A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga)

by Thomas Whipple

  Outside I am unexpectedly hailed after crossing the bridge over the new moat. “Lord Vol Adare. Can I have a word?”

  I look around to see who is calling me and see a wood elf woman waving to me as she walks my direction. It looks like she came from one of the inns. She is a little shorter than me with the brown hair and skin that is common in wood elves. Following behind her is a group of three others with a male dwarf, female gnome and a male tigerkin. I wait for the wood elf to approach while I observe the group. I notice they are all wearing good gear, some of which looks like it is Stone Tortoise. The wood elf has a bow made of a wood that is almost white in color slung over a shoulder and is wearing light leather that looks soft and flexible. The dwarf is wearing plate armor on his head chest legs and forearms with heavy Stone Tortoise leather in between. He also has a round shield and a double sided axe strapped to his back. The gnome is wearing goggles and light leather armor while carrying a crossbow that is almost as big as her. Last is the tigerkin. He is thin and wears dark leather all over. He has his hood up and I can see a pair of daggers sheathed at his hips.

  When the wood elf, who I assume is the leader, arrives I address her. “What can I do for you Ms…?”

  “Just call me Jackie, and this is my party. The surly dwarf is Mel, next to him is Nickie and the hooded fellow is Nurl.”

  “Nice to meet you all” I say after introductions are made. “Now, what can I do for you Jackie?”

  “We were wondering when you would be making another bridge over the river from Market Street. We are adventurers and want to head north around the lake, but it takes a lot of time to travel all the way south then back north again when crossing” she tells me.

  “Well, I was holding off on that until we have proper gates setup there and to the south.” She nods with approval at my words so I continue. “I think they are going to hang the gates today though so if you are heading out then I guess I can take care of it now.”

  “We would really appreciate it. We aren’t interrupting anything important are we?” When she says this she reaches out and strokes my arm. I take notice of the action and the way that she has inched closer while I’m talking to them. I get a feeling that I’ll need to watch this one.

  Not reacting to the attractive elf’s obvious attempts at manipulating me for who knows what I start walking down Market Street. As we go, the female gnome walks up beside me. I can see out of the corner of my eye that she is motioning to the others about something. When I look back I see them following but at a distance now. “Sorry about Jackie” Nickie tells me. “She is like that with everyone that has authority. She is just trying to get on your good side.”

  I take a closer look at the gnome as we walk. “Is she the party leader or are you?” I ask.

  A rye smile appears on her face and is gone an instant later. “Caught that did you?” At my nod she sighs. “I’m the party leader for the most part, but we let Jackie handle people most of the time.”

  “Ah, where I am from we have a term for that. She is your front man. No worries. You, I am impressed with though. Jackie might be the eye candy with the persuasion skills, but you are the one that was able to read me and switch tactics. I am curious though, I had heard there were adventurers here but how is that with no guild building?”

  At my question she actually blushes a little, and when she speaks I can detect just the faintest amount of embarrassment. “Technically we are not adventurers. We want to be and we perform a similar function around here by hunting for food and ingredients for those that pay us. We have not had the opportunity to actually join the guild since all the Adventurer Guild buildings nearby are in human cities.”

  “I see. What if I told you that I wanted to make one here? In order for it to be a recognized guild building I will need to take a trip into the city. I think I’ll be able to do this, and hopefully find someone to be in charge when I go to the capital.” Her eyes go wide for a second with excitement, but then I see concern there before it goes blank. When she opens her mouth I raise my hand to stop her. “I am flattered by your concern for me, but remember that I’m a human like the rest of those in the city, at least in appearance. I’m sure there are dangers but I have a much better chance than most to sneak in without anyone noticing.” At my words she nods again.

  By now we’re approaching the East Gate as many call it. My attention is drawn to the half dozen people lifting a thick wooden gate with metal banding holding the wood planks together. The other gate is already mounted on the steel hinges set into the gate tower. In the future we plan on having a metal gate that can drop down on the inner part of the towers. We stop and watch as the workers get the second gate into position and the hinges are connected. I wave them off from setting the crossbar and step though. At the river I raise another bridge, like the one I made when we first arrived, and paved the road up to it.

  “Is there anything else?” I ask Nickie when I’m done.

  She shifts her weight from foot to foot for a moment then asks “Um, can you do it again? I mean on the other river.” She is talking fast like she is nervous. “We scouted it yesterday but the nearest crossing is about a half hour walk from here.”

  Wanting to get a look for myself since I haven’t seen it yet I walk that way. At the other river that branches off of the lake headed east I can see that it isn’t too deep, but the water moves fast. “OK, I can do that for you.” Raising another bridge out of the bedrock below so soon after the other one forces me to draw on the town’s mana. When I’m done I wave to the group of would be adventurers as they cross, then head back to town. As I go I pave a little curved road that connects the two bridges together.

