Chapter 5

Destruction

Rome materialized in the center of Silverwood village. He thought “My respawn point is Calico. Maybe I did it wrong.”

A dwarf saw him materialize and she said “I haven’t seen that in many years. That could scare some of the younger dwarves who’ve never seen it.”

Rome looked around and saw a few dwarf children looking at him from behind the wall of the tavern. He asked the dwarf “Why am I here? I mean, it’s the first time I teleported, but I thought I would end up in Calico.”

“You don’t know? I guess you don’t. Your presence here means you didn’t find a way back to your home world; at least that’s my guess. There was a big ground shake a few days ago. All the buildings in Calico were knocked down. It’s no longer a village.”

Rome thought about Torger’s worry that the houses were made of stone, and stone buildings don’t last in earthquakes. He looked over to see the aqueduct, also of stone and cement, which was also of concern to Torger and Graul. It looked fine. He thought “Of course it looks fine here, the waves don’t roll well in these mountains, but on hard flat ground the aqueduct might be damaged.”

She saw him looking at the aqueduct and volunteered information. “Stone Fist took some dwarves to repair the aqueduct. Strong Arm took some dwarves to protect the mines from being inhabited by razorlings again.”

Rome looked at himself and was happy to see when he used teleport, his clothes and backpack traveled with him, unlike dying and respawning. Next he thought of the chance he might have to kill some monsters, with the help of dwarves. He knew he was no good in a fight, but wanted more ability points so he could buy more mana capacity and use Teleport 2. Then he remembered how thirsty and hungry he was. “Can I get a drink and some food?”

“You can ask the cooks. They’re in the kitchen.” She pointed to the hastily built log cabin that was used as the kitchen.

They happily made him some food and gave him water, but wanted to know every detail about his trip. What was the land like? What were the monsters like? Did they find another dwarf village? What about an elf village or goblin tunnel?

He answered about the land terrain and land monsters, but didn’t say anything about nearly getting eaten by a mutant octopus. He also didn’t mention he found the tyter entrance point. There was no real reason not to talk about it, but he felt like he should tell his friends first, then they could all decide what to tell the dwarves.

Word of his return spread fast, and he found himself telling the same stories over and over. Before he knew it, it was too late to start walking towards Calico. He ate dinner with the dwarves and swam in the lake to get a little clean before going to bed. The lake water was cold, and the clouds he saw on Catalina were coming closer to them. Rain would be coming soon, and in the mountains it was always a cold rain. He went into a log house and laid down on a mat on the floor with other dwarves. Even with the lights out and everyone trying to fall asleep they kept asking questions about his trip. He thought they needed to get out more, but also knew that without TV he was the most interesting thing that happened since the earthquake. Talking was their entertainment.

Rome got an early start in the morning to get as far as he could toward Calico. He knew he couldn’t make it in one day, but he hoped to get to Stone Fist for safety for the night. He didn’t go far when the rain started.

Sloshing through the mud slowed him down, and it was after dark when he saw two tents set up at the end of the aqueduct. He didn’t want to get shot by an arrow for sneaking up on them, so he called out “Hello! I’m a friend!”

“I thought I knew who you were.” The voice came from behind him. Under a heavy coat with a hood was a dwarf. In the dark Rome couldn’t make out the face, just saw a beard. The dwarf had a knocked arrow pointed at him. “No need to wake the others. My shift just started, and I thought it would be cold wet and boring. Good to see you Rome.”

Rome recognized the voice. It was Glumek, one of Stone Fists’ helpers. Of course they would have set a night watch. Rome didn’t know why he wasn’t looking for one, but Glumek sure got the drop on him. “That’s some fine guarding. I never heard or saw you. Can we get out of this rain?”

“You can. I’ll let Stone Fist know you’re here.” Glumek went to one of the tents and announced his arrival. After asking many of the same questions as the dwarves at Silverwood asked, Stone Fist finally went back to sleep. Rome was taking off his wet clothes and looking forward to laying down on Glumek’s mat. He shivered for a while but finally fell asleep.

In the morning he woke up to the smell of barbeque rabbit. He went out of the tent and was delighted to see they had eggs and bread to go with it. Glumek tried talking to him, but gave up when he saw Rome wasn’t interested in anything but eating as fast as he could. Finally they got down to business.

“We got separated in the ocean, and I’m supposed to meet them in two weeks at the beach. I wanted to see the damage to the aqueduct and Calico, and report to Torger. The damage doesn’t look as bad as I thought.”

It was true. The aqueduct was really nothing more than a one foot deep trench in the ground lined with a clay like cement on the sides and bottom with stones making up the bulk of it. It wasn’t made for a large city. There was about a mile of cracked and broken cement.

