Nova Terra: Guardian - A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Titan Series Book 4)

by Seth Ring

  “No problem. Just leave them to me.” Thorn slapped his chest confidently. “You said that we are going to be facing a few different types of enemies, right? Which ones will these be?”

  “Uh, these ones should be regular golems. They are stone statues that are possessed by the Ancient Elven spirits. If we’re lucky we’ll run into a caster. They drop ghostly elemental cores which are great for making [Greater Elemental Infusion] potions. If we do see a caster we’ll need to focus on getting rid of it before it can use its [Elemental Summoning Gate] spell or we’ll be up to our ears in elementals.”

  “Sure thing. Just point them out to me and I’ll take care of them.” Thorn grinned under his helmet as he flexed his claws. He had quite a bit of experience with target priority by now and was more than confident in his ability to take down enemies quickly.

  Not paying attention, Thorn nearly ran into Alph who had stopped abruptly in the center of the tunnel. Seeing that Alph was concentrating, Thorn listened carefully but could not hear anything. His advanced senses had vanished when he got the [Living Statue] curse making it much more difficult for him to pick up on danger.

  [Master, it is that shield woman who you scared away earlier.]

  It took a moment for Thorn to remember who Akira was talking about. A lot had happened in the last few hours, but he soon remembered the woman who had fallen into the tomb with him and Heuron. Despite surviving the fall, it was obvious that Thorn had startled her badly as she had logged out as soon as she saw him.

  “There is a guest in that room. Probably the woman from earlier.” Waving Thorn forward, Alph continued walking down the hall.

  “How can you tell it is her?” Thorn asked as he followed.

  “Smell. I killed the mobs in that room before you crashed through the ceiling. Didn’t you see the fallen golems? Anyway, the mix of potions I used to beat them is specific, so currently you, me, and that women are the only people in the world who carry the smell of those potions. We’re here, so that must mean that she logged back in.”

  “You can smell her from here?”

  “Heh, my nose is particularly sensitive to potion materials and I never forget a combination.”

  The large room where Thorn had fallen into the tomb had not changed at all since Thorn had left it with Alph earlier in the day. As he stepped through the door, he heard a gasp and saw the woman who had fallen into the tomb with him stepping back. Lifting his hands quickly to show that he had no ill intentions, he paused in the doorway, causing Alph’s lantern to bump into his back.

  “Hey, what are you doing? You can’t just stop like that!” Annoyed, Alph staggered slightly as he regained his balance. The large box he carried on his back was convenient for carrying things, but it often threw off his balance. “Go, go. I seriously don’t think she’ll bite so what are you worried about?”

  “Hello, we don’t mean you any harm.” Amused by Alph’s words, Thorn walked into the room. He kept his hands in the air and moved slowly to try and remain as unthreatening as possible.

  Despite his best efforts, the woman still backed away. She had found her sword after logging back into the game and held it tightly in her hand as she covered herself with her shield.

  “I’m serious, we’re not interested in fighting. My name is Thorn, by the way, and he is Alph.”

  Seeing that Thorn was making no aggressive moves, the woman relaxed slightly, straightening up and lowering her sword. She still kept her shield up, but Thorn could tell that was more habit than anything else. When Akira saw her relax she jumped down from Thorn’s shoulder and ran over to the warrior, offering her one of the pastries that she was carrying in the bag that Alph had given her.

  Taken aback, the warrior looked at Thorn and Alph before looking back down at Akira who was tugging happily on her pants with one paw while offering her what looked like a twisted cinnamon stick with the other. Weak to cute things, the warrior couldn’t help but put her sword and shield away and hesitantly accept the offered pastry. Immensely pleased, Akira wiggled her body and rubbed herself against the warrior’s legs, her three tails waving in the air.

  “Oh, aren’t you cute.” As soon as the words slipped out, the warrior clapped a hand over her mouth and looked at Thorn and Alph who were still standing across the room.

  [Master! Master! I told you I am the most beautiful and charming Ailuridae!]

  “Her name is Akira,” Thorn offered, pointing at his pet.

  “Akira? What a pretty name.” Crouching down, the warrior began scratching Akira behind her ears. “My name is Heidi. Your pet is really beautiful.”

  “Thanks, she is a cutie. It is nice to meet you Heidi. Sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to startle you.”

  “Oh,” Heidi’s cheeks flushed slightly and she lowered her head. “It’s okay. I was just surprised because you appeared out of thin air.”

  Taking a few steps forward, Thorn casually took off his helmet, revealing his smiling face. The room was still quite dark so Alph walked around while Thorn was talking to Heidi, placing his glowing bottles around the room. Soon the room was as bright as his shop, allowing Thorn to see Heidi’s face clearly.

  While not the most beautiful woman Thorn had seen in game, Heidi’s face had a subtle charm to it that grew the more he looked. As Thorn’s gaze ran over her face, Heidi was examining him as well. Realizing that they were staring at each other, Heidi flushed slightly and looked away. A shimmer brought Thorn’s attention to the corner of her eyes where he saw a set of fine scales that reflected rainbow colors when the light from Alph’s bottles hit them. Curious, Thorn looked at Heidi closer, noticing the semi-transparent scales formed a path to her ears and down the back of her neck. Realizing that she was getting uncomfortable with his scrutiny, Thorn stepped back, lifting his hand in apology.

