The caravan had animals of all kinds; people wore cloaks and clothes from bright yellow to shadowy black. No one cared your creed or your Affinity in the Stone Raiders. All they cared about was your ability.
“Well, looks like trade is going pretty good,” Dwayne said as another trader caravan passed. After they checked out the trader’s wares, they made a quick trade.
“No wonder the Golden crew wanted to turn this into an outpost. Those Dwarves know how to make some damn fine armor and blades,” Josh said.
“Don’t forget the Elves’ stuff,” Kim said, reading her book and yawning.
Josh stretched and yawned. Thanks to his bot, he’d been able to keep up with the caravan. Emerilia was his kind of world; he was a world class gamer, using his videos to keep him and his guild going.
None of them were over level 60, largely due to the fact that the Stone Raiders took on the raids that no one else would. They died a lot to get their names on the leaderboards. They might lose EXP and even lose levels but the stat increases, their skills and enchantments stayed with them. They trained the hard way to get their levels. They put their points in whenever they gained a level but they realized early on that a person’s level was not a true indicator of their skill.
The Golden Sabres and others were always looking to have a higher level or more members. The Stone Raiders suffered through the hard things, their victory all the sweeter for it. It also led to them having the best gear and largest coffers in Emerilia.
As long as Josh’s bills were paid and he was left alone in his private container, he was happy. He had been a big shot broker but found that he cared little for it all. He was working for the sake of money; competition was done through a balance sheet.
He’d got himself a VR capsule; his body was looked after, getting electrical treatment to keep him active, and all of his emails were routed to him.
Money solved all problems and there was no need for him to log off of Emerilia ever again. It had become his world. Along the way, he had met Dwayne, a vet who had been blown up. Lucy was a girl who had grown up in VR; she had a disease that turned her body into a prison. Kim, who couldn’t care less about the outside world, loved the world of magic and mystery, and she also loved cracking skulls.
They’d been an odd friendship, but they’d come together for their loves of virtual reality. When Emerilia was announced, they’d jumped on it and hadn’t looked back.
Some called them E-heads—people who had left Earth behind to live in Emerilia. Many of the Stone Raiders were like that, thinking of Emerilia as their home more than mother Earth they’d been born on.
Their caravan weaved into Cliff-Hill. It was shaped like a horseshoe. One road to the right entered from Omal, passing through stone walls that looked identical to the ones around the dungeon, and ran straight across the base of the horseshoe. Along the outside there was a sheer cliff of fifty to two hundred feet at the top. Growing fields were below the cliffs to the right of the village, where land had been cleared to a river.
Inside the horseshoe there were training areas, a large camp of Dwarves and Elves, and then more camps of different guilds; at the top, there was a growing village. A road snaked from the right side of Cliff-Hill up through the village and back down the opposite side, heading to the Mithsia Mountains.
Most trees, except those that appeared to be turned into homes, had all been cut down. A group of them started a hundred feet back from the walls and seemed to enclose a decent-sized compound. It ran beside the main road, with two roads linking it.
Josh guided Sally off the road; the other three followed. He came out looking at a large working area; closest to him was what looked like a factory for bricks and tiles. Carts of the stuff were being loaded as clay and coal were shoved into the other side. The small road passed through a large opening in front of a modest house. Beside the house were a number of smithies and long houses. The smithies didn’t stop working, either. Josh watched a shift move out of the smithy, another moving in.
The departing workers moved quickly to stay out of the still cold air.
Josh moved toward someone who was headed into the smithy. “Excuse me, I was wondering if you could send me in the direction of the man who runs this smithy. I’m looking for some repair work,” Josh said.
“Dave!” the large dwarf yelled.
“What?” another man yelled back. Josh couldn’t see him in the smithy.
“One minute.” The dwarf headed into the smithy.
Josh got off Sally and stretched his legs. He noticed a few warbands milling about, the Dwarves hanging out and talking to various people. It was a workplace but it had a relaxing feel to it.
“Kol, going to have to get that third layer on. Thinking binding, seal with the fourth or fusing it,” someone said as they moved something over in his hands.
“Do the engravings and fuse it; that’s what we do with the large mechanics,” the other dwarf, who looked like he should’ve died from his horrific injuries but had somehow been kept alive and together, said.
“Yeah, be stronger.”
“Boy, it’s already going to be strong!”
“Well, I can’t very well have my girlfriend wearing something weak when we go poke Boran-al in the face!”
“You’ve got guests—go see them. I’ll start engraving,” the melted one said.
Fuck, man, you could give children fucking nightmares with that mug! Hell, I’m getting the shivers. How the fuck did he survive?
The man grunted his thanks and headed out of the smithy.
Josh hadn’t been able to get a clear line of sight with all the Dwarves moving around in the smithy but his Analyze kicked in.
Dave
Level 3
Half-Dwarf
“If you have broken weaponry, use that desk; new armor, the one beside it. If you want to use our smithy, smithy three has a waiting list—here is the rota. We will have another smithy being built in the town in a week that may have some free spots,” Dave said in a bored tone as he sent links to Josh and his people.
