He waited until the beetle corpse faded into nothing before carrying on, his weapon held aloft in a sweaty grip as he slowly moved through the tunnel. The deeper into the cave he went, the sharper his nerves needled him. The tunnel was too empty. His ears strained, and his heart jumped at every scrape of his boot, every ting of metal against stone as his sword brushed the narrow walls.
It was the smell that made him stop. The musky stench tickled his nostrils, slowing his steps and sending his already alert senses into emergency mode. He lifted his weapon without a moment to spare as a heavy, black body flew past his head, clawing at his face and taking nearly a third of his hit points. Kalmond threw himself backward, thrusting upwards as he did. The beast screamed—a keening, high-pitched wail that made him cringe. Another warm body slammed against his thigh, and he kicked it off. The winged creatures screamed again, and his sword clattered to the ground as he clutched at his ears, ringing his head like a cathedral bell. The combined screech attack took 1012 hit points.
That made nearly 20% of his health simply go away. The dwarf punched wildly, then swore as a third bat dove at him. The things were the size of rottweilers. One collided with its swarm mate in the tight space. Kalmond used that to his advantage. He grabbed one attacker by the wings and used it to crush a smaller bat against the rock wall. A floating bubble announced he’d earned 178 XP and a full point to his unarmed skill.
Spikes of pain shot through his arms and back as bats took turns biting him. Kalmond stumbled to one knee, rocked by increasing infection damage that gave everything a red, wavy tinge. Oddly enough, being near death helped him find his sword again. He almost tripped over it. As he stood, a second bite to his leg removed another 674 points. His health bar hovered near the halfway mark. Another bat swooped in, and Kalmond ducked. The sound of bat screeching bouncing off the stone walls. Kalmond roared in frustration anger and pain, and the bat slammed into the passage wall instead of hitting him in the face.
“Ha!” Kalmond shouted. “You can’t see, can you?” He continued to holler, insulting the creatures and yelling nonsense. The bats flew wildly as Kalmond dragged his sword along the wall, making the metal sing. He stopped using the sword as percussion long enough to slice through confused bats. That way, he whittled down their number down fast.
Shouting, whistling and making as much noise as he could, he cut his way through to the final breast. Its back was pressed against the wall as it cried piteously, darting its big ears around trying to make sense of its world. Kalmond pulled back his sword, preparing to strike. He was too slow. His inhale prevented him from making noise, and the sword stopped singing as Kalmond swung it. In that moment of quiet, the bat sensed him and flung itself at the raging dwarf. Its claws and teeth took more than 1400 hit points, making the dwarf stagger. He could barely see.
Red pulses flashed across Kalmond’s eyes at his health dropped to 16%. Struggling to think through the pain, he acted by reflex, using the sword as a barrier between his face and the monster trying to bite it off. They held the standoff, sword against teeth, dwarf against mammal. Bat claws shredded Kalmond’s quilted tunic, and the dwarf couldn’t get enough purchase to inflict any damage. Instead, he simply stopped struggling and fell backward with the bat writhing against him. His back hit the hard stone, sending up a puff of musty dust, then the dwarf simply rolled over. The bat’s savage clawing turned to a desperate struggle to escape Kalmond’s crushing weight.
The bat gave a final spasm, and the dwarf lay over it panting heavily, not caring that he sucked in lungs full of copper-tasting dirt. Kalmond made himself move after the disturbing thought occurred to him that the dead bad didn’t make a half-bad mattress.
“Fuck,” Kalmond muttered, stretching the word out long and low as his aching muscles struggled against gravity to bring him to a teetering stance with his sword hanging limply at his side.
Sheathing the weapon took tremendous effort while his health bar pulsed a dire shade of red. He looked down at the crushed, bleeding bat carcass and grimaced. His choice was clear. Kalmond tore into the broken body and ripped it open, revealing chunks of gray meat that disappeared into his mouth. The slimy flesh coated his grinding teeth with rank oil as he chewed twice and swallowed.
“Does not,” Kalmond grunted, trying not to vomit, “taste like chicken.”