  “Sorry, I was just admiring your, uh, scales. Are you a merfolk?”

  “Only half. Half mer, half elf.” Heidi replied as she continued to pet Akira who had melted into a puddle on the floor when her belly was rubbed.

  “That’s really cool. I’m a Titan. Haha, that’s why I’m so big.”

  Unable to listen to the idiotic conversation anymore, Alph poked Thorn in the side.

  “Hey, if you two are done flirting we need to get going. We don’t have time to waste on a tea break so save your socializing for after we deal with the spawning pods.”

  “Right.” Thorn coughed to hide his embarrassment. “Heidi, we’re going to be opening up this door and fighting some enemies. Are you interested in helping us? We could use a skilled tank.”

  “Wasn’t she just trying to kill you?” Asked Alph in a faux whisper, staring at Thorn with a strange look in his eyes. “I thought she was on that Heuro or whoever’s team.”

  “Ah!” Hearing Alph’s words, Heidi spoke quickly while wringing her hands. “I am not part of Heuron’s team. Heuron hired me to tank for them because his regular tank was not available. I’m a mercenary, so I, uh, fight for whoever pays me.”

  “Oh, perfect! Are you interested in a contract? What’s your going rate?” Enduring the strange looks he was getting from both of the others, Thorn pulled a stack of paper from his inventory and thumbed through them until he found a copy of a standard mercenary contract. Putting the rest of the contracts back, he summoned a pen and filled in the details before handing it over to Heidi.

  “Should be pretty normal. I’d like to hire you until we leave the tomb.” Thorn said as Heidi read over the contract carefully and Alph rolled his eyes.

  “Excuse me, it says that you are hiring me for ‘protection’. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I’m not sure that I will be able to protect you from anything that you cannot handle yourself.” Heidi looked up from the contract, running her gaze up and down Thorn’s massive body that was wrapped in Dwarven armor. “I don’t like the idea of taking a job I can’t even do.”

  “Ah, you are not protecting me. You are protecting Princess Akira.” Thorn pointed at the Royal Ailur
ade who was still sprawled at Heidi’s feet, her tails curled happily around the warrior’s legs. “The contract is only until we get out of here and there is a clause at the end that says you can cancel it if we try to make you do something that would harm you. Basically, you’ll be acting as the tank of our group as we go to the center of the tomb. Once we’ve checked some things out there we’ll head to the nearest exit. Oh, and I left the payment blank. What is your going rate?”

  “25 gold a day.” Heidi snuck a glance at Thorn when she spoke. “50 if we face a hazard or something that could kill me.”

  “50 gold? Sure.” Under Heidi and Alph’s astounded gaze Thorn pulled out a bag of gold coins and handed it over. “Here’s a week in advance at the hazard rate since I don’t know what we’re going to be facing.”

  Jumping up from where she was laying, Akira ran over to Thorn and tugged on his leg when she saw him passing the gold over to Heidi.

  [Master! I want some gold! Can I have some for my pouch?”

  [Sure, here.] Getting a few more coins out of his inventory, Thorn handed them to Akira who put them in her pouch happily before running back to Heidi and showing her proudly.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Thanks to the glowing bottles that Alph had put around the room the intricately carved reliefs on the walls and pillars were much easier for Thorn to see. Giving Heidi a moment of quiet to think, Thorn looked around the room again.

  Taking advantage of Akira’s distraction, Alph tugged on Thorn’s shirt.

  “What on earth are you hiring her for? And for 350 gold? Are you nuts?”

  “She is a really skilled tank and if what you are saying is right, we’ll need all the help we can get.”

  Still not satisfied with Thorn’s answer, Alph looked over at Heidi who was crouched down petting Akira.

  “How skilled can she be? 50 gold is a total rip off.”

  “Haha, don’t look down on her. She managed to go multiple rounds with me, strike for strike. I hit her twice with full force blows and she survived, which makes her an amazing tank.”

  “Full force blows?” Alph gulped as he remembered Thorn’s casual kick demolishing a stone door.

  “Mmhmm. I have not seen her offense yet, but judging by the other skills she used, I’d guess that it’ll be pretty strong.” Patting Alph on the shoulder gently, Thorn turned his attention back to Heidi who was reading over the contract carefully again. “What do you think? Are you interested in the job?”

  A minute or so passed quietly as Heidi thought about the contract. Finally, with a sigh, she looked up at Thorn and nodded firmly.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Glad to have you join, Heidi.” Taking the contract back after she signed it, Thorn smiled and put it away. “I was really impressed by your abilities when we exchanged blows up above. Have you been playing for a long time?”

  “It’s been maybe fifteen years or so? Oh, two years in real time.”

  “Well, your shield work is really stellar considering.”

  “Thanks.” Heidi’s voice was quiet.