“Wow, you’re level 3. How many times you die?” Josh asked.
“Not once and not aiming on it.” Dave turned to leave.
Josh played a hunch, throwing a dagger at Dave. Dave turned, catching the blade and throwing it back in a fluid motion. Josh caught it, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Didn’t your mother teach you to not throw things around like an idiot?” Dave asked.
The smithy went quiet.
Josh saw Dwayne’s hand move toward his scabbard and Kim looked up from her book as the people in the area seemed to focus on Dave and them.
Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Not only does he seem to be one of the consultants here, the People of Emerilia see him as a friend. Maybe throwing a dagger at him wasn’t a good idea.
“Fucking Players.” Dave shook his head.
“I’m sorry—I just wanted to check something.” Josh bowed.
“It’s called a damn question. Why is it that all of the people from Earth are morons?” Dave went farther into the smithy.
“You’re an Evolver. Do you mind if we talk?” Josh asked, his interest piqued by Dave.
Dave was about to say something when he looked to the house that sat between the ceramic factory and the smithy. Dave took a deep breath and walked out of the smithy. “All right, come on. We’ve got some tea,” Dave said, his voice lowering so no one else could hear him. “If it isn’t damn important, I’ll kick you off the damn cliff myself.”
Sally growled at Dave.
His gray eyes regarded her in interest. A grin spread across his face as he pulled out a piece of meat from his bag of holding. She grabbed it out of the sky, looking perfectly content.
“Hey, you’re only supposed to look that happy if I feed you,” Josh complained.
She gave him a sideways glance, snorting and moving faster toward what seemed to be Dave’s house.
The door opened; an absolute stunn
er stood there with an amused look on her face.
Dave muttered something under his breath as the others followed him. Dave kissed the Elven woman and headed into the house. Josh followed, with Dwayne and Lucy behind him.
“Hello, I’m Josh Giles.” Josh took her hand, bowing and making to kiss her hand.
She pulled her hand away and smacked his head.
He held it, wincing. She had some speed and strength on her!
“Dwayne.” The man shook her hand as Josh passed into the house.
Dave was tending to a kettle in the hearth. Josh took a seat in one of several around the hearth. Even Kim joined them, putting away her book and getting off her carpet.
Josh looked at the Elf closer.
Deia
Level 66
Half-Elf
“So, I guess you are the Dave who the Golden Sabres have been interested in and the man who was part of the tournament a few months ago?” Josh asked.
“Yep.” Dave handed out glasses and took a seat on a couch. Deia joined him.
“So you’re an Evolver. What are your stat levels?” Josh asked.
“My business,” Dave said.
“I think that we got off to a bad start.” Lucy glared at Josh, who decided to drink his tea and sit back. “We are part of the Stone Raiders guild. We do things the hard way. We aren’t pretty and we don’t care what it takes; we look to get to the top of the raiding boards. We either get there first or beat people out in sub-categories. We don’t leave until we beat out the other guilds. Most of us are E-heads—this is our world more than Earth is. Josh is…” Lucy looked up to the ceiling for the best word.
Awesome, an amazing leader, good looking, right charmer.
“An idiot in all things that aren’t raids.”
“Ahh, come on, Lu—” He tried to talk but his vocal cords weren’t working again. That damn silencing spell! Josh went back to drinking his tea.
“Better.” Lucy gave him another look. “We fight in the Evolving style for the most part, but we do have some hybrids. I think the reason that Josh wanted to talk to you was to share knowledge and to train together. There aren’t many Evolvers out there, but it’s a lot harder to evolve naturally as a Player. Each time we meet Evolvers, we want to see if they would like to join or if they would like to share their knowledge,” Lucy said.
Dave looked at Deia. They must’ve been in party chat as no noise came from them but their mouths were moving.
“I would be interested in training with you,” Deia said.
“There aren’t many Fire mages around so you would be fighting against other people in different disciplines,” Kim said.
“With magic, learning about other forms can augment my own knowledge. It is all created from Mana, just applied in different ways.” Deia smiled.
Kim looked interested as she tapped her chin.
“Dave?” Lucy asked.
“I can’t quite fight her properly yet and I have a lot of work to do. Maybe once this is all over, then we can have a real fight. Not just people throwing knives into a workplace.” Dave’s voice rose as he looked at Josh.
Josh drank the tea and looked intently at the cup. I just wanted to confirm my suspicions! Even his friends shook their heads at his actions.
Chapter 27: Feast of Thanks
“What?” Dave looked up from his soul gem work station.
“My dad has invited us over for the Feast of Thanks,” Deia said again. A ray of plasma cut into her target.
Dave had needed to figure out a way to absorb her excess power so that it only destroyed targets instead of putting a hole through the seeder.
It also served to make a nice big power pool he could pull from for his work with soul gems.
Dave rubbed his face. He had so much work to do!
“Come on, baby.” Deia’s hands wrapped around him.
One of the traits that comes with dating a rogue—damn sneaky! After jumping in shock a number of times, he’d started unconsciously tracking people creeping up on him.
Dave made a noise of argument as she pressed herself tighter against him. He already knew the fate of this conversation, but he wanted to voice his objections.
