by M. Coulray
The creature roared in agony and flopped off the walkway into the water. I didn’t get a chance to see how badly I’d injured it, but apparently Excruciator’s magic was painful as hell to them too. The other monster narrowed its eyes at me and took a step back. I scrambled to my feet and advanced towards it.
The poison was still in my body, and my Vitality was still slowly dropping. In comparison, my foe was still unharmed. Once the poison did its work, it would finish me off at its leisure. It watched me with its predator’s eyes, waiting for its chance.
I decided to give it to him.
My next step, I stumbled, reaching forward to catch myself on my left hand. The Degenerated Lizardman didn’t waste a second. Its jaws opened wide and it leaped forward at me, intending to catch me in a deadly bite. I knew how it would kill me: drag me into the water and roll until I drowned or my neck snapped.
Instead, I let my arm collapse. I fell underneath its attack, and used my other arm to roll over onto my back. Time slowed. The monster’s pale underside was wide open, and I thrust my weapon upwards into its relatively soft belly. The blade met no resistance at all. Ichor and entrails spilled from the wound as the creature’s own momentum caused my blade to disembowel it in a split second. The monster fell howling in agony and rolled off me, desperately crawling away as I got unsteadily to my feet.
I climbed on its back and tried to lift its head to cut its throat, but there was no way I could overpower it in its death throes. I dropped Excruciator on the walkway and drew the boneforged knife. Its longer blade easily penetrated the monster’s eye socket and destroyed the brain beyond. The creature shook under me and died. I fell backwards, exhausted.
The fight wasn’t over yet. I somehow dragged myself up to my knees and climbed off the corpse of the Degenerated Lizardman. The one that had fled after I stabbed it had come up again, and Votess was caught between them.
“I’m coming!” I ignored the flashing prompt that had appeared when I killed the beast and started moving towards Votess and her fight. Halfway there I realized I had left Excruciator on the walkway, but it didn’t matter. Both enemies were already wounded, one pretty severely by Votess and her deadly spear.
When I got within ten yards of them, I hollered at the Degenerated Lizardman closest to me. I wanted to grab its attention, and boy, did I ever. It turned to me and opened its jaws impossibly wide. For a moment, I thought I’d made a big mistake.
However, it turned out to be the right thing to do. The moment it turned, Votess glanced over her shoulder, reversed her grip on the spear in her hand, and thrust it backwards into the abomination. It screamed in pain and spun in place, trying to reach the weapon that was impaling it. Unfortunately, it tore the spear out of Votess’ hands.
As it spun I tried to find an opening. The creature finally thrashed around enough that the spear handle broke off, leaving the weapon embedded in its body. For an instant, it faced Votess, and raised its claws to her unprotected back. I moved faster than I ever thought possible.
Once again, time seemed to slow. My body moved forward, leaping off my lead foot and spearing forward with my knife hand at the very tip of my movement. My blade hit the Degenerated Lizardman directly beside the spear injury and I used my momentum to tear through its tough hide until I hit bone. Pure luck had my weapon dig between its vertebra and sever its spinal cord, making it drop to the ground with its legs useless. I went down with it, seeking out its weak eye socket. A moment’s work with the long blade of the boneforged dagger left it dead.
A glance told me that I’d just killed the one I’d wounded earlier. Votess was facing off against the last of the trio, and I watched her take it apart. It was already heavily wounded from her skillful spearwork, and her claws did the rest. The enemy hit her occasionally, and I wondered about the venom and its effects on her, but she didn’t seem to be slowing down at all. When she finally tore its throat out, I cheered at her incredible prowess in close combat. She turned to me and looked over at my handiwork.
“You killed two,” she said, not even out of breath.
“Let’s call it one and a half each. Your spear opened this one up for me,” I said while kicking the giant creature.
“Hmm. Still. You did well. Were you poisoned?”
I checked my status. The poison had cleared, but I was dangerously injured. My Vitality was at 42 and holding. “Yeah, but it’s cleared now.” I downed the vial I’d filled earlier and watched as my wounds closed up. That would take some getting used to.
