The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1)

by Kong, Aleron

“This might be a long shot, but do you know anyone that can teach me magic spells?”

  “Mage guilds are sometimes willing to sell lesser spells, but rarely anything stronger.”

  “We are new to our magic, higher level spells are most likely beyond us anyway.”

  “Go to Aldimah’s Focus. It’s where I was going to send you to sell that staff anyway. Walk uphill past two rows of buildings and then go left. Circle a quarter of the city, and you’ll see a string of shops. Aldimah’s has purple windows and a blue door. I only ask that you return by five bells after midday.”

  Richter and Sion assured him that they would, and then they left. They decided to see the merchant first, in case they needed more coin to buy whatever spells were available. His shop was only a short walk from the inn. Walking in, they were greeted with a practiced smile. “Gentlemen! Please come in! Whatever you are looking for I’m sure I can help you find, and if not, I’m sure I can provide something even better, hazaah!”

  The merchant wore a white turban with a colorful feather coming from the front. He was older, and couldn’t have been an inch or two over five feet. He carried more than a little weight around his middle. His clothes were loose silk, and he had a red sash tied around his waist.

  Amused by the round merchant’s demeanor, Richter smiled and said, “Terrod sent us. He said that you could be trusted to treat us fairly.”

  The merchant’s eyes grew somewhat large in alarm. “Yes of course! Please tell Master Terrod that as always, Hafiz is a humble servant and is happy to help. Any friends of his are already friends of mine!”

  Richter was somewhat surprised by the reaction. Just what kind of rep did the innkeeper have? Richter decided that since an honest merchant was most likely as rare and precious a sight as a comet, he would not question his good fortune.

  “I am actually here to sell some jewels. They were, err, part of an inheritance.” Richter pulled out the small chest from the Mist Village vault and opened it.

  “Sir! Please be careful. That much wealth would be worth all of our lives!” The portly man came from behind the counter, and rushed past them to the door. He closed and locked it while looking out the windows to make sure no one had been looking in. Satisfied they had not been observed, the merchant walked back behind the counter, and drew aside a curtain. Hafiz motioned for Richter and Sion to follow him.

  “You seem to be showing us a great deal of trust,” Richter said.

  “Well you have been sent by Terrod which means a great deal. You also seem like a good sort overall. Finally you walked in with a chest of jewels that is most likely worth more than my shop. Not many thieves try to rob you with a golden blade encrusted with diamonds.”

  Richter smiled, “Those are some good points. Either way, thank you for your trust, and I promise you that it’s not misplaced.”

  Hafiz walked over to a small table with a stool. Several large lamps made the room well-lit despite the lack of windows. “Please place the chest on the table, good sir.”

  Richter laid the chest on the table, and Hafiz began removing the gems one by one. He held each to his eye, looking through a small eye piece that had a soft orange glow coming from it. He examined each, and made notations on a small piece of paper. “This will take a while sir. Please feel free to peruse my goods while you wait. There are many different goods up front, but my elite stock is on these back shelves. I invite your companion to stay with me. Always best to keep each other honest, hazaah!”

  Smiling again at the strange little man, Richter went back to the front of the shop. Sion decided to stay with the merchant as suggested. Richter walked through the front and found several useful items, rope, flint and steel, oil, and other sundry items. He gathered them on the counter and then moved to the back again to see the merchant’s “elite” items.

  The lowest shelves held gems and jewelry. Since he had come to sell jewels, those shelves did not keep his interest. What he found above was much more interesting, however. The first thing his eyes were drawn to was a glass display filled with arrow heads. They all had a slight glow to them.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Dispelling. Will dispel active enchantments on target.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Flame. Will do additional 10-12 damage on impact. Chance to cause Burn.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Stun. Chance to stun target for 3-5 seconds.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Negation. Will ignore magical defenses.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Poison. Chance to poison target, doing additional 2-4 damage for 10 seconds.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Freeze. Will do additional 7-9 damage on impact. Chance to cause Freeze.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Piercing. Will ignore up to 33% of opponents armor.

