The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4)

by Aleron Kong

  At the same time, Jean the Air mage and Beyan loosed their crossbow bolts. The shots went wide thanks to the panic both men were experiencing. Thankfully Terrod and Caulder kept their heads and moved to either side of the bear, hacking at it with their swords.

  Richter took advantage of the bear’s disorientation to cast Slow I. His fingers moved into a new configuration and a word of Power flew from his lips. One second after he began, the spell completed and a blue glow enveloped the bear for a split second. The stun from Alma’s lightning bolt wore off, and it rose to its feet, but its movements were noticeably slower.

  It roared in anger and pain and swiped at Richter. The chaos seed was too close to dodge, but he had enough time to swing his sword up to meet the blow. Green elementum met white moonstone and the glass blade cut into the bear’s paw and severed all three claws. Guess you should have snacked on titan steel, Richter thought grimly. The saber bear screamed, and as soon as it brought its paw back down, it surged forward to bite Richter. Its movement was too slow, though, and this time Richter was able to dance back out of the way.

  Ulinde shot another arrow, which tore into its cheek and got caught in its thick jaw muscle. Sedrin had lost his spear when it had attacked Richter, so he faded back, but the captain and sergeant continued to attack it from the sides. With a quick dart forward, Caulder stabbed it, the blade sinking through muscle into the organs beneath. A gout of blood covered the guard as his weapon did its brutal business. Terrod’s target was more surgical. He sliced along the back of the beast’s right leg, cutting through muscles, but unfortunately no major tendons were severed.

  Jean and Beyan were still reloading their crossbows, which actually pleased Krom to no end. Without having to worry about being shot by some amateurs, he raised his heavy weapon again. Howling, he brought the hammer down on the bear’s front elbow, which crumpled inward from the blow.

  The bear crashed to the ground with a deep-throated scream. As soon as it collapsed, a glowing blue bolt struck the creature’s back with a loud boom. Caulder and Terrod were knocked off their feet by the resulting shockwave and fell onto the ground.

  Richter moved back in as the creature mewled piteously and cast Soul Trap. Looking up into the trees he thought, *Finish it, my love.*

  Alma swooped down and latched onto the bear’s head. The pitiful mewling turned into a strange keening as Alma mentally drank all of its experiences. Richter moved around to the side and drove his elementum sword into its side. He poked around a few times until the tip of his sword punctured the large monster’s heart. It gave a final sigh and died. A rainbow swirl of color rose into the air, spiraling around all of their heads before diving into his Bag.

  Richter withdrew his sword and looked at it. The beauty of its green glass was obscured by bright red blood which extended down to his hand and wrist. He realized with an odd detachment that he must have pushed his hand inside of the animal’s body while he was trying to reach its heart. Behind him, Sedrin cheered. To his side, Caulder and Terrod good-naturedly argued over whose sword thrusts had been better. He looked to the left and even saw Beyan and Jean exchange sheepish smiles.

  Richter looked back at his bloody hand and remembered the horrible sounds the animal had made before the end. He understood that this thing was a danger to his people. He understood that he had a responsibility to deal with these kinds of threats before one of his villagers was killed. The animal had seen so much more… real than his other enemies though. Fighting skeletons, ghouls, rock giants, or a giant skeeling had always seemed like he was battling something unnatural. Like he was fighting against the powers of darkness or something. Even killing sentients like the bugbears, Night Blades, and kobolds hadn’t bothered him overly much. Those situations had always been kill or be killed. Seeing this bear being slowly and bloodily… deconstructed, though, shook up something inside of him. It had just been an animal. A baleful, savage, and magically enhanced animal, but he couldn’t say that it was evil. He couldn’t justify calling it a monster.

  Richter looked at the bloody meat in front of him and then back at his red hand, his red sword, and the small drops of scarlet that were dripping from the blade onto the green earth. In his mind, Richter replayed the scream as its elbow snapped, the pathetic mewling as it collapsed to the ground, and soft wmpfh as its last breath left its body. The smell of hot copper was filling his nose and his tongue experienced the faintest taste of pennies to mix with the nausea broiling down in his stomach.

