Chapter 13

Hell Yeah!

Torger appeared standing in his cabin. All his friends were there talking with a more intense excitement than he had ever heard.

“We won’t die! At least not permanently.”

“I’m glad we didn’t have to make that walk back here.”

“I’m glad we didn’t become some gay tyter’s sex slaves.”

“I’m glad my arm is healed!” Rome flexed his hand and moved his arm without any pain.

Arden said “The program told me what I already knew, I’m good at guns. I will gain levels in guns twenty-five percent faster, if I had more bullets.”

It turned out that Torger got a fifteen percent gain in all weapons, Graul got twenty-five percent in swords and clubs, Jex got twenty-five percent in bows and knives, Brun was able to learn black magic spells without investing ability points, Rome was able to learn white magic spells without investing ability points, and Antic got twenty-five percent increase to learning speed when using spears and knives.

Most importantly was the respawn ability. They didn’t have to be quite so afraid of death anymore. They all took the option to infuse their kindles, although Graul and Arden weren’t given a choice; the ability boost bed automatically charged them each six out of the twenty points.

Everyone’s vision now had small holographic symbols, five on the left and five on the right.

Weapons Notoriety/Quests

Armor Map

Money Experience

Cities Stats

Items Spells

The icons would show what they had in inventory for each category. Another great surprise was Antic discovering that in the front yard of the cabin there was a variety of useful items. They had bows and clubs and dishes and bedding, all of it looked like it was made for settlers from two hundred years ago. They also found rope and knives and needles and thread.

Torger asked “Can someone separate anything that we will actually need here? The rest of it, I want to see how much Baybil will reduce our debt. Remember you bought food and clothes on my credit, so you each owe me a gold coin. Let’s see what we can get from him for this stuff.”

Graul didn’t correct him that they were co-mayors, as Torger seemed to be taking a more dominant leadership role of the group. Still he felt a little slighted.

They dug into the pile with gusto, looking for weapons of opportunity. Meanwhile Torger checked his new options. He tried to look at Weapons, but every time he moved his eyes to the top left, the words moved too. Then he moved his eyes rapidly to the left. The five words on the left swiped away out of his vision. He moved his eyes quickly to the right and those five words disappeared. It took him a couple of minutes to figure out how to look to his left and slowly drag them to the center of his vision and by concentrating on a specific word the menu finally came up.

His weapons were the same, he had no quests but had 12/100 respected points for dwarves. Armor, Maps and Money were no surprise. Experience was at 0/1000 with 0 available ability points. Cities showed Home, Small Hammer, Calico, and Yuma.

Selecting the three cities he’d visited, each showed: Trade Relations-None, hostility 0/10, Friendly 1/10. Home gave him his options to increase the shield strength for one ability point, fertile ground for one ability point or expand for five ability points. Stats showed: Health 100/100, Stamina 43/43, Strength 1/1, Mana 10/10. Items showed no potions, and Spells showed

Fire 1 Ability point 1 (black)

Ice 1 Ability point 1 (black)

Lightning 1 Ability points 2 (black)

Slow 1 Ability points 3 (black)

Cure 1 Ability points 3 (white)

Heal 1 Ability points 3 (white)

Shield 1 Ability points 4 (white)

Analyze 1 Ability points 4 (white)

Haste 1 Ability points 5 (white)

Beserk 1 Ability points 5 (white)

Poison 1 Ability points 5 (black)

Teleport 1 Ability points 6 (white)

Torger realized that killing rabbits, coyotes, and deer had given them easy experience points, but the whole group had nearly reached the limit for coyotes giving experience and were way beyond the twenty-five per person limit of rabbits. They had come to realize that just as the experience from a kill was split seven ways for their seven person group, the experience limit for a certain type of animal was split seven ways. They remembered what Baybil taught them and when Torger checked Experience there was a sub menu option to check Beasts. That showed

Rabbit Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp Max/25

Coyote Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 25/25

Deer Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 12.52/25

Razorlings Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 2.11/25

Billik Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 0.14/25

Since Rabbit and coyote were in blue he clicked on each and it was removed from the list. Torger took a guess that he would have to use Analyze to get an average level, health, and mana for each monster. He also saw that the large spider they had seen and the troll they had seen did not appear on the list. After thinking about it for a minute he thought this list was mostly worthless.

Torger walked outside to help everyone sort out the pile belongings. Everyone brought their new bed rolls and bedding into the house. That made the house very crowded and they knew they needed more space.

