“Bandits,” the Valkyrie finished. “So we’ve heard. Which brings me to my next question — how do we know you aren’t part of the raiders?”
Before we could answer, the Eedari rider returned and signaled to the Valkyrie woman. “All clear.”
“Well, there’s your answer,” Leesha said, folding her arms. “What kind of bandits would attack a caravan in broad daylight on foot and outnumbered?”
“I don’t like your tone, Sylvad.”
“And I don’t like your face, Valkyrie.”
The Valkyrie said, eyes narrowing, “Perhaps —”
“Perhaps we’ll all feel a little better if we have a drink and find some shade,” I said, stepping between Leesha and the Valkyrie. “We have coin — do you merchants have anything for sale, or is it all reserved for your destination?”
The Valkyrie nudged her mount next to the Sylvad and had a quick conversation that I couldn’t make out. Meanwhile, the two Uroks watched us, clearly ready to chop us to pieces if we tried anything. It bothered me that the Valkyries and Eedari treated them like stupid grunts, but now wasn’t the time to become a social justice warrior for a fictional race. At last the Valkyrie nodded and turned back to us.
“We’ll escort you to the caravan. But be warned, we’ll be keeping a close eye on you.”
Leesha snorted. “Okay, then.”
The caravan guard made a disgusted face and wheeled around, leaving us with the Eedari and the two Uroks, who surrounded us in a loose triangle as we walked toward the wagon column.
“Do you have to pick a fight with everyone you meet?” I asked Leesha.
“I do when it’s fun,” Leesha shot back. “Besides, do you have to act like some live-action role-player with every NPC?”
I ignored her. It hadn’t taken me long to learn that Leesha was a fire. All you could do was let her burn out or feed her more fuel.
As we approached the caravan, I could see the nervous expressions on the merchants’ faces. These people were on edge, and if everything I’d heard was true, I couldn’t blame them. I felt a pang of guilt for using these people just to further my own goal. Sure, they might have just been lines of code, but their portrayal was so lifelike it was difficult to remember the difference sometimes.
The caravan guards led us to the lead wagon, where a dark-skinned trader greeted us with a tense wave and a half-hearted smile. “Hello there, travelers. My name is Lucas Sevenday. I’m the leader of this outfit. We’re out of Crystal Fen. What about yourselves?”
I gave Lucas the same explanation I’d offered to the guards. He nodded along and I could see the wheels turning in his head as I spoke about Chief Ugola’s plans.
“Hmm.” The man rubbed his two-day-old scruff and looked thoughtfully down the road. “I’d like to talk to you more, but we’ve got to keep moving. It’s in the opposite direction you were headed, but mind walking with us for a bit? I’ll make it worth your while.”
Leesha’s eyes lit up, but before she could ask what exactly was in it for us, I agreed. Lucas smiled broadly then flicked the reins, and the pair of mules started at a steady walk. The Eedari hollered a command to the two Uroks, who rode off to take their places. He stayed at the head of the wagon column with us, one hand on his strung bow.
“Your Chief Ugola sounds like a smart fellow,” Lucas said over the creak of wagon wheels and the dull complaints of the oxen and mules. “My company is new too and just establishing itself here in Tournia. But I don’t have to tell you that the Hill Country is dangerous. These four guards were all I could afford, and we’re chancing it enough by staying on the road. We get off the Trade Highway and we’d only be asking for trouble. Now, if you really do manage to clear out the bandits, that would be a different story. But experience has taught me not to spend coins that aren’t in my pocket yet, if you catch my meaning.”
“I think he’s already bit off more than he can chew here on the road,” Leesha muttered. I hoped Lucas didn’t hear her, but she had a fair point. Technically, our quest was to find bandits, anyway. MythRune rewarded players for thinking outside the box, but establishing a trade route for Ugola seemed far beyond my level two capabilities.
“I understand,” I said. “Would you mind if we stayed with you for a day or two? Like I said, we’re hunting raiders and, well…you’re their target.”
Not much finesse, but how else was I supposed to put it? Rather than being upset, however, Lucas nodded eagerly.
“Of course, of course — strength in numbers, right? Stay as long as you like. If I had the coin, I’d hire you both on as guards. But as it is, all I can offer is food and a fair deal on some of our goods.”
A notification appeared in front of me:
Congratulations! You have gained 15 Esteem with the Lucas Sevenday Trading Company.
It wasn’t much of a deal for us. Aside from whatever we could barter from the merchants, food would only provide us with nominal, short-term buffs. Even so, I took him up on his offer. Satisfied, Lucas excused himself to study a map, and Leesha took the opportunity to pull me aside.
“I really hope you know what you’re doing,” she said. “If not, this is going to be a huge waste of time.”
“I thought you said this was a good plan!” I threw my hands in the air at the exasperating Sylvad.
“Yeah, unless we get attacked by twenty raiders and there’s just the two of us and those four mounted idiots to fight them off,” she said. “Then what?”
“Then…” I trailed off. Of course, I wouldn’t die, but the idea of being hacked into lunch meat didn’t sound so appealing either.
Leesha rolled her eyes again. “We should at least have a plan. You’re a big fella, so I’m assuming you’re going for a tank build, right?”
I nodded.
