Chapter 7 - Relic Tier Weapons

Hauling two large logs under his arms by himself, Chris followed Nanipe and her Husband. The bakers were quite impressed with how strong he was and he’d insisted on taking all the big ones by himself to make up for being late, as he’d been throwing up at Catem’s house before coming. Still recovering from the excessive amount of drinking, he was still a little buzzed.

Chris hadn’t seen his friends for a couple hours though and was curious as to where they were. “Hey, do you know where Taen and Michael went?”

“Michael and Petsy went off by themselves, lad! HA!” Catem exclaimed as he heaved at another large log alongside Chris. Catem had insisted that he help because he was the cause of Chris getting drunk, much to the amusement of Nanipe who had said it was typical and to be expected of Catem to do such a thing. “Taen went along with a group of the village folk. I heard he was going somewhere with the village elder afterwards but I am not sure lad.”

They got to the end of the road and set the last of the logs down next to the others already laid out. Drenched in sweat from all the hard work, the two shirtless men took buckets filled with water and dumped them on their heads - then headed for the cups of water offered to them by Nanipe.

Coming over was a bit of a hassle for the drunken pair. Catem stumbled to fall with a loud swearing fit and hit the ground as onlookers laughed, but he too soon joined them in laughing at himself despite rolling around on the ground while clutching at his painful ankle.

Chris chuckled, almost having tripped over the big burly man himself. “Want some help? You look like you sprained it pretty good by the way it’s swelling. Here, let me get that for you.”

Luminous Grace. That was the name of the spell he cast as Chris held a glowing right hand over Catem’s ankle. The bigger and older man’s eyes widened and his grimace of pain turned into a look of curiosity. Sitting up and realizing it didn’t hurt him after a good ten seconds of glowing white light that warmed him to the bone, he flexed his joint and sputtered.

“Magic eh lad? So can all three of you do that then? I saw Taen do something with the wind earlier.”

Chris took a swig of water, chuckled and lent out a hand to help Catem up. “Ha, well we already told you our story Catem, you just won’t believe it! Yes, we can all use magic.”

“You are quite the show off aren’t you Chris?” Nanipe mused as she took the cup from him and filled it with more water. “You and your friends are the talk of the town, it’s gotten around that you’re all Earthborn ya know. The girls all want to introduce themselves. My daughter is one of them.”

She nodded towards a group of girls about Chris’ age and slightly younger, all of them wearing plain cloth skirts or dresses and hovering nearby while watching Chris from a distance.

Chris downed another cup of water with furrowed brows. “How’d that get out? I thought Petsy didn’t believe our story.”

“Apparently your friend Taen was judged by the village elder and a lot of the other villagers were there to hear about it. Word spreads quickly in a small town or village like this.”

Catem blinked with the woman’s words registering through his sluggish mind. “Wait a minute lass, you’re telling me that the old hag used the redwood staff on Taen? And that it showed him to TRULY be Earthborn?”

“That is what is said,” replied Nanipe with a smirk.

“Well I’ll be damned, I guess I was wrong. I haven’t met one of you up close and personal before. Though I’m still not willing to believe all that other stuff about Maltetious and whatnot. It’s a little far-fetched even if you are from Earth.” Catem scoffed at the mere thought of it. “Most Earthborn just pop in on their own out of the blue and don’t have some numen babysitter putting them through years of torturous training ya know. HA!”

The sun was completely set after another twenty minutes of work and talk with the fog slightly dissipating. Lanterns and candles were lit, and along with the starlight they made their way back to the bar. The group of girls that had been hovering nearby Chris as he had worked were introduced by Nanipe at the request of her daughter, and Catem introduced both his son and wife while buying everyone drinks again.

“Catem! You’re going to have us go broke if you keep buyin people drinks ya know!” loudly scolded his wife. “We might be doing fine now, but not for much longer!”

