— Mind: 10/10
— Wisdom: 9.8/10
— Strength:17/50
— Agility:23/50
— Health: 8/50
— Accuracy: 2.8/50.
— Speed: 2.8/50.
— Intellect: 10/50
— Observation: 7.7/50.
— Endurance:13.3/50
— Life supply:100/100
— Energy supply:153/153
— Mana supply:120/120
— Skills and abilities:
— Butchery:30/50
— Knife proficiency: 11.5/50
— Herbalism:2/50
— Hunter:2/50
— Fisher:2/50
— Rider: 5.1/50
— Hiding spot maker: 0.3/50
— Wave of healing.
— Level: 2 (0/40).
— Dome of invisibility.
— Level: 0 (0/20).
— Potion Making.
— Level: 0 (0/20).
We left the gold tablets of Intellect untouched. We were only going to use them if absolutely necessary. They were our future financial independence.
With just over fifty Silvers left, Mee categorically refused to take them before losing consciousness. His argument was that we also needed to beef up Gorgie — our main fighter and defender.
I checked on the calmly sniffling kid and, covering him up tighter, glanced at the harn lying next to him.
After the level-up, his armor had become even darker. New scales had grown in as well, broader and thicker. And he had grown significantly larger. Yep, Gorgie had really changed since our first meeting.
I glanced at the beast’s changed characteristics.
— Ferocious Harn.
— Name: Gorgie.
— Level: 8 (2 100/44 000).
— Status: Loyalty to master (permanent).
— Mind: 1/1
— Strength: 83/120
— Agility: 84/120
— Accuracy: 5.8/120
— Intuition: 8/8
— Wisdom: 16/16
— Animal instinct: 16/16
— Speed: 85/120
— Flexibility: 52/120
— Intellect: 45/80
— Mana supply: 500/500
— Health: 80/80
— Endurance: 73/80
— Life supply: 850/850
— Energy supply: 780/780
— Scale armor: 40/40
— Defense: 400/400
— Damage: +234.2…+746.6
— Bite: 40/40
— Paw swipe: 40/40
— Pounce: 8/8
— Animal regeneration: 16/16
— Hunter: 36/40
— Fisher: 17.8/40
— Resistance to Hexapod poison: 7/40
— Thorntail’s Jump.
— Level: 1 (0/40).
When I used tablets on Gorgie, he was participating actively. And that wasn’t the least bit unusual. My top concern was his defense and life level. He insisted on defense. Thanks to my fifty-five silvers, plus three more the harn got for levelling up, we had almost enough for everything.
At first I raised Armor, Health and Regeneration to the ceiling. After that, I did the very same with his offensive abilities.
Thorntail’s Jump, alas, had to be left unchanged. It would have taken forty tablet to improve, and I decided to invest them in other characteristics.
Intellect only got one point. That happened to be enough to use the spell nine times.
From there, I raised his Intuition and Wisdom to the maximum while the rest were evenly distributed between his main stats.
While looking back over the harn’s characteristics, a thought came to mind. Quickly closing the window, I dug into my backpack and took out a bronze orcish ring.
— Ring of agility.
— Level: 8
— Category: Simple.
— Agility +9.
— Durability — 43.
“Why don’t we try putting this on you, brother,” I muttered, hunched over Gorgie’s right paw.
The Great System reacted instantly:
— Attention! Your pet cannot use item Ring of Agility!
“What a pity,” I muttered, disappointed and scratching the back of my head. “What about this one?”
I took the steel ring off my finger and tried to put it on one of the sleeping harn’s claws.
— Attention! Your pet cannot use item Steel Ring!
And much to my dismay, it had the same reaction to my button. Without no explanation, the Great System was giving me a clear indication that it was no use trying to trick it. And that was a shame. Nine extra Agility points would definitely not hurt Gorgie.
With a heavy sigh, I got up and left the tent.
A frosty evening breeze slithered right under my collar. I took a look around. Silence. Nothing but the wide-branching black trees that dominated this forest. Due to their hardness, they were known as stonetrees. They were also the ultimate origin of the forest’s name.
The rains stopped three days ago. The temperature has dropped noticeably. The earth is gradually freezing over and turning to stone. Winter is beginning.
I sighed glumly. I could see my breath. I guess the orcish horde will start west any day now.
Oh well. We’re going south. Gorgie found a trail leading into the depths of the Stone Forest. Based on smell, he said the orc shaman had used it as well. Most likely, the portal to the other world and monster hunter altar were this way.
