Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)

by Sean Oswald

  “Well we both need to get back to Eris’ Rise, and I am sure that the moon elf rulers will want to know that this has been completed.” Dave said.

  “What then? It will take weeks to get to Tsukishiti and then back to Eris’ Rise. Do we even have enough time to do it before winter sets in?” Emily asked echoing a concern that she and Dave had spoken about. It was sort of odd for them to consider being unable to travel due to snow, but from what they had learned, the snow fell heavy enough in the northern part of Talos to keep people trapped in their towns. This made it all the more important that they get back to Eris’ Rise to make sure that sufficient provisions had been set aside for the burgeoning population.

  Eisuke looked from the druids and then to Emily, “I don’t mean to cause a problem, but it is necessary for you to come and report to the Throne.”

  The pained tone in Emily’s voice cut into Dave as she said, “I can’t be away from my children again that long. Can’t it wait till spring?”

  “Does it have to be Emily? Or would it be good enough if the Albian ambassador to the moon elves went and reported?”

  As the druids looked at each other, Aoi said, “Well given that the ambassador is also consort to an elven noble, I believe that would suffice.”

  “So, I and the kids will go back to Eris’ Rise, and you are willing to go to Tsukishiti for me?” Emily made it sound like he was curing cancer, but Dave simply nodded yes. He wanted to lean in and kiss his wife, but he knew that neither the Albians nor the Moon Elves were comfortable with PDA.

  “Wait, Aoi, can you and the other druids do that thing where you accelerate our movement through the forest,” Emily asked.

  “I’m sorry again my Lady, but most of the druids will be busy getting their districts ready for winter. In all honesty, we should be making plans for that ourselves.” She stopped speaking as she saw the expression on Emily’s face. “I believe we could speed up your consort’s travel, but we won’t be able to cover him the entire way.”

  After that the conversation revolved around planning the details of what needed to get done back home and what Dave would need to do on his trip. They decided that since the first sun was already setting that they would take the second half of the day for planning. Dave’s real interest though was in seeing if he could learn some more spells from Mira and the spell book before he left. Now that he had opened up the Pandora’s Box of a magical build, he wanted to learn as much as he could.

  Once Emily and Dave spoke about their general plans for Eris’ Rise and what they thought needed to get done before winter, they also decided that they would try teaching Mira the Minor Messenger Bird spell so that they would be able to communicate back and forth. After finishing that, Dave went and found Mira. Unsurprisingly, she was chatting with some of the younger soldiers. He had to acknowledge that his little baby was growing up but wasn’t really ready to yet. He knew that in Eloria she was considered an adult, at least by human standards, but to him, she was still a teenager. Boy crazy was fine, just so long as the guys weren’t thinking of doing more than talking.

  Fortunately, Mira the metamage was different from teenage Mira in that she found magic more interesting than boys. So she quickly left the young men, elves and humans alike, Dave noted, to their own devices and went to the fire pit set up between their tents. The first step he decided was for her to teach him a couple of spells. He really wanted her horse summoning spell and some of her offensive spells. He couldn’t learn any of her Enchantment school spells but Evocation, Conjuration, and Divination were all fair game. The biggest prize of them was Gate as he hoped that would allow him to return to Eris’ Rise with the simple casting of a spell.

  Since it was so important, he didn’t want to start with that and instead they decided to start with Magic Missiles, a simple Tier 1 spell. Dave sat on the ground across from Mira but couldn’t seem to get the same level of comfort she displayed in the cross legged position. He blamed it on his armor and while that certainly didn’t help, he knew it was a simple matter of not being as flexible as she was. He was forty years old and not an elf after all. The problem with that line of thinking was that it led to a dark place he wasn’t ready to explore yet.

  Instead, he threw his mind fully into trying to learn the spells. Their hands touching, he could feel the ebb and flow of the magic between the two of them. There was an electrical current which made his hair stand up on end and then suddenly he knew it.

