Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG)

by D. L. Harrison

  I nodded, if there were it was hard to see it. The top of the hills around this tiny valley path prevented direct view of any other sentries.

  The camp itself had many tents, cook fires, and about twenty goblins. Most wore leather armor and swords, but a couple were in robes, magic users? There was also what looked like cages, or small cells with many people in it. It was hard to count, maybe twenty-five or thirty. Most of the prisoners were elven, but I saw a handful of humans as well. It was all on rocky ground, against the side of cliff inside a small ravine. There were also various bulwarks for the goblins to hide behind, and pits with spears.

  “So what’s the plan, I have a hankering for stew, and they have pots.”

  She giggled, it was a sweet tinkling sound that drew my eyes.

  “I thought you weren’t crazy.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, twenty of them, and two of them magic casters.”

  She sighed, “Twenty? Did you see the cave entrance?”

  I frowned, and took another look. Crap.

  “Okay, so that’s just the twenty on guard, for their cave full of who knows how many goblins and maybe worse?”

  She nodded curtly.

  I asked, “I wonder why the prisoners are outside, and how they’re being kept?”

  She asked, “What do you mean?”

  I shrugged, “That cage wouldn’t keep me a prisoner, surely one of those prisoners has elemental magic. At least the four or five humans, dressed like we were.”

  She shrugged, “Maybe the cages suppress magic, or drain mana. It makes sense they would have something like that. Dark sphere has mana draining concepts, or curses to make someone temporarily stupid.”

  I nodded, “Of course. This seems like the only place to fight and level around here, but for level one it’s too much.”

  I shook my head as the obvious occurred to me, “We could try wolves and bears in the forest, get a level or two, then come back at night. We should be able to come up with a plan to free the hostages, kill a few of them, and steal us a pot.”

  She snickered, “You like to kill jokes don’t you.”

  I shrugged.

  She asked, “Do you really think that will work?”

  I nodded, “There are more elves and humans than goblins. We can assume they were captured one or two at a time, I imagine once they get out they can assist in their own escape. A few might die, but others will get weapons from the goblins we put down, and quickly turn the tide if we do something clever enough. We can lead them back to our small forest. It will also need to be fast, assuming it will take a little time for the night sentries to be reinforced from inside the caves?”

  She raised an eyebrow, “Our forest?”

  I grinned, “Isn’t it?”

  She laughed, “Fine, so what kind of plan?”

  “Well, if we reach level three I can have a water and fire elemental for three whole minutes, and also pump in enough magic to make them larger than man sized. You can do that invisibility thing, and sneak toward the left side of the camp with the cages. I’ll be outside the camp, about halfway inside their little ravine. I’ll summon the elementals, block the cave entrance with a wall of ice to slow down reinforcements, and start raining down fire blasts. In short, I’ll make a huge spectacle of myself. They’ll all be paying attention to me.

  “That’s when you open the cages all sneaky like, and then fall on them from behind.”

  She bit her lip, “That sounds suicidal, for you.”

  I shrugged, “I’ll have their attention, but they’ll hesitate to leave the protections of their fortifications, thinking it might be a trap to draw them out. Most likely they’ll use their bows and magic. I can create a second much smaller ice wall to crouch behind, that will stop me from getting filled with arrows, or hit with spells. Hopefully long enough for the rest of you to rescue me. I appreciate your concern, but it works to our strengths. I’m not at all subtle, and you can be. That said, if you come up with a better plan while we’re fighting the bears and wolves, let me know.”

  She sighed, “Alright, for now that’s the plan. Back to our woods, and we’ll fight for the rest of the afternoon, whatever’s left. Then tomorrow, once we level up enough we’ll go to sleep early and wakeup in the middle of the night to hit this place.”

  “That’s moving fast, but I’m worried about the prisoners too, the longer they’re in there the worse it will get, and the more we’ll lose.”

  She nodded, and we left the post. She checked the goblin, and took the coins, weapons, and satchel.

  She explained, “I’ll take it all with me tomorrow, the more weapons I can hand out while opening cages the better. Two bows, two knives, and two swords will arm six people.”

  I tilted my head, “Good idea, we should see if we can take out a patrol or two on our way back.”

  She replied, “One patrol maybe, there’s a limit to what I can carry when I sneak in there. Of course, we can still kill more of them, and at least take the weapons with us.”

  We moved out heading south, and retraced our trail, but much less cautiously. We were careful not to leave an obvious trail, just in case they sent some goblins after us when they discovered the sentry. Fortunately, the sky opened up and it started to rain, that would help wash away evidence of our passing, even if it was a little miserable out.

  We were halfway back to the forest, and far from the goblin settlement when she called for a halt again, and pointed. I could barely make the six of them out on the trail, walking toward goblin encampment. I didn’t think they’d seen us yet as we crouched down.

  She leaned in to me again, and I ignored the tightening in my stomach.

  “Six too many?”