“I will dismantle the bodies.” Votess began her work on the bodies, and I checked my prompts. There were two, and they were both great news. From the first enemy that I had killed solo, I earned enough experience to gain three levels. From the second and third I gained enough experience to go up another two levels. Best of all, the game counted the fights as separate, so I didn’t lose any experience to the cutoff as I had earlier.
[Level Up! You have reached level 5!]
[Level Up! You have reached level 6!]
[Level Up! You have reached level 7!]
[Level Up! You have reached level 8!]
[Level Up! You have reached level 9!]
You have gained 10 skill points.
You have gained 1 attribute point. You must allocate your attribute point now.
Although it was tempting to increase my Intelligence, I chose instead to raise my Agility. My reasoning was that I could gain mana by levelling Barrier Magic, and I’d already felt the effects of my average Agility. I had some plans and some quick math told me that everything would work out. With that in mind, I threw two skill points into Barrier Magic.
[Derived Attributes adjusted]
Vitality increased from 140 to 190 (Base 100 + 10 points/level + 0 points Endurance bonus)
Mana increased from 170 to 240 (Base 100 + 10 points/level + 10 points/level of highest Magic skill x 1.0 Intelligence bonus multiplier)
At level 5, Barrier Magic had another new spell I could learn, Force Wall. However, I’d been ignoring Mana Barrier for some time now, and it might be useful.
[Mana Barrier]
This spell will absorb magical damage at the cost of its caster’s mana.
Hmm. Given how easily the chain lightning spell had worked over the guards, it seemed that the lizard folk weren’t particular resilient against magic. I bought the spell and read its details.
[Mana Barrier]
Skill: Barrier Magic
Rank: 1
Target: Self or Other
Reserve cost: 50 mana (base cost 100, Barrier Magic skill cost reduction 50%. Maximum cost reduction: 80%)
Maximum damage absorbed: 50 (Spell rank 1 x 50)
Mana Barrier will drop if the caster runs out of mana.
Okay, that was both awesome and dangerous. Negating a lot of spell damage was great, but it would eat my mana and leave me unable to recast it if I wasn’t careful. Still, it might have saved that guard who took the first hit from the enemy caster.
That reminded me, I hadn’t looked at what my Physical Barrier spell looked like since I’d learned the Channeled Barrier talent.
[Physical Barrier]
Skill: Barrier Magic
Rank: 2
Target: Self or Other
Maximum base physical DEF: 9 (1 DEF/9 Mana)
Duration: Channeled
Other effects: +2 effective DEF versus missile weapons
Increase Barrier Magic skill to increase maximum base DEF. Increase spell Rank to decrease mana cost per DEF.
Ah, shit. I’d made a little mistake with the math. I’d thought I could cast three max-power Physical Barriers with my new skills, but apparently I needed a tiny bit more mana. Just three more points! I debated adding another level to Barrier Magic, or even ranking up Physical Barrier. I decided against both for now.
Votess was still hacking apart the three dead abominations. I watched her for a moment and realized my skill points weren’t doing me any good just sitting there. I’d made a
bit of an ass out of myself with Lukid and Son of Rorst; maybe my knife work needed some more training. I decided to drop another two points in it to bring Knife Fighting up to level five, and was rewarded with a welcome surprise.
[You have learned Technique: Sense Vulnerability]
During any combat, you have a chance based on your Luck to notice a vulnerable point on your opponent. You may spend 50 Mana to activate Sense Vulnerability: Strike; an attack that is guaranteed to hit that point for full damage. There may be other effects. Certain enemies, such as elemental or non-corporeal types, are immune. Certain skills such as Assess Target, or related techniques such as Surprise Attack, may increase the chance of Sense Vulnerability occurring.
This is a multi-weapon skill: any edged weapon may proc Sense Vulnerability, but as you have learned the technique via the skill Knife Fighting, any other weapon will cost double mana to use Sense Vulnerability: Strike.
