Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG)
Page 15
There were about fifteen archers about a hundred feet out, they must be the covering group. There were over twenty more goblins a lot closer, using trees for cover as they darted from tree to tree and shot arrows as well. I assumed they’d draw swords when they were close enough to rush our defenses. I decided there were twenty-five more goblins closing for melee. That idea stemmed from my earlier thought, the world felt and was real to me, but the game mechanics were still apparent. Five more archers, which probably meant five more melee fighters in each of the two charging groups on the right and left. Life was more random than that, but not this world.
We dropped our heads for another arrow storm, and then popped up. I cast the life spell to entangle and expose the covering archer, Lyre shot it with an attached fire blast, and my fire blast followed. The eleven mana spell, for double damage over five seconds. Then we took cover.
The reports came in my head, forty-six damage initial, for a total of ninety two.
We peaked over the wall, and I sighed, the bastard was on his last leg, but still alive.
Lyre shot an arrow at him, and the goblin shook and died.
We dropped back down and exchanged a glance.
She said, “Both add two more mana for another forty percent damage.”
I nodded in agreement. Two more mana would make the control fires last seven seconds instead of five. If we’d done so on the last attack, I’d have done another eighteen damage, or one hundred ten in total. If she did the same, another fifteen to twenty damage, that would exceed or at least equal the damage of just her plain old arrow that finished him off. We could still kill them in one shot as a team, it would just cost me twenty-three mana instead of twenty-one per goblin. Thirteen for the fire blast, and ten for the detect life and entanglement to expose them. Given I’d regenerate that in about eight or nine seconds, it wouldn’t be an issue.
Anal perhaps, but mana management was important in a fight, especially a long one.
We popped up and I released a spell at a tree. My mind changed alignment to the fire sphere by subconscious habit by now, as the roots rose up and entangled the goblin, tripping and pushing it out into the open.
Lyre’s arrow shot from her bow as I finished up the fire blast spell and let loose.
We ducked down, and I held my breath as the seconds and damage reports entered my mind. That was kind of an eerie feeling, I just suddenly knew how much I’d hurt the enemy. It was like searching for a word or fact, and suddenly finding it as it popped into my head. The seventh second of damage never came in. Good enough, the bastard was dead.
“Stick with seven, just in case?”
Mana management was important, but I wouldn’t begrudge one extra mana just in case.
Lyre laughed, “Good idea.”
The battle continued in a familiar fashion. Lyre and I took down archer after archer as we focused on not getting hit with arrows. What was the old saying, bullets have the right of way? Well, so did arrows. Killing the archers took second place to caution, and we only took the reasonable risks. I’d take greater ones since I could come back, if it was necessary to save Lyre, Wynn, or Anlyth, but that hadn’t been needed yet. Twice, we’d had to abort our attacks, as a clever archer held back their shot during a volley and waited for us to pop back up.
Gwen continued to use her cursed arrows to lure in a goblin, or on the rare chance cause it to attack one of its own, while her, Wynn, and Anlyth easily took out the heedlessly charging goblin before they even reached the pit, much less melee range.
This went on like clockwork, until there were eight covering archers, and seventeen remaining goblin melee fighters. They’d closed the distance, and all seventeen screamed and charged from nearby cover. At the same time, the covering archers started to fire as quickly as they could, more concerned with suppression than truly aiming.
Two of the goblins in the lead of both teams, took out a thick blanket that looked reinforced from their pack, and then literally dove over the pit as the blanket unfurled. They landed on the thorn bushes and I heard the cracking of vines and crunch of twigs. The blanket protected them from the thorns.
When they stood up they were both run through, one by Gwen, and one by Wynn, but the damage was done. A second later, four more goblins were jumping across with their swords out, and landed safely on the blanket, crushing the thorn bushes below. They used the thorn bushes against us, as a kind of spring board as they hopped up on the four-foot ledge, and there were more behind them.
Eight more arrows came in, pinning Lyre and I down, while the rushing goblins fought for a toe hold. If they found one, we’d all be slaughtered. Gwen, Anlyth, and Wynn were fighting fiercely, but they were outnumbered four to three, and that number would shortly go up. These weren’t the weak goblins we’d faced down and beat two days ago in the first wave. They were level eight warriors, two and three levels above my party’s experience. Arrows, curses, and spells could make up that difference, but sword to sword they were very hard pressed to even stay alive.
I cast an ice wall to separate them, ten feet high and fifteen feet wide, and six inches thick, the width of the entire wall. That took seventy-five mana, but it was worth it. Six inches of ice was thick, and strong, it would take them time to get through it.
The goblins immediately began to pound on it, we didn’t have time to dawdle.
