by Simon Archer
“That’s right!” I called. “You’d better run from me!” I took a step toward Broken Knee and Broken Nose and grinned at them, only as I did it, I let my face expand so that I made a full-on Cheshire cat smile. “I need you to tell me something.”
“W-what?” the hobgoblin I’d shoved to the ground whimpered as he backpedaled away from me.
“Where is the closest town with people like me?” I asked because as I looked around, I realized I had no idea how to find my next objective or anything else.
“T-there’s no one like you.” He swallowed. Hard. “But… there is a town ten miles from here. It is along that path.” He pointed to a mostly overgrown trail that led off into the woods. “M-maybe someone there can help you?” He swallowed again.
“Thank you.” I took a step closer. “I’m going to let you live so you can tell the others not to fuck with me.” I touched my chest with my thumb. “Because I am the destroyer of worlds. Beware my fury.”
The sight must have been too much for the creature because he fainted dead away, and as I stared at him for a moment, the hobgoblin with the broken nose let out a coughing wheeze.
“You’d really let us live?” he asked as I moved over to the hobgoblin I’d speared and absorbed him.
Pattern: Hobgoblin Warrior has been learned. Would you like to create a Hobgoblin Warrior?
“I am a generous god,” I said with a glance at the injured creature. “Now, take your friend and go.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He hastily leapt to his feet, grabbed up his injured companion, and took off into the brush.
As I watched him go, I got a new message and smirked. Originally, I’d just wanted to avoid having the hobgoblins come back with a hundred men, but this? It was a nice bonus.
You have gained notoriety among the Hobgoblins. They will now be less inclined to attack you.
When I was sure they wouldn’t just come back, I began to summon my ants, which was when I realized that every last one of them, including Queenie, had been placed back into storage when I’d entered the mirror as had my clothes and other equipment.
It made sense now that I had thought about it. After all, Terra Forma hadn’t let you prepare before entering a new world, but at the same time, I’d never really tried to bring an army of summons through the portal. Naturally, I began with Queenie.
“Thank you for summoning me, master,” Queenie said after I had summoned her from Auric Limbo a few moments later. “My only regret is that I was not here to rend these hobgoblins apart for you.” She gave the body of the dead archer a contemptuous little kick.
“It’s not your fault.” I shrugged as I sucked in a deep breath and let my Aura refill. “Once we get the army up and going, we’ll head to the town they told me about.”
She nodded, but her lips were still pursed into a hard line, and I knew that she was still upset that she had not been able to kill them for me.
“Would you like me to search the dead for you, master?” She glanced at the dead hobgoblins.
“Yes,” I said as I sat down on the altar to rest a bit. “If I sit still, my Aura will refill faster.”
“Very well,” she said and moved toward the first one as I examined the patterns of the two hobgoblins I’d absorbed.
While I was excited to see the Archer because I’d finally have a ranged creature at my disposal, the Warrior didn’t seem especially interesting. That said, I decided to summon one of each anyway just so I could see what they’d be like in combat.
That was also when I realized a problem.
“You don’t spawn with weapons or equipment, do you?” I asked Willie and Nelson as they stood before me, almost as naked as the day they were born… assuming they were born. I was only protected from the visual assault of hobgoblin privates by white loincloths that thankfully appeared when they were summoned.
As for my question, I wasn’t sure why I’d expected a response since neither of them was at the class of Queenie, but I sort of got one because they both shook their heads.
I let out a sigh and then shrugged before looking up at Queenie. “Queenie, let them pick out what they want from the stuff we got.”
“As you wish, master,” Queenie complied, and then before I could say more, her multifaceted eyes fixed on the two hobgoblins, and they hastened to get moving.
“Let me guess,” I said as I watched them strip down their old corpses and begin to re-equip themselves. “You can communicate with them?”
“Sort of…” Queenie sighed. “It is much more difficult than with the ants you have created, but I can do it a little via mental commands. I am sorry I am not better at it.”
“Stop apologizing,” I said with a wave of my hand. “I’m pleased you can do it at all.”
The smile that she gave me at that brightened my day in a way I couldn’t quite explain, so I just smiled back before I went back to summoning the rest of my army.
26
She Who Has No Name
“The one from Otherworld is very interesting,” Lord Argonath, Crusher of Minds and Reagent for the local Adventurers' Guild said as he turned to look at me. “You will have your work cut out for you this time if you wish to recruit him to our cause.” He bared his black teeth into a grin that made his massive sludge-like maw seem even more grotesque. “This one is quite powerful.”
“I will do my best, sir,” I said as bowed low before the giant ooze. “Does this mean I have permission to engage with the human?”
“Yes.” His entire body undulated in the ooze version of a pleased nod, and I couldn’t help but grin. Since Lord Argonath was the leader of the Adventurers' Guild in this particular region, he was the one I had to impress to get the best rewards. “I certify your quest is licensed by the guild. However, the level of reward you receive will be directly related to how well he does with the trials.”
“Understood.” I nodded once and then tried not to look at him because, well, he was ugly, even for a slime.
