by Aleron Kong
Increase the natural armor of your dragonling by +1
20
Richter made one more decision. It only cost four more points to upgrade her Psi Bond, and as far as he was concerned, they would be points well spent. The other factor that influenced his decision was his newly improved Enhanced Imbue Arrow skill. Increasing her Psi Bond increased the chances that his enemies would be afflicted with Mind Fog, Stun or Psi Crystallization. The chaos seed spent ten Psi points purchasing another attribute point and upgraded Psi Bond.
Total Psi Points Remaining: 14
You have chosen to increase your familiar’s ability: Psi Bond to level 6. Your familiar’s base innate intellect is increased by 125%. Her base Intelligence and Wisdom are also increased by 75%. Your mental resistance from Psi Bond has increased to 60%. Your familiar’s Psi Bond has advanced to being able to form a psychic connection even with those lacking the Psi Bond ability. You will also benefit from this stronger tie to your familiar. Your mental resistance from Psi Bond has increased to 30%. Maximum distance of communication increased from 1250 to 1500 yards. Tasks you once found mentally strenuous now come more easily. You have a greatly reduced risk of spell miscast. Factoring in your familiar’s Psi Bond level 6 and personal level of 37, add 22% to the chances of Mind Fog, Stun or Psi Crystallization occurring when you use Enhanced Imbue Arrow. Psi Bond has now advanced to the point that your mental connections with other creatures will enhance their intellect to a small degree. Other effects of this enhanced bond may be discovered in time.
Richter hadn’t been expecting the last part of the notification! Ever since bonding with Alma, there was a part of his mind that seemed like it had small lights in it. Each light was a psychic bond. The dragonling’s presence was like a bright sun, warm and reassuring. He had discovered, not long ago, that he could form a connection with his tamed pet as well. Casting Tame daily hadn’t leveled his Blood magic much, but the adder was a powerful pet. The bond to the snake was minor, more like a flickering candle, but it still allowed him to give the monster limited mental commands. As time went on, and his mental control had deepened, that candle had flickered less, but Richter still hadn’t seen any practical difference in his control of the shale adder.
Now, the candle was more like a flashlight. It was still nothing compared to his soul forged bond with Alma, but it was a noticeable difference. Richter wondered what “other effects” would develop in time. Looking at the adder, he thought, *Hi.* The snake just kept gliding along beside him. Richter turned his attention back to his familiar.
He wished he had more Psi points to spend, but he was still happy with what the psi crystal had added so far. The last thing he did was buy the badge that should maximize her chances to live through the upcoming battle. He bought Flight Speed I.
Total Psi Points Remaining: 4
A blue-white light suffused her body again. Her wings lengthened slightly, and the angles of her wing bones shifted. Even her face and tail became a bit more streamlined. Alma launched into the air, eager to put her new speed to use. Richter had used up all of her Ability points and most of her new Psi points, but she was also much stronger and better protected than she had been when he had started upgrading her. With the battle looming only hours in the future, he had a feeling she would need it.
CHAPTER 26 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
Alma’s eyes sharpened and grew more intent after their Psi Bond was deepened. When she had first come into The Land, she had been little more than a feral animal: intelligent, but savage. Each new level she reached in Psi Bond had increased her awareness of the world and her place in it. Now she was smarter than most people he had met.
That thought made Richter chuckle a bit, but his levity was short-lived. He had taken his time debating Alma’s enhancements and several hours had passed since the koolari attack. According to his map, they were now only two miles from the entrance to the valley. He waved Yoshi over and told him. The sword adept just nodded and quietly passed an order. The warband came to a halt.
“Are you sure you want to come with us?” Yoshi asked the chaos seed.
“Let’s go,” was Richter’s only response.
Sion had walked up when the stop was called. Yoshi turned his attention to him, “And you are up for this as well? You never liked this part of your training.”
The meidon sprite nodded solemnly.
“Fine,” Yoshi curtly. “We leave in two minutes.”
