“I accept,” Kalmond said. “What is my reward?”
“I doubt I will see you again, Dwarf,” Armorer said. “But if I do, I will complete this suit of iron boar leather armor. And you can even use my workshop… that is if you survive.”
“I’ll survive,” Kalmond said. He headed back out into the village with two quests stacked up. The sight of the next town NPC froze him dead in his tracks.
A tall, slender woman with golden hair and blindingly white robes headed straight for him. Flowing cloth trailed behind her like mountain mists. She drew near and smiled at the dwarf with nearly elven features, ice blue eyes nearly casting a light of their own. Kalmond absently rested a hand on the pommel of his sword and grinned stupidly.
“Greetings, Great Bear Dwarf,” the woman said with a curtsey.
“Yes,” Kalmond replied. “That’s me, the Bear Dwarf. Why the hell not?” He grinned harder as his eyes traced the ‘V’ cut of her garment that rose from her navel to frame breasts large, firm and round.
“My mother Matriarch says that you might be able to help me recapture my silkworms,” she said, batting long eyelashes.
“Of course,” Kalmond said, moving closer. His dwarven stature brought his head even with her chest.
Kalmond opened his mouth to speak, and the woman exclaimed a word that shattered his hopes like a fumbled egg. “Husband!” she said. “The Bear Dwarf has agreed to help me!”
Kalmond turned to find the human tree trunk of the Armorer outside his shop heading his way. “Bear Dwarf! Ha!” the big man bellowed. “He never told me his name, and I’d not have guessed! Nevermind. He will be dead soon. This fool has agreed to fetch an Iron Boar hide for me.”
At that, the woman gasped and covered her mouth. “You are a great warrior, but you mustn’t pursue the Iron Boar.”
“Let the dwarf be, beautiful wife. Come, let us lunch together. It is that time again.”
“Oh, Armie,” She said, placing hands on hips. “Do you only think of your belly?”
“No, my dove,” Armorer said, pushing Kalmond out of the way and wrapping his arms around the woman. “I think of your belly, and the child who will arrive there soon should the wood spirits bless us.”
“Give me a break,” Kalmond groaned. “I accept your quest.” He sighed as he turned away, not bothering to read the clothier’s quest description.
At the edge of town, he stopped to check his map and quickly skim the quest objectives. The lichen quest was a level seven and would be easiest to complete, but doing it first would require him to skirt around the silkworms, a level higher, to get to the quest location. The boars were further west and rated a level nine, so they would have to wait until Kal had a bit more power behind his swing. He hoped he might level high enough to make the boar quest easier, so he chose to pursue the silkworms first.
Shaking off his frustration, he set off to quest. As he trod through a field outside the village, his thoughts turned to the pretty clothier back in town. He smiled. Then, remembering her ass of a husband, his smile faded. The mid-morning sun warmed his head, contrasting with the cold mountain breeze. The day seemed a euphemism for his situation—a chilly disappointment. Kalmond thought regaining his lost status and levels would be easy. After all, he was one of the Noble Four! He’d helped save the Realm from the evil dictator Mylos and stopped his real-life counterpart Gideon Thistlethwhaite from harvesting human brains for his crazy experimental technology.
Instead of fame and fortune, he’d been burned by his clan, abandoned by his friends and was now stuck schlepping it out alone, finding useless items for in-game characters even Virgil hadn’t bothered to name. His mind snagged at that. The algorithmic method of world-building shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. He’d have to remember to bring that up with someone in the relevant department. After all, it was his company now, if only in part and completely in secret.
Leaves crunched beneath his boots as the dwarf passed through a forest to reach another field scattered with shrubs and bushes between wide patches of grass. Hand-sized silk moths flitted around everywhere, their sparkling white wings casting off sunlight. A quick map check revealed the silkworms should be nearby. Kalmond hefted his sword, wishing it was his familiar old axe and proceeded forwards.
His eyes darted back and forth, finally spying a small stand of trees across the field corresponding to the quest marker. He couldn’t see anything protecting the goal, so he rushed forward, hoping to scoop up the worms before whatever monster guarding the area returned. There was always a monster.
