Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  Your HP, SP, and MP are fully restored.

  You are no longer afflicted with Weakness.

  Your Improvised Weaponry Skill has risen to Level 2.

  +2% Improvised weapon damage (4%).

  +2% Improvised weapon attack speed (4%).

  Buffrix stayed far back in the cage, shaking. He was obviously terrified of the goblin. Even after its death.

  As soon as the goblin was dealt with, Hal used Mana Investiture to break out of the cell. He came around to retrieve his falchion and was nearly bowled over by the koblin on the floor.

  Hal started, thinking that the creature meant to attack him. Instead it was… hugging him. Or rather, hugging his shins. “Uplander man-thing saves kobbie-life! Kobbie-clan never forget!” The koblin began hopping about while holding onto Hal with its tiny mitts.

  “Shh,” Hal urged, crouching to get on the same level as the small creature. Its floppy green ears bounced and flounced with every hop. “We have to be quiet now, can you do that for me?”

  The koblin immediately began to bounce and hop with even greater energy but stayed silent. As if the act of staying quiet meant it had to get its excitement out through more vigorous hopping.

  Hidden Quest Unlocked: Chimeric Attunement.

  The first steps to taking up the mantle of a Chimera Knight are difficult for most. But you have completed them with ease: placing equal value on both mankind and monsterkind by killing an equal amount of both, saving the life of a man, and saving the life of a monster.

  In all things, Chimera Knights must walk the knife’s edge of balance. By ascribing to their ideals, you have taken the first steps along the long and bloody road to joining their ranks.

  Chimera Knights prided themselves on using their unique Beast Magic to exploit weaknesses. Their position within the long-lost order was contingent upon their battle knowledge. Your induction affords the same flexibility.

  Objectives

  Achieve 100% monster affinity in at least 2 monster families.

  Additional objectives available.

  Reward

  Fabled Evolution Available.

  Additional rewards available.

  You are now able to attain Monster Essence.

  Monster Essence

  At the core of Beast Magic is monster essence. Without it, a practitioner cannot hope to glean any useful information from their quarry. For those capable of using monster essence, killing a monster affords a chance to attune to their unique powers.

  Consuming a monster’s essence raises your affinity to that family of monsters, allowing you to learn spells from defeating more of that same family.

  Monster Affinity

  By fighting and killing monsters of a specific family, you gain intimate knowledge about that race of monsters. Raising your monster affinity to 100% is necessary to learn any spells from that family.

  Chimera Knight

  A lost lineage of fighter-mages that employ the legendary arts of Beast Magic. With elegantly devastating swordplay, they weave fell magic mastered from monstrous opponents to decimate their enemies near and far, while bolstering their allies to victory.

  Reading the prompt, Hal’s jaw fell open. That… that was nothing like what he expected he might get. That Class sounds mother florking awesome. He didn’t even mind the language filter.

  Hal turned his attention back to the task at hand. He had to shuffle his feet to get anywhere since the koblin wouldn’t stop hugging him. Which made it awkward as he pulled his sword free of the goblin’s limp body.

  He tried to catch the body and guide it to the ground quietly but to his surprise, the corpse vanished into a plume of purple smoke. The substance swirled and flew into his outstretched hand.

  Veins of purple and black stretched up his naked forearm, crawling all the way to his bicep. It hurt at first, a searing white-hot agony that subsided until it was almost soothing.

  You absorb 10 Goblin Essence.

  Hal turned to the nearest koblin, then to Buffrix who was staring at the half-spilled bowls of slop on the tray nearby. His limbs trembled with the brief surge of the monster essence that flowed through his veins. There was an addictive quality to it that made him want more.

  Seeing that neither koblin thought the sudden disappearance of a goblin strange, Hal decided not to bring attention to it. He bent down and gently released the koblin from his legs.