Yoshi walked off again, leaving the two friends standing there. Sion checked to make sure his new elementum blade was clear in its scabbard and adjusted the position of his bow on his shoulder.
“What did he mean?” Richter asked.
His Companion was silent for a moment, then he sniffed harshly and cleared his throat. “You know about the hatred I felt for humans when we first met. I could have killed a human every day in open battle and never been bothered by it. There was one thing that I could not bring myself to do, however, despite the loathing I had for your race.” Sion looked him in the eye and said a single word, “Murder.”
Yoshi beckoned to the two of them, and then he turned and walked deeper into the forest. Ten other sprites followed him. Sion and Richter nodded to each other and started forward as well. Alma flew above, and Richter’s shale adder slithered along beside them.
The time for talk was done.
They left all light behind. Every member of Yoshi’s elite squad had enchanted strips of cloth with eyeholes that they wrapped around their faces that let them see in the dark. Coupled with their cloaks of concealment, it really nailed the whole ninja theme in Richter’s mind, but he kept that thought to himself. More important than their look, each and every one of the sprites was a Professional. The squad was comprised of Warriors, Rogues, and even one Mage. Yoshi offered Richter a strip of cloth, but the chaos seed simply cast Night Vision on himself, Alma and Sion. The three-hour duration of the Dark spell should be more than long enough for the dark deeds ahead.
Quietly, they ran through the forest. There was no talking. Just soft breathing and the softer sounds of their magically muffled footfalls. Richter was no sprite and did not possess the Woodcraft ability that gave his allies a supernatural connection to the forest, but he had his own powers. Between his months of training in the forest, his high Agility and Dexterity, and his Bracelet of Smooth Movement, he was a far cry from the noob that had crashed through trees only five months ago. Sion himself had said he was no longer a “stomper.” He moved at a slow run with the sprites, sliding through the thick trees, leaping over crevasses and smoothly avoiding brambles that would have snared him.
The squad covered the last two miles in just over ten minutes despite the difficulty of the terrain. Richter’s breathing was coming somewhat ragged, and his stamina had taken a serious hit, but it started refilling when they stopped. He regulated his breathing, and it started refilling a bit faster. Yoshi had held up one arm with a closed fist. All of the sprites had immediately stopped moving and had drawn and nocked arrows. None imbued their shots, however. This was a group trained to kill, not engage in battle.
Richter had followed their example and had an arrow at the ready, though he did not see what had caused Yoshi to halt their progress. The half-sprite cocked his head, listening intently. Almost faster than Richter could see, Yoshi moved to a tree and climbed into its canopy. Everyone waited quietly.
A few minutes later, the sword adept dropped back down to the forest floor. Barely a leaf rustled. He turned his body so that all of his men could see him, then moved his hands in a quick series of hand gestures. No glow surrounded his fingers. It wasn’t a spell. At, first, Richter was confused, but then to his shock and surprise, he understood what Yoshi was doing. It was sign language.
^Goblins. I see eleven sentries. Eight scout station. Three fighter station. Silent kills only. Be alert for unseen enemies.^
Congratulations! Your Gift of Tongues ability has unlocked a secret language: Sprite Hand Speak.
Richter’s eyes widened. His ability to speak, understand and write almost any language had come in handy time and again, though it required that he be exposed to that language first. It was one of the reasons he was eager to start seeing more of The Land, so that his ability could unlock more languages. He had never thought his ability might extend to forms of sign language, though.
Yoshi motioned for Richter and Sion to stay where they were. He started to turn to leave, and Richter was faced with a choice. He wanted to help, but the prompt had said that hand speak was a “secret” language. The adept was not the kind of person to look kindly on breaches of security. True, the Mist Village and the Hearth Tree were allies, but that might not mean too much to the half-sprite.
Richter also had to admit that it was tempting to keep his knowledge of the language to himself. It was the kind of knowledge that might come in handy in the future, even though the sprites were currently allies. On the other hand, Yoshi and his men were about to try and silently take out goblin sentries, and they were outnumbered. If even one of those goblins raised an alarm, the entire mission could fail. That meant the army wouldn’t get through the heavily guarded gap, let alone be able to attack the encampment itself.
