Cilden helped me to my feet while the others started towards the path out of the dungeon.
"There's something different about you, isn't there? In general, I mean," he asked me.
I wanted to respond. I wanted my friend to have the same information as Clifford. I couldn't form the words to tell him, though.
"It's alright. I don't need to know why." He was walking beside me, running his fingers over the side of the cave. "In less than a month, you've gained five levels. You resurrected. You possess control over your base skills more than anyone I've ever seen. You understand the mechanics of battle more than any low-level person. Who would have thought to use healing potions against the jefat?"
We walked in silence for another minute while Cilden reviewed my stats and skills page. "And you gain two attribute points per level. You're blessed by the gods, my friend. This much is clear. I don't need to know why. I don't need to know where you've come from. I do know that you have promised to keep my family and me safe. You made it your goal to see my children free again. If I knew nothing else, this would be enough."
He stopped and put his hand on my shoulder, turning me to him. Both Vindur and I were listening to every word he said.
"If it means the safety and survival of my family, I will follow you to the ends of the world. Your goals and mine are aligned. So should our fates be. Like Moga and Baridorne are mine, will you allow me to be your ally and companion?"
"I would never think of saying no, my friend. From the moment you clothed me, you showed me your heart. You and your family were at your lowest point in your lives. You were forced into slavery because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We're not only friends. We're family. If something were to happen to you and Rose, your children would want for nothing. They will always have a family to take care of them as long as I am in their lives."
Congratulations! Your dedication to Cilden Thatcher and his family means you have a family of your own. Your disposition towards him has increased from Trusted to Companion. Your interest and fates are now combined. Do not forsake your companions. Doing so comes at a great cost to you both. +150xp received.
Now that Cilden was my ally and companion, Vindur was able to reveal himself. The man fell backward, his back sliding against the cold wall of the cage.
"Don't worry, Cilden." I shared my story with my friend; my story of Earth. I explained its technology, my family, my friends, my work, my death, and my rebirth. I revealed my blessing and my curse.
"If what you're saying is true, I'm glad to have you around. If you didn't show up, Neeta would most likely be a slave the rest of her life. We're going to get out of this, you and I. We'll find a way to be free."
Cilden spent the rest of the time telling me stories of his young adulthood. He was born in the same village he was captured in. He had gone out hunting with Moga when they stumbled on an elven camp. It was there he met Rose. The moment he saw her, the two were inseparable. Despite the Elders of her village protesting, Rose decided to marry Cilden. She was exiled from her clan as a result. A few years later, Junta was born. Neeta followed a year after that. They thought they had built a quiet and safe life for themselves. They were mistaken.
I made a silent promise that night to return to them their stolen life. Cilden wasn't a warrior at heart. He was a farmer. Rose was a mother and healer. I swore to him that I would help him find his vocation again.
You have received a quest! "The land is my home." You have promised to make Cilden a farmer again. You will have six months to accomplish this quest. This quest is not optional.
Reward: Unknown.
Secret name: Slanaitheoir (savior)
Character name: Michael Dian-Cecht
Race: Spirit Elf
Age: 27
Class: Undefined
Talent: Undefined
Level 7 (377xp to next level)
Health: 190 (170)
Mana: 213 (168)
Stamina: 170
Fatigue: 15%
Armor: 37 (.5% damage mitigation) - 1.5% damage mitigation with skills.
Strength: 12
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 14
Constitution: 16
Agility: 12
Luck: 6
Alignment: Chaotic Good (+1)
Racial Traits: +5% to herbalism, +5% to all non-metal crafting, +5% to nature-based healing and damage spells, +5% to mana regeneration
Profession: Undefined
Company: Undefined
Modifiers: +10% movement speed, Spirit Elf (+10% to all damage and healing done. -10% to all magical damage taken. +10% increase to all physical damage taken)
Skills:
Novice Blades 1 (.25% increase damage): The ability to deal damage with knives and blades. Drains stamina. Increase in rank reduces stamina drain and increases additional damage.
Novice Staves 8 (1.8% increased damage, 2.5% increased chance to block). The ability to use a staff weapon to attack and block enemies.
Novice Grappling 1 (1% increase damage): The ability to deal physical damage through hand-to-hand combat.
Novice Light Armor 6(1% reduced damage/movement speed): Wearing light armor grants a bonus to damage reduction. Increase in rank improves movement speed and reduces damage taken.
Novice Observation 6: You are keenly aware of your surroundings. You are able to glean useful information from those around you to aid in your understanding of your world.
Novice Stalking 7 (1.6% chance of remaining hidden): The ability to stealth through the world. Increases fatigue. Increase in rank improves hiding, reduces fatigue increase and improves movement speed while moving silently.
Novice Herbalism 3: The ability to craft powerful potions, elixirs, and poisons. Increase in rank to make mixtures requiring more ingredients. Increase in rank to make mixtures of better quality.
Novice Tailoring 1 (1% reduction in time to craft, quality of item): The craft of creating cloth armor and goods.