  Sion dropped from the tree he had been in while Alma rose in the air, trumpeting her triumph to the world. The sprite walked up to his friend and asked with concern, “Richter. Richter. Are you okay?”

  Richter gave him a slightly sick smile and said, “So what’s next?”

  CHAPTER 15

  Beyan walked forward and picked up one of the severed claws. “These are pure moonstone. That’s amazing. I wonder what else we can find of use in its body.” It looked like he was about to slice into the beast’s hide right then and there, but Richter put a stop to it.

  “We don’t have time to carve it up, Beyan.” He took a deep breath and steadied himself. “We still have more work to do.”

  “Do you plan to leave it here to rot?” the gnome asked scathingly.

  “No,” Richter said. He silently added, ‘you pain in the ass.’ “We have other options.”

  He checked the village mana pool and saw that it had eight hundred and seventy-three MP left. More than enough for his purposes. He started his casting. The mists around them coalesced and soon a mist worker stood before him. “Carry this back to the village as quickly as you can. Go through the gates and then take it to the far eastern edge. Leave the body there. Once you’re done, go to the center of the village and wait there until you are commanded to do something. Follow any commands that do not endanger another villager or cause harm to the village.”

  The eastern edge of the village would probably be far enough away from everyone that there wouldn’t be any commotion at seeing a giant dead bear bleeding into the ground. It was also near where the hunters cleaned their kills. Perhaps one of them might even show some initiative and carve up the bear for them. As his cousin Yodi had said once, “Bears make good eatin’!”

  The mist worker walked over to the bear’s body, silent as its name implied. It reached down to grab its body and the grey arms elongated to completely encircle the bear. It easily lifted the carcass in what Richter sardonically realized was a bear hug. Then its face, head, and feet fell backwards into themselves and reemerged opposite to their initial direction. With no other ceremony or delay, it started moving towards the village at the speed of a slow jog.

  Beyan picked up the other two severed claws and was about to pocket them when Richter said, “Ah, ah!” He made a beckoning gesture, and the gnome handed over the three claws with a surly expression. Richter put all three in his Bag and then removed a water skin. He poured some in his mouth and then more on his hand and sword. Richter wiped his sword through the grass to remove most of the blood and cleaned most of the rest off on a spare rag from his Bag.

  “Now, when I analyzed that thing, the prompt said that you could normally find it near sources of ore. Those moonstone claws might mean there is a vein of ore near here. I say we follow it back to where it came from.”

  “That works for me, yer lordship,” Krom said happily. “It was a good bit of fun we just found!” The dwarf was cleaning some blood from the head of his hammer with a rag of his own.

  “As good a direction as any,” Caulder said. “I trust your lordship can lead us? I don’t have much skill with Tracking.”

  Richter nodded and was about to tell everyone to move out, when Terrod spoke up. “Sounds good to me too, my lord. I do have to say one thing first though. You two!” He pointed at Jean and Beyan. “Do NOT fire your crossbows unless your lives depend upon it. One of those bolts that you blindly fired whizzed by my head! Now I will hear a ‘Yes, Captain’ or you will spend the rest
of this hunt without weapons.”

  Both of them said “Yes captain,” and they looked down as they abashedly recocked their weapons. Terrod nodded to Richter to say he was done. No one else seemed to have anything else to add, so the party rebuffed with Haste I and they took off with Sion and Richter leading the way.

  As they ran, Richter reflected on how his paralysis spell had been rather lackluster. Nonetheless, he wasn’t ready to give up on it. If the spell had worked, the fight might have lasted only seconds rather than minutes. He decided to give it another shot. After a bit of focus, the gem on his Ring of Holding was glowing green again.

  They continued to move roughly west, and Richter checked the prompts from the last fight.

  You have been awarded 16,965 (base 226,195 x 0.06 x 1.25) experience from Brain Drain against Level 19 Sabre Bear.

  For slaying a Saber Bear, you have been awarded four War Points! Total War Points: 4.

  You have trapped the soul of a Saber Bear! Soul level: Common.

