by Edward Brody
She looked genuinely unimpressed. “Can we go now?”
I shrugged my shoulders a bit. “Ugh, yeah…”
I really needed to get over my fear of spiders.
Chapter Twenty-Three
01/13/0001
Shal was standing guard at a nearby tree as Adeelee and I approached my home. His arms were crossed and his eyes were scanning all around, looking for trouble. When he locked eyes on Adeelee and I perched on top of our mounts, his eyes went wide and his jaw went slack. He uncrossed his arms and stared at us in wonder.
I could see Adeelee tense at the sight of the dark elf, but her lips straightened and she looked on defiantly. Given that Shal was alone and considerably lower level than Adeelee, I wondered if dark elves were Adeelee’s version of spiders.
We stopped right before my home, and as we dismounted, Shal dropped down to one knee. “Your Highness…” he said. “It’s an honor to have you… I mean, I can’t believe you’re here in Edgewood. I’m, I’m—”
“You may rise,” Adeelee said. “We won’t be staying long.”
“Are you sure?” Shal replied anxiously as he stood to his feet. “I can alert the others. We can have a gathering. Everyone will be ecstatic to have you here.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Adeelee replied. The princess wasn’t showing the same disgust as the other High Elves that I’d seen around dark elves, but she was keeping a fair amount of distance from Shal and looked more troubled than she did normally.
“This is my home and the shop.” I pointed towards the larger of the cabins. “That’s Aaron’s,” I said pointing to the smaller home.
Aaron wasn’t outside, and my assumption that he was busy running the shop inside rang true when I pushed open my door.
“20 gold,” Aaron said.
“50 gold,” an older, gray-haired dark elf said. He lifted the staff in his hand and knocked his hand against the wood. “The thing is durable as any, and still has a few charges left.”
“Gunnar!” Aaron shouted as he saw me stepping inside.
I smiled. “How’s everything?”
“Dude, we’re—” Aaron began before he was cut off.
“Your shop is supposed to offer fair prices, but he’s offering less than half what my staff is worth!” the old dark elf snapped at me.
I creased my brow. “Let me see the staff.”
You've received: Twisted Staff. 8-19 Attack Damage. Requires 15 Intelligence. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Good. Rarity: Common. Weight: 1.2 kg. On Cast: Confusion: 5 Charges Left.
“45 gold,” I said.
The old man glared up at me and rubbed his fingers with his chin. “Deal.”
“Give him 45,” I said towards Aaron and walked over to lean the staff on the wall.
Aaron raised an eyebrow at me but then started counting out the gold to the old man.
Once the transaction was done, the old man turned around and nearly looked like he was going to have a heart attack when he saw Adeelee standing behind him. “P-p-p… Princess Adeelee?!” He dropped to his knee immediately.
“Rise,” Adeelee said. I noticed she took a couple steps away from the dark elf while he was down on his knee.
“It’s an honor to—“
“Thank you,” Adeelee interrupted. “You may go. I won’t be here long.”
The dark elf swallowed. “Y-y-yes, your majesty.” The old elf could hardly take his eyes off the princess as he pushed open the door to the shop and made his way outside.
“45 gold, huh?” Aaron asked.
“It had 5 magic charges. It should be worth it,” I said.
“Another reason why I shouldn’t be running this shop. For the most part, we get normal items, but I can’t identify items like you can, and we’ve got no identification wands or anything.”
“We’ll get some,” I assured him. “Everything else okay?”
“What do you think?” Aaron asked. “Look around.” All around the shop were weapons, ore, pelts, and other various items that had obviously been traded into the shop. “People have been coming and going nonstop, so we’ve stocked lots of crafting materials, but I’ve made virtually no crafting progress. The shop is down about 200 gold because there’s been more selling and trading than buying.”
“It’s cool,” I said. “Once you get crafting again, we’ll sell more.”
Aaron nodded and looked over to Adeelee with a raised eyebrow then back over to me. “Guildmate number three?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head, “but guildmates number three and four are on their way, and you’ll soon be free of working in the shop.”
I gave Aaron the quick rundown of how I recruited Gerard and Ozzy. Aaron had previously met Gerard when we went into his shop to buy mandrake root, so he would have no problem recognizing them when they arrived in Edgewood.
“He’s bringing a wagon with all his shit?” Aaron asked.
“A good lot of it,” I said. “He’ll be a member of the guild, but he’ll keep most of the profits of anything he sells that he owned prior to joining. It’s only fair.”
Aaron nodded. “This is game-changing. I can craft, you can do your adventuring, and having a better selection will bring more elves to the shop.”
“More humans too.” I smirked. “The road will be happening.”
Aaron bit his bottom lip and held his hand out. “Fuck yeah!” he shouted when I gave him a sideways high five. He started stepping out from behind the counter. “You can take over ‘til dude gets here.”
“Whoa, wait,” I said. “We just stopped by to give you a heads-up. We’re heading out again to find Jax.”
Aaron lowered his eyes. “Find Jax?”
“He’s left Addenfall…”
Aaron shook his head slightly. “So? He an adult. He’s not allowed to leave the forest or something?”