Novice Tracking 1 (10% chance to find trails and tracks in nature): The art of finding your way through nature. Useful for hunting creatures or humanoids alike. Also aids in discovering new paths.
Notice Leadership (rank 7): The ability to persuade and command others. Increase rank to be seen as a more effective leader. Higher ranks provide skills unique to leading and commanding groups of people.
Spells:
Novice Nature's Grace I: Cast this to infuse your target's wounds with natural magic, healing them for 3hp per second for 4 seconds. Mana cost: 10. Cast time: 1 second. This cannot be dispelled.
Apprentice Living Seed I (rank 16): Cast this to plant a seed of natural magic in your target to heal them for 4hp per second for 10 seconds. Upon expiration, the target is healed for another 10hp. Mana cost: 26. Cast time: 2.5s Increase the rank of this spell to increase its potency. Can be modified by Wisdom, enchantments, and racial abilities. Can be dispelled.
Novice Dual-Cast (rank 2): Weave two spells into one for 2.5x the normal mana rate. This may backfire causing damage and a waste of mana. Spells of the same type will be 3x more effective. Spells of varying types will yield different results. Chance of backlash: 50%
Novice Mana infusion (rank 3): Infuse your mana into a spell to amplify its effects. At your current rank, you must use all remaining mana. Increase in rank to gain more control over how much mana you expel.
Spirit Trek (no rank): Once per week, you may summon a portal to bring you and your party from your current location to your resurrection site.
Chapter 13
As promised, I never returned to Nott's Sanctum. I couldn't bring myself to go back there. Cilden visited it dozens of times and had gained another level. I swore to Rose that I would help her create potions. And we did. We spent our days producing dozens of concoctions for weeks on end. I continued to gain more and more experience. Potion creation was second-nature to me. When I played the game, I had made it my profession. It had saved me countless times in battle. At o
ne point, I thought about pursuing enchanting, but why focus on making what I could easily buy? Potions were different. A practical application of herbs created limitless potential. You could create almost anything if you had the aptitude and knowledge. A Grandmaster Herbalist could send his enemies fleeing from the battlefield. He could also save people from death's grip with healing concoctions that could resurrect them when administered in time.
I woke up in the morning, cleaned up, made breakfast, and joined Rose in the kitchen for a day filled with crushing herbs and brewing mixtures. Neeta and Junta ran in and out all day bringing us plants they had found. By this time, they were able to harvest herbs from many gardens, the masters of those homes friendly to our cause. When Rose reached rank 15 and became an apprentice in Herbalism, I was already at rank 22. We began by making higher-quality healing potions using ginseng root, lavender, and sage.
Lavender was easy to use if you knew the trick. Long ago, I learned that it had to be dried. Only then, could the leaves be massaged in your hands, broken into small pieces. The flakes of the flower and stem contained the mana ready to be released—a potent concoction willing to tell some other ingredient what to do. That is where the sage came in. Unlike jasmine, sage leaves wouldn't release their mana easily. One had to make an oil with the sage. The leaves first had to be washed and dried. Then you mixed the leaves with hot olive oil. The mixture had to sit for two weeks before it was ready to be used in potions.
"But what about the olives?" Rose asked. She remembered my lesson about the wooden spoon.
"If you crush or mince olives and add it to a mixture, it releases its mana into your creation. If you press the olives and collect their oil, the mana is already released into the earth. Because of this, oil—any oil—is a repository. You can coax it into accepting the characteristics and mana of another ingredient."
"And the lavender? What makes it a better healing herb than jasmine?"
"Healing power is absorbed into the plant by its flower. Lavender has more buds. Because it's closer to the stem, you have to treat it with more care. Jasmine is simple. You massage the petals with a mortar, and it releases its mana. Lavender is stubborn. It needs to be weakened and dried. Only then will it give you its mana. If it is moist and alive, it will protect its mana by sending it into the plant. When that happens, the potion will be useless."
"And sage? Where does that come in?"
"Sage is funny. When made into a tea, it can do any number of things. It prevents memory loss in elders. It can also prevent flatulence."
"I'll have to remember that one for my husband," Rose joked.
"I'm sure he'll be glad for that. As I was saying, the sage plant stores its mana in the leaves. In a pinch, you can crush the leaves in some water, and it will help staunch bleeding. It can also clean sores. Sage is a much more potent medicinal herb. It replaces jasmine. It is also out of control. When mixed with just ginseng, the potion is more likely to cure a poison than it is to heal wounds. It needs to be made into oil. Only then can it receive instruction from the lavender. The lavender tells it to focus just on wounds. That's why this recipe is more complex. We couldn't make it at rank 1. Now that you're rank 15, it'll be easier."
And so we began to prepare. We had enough dry jasmine to last us a lifetime thanks to Clifford. We crushed the jasmine in our mortar, mixing in a few drops of sage oil that I had prepared in the previous weeks. After the ingredients had merged into one, we added it to the ginseng root tea and let it simmer for a few hours. Once ready, we strained the ingredients into a small vial to produce our first, new healing potion.
