Chapter 13

Departure

At first light Antic took off at a jog. His stamina was now 96/96, while all his friends were at between 44 and 47. By putting most of his ability points into health, strength, and stamina since coming to Nuva, he was taller, stronger, and all around better physically fit than all of his friends, but he still feared pain and death. He circled around the lake towards the elves, but saw no cave or bears. He started jogging down the hill and saw a roc nest. He marked it on his Maps. He jogged back toward where his friends were and saw another nest in the distance.

A couple hours after he left camp, he came to the place where they had seen the nest the previous day. Four dead rocs lay on the ground, the feathers not plucked. A deep scratch was in the dirt, an arrow pointing east. He jogged in that direction and a half hour later saw his friends fighting bears. Two were dead, and six were fighting one on one with his friends. After jogging for two and a half hours straight over uneven terrain, he was happy to see he gained another stamina point and his stamina was still at 31/97.

He ran and stabbed one in the back with his spear. It roared and Arden stabbed down at its skull from the tree he was in. Arden climbed down and the two of them attacked the one under Jex. It tried to swipe at them, but the spears were too long for it to reach. Spears to the face ensured it died quickly.

Jex aimed her arrow at the one attacking Brun’s tree. He was holding on to the branch, unable to counter attack as the tree swayed. Antic and Arden circled around it, stabbing when the opportunity came. But Jex’s ice and fire arrows did most of the damage. As she was shooting it she heard Graul cheer in the way he did when he made a kill. She guessed Torger would kill his target soon also. She released her arrow and it sunk into the grizzly’s lung. Antic and Arden were able to finish it with spears, but at the same time they heard Rome call for help.

Just like Brun, he was laying flat on a branch and holding on while the huge bear was shaking the tree, but then his legs slipped off and the bear sliced into them. That was the last bear alive. Rome’s eyes crossed, even as his legs were bleeding, and a big smile came across his face. “I did it! I got a spell!”

The bear ripped him to the ground, and slashed his chest, but before he died and disappeared in the pale green light, he smiled and cheered.

Torger killed the bear, then looked at his friends and said “I hope Rome bought analyze one like he wanted. It seemed like he did.”

“That’s what I got from his expression. I found two roc nests in my scouting. Come on, we’re wasting time.” Antic picked up the heavy duffle bag and led the way.

Jex shot a roc, then another, and they finished off the nest then went to the next one that Antic had spotted. That one turned out to be not much of a problem either. Torger looked at his Notoriety/Quests.

Quest from Pomo Elves:

Kill 30 6 Grizzly bears within 10 Miles of Lake Silverwood

Kill 30 10 Rocs within 10 Miles of Lake Silverwood

Reward: Significant Increase in Respect with Pomo Elves

900 Exp.

Bow of the Owl

Torger looked up and saw it was around noon. Time was running out. Antic said “I know it’s a long ways, but we haven’t circled around to the west side of the elf village. We know there are rocs near Cajon Pass.”

Everyone but Antic was exhausted, but they agreed to try it. They circled to the north side away from the village. They walked much too slowly, their low stamina not letting them move faster. After a couple of miles, Torger told them to sit and rest. They wouldn’t do any good in battle in the condition they were in. Brun asked “Where is Rome? He should have set his respawn point to Silverwood, but we haven’t seen him.”

Jex checked Cities and saw Silverwood was now an elf village. The bastards had somehow claimed the village as their own. Cucamonga Dwarves were allies so they could set their respawn points to any Cucamonga dwarf village, but Pomo Elves weren’t allies so they couldn’t respawn in an elf village.

As they were sitting, Arden jumped up. Two cottols were approaching from further up the hill. Graul and Jex each cast slow one, and the cottols did seem to move a little more slowly as they continued to approach.

The cottols sent a psychic blast, which went right through the armor. Graul and Jex dropped their weapons and turned their backs to the cats. The others ducked behind trees. True to form, the cats pounced at Graul and Jex, raking their claws down their backs. They came out of the stupor, but the cats immediately hit them again with psychic blasts. Even with blood flowing down their backs, Graul and Jex again turned to face away from the cats. Jex’s leather armor was shredded, but Graul’s iron chest plate blocked the damage. The cat swiped its claws at the back of his arms.

