Origins

by Andrew Bardsley

  He then said, standing there, "Are you going to dare to accept the challenge, or will you run?"

  As Ceras was looking at the arrogant man, he cursed himself for the lack of a weapon, as he only had his bare hand and magical abilities, but he still got into the ring with the sniggering man, who looks surprised and slightly worried he took him up on the challenge offer. The rest of the well-dressed adventures cheered in excitement for the fight that was about to take place. The man responded with a wave of his hand that was not holding the sword that was shining steel and then indicated for the fight to begin.

  The two opponents, one fully armed with high-cost weaponry and the other with only his bare hands faced each other with a shouting crowd of onlookers, that now included more people from the plaza.

  Ceras through I need to finish this quickly if I'm going to have any chances of winning against a man with a sword. A few feet away, he saw his opponent playing, to the excitement of the crowd by swinging his sword close to his body to get the crowd to cheer each move. As he watched, Ceras came up with a plan as he readied a healing spell to be released in an instant.

  The next time the sword swung close to his shoulder, in a display of arrogance by the rich man, Ceras jumped forward trapping the tip of the sword in the top part of his arm, this got a roar from the crowd as they saw the first blood of the battle spill on the flagstone. His opponent was too shocked, to immediately do anything, leaving the sword logged in Ceras shoulder give Ceras time to release the healing spell that reduced the pain so he could act quickly. Moving in close to the man, Ceras smashed a fist into the men exposed face and released a fire spell, casing about eighty points of damage, which dropped the man's health bar by an eighth. This dazed the boorish man enabling Ceras to keep pounding his head with a fist like a hammer on fires as it glowed red with magic.

  The crowd went quiet all of a sudden as they saw the rich man wearing magical protection, being ponded in the face by a young, strong man, with a flaming hand like he was the devil incarnated. Ceras counted eight full hits to the face with blazing flames, until the man he was ramming his fist into, the battered face melted into a pulp, as quickly as he could, was down to zero health.

  The body fell down on the floor, and then a blue light flashed out as the body disappeared, as it was sent to the resurrection point in the town. The crowd was fully silent, as they watched in surprise to see a new adventure which was unarmed win the challenge. Some of the crowd cheered, but not the rich man's friends around Ceras.

  Ceras looked at each of them with a steady threat, implied in his eye, for each of them to try to challenge him, but all of them looked down on the floor and started to back off. As he watched them disappear into the crowd. He looked around at the sword, fine clothing, rings, and talismans lying on the floor where the body used to be. He knew that by law that these items belonged to him, as he had won the challenge. The rest of the crowd were dispersing as the excitement had finished, for now, so he picked up the item and put the expensive ring and amulets in his pack.

  Chapter 10 Spell Development

  He was walking with long strides through the market toward one of the side streets that was teeming with all type of shops. He was heading to a large magical emporium, to see if he could get some items that could hold his magical healing power for use during combat. Entering the street, he saw all type of shops with people going in and out with all the good that anybody could imagine.

  The street was busy with all type of people walking up and down between shop. Some couple was together walking arm in arm, making it a courtship activity of shopping together. All of the couples looked older them his fifteen years, remaining Ceras of the tradition, of not courting, before you had finished the minimum of five years adventuring. Many of the couples had fine clothing as normal for people in the towns and cities away from the more traditional country areas that he was used to seeing more plan clothing.

  Arriving at the magical emporium that had only a doorway, into the back of the building, where the shop was located with no window displaying the items to the street, Ceras walked through the old wooden doorway and felt the buzz of magic as he walked through a well-lit corridor to a back large room filled with many shelves. The shelves were full of all type of item from crystal to clothing and everything in-between. Ceras spotted many raw ingredients for making magical items that he was not sure how to use at the moment. He worked past the shelves toward an older man, behind a waist height counter, who was reading a leather-bound book with great interest. Every now and then he would mutter to himself, and some magical rays of energy could be seen escaping to the air as he experimented.

  Before Ceras could get right next to the magical old man, the man said without looking up from his book, "What can I do for you, young man?

  Ceras cleared his throat a bit nervously and said as he moved the last few feet to the counter, still without the old man looking up from his reading, "I'm a wizard looking for an item to store magical energy, for a healing spell, do you have any item that will do that?"

  The old man now looked up from his book and taking in Ceras' large build, and youthful looks said with a chuckle, "You're new to the world of magic, there are many such items, I even detect some of the items on your person at the moment."

  Ceras wondered for a second what the old shopkeeper was talking about and then he remembered the fight he had just won with the rich young boorish man. Fishing out all of the rings and amulets he had gained, Ceras placed them on the counter in front of the old man and said, "Which are the magical items?"

  The shopkeeper looked at them all and then sorted them into piles and said, to Ceras, "The first pile of rings and amulets are for a healing spell, the second increase different stats of a person, and the last pile has attack spell in them."

