Looking at her quiver, I’m confused. “How do you know which arrow you want to draw with them all together like that?”
Her response is simple. “Magic.” I roll my eyes at this answer and just wait. Eventually she continues the answer. “I also got a new quiver. This one is enchanted in two ways. One allows me to know exactly what I have in it as long as it’s attached to me. The other enchantment guides the desired arrow into my hand when I reach for it.” Demonstrating this she reaches over her shoulder. As I watch one of the arrows moves slightly so it’s the first one she touches.
“That is pretty cool.” I forget whatever else I was going to say because it’s then that Thia contacts me through our bond.
“Vol, there is a fairly large force occupying the abandoned village. This force looks far stronger than the one that attacked before” She tells me.
Concentrating I respond to her mentally. “The scout we captured was pretty young. Is that the case with the others?”
“No. Just some of the scouts that I see going out are that young. The rest of the force looks like seasoned veterans.”
“Damn!” I say out loud.
“What did Thia see?’ Azzaria can tell when I’m talking to Thia. She says that my eyes go blank while we converse.
“She says there is a force occupying the village and they look like veterans this time. I guess the young guy we surprised when we arrived was an outlier and some of the scouts aren’t as experienced.” I connect to Thia again, telling her to stay hidden and keep an eye on the village to see what their movements are.
Sitting back we both wait for Timbre to return. We talk quietly as we do but mostly we try to be quiet so as not to draw more attention. I’m starting to get a little worried about her when something detaches itself from a nearby tree and approaches us. It’s Timbre and she shifts when she gets close so she can talk to us. “Some of the scouts are young and weak, but the rest are strong. They will notice the absence of the one we captured soon. We should move.”
Nodding to her I stand with Azzaria joining me soon after. “I expected that we would. I’m glad I brought us to the opposite side of the village when we came though.” We are along the path that Azzaria led me when we first came to Efftin. “Let’s head away farther so that their scouts won’t find us as we think of what to do.” With that we head East for a while then find a spot to sit. The clearing is small and has a fallen tree for us to sit on. Taking a seat, I look to Timbre and Azzaria. Including Thia mentally I start talking. “So far Thia isn’t seeing anything to indicate they know where the villagers went. I want to keep it that way, but I also don’t want to make it easy for them. Any ideas?”
The two in front of me take on contemplative looks and I can tell that even Thia is trying to come up with something. Attacking head on is out of the question because a fully trained force that size is impossible for us to handle. Anything else I’m thinking about is too risky, likely to get us discovered. It’s Timbre that speaks up. “Can you set up traps like what you did for the tortoise that attacked me?”
It’s a good idea to set up some traps. “Good idea. I can’t use the one that I used on the tortoise because it required me to activate it. I don’t want to be around when it happens, but traps are perfect. Azzaria, can you set up some traps? I can start making pit traps with magic and it should be pretty quick.”
“I have a few ideas for traps that could be good, but our traps will probably take out some of the younger scouts too. Are you okay with that?”
“Honestly no, but it can’t be helped. I could do something about it when he was in front of us, but we can’t just let them hang out here unmolested while we leave to the city. I won’t engage them directly and our walls back home should be sufficient to keep the city safe. Plus they should be alert now that we sent back our little present. We will continue on, but first we will leave something behind to make them more cautious and slow down any exploration they do.” I tell Thia to start checking out how far the scouts are exploring and where they all are if she can.
I give her an hour and then the rest of us use her directions to circle around the village, avoiding any of the soldiers. I start creating deep pits with stone spikes at the bottom using my Shape Earth spell. I staggered them so some are closer and others are farther away from each other. The spell is very convenient for this use because I can create a thin layer of packed dirt over the opening that will collapse when enough weight is on it. Timbre follows along after me to put the finishing touches on the cover so the traps are indistinguishable to the rest of the forest floor. Azzaria is bending and sharpening branches that she then ties off in places and attaches trip wires to. When tripped, a springy branch will swing forward into the person who set it off. The sharpened spikes at the ends may even be able to pierce the lighter leather armor.
We continue our work doing this for the rest of the day. Making sure they’re randomly placed should keep the soldiers from easily detecting our traps. With Thia guiding us to avoid nearby patrols and Timbre helping, we don’t encounter anyone else. With a ring of traps most of the way around the village we make our way back to the clearing we were at before. I rest there and the three girls join me on the log just sitting in a comfortable silence together. When I’ve recovered all my mana, I make something to stay in for the night. Taking inspiration from the tortoise layer I raided in the past, I use magic to dig out a sloping cave next to the fallen tree. The entrance leads underneath the fallen tree so that it can help camouflage the hole. Once far enough down it opens up enough for all of us to stand in or lay down and sleep.
“After you ladies” I say and motion to the entrance. They all enter and I swear they are swinging their hips in unison. I feel like I’m spending to much time staring at butts lately. With all the effort they are putting into their walk it would be rude not to look right? The fact that my relationship dynamic has changed so drastically recently also adds to my distraction. I’m not complaining though. Following them in I close the entrance and create a light using Wisp.