This only made Catem and his son, who was about fifteen years old and already with a beer in his hand, laugh out loud together as they continued to drink.

“I see you’re all still at it!” exclaimed Michael with a big grin as he walked through the door of the bar proudly shirtless and covered in numerous circular bruised spots that were most likely from Petsy. “How long have I been gone?”

Chris shrugged. “Couple hours I guess. Where’s Petsy?”

“I tired her out, but she works tomorrow and she said I’ll see her then.” Looking over at the other girls, Michael’s eyebrows raised. “And who are these ladies?”

“Covered in hickies and still going to hit on women? No shame. No shame at all.”

“Can’t help it if I’m a ladies man bro. I’m like a rollin stone!”

Moments later a boy burst through the door, shouting at the top of his lungs. “Did you hear?! One of the Earthborn fought a numen! My pa saw it himself!”

The boy spluttered some more about magics and a lake, throwing the name ‘Maltetious’ about here or there inbetween descriptions of what happened. Chris and Michael exchanged looks, only assuming what could have happened given their history with the crazy bitch.

Chris took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. “... That doesn’t sound good.”

He got up and headed outside with Michael after hearing further commotion and people running down the street. As they went out into the open they saw a large gathering of people with lanterns and candles down a ways near the large round gathering hall in the center of the village. They followed the commotion, got closer and ended up pushing their way to the center of the crowd where a few men and women were answering questions and telling stories in front of the hall doors.

“She got angry and fired a bolt of lightning at the elder, then the Earthborn blocked it and his hands melted off! And after that the numen apologized to him of all things!”

“She said her champions were going to deal with the mage and his bandits tomorrow… Yeah that’s what I thought.”

“If he blocked a bolt from Maltetious herself, he must be a very powerful mage… Are all Earthborn that powerful?”

“You should see what’s left of the forest over there. Nothing but scorched earth now.”

Making their way up to the doors, Chris asked one of the men in the center of it all: “Is Taen in there?”

The man simply nodded and continued on with answering the questions, enjoying the attention he was getting from the rest of the villagers. Pushing the doors open they walked in and saw Taen lying down across from them at the other end of the room. Seeing their appearance, a small old lady came up to them - putting a hand up and stopping them from proceeding though.

“He is asleep, let him be for now.”

Michael sneered and clenched his fists, taking a step further as if to dare her to try and make him stay. “He’s our friend and we’re going to see him whether you like it or not, old woman.”

“I am the village elder and what I say goes here,” She stamped her foot and crossed her arms all sassy-like. “But if you are his friends I’m going to assume your names are Michael and Chris, am I right? You both certainly look like warriors given the armor you wear.”

Michael nodded. “You are correct.”

Her scowling turned into a grin.

“Well then...” she said with a sudden musical hum to her words. “After we went back to the clearing to see what had become of him, we found him half asleep. He used up too much magic at once by blocking an attack from Maltetious, but he said that these were for you before he passed out.”

The elder turned and walked over to a long wrapped bundle, she then had one of the younger men nearby pick the bundle up and bring it over to the two waiting Earthborn.

“Taen said your names were inscribed on these by Maltetious. so he thinks they’re specific to you... but I cannot read these runes so you’ll have to figure it out.”

With that, she untied the bundle and unveiled four weapons. Two of them were longswords, another was a large flanged mace, and the last was a spear-sword. All of the weapons were entirely made of two metals they had never seen anywhere other than the greatsword Maltetious herself favored when practicing with them. Most of the weapon, for each of the weapons, was a milky white metal. They then had celtic-styled runic markings and designs laced in another type of black metal embedded within the weapons. Picking one of the swords up, Michael pointed to the hilt where it said “Taen'' in english print in the black laced metal. The other sword hilt said “Taen'' on it as well.

Chris picked up the mace, and handed it to Michael. “This one is yours.”

He pointed to Michael’s name embedded within the white hilt of the weapon.