Brun cast Lightning 1 at each of the cottols, and Torger ran around the tree and stabbed one. The other saw him and raked its claws at his arm, leaving deep gouges between the bracer and pauldron.

Antic and Arden ran ahead and thrust spears into a four foot tall cat. The billik legs went all the way through the side of one cat. It tried to swipe at them but couldn’t. Both cats were badly hurt and each sent a psychic blast at Arden and Antic. The men dropped their spears and turned their backs to the cats.

Brun cast Lightning 1 at one cat, and it collapsed, alive but barely. He cast Lightning 1 at the other cat and got the same result. Torger used his left hand to stab each one. Blood still flowed out of his right bicep.

He knew he had only one option to keep himself from bleeding out, and to help Graul and Jex. He said “Sorry Calico.” Torger bought Cure 1, and asked for Brun’s silver staff. He pointed the emerald at the top of the staff at his own bicep and cast Cure 1 on himself, the spell coming from the gem rather than from his outstretched finger, and the blood slowed down. He cast it again, using eight of his ten mana, but the blood stopped and it began to scab over. He handed Brun the staff again. Brun told him to keep it because he still had Rome’s silver staff left from when he died again. Cure 1 gave 10 health points to the recipient, and the silver staff added fifty percent to the strength of the spell. The two spells using the staff restored thirty health to him.

Torger shook Arden, but he didn’t come out of his stupor, but a slap to the face did the trick.

Arden also had three ability points, so he bought Cure 1 and using the silver staff cast it once on his wife then on Graul. The blood slowed but didn’t stop.

They walked to their friends and shook them, but nothing happened. Torger slapped Graul in the face and he came out of his stupor. They walked around and slapped Jex and Antic. They rested and assessed the situation. Torger didn’t have full use of his right arm, Graul and Jex were still in pain, and everyone but Antic was still tired.

“We’re not going to make it in time. We can’t find and kill six bears and ten rocs, then make it to the elves before sunset.”

“I know, we’ll do the best we can.”

They rested a while longer, Arden and Torger casting Cure 1 until everyone was near full health, and continued waiting until their stamina got back up to thirty, then walked west. It was a clear day, and Jex saw a roc flying in the distance. They kept going and found a nest. There were two young birds in it, and no parents. Jex shot one, then the other. They kept their eyes to the sky as they walked to the birds. Before they got there, a roc swooped out of the sky. Jex saw it and shot it with a fire arrow, but it kept coming. Graul and Torger slashed it as it flew overhead, but it scratched Arden’s face with one claw and Brun’s face with the other.

Both men fell to the ground writhing in pain. The bird circled in the air, and another roc came flying at top speed toward them. Jex shot an arrow at it, but it swerved out of the way. Both birds came in at the same time. Graul and Jex both cast slow one. The birds couldn’t flap their wings fast enough to come out of the dive and skimmed above the ground. They both crashed into nearby trees.

Graul, Torger, and Antic ran forward. The birds were dazed but not helpless. They tried to peck at the men. Graul was able to block with his iron shield, but it was already battered from the fights with bears. A strong peck at it caused it to split in two. He dropped the shield and swung his flame sword at the bird’s neck, sinking deeply into flesh.

Torger kept the focus of the other bird on himself, while Jex shot it with another arrow and Antic circled around behind it. He stabbed it in the back, making it look at him. The bird bit the spear and broke it in half, but that gave Torger time to raise his sword high and chop its head clean off. He rushed back to his injured friends.

They were both bleeding profusely out of the tops of their heads, but their steel helmets saved their lives. Torger cast Cure 1 on each of them, while holding Rome’s silver staff. The bleeding slowed but didn’t stop. He told everyone to stay there and ran to the elf border. He arrived completely out of breath, and asked the guards that surrounded him if they would sell him a cure potion. They said no, but brought Lagwil.

“Lagwil, two of my friends are injured. I need two cure potions so we can complete our quest.”