  Not enough to level him or his familiar, but valuable nonetheless. The group kept hiking another few minutes and then Richter saw the saber bears tracks begin to crisscross themselves and he assumed they were getting close. He and Sion spread out, and soon Richter found exactly what he had been looking for.

  You have found: Moonstone Ore Deposit.

  Richter called everyone over and bent down to examine the deposit. A knob of grey-white rock stuck up two feet from the ground. White streaks peeked through periodically, showing the metal locked inside of the ore. Claw marks could be seen marring the stone, and a large chunk was missing from one side. Richter picked up a fist-sized rock and received another prompt.

  You have found: Moonstone Ore. Durability 43/43. Item class: Common. Purity: ??? Weight: 2.2 kg.

  “I see ye found it, yer Lordship,” Krom said, walking up.

  “Yeah,” Richter replied. “Doesn’t seem like too much, but maybe we can get a few swords out of this. What do you think?”

  Krom started laughing. “Ye need to not just judge things by the surface, yer lordship. I know that ye only see a bit of rock here, but The Land, she be a woman of hidden depths. I have the Mining skill to apprentice rank. I can tell ye there be at least several feet of the ore under our feet.”

  Richter was pleased at the news. Bringing Krom along on the hunt was having unseen benefits. He tossed over the chunk of ore he was holding. Krom deftly caught it and began inspecting the rock. “Can you tell me anything about its purity? All I see are questions marks.”

  “That I can. Ye have actually had a good deal of luck. This be lunatite.”

  Everyone else had spread out. Terrod and Caulder were slowly circling their position, keeping watch. Sion started inspecting an orange fungus that was growing out from the side of a tree like stacked shelves. Beyan sat on a nearby rock with a sour expression. Richter just stared at the dwarf, waiting for more.

  “No doubt yer prompt be showing ‘ore’ or maybe ‘ore of moonstone.’ My Mining rank lets me know more specifics. For any given metal, there be multiple types of ore that can be smelted to produce it. For moonstone, the lowest purity ore would be wanatite. The concentrations of moonstone be only 3-8%. Lunatite, though, be one of the highest purity ores. We can expect concentrations of 65-80%.”

  Richter nodded in understanding. This find was much more valuable than he had thought. “So 80% of what’s beneath us could be moonstone?” he asked excitedly.

  “Not exactly, yer lordship. Ore veins are bound to be mostly rock, but the ore that we find could be that pure. What ye should take away is that we should be able to make a fair amount of weaponry with what we have found.”

  Richter smiled and pulled up a large version of his Traveler’s Map. When the translucent map took up his entire view, he zoomed out until he could see both the village and their position. They were only a few miles away. He made a mark on the Map so he wouldn’t forget the position of the ore deposit, then minimized it again to take up a small position in the bottom right corner of his vision. He extended his arms and summoned two mist workers.

  He thought about what orders to give the simple creatures for a minute. “Start digging up this ore. Keep going until you reach any of the following conditions. One, twenty hours have passed from this moment. Two, you have harvested as much as you can carry back to the village. Three, there is no more ore to be mined. Once any of these conditions are met, go back to the village as quickly as you can without losing any of the ore. Deposit everything you find inside of the city gates. After that, return here and follow the first three instructions. If you are attacked, however, ignore all previous instructions and defend yourself. If you survive, follow the earlier instructions again.”

  Krom spoke up. “It is not uncommon to find jewels when mining ore, yer lordship. Ye should have the mist workers pay special attention to collect any that they find.”

  Richter was about to thank his Smith for the advice when something occurred to him. “The other dwarves have been going through the iron mine for weeks now, but I haven’t had any jewels turned in. Have I just had bad luck?” The bonus from the Quickening made that somewhat unlikely.

  Krom’s face adopted a slightly pained expression. “I have not heard about any jewels being found, milord.” There was just the slightest emphasis placed on “heard.”

  “Uh huh,” Richter said, eyeballing the dwarf. Krom suddenly found the ore he was examining much more interesting and didn’t seem to have time to make eye contact. Loudly, Richter said, “Futen, tell Randy to come up with some procedures to ensure we know exactly what comes out of the mine next time you see him.”

