Adventures of a Scribe

by Michael Deyhim

  ***

  “So Carol, how do you know Bran?” I asked her while when we were a ten-day into our journey.

  “I have been with Yonson and Bran to the swamps before. Not the most pleasant but it is good experience and I want to reach rank three as soon as possible.”

  “Same here.” I said.

  “So you use mana, care to share?” She asked.

  “Nothing too dramatic, I just slow my enemies down.” She gave me a long look.

  “That is not common, but it will be useful.” She turned away clearly implying the conversation was over.

  I walked over to Mal who had drifted away from Bran. I would hopefully have better luck with him than everyone else I had met. “Mal, have you been a priest for long?” I asked.

  “For a while, since I came of age. I know I look young, but I just have to wait for my beard to come in.”

  “Don’t feel bad, I am the youngest here and we are the same level. We also both use mana.”

  “That is true. I am curious about what you can do.” That was the opening I was hoping for.

  “I use the Chant of Time, I can slow things down including monsters. It allows me to strike them easily. My abilities cost a lot of mana.”

  “A common problem. From my observations you appear to know Meditation?” He asked.

  “Yes I do. Any advice for me?”

  “Not much. The senior priest I trained under always taught us to use the time for prayer and reflection.”

  “What are the requirements to become a priest? I know the path isn’t taken lightly, but after losing friends I would like to be able to heal them.” Mal gave me a look.

  “The skills of my order are guarded to protect from chaos and darkness.”

  “I am just interested in healing.” No I wasn’t, but any information was helpful. “I would be willing to share the Chant of Lightning with you in exchange for the basics of the Chant of Healing.” Since skills weren’t learned instantly, people could lie to each other. There was also the desire to keep a monopoly on one’s skills to pass down to their family or group.

  My hope was that both the Chant of Healing and the Chant of Lightning were common enough to overcome this issue. If I had offered the Chant of Time there would have been no way Mal would have believed me.

  “I can accept your reasoning. Very well then.” I grinned and pulled out a sheet of parchment I had written up.

  “This has the basics for the Chant for Lightning.” I handed it over. “I use this to review my skill.” Mal looked it over and then pocketed the parchment.

  “The basic healing chant is simple. By the light and the power of order. Heal this one to his previous state whole and well.” I frowned at that. It was the same chant I had heard before.

  “I already know that chant, I don’t like being tricked.” Mal looked at me in surprise and then away. “What is the actual chant?” I said.

  “I can’t share it, it is forbidden.” He said.

  “I gave you information on my skill in good faith. You will either make this right or else.” I put my hand on my blade. Mal began to look around for help. “If you go to the others then we will have issues. Now the actual chant. I just want to heal, I don’t plan on spreading it around.”

  Mal let out a long sigh. “By order and by light, heal this being to a whole state.” I repeated the chant and unlocked my new skill. I guess all the practicing from before had paid off.

  Mal walked away from me after that with a frown on his face. I wasn’t too worried, I would just make sure to keep some mana in order to heal myself. I could finally heal. I wanted to shout for joy. After the Chant of Lightning and Lightning Resistance I had learned there was a synergy between skills.

  The Chant of Healing would work well with Toughness and any other resistance skill I was learning. While I had potions it just wasn’t the same thing. If I received an injury that would cripple me I could fix it myself now. The priests were a bunch of ass holes in my opinion for keeping this sort of skill secret but to each their own.

  Mal would need to run into an accident on this trip. This was one skill I wasn’t going to let anyone know about. The Church was powerful, incredibly so. They were second only to the nobles and even then they were not trifled with. Healing was a commodity just like gold and silver. To lose that commodity would have them seek to punish me.

  The laws on this were a bit vague since Mal had willingly taught me the skill. Unfortunately in the stories I read the world was never fair and just. My own experiences backed that up. If the Church knew I had broken in on their precious monopoly they would brand me a heretic and have me killed.

  CHAPTER 9

  We finally reached the edge of the Jockel Swamp. The air was hot and humid with a putrid smell lingering about. We had also stocked up on supplies the previous town. “X will take the lead as our tracker and most experienced person. I will stay near Mal and Carol in order to protect them. Ed will take the rear and watch for any surprise attacks.”

  “We also have to go to a two person watch from now on. So one person gets double duty each night. This place isn’t a joke. You think there is a problem you speak up.” Everyone gave an affirmative and we began moving through the damp grass towards the mist covered swamp.

  I had my sword in my hand ready for anything. The mist made it hard to see and I wished I had an ability to push it out of the way. It was like the snowstorm only a lot wetter and hotter. The bugs swarmed around us but the plant paste Bran had made us all buy and use in the last town kept them off of us.

  Thankfully for all that X was silent and anti-social he was very good at picking out a stable path through the swamp. I would not want to be trudging in waist deep muck. Thinking about it, my boots would probably have to be burned after this. “Blood crows, incoming.”