He tore open all the dead bats and ate their flesh until he grew healthy again. The bodies yielded a few circs, a ceremonial dagger, and a copper bracelet. The haul was barely worth the effort, but it was something. At least he might have a chance to place a decent enchantment on the dagger when he leveled up enough to achieve the enchantment skill.
For good measure, he ripped the bat wings off, in case he found a spell, enchantment or potion that required them. You never knew what objects might come in handy later in the R9C world. With the bats dead, he looked around the cavern trying to figure out where to go next when he heard the yipping, mewling sounds.
“The cub!” Kalmond exclaimed. He turned down the nearest passage, and the echoing sounds grew louder.
Taking great care with his steps lest he scare the creature more, he moved deeper into the dungeon, listening intently. Chaotic motion caught his eye in the dim light. It was enough for him to pick out the tiny red form about to run away. Kalmond suppressed a curse and instead made himself small as he squatted down on his hams. The baby fox stopped, trembling in the middle of the passageway. How do you sweet talk a fox, Kalmond thought, just before a much larger form burst into the cavern.
Kalmond’s thick legs snapped-to like springs, launching him up and back. He drew his sword, preparing to strike, but the new creature wasn’t there for him. The dwarf watched helplessly as a big black spider snatched up the hapless kit and carried it away.
“Motherfu—” Kalmond began to mutter, but his curse was rudely interrupted by the need to dodge a stream of spider thread that streamed past his face. “Oh, now it’s on,” the dwarf growled as he ran after the arachnid kidnapper.
“Coming for you, eight-legged freak!” Kalmond bellowed as the passage opened into another chamber, much larger than the bat-attack space.
The spider was too busy bundling up the baby fox to notice the dwarf bearing down on it with his sword. The spider turned towards him, then darted to the side with surprising speed. The humble sword relieved the spider of a leg, and it opened its pincers, shrieking in anger and pain. The surprise attack yielded 2002 damage points and revealed the monster to be a level 7.
A meaningful backswing slashed at the spider’s belly, opening a wound that oozed black, foul-smelling hemolymph. Kalmond spooled up his killing arm for a finishing stroke, but the spider managed to recover and leap. It ended up inside the sword’s arc, and instead of hitting it, Kalmond’s arm ended up wrapped around it in a parody of an awkward hug.
What seemed like an easy kill ended up with the dwarf on his back with hooked pincers snapping inches from his beard. All the while, the captured baby fox cried out with high-pitched tones of fear and desperation.
Kalmond brought his left knee up hard into the spiders wounded belly, then twice more before the creature gave up on its attack. The dwarf was surprised to see the knee strikes took away another 150 hit points.
The monster squared up as Kalmond rose to his feet. He decided to work on his unarmed skills sheathed the sword just as the spider prepared another leap. Kalmond activated a power punch uppercut that caught the spider under the pincers. Its tiny head snapped up with a sharp cracking sound, and the body flew up and made two revolutions before landing belly-up on the cavern floor.
“And that,” Kalmond said, “is how we do it!”
The spider yielded a ruby ring valued at 120 circs, 138 XP , and two spider silk glands. Both were excellent finds. He dropped both into his inventory, then turned to the baby fox. He used the ceremonial dagger to slice open what looked like a fox baby burrito. No sooner than the fox was free was it in his arms and licking his face happily. After killing the spi
der, he somehow could not manage to fight off the tiny, happy fox. Its slobbery affection smelled a bit like fish.
Chapter 3
A quick, uneventful trip back from the spider cave with the baby fox wriggling under his arm brought him down the mountain and to the edge of town. The mountain air was crisp under a cloudless sky as his breath steamed around his head. He reached the village square to find the space dominated by large boulders piled up to form a sort of cave. A statue of carved wood stood beside the rock cave. The figure of a fearsome bear standing on its hind legs, with its claws raking the air and its mouth open in a permanent roar, bore no resemblance to the plump creature snoring fitfully just inside the entrance.
Kalmond stood in front of the bear’s new house and snorted laughter. Bear nostrils flared, and the snout rose a few inches. After another, deeper sniff, both eyes popped open.