  Hal picked up the tray containing the twin bowls of mush and brought them to Buffrix. The sight of their contents made Hal’s stomach churn. It looked like clam chowder but smelled like somebody poured chunky milk and spoiled orange juice together.

  “I can have?” Buffrix asked, visibly trembling with excitement.

  Are koblins part chihuahua? They always seem to shake with emotion.

  “All yours,” Hal confirmed.

  Buffrix took the bowls graciously and sat down, legs akimbo.

  “No eye-peeking!” Buffrix squealed.

  “Have it your way.” Hal turned around just in time for the unnamed koblin to reattach to his left leg. The little creature sat on his foot and looked up at him with what Hal assumed was wide-eyed adoration.

  It was hard to tell with the mask.

  Loud slurping sounded from behind him and Hal found himself strangely tempted to look over his shoulder.

  If they all wear masks it must be pretty bad. Or maybe it’s some cultural thing. A small part, in the back of his mind, whispered that it would be a taboo of the highest order to peek at a goblin (or koblin) without their mask.

  So, Hal kept his back turned and gazed out of the bars into the massive cave.

  He could hear voices, dull and hushed from other cages. It seemed it was feeding time. Goblins forced crude-masked koblins around as they brought food to the prisoners.

  With the Level Up wiping his fatigue and the weakened status effect, Hal placed his attribute points. Considering the very real danger he was in, he put VIT to 5 immediately. But the question was, what to do with the last 3 points?

  If he dropped a point into MND, he could squeeze out three casts of enchainment. Adding more would only increase his regeneration rate and that was slow enough that unless he planned to spend hours skulking about, it wouldn’t serve him any good.

  Placing a single point into MND, he still had 2 points left over. More STR would make it easier to fight the goblins, but so would more VIT. He doubted he would be talking his way out of an encounter anytime soon, so CHR was off the table as well.

  That left only STR, VIT, INT, and AGI. Thankfully, through his insistence on prioritizing them all to a relatively healthy baseline of 5, none of them were severely unbalanced.

  Raising his INT would help his investigation. He might be able to find a weakness or a secret exit that would help him escape. Considering the overwhelming odds against him - there had to be scores of goblins to keep so many people imprisoned - finding a hidden weakness might be his only chance to get out alive.

  Plus, he had to find the other members of Buffrix’s clan. That had to use investigation. While more STR would have been nice to deal a bit more damage, VIT to take an extra hit, or AGI to move a bit faster, Hal placed his final 2 points in INT.

  If it came down to a fight he couldn’t win, he could always cast enchainment. Hopefully, the added INT would improve it in some way. While it was an outside chance, the way the System explained monster affinity sounded like he might actually learn magic from the goblins if he killed enough of them.

  [Status]

  Hal Williams

  Level: 5

  Next Level: 26/1,400

  Classes

  Novice: 5

  Resources

  HP: 80/80

  SP: 85/85

  MP: 75/75

  Attributes

  STR: 5

  VIT: 5

  DEX: 5

  AGI: 5 (+1)

  INT: 7

  MND: 4

  CHR: 1

  Regeneration

  HP/hr: 12.4
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  SP/hr: 15.0

  MP/hr: 13.1

  Resistances

  Fire: 0

  Ice: 0

  Wind: 0

  Earth: 0

  Lightning: 0

  Water: 0

  Light: 0

  Dark: 0

  Defensive Properties

  DEF: 0

  MDEF: 0

  Insulation: 4

  Monster Affinity

  Beastmen

  Goblin: 10%

  Class Affinity

  Thief: 45%

  Chimera Knight: 40%

  Survival Skills

  Stealth: 1

  Darkvision: 3

  Survival: 0

  Perception: 1

  Investigation: 1

  Combat Skills

  Improvised Weaponry: 2

  Sword: 1

  Parry: 1

  Magic Skills

  Enfeebling: 1

  Crafting Skills

  Social Skills

  Leadership: 2

  Persuasion: 1

  If the rate of monster essence remained the same, he would need to kill 9 more goblins to be able to learn spells from them. A feat he wasn’t entirely sure could be accomplished alone, but thankfully he had two allies with him.