To make matters worse, Yoshi didn’t even seem completely sure that he had spotted all of the sentries. Even if he had spotted all of the enemies, a third of the goblins were fighter station. Richter didn’t completely understand the differences in the goblin caste system, but one thing he did understand was that scouts were the weakest of the goblins, and that the stations got almost exponentially more dangerous after that. It wasn’t just scrubs that the sprites were about to go up against. The chaos seed knew that he could increase the strike team’s chances for success, but he would have to reveal that he had learned the secret language. The stakes were real, and the Richter only had a split second to decide what he would stand for.
He chose.
^Wait!^ he indicated in hand speak.
Yoshi’s face displayed more emotion that Richter had ever seen on it before. A murderous anger crossed his face, and his lips thinned in fury. His fingers moved to ask a single word.
^How?^
Hand speak was not conducive to long conversations, but Richter did his best. ^My ability. You trust me. I hold secret.^
Yoshi’s expression changed somewhat. He was still pissed, but he rolled his eyes showing some of that anger was focused on himself now. The adept had known about Richter’s Gift of Tongues ability, and he realized that he was to blame for the chaos seed knowing yet another sprite secret. The Warrior’s fingers moved again.
^Why stop us? Why show you know?^
Somehow the creepy half-sprite had guessed that Richter had been tempted to keep his knowledge to himself. The chaos seed decided to ignore the second question, and answer the first, ^Too many goblins. I help.^
Yoshi shook his head, ^Must kill silent.^
Richter had anticipated Yoshi’s argument and had issued a mental order. His shale adder silently rose up behind Yoshi and flicked its tongue out to lick the half-sprite’s face. The sword adept startled and grabbed his sword hilt before seeing what was behind him. He didn’t make a sound, but it was clear that he had been surprised. The adder’s scales were completely black now, showing that its nickname of “The Unseen Killer” was both apt and appropriate. No one laughed, but more than one sprite hid a smirk within their hoods.
^We kill silent,^ Richter signed with a firm expression on his face.
Yoshi stared at him for another moment, then simply nodded, ^Then see.^
Richter’s vision came alive with tactical data. It was similar to the information that Sion could give when he served in the Scout position in the war party. There was so much more, though. The chaos seed could immediately see the name, level, health, mana and stamina of everyone in the group. Even better, looking off into the forest, he could see red triangles hanging in the air. With a flash of excitement, he realized those must be the enemies. Yoshi also seemed to be able to toggle who had access to certain information, something that Richter couldn’t do at his current War Leader rank. The chaos seed couldn’t wait until he leveled the skill more.
Richter reviewed the new data he had; then a thought occurred to him. With a flexion of will, he accessed his interface. Sure enough, the tactical data that Yoshi had shared had been auto-updated on his map. Enemy positions showed up just as the adept had seen them. The closest was only two hundred yards away, and most looked to be clustered in groups of two to three. None of the red triangles were moving, however, showing that the information was still subject to the fog of war. It was only as good as the latest info they had, so the enemies remained in exactly the positions Yoshi had seen them in. Richter quickly pulled out the physical version of his Traveler’s Map and gave a mental order to Alma.
He showed Yoshi how the enemy positions were showing up and a faint smile creased the stern adept’s face. He waved everyone in and started to give kill orders to individual sprites, but Richter asked him to wait again. The adept nodded without complaint or question. Richter felt slightly honored that the half-sprite was putting faith in him. All of the other sprites went back to scanning the surrounding trees. Less than a minute later, what Richter had been waiting for happened. The triangles began to move.
A few of the red triangles jumped position. The goblins they indicated had moved since Yoshi had seen them. Even more important, Alma found hidden enemies. Two were perched in trees hidden by leaves and two more huddled deep in a bush. It was easy to see how Yoshi had missed them. Richter told her to fly around the areas two more times, but she couldn’t spot any further goblins. He had her hover above the area to continue giving real time updates.