“You are running out of time Torger. We will leave tomorrow morning, and it’s almost dark. I brought potions. Low level cure potions are one silver coin each, mid level cure potions are three silver coins each. Which do you want?”

“The mid level ones.” He knew low level potions restored nine health, and mid level potions restored nineteen health. Torger reached into his backpack and pulled out six silver coins. Lagwil thanked him and turned to go.

Before she left she looked back at him. “I see you tried very hard to complete this quest for me. Bring your friends here. I will give you a partial reward for partial success. We both know you won’t finish it tonight.” She turned and walked away.

As Torger jogged back to his friends he had a decision to make. Hunt into the night, or take a partial reward. When he got back he saw his friends looking worn and beat up. He gave one potion to Arden, and one to Brun, and Torger and Arden again cast Cure 1 on each of them. When they drank the potions, their health was restored almost to full, the scratches on their heads almost fully healed.

Torger looked at Graul’s broken shield, the two sliced steel helmets, and the rest of their dented and scratched armor. Rome was presumably walking back from Calico, but wouldn’t make it in time to help them. They were defeated in this quest and they knew it. Pushing on to fight after dark would not end well for them. For the past three days they defeated the bears or rocs when they were able to launch a sneak attack with everyone in position, but if they were caught off guard like they had been with the cottols, someone was going to die.

Torger told them what they expected to hear. “I’m sorry guys. We ran out of time. We’re not going to kill six bears and six rocs then get back to the elves before dawn. We put in a good effort. A few months ago we wouldn’t have been able to kill two bears or two rocs in a fight, but now we’re stronger, have better equipment, and better spells. We’ve come a long ways, but still not quite far enough. Lagwil is kind enough to give us something for our effort. Let’s go get our partial reward from the elves.”

They hung their heads in defeat, but knew he was right. All their armor wouldn’t last another battle. They had to get it to Calico for repairs.

When they came to the border, Lagwil was waiting for them. “You are wise Torger. There is a time for bravery, but not when it carelessly endangers the others around you. All of you, your effort was valiant. Jex, step forward please.”

She stepped forward and Lagwil handed her a recurve bow made of a grey wood that Torger and Graul couldn’t identify. Lagwil said “May the night not be a hindrance to a great huntress.”

She looked at Torger. “You will receive no experience from this quest. However, your reputation with us has improved. If you wish for us to upgrade your sword, we will.”

Torger looked under Cities and found Lake Silverwood (Elven city). It showed

Contact: Lagwil. Feared: 0/100 Loved 10/100 Respected 25/100 Hated 0/100.

He had gained ten love points and ten respect points. He wondered how much it would have gone up if he completed the quest.

“What can you do to my sword to make it better?”

“You must have a jewel. Do you have one?”

Torger rummaged around in the duffle bag and pulled out the small ruby he got from a simmet near Long Beach, then recovered from Treluge. He showed it to her.

“Our alchemist can fill this with Fire three, and infuse it into your sword. It will cost you one gold and sixty silver. Do you want me to take it to him?”

Fire 3 with every sword strike! Yesss, Please! Torger tried his best to keep a poker face. “I don’t have that much money with me. But we do have bear skins and roc feathers for trade.”

“We would like the roc feathers, but Jex will need them for her new bow. Let me see the bear skins.”

She agreed to buy the skins for forty-eight silver coins, and Torger gave her almost all the money he had left. She was surprised he didn’t have a gold coin and started counting silver coins. She was a little irritated when he was two silver coins short and gave her two hundred copper coins. “Torger I forgot how new you are to Nuva. You could have gone to your icon called money, and there you will see a bill for me. Select the ‘Pay in full’ and the money will automatically transfer from your coin pouch to mine. It’s considered rude to physically hand someone more than twenty coins.”

But she took the money and sword and ruby and walked towards the forest. When she was gone Torger told his friends “This could take a while, and I had no idea those bear skins were so valuable. We got three silver per skin. I’ll wait here, you go back to the eight bears we killed this morning and skin them. Maybe she’ll buy those too. I’ll meet you at the aqueduct.”