  Ceras placed his hand over a ring that was used for healing and started to inject healing energy into it, as the shop keeper went back to his book. He kept the spell going for a few minutes, filling the ring with a large amount of healing power as it seemed to have endless storage capacity.

  The shop keeper said to Ceras, "You'll be all day if you try to recharge all the magical item you have, as these are quick high quality, especially for a beginner level adventure."

  Ceras stopped what he was doing and said with a surprise on his face, "How much are they worth?"

  The shop keeper said in a nonchalant voice, "The ring is about fifty silvers each, while the amulets will be around gold, but the sword you have is worth a lot more. It looks like you've had quite a find."

  Ceras smiled and said, "Somebody challenged me to a duel, and I won."

  Now the shopkeeper placed his book down with an interesting look in his eye and said, "You won a challenge duel against somebody with all this on them. Their more to you than at first glances there seems to be."

  As Ceras was gathering his item up into his bag on his back and trying to fit them all in, the shop keeper said, "I can sell you a magical bag for carrying lots of items in. As you're a wizard, you can get the cheapest and go to the guild and enhance by learning any of the magical storage spells. The leather pouch is only on silver. Do you want one?"

  Ceras nodded as having used a magical bag of holding in the past; he was keen for the conviction that they afforded him again. So soon he was out of the shop walking along the streets to the rough area his team was staying in. When he entered the room, he shared with the other boys, they all were there working on equipment.

  Grikius said as he sat back on his bed, "You've been gone a long time, were you in the library all of this time?"

  Ceras said to Grikius and Rinaldo, "Will one of you get the girls in here as I've some news to report on my day's activity."

  Rinaldo banged on the wall that divided the room and shouted, "Rhef and Symania, Ceras has some new to tell us."

  The two girls walked into the boy's small room, and Rhef sniffed as said, "You need to open a window in here, and tidy up."

  Then looking at
her brother, with an annoyed face, and said, "Next time try to come and knock quietly on the door, you don't want to annoy the landlady! So, what's this all-important news Ceras?"

  Ceras told them all the story of the attack outside the guild, which ends in him winning the fight and gaining all the equipment.

  In the end, Ceras was saying, "So I want to hand out the equipment to everybody in the group so with can all benefit."

  Rhef said, "It will mean that there will need to do higher level adventures, to get the same level of experience, but will also make money faster, as long as one person does not have all the items it should be ok."

  Symania said with a directly determined look into Ceras eye, "I insisted that you let me pay you back for the item when we have the money."

  Ceras, was about to try and say no but the look of determination told him it was no use, so he said, "If you must."

  The rest agreed with Symania about paying him back when they had the money, so the items were split up with everybody getting something of use. Rinaldo got the chain mail, a ring that increased his agility and the sword; while the girls and Grikius got to ring and amulets that increased their strength. The whole team split up all the health talismans when Symania and Ceras had recharged them. Ceras also kept an amulet that increased his MP as well.

  After all the equipment had been handed out, Rhef looked thoughtful for a while and said, "I'll need to select the next quests carefully, as it needs to be higher than I originally planned with all the extra equipment we have, so we can get the experiences we need to progress. So, I suggest for the next few days we train until we get the weapon back from the blacksmith."

  --

  The next day Ceras was back in the library and had just finished learning the spell for expanding his bag so his new bag it would have a greater volume and act like a bag of holding.

  Ceras was spending a few minutes thinking as he was taking a look out of the window of the library, into the sunlight that was shining through the window with the occasional white clouds, shading the sun ever so often, and was wondering what would be the best spells to learn, over the next few days while they waited for the blacksmith to finish, the weapon for the group. Standing up and stretching his large body, he got an annoyed look from another wizard that was studying close by but ignored the annoyed look and walked over to the index card box. Looking at the card system, Ceras thought, what spells would help me in combat? How about something that froze the enemy in position as it would give us more time to attack.

  He leafed through the cards for any spells that would immobilize attacker amongst the thousands of other old yellowing cards. Ceras found several promising methods and laid the cards on top of the wooden index box to consider them together. The opinions on the cards were: a root immobilization spell, which produced roots from the ground entwining the object he was casting a spell on; stone embraces, this rapped the attacker's feet in stone slowing their movement and agility stats; and the final spell was frozen effects, that froze the attacker to the ground.

  He found all three-book, as he climbed the shelves of the library on a squeaky ladder, and decided to study the frozen attack spell first. Ceras would then see if he could come up with any similarities with the other spells as he studied them.

  The rest of the day passed as Ceras was deep in study with the three spells, slowly he was starting to analysis the common element of the spells that immobilized the object they were acting on. From this, he was able to write out a magical spell subroutine that was associated with the immobilizing element of each of the spell. Writing this separately in his magical book in detail, he decided just to try to see if he could get the subroutine, immobilizing aspect, of the spell to work in isolation.