Unlike most of us, Kird Argonath seemed to spend his time trying to look as grotesque as possible. I’d heard it was because he was trying to craft a visage that would frighten his enemies to death, but all it did for me was make him seem, well… undesirable. Still, he not only had a name, a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself, but he was also my fearless leader, at least for the moment. Therefore, he was deserving of my respect. Besides, he wasn’t all bad. Usually, anyway.
I glanced back at the glowing orb where the human had just slaughtered a bunch of hobgoblins as easily as I would have fought off a few ants at a picnic. I was glad for it. While he wasn’t the first human I had seen come from Otherworld, because, surprise, surprise, humans often wished to travel to a fantasy world, he was the first to display such amazing battle prowess. That made him special in more ways than one.
“Thinking about something?” Lord Argonath inquired as he moved his huge, slug-like body toward me. Actually, that was being too kind because he didn’t actually move. He just sort of distended himself toward me. “You seem distracted.”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head even though I was very much distracted by my own thoughts. “I am just anxious about what will befall him,” I nodded toward the orb as casually as I could, “and I find myself excited for him to meet the next challenge.”
“I am excited as well,” he said as turned his black-as-soot eyes toward the orb and smiled again. “He presents an interesting opportunity for us, should he survive his journey here. He could be a powerful new member of our Guild, one that would surely get us much notoriety with the other houses. Who knows? Perhaps he could become so strong that the Destroyer King will return.”
“You think he will take notice of the human?” I asked, and the idea was too much to think about.
The legendary Destroyer King had not been seen for generations. Legend said he fought in the Battle of the Great Midnight, and after slaughtering a dozen armies in a single blow, chased the great Beasts of Karnoth into the
Void of Despair to end them forever. His parting words had been, “I will return when you call.”
Only we had waited for millennia, and he had not returned, no matter how much or how loudly we called.
“How could he not take notice of the human?” One of Lord Argonath’s tendrils reached out and patted my thigh. “I can feel his power resonating even from here. He is strong beyond measure, and the rules of this world are as absolute as they are old.”
“Yes.” I frowned as I recalled the old sayings. “That is true. Strength begets strength. The stronger we become, the more the universe tests us.” I swallowed hard as I fixed my gaze upon a tapestry on the far wall, the one that depicted the Destroyer King as he battled through Karnoth’s champions. “That’s why the elders say the Destroyer King has not returned, that there are no enemies that would require his immense power.”
“Indeed,” Lord Argonath mused. “So, we must ask ourselves a simple question.” His eyes flicked to the orb. “What is coming that requires a power like this?” One tendril gestured toward the orb. “Assuming he can make it through the tests, anyway. Power is not all that makes an Adventurer of Legend.”
“That is true,” I replied, but I knew it didn’t matter.
I knew the human would survive. No, he would do more than survive. He would rule. All would fall beneath the might of his power. I’d known that the second he’d stepped through the portal, and while I had watched him begin the first trial of Zendafi, the awakening in our world, I’d known he would pass it and all others. Now it was time to wait for his inevitable victory, no matter how much I wished to run to his aid.
“Tell me,” Lord Argonath said as he moved back onto his throne of silver and gold and stared right at me. “Why have you not returned to your true form?”
“I am a slime.” I shrugged. “I have no true form. This one will do as well as any other.” I smiled inwardly and hoped that this form would please the human. A stupid little smile flicked across my lips as I thought of him once more. Judging by what had befallen the hobgoblins, he would find us soon enough, and then I would meet him in the flesh.
And that thought?
Well, it was enough to make me able to wait. At least for a little while, anyway.
27
I made it about thirty feet into the brush before I realized my clothes were really not going to cut it here, especially since night seemed like it was going to fall far sooner than I’d originally expected.
Judging by the way the sunlight filtered through the trees, I had, at best, an hour until sundown, and while I felt reasonably sure I could walk the ten or so miles in a few hours, the path was a lot less, well, pathy, than I’d expected. Even with the Soldiers clearing a path, and the Scouts directing us where to go, I was already finding myself having to use one of the hobgoblin’s axes to bushwhack my way through more of it than I’d have liked since it was clearly made and used by the much shorter hobgoblins.
And that left me with a problem. What would I do once night fell? Would I keep walking or hunker down for the night?
While it wasn’t particularly cold yet, I wasn’t sure what it would be like once night fell. For all I knew, the temperature would drop to freezing. Now, that seemed unlikely because it wasn’t particularly cold now, but I was in an alien world. Even if the temperature was hospitable, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be predators that could put the hobgoblins to shame.
“So, maybe I need shelter?” I said aloud, and when the forest didn’t respond, I sighed. “Or maybe get some new clothes…”
Still, it wasn’t like I had a way to get clothes, especially since I didn’t see any erstwhile tailors hanging out in the twisted brush alongside the path.
“I could attempt to fashion you some, master,” Queenie said as we moved steadily along. Like me, she was bushwhacking her way through, only she was opting to use the claws at the tips of her fingers, which was probably better because, despite being made of the “finest hobgoblin steel,” the axe I used was pretty crappy.