  “As you command, my lord,” came the flat reply.

  Richter looked at Krom a minute longer before saying, “Uh huh,” again. Then he shifted his gaze to the mist workers. He added the provision about paying special attention to looking for jewels and then changed one order. Everything that they took back to the village was to be taken to the room of the Great Seal and deposited in a back corner. He was fairly certain that nothing placed there would be disturbed. He hadn’t really thought about having to worry about being cheated by his own villagers, but with more than four hundred people walking around, he had been foolish not to consider it.

  At his command, the mist workers started working. Their arms elongated and formed picks at the end. Soon a constant rhythm could be heard as they chipped away at the ore deposit. The sound was actually quite loud, and the entire war party was ready to be off. Richter’s map showed a small stream a couple hundred yards away, so they moved off in that direction.

  At the stream, everyone refilled their water skins and cleaned off any residual blood from the fight with the saber bear. Richter scrubbed vigorously at his right hand and cleaned as much of the dried blood from beneath his nails as possible. Some of the blood had stained his skin and wouldn’t come off. He shrugged and just accepted that it was there. He pulled up his Map again and tried to decide their best course.

  There were several notable locations within twenty miles of where they stood, such as dungeons and ruins, that had been annotated by the Traveler that had made the Map. The information was hundreds of years out of date, but would still be worth checking out. None of the locations seemed to be inside of the mists, though, and Richter didn’t plan on a prolonged excursion today. The moonstone deposit showed that there were probably many other hidden resources close to home. He would have to make exploration more of a priority. Now that Sion had the Mapping Ring, having up-to-date information about the land surrounding the village should be less of a problem. Despite that, Richter gave Futen another order to bring the topic up with the chamberlain. Maybe the hunters could draw maps of what they saw and the scribes could add them together into a larger version.

  “I say we keep going south and follow the waterway,” Richter proposed. No one else had a better idea, so they were off again. Richter and Sion took point the same as last time. They moved at a steady, ground-eating
pace. Both of the Companions kept an eye to the ground, examining the tracks they came across. Their attention to following trails was probably why they were caught completely off guard by the next attack.

  The river they were following had continued to widen until it was about twenty paces across. Sion had just said that he had found the tracks of a timber warg. He was showing the imprint in the mud to Terrod when a pack of green reptiles exploded out of the water. The attack couldn’t have come at a worse time, which was perhaps why the monsters had chosen that specific spot.

  The war party was strung out in a line along the riverbank. A stand of thick trees was to their left and had pushed them closer to the water. To make matters worse, the river had just gone around a bend that contained a silt bank, leaving the water turbulent and murky. There was no warning before seven of the creatures surged out of the water. Before anyone could react, one latched a powerful bite on Beyan’s unarmored leg. Another bit Caulder on the arm. The sergeant swung his sword, but was only able to strike a glancing blow against his attacker. Both monsters immediately started dragging their prey back into the water. The rest of the pack surged towards the other party members.

  Richter quickly Analyzed one of the monsters to know what they were dealing with.

  River Skath. Level 14. Health 310. Mana 40. Stamina 350. These pack hunters hide in the shallows of rivers. Their diet consists mainly of fish and small land creatures, but they are extremely aggressive. Skaths are known to attack parties of adventurers who walk along riverbanks. Their powerful bite is almost impossible to loosen, and skaths will often drown their prey by dragging them to deep water. Though river skaths are air breathers, they can hold their breath for hours. The only warning travelers may receive is the occasional air bubble piercing the surface of the water.

  Beyan screamed as he was yanked into the water. The powerful bite of the river skath was as strong as a vise. When it pulled sharply, the gnome lost his balance and was thrown onto his back. No one was close enough to help, and Richter feared that if the man was pulled all the way into the river, then he would never resurface. Praying that it worked this time, Richter raised his hand and released the paralysis spell stored within his ring. The beam shot towards the skath and locked its body into place. Richter couldn’t give any more attention to the alchemist’s plight, though, because he was being attacked himself.