Something slammed into his back, making him face-surf on the ground. A screech erupted overhead. Kalmond rolled and scrambled away on hands and knees just in time to see a very nasty pair of claws grasp at the empty air he’d just vacated. The scar bird flapped and shot back up to the sky as its companion swooped down at Kalmond’s head.
“Shit!” he yelped. “Fucking scar birds!” Kalmond scrambled to his feet and ran with two creatures hot on his tail. Both had two levels on him, and as the larger of the two lined itself up for another attack, he realized he had two choices: hide or die. He couldn’t fight two, and it looked like more were coming.
Kalmond took the sensible option, diving to one side as the scar bird swept past. He was too slow. A talon gouged his right arm, ripping through fabric like it wasn’t there. Kalmond drew and swung his sword blindly at the retreating bird and missed by several feet. One of the birds belted him in the shoulder, and a flare of pain announced a significant reduction in his health bar. He’s lost 2080 hit points. Kalmond tried not to notice he’d lost a third of his health. It didn’t work. Fear spurred his feet that pounded soil in retreat.
He aimed for the taller bushes he’d traipsed through earlier, weaving from side to side in the hope of confusing the birds. Another screech made his feet pump harder. A yellow bar, lined up above his depleted health status, blinked rapidly. His endurance points were almost gone after not much of a sprint at all.
As the thin line shrank, Kalmond angled towards his final shot at safety. Just before his endurance blipped out, he activated a charge. Usually called upon in a fight or a surprise attack, the ability gave him a few extra feet per endurance point than simply running. He shot forward, a brief flow of energy sparking in his blood. He collapsed on the soft earth beneath the bushes.
He’d aimed well, tumbling into what turned out to be a thick raspberry bush. Kalmond cringed, face in the dirt, waiting for the attack. It never came. The birds couldn’t get to him in the bushes. When his endurance finally ticked back up by a single point, he rolled over onto his back and pushed aside the leaves above him. The sky was clear. The birds had broken off. They must have a specific area, Kalmond thought, but where, exactly, is the trigger.
The fine branches near his face trembled as his lungs heaved air. Though dwarven limbs were short, they apparently had the capacity to weigh more than lead when properly exhausted. He groaned and forced himself up to a sitting position, then achingly reached for a nearby berry. The food raised his endurance by a small increment, and he grabbed another, shoving it into his mouth until his health bar ticked up.
Low endurance not only made him physically weakened, but it also made him hungry. Kalmond stripped the bush of fruit, then, after checking carefully around and above, he slipped out of his hiding spot and into a neighboring berry bush. The berries were tart, but he ate until his stomach bulged. Then, back at 80% health, he felt well enough to make a plan.
Kalmond had been attacked right at the edge of the silkworm quest goal, according to his map. The scar birds would likely appear there. He knew that he would have to take them on one at a time. To win, he’d need to set the terms of the fight, rather than just showing up and facing down the big nasty birds. He’d have to find a way to attract one of the birds without alerting its friend, and he’d need an escape plan in case that attempt went badly. But first, he had to find exactly what triggered the birds and where the trigger was.
&nbs
p; The seeds of a plan had him feeling braver and more alert. The raspberries also helped. Kalmond crept up to the border of the quest goal. Using sneak, the dwarf crawled along the edge of the field bordered by shrubs and bushes until the spell ran out, then he slipped back into the bushes. The silkworms were in a stand of white-barked trees that stood off-center in the vague circle of the grassy clearing. When he estimated he was about twenty running paces from the goal, Kalmond activated sneak again and crept towards the goal.
Ding! A bell sounded and text scrolled before Kalmond’s eyes. Sneak increased to level three. The Realm rewarded his frequent and effective use of sneak. He’d need to use it a lot more to get past level three unless he found a higher-level spell scroll.
The screeching came first in the sky from two black dots in the blue that grew so rapidly into four scar birds that Kalmond barely made it back to the bushes in time. The birds circled the silkworm trees. One of them settled in the upper branches for a moment while the other three faded back into the blue. The lone bird stared at Kalmond for a moment before beating its shabby black wings back into the sky.
