by A P Gore
“Good morning, friend,” Noah said. “Do you know why my health and stamina are down?”
“Welcome to the cursed town, human. Even the humans are not immune to the curse.” He raised his arm to wipe away some sweat with his shirt sleeve.
“A curse?”
“Yes, it’s a welcome gift of the town. But don’t worry, it will wear off before noon. You’ll be back to full health and stamina.”
Noah sighed, a deep sigh of relief that no one had tried to kill him in the night. “That’s good to hear. But why do you have this curse? Isn’t Sumara is the goddesses of the whole town?”
Mathial’s face hardened. His eyes turned from red to black. “Mind your own work, human. Don’t get in our business.” He slammed his hammer down hard enough to dent the metal plate he was shaping.
Noah took a step back. He wasn't ready to start a feud with a demon. “Sorry about that, friend. Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Shoot,” Mathial said, but he didn’t sound happy about it.
“How do I level up? I know I need to kill animals, but where do I find them?” He at least knew he would gain experience by killing small animals. According to the forums, an experience bar would pop up once he made his first kill in the game.
“Hmm, good question. Head out of town, and go south. You'll find small snakes and rabbits there. But beware of the nasty little birds that live there. Even before you notice their presence, they will hit you hard. And don’t go there before the curse lifts.” The blacksmith continued working. Noah decided it was his cue to leave him alone.
♦♦♦
Mathial was right. While walking toward the south gate of the town, Noah felt his health and stamina climbing back up. By the time he was outside the half-broken stone gate, which must have been beautiful in its prime, his stamina and health were back to full; his mood had also lifted, and he felt refreshed and energetic. The moment he walked out of the gate, he also noticed an immediate change in terrain. Dense forest and melodious bird song greeted him. A couple of squirrels even ran over his foot as he walked into the trees. A few paces within the treeline, he couldn't see the sun anymore. The white light reaching the ground through the gaps in the foliage lit his way into the forest. Looking back at the town, he felt like someone had cut a piece out of the jungle and settled the town.
Why the heck is this forest so thick?
A stinging pain lanced his leg, and a red notification flashed before him.
You have been bitten by a snake for 2 damage.
Poison damage over time effect has been mitigated by spirit resistance.
Health 173/175
Noah didn’t fully understand the message, but one thing was clear: the notification of getting attacked sucked big time. He wouldn’t want it appearing mid-battle. He willed it away and looked at his leg. A grass snake had wrapped itself around his leg like a vine wrapping around a tree, and its fangs were sunk into his calf. Noah bent down and tried to pull the snake away, but it was stuck like glue. He pulled his dagger out and slashed at the snake with it. A number popped over the snake, and a red bar appeared above the snake's head. His damage had taken off only a slice of the snake’s life.
How much life does this thing have?
Noah hit the snake again and again and again until its life lowered to half. By that time, his green bar was half empty, and the snake had sliced 25 life from his life pool. Drowsiness had kicked in, slowing his actions, but he couldn’t stop. He sped up his hand, and after a few more hits, the snake died and dissolved into pieces of meat and skin.
A gray bar appeared before him, displaying the experience gained. It then vanished and reappeared as a small bar below the health bar. He spotted a toggle next to all the bars except the health bar. Switching it hid all other bars. He liked it that way, so he kept them hidden.
A gray colored notification was blinking in the right corner of his eye. He expanded it and read:
You have killed a grass snake. Experience gained: 10. 490 points to next level.
What? He lost a half hour of his day, 35 life, fifty points of stamina, and he got only 10 experience. That was a bummer. If only he had a flashy sword and some bad ass paladin skills like shield bash, he would be level 1 by now.
Wait, I have some skills, don't I?
He pulled up his character sheet. He had two skills available at level one.
Poison Orb (level 1): Hit an enemy with a poison orb. Damage: 5 Spirit. Cost: 5.
Curse of Creation (Physical, level 1): Create a curse that mimics a re-animated physical attack on the target. Damage Penalty: 85%. Reduce 1% damage penalty with each level. Requirement: One Crystal. Crystal rank determines the type of attack captured.
“But how do I attack with it?” So far, everything had worked with his thoughts, so he pointed his palm in front of him and willed the poison orb to shoot. Nothing happened.
What the heck? Do I need to shout its name?
He tried it again, this time yelling the skill name, but it still didn’t work.
God, why wasn't anything written in the forums about this?
“You are doing it wrong, human.” A familiar voice drifted to him from the direction of the town. He spun to find the blacksmith, standing near a tree , wearing a cocky smile.
“I think I’ll have to live with dagger throwing.” Noah threw his dagger at the trunk of a tree. The blade fell to the ground without so much as scratching the tree trunk. “Great, now even that doesn't work.”
“A noob is a noob is a noob. If you think you can just shout and a spell will come out of your hand, then you are worse than a fool, noob. You need to get basic training to do that. The same is true for throwing the dagger. Fortunately for you, I can teach you some basics.”
“Will you?” Hope emerged from Noah's heart.
“It will cost one gold.”
“One gold?” Noah didn't understand the economy, but if a bed in the crappy cellar cost just ten copper, this man was fleecing him now.