Yoshi’s eyes had widened slightly at seeing the updated information, but the man was a professional, in both senses of the word. The Warrior wasted no time. He assigned Richter to the Scout position in his war party. The info that Richter received through Alma got a tactical upgrade. The enemies that Alma had spotted adopted red triangles, and even better, they now displayed tactical information. A small line extended from the triangles showing each goblin’s station and level.
The sword adept looked at the revised information and started handing out kill orders. This time, he included Richter and Sion in the attack. The basic plan was simple. Knots of enemies would have to be eliminated quickly and quietly, but also in a certain order. That way neighboring clusters would not be aware of the sprite’s presence until it was too late. After the adept was done communicating in hand speak, Richter provided one last addition to the plan: the vials of poison Tabia had given him.
As Yoshi read the stats of the Poison of the Muddied Leech, a brutal and wolfish smile grew on his face. The grin was so out of place on the adept’s stern visage that it might have been comical if it wasn’t so disturbing. It did answer one question for Richter though. He finally knew where Sion had learned the expression from.
CHAPTER 27 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
Richter’s decision to help was noticed by more than just Yoshi and the sprites. The Universe apparently took note.
Congratulations! Your actions have reaffirmed your previous Quality. You are: Honorable. When faced with a potential personal gain, you placed the well-being of your allies above yourself. Your Quality is improved to Honorable II. Charisma bonus increased from +2 to +4. The previous 3% decrease in critical strike chance and critical strike damage is hereby negated. Be true to yourself to find your specific power.
Richter hadn’t even known that his qualities could be improved upon, but he would take it. He wished he knew how to unlock more of them, but as far as he could tell, they were only triggered in moments where he wasn’t making a conscious choice. They only seemed to appear when he reacted to reveal his core self.
His Resolute quality had occurred after his first death, when he had found the strength to face the horror of his rebirth. Implacable had appeared on his status page af
ter he had saved Terrod despite knowing that he faced overwhelming odds. Finally, he had gained Honorable when he had a split second to decide between killing an enemy and saving an ally, in the sewers beneath Law. It was easy to see the corollary between that situation and the choice he had just faced.
One more prompt was waiting for him after he had finished speaking to Yoshi.
For being honest and improving his mission’s chance of success, you have gained 312 Relationship Points with Yoshi. Total Relationship Points: 2,574.
Congratulations! Your relationship with Sword Adept Yoshi has increased from Friendly to Happy.
Apparently, despite his initial anger, Yoshi appreciated either Richter’s honesty and what he was bringing to the table. Though “Happy” was still not the word that came to mind when Richter examined the adept. After the vicious smile had faded from the Warrior’s face, the half-sprite had gone back to his usual glare.
Richter handed the vials of poison out, and everyone began to prepare for the attack. Because the potion’s level was solution, each vial was sufficient to poison three arrow heads. The poison’s level determined how many arrowheads it could be spread on before losing potency. The number also equated to how many hits a melee weapon could make before it lost its poisoned status. Tabia had been clear that spreading the poison any more thinly risked making the poison too weak to be properly effective. The sprites applied the poison to three arrowheads each, and all of them kept another vial in reserve. Richter was twenty-four vials poorer, but their chances of success had just improved dramatically.
He and Yoshi had a hurried discussion in hand speak, and they decided on Richter’s targets: the two goblins hidden in the thick bushes. Their position made it extremely difficult to reliably hit them with arrows, and they were situated in the middle of a clearing. The lack of trees greatly reduced the sprites’ ability to move unseen as they could not rely on their Forest Concealment ability, but Richter’s Stealth skill still worked fine. The sky was only partially cloudy, but none of the moons were full. If he moved slowly, he should be able to approach their position undetected. After that, he would be able to use his Dark magic spell, Troubled Sleep, to render them unconscious. The two goblins were only scout station so their magical resistance should be fairly low.