  Back at the gates I see a couple guards have taken position on either side. I instruct them to close and bar the gates and to do so from now on unless they are letting a citizen in or out. It shouldn’t be a problem to keep watch from the wall above the gate, that’s why I made the watch towers after all. They both hop to it and soon are up in the towers where they can view the outside of the gate. After that I spent the rest of the morning walking the dirt roads of Thunderbird’s Roost and turning them into paved ones.

  As I work I wonder about the land management system. It just feels like I have no idea what I am doing with it. Sure I get notifications when it increases in level or rank, but I have no clue what will help progress the Town until the requirements are met. It makes me wonder if there are any concrete milestones or if it’s a more open format that anything can contribute to. Could a military society progress in their development as far as one that focuses more on art? Would a city or kingdom progress farther if they had a balance of everything? I continue these musings the entire time I work. A good chunk of the roads are paved before I break off my contemplation and head back to the keep for lunch.

  I’m met with a surprise as I enter the main hall on my way to the kitchen. Dolan is sitting at the table eating a sandwich. Lying on the table next to him are the bracers he was making for me, but there is also a pile of leather. “Jerick and me be working together to get this ready for ya. He said ya paid him already like you done me” the dwarf tells me when I approach. Then he pushes the gear across the table for me to look at. The first thing I do is enchant the bracers with haste. I also do this with the boots I already got from Jerick and the new leather armor for my legs. I can always use the extra speed whether it is for attacking or to dodge in defense. The rest of the gear got the Stone Skin enchant

  Looking over the leather gear I can see that Jerick had the metal I gave him turned into plates that he sewed in. There are thin plates on the shoulder pads as well as the front and back of the vest. There are even a few that run down the outside of my thighs to protect my legs. The vest also has a thick leather hood that can be pulled up and my cloaks hood can cover that. All of the leather is a rich dark brown except for the spots where the dark grey metal is sewn in, and all the metal including the bracers is etched with forking lightning all over. It all makes for a slee
k and deadly appearance. Done with the visual inspection and enchanting I use my Inspect skill to pull up the specifics.

  Mage Bracer (Left): A bracer made specifically for mages, focusing on defense and spell casting. Light Armor. Enchanted for speed. Item class: Superior. Durability: 150/150. Armor: +75. All magic resistances + 10%. Ignore 10% of targets magical resistance. +10 WIS. +5% Speed.

  Mage Bracer (Right): A bracer made specifically for mages focusing on defense and spell casting. Light Armor. Enchanted for speed. Item class: Superior. Durability: 150/150. Armor: +75. All magic resistances + 10%. Ignore 10% of targets magical resistance. +10 INT. +5% Speed.

  Plated Fox Leather Vest: A padded leather vest made of fox leather and plated with magical metal. Includes a hood to protect the head and neck from slashing attacks. Light Armor. Enchanted for armor. Item class: Rare. Durability: 100/100. Armor: +75. +5 STR. +5 INT. Reduced physical damage by 5%

  Plated Fox Leather Leg Guards: A pair of padded leather leg guards made of fox leather and plated with magical metal. Light Armor. Enchanted for speed. Item class: Rare. Durability: 75/75. Armor: +25. +5 AGI. +5% Speed.

  Plated Fox Leather Shoulder Guards: A pair of padded leather shoulder guards made of fox leather and plated with magical metal. Light Armor. Enchanted for armor. Item class: Rare. Durability: 75/75. Armor: +50. +5 WIS. Reduced physical damage by 5%

  Looking at the new gear I can see how it could make a huge difference. My armor rating has skyrocketed. Partly from the quality of metal used and the enchantments added to it. I don’t see any restrictions though, and Dolan warned me there might be. I ask him about it as I strap on the new gear. “Hey Dolan. You said there might be some restrictions to the gear, but I don’t see any?”

  He looks at me sideways for a moment then responds. “There be restrictions to all of it. The bracers have the highest restriction. It be ten STR or there be a penalty to AGI. Ya be lucky that the metals be light or ya would be penalized to the point ya be unable ta move. If ya don’t see the requirement then ya be meetin um. If’n ya be leveling ya skill ya may be able to view it all the time.”

  “That makes sense, I guess. Thanks Dolan.” Now that the gear is on I will it all back into my storage. I test that I can call it forth to my body already equipped and it works perfectly. Dolan is just shaking his head at me as I make the gear appear and then disappear a few times. “You know Dolan, I once read that sloth is the mother of invention.” He opens his mouth for a second as if to argue, but it snaps shut a moment later when he gets a thoughtful look on his face. “I know it sounds crazy but there is something to it. Many things are made so that less actual work is required. That is one of the reasons I figured out this time saving little trick.” I leave him to ponder while I get a sandwich of my own.

