Benvari Mountains (Emerilia Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  Required: Tools

  Active Skill: Alchemy

  Level: Expert Level 3

  Effect: Combine multiple ingredients together. Creations gain a 69% boost in effectiveness.

  Required: Alchemy tools

  Active Skill: Sneak Attack

  Level: Apprentice Level 7

  Effect: When you are undetected in stealth, attacks will hit with 268% increased damage (Massive increase when hitting Critical area). May your aim be true.

  Cost: (Attack 50 Stamina)

  Active Skill: Cooking

  Level: Journeyman Level 6

  Effect: Creations effects are 55% higher

  Active Skill: Dual Wield

  Level: Expert Level 2

  Effect: 32 % increased damage. 25% reduced damage with off-hand weapon.

  Active Skill: Smithing

  Level: Master Level 1

  Effect: 85% improved quality of smithing creation. 5% Chance to imbue metal with skill. Able to analyze items made of Stone, Iron, Steel, and Silver.

  New Active Skill: Soul Manipulation

  One of the freakier skills you can get in this place. The Xelur Demons use souls to power their bodies and magic; you use it in your t-shirt. Well, I guess you are original. Just, you know, try not to go all dark side with this shit. SUPER annoying, and those maniacal laughs, ugghh!

  Level: Expert Level 6

  Effect: You understand Soul Manipulation 75% better. Tools you make to manipulate souls and their energy are 75% stronger.

  Cost: Dependent on creation.

  Well, that’s new and it could definitely be useful. It jumped right up to Expert Level 6. Must have to do with all of the soul gem work I’ve done and the understanding I have of soul manipulation tools from my armor to the Daggers of Demons Ruin and soul trap. Dave sighed. If he had gotten the skills at any other time, he would have been excited as hell. Right now, with the deaths of his friends so recent, he couldn’t bring himself to do more than be mildly interested.

  New Active Skill: Spell formation

  Well, you are one for surprises! Saw you more as an anvil beater, but it seems you’ve created a new skill. First ever in like—well, that number just makes me feel old. Let’s say a long time. Anyway. Go forth and make spells, or fuck them up horribly and blow yourself up. Magic! Who doesn’t like fireworks! Seriously though, don’t fuck it up. It’s messy as hell.

  Level: Journeyman Level 5

  Effect: You understand magic on a Mana-formation level. Your spells aren’t just incantations and messy emotions. They’re refined tools. You use 15% less Mana and your spells are 53% stronger.

  Whoever is making these damn skills is no less of a smart ass. Must be because I saw and started changing people’s spells from the inside. I thought that would be put toward my Perception and Magical Circuits. Made a whole new skill instead and the benefits are pretty good. If I focus on refining spells even more, maybe I can get it up. It will also make breaking this citadel’s Magical Circuits down a lot easier.

  Dave closed his eyes as he pushed away the last notification. It was as if a stream of information filled his mind. He understood more about his skills; connections he hadn’t made before became clear. It felt similar to opening a skill book and the information taking its place in his mind. Dave stood there, opening his eyes, a little shocked and terrified of the connections he’d made.

  Level 58

  You have reached Level 58; you have 275 stat points to use.

  Dave barely looked at it as he moved to the next box.

  Stat Increase

  +5 Strength

  +37 Intelligence

  +39 Willpower

  +27 Endurance

  +16 Agility

  +7 Vitality

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  3

  Class:

  -

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Chaotic Neutral

  Unspent points-275

  Health:

  2,600

  Regen:

  2.10/s

  Mana:

  1,320

  Regen:

  5.65/s

  Stamina:

  670

  Regen:

  3.25/s

  Vitality:

  26

  Endurance:

  105

  Intelligence:

  132

  Willpower:

  113

  Strength:

  67

  Agility:

  65

  Affinity Levels

  Dark

  57

  Light

  35

  Air

  38

  Water

  25

  Earth

  48

  Fire

  36

  A second notification was blinking, the one that told of loot and other things. Dave disregarded it as he looked at his raw stats.

  He put his hand to the spike-portal.

  Magical Circuits

  You have found a complex series of Magical Circuits. Are you interested in trying to learn from them? The Circuits will be destroyed in the process.

  Cost: 100,000 Mana (Due to your Affinities, cost is reduced to 59,924)

  Reward: Unknown

  Y/N

  “Yes,” Dave said.

  Smoke seemed to drift away from Dave’s body, gray light showing across his body. Energy poured from his armor, into his body.

  With all the power running through him, it felt as if he was a god. He opened his eyes which seemed to glow silver as shapes of runes started glowing down his arm and into the spike.

  He had engraved magical runes into his skin, aiding in transferring his armor’s stored power through his body without the energy loss that had been happening before. The cost was what looked like tattoos across his body.

