Dravincia

by Blake Severson

  “I want to make sure everyone understands that we are working on this problem. I will not mince words for this. We are done folding to Lord Golgara’s tyranny. We are not going to let his thugs run through town and steal anything they want. I assure you that in the next few weeks you will see vast improvements in the city and its defenses. I will personally stand and fight for this city.”

  “Are you trying to get us all killed?” One old lady screamed from the back.

  “He is going to be the death of us all!” Shouted another random villager.

  Arthur let the crowd rumble for a little bit as they all voiced almost identical opinions. He held up his hands to address them.

  “I understand your trepidations, but Lord Golgara has been trying to kill you all anyway, just passively. This village was barely hanging on when I first came here, so would you rather sit by and rot away and die, or at least attempt to stand up for yourself and make a change?”

  Arthur gestured back behind him for Samson to enter. As he was walking in, Arthur announced him.

  “As Lord Mayor of the village, I have named Samson as Captain of the Guard to protect us in these tough times.”

  Samson entered the room, and as people saw him, the room became deathly quiet. The man was a tower of iron with the beautiful scroll-work on his armor. He was holding his shield by his side and had his sword tied to his belt. Arthur could see the awe in everyone’s face while looking at the armor.

  “I am currently working toward arming the village against this threat, and we will welcome anyone here who wishes to take up arms and defend the village. If you have any combat skills, it is a bonus, but if you have none, we will work on training you in archery to defend the walls I am building.”

  Arthur paused in his speech to let it all sink in. While he was waiting, he saw Dalia walk toward him and nod his way. He nodded back at her, and she stood beside him.

  “I also have an announcement to be made. Some of you may not know, but I have been named the local noble of the village. This was why I was able to assign Arthur as the village mayor. With this same power, I would like to make one more announcement.”

  She turned and gestured for Samson to come to her. She held out her hand, and he looked at her, confused for a moment, and then realized she wanted his sword. He handed it to her, and she gestured for him to kneel.

  “I, Dalia Flamekissed, do hereby name Samson a knight of Alem’s Crossing and confirm his position as Knight-Captain of the Guard.”

  The crowd starting cheering wildly, and Arthur smiled at Dalia. She nodded at him with a sly grin of her own and handed the man’s sword back to him. She resumed her spot by the bar.

  “Please have faith in us and keep up the good work. We are going to turn this village around over the next few weeks. We have the Goddess Lianna looking over us. She sent me here to help you, and I will do all in my power to ensure this village thrives. Please have a good evening, and feel free to ask me questions anytime.”

  Arthur waved at everyone and walked back to the kitchen. Daniel and Dalia joined him back there.

  “Well, that didn’t go too bad. I think Samson suitably calmed their nerves.” Arthur said as Samson walked in.

  “Congratulations, Sir Samson,” Arthur said with a slight bow.

  “Thank you, Lord Mayor.” He said to Arthur. He turned to Dalia and bowed to her, “Thank you as well, My Lady.”

  “It was my pleasure, Samson. I can say, in that armor, you look the part.” Dalia said.

  “Well, it has been a long day, I am off to bed,” Arthur told them. Turning toward the stairs and waving goodnight, he made it up to his room and fell into bed. While lying in bed, preparing to fall asleep, a village notification sprung into his view. He was thrilled but decided he would deal with that in the morning. He rolled over and fell asleep.

  Chapter 26

  A New Village

  Congratulations! Alem’s Crossing has successfully created Magical Stone Bathhouse. The city receives the following exclusive bonuses for this feat: Health of all villagers increased by 500, bathing in this magical bathhouse increases all of your experience gains by 10% for 24 hours.

  Arthur was thrilled with that outcome. He never expected the bathhouse would turn out as a unique building of that quality. Not only that, but it had a special bonus for an experience boost. The best part is the experience boost would naturally influence the villagers to keep their hygiene up.

  He decided to roll out of bed and get the morning started. He wasn’t going to get anything accomplished sitting around. Upon reaching the central room, he spotted Daniel. He gestured for the man to send some food over, and he nodded in acknowledgment. Arthur went and sat at an empty table to get ready to eat.

  Allendria came over and sat next to him, and soon after, Vana followed.

  “So I take it you are the reason for the commotion this morning?” Vana asked.

  “What commotion?”

  “The tizzy everyone is in because of our new magical bathhouse. A handful of people have already used it this morning and have nothing but praise for it.” She answered.

  “Oh yeah, that was me. I built it yesterday and put the enchantments in it. Daniel had some people filling it with water. They must have finished it last night when the notification went out.” Arthur explained.

  “Well, I can promise I will be using it. Does it keep itself clean and warm?” Allendria asked.

  “It does indeed. The enchantments stay functional for a good amount of time before needing to be manually recharged, but that isn’t that big of an issue.” He told her.

  “I will have to try it then. That bonus it gives is supposed to be nice.” She said.

