When Talia and Lana started hitting the draugr in front of Stann, Jack knew this battle was won. It only took another thirty seconds before all of the skellies and draugr were defeated.
With the enemies defeated, Jack scanned everyone’s health. Stann was at half health, Talia was at seventy percent and Lana eighty. His own was at ninety-five. He’d been the only member to not take at least one hit. His own energy shield had stopped several arrows, but he knew most of it was because the formation they used was designed to keep him alive and protected. Standing behind a large orc warrior carrying a shield was an effective way of staying relatively safe.
Stann turned to Jack for healing. “Most of my injuries are on my shoulders and sword arm.”
Jack nodded. His healing worked faster when applied directly to injuries. He pushed his magic into Stann’s body until his health bar was back to normal. He then did the same for both Talia and Lana. They then collected all the weapons and put them into the magical satchels as they worked their way across the room.
When they got to the statues, Jack noticed they were different from the ones on the top floor. These were life sized and had an amulet around each of their necks.
Talia grinned when she touched one of the necklaces. “Amulets of Chante and Chaunte. A very good find for magic users.” She took the amulet of Chaunte and put it around her neck. Jack looked at her mana stats and saw that her maximum mana increased from 64 to 74. Her health also increased by 6. “Jack, you should take the Chante amulet. The sun goddess was one of healing and power.”
Jack took the necklace off of the statue and put it around his neck. His stats had gone up as well.
“How much of an increase?” Lana asked.
“10 mana 6 health,” Talia said.
“8 and 6,” Jack said.
“Interesting that the two goddesses give different stats,” Lana said. “I wonder if all the gods give different increases to their tokens?”
“That is my understanding,” Talia said. “It depends on the god, on the way it was made, and what type of token. Same with the stat increases for armor and weapons. It always varies. We’ll probably all switch gear the more trips we go on. That is the purpose of becoming a quester. The ancients made the best gear. Only the rich could afford to buy these. We’re just risking our lives instead.”
“I can’t wait to find proper orc gear,” Stann said.
“I doubt we’ll find any down here, but let’s finish searching and get out of here,” Jack said. “I don’t want to run into any more of those rats. They were just nasty.”
“Agreed,” Stann said.
They headed to one of the doors and Stann opened it. It led into a hallway that quickly branched into a series of small bedrooms. Inside they mostly found moth, and likely rat, eaten clothing. But in the final two bedrooms, that were twice as large as the others, they found armoires filled with robes.
Talia was excited by the find. “Come to momma,” she said, as she ran her hand over all of the robes in the first of the two big rooms. She stopped at one in particular and grinned at the rest of the team. “A Chaunte battle robe.”
“How can you tell?” Lana asked.
“First, it contains more magic than any of the other robes. I can literally feel the difference, and thanks to Jack’s spell I can see the difference these robes would make. I don’t know if Jack can tell or not, but I can.”
Jack shook his head. Her touching the robes hadn’t changed the stats that he saw for her. She’d probably have to switch robes before he’d see the difference.
Talia then threw a cloak at Lana. “Sorry, boys, these are all ladies’ items.” She then put the rest of the robes and cloaks from the armoire in Stann’s magical satchel. “If you gentlemen don’t mind waiting outside, I’ll change into the battle robes and you’ll see how I know they’re Chaunte robes.”
Jack shrugged and left the room; Stann was right behind him.
After a minute Lana opened the door, revealing Talia in her new robes.
The first thing Jack noticed was that the robe was almost like a dress, with a plunging neckline, and a thick leather belt that cinched around her waist. The next thing he noticed was the color. It seemed to flicker and change like flames under his illumination spell.
Finally, Jack looked at her stats. The robe added the same health as her previous one, but added ten more mana. The battle robe was a significant upgrade when it came to increasing her mana.
Talia spun around. “What do you think?”
“A serious upgrade in stats,” Jack said.
“You look…” Stann mumbled.
Talia went up to him and put a hand on his chest. “I look?”
“Like a fire goddess,” Stann finally said.
Talia grinned. “That is the desired look. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Chante is a much more modest and refined goddess, her acolytes wear robes and act accordingly. Whereas Chaunte, the fire goddess, is more passion, seduction and a celebration of a woman’s powers. Chante was a healer and a mother, Chaunte a warrior and a seducer. The robes, like her amulet, not only increase my mana, but they give me an increased number of fire spells I can cast. My control over fire is increased. The cloak Lana wears does the same. She’ll have the ability to add fire to her arrows.”
Lana grinned. “I’ll be able to start using my mana for battle.”
“You both will have more powers,” Stann said. “Good.”
“Not only that, but I’ve almost got enough mana now to use portal spells. We’ll be able to make portals in the Ancient Lands and go directly to the portal we created in our living room. The amount of walking we’ll need to do every day will be dramatically reduced,” Talia said with a grin.
“You can’t do it now?” Jack asked as they moved to the second of the two large bedrooms.
