by Edward Brody
You’ve received: Healing Potion. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Drink to recover 100 HP over 5 seconds.
That left me with only 218 gold left in my possession. As Ozzy continued shopping, I rummaged through Rhys’ shop and found a couple more items that I was interested in.
Scroll: Minor Restoration. You call upon a divine power to instantly heal your wounds. Requires 18 Intelligence. Divine Magic Lvl 3. Durability: 8/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 1050 gold
Weaponmaster’s Cowl. +7 Armor. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.3 kg +3 Dexterity, +1 All Weapon Skills Price: 300 Gold
The restoration scroll could be a game-changer for me. The ability to heal without using potions or weaker forms of healings like food rations, or just waiting it out, would allow me to stay engaged longer and be a lot less risky for me when I spent a lot of time away from home. It was only a divine level 3 ability, so I wouldn’t need to wait very long before I could use it. Unfortunately, it was priced at way more than I had on me at the time.
The cowl, on the other hand, was almost affordable for me. It was much more expensive than the Beaufort’s helmet that I had destroyed in the mine, but the additional dexterity bonus and weapon skill might have made it worth it. I wasn’t sure really, but I didn’t have any headgear, and I needed to start splurging if I wanted to maximize my stats.
I pulled out the amber that I had been hording in my bag and handed it to Rhys. “How much will you give me for this?”
The elf inspected the amber for a moment and offered me 200 gold for it.
“250?” I asked.
“200, Gunnar. You know I price well.”
I sighed. I had traded with Rhys long enough to know what he was saying was true. He never seemed to upsell me much when I bought and sold with him, so the 200 gold was probably a good price.
“How about you give me 200 for the amber, but you only charge me 250 for that cowl over there?” I continued.
Rhys thought for a moment and then sighed. “Alright then, Give me 50 gold and the amber for the cowl.”
I reached in my bag and handed him 50 gold.
You’ve received: Weaponmaster’s Cowl. +7 Armor. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.3 kg +3 Dexterity, +1 All Weapon Skills
I equipped the cowl, and with only 168 gold left, I made a mental note to come back for the healing scroll at some point. If our trading startup in Edgewood continued at its current pace, it wouldn’t take long to earn a thousand gold, but most of that would need to go into expansion. It would be better if I came up with the money on my own.
As Ozzy bartered with Rhys about a set of plate gloves, I pulled up my stats to get an overview of my progress.
Not bad, but I still had a ways to go to catch up to Ozzy.
“Alright, let’s go,” Ozzy said.
I closed my stats window. “Did you buy the gloves?”
“Nah, I don’t have enough gold. I tried to lowball the guy, but he was having none of it.”
I chuckled as we headed out of Rhys’ door.
Adeelee was waiting for us outside of the shop with her back leaning against the wall. “All ready to go?” she asked.
“All good,” I said. I didn’t wait for Adeelee to prompt me. I just invited her to join the party.
Adeelee Vost has joined your party!
It was becoming a habit of mine to inspect people as soon as were grouped up in a party, and even Adeelee had gained a level since I last saw her. I really needed to step my game up and get some progress under my belt.
“And where will you be taking us, Mr. Adventurer?” Adeelee asked.
“We should probably pray first in case worse comes to worst,” I said. “Then just follow me through the forest. I’ll do my best to lead us where we’re going”
Ozzy leaned into me. “Pray means bind up at a runestone, right?”
I nodded.
“For shizzle,” Adeelee said. “Lead the way, Gunnar.”
Chapter Sixteen
01/12/0001
Ozzy, Adeelee, and I did our business at the runestone, and I led our party towards the area where I remembered seeing the treasure chest. Even with Divine Sight, finding the spot would still be a little tricky with how dense and similar the forest was throughout, but I had a pretty good idea of where we were going.
The jungle was alive with wildlife at night, and as we walked through the forest, I could hear all sorts of beings howling and heckling around us. But the things that had made me fearful when I was a lower level and alone weren’t as a frightening now that I had a few additional levels under my belt and a couple companions at my side.
“How’s your home in Edgewood?” Adeelee asked. “I hope the dark elves haven’t caused you any trouble.”
If she only knew, I thought.
“You’ve got a house already?” Ozzy asked.
I nodded. “A gift from the Queen of the High Elves. Aaron and I have only been living there for a few days now, but so far so good.”
“That’s my next big purchase,” Ozzy said. “I’ve been camping or staying at inns pretty much the whole time. Time to start saving for a place where I can store my loot.”
“And as for your question, Adeelee, the dark elves weren’t happy with us making our homes in Edgewood, but they’re starting to come around. We’re trading with them and—“
“You’re trading with the dark elves?” Adeelee interrupted, her eyes wide with surprise.
I nodded. “At fair cost. We’re using my home as a shop where we buy and sell with them at the same prices we would with any elf or human. I’ve even hired one of them to act as security.”
“You know, some guy offered me a quest to get a dark elf’s ear,” Ozzy blurted. “Where’s that place at?”
Adeelee and I both turned to glare at him.
Ozzy shrugged and lowered his brow. “What?”