  Together, it might be possible.

  If they were smart about it.

  “Are you done?” Hal asked over his shoulder, pitching his voice low.

  “Yes, many-thankings for extra food. Am done.”

  Hal turned around in time to see Buffrix patting his rather gaunt belly. “You’re welcome. Is there a reason they didn’t chain you up?”

  “Buffrix is no threat to goblin. With tasty-nums in belly, Buffrix can do more healy-spell. You need?”

  “No, I already Leveled, but thank you.” Hal motioned for him to leave the cage then paused and turned back. “Were you unable to heal me any more than you did because you were starving?”

  Buffrix nodded, his lone ear flopping about. As the small creature came closer, Hal could see the other ear was sheared off close to his head. It was a recent wound, too.

  Turning to take in the path before him, Hal tried to piece together a plan. He would try to be as quiet and careful as possible. But he promised that any goblins that he came upon would suffer.

  14

  “What’s your name?” Hal asked the koblin attached to his leg.

  The koblin leaped off him and gave an awkward salute. “Lootlox Bangpots!” it squeaked, then clamped threadbare mitts over the hole in its mask for its mouth after realizing they should be quiet.

  Buffrix pointed at some of the items the goblin left behind when it turned into smoke. “Lootlox helpy-hand carry items. She carry many-thing. Big. Heavy. Small. Many-things.”

  Hal looked from Lootlox to Buffrix. “Lootlox is a girl?”

  Both koblins nodded.

  “Buffrix is boy,” the koblin said before Hal could ask. “We hurry-scurry now, tongue-flap later!”

  Before Hal could say anything, Lootlox was already scooping up a few of the items. One of them looked like the helm the goblin was wearing. Far too small for Hal but maybe he could offer it a koblin.

  Buffrix hurried down the sloping ramp ahead of Hal. Stone walls rose up along the ramp as they descended into the cavern. The tunnel made a sharp turn where Hal lost sight of the koblin.

  A moment later Buffrix emerged, scrambling fast. Hal brought up his falchion defensively and readied himself for the threat to round the corner. Buffrix hid behind Hal. “Now is time for tongue-flaps! Buffrix is friend!”

  Hal’s confusion turned to one of great surprise when he saw not a goblin rounding the corner, but Elora.

  She was bloodied and battered but held herself with a sense of duty. But when her blue-gray eyes found Hal, she nearly collapsed. Her hand flew out to brace against the cavern wall.

  It was a measure of how fatigued she must be when Elora allowed Hal to help her up the slope back to the cage he had been in. “I came to rescue you,” she said.

  “I see that.”

  “You’re going to make my rescue seem much less impressive, seeing as you’ve already broken out on your own.”

  “I won’t tell if you won’t,” Hal said with a forced smile. Up close he could see how many wounds she had. The woman was covered in a sheen of sweat. “Buffrix, can you heal her?”

  The Koblin poked his head out around Hal’s leg. “No harm, Buffrix?”

  Looking at Elora, Hal said, “No, she is a friend.”

  “Buffrix still have little airy-self for healy-spells,” he warned. Buffrix ambled over to Elora and shook his gnarled wooden staff in the air. He raised his free, mittened hand and began to gyrate wildly while muttering.

  Hal could feel the mana gather in the air and with a dim glow of purple-blue light, the spell went off. It coated Elora in a sparkling glow followed by dozens of crystalline motes of purple.

  Before Hal’s very eyes, the many scratches and open wounds on Elora sealed up as if they had never occurred. With a nod of thanks to Hal, the Ranger stood on her own.

  She tested her right leg, putting weight on it with only a slight wince. Turning to the koblin that healed her, she said, “Thank you….”

  “Buffrix,” Hal provided.