The technique didn’t cost me a point to unlock, either. Apparently weapon techniques were free to learn? I wasn’t complaining. A guaranteed hit on an enemy was great, and I’d probably have the mana to spare.
I still had five points to spread around, so I put two in Alchemy, two in Cooking, and the last one in Skill Instruction. The sooner I got Jin making some food, the sooner Reath would get off my back! Nothing new unlocked in any of the skills. I sighed to myself; apparently I was turning into a lab rat desperate for treats every time I pushed a button. The thrill of seeing something unlock was awesome!
I slapped my forehead. I’d forgotten the Force Wall spell! I had meant to unlock that too! Too late now, I thought. Hopefully the next level would come soon, so I could get that one. It sounded useful.
For the first time since I’d arrived in the Mitselheim Swamplands, it started to rain. The overgrowth and canopy collected much of the water, only to drain it down on us in heavy rivulets. Thankfully, Physical Barrier was as effective at blocking water as it was bugs. Votess didn’t seem to notice the change in weather. She walked the same as always: steady and determined. I was starting to admire her more and more.
Daniel Descouteaux, AKA Denel
Title: Teacher
Race: Human
Level: 9
Attributes:
Strength: 10 (ATK bonus: 0)
Endurance:10 (Vitality/level bonus: 0)
Agility:11 (Accuracy/DEF bonus: 5%/1)
Intelligence:10 (Mana pool multiplier: 1.0)
Willpower:10 (Resistance bonus: 0)
Charisma: 14 (Disposition bonus: 20%)
Luck:13 (Bonuses unknown)
Derived Attributes:
Vitality:190
Mana:240
Traits:
Gift of Tongues
Skills:
Knife Fighting: 5
Barrier Magic:5
Cook:3
Alchemy:3 (71% to next level)
Trade:1
Diplomacy:2
Assess Target:1
Skill Instruction: 2 (17% to next level)
Spells:
Physical Barrier Rank 2
Mana Barrier Rank 1
Talents:
Channeled Barriers
19
The next day, we stopped by the alchemist’s building to see how things were going. Trak was the only person there, and when we walked in, she cursed us.
“Close the door! The draft will destabilize the process!”
Behind me I pulled the heavy hide closed. The ghost lights filled the room with their pale illumination and Trak sighed. “Thank you. And for the venom, thank you as well. I hear you were poisoned?”
“Just me, I think,” I said. Votess shook her head and I looked at her in surprise. “You too? I didn’t notice. Guess you’re just that tough.”
She nodded at me. “Yes, I am. The poison slows our healing. I had not thought about how dangerous it might be to you. I hope we can mitigate it.”
After a short period of watching in boredom, Votess finally left Trak and I to our experimentation. I found the alchemist to be short tempered and easily frustrated, but there was no questioning her competence. She had a series of thin wooden plates laid out beside the alchemy equipment, with writing scratched on them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read them at all, and when I asked, she huffed in displeasure.
“Failures. I write down the mixture so if it is a success I will not forget it.” She swept the pile of thin plates aside and grabbed a new, blank one. “My goal is to succeed where Krees and Telix have failed. I want a protective elixir for the mists in the temple.”
“Ah. That’s a good idea.”
She looked at me like I was an idiot. “Of course it is.”
I watched as she mixed a small amount of the venom of the Degenerated Lizardman into a powder that I didn’t recognize. Then she surprised me by nicking her finger with her tooth and letting several drops of her blood drip into the mixture.
“Why did you do that?” The alchemy recipes I knew of didn’t use the blood of any kind of intelligent creature.
Once again, Trak’s expression told me she thought I was, at best, a fool. “How else will the potion know what it is to benefit? Without the blood of the people, it will not work well at all.”