  We were to the east of the trail, across a field of waist high grass. There was a small hill back a small ways, but otherwise it was pretty open. We’d gone far enough to get out of the hilly area.

  “Maybe if we set up an ambush, on top of that hill back there? A small ice wall to duck behind. We’d need to take out at least half of them before they closed the distance.”

  She nodded, and I followed her back the other way. The six goblins lost all chance of seeing us when we reached the small hill, and climbed up it on the other side. We hid behind some brush near the top, and I cast a wall of ice three feet tall, nine feet wide, and eight inches in thickness. Then we waited. It didn’t take very long for my mana to regenerate, a little over a minute.

  We made out some guttural complaints as they neared bow range. They looked tired and not very alert, which was all to the better.

  Gwen started the battle with an arrow shot. The arrow itself glowed with a nimbus of darkness as it raced through the air, and hit one of the goblins.

  The goblins hesitated for one second as they gaped at their screaming companion.

  I didn’t, and cast fire elemental. It was humanoid in appearance, and short. It glowed with a fiery aura, and took off toward the goblins. I cast water elemental as well. I doubted either of them could take one down, but they’d be able to delay two at the least.

  At the same time I was doing that, Gwen put four more arrows into the air, and the goblins charged our position. Before they’d made it halfway, each of the six had been wounded by an arrow, and cursed in some way that I couldn’t really see.

  I cast the spell Fire Blast, but pumped fifteen mana into it instead of five. That would raise the maximum damage to thirty-four. It struck the goblin in the lead, and exploded in a wash of fire that was partially blunted by the goblin’s armor. I just knew it had done thirty damage. A moment later, an arrow took the goblin in the chest, and the first one died.

  The elementals brought two to a stop with attacks, and the other three kept charging.

  I cast Fire Blast again, doing twenty-nine damage to a goblin that already had two arrows in him, he screamed in pain, which turned into a death rattle as he fell to the ground. I tossed a third one at the same one Gwen shot next, which killed that one as well. That left three, one of th
em charging with a mindless battle cry of rage. He was close.

  Gwen dropped her bow and pulled her sword, “Get the other two,” then hopped over the wall.

  I cast another fire blast on the one with my fire elemental on it, since I didn’t want to hurt my water elemental. It exploded against the goblin’s chest. The goblin looked charred, and had already had burns on his body from my elemental’s attacks. He wasn’t quite dead yet, but I was running low on mana. This time I cast fire blast with five mana, which still did a respectable twenty-one points of damage.

  He collapsed to the ground, and I knew he was dead, or at least, was mortally wounded as he sucked in his last breaths.

  Both my water and fire elemental winked out and disappeared.

  I glanced over at Gwen while my mana regenerated a little bit.

  She looked incredibly graceful and agile as she traded blows with the goblin. Constantly on the move as she dodged and parried a couple of attacks, and slid past his guard to cut his leg. The goblin was enraged, and while his attacks were powerful they were also clumsy. His sword swung hard for her middle, and she rolled to the side and back up to her feat, then lunged to stab him in the armpit where there was no armor.

  I turned back to the remaining goblin who was getting close to the fighting pair, and then cast Ice Spike. The spike took the goblin in the stomach, and did twenty two damage. He yelled a war cry in rage, and adjusted his path toward me and away from assisting the goblin fighting Gwen.

  I had more than enough time to cast another Ice Spike and put him down.

  Just in time to turn my head, and watch Gwen hack into her opponents neck.

  I asked, “You alright?”

  Before she could answer, I was overwhelmed by popups.

  Congratulations! Six goblins have been killed. You have earned Six hundred Experience Points! You have leveled!

  Congratulations! You have reached initiate level two in the Fire Sphere. You have earned ten Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You have reached initiate level two in the Water Sphere. You have earned ten Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You have reached initiate level two in the Life Sphere. You have earned ten Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You have reached initiate level two for the skill Builder. You have earned ten Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You have reached initiate level two for the skill Hunter. You have earned ten Experience Points!

  New concepts swarmed my mind for all my advancements, it was a rush, like a shot of adrenaline mixed with an intense high. There were a lot of little things, like growth, I could direct it better with more subtle concepts, perhaps even entrap enemies in roots. Commune was also more, I could not only measure a wild animals attitude toward me, but communicate with it in crude terms. It was as if each of the concepts for the three magical spheres had split two or three times, making subtler and more complete in total. What was shocking was I was only at initiate level two, I still had fifty-eight levels to go to expand those concepts. It was mind-boggling in its potential, and I knew I really had no idea at all what that potential was yet. I admit, it was exciting to imagine the possibilities, even if it wasn’t real, or based in real life science, it drew me to want to advance.

  I could already create hundreds of spells, and even modify them on the fly like I’d done with fire blast, pumping in more mana for greater damage. I started to wonder if spells themselves might be a crutch, or the lazy way out. It might be harder, but I was beginning to think I’d be far more effective if I used the spell concepts on the fly to build spells made to fit the situation. I already had some experience at that, with my water power tools yesterday. I was a scholar and student, and I thought that was worth looking into. At worst, I could fall back on spells if I couldn’t do it quickly enough.

