Adventures of a Scribe

by Michael Deyhim

  X immediately tossed more stuff on the fire to bring it up more. “Mal we need light.” Bran said. A moment later an orb of light hovered over the camp illuminating the area. A number of giant moths were circling the camp. Each one was about the size of a person. Before I could get an accurate count they began to release a gold cloud from around their bodies.

  “Don’t let that stuff touch you.” X shouted. Carol released an arrow killing one of the moth monsters. The gold cloud it had been releasing quickly disappeared with its death.

  “Bolt, bolt, bolt!” I shouted out. I struck three separate moths. They weren’t killed but the golden clouds quickly disappeared when they were hit. It was definitely some kind of ongoing mana ability they were using.

  Carol kept shooting arrows while X made sure they were killed off once they hit the ground. I stayed back with Bran and Mal ready to use bolt. The battle ended and Mal looked exhausted. Holding that light up had probably drained him of mana. Thankfully the campfire was big enough now to provide illumination of the area.

  “Freaking night moths.” X cursed.

  “At least we are all alive.” Bran said.

  “I am out of mana.” Mal added. While we had won the situation looked grim.

  “Nothing we can do. I need to get the venom sacks off these monsters.” X said. I followed him as he got to work. I had never dealt with giant bugs before. Their blood was green and they seemed a lot more fragile than other monsters.

  I looked for any mana producing organ and even glanced at the venom sacks X was pulling out. There was nothing I could tell, but my knowledge was next to nothing. I was hoping that some innate sense or some bit of luck would lead me to an answer.

  Thankfully dawn wasn’t too far off and we left the ruins of the camp to find a new one. From what I could tell we were making a half loop through the swamp. With the mist and the bleak terrain I was glad X was here to scout out which way we needed to go.

  Chant of Lightening had increased to experienced one. I was now able to use infuse lightning. From Karen’s journal it had explained that it would infuse a weapon with lightning for a short period of time until it was struck against something and then release the power of around three bolts combined. She had noted that the ability worked only with metal objects like swords and one shouldn’t touch the blade when it was infused.

  Metal arrows would be insanely expensive and I didn’t use arrows anyways. It would make for a nice extra boost to my weapon but slow was still far superior as an ability. Maybe against a tough opponent like the yeti it would be useful. A mana ability to counter the natural mana the monsters used.

  ***

  “We have a problem.” It was the seventh night in the Jockel Swamp. Thankfully after the moths we rested the next day so Mal could recovered and I took the opportunity to do the same. Nothing attacked us. We had some more encounters after that but nothing overly difficult.

  Everyone turned to X as we sat around the campfire. “Something is blocking my ability to sense directions. I had hoped it was something local and we could move beyond it but it has kept up all day.”

  “A monster?” Bran asked.

  “Most likely, but my direction skill is based on my ability to sense the distance to marked points. Either something destroyed the objects the ability was tied to, the mana was consumed, or something is blocking me from using my skill.” That was interesting but incredibly worrying.

  “Can you set another point here?” I asked.

  “I tried that when we stopped at mid-day. A short time after we left the area it disappeared.” X said.

  “What about this area? Could the dungeon be here and is blocking your ability?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell the way out of the swamp anymore. Without a clear sky there is no way I can tell which way is which. We could end up going in circles.” There was a long silence at that statement.

  “We could back track.” Bran said.

  “The land changes slightly. The way we came has sunk while other portions have risen.” I was really surprised at that. “That is another reason to suspect a dungeon exists in this area. A dungeon heart can control the land around it to a certain extent.” X added at my surprised look.

  “Anything you can do Ed?” Bran looked at me. I thought about it for a bit.

  “How far away were you when your marker disappeared?” I asked X.

  “About two hundred feet or so.” X said.

  “If X sets a new marker I can prepare a number of runes to let out a huge gust of wind. Two hundred feet would be tough, but if it is a monster we should catch it and have a better idea what we are dealing with.” I said. No one had a better idea. It was an uneasy night but I prepared the breeze runes that would act like my flash runes, but releasing all the mana at once.

  We left the camp and our formation played to our advantage. X was in the front and I was in the back. “Now.” He said. I spun around and activated the runes that rested against my body. A large gust of wind erupted out from me to the sides slightly, above me, but most of it was in front of me.

  The mist was pushed back. We all raced back towards out campsite as the mist was cleared out in front of us. I caught site of the monster first. There was a group of kobalds, lizard monsters. There were eight of them. One was standing back from the rest and appeared to be a mage of some sort. Three were archers and the rest were armored up and had spears.

  “Kobalds!” I cried out. “Slow all!” I yelled as the group began to move towards us. A shimmering blue sphere encircled them all and my mana plummeted to almost nothing. An arrow flew from Carol and struck the edge of the sphere where it stopped. X and Bran were already rushing forward past me. The sphere collapsed and the arrow hit a kobald in the chest, staggering it.

  Unlike the two I met in the sewers, each of these were the size of a grown man. They had good gear and were clearly organized. The breeze runes crumbled as the mana was consumed. Bran had slammed one of the monsters with his tower shield and was holding another two off. I moved out of the way as arrows flew towards me.