His friends left and Torger waited as the sun set and he got cold. He waited for a couple more hours before Lagwil returned. She held the sword sideways and presented it to him. He grabbed it with both hands and it felt a little warm. He bowed his head to her. “Thank you Lagwil. I hope you have a safe journey to meet up with your tribe. You have been kind to us and helpful. Snow will be here soon, and it will be deep in Yosemite if you get there too soon.”

“I see you are a decent man Torger. I hope you will visit us before the tyters come. You remind me much of our own history, defeating the tyters and claiming our independence. I wish the same success for you. And of course you may now claim the dwarven city near the lake, since we won’t be here.”

She turned and walked away, and Torger had to find his way back to camp in the dark. He had sore feet and ankles from stepping on unseen rocks, and bruised shins and scratched arms from unseen shrubbery by the time he made it back. While he was still a hundred yards away he heard Jex yell “Stop!”

Torger froze and looked all around him. He couldn’t see a thing on that moonless night. She said “Come on Torger.”

He walked up and she pointed to where he had been standing when she told him to stop. It was pitch black. “How did you see me?”

She handed him the Bow of the Owl and he knocked an arrow to it. He looked back to where he had been and could barely make out grey silhouettes of rocks and branches. A little closer to him everything came into better focus. He put the bow down and saw nothing but blackness again. “Jex that’s amazing!”

“I know right! Now I can see in dark caves.”

“That’s true. I didn’t think about that. This is a huge advantage in caves.”

“What did you get? Let’s see it.”

Torger walked over to the campfire and everyone gathered around as he removed his steel sword from the scabbard. It was the same sword, two handed, double-edged, straight steel, and over three feet long. But on the center of the blade, just above the guard, his ruby was embedded into the steel. He stood up and swung it casually through the air. Brun yelled “No Don’t!” It flared red and heat from the blade caused everyone got their face hair burned off.

Looking perturbed Jex said “Brun finally made it to forty-five mana, and he tried out fire three on a possum. That’s the second time tonight I lost some of my hair.”

After asking around, Torger found out that Graul, Jex, and Antic each had two ability points, and he and Arden each had one. They made more progress in the past four days than they had in any single month since coming to Nuva. Torger looked at his upgraded sword and realized life just might be getting easier.

Chapter 14

Enter the White Mage

Rome hung from the tree branch, his legs shooting with pain as the bear ran its claws through his greaves and calf muscles. He couldn’t hold on much longer, but he was looking at the corner of his vision. He saw Spells and blinked. A list of spells came into his vision. He knew exactly where to look to find it quickly. He had looked at this menu dozens of times wishing he had four ability points to buy the spell. It took him less than a second to find it. He looked at Analyze 1 and blinked.

The California Grizzly Bear sunk its claws into Rome’s chest, and he fell to the ground. He had a second, maybe two left to live, but that was enough.

The expected message popped up.

Do You Wish to Buy Analyze 1? Cost 4 ability points YES NO

He looked at Yes and blinked.

You have bought the sp---

The bear ran its claw into Rome’s chest, and he died.

Rome was standing upright in the Regulators house in Calico. He was naked, but his spare armor and clothes were in a pile right next to him. He dressed in clean clothes. The last time he had been in Calico he had fought razorlings in the mines, and afterward took his bloody clothes to the laundry area, a stone basin a couple miles outside of the village and next to the reservoir. He gave the dwarf a copper coin- standard pay per garment, but when she saw it was covered in blood she looked at the other two dwarves who charged for doing laundry, and they both shook their heads. Rome gave each of them another copper coin and left. Now those bloody clothes had been washed, sewn, folded, and placed near his bed. He was very thankful for that.

He walked back to the kitchen and bought some food, and put it in his magic satchel. He went to Strong Arm to get another silver staff (a deal he had worked out a week earlier when he saw hitting a magical monster with one would shatter it), and began walking back to Lake Silverwood. It cost him all the silver Strong Arm owed him, but was well worth the cost.

He didn’t get far when he saw a couple of coyotes watching him. He wanted to try out his new spell very badly, but had to be cautious. He might have to rely on a magic spell before this fight was over, and if he used seven mana to cast Analyze 1, he wouldn’t have enough left over to cast Fire 1.