  When I come back out of the kitchen Dolan waves me goodbye and heads back down. I’m sure he is headed back to the forge. After I eat I decide to clean out my storage so I head to the back of the room and through the left door. I open the left door with a thought to IMA and enter the treasury. Inside the treasury I clean out the extra coinage I have been carrying around, leaving copper and silver while taking in some gold and some platinum. I now have 100 platinum and 1000 each for gold, silver and copper. I don’t expect to need more than that even if I buy most of the people I set free, but if I don’t have enough I will find other ways to do it.

  Closing the treasury vault I’m feeling good about the new gear, and Azzaria’s gear is good too. Then I remember Timbre. What she has for armor isn’t bad, but the hammer and shield she has been using are all but garbage. Turning back from the threshold I look around for what would be best to make her gear from. I don’t know what some of the metals are best used for but there is one thing I know from movies and books, Mithril is supposed to be good for physical combat. With that in mind I grab enough to make a hammer and shield before closing the vault. Going to the other vault door that is the armory I deposit all the extra gear in there. All the rest of the things I had in my storage have already been returned to their owners after the trip here or deposited in my personal rooms.

  I close up and head down to see Dolan again. When I get there it looks like he is making nails. I ask him about it and he tells me that the carpenters asked for more. Apparently the new houses Bolden and his son are making need more nails for the floors. The rest of the town needs them to make furniture. When I hand him the mithril he gets a big grin on his face. I really think he was bored with making nails already. I’m sure he is happy to have an excuse to have his apprentice keep making the nails while he works on something else. “What ya got in mind for this here metal?”

  “I was hoping you could make a shield for Timbre” I tell him.

  “What kind of shield ya wantin me to make her?”

  “I trust you Dolan. Just make whatever you think will work best for her. You have seen her practicing before.” With that last line to him I head off to continue making roads.

  Leaving the keep I follow the canal south. Passing the Orchard I wave to Azzaria as she works on the trees there now that they have water flowing between the rows. When I get to where the wall meets the cliff face I equip my gear for the stat boost and start paving a road around the inside of the wall. Having done this so much I space out as I walk but come to again when I hear a commotion at the south gate. “..found them near the river when I was surveying the fields” I hear a male voice yelling. When I come up to the gate, which also has an actual gate now, I see a man talking to one of the guards on duty.

  “Hey what is the problem here?’ I call out as I approach.

  They both turn to look at me and the man I heard yelling starts talking in a slightly more respectful manner. “Damn fishmen near the fields. They’ll steal all the food if they don’t kill me before I can grow it!”

  Not understanding what is going on I look to the guard for an explanation. “Sir, this is one of the farmers from the far south fields you wanted to start planting. He says there are skolocs in the river near the field he is supposed to plant.”

  “OK, that explains a little more, but what is a skoloc?”

  “It is a fish man. Looks a lot like a fish grew arms and legs. Still has a tail and everything. They are about three to four feet tall and territorial. The real issue with them is that they usually come in large groups.”

  “Thank you” I tell the guard before I turn to the farmer. “I will take a group to deal with the skolocs tomorrow morning. I need to level out the fields to the south anyways so why don’t you show me where you saw them? We can look from a hill a ways off so that we aren’t in any danger.”

  The farmer nods to me and I follow as he heads out the gate. As I walk I use magic to flatten out the grassy hills in range. I don’t bother to do it nicely since the farmers are only going to plow the land anyway. Behind me stretches large swaths of flat turned soil. When we are getting close to the river near a copse of trees that marks the end of our planned fields I stop so that we can trek up a rather large hill. Looking out from a distance of about 100 yards I can see that the copse of trees gets close to the river bank.

  Next to the trees in the river I can see movement. The creatures are a bluish green color and they are building something. It’s too far to use Identify to view information on them, so I tell the farmer to wait here and head south. When I get to the trees I head in and quietly approach the river, carefully placing my feet so as not to alert the skolocs. When I get there I hide behind one of the larger trees to observe what they are doing.

  There are about twenty of them and they are spread out down the river in groups of three or four. Each group has a male and two or three females with levels of fourteen or fifteen. They have classes like vanguard, brute, ambusher and hunter. I recognize these as terms to classify beast and monster classes from the explanation I got when asking about Timbre. Farthest away from the town there is a group of 5 with one big skoloc and four females.

  Male Skoloc, lvl 16, Vanguard. HP: 100%

>   The larger one is the highest level I have seen but what is surprising is that one of the females with him says caster for its class. There are no others that are casters in any of the groups. After getting a look at their strength I start to pay attention to what they are doing here, and what I see doesn’t make me happy. The short fishy people are grabbing sticks and mud, then packing it all into bowl shapes along the bank of the river. It looks like they’re making nests. Now that I have the information on their strength, layout and that they aren’t just passing through I slink back through the trees until I exit into the fields again.

  “Alright you can head back” I tell the farmer as I walk up to him. “ I am going to take care of some work while I’m out here. Please tell the other farmers to head in for the day. When you see the guards at the gate let them know that I don’t want anyone else coming out this way until we handle the skolocs.”