  “Yeah, it is a ten percent bonus to all experience for twenty-four hours…” Arthur said, slightly confused. He then remembered that Allendria wasn’t officially a member of the village, so she didn’t see the exact notification everyone else in the town had.

  “I need to make a trip to it this morning before I get started with work. Planning on spending the day working on the wall, and I am not one to turn down some free experience.” He told them.

  Allendria smiled at him, coyly, “Need any company?”

  Arthur grinned at her sardonically, “In the bathhouse or at the wall?”

  She turned a furious shade of red and lowered her face so he couldn’t see her.

  “I’d honestly go for either but just need to clarify with you,” Arthur said with a chuckle.

  It took her a bit, but she finally recovered enough to answer. “The wall you fool. We can discuss the other option on a later day.”

  Arthur was a bit surprised by that answer but wasn’t going to press his luck.

  “As I told you before, I would never turn down your company out there while I am working, but I do worry that there are many other things you could be doing.” He told her.

  “I was hoping you would consider doing something for me.” She said to him, shyly.

  “Anything, what can I do.” He said.

  “I know it isn’t common, as we’ve discussed before, but I was hoping you would be willing to teach me Earth Magic. That way, I would be able to assist you with the walls after some skill grinding. It would give both of us a bit of something to burn mana on. My fire magic is hard to train without a target, and I don’t have many crafts that can use it.” She told him shyly.

  Arthur felt like an idiot. It would be easy to show her the pattern and give her a chance to learn it as well. The fact he hadn’t thought of it before was causing him to kick himself. Hell, he should have offered it to others as well if he truly wished to make this a better place. He told himself he didn’t want to horde knowledge like so many of the others in this world, yet he hadn’t considered offering the gift.

  “I would be honored to, my lady.” He said in a mock formal tone.

  He reached out and grabbed her hand. A slow trickle of power flowed from his hand into hers so she could see the pattern to learn it. Taking it
a step further, he separated it into the three separate stands for her so she could focus on them individually. He hoped this would help her learn faster. They sat there, holding hands while he waited on his food to arrive.

  “Take all the time you want. It gives me a good excuse to sit here and hold your hand all I want.” Arthur told her with a sheepish grin.

  “Hard to concentrate when you make remarks like that. Wait until I figure it out, and you can make all the jokes you want.” She told him.

  Arthur smiled at Vana, who returned it with a grin, and they sat and waited. Daniel was out a couple of minutes later with food for all of them. He gave Arthur an odd ook when he saw Allendria slightly hunched over holding his hand but then shook his head and walked off. Arthur sat there and ate one-handed while he let Allendria work it out. She spoke to him again right before he had finished his food.

  “Alright, I have the three patterns down. Can you show me the order they blend slowly? It should make this very fast.”

  Arthur thought about it for a moment and remembered that when he learned Fire Magic, it only worked when he put the right threads in the proper order and the correct place within that stream of power. He searched his knowledge from the tome and found the exact composition of the power stands and focused on slowly weaving them together. It didn’t take Allendria long at all to finish the skill after he showed how the last element fit in.

  “Perfect!” she said in triumph. “Now I need to practice with it. I would like to come out with you to practice using it myself. Do you mind?”

  “Nope, finish your meal, and we will head out.”

  Allendria wolfed her meal down real fast, and it frankly surprised Arthur. It wasn’t precisely ladylike, but it amused him to see her so giddy. They got up and made their way over to the bar. They stopped by the storage room first. He wanted to grab the leather stored there to work on while he was waiting for his mana to regenerate. From there, they traveled toward the front door. Arthur saw Katherine as he was leaving and got an idea.

  “Katherine, I am naming you the official Assistant Mayor for the village. This should give you the authority to accept and issue work orders on behalf of the town. This way, even when I am gone, people can still take care of business. Try and issue and accept work orders as they come in instead of anticipating the needs and publishing them ahead of time. Also, feel free to offer retroactive ones like we have been doing.

  Go check with the ladies in the back. I am sure Daniel knows whose turn it is for the meal turn in. I will be working on the village wall if you need me.” Arthur told her quickly as he continued walking out the door. She sputtered for a few minutes as if she was going to respond, and he walked out the front door. He had a feeling she was going to yell at him for that later, but he didn’t care.

  Arthur decided now was a good time to start working on the streets as he was making the trip anyway. He cast his Raise Cobblestone Street spell seven times from the entrance of the inn toward the eastern exit of the village they were taking. The new street stretched a respectable seventy feet, but there was still had a ways to go to finish this portion of the road. Getting everything inside the immediate boundaries of the current buildings and then expanding that to where the walls would be was his plan for the streets. He would do a little here and there as needed.

  They made it back to the wall he had started, and he took an appraising look at it. This should move a lot faster today. His new talents would be a boon to him here. With his mastery at level 2 for the spell, it would only cost him forty mana each, and he would be able to cast it eight times before he had to wait on mana regen. Every three casts, he could make a wall that was six foot tall, two-foot-wide, and almost thirty foot long when you counted his level bonus. So nearly sixty foot of wall completed every thirty minutes with an additional 2/3 of the next section.