  Basic combat would always be easy, but what happened when I needed to cast something with many concepts in it, a much bigger spell. A grand spell? I didn’t know, I’d take it as it came, and adjust while I leveled. Would I be able to incorporate all those concepts on the fly. Not now I couldn’t, but maybe my mind would grow as I leveled. Time would tell.

  Gwen replied smugly, “Not a scratch, that worked really well.”

  I asked, “What was it?”

  She replied, “The curse filled them with maddened rage. The smart thing for them to do would have been seeking cover, and firing arrows at us to provide cover for the ones that charged. My curse made them act stupidly in anger. It also prevented the last two from trying to escape when all hope of winning was gone, not to mention none of them even considered reaching for their bows.”

  I had thought the fight went a little too easily, now I knew why.

  “That’s a useful skill, or spell I guess. I’d wondered why you hit them all once first.”

  She grinned, “So are yours. Let’s loot and get out of here.”

  I nodded. We gathered six more bows, swords, and daggers, and quite a bit of coin.

  She said, “I’ll probably take eight daggers, two swords, and two bows. Arming twelve of them should get us a lot of momentum in the beginning, if we can take them by surprise from within the camp, and they’ll all be armed by the time we leave.”

  “I agree. We can’t tan hides, but I imagine a day or two won’t make a stink. We can make a something from a wolf pelt to help carry it all.”

  She said, “Let’s just stay on the trail the rest of the way, it will disguise our tracks mixed in with theirs, and if we run into another patrol…”

  “Absolutely.”

  Curious, I checked my status.

  Name:

  Jason

  Classes:

  None.

  HP:

  75

  Regeneration 1.5/sec.

  Race:

  Half-Elven / Half Human

  Mana:

  93

  Regeneration 1.8/sec.

  Platinum:

  0

  Stamina:

  85

  Regeneration 1.3/sec

  Gold:

  0

  Level:

  2

  TNL: 1890

  Silver:

  4

  Strength:

  15

  Bronze:

  36

  Agility:

  14

  Intelligence:

  18

  Willpower

  13

  Wisdom:

  16

  Magical Spheres:

  Fire:

  Initiate level 2

  Water:

  Initiate level 2

  Air:

  Initiate level 0

  Earth:

  Initiate level 0

  Light:

  Initiate level 0

  Darkness:

  Initiate level 0

  Life:

  Initiate level 2

  Death:

  Initiate level 0

  Skills (Combat)

  Combat Skill Name

  Description

  Level

  N/A

  Skills (Non-Combat)

  Skill name

  Description

  Level

  Sneak

  Allows you to move silently.

  Initiate Level 2

  Builder

  You can build a fire and create a crude shelter.

  Initiate Level 2

  Hunter

  Your ability to track and hunt animals.

  Initiate Level 2

  Not bad, though the needed experience had doubled. From what I understood it would double every level, at least at first. Two thousand to reach level three, four thousand for four, eight thousand for five, and so on. I dismissed the boxes with a thought. Then I cast Detect Life, which was now at thirty-two feet in radius, and we headed back for our forest. We didn’t run into any more patrols.

  Chapter Five

  It was startling when we got back, I could feel the welcome of our glade even more starkly,
when we stepped into it from out of the surrounding woods. I was almost positive it wasn’t my imagination, and that the feeling was rooted in my nature magic. There were no animals in the glade, only the large proud oak trees that circled it, and bushes and flowers. It was the heart of the forest.

  Curious, I walked over to one of the great oaks, and touched it with my hand. I felt foolish when I ran the Commune spell through my mind and my mana surged as the spell was cast, but I hadn’t been wrong. The feeling of welcome got stronger, but at the same time my crude emotional query was ignored. Maybe I was losing my mind. I cut off the spell, and joined Gwen by the fire.

  She was pulling out some of the venison, and started cooking a very late lunch.

  “Do you think we’ll get decent experience from wolves? Maybe we should just hunt their scout parties.”

  She frowned, “Maybe. We don’t want to draw out an overwhelming response though, do we? They’ll probably give us less than a hundred experience now, so we’re looking at killing around thirty of them before we hit level three, or five groups of six.”

  I nodded, assuming we got seventy-five or more for them.

  “We can try the wolves, I don’t know what experience we’ll get though, they’re normal wolves not monsters. Do they respawn, the goblins I mean. I’m thinking the animals do for sure.”

  She shrugged, “Maybe? The information isn’t clear, I’m not sure if that cave counts as a dungeon, or if it’s just a tribe that moved in there. They might just replenish with births. Technically, they’re an intelligent race, not a monster.”

  “Well, we have a lot of questions for the elves once we free them. They probably know about the goblins and such, and know where human settlements might be and what’s around us farther out than we’ve looked. There’s probably no point in speculating much until then. Still, that might tell us how they’d react if we started picking off a bunch of their scout parties.”