As the sun was setting Torger called everyone together. “We’re more comfortable now, and safer, but we still lack food, water and fire. We need to expand the village and build another building and dig for water and learn some spells. Graul and I are the co-mayors here, and we need leadership and organized direction, but we are all friends. I propose we each take up specific tasks to help each other. If I direct everyone for the tasks, would you follow me?”

Brun, Antic and Rome quickly agreed but Graul, Arden and Jex had reservations. Graul said “We are co-leaders, I’m not under you, but we can work together.”

Arden said “My top priority is getting me and Jex back home safely. If your directions are not leading us that way, I won’t follow them.”

Torger continued “OK how about this. This village belongs to Graul and me, and we will have the authority to make all decisions concerning the village and the residents of the village. As long as you are within our borders you will follow our requests. During hunts and travels we will operate by democracy.”

No one was really comfortable with that but no one proposed better ideas. After a while of discussion Torger started giving out instructions. “Our easiest need to achieve is fire. Brun you can learn black magic faster, so I ask that you, Jex and Arden go kill deer. You need to get a thousand experience to get one ability point to buy fire one. I think that once you have fire one and use it, you may be able to learn fire two without buying it with ability points, but I can’t be sure how that works. Jex use your arrows to injure the animals, and Brun finish them with your sword. Arden, you have a limited supply of bullets so obviously don’t use them except in an emergency.

“Rome, Antic, and Graul, we need to dig a well, but that is suck work. It will be a hard and dirty job, but hopefully we can increase our strength to two by the time we’re done. I’m not looking forward to it, but we desperately need water.”

Graul calmly and politely corrected his brother. “Torger, you’re not thinking this through clearly. Dwarves are good at digging and have the right tools. Why don’t we have them digging our well? They’ll do it better and faster. We’ll trade the deer and coyote skins the others hunt in the next few days.”

Torger gave himself a palm to the face. “Duh. You’re right, that’s a much better idea. My first directives and I blew it. New plan. At first light you three go gain experience, pelts, and food, and the four of us will go to Small Hammer and try to entice the dwarves to dig our well.”

The next day Torger’s group loaded up small stuff into their magic satchels, which thankfully teleported with them from Yuma. When they arrived Baybil met them outside of the village and was impressed by what he saw, and invited them into the village. It seemed that now the Translate feature from their tablets were permanently embedded into their minds because they could hear him speaking dwarvish but with a slight delay heard it in English as well.

He said “It looks like we are trading your animal skins for our work, so if we build a dirt road between our villages that will qualify as an established trade route. To maintain the trade relation we need to trade something once a month.”

That was a no brainer for Torger and Graul to agree to, though they didn’t know what they could offer in the future. They filled up their water skins at the falls and headed back to Home with Baybil and two other dwarves. When they got back Baybil picked through the pile of skins and meat Torger didn’t want. When it was all done and they haggled a little, Baybil agreed the dwarves would dig the well and clear away rocks and brush to make a dirt path between the villages, but did nothing to pay down the debt of twelve gold coins. Torger knew Baybil wanted his hunters to have water there and saw the animal skins as a bonus, so he persuaded Baybil to let his village’s seamstress sew them clothes from their excess bedding.

Before Baybil left, Brun, Jex, and Arden returned from hunting. They had three rabbits, two coyote pelts and two field dressed deer. Torger was very glad to see their hunting trip had been a success. Torger thanked Baybil for the trade and offered him one of the deer as a gift.

Baybil’s face lit up and he bowed deeply. “I see our villages can possibly become allies in the future. Rule your village well and grow stronger and we can talk about it later. As a return of your generosity, I present you with these.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out seeds. “The red ones will grow an apple tree, the brown ones will grow potatoes and the yellow ones will grow corn. First use an ability point for your Fertile Land option, and for another deer I will send my best farmer here to properly plant these.”

Baybil also told them that Torger’s guess about magic levels was correct; once Brun bought Fire one for one ability point, he could use it to cause damage points to monsters, and once he dealt a thousand damage points with it he would automatically get fire two. The same worked for him for all black magics, and Rome could learn advanced white magic spells by using lower level white magic, but had to buy the first one of each category. Everyone else would have to buy each new magic with ability points.

Graul noticed in his vision that Notoriety/Quests was flashing. He looked at it and blinked and it came into view for him. He saw that a new quest was available to bring a deer to Baybil. Reward: Help from a professional farmer and 100 exp.