  You have found: Arrowhead of Confusion. Target may attack anyone near, including possibly allies.

  Jackpot! Richter moved the box of arrowheads to the front counter.

  He also found various other items that would come in useful.

  You have found: Ring of Health: Durability 11/11. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. Traits: Increase maximum Health by +30.

  He found four of those.

  You have found: Ring of Mana: Durability 9/9. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Average. Weight: 0.1 kg. Traits: Increase maximum mana by +20.

  You have found: Belt of Strength: Durability 40/40. Item class: Rare. Quality: Above Average. Weight 1.1 kg. Traits: Increase Strength by +4.

  The last item that caught his attention was a black satchel sitting at the end of the shelf.

  You have found: Bag of Holding. Durability 50/50. Item class: Epic. Quality: Exquisite. Weight 1.0 kg + 0.1 kg x total weight of items. Traits: Can hold large amount of items. Contents of bag will only be 10% of normal weight. Thinking of desired object will retrieve it from bag. Item is Soul Bound, it cannot be lost or stolen. Can only be transferred with an open heart.

  At last! What Richter had been missing more than anything else from his game days was the inventory that was present in every RPG. Having to actually schlep everything he wanted to carry was a real pain in the butt. Anyone who has had to walk to the store for groceries would know what he was talking about. He held the bag almost reverently as he placed it on the counter. By the time he was done perusing, Hafiz was putting down his ledger, done cataloguing the stones in the chest.

  “Well good sir, you are truly blessed to have found such a rich trove of jewels.”

  “Are they really that good?”

  “Oh yes! My monocle of identification was made by the finest elvish glass smiths and then enchanted by one of the Master Light mages of the Illuminator guild. I would stake my reputation by this ledger,” then he sighed. “As I suspected I can only afford a portion of these stones.”

  The merchant pushed about a fifth of the stones to the side, and they looked mostly to be only the semiprecious stones. “These stones are worth roughly three hundred and ten gold.” Richter coughed, his mouth opening in shock. That was thirty one thousand dollars! He was hoping that the gems would cover his costs, but if Hafiz was correct his chest was more than a hundred grand, maybe closer to two or even three!

  Hafiz misunderstood Richter’s expression. “I promise you sir that this is a fair price! I am an honest merchant, and especially would not cheat of friend of Mr. Terrod!” Richter closed his mouth and assured the man that he trusted his good intentions, mollified Hafiz continued, “I have this in gold bands,” and he laid two finger length rectangular bars of gold down on the table along a heavy bag and ten gold coins. Seeing Richter’s questioning look, he explained. “Each of these bars is the equivalent of one hundred gold coins. Now if you allow me, I can see what you have picked from my stock, and we can do the rest in trade.”

  The rotund man walked up to the counter, making short oohs and aahs he lined up each item and placed a stone next to each. The arrowheads equated to a thumbnail sized jade, the rings a slightly smaller turquoise. The bel
t of strength, a square cut emerald, and the basic items he piled together and equated to a small pearl. When he came to the bag however, he looked at Richter for a moment and then firmly placed two diamonds in front of it.

  Richter coughed in shock. He knew because of the bag’s stats, as well as its usefulness, it would be expensive, but good god! Two diamonds that size probably meant he was paying as much for that bag as he had for his first car. Suddenly an argument with an ex-girlfriend came to mind where she criticized him for wasting money on video games, and he threw her expensive purse collection back at her. She had of course responded, “It’s an investment.” His response that maybe math wasn’t her strong suit had NOT gone well. Sigh, live and learn. Maybe if the purse had been able to fold space to make a pocket dimension, then she would have had a point though.

  Even though it was painful he looked Hafiz in the eye and nodded his assent. The man grinned broadly, and clapped his hands. “Praise to the lord of commerce, let us both profit from this day, hazaah!” Shaking hands they finished the deal. Richter was surprised when Hafiz reached out with both hands and laid them on the bag. A white light emanated from his hands, and when he removed them a clear gem sat on the bag. At the merchant’s gesture, Richter picked up the gem and was greeted with the prompt.