“It will be fine once we reach the town,” I said as I hacked down a particularly annoying branch and stepped past it. “We’ll no doubt have enough gold to buy whatever we need.”
“It is too bad you cannot create clothing with the same power you use to infuse your Aura into your attacks,” Queenie said as she glanced at me.
And, I’ll be honest, the moment I said the words, I felt like an idiot. Why? Because I could practically hear my old strategist’s voice in my head telling me to just do it and see if it worked.
I looked down at my body and thought about clothes. I pictured the pair of waterproof hiking pants I’d used when I’d summited Everest, and as I did, Aura began to flow out of my body and seep into the track pants I was wearing. It moved in an undulating wave as it began to take shape around me so that, a few moments later, I was wearing a layer of greenish, translucent pants over my clothes.
You have learned the Subskill: Auric Armor.
I stared at the message before reading a bit more and found out that I had unlocked a subskill of Aura Infusion that let me infuse my garments with Aura to increase their defense, fortitude, and other attributes which was pretty cool, if I said so myself, and better still, it didn’t take me much energy to maintain it.
Once my pants had been crafted, my Aura’s own inertia seemed to maintain the new form, and it would automatically refresh every thirty minutes as long as I had the Aura to maintain the upkeep cost. That was good because if I got into another fight, I didn’t want to wind up defenseless if I forgot to concentrate on my own clothing.
“Your new pants look very powerful, master,” Queenie said as I began to craft myself an entire ensemble from my own Aura, and as I did, I found that each piece of clothing came easier than the last one. The pants hadn’t been that difficult, but it had definitely taken some time. My boots, though? They were even easier, and my shirt easier than that, so that by the time I was doing my sweet pauldrons, it took almost no effort whatsoever.
I smiled as I looked down at myself clad in what looked like the Warrior Tier Twenty Titanic Onslaught armor from World of Warcraft’s Legion expansion. There was no way to know if this was a normal look for the area, but I didn’t much care because I felt like I looked awesome.
Satisfied, I glanced at Queenie who was giving me a very strange look, and when I arched a curious eyebrow at her, she merely flushed and looked away.
“Does it look okay?” I asked as I swept an arm over my body. It was strange because the armor was made of glowing, green Aura, and while it felt sturdy enough, it was still a bit translucent so my clothes could be seen underneath.
“Yes.” Queenie gave me a nod. “It makes me a bit scared, actually. In a good way.” She seemed pleased. “I am glad you have picked this armor. It will make our enemies flee in terror.”
“Haha,” I said and rubbed the back of my neck. “Hopefully not too far because I still need the experience, and I hate chasing down monsters.”
“I will chase them down for you master, do not fear.” Queenie’s voice was resolute. “Whoever you wish dead will be made so.”
On that cheery note, we made my way forward along the tree-lined path, and as I went to hack through a branch, another thought hit me.
“I’m able to sense Aura,” I said, and this time, I simply pressed my hand against the branch and concentrated on the feeling, “but maybe I can do more?”
I could feel the wood as well as I ever could have back on Earth, which was expected. Then I pressed forward with my palm and willed my hand to feel the Aura moving through the tree. It was the strangest thing I’d ever felt because as I pushed forward, I felt the tree branch’s Aura enter my hand.
It didn’t hurt or anything. More like… it felt foreign.
More than that though, I could feel the particles within my Aura begin to attack the tree limb, and I knew that if I willed it to be so, I could dissolve the wood’s aura, and with it, this section of the tree. I also knew h
ow long it would take.
“About forty-five minutes,” I said aloud, “and I would get barely any energy from the Aura that remained once it was all said and done.” I smirked. “I always knew I wasn’t meant to be a vegetarian.”
“I cannot even imagine such a thing.” Queenie shook her head in disgust. “Meat tastes too good to never eat it again.”
“That’s true,” I said with a laugh before I turned my attention back to the branch. This time, I became aware of everything touching the tree’s aura. Leaves. Bugs. Dirt. Everything.
It all hit me at once in one tremendous data download that let me know about the things around me, and more importantly if they were worth breaking down for Aura or patterns. Some things were, mostly the leaves and bugs. While others, like the wood, well, it just wasn’t.
You have learned the Subskill: Auric Examination.
I’ll be honest, I’d sort of intended to get this one, and a quick examination of it let me know that Auric Examination was an active subskill of Auric Sense, but unlike Overdrive which basically just made me hyper-aware, this skill could be targeted on a single person, creature, or curious-looking rock.
“Interesting,” I said as I moved to my left, toward a copse of thorny bushes that lined the path. Until now, I’d done my best to avoid them for obvious reasons, but now? Well, I was curious. What information would I get from examining it?
I reached out toward the closest one and focused on the bush in front of me. This time, as my fingertips brushed the top of the closest leaf, all the same data entered my skull. The whole knowing things instantaneously thing was still hard to get used to, even though it had been similar when I had been a god, but I knew that I’d get used to it soon enough.
Still, the important part was that I now knew the nutritional value of the bush.