Wynn laughed in relief, and said, “Thanks for that, he was a tough bastard, let’s go.”
Gwen shot me a wink and smile, and she was breathing very hard. They all had a light wound or two, but they were very shallow, and hit point regeneration would take care of that long before we reengaged.
Lyre and I got off the platform, and we all went to the center of the fortification, where Anlyth cast an earth control spell and removed the top level of soil hiding the tunnel. We all dropped down, and the entrance covering soil was restored.
My eyes as a half-elf were very good in the dark, but I needed some light to see, even just starlight was enough for my eyes to magnify the light, but it was pitch black in the tunnel.
I cast light for the first time, a heatless ball of flames appeared in the palm of my hand. We moved quickly down the tunnel, which was about a hundred yards long. When we came up into the forest, I let out a sigh of relief, and we raced to the second fortification.
As usual with my lower agility and strength, I took up the rear. That was fine though, I was totally on board with being a glass cannon and the most diverse magic user. We heard the goblins’ cries as they detected our movement. We weren’t being subtle on purpose, we wanted them to chase us after all.
Still, with a hundred-yard head start in the trees, there’s no way they could catch up before we were ready for them. We arrived at the second fortification and checked things over to make sure it was all good. Guttural cries of alarm and pain reached us as Lyre and I took our places on the rear raised dais. They must have found the pit traps.
“I suggest we all focus on the thirteen remaining chargers, and ignore the eight covering archers for now.”
Wynn frowned, “They’ll fire non-stop if no one keeps them on their toes, but I take your point. You keep on the covering archers, Lyre, add your fire and spells to ours.”
I nodded, I supposed that would work, even if we weren’t killing them in one combined shot, it would keep them wary. No one wanted to lose over half their life after all. Still, a fourteen-mana boost with only my spell would finish the job, wouldn’t it? Actually, it wouldn’t, that would just do triple damage instead of double, and while my magic did more damage than Lyre’s because of her slightly smaller base damage, having two base damages was very important, not to mention the thirty or so damage her arrow alone did.
To truly take them in one shot, I’d have to more than double my base damage. Base damage with a five-mana spell was now twenty-eight. If I pumped in thirty-two more mana that made a possible sixty, then I’d need to pump in another fifteen or so to quadruple it and have a chance at killing
it, over fifteen seconds. Plus, one more mana to prevent the forest from lighting on fire. That would be fifty-three mana in total, plus the five to get them out of cover with entanglement made fifty-eight. In short, it wasn’t worth it.
I could do the same amount of damage for forty-one mana, using one entanglement and two fire blast spells. Which was a seventeen-mana difference. The only problem was I’d have to spend a handful of extra seconds on each one, I couldn’t safely expose myself long enough to get off three spells, even two spells had been pushing it.
My time to strategize ran out as the goblins arrived, and they all dove for cover as Gwen, Lyre, and Wynn opened up with arrows to keep them cautious.
Seven goblins took up position for support, and twelve started to dart from tree to tree. It looked like we got one of each with the pit and spike traps.
I changed my mind at the last second, and cast two entanglements with ten extra mana before ducking down. I let out a breath and jumped back up as soon as the arrows hit the walls behind Lyre and I, or the protective stone wall in front of us.
I cast two fire blasts, one at each downed target, then ducked behind the wall as they took damage. Only five arrows came in this time. One goblin took twenty-six damage initially, and over fourteen seconds close to a hundred damage in total. The second one took a little less.
I popped back up, they were struggling to get out of the vines but I had no trouble targeting them both with another two spells, then ducked down after a quick glance at the rest of the battlefield.
Two down, five to go. The rest of the group were doing well, they’d already killed five of the twelve goblins with Gwen cursing them like she did. They were down to seven, and they weren’t close enough to charge yet. I didn’t want to get cocky, a lucky arrow could take me out, but that’s about when I figured we had the fight in the bag.
I popped up and cast entanglement, and then nailed him with a fire blast when he got exposed. I ducked down, and then back up in about three seconds. The first one was still taking damage, and would be for another ten seconds or so. I cast another entanglement, with a follow up fire blast, then dropped down. Two spells took me three or four seconds to cast, which was long enough to be exposed to arrows.
The next time I popped up, I fired off two fire blasts, to finish off both downed cover archers.
Gwen shot a goblin with a spelled darkly glowing arrow, and he charged his buddy with a war cry. Those two started to fight, leaving just one more melee fighter behind a tree. They’d managed to take down four more of the seven when I was concentrating on the archers.
I didn’t want any of the bastards getting away as I ducked back down to avoid arrow fire. I couldn’t dodge as fast an arrow flew, but I could see when they were aiming at me.