Now he knew their number and had an idea of where they came from. He let his mana bar slide back to full before sneaking once again towards the tree. When within a few running strides, the screeching started again, and the scar birds dropped out of the sky.
They adhered to the same pattern. One of the birds landed in the upper branches while the others flew away. Just to be sure, the dwarf repeated the experiment. Sure enough, as Kalmond reached the same distance, the birds appeared.
Kalmond ran back to hide in the bushes until the fourth bird flew away. He waited to make sure both mana and endurance bars were full before he bolted back towards the tree once more, not bothering to sneak. The birds dove and swooped, but this time, Kalmond ran to a closer set of bushes while the three scar birds left. Just before the fourth bird took flight, Kalmond charged the tree again.
The fourth scar bird launched itself at him instantly. Kalmond was ready with his sword, his power swing multiplied by the bird’s momentum. The impact nearly knocked the sword from his hand and sent a jolt of pain up his arm, but the critical hit scored big to the tune of almost 3000 damage points. He’d hit the bird where its wing joint met its body. It couldn’t fly, but it was plenty dangerous.
Kalmond danced away as the bird raised its one good wing and charged like a weird two-legged bull. Its thick, sharp, hooked beak caught the dwarf in the left shoulder, taking a disturbing 2400 hit points. More screeching rained down from the sky, and Kalmond forced himself not to look up at the birds he knew were inbound. He dodged right, then immediately sprang forward with an overhand chop that severed something critical in the scar bird’s neck. A fan of rank, nearly-black blood sprayed Kalmond in the face. He finished the bird with a backhand stroke that nearly took off the head and earned him a respectable 240 XP.
A less-than-sane decision led Kalmond to search the corpse even as the other three birds arrived. Kalmond added items to his inventory without reading their names or descriptions, then bolted towards the brush. A beak slashed at Kalmond’s scalp as he ran and talons raked his back again. He was down nearly another 3000 hit points by the time he reached safety.
He scarfed more berries to heal, then checked his inventory. “Yes!” Kalmond shouted in triumph when he saw the new items. One was a scar bird beak, the other was scar bird feathers, and the last two items were a scroll of deception and a speed enchantment scroll. Looting was worth the risk. He read the deception scroll immediately to learn the spell.
Eager to try the new spell, Kalmond sneaked up on the trees by crawling through the underbrush. He cast as close as he could get to the tree. Sure enough, the birds dropped down from the sky like living cruise missiles. They landed in the lower branches and flapped their wings in agitation, looking for their target with fierce, beady marbles that passed for eyes.
The dwarf suppressed a snicker and waited for them to alight again. That gave his mana time to recharge fully, and he used some of it to sneak closer to the trees. He cast the deception spell, and the birds once again swooped down to attack the phantom noise generated by the spell.
Kalmond bolted from cover using all his endurance and hacked at a bird on the lowest branch sitting with its back to him. The sword neatly removed two toes. The scar bird jumped up with its wings thrown out wildly and fell to the ground where an angry dwarf finished it with a savage double-critical thrust through the breastbone and into its heart. He barely glanced at the XP bubble that read 220 XP as he darted off once again into the bushes without getting hit with beaks or claws.
He restrained taunting laughter as he crawled around in the bushes, but this time, the birds stayed put. They were smarter than he thought. When he cast the deception spell again, they jumped towards it, and when they saw nothing there, they jumped higher into the branches and looked around, waiting.
“I guess that one’s played out,” Kalmond muttered. “Oh well,” he said a moment later. Abandoning caution, he charged out from the underbrush sword held above his head.
One bird swooped down, and Kalmond rose higher on his toes as he ran. Just as the bird reached him, he ducked and turned. As he expected, the second bird was right behind it. This time, the dwarf planted his feet and swung hard from left to right as the talons reached out for him. The risk was rewarded with a clean amputation of a left talon that took a third of the attacker’s health.