“We lost about three days work having to repair this, but if there are more of those ground shakes we’ll have to come up with another idea. I haven’t been to Calico to see what’s there. I expect us to complete the aqueduct in another three weeks. Once we got off the mountain the digging went very quick, and luckily it’s flat land all the way until two miles before the village. We’ll have to build a reservoir there and walk the two miles for water.”

“Sounds good to me, but I’m no contractor. I would just say do whatever you think Torger would want. Hopefully there won’t be another damaging earthquake here for a few years, but how do you work with the ground all wet?”

“Just trust us to get it done,” answered Stone Fist. Rome said good-bye and started walking towards Calico. He heard from behind him, “And when you see Torger tell him he owes me three copper for your breakfast.”

As Rome walked he noticed the parched sand had sucked up all the water from the night before. The ground was moist, but didn’t slow him down. Because of the shorter daylight hours he got to Calico shortly after dark, but this time he was on lookout for a guard. He didn’t see one, but once he was near the broken common house he heard “Declare yourself!”

He had been snuck up on from behind again, and this time he was looking for it. These dwarves were good. He raised his hands and slowly turned around. “I’m Rome, a human of this city.”

Strong Arm’s assistant Blokel had an arrow pointed at him. “You dwarves are very good at your guard duty. I was looking for a guard and never saw you.”

“If we’re not alert, we die. And we have good night vision, it helps us in the mines. Good to see you Rome. Where are the others?”

He had told his story to the dwarves at Silverwood multiple times, then that morning to Stone Fist and his crew, and would have to tell it in the morning to Strong Arm and his crew. He didn’t want to tell it unnecessarily again. “I’ll tell all of you in the morning. For now I want a nice mat to sleep on.” He was able to fall asleep quickly.

The morning’s breakfast was the same: rabbit, eggs and bread, though the bread was slightly more stale. He told them of being separated in the ocean and wanting to report to Torger how progress was going. Again he didn’t tell them he learned all three teleport spells or that he made it to the island. The dwarves just assumed if he was here it’s because he died and they didn’t make it to Catalina.

Strong Arm filled him in. “Pretty much everything here is ruined. Small Foot’s house and the common house are a pile of stones, and two of the five mines collapsed. What’s worse is some razorlings took the remaining three over, and they’re multiplying quickly. They’ll get back up to a hundred before long.”

“Why is it always one hundred monsters in a cave? Baybil told us the stronger the monsters, the better the treasure.”

“I don’t know why it’s always a hundred, just is. ‘Cept with trolls and goblins. Oh and spirits. And it’s true the strength of the monsters in a cave are a good indication of the value inside. Like these razorlings, being about level eight, guard this mine, level eight. That’s ‘cause it’s silver ore. If it were about four tons of already refined silver the cave would be about level sixteen with level sixteen monsters guarding it.”

“Is that how much silver ore you think is in there; about four tons?”

“No, that’s how much silver ore we guess was in there. We got about half of it out already.”

Two tons of ore left! Rome did his best to put on a poker face. “What’s to keep anyone from going in and mining it for themselves? Do we have guards?”

“We need guards, badly. But we gotta have a place for the miners to eat and sleep. For now all we can do is watch and hope nobody powerful comes along. If they do, we gotta abandon it. And now that the rains started, anyone can mine it without dying of thirst. ‘Course only other dwarves would come along to mine it, but they would be hostile to their own kind for a chance at even lowly silver. Many full scale wars have been fought over a mine of mithril that’s found once in a while.”

Rome thought about that for a few seconds before responding. “I heard that the level of a cave is the average level it would take ten warriors to conquer the cave, but it seems the monsters are the same as the level of the cave. How does that work?”

“You really need to buy analyze. It gives you approximately how strong a monster or dwarf is. Or human or elf. And it gives you approximately how strong the monsters inside are, and the corresponding treasure. But the rule of thumb is this: you see a level four cave, shown to you by analyze. Inside will probably be one hundred level four monsters. If a group of ten dwarves, all level four and appropriately equipped attack it, they will have a ninety percent chance of success in killing all hundred monsters, without any dwarf dying.”

“This is too confusing Strong Arm. Tell me in simple terms.”

Strong Arm chanted a few words and waved his hands in a pattern to use analyze on Rome. “I see you are now level nine. You’re more likely than not to kill a level eight razorling, if you had level appropriate equipment. But I don’t know much about you just by using analyze. I see none of your nine levels come from health, and two come from mana. So you have high strength or you know several spells. Would you kill a razorling with a blade or ice magic?”