“Knowledge comes with a price, human. Let me show you something.” Mathial stepped forward and hit a slithering grass snake with his fist. The snake died on the spot, dissolving into meat and skin. “That was one of the moves my master taught me. It requires lots of strength, which you don’t seem to have. But I can still teach you some moves with a dagger.” He massaged his mustache.
Noah looked around, but there was no way he could verify the actual cost. Even the forums had mentioned nothing about this. So he had no other choice but to give the greedy blacksmith a gold coin.
“Let's do it.”
“When the sun rises tomorrow, come to smithy, and I'll teach you few things.” The blacksmith winked at him and hurried deeper into the jungle, vanishing a moment later.
Noah turned back. There was no point in going deep into the forest without knowing how to kill a snake without losing all of his health.
11. Spirit Cycling
N oah was limping toward the inn when he spotted the demon who had killed him many times. The demon in the blue pants. Noah's heart raced when the demon locked eyes with him, staring at him like a hunter sizing up his pray.
“Hello, Mr…” Noah bowed slightly.
“Human. I. Hate. Human,” the demon replied in a strange tone. His tail hovered above his head. Noah knew what the demon was thinking at that moment: kill.
Noah stepped back, his heart racing faster than his thoughts. “Mr. Demon. It was nice to meet you.” He rushed away, keeping his head tilted to keep an eye on the demon behind him. He was ready to run at any moment—not that it would help, but he would at least try.
Thanks to his title, nothing harmful happened on the way back. Noah spent the remains of the day tucked in the cellar, thinking about his future. One thing was clear: demons weren’t friendly folks. His title prevented him from being killed on the spot, but it wouldn't get him into a demon's pants—not that he wanted to get in.
What was I thinking about? Yes, reputation.
He wanted to go back to the respawn room and access the forums to learn about spell casting, but he didn't know any way back without dying. Death wasn’t a good option.
Later, Noah went upstairs to find the sun hanging low in the west. It was odd to realize the game was based on the old Earth—the birth place of all real-world humans, but now long forgotten. He wondered what the in-game people thought about the stars and other planets. In the real world, people traveled across planets in hours’ time, but here everyone walked everywhere. He hadn't even seen a horse in the town yet, which reminded him he hadn't seen many demons around the town either. Which was odd considering it was called Town of Demons. Maybe demons were a scare race. How would the human town be?
I need to get strong, real quick, to check that out.
Mathial wasn't at the counter, so he flipped over a chair and decided to wait for the blacksmith. What else he could do? He missed social networks for once. At least he could have wasted some time watching funny cat videos while he waited.
He was tapping on the table when Mathial arrived. Daylight was already waning by that time. Mathial had a large bag tied to his back, and it smelled like raw meat.
“Good evening, Mathial.” Noah conjured a friendly smile, despite his urge to close his mouth due to the meat smell.
“Can you eat boar meat, human? Or is your stomach weak like your muscles?” Mathial chuckled.
Noah stared at him. By this time, he understood that Mathial tried to be funny, but at most his jokes were mediocre.
“Okay, I get it. Your intelligence is weak as well. Do you want to know a couple tricks to increase it? It would be cheap.”
Noah found Mathial’s greedy eyes disgusting, so he opted to just smile and nothing else.
“Whatever. Dinner will be ready in few hours. I’d better set everything up before the sweaty demons come in for drinks.” Mathial vanished inside the kitchen.
Noah sat there watching as a few demons stepped into the inn. They glared at Noah with rage for a few moments before noticing his title. They sat as far from him as possible, being overly cautious, but soon their good spirits were soon restored. Mathial was right about one thing: the demons were sweaty and smelled like dog poop—not that Noah had smelled dog poop, but he thought it would have smelled like this.
After an hour or so, one demon started dancing on the table to the tune of Mathial's weird song. Mathial filled up their mugs with more alcohol while every demon present in the bar jumped into the dancing ritual. It was funny watching the demons dancing. Soon their tails wiggled and stumbled over others. A few of their tails even tangled with each other, and then all the demons broke out in raucous laughter. They were having a blast, and it made Noah realize that demons had a unique culture like humans. He should respect them as an individual rather than thinking them as a lowlife species.
Noah went back to his cellar, smiling and whistling the melodious song Mathial had been singing for hours.
♦♦♦
Noah woke up to a crazy headache and the Curse of Sumara. His health and stamina were down once again, but he had a plan today. A plan to get trained in spell casting.
He walked upstairs with his eyes still half shut. Mathial was working in the smithy, backside of the Inn. “Good Morning, Mathial. I'm here for training.”
Mathial pinched his nose between his fingers. “You stink. Training costs one gold and two silver now.”
“What? Are you trying to rob me?”
“Fock the goblins! Are you trying to kill me with that smell?”
“Did you mean fuck the goblins?” Noah asked, confused.
“No, I meant fock the goblins. And don’t try to bullshit me with your terms. Just change your clothes,” Mathial replied slamming his hand over the bar counter.
Noah finally realized what the blacksmith was referring to. His clothes were dirty and stinking with a horrible odor.