“And this!” Chris picked up the spear-sword, pointing to his name inscribed upon the hilt near the bottom of the shaft. “This beauty is mine!”

Michael was more than a little amused. Holding up the flanged mace it almost looked like a very long and large baseball bat, and Michael took a few swings with it to test out the balance and weight of the weapon. Looking over at Chris, the spear-sword was almost a foot taller than he was.

Eid Longsword

Item Tier: (13) Relic

Damage: 356

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: ???

Durability: 1480/1480

Specials: ???

Eid Longsword

Item Tier: (13) Relic

Damage: 356

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: ???

Durability: 1480/1480

Specials: ???

Eid Mace

Item Tier: (13) Relic

Damage: 422

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: ???

Durability: 1511/1511

Specials: ???

Eid Spear-Sword

Item Tier: (13) Relic

Damage: 360

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: ???

Durability: 1600/1600

Specials: ???

“These are nice!” Chris exclaimed. “Though I would like to know where these came from and why our friend is injured.”

The look of accusing curiosity was enough to give the old woman a good stress migraine. Clutching her forehand and rubbing it with an apologetic sigh, she was able to come to grips with the situation again.

“That would be my fault.”

She then told them what happened and how Taen had blocked the incoming attack after the elder had made a mistake in angering Maltetious. After they’d left and waited for Taen to follow, he had never come. So they went back and found him in the clearing lying next to these weapons, which they had all assumed were left by Maltetious as a reward for getting her the staff she had wanted.

The old woman looked down with thankfulness in her eyes. “He blocked an attack from a numen, it was enough to leave him very tired. Thankfully Maltetious healed his wounds, I don’t think he would have been able to do so himself as he had exhausted all of his magical energy. If you must go to him you may, but do not wake him. Let him sleep for a while.”

She then turned to leave with a huff and walked out the double doors to address the mass of people that had gathered there from around the village. It reminded Chris of his own grumpy hag of a granny from when he’d been a kid.

Michael sneered again and gritted his teeth. “That bitch attacked Taen? AFTER he brought her the staff?! Is she going to EVER stop torturing us? She makes me so angry. The day will come where vengeance is mine and I wring her scrawny neck with my bare hands.”

Chris scratched his head, glancing over his new spear-sword again with a gleam in his eyes. “Sounds like she wasn’t attacking Taen on purpose, in fact it sounds like Taen got in the way. Goody two shoes over there saved that old woman. These weapons are pretty sick though! Never seen these materials aside from that whopping greatsword Maltetious uses, we should test them out to see what they’re made of. Funny that she got all our favorite weapons down pretty well huh?”

Looking past Chris, Michael nodded. “I guess you’re right. He seems ok from here. Let’s go test these things out.”

“Wana smoke a blunt first?”

“Ha, figured you’d ask. Nah I’m good for now, maybe later though. Thanks bro.”

***

Taen woke to the sounds of laughter and the smell of garlic on baked potatoes. Sitting up, he began to stretch about and turn about when he realized he didn’t have any clothes on. He had a blanket, but his clothes were nowhere in sight. He was under the semi-familiar round roof of the building he’d met the village elder in, though no one else was in the gathering hall. So he took the blanket and wrapped it around him as best he could to head out the doors. Walking out the doors, he came upon what he assumed to be a gathering of the entire village right outside. Tables full of food were lined up next to one another, chairs and blankets littered the area around him with people bustling back and forth, and everyone was happy.

It was about midday with the sun directly overhead over a cloudless sky. Looking about him, now that the fog was gone, he could see the mountaintops more clearly. Snow-capped peaks loomed all around him as if competing to see which one could show off the most grandeur.

Grabbing one of his hands, a little brunette girl and her brother ran up to him. Each of them was easily below the age of ten wearing typical attire of the village folk here. They started to pull Taen through the gathering with excited giggling and pointing. “Come with us! They told us to get you when you woke up!”