“What you’re doing is dangerous, Gunnar,” Adeelee explained, turning her focus back towards me. “There’s a reason why the dark elves are outcasts.”
“So I’ve heard, but…” My voice trailed. “The dark elves seem like good people. Maybe some of them have gone crazy at some point. I don’t know. But I don’t think they’re being treated fairly.”
Adeelee pinched her eyebrows. “It’s unusual to hear a human speak in such a manner about dark elves. You could just as easily take advantage of them as anyone else. You might even go as far as… ahem—” She cleared her throat and turned towards Ozzy. “—trying to kill them for their ears.”
“Or I could work with them.” I raised a closed fist. “If I’m going to live there—if I’m going to be the ambassador of Edgewood—I’m going to make it strong.”
“As ambassador, you should maintain a clear communication channel between the inhabitants of Edgewood and Mist Vale, but getting so close as to opening your home to dark elves and hiring them?” Adeelee shook her head. “I can’t even fathom.”
“Why?” I asked. “I hear this talk about the madness of the dark elves, but have you seen it? Have you seen a dark elf kill someone?” Even as I asked the question, I recognized the irony in it. I had been killed by a dark elf already, but I didn’t think that the attack from Garrik was due to the dark elves being crazy, so much as Garrik not trusting me in Edgewood.
Adeelee’s body tensed, and she didn’t reply for several seconds. “I haven’t witnessed any dark elf murders myself, but I’ve heard stories. It’s common knowledge that they’re dangerous.”
“What if the common knowledge is wrong?” I asked. “You can’t just lump all dark elves into the same category. You should give them a chance.”
Adeelee sighed. “I don’t think you—”
Ozzy shrieked and tumbled to the ground, cutting off whatever Adeelee was about to say. When I turned to see what was going on, a skinner—one of the same monsters that had killed Sora’s mother—had its beak clamped har
d onto his forearm.
“Defend!” Adeelee yelled, reaching for her sword. “Skinners never attack alone!”
Adeelee raised her hand, and judging by the green pulse that emanated from Ozzy’s body, I guessed that she had cast Nature’s Regrowth on him. I unsheathed my sword and readied it, focused on the skinner tugging on Ozzy’s arms, but turning my head in every direction, waiting for any other attackers.
“Get it off me!” Ozzy yelled, slamming his fist on top of the jerking skinner’s head.
I wasn’t sure what to do really. Swinging a sword at the beast would likely result in me hitting Ozzy rather than the skinner, and Adeelee seemed to think the same, as she stood back and scanned around us, paying little attention to what was playing out on the ground.
This skinner released its grip after Ozzy punched its head a few more times, and it jumped backwards, putting some distance between itself and the big man. When I looked up to see the damage done, Ozzy was only down about 20% of his health but it was gradually rising from Adeelee’s spell.
“Over here!” Adeelee yelled. I turned and saw another skinner jump out of the foliage straight for Adeelee’s torso. She parried the attack, stepping to the side, and swiped her sword against the skinner’s thick hide. The skinner yelped and fell hard onto the ground but picked itself up gracefully and started in on a back and forth dance, ready for another attack.
“Watch out!” Ozzy yelled.
Another skinner leapt towards me from the side, and I barely had enough time to sway sideways and avoid its clamping jaws.
Three more skinners slowly emerged from the grass, revealing that we were surrounded.
Name: wild skinner
Race: monster
Level: 15
Health/Mana/Stamina: 160/0/150
Status: unknown
The skinners seemed to be the same level as they were the first time I saw them, but that wasn’t reassuring in the least. With me at level 11, Ozzy at level 12, and Adeelee at level 17, they had a considerable advantage in a six-versus-three fight.
Ozzy gritted his teeth and winced as he stood to his feet, readying his sword and shield. “What the hell are these things?”
The skinners pranced back and forth around us, and I remembered the way that they had attacked Sora’s mother the day that I found her. I knew that they’d probably try to whittle us down with simple, quick attacks that would eventually disable our group.
A couple of the skinners inched closer, and I raised a Fire Curtain in a circle around our party, offering us some temporary protection. The skinners all yelped in confusion as soon as they saw the flames.
“We’re going to have to work together to beat them,” Adeelee huffed.
“I’ll try to lure them with my taunt and absorb the damage,” Ozzy suggested, “if you guys can keep me alive.”
Adeelee turned to me. “Do you have a better plan?”
I shook my head. “He has heavier armor than either of us.”
Adeelee raised her hand right as my Fire Curtain was starting to subside, and a brown wave of energy flowed out of her fingertips into all three of us.
Barkskin I: Your skin is harder to penetrate than the bark of a Redwood tree. +20 Armor. Spell duration: 2 hours. Source: Adeelee
A skinner jumped towards me with its odd, flat-shaped beak open and I managed to dodge, causing it to fall and slide on the ground. Ozzy turned and immediately let out an Intimidating Shout, rotating his head from side to side as he roared, trying to affect as many of the skinners as possible.
It seemed to work. All six of the skinners turned their attention to him, and one of them pounced immediately.
The hard beak of the skinner clanged against Ozzy’s shield as he raised it to block the attack, but when he swung his sword down for a counter blow, the skinner had already jumped back and out of the way. I jolted out my sword as it retreated, but the tip of my blade just missed making a connection.
