by Michael Ryan
“When it rains, it pours,” Smith said. He charged the first creature and began pounding it with his hammer. As they traded blows, Yingtai kept Smith’s health up.
Dale moved into position with his longsword and shield.
One of the undead dwarfs advanced on him and lifted its hammer.
Dale ducked, spun, and brought his sword in a slicing movement across the body of the creature, opening up its stomach and spilling intestines and bile.
“God, that stinks!” Jara shouted. “I can smell it from here.” She was ten meters behind Dale, and she sent a bolt of Ice Magic at the dwarf. It froze, and Dale took its head off with a blow. The head rolled on the ground, its jaws snapping, and bubbling liquid frothed from its mouth.
+600XP
Killed: Karaelek, Level 6
Dropped: Herb Potion: +10% increase in Dark Mana regeneration for 1 hour
Dropped: 1 carat Ruby, Excellent Quality
Dale wanted to vomit, but the next beast swung its hammer. Dale brought up his shield and blocked the blow. He threw his shield behind the beast after he received the infusion of Jara’s healing enchantment and was restored to full health.
Dale raised his sword while the Karaelek did the same with his hammer.
The undead dwarf was distracted when the adder bit. Dale, faster than his opponent, swung his sword down and splitting its skull in two.
+600XP
Killed: Karaelek, Level 6
Dropped: Earth Magic Book
Dropped: Undead Warhammer
Dale moved to help Smith who had killed three of the creatures and was about to finish the last one.
“Hey, let me get a tag in there,” Dale shouted.
“Hurry up!”
Dale retrieved his longbow and fired an arrow.
Smith smashed the Karaelek with the hammer.
+600XP
Killed: Karaelek, Level 6
Dropped: Water Magic Book
Dropped: Undead Arrows
Dale looked up to see a giant bear crashing towards him.
The boss.
A level nine boss, the Otso, came at Dale, who rolled out of its path just in time to avoid being crushed.
Smith slammed his hammer into the bear. The beast growled and hit the ape-man’s war hammer so hard that it went flying.
For a brief moment, Smith stood in front of the bear unarmed.
Dale flung his adder-shield at the beast. The snake bit the bear, which drew its attention from Smith, but then it swatted the snake into a tree. The tree cracked, the snake fell to the ground, and it coiled into a shield.
Dale backed up one meter and warmed up a Fire Magic spell.
Smith brought out a longsword and a tall bronze shield.
Jara and Yingtai switched between firing healing enchantments at Smith and spells at the bear.
The battle went back and forth. The bear’s health would lower, then Smith’s would get dangerously low and the women would have to stop concentrating on DPS and heal him.
Dale decided to try the undead hammer he’d received in a fortuitous drop.
Sleipnir Undead Hammer
Level 9, Two-handed Bludgeoning
Resilience: Heavy Duty
Quality: Most Excellent
Magical Attributes: 0/30
Durability: 40/40
Wiki: [Lore] [Strengths] [Weaknesses] [Range]
Dale pulled up the skill tree for Earth Magic and looked for something he could use to imbue the hammer.
Ërin: This is why you study.
Dale: Well, are you going to bust my balls—
Didn’t that maid—
Stop! I’m in the middle of a skirmish.
Read the Earth Magic Book you got from the nasty undead dwarf.
Dale opened the book.
Earth Magic Skill Increased: Newbie Level Achieved.
As you grow in this skill you’ll become more powerful as a healer. Earth Magic is also good for enchanting your equipment.
Hint: You’ve unlocked new enchantments and perks [see enchantments] [see perks].
Dale scanned the skill trees and found a low-level enchantment at the bottom of the list that could be used on the undead hammer he was holding. An enchantment would normally improve a PC, a creature, or an item, but because the bear was a mutant and the hammer an undead hammer, Dale decided to take a chance and see what would happen.
When he’d used fire on the dragonling, he’d healed the beast…
Dale moved towards the bear and swung the hammer down against its back.