  Everyone looked up while Carol quickly strung her bow and notched an arrow. A moment after X’s warning I heard the whistling in the air and saw a number of red shapes begin to circle overhead. I counted nine of them. The circle was tight enough I could get them all at once with slow all. The problem was it would also slow down arrows shot at them.

  I decided to wait. We all stood there listening to the slight whistling their wings gave off. Carol still had not shot an arrow yet. The mist and their height was likely to throw off her aim and she only had so many arrows. There wouldn’t be any easy recoveries in this swamp.

  “Mal can you do anything?” Bran asked.

  “I could light up the area briefly but it would be limited.” Mal said.

  “I have an idea. Don’t look, will use ability on three. One, two, bolt.” I used my ability and the bolt of lightning flew from my left hand and into the sky and I missed. “Bolt, bolt, bolt.” I cast three more times in quick succession and managed to hit one of the blood crows. It fell through the air and hit the wet ground nearby with a plop.

  The rest of the monsters let out harsh caws and flew down towards us. Carol released an arrow. “Slow, slow.” I hit two of the monsters coming for me with my ability and then drove my blade through their bright red feathers and into their bodies. I noted their beaks were incredibly sharp and pointed and they had vicious looking talons.

  I looked around at the rest of the group. X had received a wound on his arm which was already being healed by Mal and nobody else was injured as far as I could tell. Three of the monsters had survived and were flying off.

  “Good job everyone. Nice work Ed.” I nodded at Bran. I began gathering up the corpses and laying them on a dry patch of ground while X got to work. I carefully watched what he was doing. I noted he was focusing on removing the beaks but leaving everything else.

  After he tossed the first blood crow to the side. I had seen enough to understand how he was separating their beaks. I got to work on dissecting the ones he had finished with. “What are you doing?” Mal asked. He sounded ill as I gutted the Blood Crow with a knife.

  “Looking into how this monster is made up so I can kill them more eas
ily. Their bones are hallow, so they would probably shatter under a blunt enough attack. Also their eyes are on the opposite side of their head and stick out a bit so they would be able to see quite a bit.” Mal turned away as I kept up my dissection.

  Having an extra damage boost from my Anatomy skill was huge. It applied to all damage both from my blade and mana. There was also the chance I would learn something really interesting, perhaps understand their natural mana abilities and skills. When X was done taking the beaks I stopped as well and we all left. I was tempted to say that we should use the corpses of the blood crows as bait but I wanted to get a better sense of how dangerous the monsters were in the swamp first.

  The blood crows seemed incredibly easy, but I was also part of a group that knew what they were doing. If I was by myself the blood crows could have easily swarmed me. This was exactly the reason I wanted to travel with a group, they would stand between me and overwhelming numbers.

  As the sky began to get slightly darker, Bran quickly called a halt and we stopped on a small patch of dry land that had a couple of trees and bushes. X was actually able to get a fire going from some of the plants and some tar that was bubbling up nearby.

  We all ate in silence. No one wanted to tell a story or lighten up the mood. I looked at Bran but even he seemed depressed in this swamp. I had first watch along with Mal. It was simple enough as we both waited in the dark listening to weird noises in the distance.

  When the second watch was up. I meditated a bit before falling asleep. I had used two hundred and thirty six mana in the last fight and I wanted to be near my capacity in case something happened. I would need around a quarter of a day of meditation to recover what I had lost. I didn’t manage that but every bit would help.

  The following day the ever present mist clung to everything once again. This place was incredibly miserable. I really needed a Chant of Drying to keep the dampness off of me. While my journal and spare parchment was carefully wrapped up in wax paper to keep out water I wouldn’t be able to use runes. The dampness would ruin the parchment they were on very quickly.

  I did know how to write a rune to dry things out. I figured it was worth the risk. The following night when I was on watch I pulled out three sheets of parchment and mixed up some ink that morning. I then charged the runes and put one in my pants, one in my pack, and other in my shirt. The dampness was repelled and I let out a small sigh of relief.

  Based on my earlier tests they should last around a ten-day. They weren’t strong enough to keep solid water off, but it was enough to repel the mist and keep my clothing dry. I made another one and removed the limiters similar to the flash rune. I would be interesting to see what happened. I put in mana and the entire area around the rune instantly went dry.

  I even felt my eyes and skin feel dry after that. The ground was no longer damp, but actually hard and the air had lost the ever present humidity. A couple of seconds later it came back but it gave me an idea. If I ever met with a water based monster I could dry them out.

  ***

  The third day we encountered another monster. “Hold up. We have to back track. Everything sinks into the swamp around here.” X said. I looked around for any sort of path and saw movement.

  “Something is there.” I gestured with my blade and everyone began scanning the area.

  “A vine monster or possibly a lizard of some kind.” X said.

  “I am going to try and force it out. One, two, bolt.” I called out. The bolt struck the water where I had seen movement and the area around exploded in an explosion of steam. That was followed by a roar as a large figure leapt out of the swamp water.