Two more skinners leapt towards Ozzy, each banging their beaks against his shield, and at that very moment, Adeelee raised her hand again. Short vines rose out of the ground, clasping onto the skinners and rooting them into place.
The skinners yelped and jerked wildly.
“Now!” Adeelee shouted.
I jumped toward the closest skinner and slammed the sharp edge of my sword hard into its hide. There was a loud thunk when my blade connected, and the skinner yelped in pain. I obviously did some damage, but with its thick skin, the cut was shallow and managed a far from a fatal blow.
Ozzy swung his sword down too, producing the same results when his blade contacted the skinner closest to him.
The fight wasn’t going to be over any time soon.
I heard Adeelee grunt a couple times and I turned to see her dipping the tip of her sword deep into a skinner’s body several times, blood spraying out each time she pulled back her blade. The skinner she was attacking wailed and slumped to the ground in a heap of death. “Use your sword tips! You’ve got to penetrate deep into their bodies if you want to kill them!”
I turned back towards the rooted skinner I was attacking and gripped my sword with both hands. I lifted the hilt high and plunged the tip downwards, slamming hard into the back of the monster’s body. The sharp point pierced the skinner’s dense flesh and plunged deeper into the soft tissues inside.
The impaled skinner cried out and tugged even harder at the root that was holding it in place, trying to jump both towards and away from me to no avail.
As I pulled my sword back, blood shot out of the skinner’s body, splashing onto my armor, but I just slammed my tip down again and again until the monster finally stopped moving. When I looked up, Ozzy was landing a final blow with the tip of his sword on another skinner himself.
The roots that were holding the skinners in place released and snaked back in the ground as Adeelee’s spell wore off, and the three remaining skinners all jumped toward Ozzy at the same time, not giving him time to dislodge his sword from the skinner he just killed or time to raise his shield.
Ozzy was knocked to the ground. One skinner latched on to his arm, and the other two were clamped down onto the plate armor of his legs. “Shit!” he screamed, dropping as they pulled, his sword slipping from his hands.
The skinners tugged on Ozzy’s body like rabid dogs, and he did his best to bash them with his shield, which seemed totally ineffective. I looked up to his health bar, and it jumped a little higher only to be brought back down as the skinners continued yanking at him. Adeelee was keeping him alive with her magic, but the damage from the bites was keeping his health in limbo.
Adeelee and I stepped forward, holding our weapons and ready to strike, but with the skinners latched on to Ozzy the way they were, it left us with little room for error with our physical attacks.
I swung my sword at one of the skinners, but as soon as I attacked, it jumped back as if it had eyes in the back of its head. My sword made a whoosh sound, and even with me trying to be careful, I still almost clipped the side of Ozzy’s leg.
Adeelee attacked as well, but her blow managed to hit one the skinners, barely causing it to moan through its clamped bill, but it didn’t dislodge its bite.
”Fuck!” I moaned, looking for a safe strike in the mess of movement.
“Burn them!” Adeelee said.
“Burn them?” I asked. That didn’t sound like a good idea. There was no way I’d connect a Fireblast that wouldn’t burn Ozzy as well.
“Burn them,” she said again.
“But the flames will affect Ozzy too…”
“Burn him and the skinners will release. I’m sure of it. I think I can keep Ozzy alive with my spells.”
“You think!?” Ozzy yelled and then moaned loudly as one of the skinners released its grip, but then clamped down in a slightly altered position. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the skinners’ teeth were so sharp that they had managed to pierce the metal of his plate.
“Damnit!” I cursed. I could see i
n the upper-left corner of my vision that the icon of Nature’s Regrowth was starting to blink, indicating it was almost over. I wasn’t sure if it Adeelee’s idea was a good one, but we were running out of options. If Adeelee was going to cast another healing spell on him, I needed to act quick so any damage that he took from my fire would be countered by the spell.
I raised my hand and cast a Fire Curtain across Ozzy, and as Adeelee had suggested, the skinners immediately shrieked and jumped back, twisting their bodies away from the flames.
Ozzy screamed and started jerking around on the ground, trying to both get away from the fire and stop himself from burning.
Without another thought, I lunged forward, dipping the tip of my sword into a skinner from behind, killing it with that single strike.
Adeelee raised her hand to cast another Nature’s Regrowth on Ozzy and then dashed forward to attack one of the other skinners. The skinner saw her coming, however, and turned its head, yelping something and jumping out of the way.
I raised my hand to a cast a Fireblast, but the two remaining skinners yelped in unison, and just as quickly as they had shot out of the foliage, they turned around and dashed away.
You have gained 1700 XP!
“They’re cowards when they don’t have numbers,” I huffed as I tried to catch my breath. I turned to see Ozzy gradually grunting as he picked himself off the ground, a bit of smoke rising from where my fire had touched his plate armor.
Adeelee looked off to where the skinners ran, an expression of concern etched across her face. “Or there could be something else that—”
There was a loud thumping sound, and before I could even process what was going on, a massive, hairy arm slammed into Adeelee’s chest, throwing her hard against a nearby tree.