An idea struck me for my own experiments. I waited until Trak was finished with the alchemy equipment and then started to work. I found that my increased Alchemy skill let me identify a few more ingredients in the alchemist’s stores, and I use them here and there. When I was satisfied with what I’d brewed up, I pulled my boneforged knife and pricked my finger. Then, I decided to go all in. I slashed my palm, like they do in the movies, and let blood drip into the alembic’s retort. I quickly set the apparatus up so the fluid would distill properly and waited. Trak watched me with interest.
When the distillation was complete, I held the thick, pink liquid up and slowly poured it into one of the two empty flasks I had. I checked the flask and just about jumped for joy.
[New potion recipe discovered!]
Weak Potion of Healing
Heals 20-40 Vitality over five seconds
Ingredients: Tannin-soaked Blackleaf, Human Blood, Bottomfish Scales
I looked at Trak and then downed the potion. Immediately the cut on my hand sealed up and healed completely, much faster than the potions of regeneration I’d used before. For the first time, Trak looked impressed.
“This will help me a lot,” I said. “If we use your blood, will it heal your people?”
Trak looked at the potion and checked the ingredients. “No. The blackleaf seems to create a healing effect in Scaleless, but it does nothing but lengthen the duration a mixture remains effective for us. We have no known ingredient that would heal us directly. Our natural regeneration may be increased by alchemical means, but it may also be nullified.”
“The poison mist in the temple,” I said to myself.
I made two more of the healing potions to fill my vials, then assisted Trak in her work. We didn’t get anywhere as far as I could see, but I did finally gain enough experience in Alchemy to gain another point. Nothing unlocked, again. That was a little tiresome.
We worked together for another three or four hours until I was summoned by Jin. He was ready to practice cooking a little more under my instruction. When I got there, a rowdy bunch of lizard folk, led by Reath, were all lined up waiting for food. When they saw me, a cheer rose up.
“Finally!”
“The real food master is here!”
“They have been like this all day,” said Jin with a note of complaint in his voice. “I have prepared the regular dishes, but these ones refuse to eat them now that they know your cooking is available.”
I looked at them all. “Well, I’m not cooking anything today.” A grumble rose up. “Instead, Jin will cook until everyone here is satisfied.”
I hoped that I hadn’t stepped on any toes, but surprisingly, Jin looked happy. He was ready with his knives and my cooking gear, and we set to it.
The a
dded point in Skill Instruction made a huge difference. In less than two hours, Jin announced that he had succeeded. I looked at his dish with the AR HUD, and saw that he’d done it! That meant his cooking skill was at least 1 now, and that also meant I couldn’t instruct him any further. Sure enough, I’d stopped gaining experience in Skill Instruction some time before, but I hadn’t noticed.
“Thank you, Teacher Denel,” said Jin. “I will serve you first every day.” True to his word, Denel handed me the dish I’d sampled. I devoured it messily, in the same way the lizard folk did, to general applause. I left Jin cooking up a storm and went for a walk to settle my belly. I was going to need to find some way of getting some fiber!
There were other issues that Jin and Trak brought to my mind, although they hadn’t made any complaints. My single-person cooking gear was too small to effectively feed the villagers, and my alchemy gear wasn’t good enough to create anything higher than a Weak potion. The former could be remedied if we had access to some stone, but the only stone I knew of in the area was the temple, and I couldn’t imagine Telix and Krees letting me dismantle it for a firepit. The latter problem was more challenging. I’d have to see about making a trade mission to the closest town, or else commissioning someone to do that for me.
I put it out of my mind when a lizardman child ran up to me. She stopped and met my eyes, waiting for me to acknowledge her.
“I am Denel. What can I do for you?”
“I am Daughter of Last Clutch of Ket.” My heart skipped a beat. Ket was the guard who’d died at the gate, struck by lightning thrown by a player. I stared down at her child. I wondered who she was before she became the daughter of Ket’s last clutch. Inside me, something tightened and my throat closed up a little. No matter what, I was going to help my people.
I crouched down and faced the child. She tilted her head and looked at me strangely, but continued speaking. “Telix and Krees wish you to meet them at the temple, right away.”