  Congratulations, you have just imparted the spell: Magic Missiles. Base chance of imparting spell: 75% + 43.5% (bonus for average Intelligence) +20% (meta-mage bonus) = 99% success chance (highest chance possible)

  It wasn’t the overwhelming rush of learning a new school of magic, but it was still amazing that in ten minutes he had learned an entirely new spell. He still had trouble wrapping his brain around why the Elorians were so unwilling to share spells with each other. Just must come to an ingrained cultural tradition, or at least that was what he settled on.

  After that, they tried the Summon Basic Mount spell, and somehow despite having a 99% chance of learning the spell, he failed. Not for the first time, he wondered if the notifications were entirely honest, but then again, maybe it was good that he had gotten his 1 out of the way on a spell which would have been nice but was not critical. The odd thing was that while learning a new spell had been mildly tiring, sort of like running a mile, the failed spell felt more like doing a 5k.

  He didn’t want to wait until he was too tired, so next he decided that they should try Gate. It was a Tier 2 spell, so he assumed that there would be a penalty based upon what he remembered from when Mira had taught spells to Emily before. It was the highest tier spell that Mira was capable of casting. They both sat there, and he felt the magic building. The swirl of the give and take, and finally it happened.

  Congratulations, you have just imparted the spell: Gate. Base chance of imparting spell: 75% + 43.5% (bonus for average Intelligence), -20% (highest tier of spell usable by teacher), +20% (meta-mage bonus = 99% success chance.

  “Yes,” Dave stood up and shouted. Everyone looked at him and some of the soldiers even reached for weapons before he waved them all off. He had to be more careful. “So, I think we should both try learning a spell from the book and see how that goes. Whadya say sweetie?”

  Mira rolled her eyes ever so quickly at the term of endearment but simply said, “Can I go first?”

  “Sure why not, I could use a rest after those three.”

  That decided, they got out the spell book and discussed what would be the best one for Mira to try first. None of the casters in their party knew much about learning spells from a book. Apparently for the druids and the paladins it was more of a ritual thing that as they met certain requirements the higher ups in their respective orders would pass on appropriate spells. They were operating under the assumption that it was pretty much like passing on a spell, but wouldn’t be sure until they tried it out.

  They settled on Lesser Irresistible Joke and Mira sat down on the ground with casual ease again. This time with the spell book open to the correct section for the spell in question. The spell itself took up 14 pages in the book as did all of the Tier 2 spells. Mira shrugged. There was nothing for it but to try. Dave stood watching her and looking for any hints that might make the process easier. After the first fifteen minutes, he began to worry. She was slowly flipping the pages, but it was almost like she was in a trance. Low mumbling sounds kept coming out of her mouth as her finger traced the intricate writing on the page, line by line, right to left and from top to bottom. An hour into the process, the second sun had hit its apex, and she was still going. Dave began to notice beads of sweat forming on her forehead, and he decided to get Emily just to be safe.

  Emily looked her over, but they were both afraid to touch her in case it would interrupt the process. Dave had already learned the hard way about spell backlashes and Emily wasn’t in any rush to make Mira experience that. She kept assuring Dave that from
her perspective, Mira seemed fine but that without touching her, she wasn’t able to do much of an assessment. Dave told her again that once they were able to spend some time together, they needed to research magic which would help them do medical testing.

  Around the time that two hours had passed, Mira suddenly drew in a deep gasp and then stood up triumphantly even if she was a bit wobbly. “I did it,” was her tired declaration before she read the notification to them all.

  Congratulations, you have learned the spell: Lesser Irresistible Joke. Base chance of imparting spell: 50% + 49% (bonus for Intelligence), -20% (highest tier of spell usable by reader), +10% (meta-mage bonus = 89% success chance.