  He cast Touch of the Land as he watched the runes light up with his power before being burnt away. He closed his eyes to focus as information started to fill his mind. There were magical runes all across the square, embedded into the stone floor. Magical runes made up magical formations that linked into the Magical Circuit. Its complexity was dazzling.

  Dave doubted that the cultists understood what they were doing when building the portals. The language wasn’t any that was spoken on Emerilia; it was Jukal.

  Runes were words of power that were grouped together in orbits to create laws. As power passed through a magical circle, they went through orbits. Each orbit changed the state of the supplied energy, passing more laws onto it.

  One law might turn the supplied power into a fire ball. Another would be to project that fire ball in a constant stream; another might be to direct where that fire ball was going to fire.

  As magical circuits got more complicated, then it became impossible to include all of the laws you needed in a single magical circle.

  With a portal, there was a need to figure out your location and compute the distance to the other location you were trying to connect to. You needed to open the portal, keep it open, and create corrections so that the portal didn’t close mid-way.

  Each of these processes took multiple magical circles to figure out. Magical circles were grouped together to work on certain problems, creating a magical formation. They passed on their product to other formations, gradually working until the Magical Circuit could complete its function. In this case, forming a portal between two points and keeping it open long enough so that the Undead Demon Lord was able to come under the cultist’s control.

  A Magical Circuit could be as something as complex as a portal, or it could be as simple as a magical lighter. A Magical Circuit used runes to change the state of the energy that you provided it, whether that was to complete computations or to increase a sword’s frost damage.

  Dave’s own armor paled in comparison to the potent
ial complexity of formations and overall circuits. His runes were, however, pulled from dozens of languages of power. The more runes he knew, the more accurate his laws could be in changing the states of his energy.

  He wasn’t, however, so shocked that he didn’t retain any knowledge. He focused, trying to understand rather than remember. His own saved files would allow him to look at the formations in more detail later.

  As the runes and formations were destroyed, red mist seemed to pour toward Dave and Deia, their armor pulling in the magic in the area.

  The runes left burn marks where they had been. The latent and stored power flooded toward Deia and Dave. The mental fatigue of pouring out his energy fell away.

  Both of them got just over seven thousand points of Mana in their armor and half-full Mana bars.

  Dave looked at the battlefield.

  Dave didn’t gain any levels or stats for understanding the Magical Circuits. It would only be when he created them that he showed his ability and understanding.

  “What’s going to happen to the citadel?” he asked the Elven mage who was staring at him with a shocked expression.

  “We’re going to cut it apart. It’s formed from ebony and silver.” The Elf recovered quickly. “It’ll be split up for bonuses and to give those who lost someone or something.”

  Dave’s eyebrows crept up. With his Touch, he’d been able to see the seven-foot-deep ebony and silver blocks that made up the ground.

  They had been stored with the cultists for millennia, gaining strength from their raw Mana. That amount of already Mana-treated ebony would change the markets and more than a few people were going to make a lot of money.

  Dave nodded. He saw two figures walking across the square. Dave moved to Deia as the two figures met them.

  “We’re about to move out.” Lox looked rough, with dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders hunched—not under the weight of his armor but memories.

  Gurren was beside him, his arm in a sling. He looked over the battlefield.

  “Let’s go home,” Dave said, his voice soft, as he clapped a hand on Lox’s shoulder.

  Lox looked to Dave and nodded.

  There was a loud crash behind them.

  They all looked back to see the spikes breaking apart as the Earth mages turned the portal into a pile of rubble.

  Dave and Deia’s hands found each other’s as they followed Lox and Gurren.

  Chapter 2: The Stone Price

  “Sir, the forces at Boran-al were successful,” Wrole said.

  Fend nodded and held out his hand toward his advisor. He had seen the battle raging through his telescopes. He had sent an entire warclan but in the light created from the great battle, fear and doubt had crept in.

  Wrole gave Fend the report and then left him alone. Wrole knew Fend would need time to deal with the information.

  He read the complete battle report. His stomach sank as he read through the losses. His eyes became itchy with tears and his sigh heavy with sadness. This sadness and guilt quickly turned to inward rage as he balled up his fists.

  I should have sent more! I didn’t think that there would be anything more powerful than an A class dungeon in Opheir. Fend shook his head, and went back to reading.

  His warclan had gone under his orders. He had desired to be on the battlefield, to be with them, but as the lord of Mithsia Mountains, it was not possible.

  The least he owed them was to read the report his soldiers had bought with their lives.

  He knew that more stories would come to light as word was passed back to the mountain. For now, all he had was the terse and economical words of Wender. The remaining Dwarven warbands rested under his control.

  Just over one and a half thousand Dwarves had survived. Most were injured but they were getting treated by not only the mages of Mithsia and Kufo’tel, but the Players as well.

  He read the reports on the Players who had stepped up. That had been the reason that there was any of the Dwarves and Elves left.

