 people in ruins with the chief which meant that there were 4 other sentry’s out and about. If I could eliminate them then perhaps we could take out this camp easier. Unfortunately for the sentry’s they were visible from the ruins themselves so I was able to spot them fairly easily and then sneak up on them and take them out much the same as the first bandit. It took me about 2 hours to get them, then another hour to work my way back to Alex and Marla.

When I got back, I told them that it was a bandit camp with the leader being level 13 and the rest being level 10 to 12. I told them that I had taken out 5 sentries and that left 6 in the camp. I suggested we move towards one of the sentries location and make noise and try to lure out a few from the camp to investigate. If too many came we would run away while using range attacks, if only a few came, we would ambush them and whittle them down before the main camp. Alex thought this was a good idea, so I led them to the closest sentry location, and then I yelled out. I heard a returning shout from the ruins, and a few seconds later two guys came out in our direction, with two more heading towards the one of the other sentry location. Seeing that they were split like that and that the chief had not come out, Alex ran forward to engage the bandits while the others turned and started our way with a yell. We would only have about 30 seconds of us 3 vs. 2 bandits before the other 2 bandits joined in, so I started shooting right away while Marla cast some dark spells. Luckily we both targeted the same bandit otherwise we might not have gotten him down so quickly. I turned at that point and used my root spell on one of the approaching bandits, while Marla and Alex took on the remaining two bandits. Because of the positioning, I could not use my bow on either bandit without hitting either of my companions, so I ran forwards and drew my dagger to engage the bandits. I stabbed as soon as I got into range and got a lucky strike on one of the bandit's sides, he flinched and dropped his guard, and Alex followed up by striking him in the face with his shield. At that point, the second bandit was down. Marla then cast a heal spell on Alex because the bandit I had rooted was shooting at him with his bow. I engaged with the last bandit in melee range along with Alex, and we quickly finished him.

About this time I hear a roar from the camp and the bandit chief is running towards us in full plate armor. He was not wearing it earlier so that must be what took him so long to join us. I started casting my frost shock spell at the bandit chief since I knew that my arrows would not go through, and my dagger didn’t have much of a chance either. Alex focused on the last regular bandit with Marla while the chief chased me around. Fortunately, the plate reduced his dexterity enough that I could keep ahead of him and with my training regimen I could run like this all day.

Eventually, Alex and Marla finished off the last bandit but I was out of mana, Marla only had a little mana left, and Alex only had about half his life left. The bandit chief, on the other hand, had taken 5 of my frost shocks. He had less than half life left surprisingly, but with his two-handed swords, he could still do a lot of damage. I ran towards Alex, and he interposed himself between us. I then pulled out my bow and tried to find an opening in the chief’s armor. I noticed when he raised his arms to take a swing at Alex that there was only leather where the arms met the body. I targeted that, and the next time he raised his arms I let fly. Unfortunately, I missed, and he swung again at Alex shaving off another 10% of Alex’s hit points even through the shield. I cursed and took aim again waiting for the shot that had to come. He raised his arms again, and I fired. That time I hit directly on the leather and penetrated a lung. The chief screamed and dropped his sword. At that point, we backed off to wait for the inevitable. Eventually, the chief collapsed, and we closed in to finish off the bandits. We sat and rested for a while after that, just gaining mana and healing up. We then went around and looted everything. We got several bows, some daggers, swords and the plate armor and great sword. We decided to let Alex have the plate and to split everything else to sell once we got back to town. We also looted over 1 gold in coin as well split three-way I got 33 silver.

I decided I was going to explore the rest of the ruins and see if we missed anything else before we headed back to town. Overall I found just a campsite on the outskirts of the ruins and nothing at all towards the center. I then saw a shadow below the ruins of a foundation and walked towards it. When I got about 5 feet away, the ground collapsed, and with a scream, I fell into the dark, hit my head and lost consciousness.