Hm. And where there is an altar, I might also find other structures built by my ancient order. At any rate, we won’t know until we go see.
Chapter 14
TWO DAYS AGO, we packed up our little camp and headed into the depths of the Stone Forest. By the way, it was stone in name only. To my eye, it was basically a normal forest, just the trees were a bit taller and wider-branching.
The trolls, offspring of an ancient monster that died here at the dawn of time, hadn’t given us any trouble yet. As a matter of fact, nothing had given us any trouble at all. We had just been walking calmly down a path the orc shamans had trammeled over many years of journeying. And all the while, the harn was studying the surroundings, periodically telling me something was happening out ahead.
Yes, I can’t deny it. The forest had quite a dark feel. And the ghastly orcish “art” lining the trail only added to the creepiness. The whole way, we were occasionally stumbling across fearsome sculptures made of old skeletons of humans, gremlins and another few kinds of creatures. All we could do was guess why the inhabitants of the forest hadn’t pulled that mess down. But based on the grave-like silence, and the harn’s calm demeanor it didn’t seem like these areas were particularly popular with the local fauna. I had my guesses, but it was still too early to make any assertions with hundred-percent certainty.
Finally, nearer midday on the third day, the orcish trail brought us to the otherworldly portal. And for the record, I could sense it long before I saw it. The familiar sensations of slight fatigue and weakness wouldn’t let me go for even an instant. Something was off about this place. It wasn’t like the portal in the underground city. This one was behaving strangely. Like a fire that had been put out but was still smoldering...
The closer I got, the nastier it felt.
“Rick, did something happen?” Mee asked, disconcerted when I stopped a hundred yards from the portal.
He was sitting atop Gorgie on a rejiggered saddle he’d taken off the back of a warg. As a matter of fact, that landed him a couple stone tablets of “Leatherworker.” But that wasn’t all. In one of the orcs’ travelling bags he found an old sling, and the whole time we were underway he’d been practicing using it to launch stones, periodically getting various tablets for his trouble. Yesterday he even unlocked his very first combat ability — “Sling.” The level wasn’t too impressive yet, but we were still happy. The groundwork had been laid.
Beyond that, the gremlin was starting to handle his knife with more flair. For
our whole journey he’d also been practicing knife throwing. He hadn’t gained any combat abilities from that yet, but I figured the Great System would give him his due soon enough.
“Rick?!” Mee shouted out again.
I took a deep sniff of a wolf pelt I found among the shaman’s things and answered:
“See that ugly tree over there?”
Mee turned his head where I pointed.
A big huge, wide-branching and freakish tree, it was split down the middle by otherworldly magic and had black slime stuck to its entire surface. It would have been hard to miss.
“Is that what I think it is?” Mee asked.
“Yes,” I nodded, wincing. “That is the otherworldly portal I told you about.”
“Is it having any effect on you?” the gremlin asked anxiously. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Slight weakness and dizziness,” I responded. “I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a latrine pit.”
“I see,” the gremlin nodded and added:
“I just got the impression something might have been bothering you.”
I must note that ever since Mee’s Mind went up, he had changed noticeably. He was more thoughtful and judicious. And most importantly, he was slowly but surely starting to rid himself of his slave moods and fears. The Mind, magic and new abilities were making him more self-confident.
“I’m definitely a bit ill at ease, yes,” I admitted. “The thing is the portal seems to be behaving strangely. Not like the one in the underground city.”
“What’s so weird about it?”
I stroked the back of my head pensively.
“Hm... I’m trying to get to the bottom of that right now. There, underground, it was very straightforward. I don’t know if it’s an appropriate comparison or not, but down there it was like clockwork. This portal feels more like a pustule that’s just about to burst.”
“But you said the shaman caught himself a spirit,” the gremlin frowned. “That means the portal won’t open again until next year.”
“True,” I shrugged. “But my feelings say otherwise. Something is clearly afoot here. Although I might be wrong. It could be like this here all the time.”
“Maybe that’s why there are no living creatures around,” the gremlin forwarded a theory.
“It’s not like the orcs would have attempted to close the portal,” I said. “And maybe that made it snowball.”
“So how do we get it shut?” Mee inquired.
“With ghostly crystals, which sometimes drop after defeating an otherworldly beast.”
The gremlin started thinking.
“What?” I asked. “As far as you’ve seen, have the orcs ever had ghostly crystals?”