I took a deep breath. “It’s complicated. He’s went missing, basically. We’ll be back soon enough.”
Aaron crossed his arms and huffed. “Alright… So long as Gerard is arriving today, it’s cool.”
I walked over to the crate where I had been storing items and dropped the three scrolls I found in the Vale, together with the scroll that Ozzy stole from Conrad. I had every intention of returning the scroll to the old man as soon as I had time. As tempting as it was to learn the spell, I wanted to do the right thing.
You’ve dropped: Scroll: Devour Corpse. Consume the fleeting life force from a dead corpse to recover a portion of your health and stamina. Requires 32 Intelligence. Dark Magic Level 10. Necromancy Level 5. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Legendary. Weight: 0.1 kg
You’ve dropped: Scroll: Recall. Travel to the targeted rune location. Requires 25 Intelligence. Arcane Magic Level 10. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.1 kg
You’ve dropped: Scroll: Calm Soul. Lower the aggression level of a single target. Requires 25 Intelligence. Mentalism Level 8. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.1 kg
You’ve dropped: Scroll: Igniting Touch. A touch of your flesh ignites your target into flames, causing fire damage over time for several seconds. Requires 15 Intelligence. Fire Magic Level 5. Durability: 8/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg
“Any healing potions in the shop?” I asked.
Aaron grinned and reached behind the counter. “Someone sold these two off a couple hours ago.”
You’ve received: 2 Minor Healing Potions. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.2 kg. Drink to recover 50 HP over 5 seconds.
“Nice…” Another perk of running a shop.
“And this might interest you.” Aaron walked over to the far end of the shop where there was a big pile of shoddy-looking leather items. He walked back with thick circle of leather that looked like it could wrap around my abdomen three times over. A single latch was on the front.
Basic Leather Belt. +3 Armor. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.2kg
“Sweet,” I said. “First belt I’ve seen in the game…” I turned back towards Adeelee and cleared my throat. “I mean first I’ve seen in the world.” I unbuckled the belt and started wrapping it around my waist. Like all items that I had tried on, it magically adjusted to my size as I equipped it.
“Thanks for holding things down,” I said. “We should get going.”
Adeelee smiled at Aaron and turned for the door. “Nice seeing you again, my nizzle.”
Aaron smiled wide. “For shizzle, beeyach!!”
“Beeyach?”
“What the!?” I pushed the door opened further and nuzzled Adeelee outside. When the door closed, I turned back to Aaron. “Beeyach? What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m just playing, man,” Aaron said. “She sounds cute when she says ‘nizzle’. I thought I’d teach her a little more of my ‘leet speak’.” [l33t sp3@k]
“You’re a fucking idiot, dude. And beeyach isn’t leet speak.”
“I’m just having fun. Lighten up.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
“Did you hit it yet?” Aaron asked slyly.
“No… I haven’t ‘hit it’ yet.”
“So when’s that going to happen? I thought you were done pussing-out.”
The door creaked back open. “Gunnar?” Adeelee asked.
I turned towards the door and then back to Aaron. “I gotta go.” I lowered my eyes. “And quit being an asshole.”
“I’m not an asshole,” Aaron said. “And you quit being a pussy. It’s been like two weeks and you still haven’t tapped—”
Aaron was cut off by the door slamming behind me.
“You ready?” Adeelee asked.
I nodded. “Next stop: Knuckle Bay.”
Adeelee and I hopped on our great cats and adjusted ourselves to set off.
“So I take it that ‘beeyach’ is Reborn speak?” Adeelee asked.
“Ugh…. Yeah.”
“And what does it mean?”
“Really, Adeelee, this is a word you shouldn’t be throwing around,” I murmured.
“But what’s the meaning?”
I sighed. “It’s a provocative word. If you don’t like someone, you can call them that to demean them.”
“What? So Aaron was demeaning me?”
I shook my head. “It can also be playfully used among friends. In that case, it really has no meaning…”
“No meaning?” Adeelee brow creased. “What’s the point?”
“Hmm,” I huffed and patted Sora on the back of the head, trying to think of a better explanation. “Tease your friends, I guess?” I shook my head. “To tell you the truth, Adeelee, Reborns are just fucking weird.”
Adeelee shrugged and sighed. “Indeed you are.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
01/13/0001
Adeelee and I left Edgewood and headed north through the Freelands, following the road that headed towards Highcastle.
“Once we reach Highcastle, it’ll be an hour or so to Knuckle Bay if Tsarra and Sora can keep up at this pace,” Adeelee shouted as we rode quickly across the plains.
I was a little worried that we might attract unwanted attention for riding on large cats in the Freelands, since I had seen no one else riding anything but horses, but other than stares from onlookers that we passed, no one seemed particularly interested in the human on a panther and the High Elf on a leopard.
As we continued down the road, I noticed lots of houses and other buildings off in the distance and many small camps—some surely bandit camps—situated just in eyesight of the road. If I ever had the opportunity, I’d have to set off on my own and do some exploring of the area. There were countless rocks left unturned.
In the distance, I heard a massive explosion, and smoke rose into the sky. Adeelee and I slowed our mounts to survey what was going on.