  He chatted with Allendria until all of his mana was returned from the streets he worked on, and once ready, he started his pattern. He would cast all eight spells and then would work on Leatherworking. Allendria was also using the time well. She taught herself the Earth Wall spell, albeit hers was a more significant base size than his. She also taught herself a spell to level the ground as well. She used these back and forth so she could raise the wall and then flatten it. It gave her an excellent way to work on her earth magic experience without destroying the terrain. Arthur completed the first set of spells, and they sat to work on Leatherworking.

  They got back up half an hour later and cast another eight spells and sat back down to visit while he worked on the current piece he was busy with. They kept this process up, and he managed to make a couple of pieces of leather as well that he was moderately happy with.

  Congratulations, you have reached level 10 in Fire Magic. Fire Magic spells now have a 27% increased effect.

  Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Leather Breeches (Unfinished).

  He dumped the two points he had sitting in Earth Magic into Advanced Stonework to push his wall sections another eight feet each cast. He was getting bad about not addressing the talents as he leveled up. With his bonus, the wall now stretched a little over 40 feet a cast. Since he only had one foundation cast done in the latest section, he went ahead and burned the first of his next ones turning that section to this new length to keep things even and then continued with his casting.

  Congratulations, you have reached level 12 in Earth Magic. Earth Magic spells now have a 33% increased effect. You might need therapy playing with all this dirt.

  Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Leather Vest (Unfinished).

  Congratulations, you have reached level 11 in Fire Magic. Fire Magic spells now have a 27% increased effect.

  Arthur decided he needed to check the Fire Magic Talents now that he had reached level 11. He wanted to see what tier 3 options there were. He also realized he hadn’t used any points since level 5, so he would have a lot to work with.

  You have 12 unused Talent Points.

  Talent

  Description

  Tier 1

  Furious Fire (0/5)

  Increases effectiveness of Fire Magic spells by 5%

  Superheating (2/3)

  Decreases the base mana cost of Arcane Forging spell by 5 mana per rank.

  Flame Blade (0/1)

  Ability that creates a blade of pure fire that is two feet long for 30 seconds. The blade deals damage based on Intellect. (Base damage = 0.75 x Intellect)

  Cost: 25 Mana

  Cooldown: 2 Hours

  Tier 2

  Power of Flame (0/6)

  You gain a deeper knowledge of the Flame. This ability decreases the required mana for your fire spells by 5%. For every 2 ranks you also gain 1 Intellect.

  Fan the Flames (0/5)

  This ability increases damage done by your offensive fire spells by 5% per rank.

  Tier 3

  Molten Fury (0/10)

  Increases the power of combination spells between Earth and Fire Elements by 3% per point.

  Flame Efficiency (0/10)

  All enchantments with the fire element cost 3% less mana per point.

  (Hidden Ability)

  Summon Crimson Whelp (0/1)

  This ability will only become available if you have the following prerequisites:

  ● Hidden

  Allows you to summon a small crimson dragonling to become your familiar. Your familiar will be summoned as a level 5 creature and can level up and learn skills. Familiars stay until the summoner dismisses them, or they are killed. If your familiar is destroyed, it can be resummoned after a 6-hour cooldown.

  Cost: 150MP

  Well, there was no way in hell Arthur was going to pass up on the Hidden Ability to summon a companion, so that was down to 11 points left. He decided this would be a good time to dump all 6 points into Power of Flame. Not only did this decrease the mana cost of all his fire spells by 30%, but it also gave him 3 Intellect, which was another 60 mana max.

 
; This gave him 5 points left and he decided to put all 5 in Molten Fury. That would further increase the size of his wall. That 15% would bring each section of the wall up to around 45 feet of length.

  With all those points spent, he got back to work.

  Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Leather Glove (Unfinished).

  Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Leather Glove (Unfinished).

  That added up to almost eight hours worth of time, so Arthur decided that was enough work on the wall for the day. The wall now stretched from the eastern road to the west more than 700 feet. It was a rather impressive feat if he had to say so himself. The experience was also pretty amazing. A devilish smile crept on his face as he decided to create a work order for 700 feet worth of stone wall. He was not disappointed by the reward.

  Congratulations, you have completed the Work Order: Stone Wall (700 FT) for Alem’s Crossing for the following rewards: 1 Meal Token, 2200 Earth Magic Experience, 2200 Fire Magic Experience, and 1250 Character Experience.

  Congratulations, you have reached level 13 in Earth Magic. Increases the effect of your earth magic spells by 36%. Still a fan of the stone I see.

  Congratulations, you have reached level 10! You now have 5 available skill points.

  Arthur was immensely happy to see level 10. It had felt like ages since he had increased his character level. His skills had been getting most of his attention lately, so he decided to quickly check his status sheet.