  Lesser Irresistible Joke: causes a single target to laugh non-stop at a joke told to them by the caster. Unless successful in resisting the target will laugh for 1 tick/level. Attacks upon the target have a 50% chance of disrupting the spell. Mana: 55 Cooldown: 5 minutes Range: 50’

  Dave really wanted to see her try out the spell, but given that it had taken two hours to learn and that the two spells he wanted to learn were both Tier 3, he didn’t think they had any time to spare. The question now was attack spell or movement spell. He chuckled to himself, wondering why he had even asked himself. Sitting upon the ground he tried to settle in as comfortably as he could. He had never really been an outdoors person. His time in Eloria had been the most time spent outdoors since the USMC, and it showed. He was acutely aware of every rock or twig underneath him and struggled to not be distracted. He knew he needed to focus on the spell book in order to maximize his chance of learning the spell. Unlike when he was watching Mira, once he got absorbed into the spell, he didn’t have any sense of the passage of time.

  Congratulations, you have learned the spell: Lightning Bolt. Base chance of imparting spell: 50% + 38% (bonus for Intelligence), -30% (highest tier of spell usable by reader), +10% (research bonus) =68% success chance.

  Wow. The first thought he had was how risky 68% was only followed quickly by the thought that he now knew how to hurl a lightning bolt. To him this was a quintessential wizardry thing, and he couldn’t help from geeking out internally.

  Lightning Bolt: hurls a concentrated bolt of electrical energy 1’ wide up to 300’+10’/level. Based upon the level of control the spell may be forked. Each forking cuts the distance in half. Bolts strike target for 100-150+3/level electrical damage and causes a base 50% chance of stunning targets for 5 ticks unless resisted. If unstunned, then an unresisting target is dazed for 1 tick. Mana: 75, Cooldown: 10 minutes-1 tick/level.

  Dave felt that was pretty impressive and looked up to tell Mira about the spell, but as he lifted his head, he saw that the second sun had already set. The moon was still rising, so it couldn’t have been more than a few hours, but the rest of the family was around the fire eating.

  “Giant man who is not big all time wakes up now?” Krinnk asked.

  Dave wasn’t sure which was more disconcerting, that the first voice he heard after becoming aware after learning the spell was the goblin or that the goblin seemed to be genuinely concerned about him. His expression must have appeared as flustered as he felt because Sara followed by Emily and Mira burst out laughing at him. Even Balayria joined in with her deep guffawing, although Dave wasn’t sure if she thought it was actually funny or was just trying to fit in with the rest.

  “Honey, if you could see yourself now. You look like you swallowed your tongue,” Emily said.

  “Uh well you try coming to only to find out hours have passed and the first face you see is that ugly mug,” Dave said motioning at Krinnk.

  “Daddy… that’s not nice.”

  “What be ugglee moog?”

  Fortunately, Mira came to his rescue while Emily snuggled up next to him. “So did you get it, dad?”

  “Yep, you are now looking at a proud hurler of lightning bolts. You all can just call me Zeus now.”

  Emily rolled her eyes and said, “Not likely honey.”

  “Oh well, can’t blame a guy for trying. How long was I facing in the book?”

  “According to the timer on my character sheet, it was a little over three hours, dad,” Mira answered, but before Dave could thank her she added, “And what’s up with the character sheet timer. If Eloria has something like that, why can’t we have the internet, YouTube, and KiK or Snapchat?”

  This time both her parent’s rolled their eyes while Dave said, “Tell you what, I will get right on that just as soon as we deal with our housing, food, and safety shortages. Maybe I can get to it before we work on education or running water.”

  “Very funny dad, and here I was thinking you were my favorite parent.”

  Emily made a scoffing sound to play off how much Mira’s barb hurt her. Showing weakness to a teenager was like blood in shark infested waters, never a good idea and even less so when that teen has an Intelligence score of 49. “Well everyone needs to say our goodbyes tonight. It will be a few days at best or maybe even a couple of weeks before we see your father again and tomorrow morning, everyone will be leaving early, so there won't be much time for prolonged goodbyes.”