A lightning bolt fell from the sky, despite there being no clouds above us, and then a large swathe of smoke appeared out of nowhere. We were pretty far from whatever was going on, so whatever was happening was big.
Adeelee pointed further to the north. A large castle peeked above a tall wall, high atop a mountain, and below that mountain, I could see what looked a bustling civilization. It was too far away for me to get a good look at everything, but I was pretty sure it was a big city of some sort. “Over there is Highcastle.” She turned her hand to the direction of the noise. “The entrance to the Wastelands is in that direction. We must be hearing the battle between the orcs and the king’s soldiers.”
There was another boom, so loud that the ground below us started shaking.
“What the hell are they doing?” I asked. “Shooting bombs at the orcs?”
Adeelee snorted and tilted her head. “Let’s move in for a look.” Without waiting for a reply, she started off in the direction of the battle.
I followed Adeelee towards the noise, and when our destination came into view, what I saw was unexpected. Rather than a typical battle where hundreds of men battled hundreds of men, there was instead hundreds of men standing around, fully armored, lion’s crests on their armor but acting more as spectators than anything. On the opposite side were hundreds of orcs, all decked out in much better leather, chain, and plate gear than the orcs that I had first seen at the camps near the Crystal River.
There was a large, empty stretch between the two parties, and inside the stretch was a single human soldier and a single orc. The ground immediately surrounding them had been kicked up and heavily weathered.
“What is this?” I asked.
“High level commanders,” Adeelee said. “By my guess, they’re both between level 40 and 50. Stay at a safe distance in case anything crazy happens.”
The orc was wearing thick, black leather armor, but his shoulder pads were green, red, black, and there were colorful beads dangling around from every edge of them. In each of his hands was a two-sided axe. He crossed the two axes in front of him and grunted, “Windshroud!” and a virtual tornado of air formed around him instantly.
The orc bolted forward towards the human at an amazing speed, faster even than when I utilized Boiling Blood, but just as soon as he started off, the human dropped to his knee and slammed his palm on the ground. The soil in front of the human erupted upwards and then started moving forward until it formed into the image of a giant earthen hand rushing towards the orc, dirt spraying everywhere as it tore up the land.
The orc slammed into the palm of the hand, and the hand gripped its fingers at the same time, but the orc smashed into it with such impact that there was a loud booming sound, and his body crashed through the dirt.
The human the orc was battling was wearing similar plate armor with lion’s insignia as the other soldiers that were standing around, but unlike the other soldiers, he had a long, black cape draped behind his back with the lion’s symbol on it as well. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and his long, blond hair fell to where his neck met the back of his breast plate.
The human commander whipped out a massive greatsword that had been tucked on his back and moved it out in front of him just in time for the pummeling the orc brought forth. The cape and hair of human was thrown up from the force of the wind that was still circling the orc, but he somehow managed to block or dodge each and every blow that the orc was throwing at him. The orc moved furiously, swinging the two axes in his hands like a maniac, swooping and turning for leg sweeps and roundhouses.
One of the orc’s swings were blocked, and the human soldier leaned his weight back so that his hand touched the ground, kicked his foot into the shin of the orc, causing the orc to fall to his elbows. The human commander used the opportunity to take a massive leap back. He pushed his foot hard into the ground, held his palm up to the orc, and two giant earthen hands emerged from the ground, clamping around the orc, sealing him between the hardened dirt.
For a moment, the human commander tilted his head down and breathed heavily as if he thought the fight was over, but no more than three se
conds later, the top of the hands that were holding the orc down exploded, and a large, jet black effigy appeared. It was much like the effigy that the shaman had summoned the day Adeelee, Aaron, and I took out the orc camps, but this was at least twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. As it emerged, the rest of the earthen chamber crumbled from the pressure and fell to the ground, revealing the orc commander, seemingly unharmed.
The effigy swiftly lunged towards the commander, but the commander still had time to let out a sigh before slamming his hand into the ground again, causing an effigy of equal size and proportion to rise from the ground, yet this one made from earth.
The gigantic earth elemental grabbed onto the shadow elemental right as it rose from the ground, and the two giant beings were locked into a tugging match. The two commanders were both rushing around their summons and casting their next spells.
“This is insane…” I whispered to Adeelee.
“So long as the commanders stay alive, the other soldiers will probably stay out of it. It’s too dangerous for them to get involved in this level of fighting.” She tilted her head towards the road. “And we should get going too.”
I nodded and turned Sora away from the battle. “So that’s what high-level fighting looks like?”
“There’s higher level battling than that. But in comparison to you and me, yes. That is high-level fighting.”
“Higher than that?” I asked. “Holy shit…”
“Leveling gets harder the higher level you go. You have a long way to go before you reach that level.”
“I’ll get there one day.” My tummy tingled as I imagined the ability to summon massive elementals or manipulate the wind and earth the way the two commanders did. “All that just for the Fellblade?”
“If either of those commanders had the Fellblade in their hands, the battle would’ve ended quickly.”
“So why wouldn’t King Ergoth use the Fellblade to conquer the Freelands when he had it?”