  Their mage made a gesture and the ground around both X and Bran began to sink as the swamp water rushed to cover the area. The long spears the kobalds carried immediately became a much deadlier threat. While X was able to back up to more solid ground Bran was forced to keep fending off spear attacks and was sinking with his heavier armor.

  “Three, two, one!” I yelled out. My teammates knew enough to look away from what I was doing. I activated a flash rune. Carol took the opportunity to land an arrow in the shoulder of the mage kobald. Bran also took the chance to pull himself out of the sunken portion of ground. The kobalds retreated back into the mist.

  Mal rushed forwards and began healing Bran who had taken a number of stab wounds. “Ow, that hurt.” He moaned.

  “Whatever their mage was doing it is permanently erasing my makers.” X said. That meant their mage had some sort of mana sense as well as an ability to counter mana.

  “We need to get out of the swamp.” Carol said.

  “Yeah we got that but how?” Bran asked. There was silence.

  “Can you use that breeze ability more? I was able to spot the sun in that direction for a moment.” X said.

  “No, I don’t have many more spare pieces of parchment left. I also am low on mana.”

  “Those kobalds are clearly organized. They have to have a settlement nearby, maybe the dungeon.” X added.

  “Carol managed to wound two including the mage. Without him you can place a marker and we can head straight away from here. If the sun was in that direction, then north should be that way.” I said while gesturing.

  “Best idea yet. We better get moving.” Bran said. We set off with X leading the way.

  ***

  It took two days and another three monster encounters before we managed to leave the Jockel Swamp. The last fight against some blood crows had pushed me up to level seventeen. I held up increasing my wisdom to one hundred points.
I was hoping that I would unlock a skill or an ability by increasing it to such an amount and wanted to savor the accomplishment in peace.

  “Thank god, proper land.” Carol lay down on the grass.

  “No more mist.” Mal let out with a sigh.

  “Come on, let’s find a town and rest up.” It wasn’t too hard to find a road and then a nearby town and the Adventures Guild. We had traveled quite a ways through the swamp. I took the opportunity to mark up one of my maps with the estimated route we took.

  X came back to the table we were all sitting around. “I spoke with the local Merchants Guild. I sold the monster parts for a sixty silver.” That was a considerable amount. This expedition paid a lot better than goblins but was far more dangerous. X handed each of us six silver. I was annoyed that I had missed that transaction. It would be useful to have known how much each part went for. I had spent the time resupplying and cleaning out my pack.

  “The big question is if we are going out again?” Bran asked.

  “I would be up for it.” I said.

  “It definitely was a challenge. We would need to talk about the shares though.” She said.

  “Since you all are capable. I would be willing to agree to four and you each get one and a half.” X said.

  “That seems a bit unfair.” Carol said staring at him with a glare.

  “I am a rank three and can navigate through the swamp. I also know which monster parts to harvest. If you have the skills you can ask that much.” X said with a small grin.

  “Fine, but that is only monster parts. If we run in the kobalds or the dungeon it is an equal split.”

  “Of course.” X said.

  “I would be up for it.” Mal added.

  “Good, let’s rest up tomorrow and head out the day after. I know I need a bath.” Bran said. The one good thing about being rich is that I was able to afford my own room. That was probably a big reason everyone was willing to go out again. They wanted to earn some money or gain some levels.

  That night as I lay in bed I opened up my status panel. I dropped two points into wisdom to bring it up to one hundred.

  A panel suddenly appeared. A notice, like one I had received when I first unlocked my panels. I quickly went to my skill panel and pulled up the new skill.

  I was at a loss for words. This skill and its ability opened the possibility to so much but at the same time it was incredibly limited. Would I be able to Observe mana, humans, or object?. The way the ability read it definitely was a possibility. The real question was if I needed to keep increasing my wisdom or if there were chants to unlock this skill more.

  I would stick with wisdom until it reached two hundred. That meant at least another twenty levels. The slowness of reaching my goals was frustrating. I looked at the mana cost and sighed internally. It was as expensive as my other mana abilities. I made notes in my journal and put the last three points into wisdom.

  I had too many skills that used mana. There wasn’t much of a choice since I kept putting all my points into wisdom. I knew there were skills that used stamina. Unfortunately just keeping up with everyone else and fighting used up a good portion of my stamina. If I had a shield skill like Bran I would probably run out much more quickly.

  I had experienced running out of stamina before and it was never pleasant and something I didn’t want to happen while fighting. I was faced once again with the issue of mana regeneration. Potions were tempting but the sheer expense of them was a huge turnoff. The lowest mana potion, a grade one, only restored fifty mana and cost ten silver.

  The best one had I seen for sale was a grade three and cost a gold. The shopkeeper told me it restored five hundred mana in one go. I guess in the heat of battle the extra time needed to drink ten potions versus one created the difference in cost. There was also the weight and how easy it was to get to them.

  I could easily regain that mana from Meditation, I just couldn’t do anything else while meditating. I decided to meditate a couple of hours to restore my mana before going to sleep.