  Would you like to take ownership of this Bag of Holding? Yes or No?

  Choosing “Yes” the gem disappeared, and he found a new small icon in the corner of his vision which looked like the black bag. Selecting it a 20x20 empty grid appeared. Unable to keep a look of childlike glee from his face he began placing and removing items from the bag. Just as described, as soon as he reached into the bag he simply had to focus on the object he wanted and it would materialize in his hand ready to be pulled out. He placed the magic staff in, and sure enough its entire length disappeared into bag. The staff took up a 3x1 area of the grid. He then decided to put a copper, silver and gold coin in the bag, and retrieved each in turn. He might be excited, but he wasn’t about to throw all of his money into a black hole without making sure he could get it back first! Seeing as it was a success though, he placed the gold bands as well as his coins into the Bag of Holding. Thieves had been a major concern but now he could rest relatively easier needing only to keep track of the one bag. Each type of coin took up one slot in the bag, and clearly displayed the amount of each. He placed the rest of the gems back in the chest and placed it into the bag. Spending a few more moments he transferred over the contents of his old pack. Each herb stacked, and made it much easier to organize. Best of all it was Soul Bound! He finally didn’t need to worry about losing all of his items if he died again.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you good sir,” Hafiz asked.

  “Do you have any maps? Magic or otherwise?”

  “I have a few maps of the surrounding areas and waterways, and one other item. Please give me a moment sir.” The white clad merchant walked to the back.

  He came back after a few minutes. In his hands was a two foot long parchment that was bound with a green and yellow striped ribbon.

  “This is a Traveler’s Map, sir. Are you familiar with their guild?” Richter shook his head.

  “They are a potpourri of different skills and races. Some are magic users, others are fighters, some are simple woodsmen, and the only thing they have in common is a love of travel. Either singly or in groups they move across the land and create maps of the world. They sell these for exorbitant fees to the rich and powerful. The price is paid however, because this is actually an extremely versatile tool! It provides access to whatever information the Traveler imparted to this map. You can even do so mentally without opening the physical scroll. Finally owning the parchment lets you add your own geographic information. As the map is bound to you, the physical map will only show information that you wish shared!”

  The item sounded amazing! As the description grew more detailed however, Richter’s heart began to sink. This must be an item of incredible cost! True he probably had the gems to pay for it, but Richter was not one to squander money. He might be looking at an eternity here, and being careless with money today could means centuries of hard times ahead.

  The reluctance on his face must have been apparent. Hafiz moderated his excited tone, “Well as I said, normally this is only an item for the wealthiest of patrons, but the information contained within is only as current as when the map was made. The particular Traveler that made the map lived at least two hundred years ago, possibly a good deal longer ago than that. It was found in the belongings of a recently departed nobleman. His family had fallen on hard times because of his love of the bottle. As such, he left his children with few assets and even less regard for him. They sold his items quickly and cheaply. So you see, with this particular map, I have no idea about the usefulness of any of the information contained within. The enchantments will still work either way though, sir, so it is a valuable item nonetheless. If you are interested, I could relinquish it for only one more small diamond.”

  Richter understood what Hafiz was saying. The information was most likely hopelessly out of date. It was a risk to buy it. Admittedly he could make his own maps, and so the item was very useful in and of itself. Xuetrix the imp had said The Land was bigger than the Earth. If that was true he had seen less than 1% of 1% so far. Richter weighed the pros and cons and decided that even if the Traveler’s information was useless, the map itself was a good investment in his future. After all, G Maps had been about the most used app on his phone. He did need to know one thing though.

  “How much are these diamonds worth, Hafiz?”

  “Well sir, each is high quality and cut finely. So per carat each will be worth fifty gold coins.”

  Richter’s eyes bulged again. Five thousand dollars! He dreaded asking the next question, but couldn’t help himself. “So how many carats were in the diamonds I have already traded you?”