  He was jumping up from the library desk he first placed all the books back, as he had seen and heard, the librarian berating somebody early, for not putting books back. He did not want to get into her bad books, as she had a sharp tongue and was quick to scold the perpetrator.

  After Ceras had run through the quiet guild buildings, he found himself in one of the magical practice rooms, with a ball he had taken from the courtyard. Readying himself Ceras practiced the spell a few times in his mind and them cast it on the moving ball he had just kicked. He smiled with happiness, he fell because of his success, to see the ball stop suddenly and freeze in midair. Walking over to the ball, he pushed it and found it resistant to movement, but with a little more effort, he was able to move it. After, a few minutes, he watched as the ball dropped to the ground when the magic wore off.

  He repeated this for the next half an hour and still got the same effect, which was too weak for him to use in battle. Looking at the routine he had for immobilization; he wonders what he would have to change to improve the modified spell.

  Ceras went back to the library and studied well into the early hours of the morning, trying to understand the magical theory that immobilization subroutine spell was based on. This was his routine for next two long days full of studying, until on the second day as he was still in the library, late at night, he finally came up with a modified immobilization spell that was enhanced based on the theory he now understood. Ceras wrote some changes to the spell structure, and then examined it with his greater understanding of magical theory, but eventual just went and tried the spell in a practice room.

  Ceras was back in the room with the ball that has been frozen at chest high in the room by his improved spell. He was rubbing his wrist as he had just tried to move the ball by hitting it as hard as he could. This had broken the ball into pieces, but all of the pieces were still in the same volume of space. Leaving the ball hanging in the center of the room, he went home satisfied with what he had developed, and eager to try it out in combat.

  Now back in his small accommodation, he was lying in his bed, to the sound of the two others snoring, he thought about the experience that he gained during the study, and the text flashed up in front of his vision:

  XP 6 of 14 too level 5 Wizard (Task required for progressing from Apprentice to Journeymen completed)

  Ceras was happy that he had completed the required quest for gaining a higher rank, now all he had to do was increase his level to over six and he would be a journeyman.

  Chapter 11 Into the Darkness

  Ceras was enjoying the walk out of the town with his team of adventures, in the bright sun that was warming his skin in the early morning. He had his staff in hand, with the new metal fitting on the ends, that made it weigh heavy but packed more of a punch. Rinaldo and Grikius were swinging their improved maces at the tree on the side of the road, causing a large hole to appear in the tree's sides.

  Rhef said in an annoyed tone, “Will you two stops damaging the trees and making all the noise. I would just like to enjoy a pleasant walk for once.”

  Rinaldo smashed a tree again with a massive swing that made the tree trunk vibrate for a while dropping leaves. Ceras noticed that Grikius put his mace in the belt attachment by the side of his waist.

  Rhef said once Rinaldo had put away his mace as well, “Now that we are finished wanton destruction of the trees, I need to fill you in on the quest I selected for us.”

  Quest Title

  Clear the mine of Monsters

  Description

  In the foot hill mountain of the town clear out a silver mine that has been infested by monster.

  Level

  8

  XP per team member

  4 per level

  Reward

  1 gold per level

  Rhef said to the team in a loud voice as if she was a sergeant major on a parade ground, "This quest fit the bill, as it will be challenging and also provide a lot of money, to the team. This history behind the quest is that the mine, in the mountain northeast of town, and has been abandoned for a few years, during that time monsters have moved in an made it their home. The guild wanted to start mining again, with some of its craft members and so it is sending parties of adventurers to clear the abandone
d mine, of all the monster.

  "I managed to get hold of the quest information before anybody else, so little is known about the mine and how many monsters in each level? So, the rating of the quest, on the information sheet, is a bit more of a guess, so this could be a lot higher quest with more experience points. The guild surveys do think that as we go down the levels in the mine, the monster will be higher level."

  Ceras said in questioning the tone of voice, "So are were going to descend as many levels as we can until the monsters are too high tough for us to handle?"

  Rhef nodded as she said, "Yes, I don't know how deep the mine goes, but we just keep going until we can no longer defeat the monsters. One bonus of this is also we get to keep any of the monster's part for that are useful for ingredients and sell them."

  Ceras shows the team his back and said, "Well, it's lucky that I brought this then as it should hold all that we need."

  With that instruction from Rhef, the adventures started to walk toward the mountains in the distance, by following know paths that were generally clear of monsters as some quest got guild members to patrol them.

  During the morning of walking to the entrance of the mine, they pass several other parties of adventures, some like them in poor clothing while others were wealth and well equip. The well equip parties looked at the team Ceras was in with looks of distaste, but nobody made any comment and kept their distance.

  Rhef said as she walked next to next to Ceras, with a slightly cheeky smile on her face, "It seemed that you little demonstration did not go unnoticed amongst the snotty class of adventures, causing them to keep their distance for now."

  "Well beating somebody to death, require them to be resurrected will do that," said Ceras smiled back.