  The next hour was filled with hugs and tears mostly from Sara but even a few from Mira. The fact which Eloria had taught the Nelsons more than anything was the precious nature of life. Even Balayria and Krinnk said their goodbyes to Dave, who felt awkward being pulled into a hug against the ample bosom of the half-orc with her love of halter tops even in the cooling weather. He kept glancing over at Emily to make sure his wife wasn’t getting upset. As annoying as that was, it was nothing compared to when the little goblin insisted on hugging his leg. It was cute when the kids used to do it as three year olds, but not so cute when what was clinging to his leg was a green skinned goblin.

  After making sure the kids were safely in for the night, Dave and Emily retired to their tent. It was the largest one in the camp, having been a gift from King Borstein sent with some of the settlers. In terms of size, it felt like it was as big as their first studio apartment, although realistically it wasn’t. Once the talking was over, Emily made sure that Dave had to sweat it out a bit, playing off like she had seen him ogling Balayria and making some comments about how much he had liked hugging her. Even going so far as to ask if he thought that she needed to adopt the same sort of top as the half-orc. In the end though, it was only good fun for Emily even if Dave was unsure for a while, and what followed made up for it all.

  The next morning saw the Nelsons splitting up for a second time in the short few weeks they had been in Eloria. Dave was sent traveling with the movement buffs of the druids. Only a single druid who possessed one of their best movement spells was sent with him. It would be a journey of nearly two hundred miles from their current location through the dense forest, and to avoid any difficulties as much as possible, they would be staying away from elven communities who might not react so well to a human being deep within their nation. The plan was that it would take around a week to reach there even with magic and if all went well, Dave would be back in Eris Rise within eight days thanks to the Gate spell.

  Emily had argued that a larger contingent of elves should be sent along, Sir Belmore had argued that the Baron needed to take a personal guard, and Eisuke had argued that he needed to go personally to report to the Throne. In the end, all of them were overruled by Dave, who insisted that a small party could travel faster and more importantly that he wouldn’t sleep well unless all the available strength was in Eris’ Rise getting it ready for the winter. Eisuke doomed his own argument by pointing out that the mana flow and growth of the various fauna and flora of the Murkwood were out of whack, and so accordingly, all the available druids and forest wardens were necessary. Dave had of course agreed with him and pointed out that as the leader of that segment the stern Hogo-sha Shinrin couldn’t be spared. Emily conceded because they had already discussed it the night before, and she could relate to Dave’s concern for the family. It really would be best if they were able to work on Eris Rise while he was
stuck traveling north.

  As for Emily and the rest of the hunting party, they headed back towards Eris Rise. It wasn’t more than thirty miles but with this many, it would take them two days to get there at least. It was strange to her that somewhere she had only lived for a net total of a few days once you subtracted time away, could feel so much like home. Sara was running around getting underfoot as she played games with Krinnk. Balayria was becoming like an old friend that she was trying to catch up with, and in the background, she saw Mira flitting around and flirting with any of the younger guys. That might send Dave into a panic, but she knew it was only natural. Alien world, new bodies, weird monsters and all, life was good.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Some have said that all the world’s a stage, but the puppets are just to catch your attention. What is behind the curtain? Those are the true actors, the masters pulling the strings and making the world dance to their tune.” — Alucien: The Forbidden Biography

  Two days later, the activity in Emily’s camp was a quiet meadow compared to what was happening inside the royal palace in Konig. Melani, head chambermaid of the castle had confessed to being the secret mistress of King Harold. The king had spent weeks convincing his wife, Dulcett that there was no truth to the rumors. He had finally succeeded in his campaign to woo his wife’s affection back when the floor fell out from beneath him.

  Being caught was bad. His wife had already moved out of the castle and was staying at the temple of Shanelle. Eleazor was busy negotiating with the bishop to get the queen to move back home and drop talk of divorce. There were rumblings from his advisors and the nobles about how this would affect the kingdom. The city guard kept people from protesting or making any public displays, but they were unable to quiet the rumblings of the masses in the pubs and marketplace.