  ***

  “AHHHHHH!” A scream woke me from my sleep. It took me a moment to realize that I was on a wood bed in the town of Tork. I heard more screams as I picked up my blade. This was an attack on the town rather than something isolated. I put on my clothes and boots. I was in a hurry but running out half naked was a good way to die.

  I also grabbed my pack. I had restocked my previsions yesterday. The main things were food, parchment, and ink. I heard shouting from the first level of the guild hall. I definitely picked up Bran’s voice in the commotion. I stood back from the doorway and then opened it. There was nothing going on in the hallway.

  I made my way downstairs. I heard the moans from some wounded. I quickly brought up the party panel to see get a better sense of what was going on and how bad things currently were.

  Apparently things were very bad. I passed by the wounded people not sparing them a thought. I only had so much mana and I wouldn’t be wasting it to heal random people. Outside the guild hall the town was in chaos. Kobalds were fighting people in the street and it appeared the town was being completely overrun.

  “Leave party.” I wasn’t going to be giving any experience to people who were wounded. I also suspected that X had fled the town. Anything I killed I wanted the full credit for.

  A least a quarter of the buildings had gone up in flames and there were twice or three times as many kobalds as humans. Also most of the people fighting weren’t fighters, they were shopkeepers or other soft targets. I began moving towards the north edge of the village. I suspected the kobalds came from the swamp so I wanted to head away from that direction.

  “Slow.” A kobald had rushed out towards me. I cut it down easily and kept moving. A man and a woman ran by screaming as three kobalds chased them down the street. I stepped to the side in the shadow of the nearby building and let them pass by before I kept moving. I was thankful I had also restored most of my mana by meditating before going to sleep.

  After my experience with the Lich I had decided I always wanted to be able to flee easily. Going back to Goldtown had been a huge risk. I was thankful my preparation was paying off. I could use slow fourteen more times before running out of mana. “Slow, slow.” Twelve more times as two kobalds fell to the ground dead.

  I saw the wooden wall ahead and there was a large group of kobalds at the gate. I counted ten and one of them was dressed like the mage we had met in the swamp. There were also four archers. Unfortunately they spotted me as well and three of their fighters rushed at me while arrows were loosed in my direction.

  I ducked back behind the building I had walked out in front of. Arrows hit the corner of the building and the ground where I had been standing. A fighter rounded the corner, spear at the read. “Slow.” I stabbed the monster in the face and backed up as its companions rounded the corner as well.

  “Slow, slow.” I cut out at both of them, killing them where they stood. A moment later they collapsed spilling their life blood on the ground. Just nine uses of slow left. I heard movement behind me and spun around. It was a human, and they had a sword and were in their underwear and boots. That could easily have been me if I hadn’t taken my time to prepare myself.

  “Team up?” He asked while trying to catch his breath.

  “Sure. There is a large group at the gate with a mage.”

  “Shit, the east gate is blocked as well.” The man said.

  “We can go over the wall.”

  “No, a group of us tried they have archers around the town to pick people off.” More screams echoed in the distance along with the rabid cackles of the kobalds.

  “We can’t just stand around here.” I said.

  “Shit.” The man cursed. That wasn’t helpful but summed things up nicely. I looked around the corner. The seven kobalds were still standing around but they were much more alert. They definitely weren’t all going to leave their position and the longer we waited the chance increased that more would come to reinforce or
overrun us.

  “We rush the gate. If they are waiting there, they probably don’t have archers beyond it. If we get past, we should be able to escape.

  “Shit.” The man said but he nodded. I picked up a shield from a dead kobald, he did as well. We rushed around the corner. Arrows were loosed but the shields took the impact. I threw the shield to the side and kept running forward. The man held onto his.

  Their two remaining fighters rushed us. “Slow, slow.” I hit both of them with my ability. I killed one and kept moving, trusting my new companion to kill the other. The archers panicked scrambled away. The mage raised his hands but I was already ready with my hand raised. “Stop.” I wasn’t going to take any chances.

  I moved out of the way of its gesture and by the time it unfroze my blade was swinging towards its neck. I decapitated the mage ending the threat. My companion had killed one of the archers and the other three had retreated.

  We rushed through the ruins of the wooden gate to the road and the fields beyond the wall. After a couple minutes of running we slowed down to a fast walk. I was gasping for breath and the man next to me didn’t look that much better. He had a slight belly and his hair and some white in it.

  We kept moving in silence as the glow of Tork as it burned was left behind. I wished I had used my new skill Observe, but I hadn’t wanted to waste the mana. Even now, each bit of mana was precious. Our fast walk slowed down to a calmer pace as the sun came up.

  “Shit.” The man said. He had his sword and the shield he had stolen from the kobald but other than that he had nothing else except his modesty. “Whatever you did to the kobalds, thanks. Name’s Uther.”

  “Ed, I am a mage.” Uther gave me a look. “I use a different kind of mana.”

  “No complaints here. Shit, all my stuff is back in Tork.” Uther let out a long sigh and gave me a look.

  “I put on some clothes before going out.”

  “And grabbed your pack. Adventurer?” He asked.

  “Yes, rank two.”