When we’re all gathered Azzaria asks me “Won’t we need air?”
“I opened up air vents in the ceiling so we’ll be fine.” I point up and they all look to see the holes I made that have fresh air coming in through them. From there we eat sandwiches from the supplies we brought with us. We didn’t hunt while we were making traps so there is nothing fresh to cook. Not that lighting a fire for cooking is something we would do here. I set out the bed I keep in storage and it barely fits in the area I created underground. We all lay down and I can soon hear the breathing of everyone else even out as they drift off.
I can’t help but be awake though. I saved that boy of a soldier when I captured him. Otherwise we probably would have had to kill him or face the rest of that unit that was nearby. With what I got from Thia it seemed like that would have meant death for us, or worse. I feel guilty for some of those that will probably die from our traps but I feel that it’s the best option to keep the people of Thunderbird’s Roost safe. It is likely that our traps won’t actually kill most of the time too. With a little help and a healing potion most people should recover. I mainly want it to be annoying to stay here.
I also think about what I’m going to do when I return. We can’t keep the soldier we captured forever and I really don’t want to kill him. He doesn’t know how to get to the town so I can probably just drop him off in one of the villages or the capital using Spatial Door. Without traveling there or a map then we should be all right. If the soldiers find us then it’s probably a moot point anyway. My thoughts soon begin to wind down and I let the peace of being with those I love lull me off to sleep.
*******
We wake up to complete darkness and it takes a moment to understand why. I’m underground. Laying here I’m comfortable and don’t want to get up. The girls make it so hard to get out of bed most mornings. Delaying the stress of the day for a little while longer I open my status and then the talent tree for enchanting. I
haven’t allocated my points in this because I got distracted by my new specialization. I have three to place in enchanting and I browse through my options for a few minutes. Ultimately I go with one that will lead to something more.
From my Set Charges root of the tree it splits off to one that allows one gem’s charges to be shared among multiple active skills, and another that increases the number of charges the gem can contain. I go with Compressed Mana for the increased charges by sixty percent after three talent points are placed in it. I do this because the next talent in line will make it so the charged gem will recharge itself. Otherwise you will have to use mana crystals to charge them. That just seems like a waste of resources to me. I morn the loss of the talent points, especially after seeing what else is available after I cross the fifteen point threshold, but it had to be done. After getting the Self Charging talent next level I will move on to the new choices I have down other roots of my professional talent tree.
Now that my base enchanting profession is all taken care of I move on to my bonding spec talent tree. After the last level I gained I have one more talent point to spend here. For me the choice is obvious. I quickly spend the free point in Return. It will allow me to enchant a soul bound item to magically return to the user on command. Because of how soul binding works this can be added no mater what other enchantments, or how many, an item has. The reason for this, according to the knowledge that I have absorbed, is that enchantments of this type are done to the soul fragment in the item and not dependant on the physical item. I guess you could call it soul enchanting. This is more clear when I look to the descriptions of the other talents like Dominate Animal Soul, which basically binds a creatures soul as a slave to someone.
Shaking off the creepy feeling that my own specialty gives me sometimes I focus on my staff, still wrapped around my wrist. I focus intently on it for a few minutes until I can sense the soul fragment I infused it with. At first it was hard and I kept defaulting back to using my link to it. I need to practice without that crutch though so I can do the same to soul bound items of others so I keep trying. When I get a good sense of my staff’s soul I form the enchantment spell circle in my mind and push it onto the item’s soul. It resists a little at first but then I can feel that the soul takes the circle into itself. From then on I can feel the enchantment on the soul. For lack of a better term it takes up space on the soul. I can tell a soul fragment like this can only take so many enchantments before it can’t take any more. I think the soul can improve and grow, making more room for such things later.
Done with my upgrades I decide to stop stalling and wake the others. When they are up I get them all to pull out the items I bound to them so I can add the Return enchantment to them. After I’m done I look to the three of them in the light of my Wisp spell. “Alright everyone. We only have a little left to do in order to finish the traps around the old village. I want be done with it early and I’ll cast Spatial Door to take us to the cave I used before Azzaria found us. From there we will continue toward the human kingdom’s capital of Riverock.”
“What about the soldiers that are here?” Timbre says. “Shouldn’t we do something more about them? Lead them away or something?”
I look to her. “I thought about that. If we try something with only us then they may decide we are just trying to lead them off. Also, if they have good trackers we might not be able to escape fast enough. It’s too risky. The best thing we can do is to try to sow fear as an unknown enemy and disappear.”
“Plus having the scout we captured as a prisoner the council should be prepared in case of an attack” Azzaria tells us. “Those elemental summons that can be called are pretty powerful too. If the council uses those to defend the town along with the guards, they should have no issues, especially if they are prepared for it.”
“No more wasting time. I want to be out of here as soon as possible. Let’s go.” I open the entrance after that and we head out. Thia shifts again so she can fly overhead as over watch and Timbre shifts as well to sniff around.