The beast stood straight up and turned towards Dale.
“Thank you,” the Otso Mutant Bear said.
Otso has leveled up!
“Whose side are you on again?” Yingtai shouted.
“Yeah, whose side are you—” The bear batted Smith into a tree, which cracked with a snap, and fell on the bear.
“I planned that,” Dale said.
“Whose side is he on?” Jara asked Yingtai.
“Look out!” Smith yelled.
The bear growled in pain when the tree landed on its head, but swatted away the tree and charged Dale.
Yingtai and Jara fired arrows.
Dale ran.
Smith gave chase.
The bear caught up to Dale, batted him to the side, and turned in time to engage Smith, who wielded a sword – an unusual weapon for him, but one he was competent using. If it wasn’t for the size and strength of the bear, he might have had an advantage.
Dale laid on the ground, dazed.
The ape-man and the bear exchanged swipes and growls.
Dale used his restored mana to imbue an arrow with as much Fire Magic as he could manage. He felt close to bursting and his body burned hot, like he was being cooked alive. He wondered if a Fire Magic Spell could go wrong and burn him to ash…
He let the imbued arrow fly.
The arrow caught the bear’s fur on fire, and it roared like only a dying mutant grizzly bear with flammable fur could.
“He didn’t read that tag—do not wear this cos-play fur near open flame…” Smith said, and then switched from a sword to a javelin spear, which he launched at the beast.
Jara and Yingtai, watching the action, switched to DPS spells and hit the bear at the same moment as Smith’s javelin.
It fell to the ground, twitching and smoldering, and Dale cut off its head, a feat that took only fourteen blows with his right hand and a few from his left.
“You’re improving your left hand work,” Smith commented.
“Boys,” Yingtai injected. “Always nasty and inappropriate.”
“We only say what women think,” Smith said.
“I don’t get your humor,” Jara stated.
“Count yourself fortunate,” Dale quipped.
+3500XP
Killed: Otso Mutant Grizzly Bear Boss
Dropped: Earth Magic Book
Dropped: Water Magic Book
Dropped: Bear Tooth Protection Charm: +10% increase in Stamina regeneration when fighting mammalian predators
Dropped: 1 carat Tanzanite, Rare Supreme Quality
Dropped: 500 Bars of Gold
Dropped: Mutant Zombie Grizzly Bear Mount
Dale was about to remark on what an epic loot drop he’d just received when Jara interrupted him.
“Take cover!” she screamed.
“Do you have a good shot?” Amy asked, watching Dale hack at the fallen bear.
“Hold on,” Emi said. “Yingtai is suspicious, and uses Jara as a shield.”
“Let me know…”
“Okay, I’ve got a shot,” Emi whispered.
Amy was about to release her arrow when Jara spotted her and yelled an alarm.
“Crap. Run!” Amy said.
They rushed deeper into the forest.
Dale and his group followed them, making enough noise that the assassins, who moved silently, easily evaded them.
The pair found two perfect trees, climbed to high perches, an
d observed their pursuers.
Jara and Yingtai moved in one direction.
Smith and Dale moved in the opposite in an attempt to circle around the assassins.
Amy used hand signals to warned Emi to stand down.
Besides the four in Dale’s team, Declanian troops moved towards their position, which she pointed out to Emi. With their sneak and conceal skills activated while in the trees, they were invisible to anybody on the ground.
The Declanian soldiers marched quickly, making no attempt to remain silent. They were a party of eight with swords drawn, and approached Jara and Yingtai.
Amy watched Jara throw a knife at the lead soldier, but it was a slow, looping throw, and the knife landed on the ground at his feet.
The Declanian soldier picked up the knife, removed a hidden scroll, and read it.
He spoke to his troops, and then walked to the princess, bowed, and handed back her knife.
Jara shouted to Dale and Smith. “Dale! Smith! Help! Please help!”