  Their power was immense and their loyalties true. He made a note to send messages of thanks and a token of appreciation to them—to the Stone Raiders, to the Golden Sabres, their guildmasters and the individuals Malsour, Induca, Dave, and Deia.

  Wender clearly doubted they would have been able to fight off Boran-al’s cultists without them, and he doubted many of the wounded would have survived as well.

  The Kufo’tel Elves had numbered three thousand when they went into battle. Just under a thousand would be returning to their forests.

  >After the battle, it is my duty to inform you that I believe this warclan and supporting Elven elements are incapable of going into the field. After the mind attack by the cultists and the loss of so many combat effective units, I believe it would be best to replace our forces with another warclan. While those under my command can still fight, I believe doing so will create irreparable damage to their minds.

  Your faithful commander,

  Wender Olfson

  Fend put the report down and looked to the map that dominated a wall to the left side of his office.

  A full ten warbands were halted, awaiting the outcome of the fight at the citadel.

  Fend would send orders to them about the success at the citadel and they would continue on. The spring defrost was coming. Soon the lands would turn marshy and wet for a few weeks. The more land Fend could clear now, the less he would have to do later.

  A black line traced the area which enclosed the Mithsia Mountains, the Kufo’tel forest and curled around the Cliff-Hill village.

  Fend was done with letting creatures get to his door to attack him. Lord Evo’Mael had agreed to the proposed plan.

  Over a period of years, mages had been dispatched nearly six centuries ago. They’d walked the forests, valleys, and hills.

  Lying dormant under the ground, along the borders so agreed by the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves were battlements, a wall that spanned three hundred miles across. It cut the two groups off from everyone else, going from the northern tundra to the southern tip of the Mithsia Mountains.

  The mountain’s coffers had more in them than ever before. Sales of goods through Cliff-Hill and Omal were bringing in massive revenue.

  Fend hadn’t turned Mithsia into a war economy but he had placed orders for artillery pieces, swords, armor, and other supplies that they might need if someone started trying to mess with them again.

  The Pantheon had blindsided him once and killed the brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons of his people.

  “As the saying goes: when a Dwarf stops smiling, it’s time to stop laughing and start running.” Fend’s words were hot as his eyes were hard. His hand gripped the sword at his hip.

  They didn’t sound like words one might have remembered from a memory. They sounded like a promise.

  ***

  Josh Giles looked at his Stone Raiders. All who had died had run from Omal to Boran-al’s Citadel as fast as possible.

  Everyone had gained a few levels from the fight.

  It had been nothing like what he’d expected. The People of Emerilia might just be lines of code, but to an E-head, someone who lived in Emerilia, they were more real than those who lived on Earth.

  That was why he found himself standing on a wagon, looking at his people.

  “I ain’t one for speeches and too many people died for me to be really happy about Boran-al’s Citadel, so I’m going to tell you straight. I want to turn Cliff-Hill into our base of operations. They walked with us right into Boran-al’s keep and they fought as ferociously as any of us—even more. But they knew that they weren’t coming back from battle. They knew that they might die and they still went. We drank with them, joked with them, and fought beside them. They might not be Stone Raiders but in my heart, they were. Cliff-Hill can provide us with a decent base of operations. The Dwarves are willing to train us Evolvers. They have the skills and materials to look after our gear. It might not be a central city or even village, bu
t the people of this town, the Dwarves of Mithsia, and Elves of Kufo’tel, stood side by side with us. I doubt we would find many other groups that would be willing to stand with us and defend their homes. That said, this is not my guild; it is ours. Check the guild forums and vote as you desire on the poll.” Josh looked to his people. There weren’t cheers, smiles, or laughter—that would come later.

  Josh looked at his lieutenants—Dwayne, Lucy, and Kim.

  They smiled up at him and he smiled back.

  No matter what, they would become stronger and grow from this. The drops from the citadel had been impressive for the magically orientated of the guild.

  The raw materials that had made up the square would be dealt with by the Elves. It had been broken down by damage, defensive stats, and so on, Emerilia designating the split.

  Josh’s eyes wandered over to Malsour and Induca. They had done the most damage of anyone there.

  His eyes quickly moved toward Dave and Deia’s home. They were the third and fourth biggest hitters. They got the largest portion of the raw materials. Josh knew that Malsour and Induca had given away half of their claim, to be given out to the NPCs who had died in battle.

  Another message had come in from the guild’s connections in the Endon kingdom. A large raid area had been found and the forces were currently moving out to attack the settlements between it and the city Pundt.

  Josh had accepted after his fight for Boran-al’s Citadel. He knew that without the Stone Raiders help that more people would die.

  He saw gold and Mithril moving toward Dave and Deia’s home. He didn’t need to use Analyze to recognize Naylor, Bok Soo, and Cassie.

  Well, seems that I’m not the only one reading the MVP’s sheets.