After Baybil and the other dwarves lit a fire then left, Graul told Torger about the quest and he had the same quest option, but no one else did. The next day they decided to put it to the test. Jex, Brun and Arden came back with a deer around noon, then the others took it to Baybil. When he received the deer Graul and Torger gained 100 exp, but Rome and Antic did not.

“So it seems that we receive the quests and the rewards, on behalf of Home, and the others don’t. Is that how it works for you Baybil?”

“Yes. As mayor I get the quests, rewards, and challenges of leadership, though quests don’t come around very often. The real experience is finding new caves and killing the inhabitants. That’s where the big experience and money is at in Nuva.”

Torger looked at Graul and they both knew what they had to do. They left Small Hammer and went back Home. That night things were finally looking up for the group. Since coming to Nuva they had faced seemingly insurmountable challenges, and had walked through the fiery trials. Without being hungry, thirsty, homeless and cold, they could really make plans and goals instead of just thinking about survival. A spark of hope finally manifest in their hearts that night.

Chapter 14

The First Conquest

True to his word Baybil sent two dwarves to dig the well. They attacked the task with joy Torger couldn’t understand, but as he had been told, mining gives dwarves a sense of purpose. Just like in Yuma, the dwarves filled the magic satchels with dirt and everyone carried it away to dump it out. The rope was plenty long enough for the dwarves to dig all the way down to the water. Torger and Graul helped the dwarves build the stone wall around the opening and make a support frame for the rope, bucket, and winch, generously donated by Small Hammer. Once completed, the two village relations improved by adding three respect and three love points towards each other.

Over the next few days, Brun gained more experience to try to buy Fire 1, while Torger and Graul began making a foundation for another house on their property. After a week they had stones stacked three feet high around a seventy by seventy foot area, with a soft dirt floor in the middle. On the same day the dwarves finished the well complete with bucket, wench and rope, Brun, Jex, and Arden each gained one ability point.

Brun came back very excited and called everyone around to watch him invest it. He selected Fire 1 and blinked. His whole body tingled and a message came into his vision.

You have learned your first spell. Learning to control magic takes some practice but will become easy after a few attempts. Simply point your finger at the target and say the name of the spell you wish to cast. The mana will flow automatically, so don’t fight it.

Brun told everyone what it said and pointed his finger at the smoldering fire pit. He imagined fire coming out of his finger and hitting the charred wood, then watching it ignite. Nothing happened. He pointed again and felt a vibration run down his arm. His fingers felt warm and he imagined his own hand catching fire then quickly shut that thought down and shook his hand as if trying to douse flames. On his third try he allowed the vibration to run down his arm let his fingers get warm but kept thinking about the smoking wood to ignite. A couple seconds later he spoke out loud “Fire one’” and a thin stream of fire came out of his index fingertip and flew into the fireplace. Everyone cheered and patted him on the back, but he felt dizzy. He checked Stats and saw that his Mana was now 5/10.

He sat down but the whole group cheered and congratulated him. Fire had been hard to come by, and now they didn’t have to use Rome’s char cloth and rub sticks together. Arden used his ability point on going from level two to level three with swords. He had been frustrated during the hunts that he wasn’t much of a participant, wanting to spare his ammo for emergencies. He swung his copper sword through the air a few times with a little more grace and confidence. Jex had made it to level four with bows, almost to level five, from the hunts. They had maxed out getting experience from coyotes, rabbits, and deer, and had fifteen more pelts to trade to Baybil, along with a lot of venison and rabbit meat. After seeing Brun’s success, she used her ability point to learn Ice 1.

As for Torger, Graul, Rome, and Antic, their hard work moving stones around paid off too. They each gained one point in strength and stamina. Graul was the first one to go from strength 1/1 to strength 2/2. It came without warning and there was no way of tracking their progress. As he was lifting another stone to place on the second layer of stones making the wall, his muscles all over his body suddenly burned for a second and he grew a half inch taller. He looked at his arms and legs and saw a little more bulk and definition to them, not much but noticeable. He was then able to carry stones a little more easily. He had no physical sensation when his endurance increased. The other three on the building crew gained their strength points the following day.

With everyone more prepared for battle, Torger suggested they go back to the caves they had seen near Indio, the billiks to the west of it and the huge spiders to the south of it. Arden quickly agreed but the others said they weren’t ready for any intense battles. Torger and Arden tried and failed to convince the rest of the group to go. Instead Graul and Rome decided to take the coyote pelts and venison to Small Hammer to trade.