Not bothering to protest, Taen shrugged and just kept going. They approached and entered one of the small wooden houses nearby, as they walked in - Chris and Michael greeted him from two wooden baths that had coals lining a stone compartment underneath.

“Heated baths man! Pretty cool huh!?” said Michael as two of the village girls and Petsy ran their hands with herbs and ointments through his hair and over his body. “Special treatment for us before we send off to deal with these bandits of yours, or so we hear anyways.”

“The girls are nice too!” Chris said grinning at one of the girls massaging his back. “It was their idea!”

Taen tried not to scowl at the complete lack of shame displayed by dufus 1 and dufus 2. “... I see. Do any of you ladies happen to know where my clothes went?”

Two of the girls came over and stripped Taen of his blanket, giving him a look over as they pulled the cloth away with sly looks.

“Yes... they were covered in dirt and blood, so we took them for washing,” smiled a lightly freckled brunette as she looked him up and down while pushing him towards the third heated bath they had set aside for him. “Get in! You’re late!”

Taen found that he couldn’t resist the smiles of the ladies either, nor the temptation of the warm water. So he gave his two friends a moral hall-pass and obliged. It felt almost exactly like the hot tub from home as he stepped in, and he let out a brief exhale of pleasure as he sunk down into the water.

“You know what guys? I’m beginning to like this place. What about you, Taen? Chris?”

Chris replied with a stupid smile plastered across his features, leaning back against the wood of the tub as he was washed. “Yeah, can't say I mind it. So Taen, you gona fill us in on the details about what we’re supposed to do today? We’ve only heard bits and pieces from the locals.”

Smiling to himself as Taen couldn’t help but like the attention he was getting from the brunette and her friend, he groaned.

Thats when they started laughing while beginning to put ointments in his hair.

He laid back, enjoying the head massage as they scrubbed the ointments that smelled like springtime flowers into his hair, and yawned. “Well apparently the second trial isn’t finished yet, even though Maltetious got the staff. The village elder gave it to her willingly as an offering and so now we have to go find some mage along with his group of bandits, kill them all, and then we can move on to the third trial. That’s pretty much all I know.”

Looking over at Petsy, Taen added: “Oh! Almost forgot. Michael, Maltetious said that if you ever try to dissuade us from following orders again she’d blow up your genitals. Apparently she was watching us at the bar.”

Chris burst out into laughter as Michael clutched his privates protectively with a terrified look on his face. Maltetious had never been one to not follow through on threats.

“Well that wouldn’t be good now would it,” murmured Petsy slyly as she caressed Michael’s face. “That’d make me a very unhappy girl.”

The door abruptly opened with a bang, letting a breeze and laughter into the small wooden house.

“I see you’re awake now,” muttered the elder as she walked into the room. She looked tired, haggard even after the encounter at the lake. Regardless, she kept her composure up enough to still give off an image of authority.

“I trust you are all enjoying yourselves. When you are done, feel free to have some of the food as well.” Turning to Taen, the old woman bowed. “Thank you again, for saving me yesterday, and probably saving this village as well. I would speak with you when you are done here about the details, please come and find me when you are finished.”

“Will do,” replied Taen, bowing his head as well. “I do have a question for you before you leave though. You had said that this was Agnude’s land when talking to Maltetious, does this realm belong to Agnude?”

The old woman ruffled up her gray shaggy hair and gave out a loud humph of amusement. “No, it does not. This is one of the thirteen Nirvana Worlds. It is the world of Nagochus, but Agnude has power over this part of the land because his followers reside here. The more people that worship a numen or god in a given area, the more powerful the deities become in that area. Or so say the legends.”

Turning to leave with another bow the old woman walked out of the hut just as fast as she had come.

Scrubbing Taen with herbs, the girls had worked their way down to his waist. He was even becoming uncomfortable but didn’t know how to handle the situation. Looking back at him, the brunette that’d led him in commented slyly while the others began laughing.