  “The diamonds you traded for the bag were two carats each. I will trade the map for this last diamond that is a bit over one carat,” the merchant replied promptly.

  Richter sighed deeply. He almost wished he didn’t know. His calculations had been off. Those two diamonds had been worth more than his first car, a lot more! He tried to comfort himself that he couldn’t take it with him when he died, but he realized that now he could! He could and would take it with him! He tried to focus on the big picture, but his mind shouted that twenty five thousand bucks worth of stones was a pretty damn big picture!

  Richter finally closed his eyes and rubbed the spot on his ear that always relaxed him. He had followed George Takei on facebook, and one day it had showed a pressure point called “Shen Men.” Apparently it translated to “heavenly gate.” He had tried rubbing it, and actually found it was very relaxing! He closed his eyes to try to find the same peace with the gentle massage. Surprisingly a prompt came up. It was very strange seeing something even with his eyes closed.

  Congratulations! You have learned the subskill: Pressure Points. Certain points on bodies can harm or heal. In unarmed combat, certain spots will draw your attention, and you will know intuitively what they do. This is a subskill of Unarmed Combat. As you have learned this subskill, you have also learned Unarmed Combat.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Unarmed Combat. You can attack and defend yourself without the crutch of weapons.

  Thank you Hikaru Sulu! Richter was stacking up these skills! Taking his new skill as an omen, he nodded to Hafiz, and pushed the diamond across the table, picking up the map. “How do I use it?”

  Again Hafiz touched the map and a white light flared leaving a clear ownership gem in its place, “Simply break the seal and pick up the gem,” he said.

  Richter did as instructed.

  You have found: Traveler’s Map. Would you like to accept ownership? Yes or No?

  As if he had paid all that dough for nothing! He accepted “Yes,” and a small map icon appeared at the corner of his gaze. The gem crumpled to dust after he accepted
ownership. He selected the icon, and a translucent almost opaque screen appeared to fill most of his visual field. It was like looking down from above. The map was centered on Law, and the city took up about half the screen. But what if I want to see more or a different scale, Richter thought. Immediately a bar appeared vertically at the edge of the map. Focusing he could make the slider on the bar move up and down and the map zoomed in and out. At maximum zoom, Richter could make out individual streets in the city. At minimal zoom the map showed Law as a small circle. The Kingdom of Yves was a roughly circular patch of green with a dotted line surrounding it. To the east of the kingdom was a yellow patch written as ‘Plains of Gold,’ and just north were the ‘Singing Hills’ and ‘Whisper Woods of Grevnt.’ Richter could see the Serrated Mountains and north of them was the Kingdom of Rione, but it was called the ‘Villages of Rione.’ Several other small kingdoms dotted the map. Farther north was a large swath of greyed out area called simply ‘the Wilds.’ The Forest of Nadria occupied the right side of the map. Going to medium zoom many dungeons, caves, crypts and other points of interest could be seen. It was strange, that some areas had more color on the map and others were almost monochromatic. He soon figured out that the colored areas followed his own path since coming to the Land. He had to guess that more color meant more current information. This map was amazing!

  He zoomed out to maximum and the colored part of the map became a small island in a sea of black. He zoomed back in. Off to the bottom right there was a small glowing arrow. Richter changed his focus and the map slid in that direction, no longer focused on the Kingdom. It moved past the Forest, over open ocean and then settled over a series of islands. The map named them ‘Isles of Lonyu.’ On the second biggest was a glowing marker. When he zoomed in he saw was a small dilapidated castle. Another prompt filled the screen.

  You have discovered the Lost Citadel of the Mage Poquatil.

  You have been offered a Quest: Right an Ancient Wrong I. The Traveler that made this map accepted a quest that remains undone. As he is now dead, and no previous owners of this map have completed it, the task now falls to you. You must travel to the Lost Citadel and find the remains of the mage Poquatil. Unlock the mystery of the Lost Citadel. Reward: Unknown. Yes or No?