Graul’s relations with them now showed Loved 5/100 and Respected 17/100. That must have meant something because he was offered more than he thought he would get for the trade. Graul and Rome walked away with six copper bracers and three vials that restored nine health each, along with an anti venom vial. The dwarves kept potion making a closely guarded secret and wouldn’t trade the knowledge for anything. Still they were happy with the trade.

During the two days they were gone, Brun, Jex and Arden continued hunting to gain experience points, but they maxed out on deer and coyotes. They had nearly five hundred experience points again, and were getting really good at hunting, while the others still had no experience points. But everyone was participating the best they could for the survival of the whole group, and Torger was surprised there wasn’t jealousy among them.

Graul and Rome returned from Small Hammer, and showing the rest of the group what they had received in trade was the tipping point to convince everyone to try the caves. Jex wanted to go to Lake Havasu to get the vials of potions, but everyone else thought it was too dangerous.

They set out on a trip once again. Torger gave Graul his shotgun since he had a little practice with it and he took Arden’s .22 rifle. Torger was the most accurate with that gun of the group. Arden carried a revolver that had just two bullets left. Rome and Antic had no experience with guns and Jex was good with her bow. Arden also carried the .30-30. They hoped to not use any bullets, but there was no reason not to bring them just in case.

The second day Brun had an opportunity to use Fire 1 against a coyote. Jex shot it with an arrow then Brun ran forward and cast his spell. It burned all the fur off one side and blistered the skin but didn’t do a whole lot of damage. Graul stabbed it to finish it. Brun looked at Spells and saw Fire 1, 7/1000 to Fire 2.

So Fire 1 only did 7 points of health damage. He hoped Fire 2 would be much stronger. They killed coyotes and deer along the way until everyone could no longer gain experience from the kills, then they quit looking for the animals. They had come a long way from being afraid of three coyotes attacking them, even if some of the coyotes were nearly a hundred pounds.

After three days they came to the cave with billiks again, and the weather had turned stormy once again. A strong wind blew and a light drizzle fell, but their winter coats kept them warm and dry. They looked at the cave entrance from the top of a hill and saw a billik occasionally go in or out.

Antic asked “OK Torger, what’s the plan? We have no way of knowing how many are inside there.”

“I think that me, Graul, and you should put on the copper bracers and go inside. Jex, cover us with arrows and Arden take back your twenty-two. We’ll go down there and try to sneak inside to look around. If we have to get into a fight with one, we retreat as we’re keeping it at bay. If you can get in a clean shot Jex or Arden, take it, but we have to know what we’re dealing with.”

The three men climbed down the hill and had to approach the cave in plain sight, there was no brush to hide in. When they were a few feet away from the opening they heard a gunshot behind them. They spun around to look and saw that there was a billik behind them returning to the cave. Jex and Arden had both shot it and it staggered back. Brun ran down the hill to cast Fire 1, while Rome stood at the top helpless.

Torger and Graul ran in close to start cutting off legs, and Antic ran and thrust his spear into its mouth. It dropped its back side down and thrust a front foot at Antic, piercing his stomach. He began bleeding heavily. Torger and Graul each cut off a leg on its left side, then Torger ran around its back and cut off the other back leg. Everyone backed away from it thinking it was immobile, but the damn thing used its three other legs to turn around while dragging its butt on the ground. It snapped its mouth and bit at Torger, but he shoved his bracer into its mouth sideways and it didn’t have the strength to bite through the metal, but it did bend it.

Torger grunted in pain and stabbed it in the eye and through the brain. It released its bite as if it had no more control of its muscles, but the remaining three legs kept kicking and moving! Torger heard another gunshot and saw that two more billiks had come out of the cave! He withdrew his sword from the billik’s face and saw Graul cut off the remaining two legs on its right side, leaving only the front left leg attached. That leg kept kicking but now it was immobile.

Antic staggered back up the hill and was bleeding heavily from his stomach. Rome gave him a health potion and immediately the blood slowed. He collapsed on the ground relieved he wasn’t dying but was still in excruciating pain. His Stats showed Health 28/100. That meant before the potion his health had been at 19/100! That scared him so badly that he vowed to himself right then that he would spend his first ability point on more health.