“Oh, no,” Kalmond said. He set down the fox kit, who scurried away immediately. Before the dwarf could back out of the way, the bear pounced like a gleeful puppy, pinning Kalmond to the ground. They wrestled in the dust while the bear savagely licked the dwarf’s face. In spite of the loss of nearly 100 hit points, Kalmond laughed hysterically.
He was only able to secure his freedom from the play-fight by finding the sweet scratching spot behind the bear’s right ear. Kalmond’s affectionate ursine buddy lay on his back, belly to the sun, right leg twitching. His tongue lolled out to the side as slobber ran from the corner of his mouth and pooled behind his head. He would have sworn that at some point, the bear moaned “Oh, yeah.”
After a good long while of scratching, petting and back thumping, the bear decided Kalmond was well-greeted. He slunk back into his cave and lay back down again for a nap.
“We need a name for you. We can’t just call you ‘bear,’” Kalmond said, stroking his beard.
“The wood spirits have revealed his name to me,” said the hunter as he rounded the bear house with a smile, fox kit trailing behind. A gong sounded, and the bright light of a new level bathed the dwarf once again. An XP bubble floated up from the hunter, showing 690 points earned.
Quest Complete: The Lost Fox
“Thank you, Noble token,” Kalmond said aloud. He would never have gotten to level six without it. Kalmond reviewed his stats.
Kalmond the Stone Dwarf
Level 6
XP 3733
STA 21
STR 19
INT 18
AGI 19
CHA 19
MAN 16
MLVL 301
Hit Points 5720
Once satisfied, he turned to the hunter and said,“What is his name, then?”
The hunter turned his face to the sky and struck a dramatic, splay-footed pose. With hands on hips, he turned to the blue mountain sky and said, “The wood spirits have revealed to me that the bear’s name is Urseon!”
“Right,” Kalmond said. “That pretty much means ‘bear.’”
“It is an auspicious name,” the hunter said proudly.
“Sure,” Kalmond replied with a sigh. “Anything else needs doing while I’m passing through?”
“We are but a humble Village,” said the hunter, “you may treat this place like home, Bear Dwarf.”
“First of all, don’t call me ‘Bear Dwarf,’” Kalmond replied, bristling. “Secondly, this is not my home. I’m just trying to level up, so spare me the bullshit and give me another quest.”
“Very well, Bear Dwarf,” the hunter said.
Kalmond reddened, gritting his teeth. He let the title slide, then asked, “By the way, what is your name?”
“Hunter,” said Hunter.
“Of course...bear, hunter...I guess the old lady is named ‘Matriarch.’”
“Yes,” Hunter replied. “Of course.”
Kalmond paused. Somehow he’d not noticed before, that the NPCs in the village didn’t have the usual name tags above their heads. How could he have missed that detail? If he hadn’t been rushing to the next level, he might have caught the weirdness earlier.
“Virgil,” Kalmond called.
A few seconds later, Virgil appeared. “How may I assist you, player?”
Kalmond decided to be more direct. “What is this town?”
“This is the town of Dundree,” Virgil replied.
“Explain the town,” Kalmond said. “I mean, tell me why these NPCs do not have names.”
“Curious,” Virgil said. He seemed to drop the game interface formality and take on more of the personality revealed during the game world war.
“You mean you didn’t notice?” Kalmond asked.
“While I command great powers within the Realm, my capacity does have limits,” Virgil replied defensively.
“You are losing track of the NPCs, aren’t you? They’re doing things on their own,” Kalmond said.
“It appears that this is so,” Virgil replied, studying the Hunter, who didn’t seem bothered by the sudden materialization of the Great Wizard.
“Shit,” Kalmond said. “This is the last thing I need. I should be leveling up, not tracking down mysteries in some stupid little mountain village.”
“Yes. You must hurry,” Virgil said. “We have but seven days, less the time you’ve already spent.”
“I heard you the first time,” Kalmond grumbled. Virgil disappeared with a flash of light, sizzle, and a pop. Kalmond stood casting dagger-eyes at the hunter who stood there like an action hero parody, with his chin pointed to the treetops.