  “So, what class are you?” Alph jumped into the conversation, waving a variety of different colored potions in the air. “I have all sorts of buffing potions, but they’ll have different levels of effectiveness for different fighting styles.”

  “Um…” Slightly unsure, Heidi glanced between Thorn and Alph, her brow slightly furrowed.

  Realizing that she might be uncomfortable sharing that much information since they had just met, Thorn waved his hand.

  “It’s okay if you don’t want to say.”

  “No, no, its fine. I’m an Elemental Warrior. I specialize in the sword and shield and I typically fill the role of a tank. My skills allow me to swap elemental attunement for maximum advantage, though water and earth are my two strongest affinites. I’m half Mer-folk, half Elf so my best environments are water and forest. I have no self-healing, but I do have limited crowd control.

  “I prefer direct confrontation and have a few aggro stabilizing abilities. I’m used to being the main tank as I have more than one full damage negation ability, for a total of fourteen seconds every three minutes. If the rate of damage is too high, I also have sixty seconds of evasion every five minutes that can be split up. My damage output is not very high, so I’m not suitable for DPS, and with no heal I don’t offtank very well either.”

  After Heidi’s concise rundown of her advantages and fighting style Thorn had no more doubts about her professionalism. It was obvious that she was a highly specialized player and had taken part in a lot of different groups from how straight to the point her summary was.

  “Elemental boosting, but less fireweed extract...hmmm...twelve percent offset...immunity could work…”

  Alph was tapping his chin and mumbling to himself. Putting down the large box on his back, he unfolded the side, making a little table. Squatting next to the box his hands flew up and down, opening up small drawers and pulling various resources from them. The ingredients that he got out were tossed together into a stone bowl and muddled together with a pestle, reducing them to a pulp.

  Retrieving a crimson colored potion from his inventory, he took a small swig, letting out a small burp. Alph’s forehead began to bead with sweat, as if he had just eaten a spicy meal. Holding the stone mortar’s handle, he blew gently, sending a steady stream of flame at the ingredients. From the way the flame poured from Alph’s mouth in a controlled manner Thorn could tell that the alchemist had done this a lot.

  With his free hand, Alph rummaged through the ingredient box, adding pinches of different powders to the burning mass. Once he had cooked the mixture enough, he cut off the flame and scraped the mixture into a square box with a small spout at the bottom. Putting the top back on the box, he squeezed it down, carefully catching the liquid that poured from the spout in a glass vial with a pinch of powder in the bottom.

  The liquid in the vial was a muddled grey color until Alph capped it and gave it a shake, revealing pearlescent swirls of rainbow color. Nodding his satisfaction, he carefully cleaned out his various tools. From his inventory he got out a big jug of water and began to blow flame from his mouth at the bottom of the jug. The water had just started to boil when the stream of flames from his mouth began to sputter.

  Spitting a few times to get rid of any last remnants of flame, he began to meticulously clean each tool with the boiling water, scrubbing them thoroughly. Even though it took him longer to clean everything than it did to actually brew the potion, he did not skimp on any step. Once he had finally finished, he put the mobile alchemy lab on his back and shook the grey potion again.

  “Sorry about the wait, but the potions I already had would have some negative side effects. This is an [Elemental Sensitivity Amplification] potion, tailored to water and earth. Positive side effect is a reduction in your fire element sensitivity, which will reduce the damage you take when you use fire element abilities.”

  “That’s a tailored potion…” Heidi took a step back, putting her hands behind her back. “I...I can’t afford that.”

  “Wait, why would you want to reduce sensitivity to an element?” Thorn asked, scratching his head. “Wouldn’t it be better for an Elemental Warrior to be able to sense the elements more easily?”

  “It’s only a seventeen percent reduction so it is not enough to disable the abilities that use fire. But Heidi here is half Mer-folk which means she probably takes damage from using her fire abilities since Mer-folk have an inbuilt weakness to fire. With no self-heal she’ll become a drain on the team healer. This potion helps reduce that. Not only will it boost her water and earth abilities, but it will increase the overall strength of her fire abilities by reducing the self-harm when she uses them.”

  “Oooh, that makes sense.” Thorn’s eyes lit up as he heard Alph’s explanation.

  “Stop looking at me like that, you’re creeping me out.” Alph shifted uncomfortably under Thorn’s intense stare. “It’s just a matter of using side eff
ects to our advantage. Any alchemist worth their salt should be able to do the same thing. Hey, why are you not taking this?”

  Shaking her head at his question, Heidi took a small step back, her hands still behind her back.

  “I can’t afford a potion like that.”

  “What are you talking about? This is so we don’t die terrible deaths when we get to the spawning pods.”

  “No, that is a 600 gold potion. I couldn’t afford to drink that, even if we are all going to die.”

  “Wow, that’s expensive.” Thorn took another look at the swirling grey liquid. It had not taken Alph long to make yet could be sold for a small fortune, giving Thorn a clearer understanding of why production classes were so popular.

  “Four fifty for the potion itself, about one fifty for the customization.” Alph nodded. “But this one is free. Take it as a bonus for joining our team since I’m glad I don’t have to tank anymore.”