Rome removed his satchel and laid down his staff, then grabbed his spear with two hands. He wasn’t going to attack the coyotes, and it looked like they were unsure if they should attack him. He reached down and picked up his satchel and staff with his left hand, holding the spear with his right. The coyotes followed him as he continued through the desert. He had to keep looking back over his shoulder, and that slowed him down too much. He finally picked up a rock and threw it at them. He missed but he picked up another rock and threw that one too. It missed again but they circled around to be one on each side of him. He threw another rock, but still they kept their distance. He finally had to pick up the silver staff and cast Fire 1.

The coyote yelped and backed away, but the other one ran at him. Rome expected it and dropped the staff, then turned to drive his spear all the way through it. It died instantly, but his spear was stuck. He picked up the staff and cast Fire 1 again. The coyote got badly hurt, but circled around him, panting and with its fur burned off.

Rome went to the first coyote and tugged on his spear until it came free, but it was too late. The other one came up behind him and bit him on the leg. His greaves took most of the bite, but his leg still got bruised. He drove his spear into it and it died.

After gathering his gear, he continued to walk towards the mountains. He made it to the foothills just after nightfall, but had no tent and no real protection for himself. He ate a meal with the three farmers and after that he decided to walk through the night.

Part way up the hill he saw a rabbit. He finally got the chance to use his new spell! He looked at it and thought “Analyze.” Nothing happened. He went to Spells and selected the spell. A message came up:

Do you wish to use the spell Analyze 1?

He selected yes and another message popped up.

To use this spell, point at the target.

He pointed at the rabbit and thought “Analyze.” Nothing happened. He pointed again, but said the word out loud. It worked the same as the Fire 1 spell he had. Information came to focus in front of him.

Rabbit. Level 1. Health 20/20 Mana 0/0

That was far less helpful than Rome hoped for, not really worth seven mana since his max was ten mana. However he did find out if he used Analyze 1 another 249 times, he would get Analyze 2.

Rome walked all through the night; the sun was up when he made it to the lake. He was greeted by his friends who were just finishing breakfast.

“Guys it’s the coolest thing. I can look at an object and find out information. For example,” he pointed at Torger and said “Analyze.”

The others saw nothing. Torger hesitantly asked, “So what happened?”

“It shows me stuff. It says Human, level fifteen. Health a hundred out of a hundred. Mana ten out of ten.”

Torger tried very hard to not sound condescending. “That’s cool Rome. We were just talking about where to go next. You can tell us how tough the monsters are before we get into a fight.”

Rome knew Torger was right, but he had been waiting for a year to learn his first white magic spell, and now that he had it, it sucked. It would have uses, sure, but Cure 1 would have been a better choice. He tried to sound confident when he asked “So what did the elves give you?”

Everyone looked at Torger. “Uh, Rome, they didn’t give me anything. We didn’t complete the quest. But I did buy an upgrade for my sword from them.”

Arden said “Stopping being shy, show him,”

Torger removed his sword and everyone backed away. Torger looked at Rome and told him to take a few steps back. He swung his sword through the air and Rome saw what the others had seen the night before. The blade glowed red with heat and they could feel it radiating off the blade.

“Wow Torger, that is a serious upgrade. Until now Graul’s flame sword was cool, but… just wow.”

Jex couldn’t stand not showing off her new toy. “Rome look what the elves gave me for almost finishing the quest.”

Rome held it and drew back the bow. “That’s nice Jex. It’s a lot like your old one, which is a good bow. This one has a heavier pull, so you can shoot further.”

“This one has a special ability that doesn’t work in daylight. It helps me see at night.”

“Hey that is good. So where did you decide we’re going next?”

Graul answered “We’re going to go to Calico and tell Stone Fist he can build summer housing here. I wanted to sell the bearskins to the elves, but thought the dwarves might need them for the winter. I’m thinking about selling the strength potions, I don’t see where we’ll need them, but I don’t need to buy anything right now so I’ll hold on to them.”