“He really wants to meet you,” she said.
Dave didn’t need to turn to see the pout on her face. He looked over, she was pouting like a puppy might if it wasn’t being let outside. What person can stand up to the pout? “Fine.” Dave hung his head in defeat.
She kissed his cheek and grinned. “Good!” She made to jump away, but Dave pulled her back for a longer kiss. He bit her lip slightly as they pulled apart. She dragged her free hand down his chest to his stomach.
“Now go burn some more targets—need more energy for these new prototypes!” Dave let her go and waved her away.
“You’ll pay for that later,” she purred.
Dave saw her smile and the sultry look in her eyes. She turned and walked away, sashaying side to side.
“I love this world.” Dave looked back to his soul gems. It took him some time until he was able to focus back on his work and reverse the blood loss his brain had gone through.
He leaned on the table, looking over his diagrams and the various dusts, gems, runes, and Magical Circuit templates.
He could now make something that he was calling a vault classed soul gem. Soul gems moved up in power ranks by magnitudes. A petty soul gem could hold the power of a level 10 creature. A lesser, a level 100; common, 1000 and so on and so on. Now with sentients, it got odd quickly. Some races got higher stats and bonus that would convert into more energy, others less. People who had an innate higher Intelligence, more power.
It was easier to look at stat points. A person or creature with 100 stat points or level 20 would go into a petty. Up to a level 100 with 500 stat points would fit into a lesser, common level 1,000 or 5,000 stat points, and so on. To fill a greater or grand soul gem usually meant that either someone had been killing things for a long time, or they’d siphoned off power from a Mana line.
Dave’s vault soul gem could hold a level 1,000,000 creature’s soul—which didn’t exist, so he would need multiple creatures to make up the necessary 5,000,000 stat points. Or he could charge it from his own mana pool, training it at the same time. If he could fully charge it, then he would have a reservoir of 50,000,000 Mana points for him to use on varying spells.
His problem was transferring that power from the soul gem to him. He had already tested its limits; as long as it had some Mana in it, then it wouldn’t fall apart. His second issue was that discharging and recharging the soul gem made it less functional after about a few thousand charges.
He had an idea about how to increase the energy transference; from the soul gem to him, he was losing 30% of the power. His solution was crude and it would hurt but it would work.
Until he really needed it, he’d hold off from testing it out. So he was focusing on the charging and discharging life-span of the soul gems. They had been created to take power from one place and then be used and discarded.
So Dave had to start all over again.
Though, he could cheat—Earth had made some damned impressive batteries. He was simply adapting electrical to Mana-powered. For the large part, it seemed to be working.
He checked his prototype that was charging and discharging. It had gone through a few thousand already. He looked at the container it was in. “Might be getting somewhere.” Dave grinned.
It seemed the soul gem heard him. It exploded, turning the container into a mangled mess.
“Dammit!” Dave sighed. It was onto the next prototype. Thankfully his conjuring ability made it a heck of a lot easier to turn his thoughts into a creation.
He activated the bracelet on his wrist and a soul gem appeared that had been charged by Dave and Deia. Having low reserves had done great things for their Willpower and Endurance.
The drain of power was not only physically draining but also mentally. It had also made them have to make the most
use of their depleted Mana pool.
Dave used the energy to create a new soul gem inside a new container in a few minutes.
***
Deia perked up as she saw the city of Kufo’tel in the distance. The path was made of dirt but it was as good as any Dwarven stone road. They’d passed a number of traders and people who were heading to Cliff-Hill or onto Omal.
She picked up her pace. Dave moved to keep up with her. They were tree running, jumping from tree to tree. It wasn’t all that tiring anymore and Dave had finally gotten over his fear of landing on another branch. She got lower, coming closer to the ground, dropping and rolling before they came to the gates.
Kufo’tel rested in a great valley nestled against the Mithsia Mountains. Tree-walls grew along the peaks and down to the entrance into the valley.
There were clearings for parks, with tree homes coming together to make the multiple layers of the cities. Ladders and grand staircases made from the tree limbs led from the dirt level up into the city’s branches.
Among the trees were great glass structures that showed all kinds of vibrant colors—Kufo’tel’s greenhouses. All of it was covered in snow and a light snow fall was slowly coming down.
Deia looked to Dave, who stared at the city with wonder. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful.” Dave looked over the architecture, the way that the limbs came together to make streets, stores, homes, defenses. Kufo’tel looked as if it had grown from the ground instead of built like the Dwarven homes or even Cliff-Hill. There were a few districts of Elves that had started to grow their trees together but they had mere months. Kufo’tel had been around for generations.
Deia grabbed Dave’s hand as they walked toward the gates.
Elven rangers and mages kept a watchful eye out. There were more of both. There were even Dwarven warbands on the wall with their machines.
Deia watched Dave with a happy smile. It seemed the nervousness of the last few days had fallen away with entering the city.
She pulled him onward; running wasn’t hard for either of them. They’d taken their time reaching the city, but with their increased speed, it was faster for them to run through the forests than take a caravan.
The Trapped Mind Project (Emerilia Book 1) Page 39