“We have to make sure you’re clean… everywhere.”

That’s all it took for his face to turn into a tomato red, and he didn’t stop blushing until the ordeal was over.

***

Another two hours were spent between bathing, eating and introducing themselves to various villagers who wanted to meet them. A couple gifts were given to them by some of the children such as wooden horses and a flute, along with necklaces that they had made. After thanking them excessively, the children happily ran off and the Earthborn made their way over to where the village elder sat at a long wooden table outside of the central hall - talking to some of the men.

“Come and sit,” the elder motioned to the mat she was resting on.

Sitting down cross legged and pulling out his pipe to stuff with leaves, Chris asked: “So what are the details you talked about earlier?”

Conjuring a celestial flame and lighting the crushed leaves, he began to smoke.

The elder motioned to a shaggy-haired young man about their age to come forward. He rolled his eyes and adjusted his tunic in irritation but stood up and patted off the dirt from his pants. “The elder wishes us to escort you through the pass to the next village. We are 52 strong in volunteers. We wish we could help more, but we only number around 800 people total in the village including women, children and the elderly. Regardless, we will give our lives in combat if we need to when we meet the enemy.”

Taen’s expression failed to conceal that these words puzzled him. “You act as if you expect to meet these bandits on the way to the next village. Why do you think they’ll be waiting for us?”

The young man brushed a hand through his shaggy hair the same way a primadonna would. “There is only one safe pass through the High Stone Mountains that connects our village to the southern villages below. That is why we are so secluded, and even this pass is treacherous at times. It is the most likely reason why we have not been raided yet, large groups of people cannot pass through it easily without taking a lot of time.” He paused, “Our people that have tried to make it to the southern villages have been found dead, or have not been found at all recently. We think the bandits have a portion of their men lying in wait along the route we take for anyone that attempts to reach the villages south of here, or if they try to reach us. We have effectively been cut off from the rest of the country.”

He turned to look at the group of stern looking men that had gathered there as they talked, clutching whatever makeshift weapons they could find. Hunting knives, hunting bows, quivers of arrows, a blacksmithing hammer, axes used for woodcutting and farming equipment were all present. “We know the villages south of us were trying to fight the bandits off and barricading their perimeters after learning of the mage’s return from the previous year, but we have not heard from them in over a month. We don’t know what to expect.”

“Mage?”

“Their leader is a powerful mage, yes.”

Another younger scrawny man wearing a red tunic and a scraggly mustache stepped forward and interrupted with a cough. “We appreciate you wanting to help us, but you are only three men. How do you expect three men to turn the tide against a small army of trained killers?”

Many murmurs of agreement were heard about their group, but none questioned it openly aside from the first guy. They didn’t have much of an option considering their lords were too involved in their civil war to care about the outskirt villages like their own.

Laughing, Michael stood up confidently and clapped the young man on the shoulder. “Tell you what, if there’s any sign of these bandits or this rogue mage - we’ll have you stay back and watch while we take care of it ourselves. If we die, you can run.” He grinned to emphasize his point. “Just show us the way to the next village.”

***

​The last light of the day shone down in brilliant red and orange, reflecting off the snow-capped peaks behind them as the villagers and Earthborn made their way through the forest and down the mountain. A slight breeze blew westward upon their backs, blowing their cloaks about softly as they marched onward.

"These experiences we've had over the years together, experiences like this, make me realize how sad it is that we lead our lives indoors while growing up.” Chris shook his head sadly. "You never truly appreciate how nature behaves until you spend time out and about in it, instead of indoors for hours upon end like we used to on earth."

An older graying man carrying a bow looked over his shoulder at the comment. "Did you not work? How did you survive spending time inside a house for most of your life?"

Chris smirked then openly laughed, putting his hands on his armored hips. "We did other jobs that we could do inside, we had giant machines that farmed massive amounts of food at once and only needed a few people to operate them. This way other people could focus upon other aspects of life that you couldn't otherwise."