Rome asked “So the third bear cave had one too?”

“Yep. Three bear caves, nine strength potions. They’ve got to be worth something.”

They walked back to Calico and Stone Fist was happy to get more building to do. Torger wanted the farmers to grow crops in the foothills as soon as winter was over. It was going to snow soon and the farmers had nothing to gain from spending the winter there. With most of the bears and rocs gone, they should be somewhat safe, but even safer if dwarves lived in the mountain.

When they made it to the kitchen, they saw dwarves arguing. Torger ran in and asked what the problem was.

Baybil told him “The dwarves of Calico are getting a lot of silver from the mining, while the dwarves of Small Hammer aren’t allowed to work the mines.”

“Have they opened their own businesses and are they getting paid from the mines?”

“They have, but the miners are collecting silver hand over fist. I tell everyone they’re all getting a living wage, maybe a little better, but jealousy runs deep with dwarves.”

Torger thought about it. He looked and saw Strong Arm nearby. He asked “How is our supply of iron? We need to repair our steel armor.”

“It’s running low Torger. Prices are going to start getting real high soon.”

“Yeah that’s what I thought. Baybil, do some of your dwarves want to mine iron and sell it here?”

“They think they’re above that. It’s the criminal slave dwarves that mine that kind of stuff.”

After another minute of thought Torger said “So if we free the slaves from the goblins, they would mine the iron?”

“You can’t set them free Torger. That’ll be looked at as a massive jailbreak. They would have to remain slaves.”

“OK, but they would rather be slaves under me than under the goblins. Guys, we’re going to the Salton Sea. And any dwarves who aren’t content with the way I’m running Calico can become prison guards in Indio.”

Antic asked “Why Indio?”

“Just east of there is iron.”

“I’m not sure I want a hundred criminals next to my home. Besides, that’s where we kept seeing that troll.”

Torger slapped his forehead. “Of course. The troll is guarding an iron mine. So we’ll have to kill the troll first, then go to the Salton Sea.”

Torger set up plans for the dwarves. Some would continue running Calico, and Torger hoped Dijrit the chief miner would be honest about how much silver came out of the mines. Some dwarves would build up Lake Silverwood, and some would continue building the road from Calico to Indio. The dirt path already took them from Calico to San Antonio Falls. Still more dwarves were tasked to be under Stone Fist, to build an aqueduct from the springs near Indio to the iron mine where the troll was. Of course they would have to stay away from it until the Regulators killed it, but this aqueduct would be more of a challenge; the terrain didn’t flow consistently downhill so they would have to start it at a hilltop and keep it suspended above ground level most of the way. Stone Fist would have to find another dwarf to be in charge of building up Lake Silverwood.

Before he left he used his one ability point to expand the village shield from a two hundred foot diameter to a three hundred foot diameter. That ensured both smithies were inside the dome.

Arden used his one ability point on strength, and Graul, Jex, and Antic used their two ability points to buy Lighting 1. That brought everyone to having no ability points and very little experience towards the next ability point. But when they all compared notes, it looked like this:

Torger Level 20

Health 100/100 Stamina 47/47 Strength 13 Mana 10/10

Fire 1 Ice 1 Cure 1

Graul Level 21

Health 100/100 Stamina 47/47 Strength 13 Mana 10/10

Fire 1 Ice 1 Slow 1 Lightning 1

Arden level 17

Health 100/100 Stamina 45/45 Strength 10 Mana 10/10

Fire 1 Ice 1 Cure 1

Jex Level 18

Health 100/100 Stamina 44/44 Strength 11 Mana 10/10

Fire 1 Ice 1 Slow 1 Lightning 1

Brun Level 26

Health 100/100 Stamina 44/44 Strength 11 Mana 45/45

Fire 1 Ice 1 Fire 2 Lighting 1 Fire 3

Rome Level 16

Health 100/100 Stamina 44/44 Strength 7 Mana 10/10

Fire 1 Teleport 1,2,3 Ice 1 Analyze 1

Antic Level 28

Health 300/300 Stamina 97/97 Strength 14 Mana 10/10

Ice 1 Lightning 1