“Where do I buy new clothes?” He’d expected the game to clean his clothes for him, but apparently it didn't. He would have to wash them himself and get a second pair somehow. This game sucked!
“I'll give you a tailor’s address. Free of charge.”
“Okay, thanks.” He shelled out money for the lesson to Mathial, who had covered his nose with a cloth.
Noah didn't care. He didn't smell so bad. Mathial was doing this to get more money out of him.
“Okay. What is your prominent resource? Mana or Spirit?” Mathial asked, once they walked to the free ground next to smithy.
“Spirit.”
“Good. It’s easy, actually. You just have to will it. What was that you were crying yesterday?”
“I wasn’t crying for anything.” Noah’s voice rose.
Mathial coughed to cover a laugh. “Poison orb, wasn’t it? Close your eyes. Imagine a ball of poison emerging from your palm. That’s it.”
“That's easy.” Noah took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to picture a poison ball forming next to his palm. Nothing happened. The spirit remained in the small marble-sized container in his chest and did nothing.
A slap and pain from his neck pulled Noah out of his experiment. The force was so strong that he stumbled forward, and by the time he opened his eyes, he was already kissing the ground. He’d also lost 10 points from his health pool.
“Are you crazy, Mathial? Teaching your crude method to a young lad? If he breaks his spirit channels, he will suffer for life.” A familiar angry voice harangued the blacksmith.
Noah rolled onto his back to find High Mage Roderich gesticulating angrily. Noah slowly got to his feet, rubbing the back of his stinging neck. Thanks to Roderich, he was now missing 30 life.
“Good morning Esteemed High Mage.” Noah suppressed the urge to curse the mage. Now, seeing him in the bright daylight, he spotted a prominent scar running over the mage’s left cheek.
“Good morning, young human,” Roderich said in a clipped tone.
A thought crossed Noah’s mind. “I was planning to look for you today.”
“For what?”
“A map. I need a map to visit the human town whenever I am strong enough. I thought you could help.”
The high mage nodded. “Yes, but you must do some work for me before I can give you the map. We have a cave near our town that is inaccessible by demons. I want you to visit it and find more information about it.”
A brown notification popped up in front of Noah.
New Quest Alert: Inaccessible Cave. Roderich wants you to inspect a cave near the demon town of Sumara. If you find more information about it, he will provide you with a map to the nearest human town. Reward: A map. 500 reputation with demon town Sumara. 100 silver. 200 experience. Accept: Yes/No?
It was a no brainier. He accepted.
“It’s good you want to be helpful to the town. In return I’ll teach you proper spirit cycling technique.” Roderich cast an angry gaze towards the blacksmith, who smiled under his mustache.
“Go on and waste his time.” Mathial sniffed and went to work in smithy.
Noah focused on the high mage, who was still staring at Mathial. He coughed when the high mage wouldn't turn back to him.
“Yes, the training. Can you stand in front of me with your legs wide and hands raised to either side of you?”
“Sure.” Noah followed his instructions and stood like a scarecrow. His dad was a poor farmer and hadn’t had the money to procure magic-drones to watch over his crop. So he deployed a scarecrow in his farm, a human dummy. Noah had loved to play with it as a boy, and it had become his first test subject. It also became his first prototype for his magic container. Noah stored his magic inside the scarecrow and developed an algorithm to detect wild animals. Whenever an animal came into the fields, the scarecrow cast a spell at it. It wasn't a unique idea, but it was his first dabbling in the field of research.
Roderich picked up a stick lying nearby and traced a line from Noah's left palm to his heart, then his right palm to his heart, and so on from each limb that ex
tended from his torso. Even one from his penis. “These are your prime spirit channels.”
“Like blood vessels?” Noah asked.
“No, a proper channel passing through your flesh.”
“That’s new, but how can I see it?”
“Close your eyes and imagine it.”
“I’ve done that already. When I close my eyes, I see a marble-sized container filled with green liquid above my heart,” Noah said.
“Yes, that's your spirit reserve. You see it as a marble, and I see it as a large jar which expands as I gain more spirit.”
“Okay, that's nice to know.”
“Now imagine yourself standing in front of the marble and pushing it toward your right hand.”
Noah closed his eyes, imagining himself in front of his spirit container. Nothing worked for the first couple of tries, but the third time he found himself standing in front of the marble. Rather than being marble-sized, it was Noah-sized. The giant marble was filled with green colored liquid, which pulsed with a transparent aura. Reaching out his hand, Noah felt the liquid. It was alive. He somehow knew it was raw and untamed, that his job was to tame it. With all the force in his body, he pushed the marble toward his left hand. He spotted a tiny hole below his shoulder after moving a few steps. There was no way he could fit the spirit marble into it. It was like trying to fit an elephant inside a mouse hole.
Noah opened his eyes, hopelessness heavy in his heart. “High Mage, sir, the spirit channel is tiny. There’s no way I can push my spirit container through it.”
Roderich smiled reassuringly. “That's the trick. This exercise is to make it wide, so your spirit can flow whenever required. If you don’t do it now, you’ll struggle to pull out your spells.”
“Does everyone have to do this?” he asked.
“Everyone born with spirit-based magic. For mana schools, it’s a bit different.”