But Kalmond had no time to gloat, for the other bird was on him. He barely had time to turn before impact. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but Kalmond ended up on his back with a dead bird smothering him. As the rounded pommel of his sword slowly pushed into his abdomen threatening to rupture his intestines, he puzzled it out.
Some survival reflex made Kalmond thrust upward with his sword just as the bird hit him full-force. The lucky poke managed to kill the third scar bird cleanly. He didn’t even get to see the XP bubble, but he guessed such a critical, lucky or not, earned big. But the last bird was still out there. The dwarf heard it angry overhead through the odd pillow that was the dead scar bird.
It didn’t take Kalmond long to understand that he had but one choice. Lack of options seemed to be a theme in this fight. He fought his way free from the smothering corpse as the fourth bird landed on the ground and pecked at his limbs. The dwarf managed to free himself and stand just in time to parry a beak that tried to bite his face off. He kicked blindly and scored a paltry hit to the chest, then ran again for cover with the bird skimming the ground after him.
Kalmond waited for his endurance to regenerate and scarfed berries to heal. All the while, the screeching bird added its rage to his. “Shut up already!” Kalmond screamed, having heard enough protest.
He charged forward sword overhead. He activated a power lunge and brought the sword down. Too late. The bird’s remaining talon raked him from chin to groin, taking most of his hit points. What have I done, Kalmond thought to himself as his rage evaporated to be replaced with a fear of near-certain death. Who knew a scar bird with one talon could fight so well?
Struggling against sudden hopelessness, the Dwarf activated one more power attack and stabbed the bird in the chest. The solid strike took 1980 hit points, causing the bird to retreat. Kalmond used yet another lucky hit to recover, snatching berries off thorny branches for a bit of health and moving behind one of the silkworm trees for cover.
The bird was forced to fight on the ground on one leg with Kalmond hugging the tree. The dwarf circled the trunk provoking attacks by darting out, then striking out awkwardly but effectively. Soon, the bird was down to half its hit points, then a quarter. The dwarf finished it cautiously with a thrust to its body that ended up driving his sword nearly to the hilt and opening up a gash that spilled out giblets as the bird collapsed.
The level-up gong sounded as Kalmond sheathed his sword and stood hands to knees, panting. The warm light did him little good even though he reached level 7.
Kalmond the Stone Dwarf
Level 7
XP 4870
STA 23
STR 21
INT 20
AGI 21
CHA 21
MAN 18
MLVL 407
Hit Points 6628
“Damn, that reeks,” Kalmond exclaimed as he looted the bird for 300 circs, more feathers, and a beak.
The level-up gong sounded as Kalmond sheathed his sword and stood hands to knees, panting. The warm light did him little good even though he reached level 7.
“Damn, that reeks,” Kalmond exclaimed as he looted the gutted bird for 300 circs, more feathers, and a beak. “This,” Kalmond said. “Is why I hate scar birds.”
He collected the silkworms without ceremony and added a few extras even after the notice popped up telling him he’d collected enough to satisfy the quest. He wanted to be ready when he reached level ten and gained the ability to trade. He only hoped his carry capacity wouldn’t top out before he got there. He noted with irony that it wasn’t too hard being selective as the loot up until the deception spell hadn’t been all that great.
Chapter 4
Kalmond pressed north, packing berries into his inventory as he left the area. The landscape changed, with squat bushes replaced by tall pine trees, their scent carried by a gentle breeze that wandered through the thickening forest. Kalmond stretched his arms out and let the breeze soothe his skin, then slowed his pace to let a clear-running stream burble in his ears. He was hot, filthy and aching for a moment of respite.
The stream wasn’t far out of his way, and when he reached the mossy bank, Kalmond released a satisfied sigh. He stripped down and stepped into the frigid water. The water was crystal clear, tumbling over smooth rocks with a soothing cadence that softened some of the tension he’d been holding. Quickly, he splashed the water over his body, shivering when the wind touched wet skin. Though the sun still poked through the needled trees above, it was cooler here and the day was growing late.
Realm of the Nine Circles: The Grind: A LitRPG Novel Page 5