“I couldn’t kill a razorling at all. I’m a white mage.”

“Oh, very important role in a squad. No Rome, you never want to fight a monster. Just be sure to cure the one who’s in the thick of battle. We need more white magic in our community. We can only make weak potions and have to trade with those self righteous elves for better potions. Forget all I said about cave difficulty and levels. Learn analyze, and if you and your friends see a level seven cave you’re probably okay attacking it.”

“I don’t think we’ll be attacking any caves soon, but that’s good to know. I’m going to stop by Small Hammer on my way. Is there anything you want me to tell Baybil?”

“Torger’s the mayor, so it’s not my place to say, but I think our villages should join together and share this mine. We’d both be stronger and more secure. I hope you make it to your own planet, but if not I look forward to seeing you.”

Rome left and headed for Cajon Pass, happy for the dirt path leading there. As he walked he realized just how weak he was. He needed Analyze 1. He needed Cure 1. He needed Heal 1. And he needed twenty more more mana to just teleport to Small Hammer. He had no weapon and no armor. Just a mage’s cloak. He looked in the corner of his vision to see his Stats even though he knew what they were, but he saw Notoriety/Quests. It had never been flashing for him before so he checked on it.

Convince Torger to unite the villages of Small Hammer and Calico.

Reward: 2% of all silver ore Strong Arm gets from the mines at Calico.

600 exp.

That’s a hefty reward! Rome picked up his pace wanting to complete this quest quickly. As he was walking he saw a roc fly overhead. It spotted him and circled high in the sky. He looked around and saw he had nowhere to run. He had no way of defending himself and no weapon. He kept walking and watching it. It circled a few more times then dove down about a mile ahead of where he was. A few seconds later it flew into the air carrying a coyote. He was going to walk right to where that coyote was! The roc unknowingly just saved his life. He looked ahead and saw two other coyotes running for the hills away from the path. He was lucky and he knew it. According to Strong Arm he was at level nine, but Rome doubted he could kill a level nine coyote. During the summer the dwarves told them that all the beasts the tyters had brought to Nuva were getting stronger and gaining levels as they killed each other. That thought made him even more discouraged.

He slept under a group of trees in the foothills that night, not wanting to be spotted from above. Nothing happened and in the morning he started walking towards Small Hammer.

Chapter 6

Training

Graul was raising his voice as the conversation degenerated. “I don’t care Arden, there has to be something easier around here. But we should start making another raft and wait for Rome to return. This time we’ll put high sides on it.”

“That’s a waste of time and boring. Come on guys, who’s with me? We can kill some of those river monsters. I know we can, because we already have.”

“Arden, Torger’s the leader, we follow him. If he says we look for something easier, then that’s it.”

“No Graul, Torger is the leader of Calico. Out here it’s a democracy. Remember that’s what we agreed to?”

Torger said “You’re right Arden. We did agree to have a democracy outside of one of our properties. Who says we fight the river snakes and who says we look for something else? I vote we build a raft.”

The other four of them voted to find something else, Arden was alone. But he was content handling things with a simple majority vote and didn’t argue anymore.

“I say we go get that six foot tall rabbit,” offered Jex.

“That sounds like a good idea. That shouldn’t be too hard.” Brun was glad the mood was calming down, and noticed Antic never said a word. Brun felt useless as he looked at his partially formed hand. It had halfway regenerated over night and had a three inch span. He could still cast Fire 1 or Ice 1 with his left hand, but couldn’t hold a sword or weapon with his right.

They went inland twenty miles to Kellogg Hill, having slept for a night along the way, and found the massive rabbit hole. Brun got volunteered to go in first and have Fire 2 ready. He walked in and looked and listened for any movement. He saw nothing but heard a distant scratching sound. He took a few more steps and then it was too dark to make out anything clearly. He told them they would need torches.

Graul suggested trying to flush them out with smoke like they did with the billiks. They gathered dry brush and placed it twenty feet in from the cave mouth and lit it on fire. They waited for a half hour but nothing happened. Finally Antic saw smoke coming out of another hole a mile away. They argued for a while trying to figure out how to get light in the cave. Sticks covered with lard had been the only thing they could use for light, and that didn’t last long and the smoke would burn their eyes. They tried it anyways and the result was disastrous as all they accomplished was to blind and choke themselves. Finally they agreed to go hunt the river snakes like Arden had suggested in the first place.

It was nearly dark by the time they made it back to camp. It had been four days since the failed raft attempt. They ate a deer Jex had killed and set a watch for the night. It had been a wasted three day trip. The next morning they went to the river. The water had receded and was now about four inches deep. Torger and Graul approached the bank cautiously, with sword in one hand and water skin in the other. Torger stooped down to fill the skin when Antic yelled “Look out!”