“No,” he shook his head.
“What about these?” I showed him a hunter token.
“Nope,” the gremlin shook his head. “To be honest, I never saw all that many shamans. And I saw even less rare loot.”
“Makes sense,” I nodded and winced again.
Seeing my state, the gremlin asked:
“Maybe we shouldn’t go close to the portal?”
I shook my head and answered:
“We’re already here, so we have to get a good look. If you don’t want to come, you can stay here.”
The gremlin shook his head very rapidly.
“No! I’m coming with you!”
“Hrn!” Gorgie emphasized decisively, supporting our healer
“Then let’s go!” I declared and took the first step toward the portal.
The closer I got, the nastier I felt. Fortunately, I didn’t taste any bitterness or rot in my mouth. It was hard not to be happy about that.
Sixty-five feet away from the ugly giant, my companions had seemingly also started to feel something. The scales on the back of the harn’s neck were standing on end. And he was occasionally baring his teeth and growling frighteningly. Mee, his head tucked between his shoulders in fear, was fitfully clutching the cat’s armored neck.
“What do you feel?” I asked him. “Nausea, dizziness?”
“No,” the gremlin squeaked.
“Then what?”
“Worry in my heart,” Mee answered unconfidently. “Like something’s about to happen. Something scary...”
“Hrn,” Gorgie agreed.
With every step, the invisible pressure was growing stronger. Other than that, the land around the giant black tree was strewn with bones, which didn’t exactly add to our shared sense of optimism.
Finally, I reached the edge of the greasy black puddle the disfigured tree towered in the center of. The ultimate source of the otherworldly magic was rooted inside the split of the tree trunk like a voracious parasite nourishing itself on the innards of a powerful giant. Greasy smoking ooze was seeping out of the bark and falling from the branches onto the ground with a hissing sound.
I looked around. Yep. The orcs were clearly not too concerned with closing this portal. They clearly don’t fully understand what this thing is. And these bones around... This must be the shamans’ doing.
“I’m done!” I announced, turning to my friends. “Let’s go! We also need to find the altar.”
“Hrn!” Gorgie told me, his snout pointed to the southwest.
“You sure that’s where it is?” I asked. And that just made the cat snort patronizingly and trot off that way.
* * *
We hadn’t quite reached the altar yet. With less than an hour left before sundown, Gorgie let me know that there was something alive beyond the dense wall of trees. Hurriedly liberated from the saddle and travelling bags, the harn dashed out to scout around.
“What’s out there?” I whispered when my pet came back an hour later.
“Smell of death. Youngling. Blood. Dying,” he told me shortly.
With two sets of alarmed eyes staring at me, I got up off the ground. For fairness’ sake, I should mention that neither I nor my companions were feeling any fear. It was more like pre-battle jitters.
“Okay then,” I whispered, my voice quavering in worry. “Let’s see what’s going on over there.”
The gremlin nodded in silence and started undoing the drawstrings of the leather pouch hanging off his belt. That was where he kept the stones for his sling, which he had been dutifully collecting all the way here. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mana crystal appear in one of his hands and the sling in the other. For the record, I’d filled all the crystals to the brim a few days earlier.
“Lead the way,” I said to Gorgie when all our preparations were complete.
I didn’t have to ask the harn twice. His black scaly body disappeared among the trees.
Twenty minutes later, we walked up to the fairly wide clearing. In the center of it, there was a big huge rock of a familiar shape. An altar.
Glancing out from behind a broad tree trunk, I took a look around. The cloudless night and full moon gave me a great view of the whole glade. Just like around the portal, the ground was strewn with bones. Looks like the orcs have been taken by a kind of lunacy. They just couldn’t get enough of sacrificing living souls. But that was not the end of it... They also had to dismantle the corpses, then scatter the body parts. As if that would have any impact on the process.
I spat angrily. What bloodthirsty scum!
A light touch to my shoulder made me shudder slightly. I turned my head and saw Mee’s anxious little face.
“Look,” he whispered, pointing at a dark stone lying on the opposite end of the clearing.
“Are you talking about the stone?” I asked in surprise.
Mee nodded.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s breathing,” the gremlin answered shortly.
I frowned quizzically. How could that be? I stuck my neck out as far as possible, trying to catch a glimpse of the uncanny breathing stone. At that very moment, Gorgie appeared from the darkness and told me there was not a single living soul nearby.
I nodded toward the unusual stone.
The Wastes Page 17