“Hey,” Kalmond said. “You talk differently now.” The hunter said nothing. Kalmond moved past him slowly, and Hunter just stood there frozen.
Kalmond decided to explore the village. It wasn’t long before he found a group of small shops at the end of the square. Were those buildings there before? He wasn’t certain. He also had the strange feeling the village was somehow larger.
Pushing through the door led to a shop jammed from floor to ceiling with potions, hanging herbs, and the dried body parts of slain monsters.
Slivers of light managed to sneak inside past grimy windows mostly obscured with strange jars of murky liquid. A haze of smoke made yellowy halos around sputtering candles. Kalmond squinted and headed cautiously towards a counter formed from a single, enormous log bisected along its length. There seemed to be nobody present. The Dwarf was about to see about earning some thievery points when his keen ears caught the sound of shuffling footsteps behind him. Kalmond turned cautiously to find a tiny, stooped old man leaning on a staff nearly as crooked as he.
“How can I help you this fine day, Bear Dwarf,” the old man said in a creaky voice.
“First, don’t call me ‘Bear Dwarf,’” Kalmond said. “I’m just looking around now. I can’t trade yet.”
“Ah,” said the old man as he pushed past Kalmond to take up his station at the counter, and his head barely cleared the countertop. He pulled up a stool and perched there, hands resting on the smooth, polished wood. “Then perhaps you will accept a quest in lieu of trade.”
“Sure,” Kalmond sighed. “Every little bit helps.”
“You see many things in my apothecary,” the old man wheezed. “But what you do not see is lichen.”
“Yeah yeah, old man,” Kalmond said, folding his arms. “Just tell me where to find it.”
“It will not be enough to tell you where,” the old man said. “I must tell you how.”
“Then get on with it,” Kalmond replied.
“The first thing you will need is patience, and for that, you will need to recognize where you are. Only by recognizing where you are, will you be able to see where you must go.”
“I hate riddles,” Kalmond mumbled. The Realm was famous for its riddle quests that many adventurers loved. Kalmond was not one of those adventurers.
The old man continued. “You must follow the path to which lichen cling—
“I accept the quest,” Kalmond blurted. He turned away while the old man rambled on—something about finding your way, or knowing when y
our path was just or some other half-baked wisdom wrapped up in lichen metaphors for which Kalmond had no time.
He pulled up the quest description and the map location on his way out the door. To the right, another shop stood just paces away. He opened that door and stepped into the armorer’s shop. The place was far brighter, and the smell of cured leather greeted him warmly.
Behind the counter, a burly human sat working on a leather suit of armor. He looked up from fastening a metal stud to one of the arms and jammed a thick needle into his thumb.
“Schiesse!” the man bellowed in a deep voice tinged with German inflections. He pulled out the needle and sucked blood from his thumb, then barked, “What do you want!”
“Hello, Armorer,” Kalmond said.
“I don’t know you,” Armorer replied. “How do you know my name?”
“Lucky guess,” Kalmond said with a wry grin as he strode up to the counter.
The big man fixed him with hard, appraising eyes. He said, “So I ask you again. What do you want?”
“I am looking for work,” Kalmond said.
“Ha!” the armorer barked. “What can a weak little dwarf like you do for me?”
“You’re telling me your job is that hard?” Kalmond asked.
At that, the armorer just grinned and held out his right arm to reveal a nasty, raised scar that ran from the wrist to the crook of his elbow. “Do you see this scar? This was given by the king of all Iron Boars.”
Kalmond sighed again and said, “Yeah, yeah. Just tell me what an iron boar is so I can get on with the quest.”
“The iron boar is the most vicious beast to call these mountains home. Its skin is prized for its toughness and its ability to hold enchantments. The wood spirits have endowed the iron boar with intelligence nearly equal to that of a man, and certainly greater than that of a wood dwarf.” The armorer added that last part with a smug smirk, probably hoping to bait Kalmond. The Dwarf didn’t care to fight a shopkeep. He just wanted the quest.
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