This caught the curiosity of the others. These men had only known hard manual labor as a means of life growing up, and the idea of ‘machines’ doing it for them was a foreign concept.

"What types of jobs did you all have?" another man said while some of the others awaited the answer with interested sideways glances.

"Funny you ask that. I actually DID grow crops of a sort, though it wasn't looked upon favorably by the rulers of my nation."

Michael gave him an incredulous look, and tried not to laugh. "Crops? No. Chris was basically a criminal and dealt drugs, things that altered your mind and gave you visions that weren't real or things that made you feel good but harmed your body."

Chris shot back with an annoyed scowl: "And he was a banker, which was basically a con artist who manipulated other people's money to make profit.”

With a disappointed and disapproving look towards both of them, the first man turned to Taen. "And what did you do?"

Taen stepped up onto a boulder and looked back, enjoying the mountain breeze as it graced his skin. "I was a healer."

This answer was looked at more favorably.

"Ah," the villager smiled. "That is a good profession. It is good to know."

Taen laughed and jumped down, moving onward to the front of the line and yelling back. "Where is this southern pass through the mountains? How far away is it?”

"About another two days until we reach the pass, a day through the pass, and yet another day after the pass until we reach the village we seek."

Looking down the marching string of men, Taen could tell that most of them were nervous. Many of them looked anxious and stern, almost none of them were talking and other than Michael or Chris it was the equivalent of a death march. He shook his head and started forward to keep up with the very front man who led the way. He hoped that they would be able to get to the southern villages without incident. Taen had grown fond of the little village in the past two days, and even though he didn’t know them quite well - they seemed like good people.

***

That night they set up camp among the trees. The woods were thick and clearings were hard to find, so they set their blankets down among makeshift beds of leaves and whatever soft dirt there was. They ate bread that the women and children had packed for them instead of cooking anything, as the fires were kept very low in case of bandit scouts and were only used for warming their hands. Most of them didn’t say much, the thoughts of possible confrontation were making them very nervous. These people were farmers and tradesmen, with little to no fighting experience. Nanipe’s husband the baker could be seen with his son a few yards off from the Earthborn too, and neither of them were smiling.

The young man with the mustache from earlier that day came over and sat down next to the Earthborn, who were for the most part being avoided and left alone. “Did you mean what you said earlier?” He asked hesitantly.

“Excuse me?”

“What you said earlier. You told me that if we are attacked that you three can take care of it yourselves and we probably won’t be needed, that we could watch and run if you die. Did you mean it?”

Michael gave looks to Taen and Chris before replying, “Yeah I meant it.”

The man, nearly still a boy, crossed his legs and put his head in his hands. “I know this is something that has to be done, the bandits will come for us and enslave us all like they have other villages if we don’t act soon. But I am not a fighter. We,” he said motioning to the rest of the men, “are not warriors. And I even admit it, I am a coward. I don’t wish to die.” He rocked back and rested his head against the tree looking over at Michael. “Some of the others were wanting me to ask, but do not judge their characters. They have families they want to go back to.”

Michael raised his eyebrows, but gave an understanding grin. “Honestly, we probably only need one of you to show us the way. The rest of you may leave and go back if you want to.”

“No,” immediately replied the man, “That would make us look like cowards in front of the ones who decided to stay with you, in front of the elder, in front of the women and children. It would bring shame to our families if we did.” Tearing a piece of bread into two and swallowing one half, he continued. “The man we left behind would also need to come back, wolves and bandits might be along the way there as well. So it is better we all stay together. But I only hope that you three are as strong as the village elder believes, though I find it hard to imagine myself. Not to offend you, but I am a skeptic.”

The three didn’t respond, and after a while of waiting he got up and bowed. “I’ll take my leave then. Thank you in advance, and have a good night’s rest.”

He left them to their thoughts, and as the night closed in about them, they drifted off to sleep with burdened hearts.