Torger stood up as quickly as he could, while Graul struck a river snake in the head with his sword. Jex shot another with an ice arrow. Just like the razorlings, ice seemed to slow these reptiles down. She said “Brun, this time don’t use fire.”

Arden and Antic ran forward and Brun felt useless as he watched his friends battle, wishing he could join in. He cast Ice 1 four times, thankful that two nights of sleep had fully reformed his hand.

There were four of the monsters, and each of the melee fighters were attacking a separate beast. Jex kept shooting them as openings appeared. Each one had an ice arrow in it and they were moving more slowly. Torger stepped around the side of his and drove the steel sword in its neck, up to the hilt. At the same time he heard Arden grunt. Torger’s beast tried to turn and bite him so he had to let go of his sword and back away. He didn’t know how to get his sword back from the dying creature, but eventually it died. Torger grabbed his sword and pulled it from the creature’s neck. He turned to look at Arden and saw him holding his goblin copper sword with both hands, one at each end, with the middle going sideways in the monster’s mouth. Torger ran over to it and drove his sword through its skull.

Graul and Antic were having a tough time. Graul’s flame sword countered Jex’s ice arrow when he hit it, so the beast was back to moving at normal speed. Antic kept lightly jabbing his monster in the face to keep it at bay, but not really doing any damage. Irritated with Antic, Torger yelled “You’re supposed to be good with spears. Thrust that thing.”

Antic backed up a step, waited for the beast to attack again, and gave a little more power to his thrust. The billik leg at the end sunk in a few inches and the reptile flinched and stepped back to get the sharp leg out of his mouth. By the time Antic was prepared to thrust again, Torger and Arden were there. Torger waited until it was fully focused on Antic, and Antic again gave a half hearted thrust to its face. Torger used the distraction to pick his sword up over his head and swing down in a mighty blow. It completely chopped off the head. He glared at Antic then went to help Graul.

Brun had used the last of his mana on an Ice 1 spell against Graul’s enemy. He was right to do it because Jex’s ice arrow had no effect once Graul had struck it with his flame sword. Graul saw Torger approaching from the side and moved over so that Torger could attack it from behind.

Torger raised his sword high, pointed straight at the ground, and drove it through the tail and into the ground, all the way to the hilt. It tried to turn to bite him but he easily backed away, abandoning his sword. Graul positioned his sword to drive it through the face, but Torger told him not to.

Torger looked at Antic and yelled “Get over here!” and pointed to the ground in front of the pinned creature. Antic timidly walked up. “You have the highest health and strength of all of us, and can gain levels using a spear quicker than the rest of us. We work as a team when fighting, and you need to join in. I know you’re afraid of getting bit, we all are, but you are going to stop endangering the rest of us with those weak little jabs. Now stand in front of that thing and thrust the spear down its throat as far as you can! You will learn how to use it!”

Antic looked to the others for help, but saw on their faces they agreed with Torger. Antic planted his feet, slightly confident that the creature’s tail being pinned was keeping him relatively safe. He pulled the spear back along his side and thrust it forward harder than he ever had, but with only about half of his strength. The spear went in about seven inches and the creature thrashed and writhed in pain. During the squirming Torger’s sword dislodged from the soft mud. It stepped forward to bite Antic. Before it could reach him, Antic held his spear in his typical defensive position ready to lightly poke it in the face to keep it at bay. Graul and Arden each thrust their sword into its side, and it thrashed a little more before dying.

Torger looked at Antic with furiousness boiling in him. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, then grabbed his sword and said “Let’s just get water and camp.”

Jex and Arden went hunting, Brun and Antic strained and boiled the water, and Torger and Graul sharpened their swords. Everyone knew Torger was beyond pissed off at Antic and they couldn’t blame him. Finally Brun couldn’t stand the awkward silence anymore.

“Torger, what do you want Antic to say or do?”

Torger kept looking at his sword and sharpening it. “First Antic, find out what those things are called. Look up your experience and the sub category beasts.”

After a minute Antic said “They’re called black simmets, I guess because their scales are black. It looks like we’re getting about eighty experience points each from each black simmet we kill. We’re more than half way to getting another ability point.”

“OK, I want you to drag one of those simmets up here. Then I want you to stab it with your spear until you have completely pierced it all the way through. I want you to do that three times. You need to know how much force it takes to shove your spear all the way through it.”

Torger never looked up, but knew Brun and Graul had gone with him to the river. When they got back they dragged it to in front of Torger. He finally looked up. “Go ahead Antic.”