The Declanians hid, lying in wait to ambush them.
Jara and Yingtai ran from the meadow, heading towards the river and the path to the Pierstone Castle.
Emi signaled to Amy. We must go!
Amy signaled back. Wait!
Dale and Smith heard Jara’s shout and rushed towards her voice, only to find themselves ambushed. The enemy troops outnumbered them four to one. But they were green troops, and the two were a full three levels higher level than the Declanians.
Dale thought it might be an even fight.
He pulled out his sword and engaged the first Declanian.
Smith smashed warriors with his war hammer.
“Where’re the women?” Smith asked.
“I don’t know…”
Dale killed a soldier, but a second enemy crushed him with a blow from a club, and he fell to his knees.
A bolt of enchanting power hit him, and his health restored.
“They’re in the trees!” Dale said.
“Good,” Smith said. “I was worried for a minute.”
Smith destroyed another Declanian and the fight waged on.
Dale used his adder shield with some effectiveness, but it wasn’t as strong after the damage it had endured from the bear. He needed to work on upgrading his crafting skills so he could better restore his equipment, but there were only so many things he could do at once.
He slashed a soldier with his sword, switched to his longbow, imbued an arrow and fired at another soldier, and moved back to his sword. While he couldn’t see Jara and Yingtai, he knew they were helping to keep their health up and were ranging damage on the Declanians.
What seemed like an unbalanced battle wasn’t. The women in the trees had an excellent position to fire into the fray without taking any damage themselves.
As soon as the last soldier died, Dale looked up at the tree tops.
Dale waved at the trees. “Come down! We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Quiet!” Smith warned. “There’s a whole platoon heading our direction.”
“Shit. Sorry.”
Dale signaled to the trees again. He pointed to the river, and gave the sign to meet there asap.
“Come on,” Dale said to Smith.
Smith followed him at a rapid pace away from the advancing platoon.
Once in the clear they mounted their beasts and rode to the river.
When Dale heard the sounds of rushing water, he dismounted, found a vantage point where he and Smith could remain concealed, and peered into the distance. He had a clear view of the bridge that crossed the river, and the Declanians who were guarding it.
Dale looked at Smith. “We need to rest. We aren’t going anywhere at the moment.”
“Agreed.”
“You think Jara and Yingtai are right behind us?”
“They can track.”
“Okay. Let’s eat and take turns getting on watch. It’s a bad time to try and sneak around.”
The sun was up high in the sky, and the Declanians had several Draenen bat scouts flying in circles above the bridge and the river. They were lucky it wasn’t night time; the Draenen were severely handicapped flying in sunlight, their vision limited to moving shapes.
Dale ate.
He drank a rejuvenation potion, which restored his health and increased his mana, and read his new Magic Books from the bear drop.
He put on the bear tooth charm. His skill levels rose and his mana increased, and he shut his eyes.
“I’m going to rest for a moment, Smith,” he said. “Wake me when Jara shows up.”
Dale felt fuzzy.
Perhaps it was the potion?
He fell asleep before he could ask Ërin or Smith about it, and he dreamed.
Amy approached him in a fog.
“Do you still believe in love?” she asked.
“No.”
“Don’t give in to doubt,” she said.
“I know what I saw.”
When Dale woke the sun was lower in the sky. “Why’d you let me sleep so long?”
“You needed the rest,” Smith said, and looked Dale in the eyes. “You were talking in your sleep.”
He blushed. “What did I say?”
“You said that you saw what you saw, and you couldn’t forget. Then…” Smith looked at the ground.
“What?”
“You were crying in your sleep.” Smith looked up. “Don’t be embarrassed. I think you still love her.”
“How can I? She’s fighting for the Declanians. How can I ignore that?”
“You overthink this stuff, Dale,” Smith said. “What’s ultimately the most important thing?”
“What do you mean?” Dale asked with a frown. “What do you mean by most important? In what sense?”