“Not yet, I need to increase my own mana through practice or add another magical item or two. The latter will be the easiest way. If we don’t find anything else this trip, I can use some of my earnings and buy a mana ring. That might be enough. Or find a good magic wand. The one I have now isn’t exactly a powerful item. I may have to try a staff, or a dagger.”
“OK. That is good to know. In the meantime, we have one more door to check and then we’re done here,” Jack said as they inspected the second room. It was exactly the same as the other one, except they found robes of Chante this time. They added the robes to their collection and then took one last look around.
Satisfied that they’d gotten everything worth collecting, Jack spoke, “Stann, lead the way.”
The exited the bedrooms and headed back to the main room with the two statues. Jack wondered what the purpose of this room had been. Was it the main prayer room for the followers of Chante and Chaunte who occupied this holy temple, or did it have some other purpose? Perhaps he’d do more research when they returned home. He’d need to do some anyways to find out what all he’d gained from his new amulet of Chante. New spells were only useful if he knew how to do them.
The second door off of the main room led to another room that looked like it had been a kitchen, from there they found one more door that went to a set of stairs that went up. They followed the stairs until it hit a stone wall.
Stann frowned and looked back at Jack. “Dead end?”
“Look for a lever along the walls,” Talia said.
They all examined the walls.
“I think I found it,” Stann said as he pushed against a small stone block that was a different size than the rest of the blocks around it.
As Stann pushed the stone in. The stone wall in front of them moved to the side. They stepped out into the first room of the temple.
“Neat,” Stann said. “A hidden exit.”
“It probably isn’t the only one,” Talia said. “But I don’t think it is worth the time looking for any other ones.”
Jack nodded. “I agree. We should keep moving. We’ll go back to the farm and stay the night there. Tomorrow we ca
n head back to the Academy or go further north. We still have lots of food. Chef Ramsey packed more than enough for us.”
“But if we go back now, I’ll be able to get mana gear quicker and be able to do portal magic,” Talia said.
Jack nodded. Talia had a point. But the mana gear wasn’t going to be cheap either. They’d gotten a good number of swords and weapons out of the temple, but other than the amulets and clothing that they intended to keep they hadn’t gotten anything of significant value. “Let me take another look at the map.” Jack pulled out the map that Colin had made and looked it over. They were almost directly west of the farmhouse.
“What are you thinking?” Lana asked.
Jack looked at Lana and then turned to Talia. “Once you’ve been to a place, we can use portal magic to return, right?”
“Yes. But it is better if I create a ring like we did at the apartment. It takes less energy to create a portal to a magic ring.”
“Can you do that now?” Jack asked.
“Yes.”
“OK. Create one here. The temple is hard to find and is the furthest west we’ve been yet. Once you’ve done that, we’ll head towards the old village Colin marked on the map. It is just a few miles north of the farmhouse, so it won’t add much time to our journey back to the Academy, and it will give us a good portal ring spot. If we don’t find a good spot for a ring, then we’ll just go back to the farm and make one there. Then we’ll head home.”
“Sounds good to me,” Talia said.
Jack looked at Stann and Lana, both nodding in agreement. “OK. Let’s get moving. Lord Scratches, can you go fly ahead, make sure there’s nothing dangerous ahead of us?”
Lord Scratches flew off to the east. Jack took that as a yes.
They moved quickly; they stayed in the triangle formation and were diligent in watching their surroundings, but with Lord watching from the sky, they felt more comfortable and kept at a faster pace than they might’ve otherwise moved at. Having that extra set of dragon eyes watching over them, even if only a little dragon, was nice.
When they reached the small village, Jack was disappointed. Most of the buildings had been destroyed. Any tools or other ancient artifacts that could be sold had obviously been taken.
“Not much here,” Stann said as they took a second look around the village.
Jack had to agree. It seemed that this was an area that many other questers had searched. The village itself was small, but it looked like it had been somewhat prosperous at one time. There had been a windmill and a town well, and the water from the well was still good. The town roads were all cobblestone and in good shape except for the areas where grass and weeds had pushed their way up, but even those were surprisingly few. The main village road continued north towards the city. Colin had thought the city would be a good place to search, but if the village was any indication, it would be someplace that many questers had travelled to, especially if the road to the ancient city was in this good of condition all the way.
“You want to keep looking? Maybe we’ll find hidden rooms, like we did at the farm,” Lana said.
Jack shook his head. “No. I think this area has been worked over.”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Talia said. “If Colin was right and most rookie questers went straight north, they’d get to the first village ruins on the map and then start spreading out from there. There are roads from this village to that one. Makes sense that people would stick to the roads to start. I think we were lucky that we went west first.”
“I agree,” Jack said. “Do you see anywhere you think is a good portal point?”
Talia pointed to one of the ruined houses. “I think this one. It has a clear open spot in it, but no roof so nothing is going to nest in it. I’d say it would make a safe portal spot. Just needs a little cleaning of debris before setting the circle.”
“Let’s do it,” Jack said.
After a quick cleanup, Talia made their circle. “There. All done. We now have two good portal spots. A few hundred more and we’ll be laughing.”