  “Thank you, Buffrix,” she corrected. “You have interesting friends, Hal.” She looked back across the cavern. “We can slip out easily enough, their patrols are lax and I’ve already cleared a few out of the way. If we are quick we can be out in a few minutes.”

  Without turning to ask Hal’s opinion, or if he was going to bring his new friends, she stalked off down the sloping ramp.

  They had gotten halfway down the ramp when Hal stopped Elora. “I can’t,” he said through gritted teeth. “They need our help, Elora.” His arm swept wide toward the various cages piled high like cargo on the docks of a busy port. “Buffrix’s koblin clan is held captive alongside many other people. The goblins use them as slaves.”

  Elora sighed and shook her head. “I should have known. How do you plan to do that, Hal? You’re practically naked and can barely stop shivering. Even with your two friends, what do you think the four of us can do against a gaggle of goblins?”

  “Is that what they’re called?” Hal asked, stifling his laugh.

  “Yes, Hal. A gaggle of goblins, focus, please. There are dozens of them. You can’t honestly expect to fight all of them.”

  Hal got as close as he dared to the ledge and did his best to ignore the fear that swooped through his gut. “So then the plan is to rescue as many people as possible but Buffrix thinks that if we can rescue two of his clansmen, they’ll be instrumental in bringing this whole place down.”

  The entire cave was filled with scaffolding and level upon level of stacked rickety cages. It was a maze of tunnels and narrow pathways clearly designed for the ease of a goblin’s passage, not humans.

  “Well, I’m obviously the quietest of us four,” Elora said, casting a glance at Buffrix and Lootlox. Lootlox waved pleasantly at her, she was nearly hopping with excitement at seeing two “uplanders.”

  “I’m also the better fighter,” she added, casting a look at Hal as if she expected him to argue. “Which means if you’re absolutely sure you want to do this, I’ll help by going off on my own and freeing all I can.”

  Hal nodded. It made sense. Elora had far higher skills and Levels than Hal. On her own could probably do quite a lot. That she made it inside without rousing the alarm said a lot. “I’ll take the koblins with me then,” Hal said.

  “I was about to suggest that. Especially the healer there.” She nodded toward Buffrix, who looked suddenly very bashful and hid behind Hal. “There are four main sections that I was able to spy.” She moved up beside Hal and pointed at each area.

  “A mostly empty area in the back of the cavern that way. Dozens of cages on the upper levels over there, and more below there. Finally, toward the mouth of the cave are some rooms filled with goblins. Naturally, we wa
nt to avoid those.”

  “Where is the exit you found?” Hal asked.

  “At the rear of the cave. The goblins must not know about it, or they’re overconfident. They’re goblins after all.” Elora looked at the two koblins. “No offense.”

  “Stupid goblins,” Buffrix agreed.

  Elora gave Hal a questioning look, all Hal could do was shrug.

  “I’ll take the section of cages farthest from here, you take the near ones and we’ll meet at the rear of the cave. Okay?”

  Hal nodded and was about to walk away when Elora reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “I nearly forgot.” She shut her eyes a moment, focusing and a prompt appeared.

  Elora invites you to her Party.

  Accept?

  Accepting the invitation, an awareness bloomed in the back of his head. In the bottom-left quadrant of his vision where his HP, SP, and MP were was now another set of bars with Elora’s name above them.

  Buffrix Eargone joins the Party.

  Lootlox Bangpots joins the Party.

  Two more sets of HP, SP, and MP bars appeared along with the new party members. After Buffrix joined the party, another bar appeared right next to each person’s name. This one was empty.

  Motes of gold light bounced around the empty portion of each gauge.

  Parties

  Adventuring parties are as old as time. Most groups are limited to 5 total members. Party communication permits silent coordination over medium distances.

  Parties of three or more unlock Ultimates.

  Ultimates

  Each person, when pressed to their limit is capable of unleashing extraordinary power. An ultimate is a reflection of their soul’s strength.