You have created (2) Lesser Healing Potions. Quality: Good. Class: Uncommon. When consumed, restores 30 health over 15 seconds. +8xp.
"Why did we make two this time?
"They mix better with the water. You can try to make another one, but I doubt the mixture will be potent enough to form a potion. The mana drains out quickly."
The two of us had a long way to go before we could successfully make our first invisibility potion. Even my knowledge wasn't enough. This world operated on crunching numbers and creative calculations. At rank 30 we could make the mixture. We still only had a 25% chance of success then.
By the end of the day, we created four more batches of lesser healing potions. Rose and I both increased another level. I split my two attribute points between Intelligence and Wisdom. We were doing a happy dance when the others joined us. Cilden, Petey, Moga, and Baridorne were caked in grime and dirt. We were clean and fresh, dancing in the kitchen like children celebrating Christmas morning.
I had a surprise for my friends tonight. I kicked everyone but Rose out of the kitchen.
"Tonight, my dear lady, we're going to create something new; something from my homeland."
She looked at me with shock in her eyes. In the last two months, I never showed any interest in cooking or preparing dinner. I had a hankering for something more delectable. Roasted meat and vegetables were excellent and all, but they only fed my stomach. I needed some comfort food, something with a doughy crust, tomatoes, and cheese.
While Rose rolled out the dough, I cut any free cheese into pieces small enough to melt. I chopped up some onions, olives, spinach, and smoked ham and set them aside. Finally, I added crushed tomatoes and chopped garlic into a pot. Tomato sauce was born. The entire time, Rose was looking at me like I was insane. I was whistling "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" while prepping the food, excited to witness my creation being born.
I added as much wood to the oven as I dared. There was so much heat emanating from it that Rose thought the house would burn down.
"It's fine," I said as I poured my sauce, cheese, and ingredients over the thinly pressed dough.
"What is it?"
"It's called a pizza!"
We made ten of them in total, putting each one in the oven until the ingredients cooked and the bread turned into a crispy, brown crust.
You have created Pizza * 10. Item quality: Good. Item class: Epic. Consuming one serving of pizza reduces fatigue by 15%. +30xp
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill. Cooking (rank 5). You can create delectable dishes that are better able to reduce fatigue. Increase in rank to improve the quality of your creations.
Cilden, Moga, Baridorne, Clifford, and the children were all waiting at the door. They were drawn there like sailors attracted to a siren. The scent of roasted tomatoes, cheese, and garlic had penetrated every corner of the estate. We had to push the others away from us to get the food upstairs where the remainder of the slaves were waiting for dinner. Twenty-five slaves, our soon-to-be ex-master and a handful of guards filled the table, stuffing their faces with my new creation. They hardly took the time to breathe, many of them raising their glasses shouting "Three cheers to the chef!". With everyone satisfied, Clifford and I abandoned the group to retire to his bedroom. I hadn't spoken to him at length since my last and final visit to Nott's Sanctum.
With the door latched behind us, I grabbed him by the waist, lifted myself up on the balls of my feet, and kissed him. He returned the gesture with both compassion and eagerness. The fireplace was roaring when we entered the room. I began to sweat from the heat. We both removed our shirts and laid down on the bed, looking up at the sky. He had an exposed skylight half as wide as the bed. The view was disconcerting. Purple lines radiated across the sky, weaving in and out of the entrapment dome surrounding Elatha. The purple energy lit up the sky every night. Mages in the palace poured their dark magic into the spell, making sure that no slave in the city could escape while no citizen could find hope in the light of day.
"It's something, isn't it?" I asked Clifford, turning to look at him. I needed an excuse to not look at the barrier.
"It is. My father wanted me trained to be a Maintainer. They're honored and respected members of the court. He was furious with me when I refused." Clifford returned his attention to me, tracing my muscles with his fingers from my neck to my belly button. His rough ski
n rubbing against my smooth torso tantalized me, sending chills through my body.
"Is that any different than his usual disposition?" I asked with a coy smile on my face.
"Cheeky!" He gently pinched my nipple to punish me for my wit. "This isn't entirely his fault. My father holds the rule of law in high regard. He's also greedy by nature. I'm sure that if slavery were abolished, he wouldn't care one bit. He only owns a handful of slaves himself."
He was massaging my entire torso now, his fingers slowly tracing a line between each of my ribs.
"Enough about my father. And about the barrier. I don't want to talk about it tonight."
I nodded, abandoning conversation for the moment at hand. Clifford and I spent the rest of the night in his bedroom. We enjoyed one another like we enjoyed the pizza: completely and with abandon. It was only when the fire died that we resigned ourselves to sleep, giving respite to our aching and fatigued bodies.
------
The next two months were about the same. The children gathered herbs to complete their daily quest. Cilden and the others took fleshling healers into Nott's sanctum to level them up, given them other healing spells, and collect HP rings. They had to stop for a time. Guards became suspicious after seeing the same three slaves in the outer ring multiple times, despite being escorted by a master. The three of them and the children had also gained a level.
Fjorgyn: A Rebel Rises Page 14