Over the next couple hours we head over to where we left off the day before and lay traps all the way back to the clearing we started at. When we get there I call to Thia to return to us so we can all leave. Looking to the underground den that I made last night I start to close it up, starting at the deepest part. I intended to turn it into one last pitfall trap before we left, but as I work I notice movement in the shadows beyond the entrance. Not movement in the shadows. The shadows themselves are moving. Surprised by the sight I don’t react in time. A part of the shadow breaks off of the rest and zips across the intervening space from the cave to me.
My shoulder explodes with agony. It’s bad and whatever it was that hit me took me down to the ground. Luckily I was able to move just enough before the impact. Instead of hitting me in the heart I took the blow in the shoulder. In my daze from the hit I hear Azzaria yell my name and Timbre let loose a chainsaw growl. Reaching over I feel something cold sticking out of my shoulder. The stun I feel from the sudden attack clears up when I hear a yelp from Timbre.
“Shift Timbre while I keep him busy” Azzaria’s yell makes me worried. Ignoring the thing in my shoulder I cast Mana Barrier as I look up to see more shards of something dark fly over my head. Whatever is firing them seems to be in the den that I made for the night and since I’m prone on the ground I don’t think it has line of sight on me. That is not the case for Azzaria and Timbre, but they are more prepared than I was. I see arrows fly the other direction into the cave and even a Shield Projection from Timbre goes in. After the skill from Timbre I hear a grunt from the darkness in the hole. The skill covered enough of the cave entrance that the person attacking us must have been unable to dodge. And the grunt I heard gives it away that it’s a man.
With Mana Barrier and Magic Armor active on myself I stand to see what we are dealing with. What I see is a shadow get up off the floor. It turns toward us and as it does we can see a human face. The man is in his thirties and has the start of a rough beard. Dark hair hangs down from his head looking dirty and matted. There is a snarl on his lips and nothing but pure malice in his eyes. When he speaks it’s in a low raspy voice like he hardly ever uses it. “Turn yourself over and we’ll treat you right human. I see slave collars on those two over there, we may even let you keep them if you cooperate.” He gives me a lecherous look before he eyes Azzaria and Timbre up and down. This gives me a moment to use Identify on him.
Varl: The Frozen Shadow: Male Human, lvl 22, Cryomancer, Shadowborn. HP: 99%
His classes were interesting. I think Cryomancer is an Air and Water type magic user that specializes in ice. I don’t know about Shadowborn, but from what I’ve seen it’s some kind of dark mage. Maybe one that specializes in assassination or something. This is the first time I’ve seen someone with a title though. I think I can see them now because of the higher level of Identify. He is also the highest level we have ever fought and could be trouble. My little group is a lot more prepared now than we were before we had a fight with Brock. He was a tough fight when we caught him after the attack on Efftin, but I am pretty confident we can take this Varl. “And why would I trust the guy who ambushed us without any warning and using deadly force to be merciful. No I think you are just looking to get your hands on some slaves without risk of killing them.”
At my rejection he snarls again and launches a volley of those black ice projectiles. Timbre jumps in front of the attack and uses her shield to block the three magical ice projectiles. He then switches to Azzaria like it was his plan all along to expose her and fires again. She jumps to get behind Timbre once again but isn’t quite fast enough to get there before the first icicle gets to her. Thankfully she has her Mana Barrier up and the first one only skips off it instead of digging into her hip. The rest miss and I can see from his face that he wasn’t expecting her to have magical shielding. I cast Mana Sight on myself since he is a mage of some sort and then take advantage of his momentary shock. Flinging my arm forwar
d I send a Flame Wave at him. The fallen leaves on the ground all burn to ash as the wave passes over and a few ground fires start on the edges. Before it reaches Varl he raises a hand that starts spewing cold air and snow in a cone that intercepts my fire and puts everything out.
After he cancels my magic he steps back into the cave and melds with the shadows again disappearing from sight. I cast a Fireball down into the hole to drive him out and there is a flicker of movement to my left before the spell goes off. Looking into the cave for the exposed mage I wait as the dust clears, but we see nothing. We all start scanning around us for the mage, and before I can turn around fully there is an impact to the side of my shield. Cracks spiderweb out from the place that was hit and I catch a brief glimpse of Varl slip away, a dagger of ice in one hand and one of Dark magic in the other. Next thing that happens is that everything around us goes dark. A cloud of Dark type magic is hanging around us much like my fog spell.
The spell blinds us, but I have Mana Sight active. As the dark cloud is created with magic it does make it difficult to see through, but not impossible. I see the lines of mana that make up the cloud floating around us, but they are wispy things. Able to see past them if I try, I find the enemy mage slowly moving into a position to attack Azzaria from behind. He is still a little ways off and is sneaking up slowly so as not to alert her. Not making any sudden moves I start Charging up a couple of surprises for him. It can’t be mana efficient to cast this kind of darkness spell in broad daylight so I doubt that it will last long, but it seems like Varl here believes he can take out one or more of us before it ends. Well I plan to prove otherwise.
A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga) Page 23