Jack chuckled. It was true. They’d only covered a few miles of territory so far. There were hundreds of thousands of miles of Ancient Lands to search, if not millions. “Once you have the ability to make portals, we’ll have to start taking longer trips, just to make new portals to areas that we can explore later. But in the meantime, let’s go home. There is still a lot of studying and classwork we need to do.” Jack was already starting to realize that being questers was time consuming. Their days were going to be far busier now. Managing and balancing their schedules was going to be critical. Keeping up on their studies, learning to use new and more powerful magics and then exploring the Ancient Lands was going to be a balancing act.
33
“Two magical swords, three magical daggers, eighteen magical weapons, four Chante robes, two of which are magical and three Chaunte robes,” Chadwick Deeter said as he looked at everything on the table. “Is that everything?”
Jack nodded.
Chadwick took an appraising look at Jack’s necklace. “You don’t want to hand in the amulet?”
“No, I don’t,” Jack said.
Chadwick smiled. “Smart lad. I’d give you 400 gold for it, but it is worth far more to you. Items that increase your mana and health are too valuable to be trading in.
“Speaking of value,” said Colin, “what are the robes worth?”
“Non-magical clothing is worth 20 gold and anything with magic is 50. If I detect powerful or unique rune spells then it’s worth more. Your two Chante robes are worth more, but if I were you, I wouldn’t trade them with me.”
“Why not?” Jack asked.
“Have you met Mal Cooper yet?” Chadwick asked.
“I have,” Colin said.
“Excellent. I suggest you take the robes to Mal. The Flaming Fingers are always on the lookout for items from the sun and fire goddesses. I would guess they’d give you a good price, or exchange items with you. Might get a good staff or wand for the robes,” Chadwick said.
“Good idea,” Colin said as he took the two magical robes off of the table.
Chadwick looked at the items on the table. “Without the two magic robes that comes to 5750 gold. Another good haul. With your previous earnings that brings you up to…8984. You’re well on your way to making your fees for the semester.”
“Chadwick, how much time do you think we should be spending on classwork versus time in the Ancient Lands?” Jack asked.
Chadwick rubbed his jaw. “That’s a good question. Normally, questers don’t start as first-year students. They wait a while longer before taking that risk. And to have five first-year students all on the same team is unique. I would suggest you get as much classroom time as you think you need. You are getting a lot of applied knowledge. It is one thing to practice spells in the classroom. It is another entirely to use them out in the Ancient Lands where any mistake can cost you a life. You learn quicker out there. I would suggest maybe half of your time should be questing. Once you have reached your fee quota you can spend more time studying, but that is just me. You need to do what is best for your group. Sorry I can’t give you a more definitive answer.”
“That’s alright, I was already thinking that we’d need to be flexible about our schedule. It does make sense to get the fees paid as soon as possible,” Jack said.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky, it isn’t impossible to get one big score and pay your fees in one trip. But if you do that, you won’t be able to keep the best stuff for yourselves like you’ve been doing. Something to keep in mind as you plan out more trips.”
“Thanks, Chadwick,” Jack said.
“That’s my job, provide you with all my wisdom and knowledge,” Chadwick said with a wink. “Speaking of wisdom. How is your map working out, Colin?”
Colin frowned. “Not bad. Jack and the others have found all the locations exactly where they were supposed to be, so the maps I’ve found are accurate. The only thing that my maps
haven’t told me is which areas have been searched the most. The village that I thought would give us lots of items was completely barren.”
“Yes, a lot of teams initially struggle to find quality items until they get further into the Ancient Lands. Of course, the further in you go the more dangerous it is. Bit of a trade-off, but that comes with the job.”
“Is there any way of tracking which areas have been searched the most?” Colin asked.
“No one has ever asked me that before. I don’t know,” Chadwick said. “You could probably check at the library and the maps room. I think they keep track of how many times items are checked out.”
Jack could see Colin was going somewhere with these questions, but he couldn’t figure out where he was going with it. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that if I find out which areas have been searched the most then I can save you guys time and energy. If the maps room keeps track of every time a map is requested, I can get a good idea of which areas to avoid. Based on the areas we’ve already been I should be able to test my theory out with a quick chat with the librarians and map makers.”
“OK. I see what you mean now,” Jack said. “See, I told you having someone dedicated to doing our research would be worth it.”
Colin smiled. “I have to admit, I thought I was going to be dead weight, and that you guys would regret keeping me, but I’m starting to feel like I can be really valuable.”
Chadwick started to laugh; he kept laughing until tears ran down his face.
Jack looked at their advisor in confusion. “What did I miss that was so funny?”
Chadwick wiped his eyes clear. “You two are funny. You stumbled on one of the best-kept secrets of questers without even knowing it. Good research is worth its weight in gold. Some of the elite questing groups pay thousands of gold for research while others do it themselves and have to spend hours and hours in the library and map rooms instead of classrooms or out in the field. You five had a great system, and it was a total fluke. I find that very humorous.”
Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1) Page 30