When the arrows passed, I popped up and cast entanglement twice, and after judging myself safe cast it once more. At that point, the remaining goblins became target practice, and we took them quickly.
Congratulations! Forty-six goblins are dead. You have earned thirteen thousand nine hundred Experience Points!
You have leveled!
Congratulations! You defended the forest glade from the third wave of goblins! You have earned three thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Fire sphere to level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Water sphere to initiate level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Life sphere to initiate level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Meditation skill to initiate level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Sneak skill to initiate level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Builder skill to initiate level six. You have earned ten Experience Points!
I froze in place as all the new concepts rushed into mind. It was a rush, and felt good. I gasped in a breath when it was finished. More meditating on the list of things to do today. I thought we’d have enough time to get it done before lunch. I went over the popups, looked like we got three hundred per goblin, except for the shaman which gave us nine hundred. I also noted I was behind on the hunter level again, apparently, I hadn’t mastered the concepts in initiate level five yet.
Forty-five goblins meant nine more sets of weapons and armor for each of us. I was jazzed about that, I’d have eighteen in total to sell this afternoon, as well as the ten wolf and three bear pelts.
We got organized and got to looting. It took a couple of trips back to the glade to get it all, I’d have to build a travois of some kind later to help carry it all to the outpost. Or maybe just use my water elemental. I liked that idea better.
I also found a ring with diamond setting on the goblin shaman, and could feel the magic in it. Maybe I should have been more cautious, but I put it on one of my fingers. It’s a hard thing to describe, but I felt… smarter. Things I would have found subtle, were now starkly obvious as I made several small connections, and I couldn’t wait to meditate on my concepts. Maybe all of them, and look for ideas I hadn’t come up with yet. Thing was, the new concepts still didn’t have anything ground breaking. Four more levels, and there’d be lots of those, breakthroughs I mean.
I went ahead and checked my status, just to verify what the ring did.
Name:
Jason
Classes:
None.
HP:
131
Regeneration 1.5%/sec.
Race:
Half-Elven / Half Human
Mana:
169
Regeneration 1.8 (2.0)%/sec.
Platinum:
0
Stamina:
140
Regeneration 1.3%/sec
Gold:
0
Level:
6
TNL: 20,010
Silver:
184
Strength:
15
Bronze:
742
Agility:
14
Intelligence:
18 (20)
Willpower
13
Wisdom:
17
Magical Spheres:
Fire:
Initiate level 6
Water:
Initiate level 6
Air:
Initiate level 1
Earth:
Initiate level 1
Light:
Initiate level 1
Darkness:
Initiate level 1
Life:
Initiate level 6
Death:
Initiate level 1
Skills (Combat)
Combat Skill Name
Description
Level
N/A
Skills (Non-Combat)
Skill name
Description
Level
Sneak
Allows you to move silently.
Initiate Level 6
Builder
You can build a fire and create crude shelters and buildings.
Initiate Level 6
Hunter
Your ability to track and hunt animals.
Initiate Level 5
Meditation
Calm and focus your mind.
Initiate Level 6
The ring must be plus two to intelligence, it was the only thing changed in my status, outside of my new level, higher HP, Mana, and Stamina I mean.
“Did everyone level?”
Wynn shook his head, “You four did, but level seven takes thirty-two thousand experience.”
I nodded, I’d gotten a whole lot of experience in that fight, almost twenty thousand including the bonuses, and I still needed another twenty thousand for level seven.
I said, “I found a ring plus two in intelligence.”
Everyone exchanged glances.
Wynn said, “If no one objects, just keep it. You’re the only one who doesn’t use weapons.”
Gwen and Lyre both said they didn’t mind.
Anlyth nodded, “I agree. Next time though let me look at it first. Assess Earth can identify magical items of my level or lower, at the very least it will tell me if it’s cursed or not before you try it on.”
I blushed, I should have already known that, I had that concept in my head, “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
We broke apart at that point, each of us eager to incorporate the new concepts in our spells and fighting techniques. It wouldn’t do much for me, but the new concepts would make my combat spells another point deadlier, and add some small increments to others. Level eleven, twenty one, and so on were the big leaps in progress. As they say though, every little bit counted. Level six fire, with a new twenty intelligence, raised my base damage up to thirty-one including the base five mana cost for the spells.
Even without the major concepts, with my new higher intelligence I made a few connections that had always been there, that I just hadn’t noticed before. Nothing major, but it made me wonder if the three or four points I always fell below maximum was due to missing those connections, rather than the goblins having any type of fire resistance. I supposed I’d find out tomorrow. It didn’t seem unreasonable that their leather armor would protect them from a point of two though. Even so, if I started to do twenty-nine to thirty, instead of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I’d know.