  Bran had moved in front of it incredibly quickly and slammed his shield directly into the beast. He slid back a couple of feet but didn’t lose his balance. It was a massive lizard covered in muck. “Slow!” I yelled out. An arrow flew into it and both X and Bran stabbed the monster. I moved in to assist. “Slow.” I used my ability again since it clearly wasn’t dead. I stabbed it once and then repeated, “Slow.” It had two arrows in it and a large number of stab wounds.

  Bran had been especially brutal at its head while X had been aiming at its flank similar to me. I let the ability run out and the monster collapsed. “By the Gods.” Mal whispered. I didn’t blame him. The monster was at least eight feet long not counting its tail which added another four feet.

  X poked it a couple of times with one of his swords. “Definitely dead. Probably a mud grabber if I had to guess. Never killed one before.” He looked it over. “I think the teeth might be useful.” He got to work removing the teeth, Carol worked on getting her arrows back, and I worked on cutting the monster open.

  Its skin was thick, but not impossibly so. Most of the insides were completely new to me. I couldn’t figure out the function of a number of organs. Like the goblins from before this one was completely different from anything that had been recorded about humans and how our bodies worked. I had some ideas, but there was also quite a bit of damage from all the stabbing we had done which made things harder.

  “All done.” X said. I stopped as well and cleaned off my dagger. We back tracked a bit and found another way through the swamp. I did note I had gained a level. It was annoying that it was impossible to tell how much came from killing monsters and how much came from raising Anatomy up to beginner two.

  When we stopped for lunch I decided to ask a question. “X, if we are looking for a dungeon why don’t we head to where the monsters are the most present.” He let out a small annoyed grunt and turned towards me.

  “The problem is the large ones drive the small ones away. So while the area near a dungeon might have more monsters unless they are all the same type and get along it is impossible to tell. The only reason people suspect there is a dungeon in the swamps is the number of high level and varied monsters like that mud grabber.” He turned back to the dried meat he was eating.

  “What about a boat?” I asked Bran.

  “People have tried, but it is impossible to fight on a boat. If that mud grabber came up from below and ripped the thing in half we would all be dead. That is why we are stuck to these dry patches.” Bran explained. I had thought it would be a good idea, apparently not.

  I thought about trying to drain the swamp but then realized it acted as a natural buffer between Aurulian and Yorek. The Wastes of Nuremar also helped as well. That was probably the reason why the two kingdoms got along, they never had to deal with each other that much. I knew there was a road by the mountains and the coast, but both routes were easily guarded from a large army.

  So the swamp remained since no one cared enough to remove it and it was large. As long as all the monsters didn’t get up and leave the area then no one important would care about this place. It was unfortunate but the Kingdom of Aurulian had other problems to deal with and had no need to create new ones.

  We continued on walking through the swamp. I said a silent prayer of thanks to my mother for knowing about runes. Being dry made this entire experience bearable instead of a lesson in suffering. I thought about offering the others my services, but since no one wanted to share their skills with me, I wouldn’t share with them either. The fact that no one asked how my clothes and pack were dry just reinforced my decision.

  Vines suddenly burst out of the water around us. “Slow, bolt!” I hit one of the large vines with both abilities. Only the one vine slowed and then it was burned slightly from the bolt. The vines swung in towards us wildly without a clear direction. I was able to dodge out of the way as the slammed into the ground.

  “Find the center!” Bran shouted out. From previous conversations I knew that the vine monsters had a center which was a mass of vines surrounding a heart of some sort. If that was damaged then the vine monster would die. The hard part was finding it in the chaos.

  I cut a vine that was swinging at me and green sap went all over me. The vine quickly retreated beneath the water. I pulled out a dry rune and slapped it on the next vine that swung past. I p
ushed mana into it. After thinking on my runes for a while I had made the activation portion delay while the discharge portion of the rune would release all the mana at once.

  I had been dried out slightly before and I did not want that. I also had the effect be more narrow in focus. The rune activated as the vine was in the air and it stopped moving. The vine began to spasm as it was dried out but more sap was pushed in to compensate. I noted that only half the vines slowed down and pulled out another rune.

  There had to be a second monster and slapped it on one of the more active vines. The first dry rune crumbled away but that had given my group the advantage they needed. As more vines were hacked apart the monsters had to come closer to use their thicker vines and that finally exposed their hearts. Carol put an arrow into each one killing the monsters.

  We were all covered in sap and chunks of vine littered the ground around us. “Well that was nasty.” Mal said.

  “This is never coming out of my hair.” Carol complained about the sap. Cleaning up from the battle took longer than the battle itself. The water from the swamp had to be filtered and then heated to prevent illness. Cleaning off all the sap was a slow and tedious process. Even when we were finished, I still felt sticky.

  I also took the time to look at the heart of the monsters. It was basically a pulsating mass of plant matter with vines wrapped around it. X didn’t even bother looking at the monster, apparently it had nothing valuable. We made camp a short distance away from the battle.

  ***

  “Ambush!” I immediately grabbed my sword and looked around. It had been Carol who had shouted out the warning. I quickly got up along with everyone else. “I definitely saw something moving out there.” She pointed the area out, but the darkness was heavy.