“In life,” Smith said.
“Oh, that totally clarifies it.”
“I’m serious,” Smith said. “What’s the most important thing to you?”
“I don’t know.” Dale shut his eyes and thought about the question. “What’s the most important thing to you?”
“I have a girl back home,” Smith answered.
“You never mentioned her.”
“We’re going to get married…” Smith rubbed his temple. “When I get home. We’re going to settle down, have two kids, live the life. That’s all I want. Nothing more, nothing less. So the most important thing to me? Her. That’s it. Do you really think the government gives a shit about us? We’re just soldiers Dale. Ants. Less than ants in the scheme of the universe.”
“I didn’t know you were such a deep thinker,” Dale said. He smiled at his friend. “Okay, I get your point. I did love Amy, but I realized that the middle of a war is not the time or place. Too complicated. Too risky. I made a mistake.”
“If you say so.”
“We should go,” Dale said. “It appears Jara and Yingtai aren’t such good trackers after all. Or maybe they assumed we’re out of the action.”
“Or maybe…”
“What?”
“Nothing,” Smith said. “You’re right. We should go. We’ll have to go downstream and attempt a crossing, then head back up on the other side.”
“Alright.”
Dale took the lead. They walked for several kilometers downstream before finding a narrow place to cross the river.
Once across, Dale and Smith followed a worn path. There were no tracks, and the brush grew so thick that they occasionally had to use their swords to clear their way.
“Should we be on our mounts?” Dale asked. “We could move a lot faster.”
“We’d be seen.” Smith said.
“You’re a better tactician,” Dale said, swiping at a bush in his way. “Maybe you should have been the one in charge…”
“I think you’re a good leader. Don’t forget that some situations are no-win or, at best. Ones in which you’re forced to make a best bad choice, and somebody ends up getting hurt, or killed.”
“That does add some drama, d
oesn’t it?”
“Exactly.”
“Where do you think Jara and Yingtai—”
“Once they helped us escape they probably moved ahead,” Smith said, but he didn’t sound overly confident. “They were in a hurry to get to the castle. Maybe we’ll end up meeting them there.”
“I guess there’s nothing else we can do.”
“Yup,” Smith said. “We’ll plunge ahead, probably run into some trouble along the way, and then, if all goes to according to plan, we’ll have some climactic confrontation with…”
“My ex-girlfriend and her assassin accomplice.”
“Perhaps,” Smith said. “But you never how it’s going to end until it does.”
“I wonder how Robur ended up doing…”
“Home field advantage,” Smith said. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
They walked in silence for two more hours, and were resting when Smith sprang to his feet.
“What’s that?” He pointed into the trees and motioned to Dale. “Come and look.”
“What?” Dale couldn’t see anything.
“Look closely…”
“A rock?”
“Look closer…”
Dale thought he could make out the outline of a stone helmet.
“Come on,” Smith said, and moved off the trail into the thick brush.
They took a circuitous path around logs and foliage. When they reached a small clearing, they found a stone statue covered in vines.
“Help me,” Smith said. He began stripping vines from the figure.
After they’d cleared most of the creepers, the statue began to move. First it shook. Then, with a glow of light, it gazed at them and spoke. “Thank you, travelers. What is it that you seek? A vision? A dream? A quest? A mission?”
“We’re on a mission to the Castle Pierstone,” Dale said. “Can you help us with that?”
“I wouldn’t mind a quest for some loot,” Smith added.
“Yes,” the stone NPC said. “I believe I can please you both. I offer you a quest through the mountain and I freely give to you a Lore Book, in consideration for your graciousness towards me.”
You’ve been offered a quest: The Hidden Path to the Castle Pierstone Quest
A secret passage leads to The Three Queens.
The Three Queens, comprised of a natural rock formation, marks a fork in the path to the Castle Pierstone.
The path upward leads to the castle.
The path downward leads to the sea.