“OK, but first we should cut it in half.”

Torger was irritated when he asked why.

“It just seems like there might be something useful inside its stomach.”

Torger handed Antic his sword. “You do it. Swing it like a man.”

Antic brought the sword to the simmet and picked it up shoulder height and swung down, again with half his strength. The sword went a couple inches in. He looked at Torger who was holding his face in both his palms and shaking his head. Antic pulled the sword out and swung much harder, but missed the previous cut. This time the sword went half way through.

“That’s it! That’s how hard I have to swing in battle. Any harder and I would overextend and lose my balance. Hit it again.”

Antic picked up the sword to shoulder height again and swung just as hard. He again missed both previous cuts, the sword going half way through. On his next swing he hit a previous cut and the simmet split in half. A horribly foul odor came out of rotten flesh, but Antic used the sword to dig around inside. After a few seconds he reached his hand in and pulled out a silver coin with a goblin face on it.

Brun looked at Antic and asked “How did you know that was there?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I’ll see a glow, like an aura, on a dead beast’s body. So far it’s always been something Baybil would buy.”

Torger genuinely congratulated him for cutting it in two, and for finding treasure so many times. But he still insisted Antic learn how to drive a spear all the way through the simmet. Antic picked up his spear and went to its face. He planted his feet, got the spear ready at his side, and thrust forward. Just like in the battle the billik leg went about seven inches into the mouth. He looked ashamedly at Torger and tried again. This time he leaned forward a little instead of back as he thrust, but didn’t use any more strength. That made a huge difference. The billik leg went in about twice as far.

Torger exclaimed “That’s it! You need to lean in to the thrust, not away from the creature as you’re attacking. Do that two more times.”

Antic tried again, using half his strength to not become off balance, and leaning slightly forward as he thrust. It produced the same acceptable result. His next attempt he was full of confidence. He put most of his strength and weight into the thrust. The spear went all the way through the mouth and stuck out through the stomach he had cut open. But he also overextended and fell on to the beast, getting gore all over his shirt. Graul laughed but Torger told him that was unacceptable. Go back to slightly leaning forward. Antic wanted to wash up but instead used all his strength to try to pull the spear out. As he pulled, the billik leg broke and he pulled out an oak pole with a nub tied to the end of it.

Torger told him to go wash up. The others went with him. Torger used his sword and carved three more poles, but out of a weaker birch wood. Then he went into Graul’s back pack and pulled out their last four billik legs. He used the last of the rope left over from making the raft and unwound it, then tied a leg to each pole. Before he was done, everyone had returned. He handed them to Antic.

“These poles are weaker than the oak pole. Use the oak one first, but if that leg breaks in battle, switch to one of these. They’re much shorter so they are easier for you to carry around, but you’ll also have to get closer to the simmets to use these birch ones. Attack them from the back side with these, they could bite you if they see you on their side. Now practice attacking it from the back.”

Antic grabbed a shorter birch spear and walked up behind the dead creature. He stabbed it in the tail with a downward thrust.

“That won’t do you any good. Aim for the legs.”

Antic thrust the spear at a back leg. It easily went all the way through.

“OK, that’s good, but go back to your old jabbing technique. With the spear embedded in its leg, it could rip it out of your hands. Jab and back up as quickly as possible.”

Antic did just that. A quick jab that almost went through the leg and a quick step back with a firm pull back on the spear. It took less than a second.

“Perfect. Guys, I think tomorrow we’re going to do a much better job of killing river monsters.”

Arden was impressed by what he saw from Antic. He asked to use a birch spear. He thrust it at a back leg and retreated, not gracefully, but decent. He tried again with better success. “Antic, could I try to use this tomorrow? We all know I suck with a sword, this feels a little better to me.”

Torger and Graul began cutting and whittling more birch poles, and as they worked Torger asked “Antic, when we first got here, you were rushing into the battles with us and swinging a sword a coyotes, but after the first month you’ve been getting less and less involved in battles. What gives?”

Antic looked at his feet. “I hate pain. And dying. I wish I was an archer like Jex, away from the battle but still contributing in relative safety. The more damage I take, the more I hate these battles.”

Torger answered “Any of us could use any weapon, but that tyter ability boost bed gave you a twenty-five percent learning increase for spears. That’s a huge advantage, and for the good of the team we need you to be the best spearman you can be.”

Antic didn’t answer, but the others encouraged him to be a team player. He finally agreed and of his own accord dragged the other three simmets up from the river bank and spent an hour working with Arden to figure out how best to thrust and block with the short birch poles.