Arden and Jex kept shooting at the two billiks and Brun cast Fire 1 once at one of them, ran out of mana, then he withdrew. Torger and Graul managed to cut off the two back legs from each, then they retreated up the hill. All three billiks were still alive but severely injured. Once everyone was safely at the hilltop Arden quit shooting, but Jex kept hitting their faces. Her arrows wouldn’t pierce the shells covering the bodies, but Arden’s rifle did, although there were no exit wounds so he didn’t know how much the bullets were penetrating.

The first one that only had one leg finally died, and as the other two were bleeding out, two more billiks came out of the cave. They saw the group and ran up the hill. This time everyone but Jex ran down to meet them, using the high ground to their advantage. Antic had not recovered enough to meet them with his spear and he was still on the ground bleeding a little, watching his health slowly tick down. Seeing his friends fight for their lives he walked down the hill and using his spear he thrust it into the face of one, but his every movement made his stomach hurt.

Torger and Graul were clearly in their element now. They had figured out how to run to the back sides and start cutting off legs without placing themselves in danger. Torger yelled out to the others “Stay in front of their faces and keep them distracted, we’ll disable them!”

The other four men moved to the front side, two each, and began throwing rocks at the faces, but they blocked Jex from getting any more arrows in. That didn’t matter though as Torger and Graul were able to cut off all of the legs, dodging in and out of range of billik mouths. With the billiks completely immobile, the group withdrew up the hill once again. Everyone took out their bows and began shooting at the faces until they eventually quit twitching.

Graul said, “We still haven’t got a look inside the cave. I say we go down and see how many more there are.”

“I agree,” said Torger and Arden simultaneously. The three walked back down the hill and a few feet into the cave. It was dark and they couldn’t see much, but they did see dark shadows moving around further inside. They came back up the hill without a word spoken. In the meantime the other four had gathered up all the legs to trade later.

“Brun, it’s too dark in there. I want you to come down with us and cast fire into the cave so we can see.”

Brun agreed, but said they would have to wait. His Mana recharged at one point per minute, and already three had recharged. They all went back down. Just before they made it to the mouth of the cave another billik came out. Brun ran away and Arden distracted its face, and Torger and Graul had a good system of cutting off the legs from back to front, but before they cut off the front legs it was able to swing a leg sideways at Arden, knocking him to the ground. As it picked up the leg to pierce him Graul cut off the leg and Torger stabbed it in the brain.

Brun came back and they walked around the twitching body, knowing it couldn’t hurt them. Brun cast Fire 1 and a stream of fire came out of his finger and went forward about eight feet. As the flame turned upward they saw more than a dozen billiks in the cave bumping into each other partly blinded from the sudden light. The men ran out of the cave and around the twitching body and towards the hill.

“Ruuunn! Run away everybody!”

The three at the top of the hill stood there in shock, unmoving.

“I said run!” Torger and Graul made it to the top first and turned around to look behind them. Two, three, four, five billiks came out of the cave and waved their antennae around looking for the trespassers. The whole group ran over the hill and down the backside. They ran for a mile then Antic tripped over a rock and fell, clutching his stomach. The others stopped and helped him up, but could see he wouldn’t make it far. They didn’t see the billiks behind them anymore, they must have given up the chase, so they found small boulders to sit on and catch their breath.

The rocks were slick from the light rain, but they sat on them anyway too exhausted to move. After a few minutes Jex asked “How come none of us has caught a cold? We were here in winter without warmth or shelter, but no one got sick.”

Torger said “That’s a weird thing to ask right now. We just ran for our lives. But I guess there are no viruses here. But I wonder how we’re going to clear out that cave. That’s going to be a lot of work.”

“Clear it out? Torger we are no match for those things. We’ll have to come back when we’re stronger,” she protested

“Wait til we’re stronger, wait til we’re stronger. I’m tired of waiting. Killing those things is how we get stronger.” He paused with a resigned look on his face. After several seconds he continued. “I know we’re not strong enough to take them out. I guess I’m just sick of living in fear. We’re the dominant species on Earth, and I hate thinking I could get killed any day. I want to be stronger now.”

Graul answered “Yes we all do, but we’ve got to proceed with caution. I would never suggest we hole up at the house and wait for it to all be over, I won’t accept that kind of defeatist mentality. But there is another way to get stronger.” He looked at everyone giving him quizzical stares. “Those large spiders seem less dangerous. These cockroaches are almost as big as we are but the spiders are the size of small cats. We can clear out that cave first. It’s got to be easier. Small Foot said the strength of the creatures guarding the cave is a good indication of the treasure in the cave. Let’s go southeast and start at that cave and see how it goes. Maybe then we could come back here.”