“Okay, easy enough,” Leesha said, snapping her fingers. “You draw aggro and I’ll handle DPS.”
“Have you actually fought anyone before, or do you just stab them in the back?” I asked.
Leesha just grinned and mimed sinking a dagger into an opponent. “Who wants to fight fair?”
The hours passed, mostly in silence. Trudging west on the same road we’d just come east on was more than a little tedious, especially with caravan dust stinging our eyes and throats. Sometimes the realism in the game really sucked. Still, Leesha and I kept our eyes peeled for any sign of raider ambush or attack. It proved to be a tedious and boring task. By the time evening finally arrived, my road-weary feet wanted to shout for joy when Lucas ordered the wagons to circle up for the night.
“What a waste!” Leesha vented as she wiped the dust from her leather armor. “We spent an entire day walking around doing nothing.”
She wasn’t wrong. Apart from the one Skill Point I got in Tracking, we basically had nothing else to show for our third day in-game.
“Remember what we’re here for,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Leesha sighed. “Advancement of the quest thread, blah, blah, blah. Who would have thought playing a video game could be so boooring?”
The guards took their positions on the perimeter once the animals were unhitched and the cooking fire started. With each passing minute of monotonous, everyday life, I felt myself growing more anxious. Was this really the best use of our time?
As if in answer, the shrill peal of a hunting horn broke the tranquil sunset.
The merchants rose in alarm, muttering and wringing their hands as Lucas tried to calm them down. Meanwhile, the Valkyrie guard shouted orders to the other three. When she’d finished, she looked at us.
“Well? Are you going to stand there until you’re cut down? Prepare for battle — that was an Urok raiding horn.”
19
Night, Ambush, Action!
“All right!” Leesha shouted, drawing her daggers. “Finally, some action!”
Lucas stood in the middle of the camp. “Everyone, remain calm! You all know what to do! Stay inside the wagon circle, and let the guards take care of this.”
He shot Leesha and me a pleading look as the babbling merchants bounced around like frightened chickens. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring nod and drew my battle axe. Next, I activated my Combat Assessment skill. In an instant, I spotted eight baddies in the distance marked as [Blue Hand Raiders]. I pulled up the color key in my HUD.
Gray (A waste of your time)
Green (Easy peasy!)
Yellow (Be careful)
Orange (Proceed with extreme caution)
Red (Run for yo’ life, foo!)
White (Too high above your level to adequately assess — also, RUN FOR YO’ LIFE, FOO!)
+1 Combat Assessment Pursuit Skill
Each bandit was marked as yellow. Not a terrible matchup — and a hell of a lot better than the cave ghoul I’d faced in the past — but they also had an advantage in numbers too. I turned to relay the information to Leesha, but she was nowhere to be found. But before I could guess where in the hell she’d disappeared off to, an arrow whizzed by my face. The close call served as a terrible reminder of my pained immortality. I had no desire to find out what it felt like to take an actual arrow to the face. No, thank you.
Another arrow whizzed by as I took cover behind a nearby wagon. Without a ranged weapon of my own, I wasn’t much good until the bandits drew in for melee combat. I might have been a tank, but I had no desire to be a meat shield.
It didn’t take long for things to erupt into pure chaos. The bandits unleashed their arrows on a few of the livestock. The mules and oxen broke their tethers and ran around, braying and bellowing juggernauts in the fading light.
It wasn’t completely dark just yet, but everything had a red evening tint to it, which made it even harder to see. Without Combat Assessment, I would have been just as likely to kill an ally. Instead, I managed to reach one of the Urok guards who had also taken cover behind a wagon.
“What’s the plan?” I shouted over the din of frantic animals and raider war cries.
“We need to —” An arrow struck him in the neck, taking his HP down to zero immediately. Critical hit. That was one guard down.
I jumped backward in shock and fell on my ass, which probably saved me taking an arrow in the face like the unfortunate guard. Rolling over, I peered through the spokes of the wagon wheel and found a line of yellow text indicating the enemy. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t too far away. Under the cover of darkness, he must’ve gotten bold and just started closing in.
A rush of adrenaline streamed through me. This was a feeling I hadn’t had since high school. I was once again the linebacker, and that bastard archer in the distance was the other team’s quarterback. Never mind that this quarterback was slinging arrows instead of a football, this was familiar territory.
I bear crawled to the right and out of the wagon circle. As soon as I popped up on the outside of the wagon, I sprinted for the archer. He was a solid twenty feet away, but I was confident I could close the distance.
Halfway to the archer, a flash of yellow appeared in my peripheral vision. Instinct alone saved me as I dug my moccasins into the ground, stopping just as a sword stroke whiffed in front of me. A snarling Urok with black braided hair suddenly had my full attention. Before either of us could engage in combat, the sword raider shouted in pain and spun around, an arrow buried in his side.
The archer had hit his own man! Without thinking, I swung my battle axe and landed a solid blow in his chest. The raider went down in a heap, dead on impact.
+2 Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Points
No time to stop for loot though. Bellowing, I raised my axe and closed the distance to the archer. He had time to get off one more hurried shot that went wide with fear before my axe sank deep into his shoulder. The blow sank through his boiled leather armor and took off about half his health. I yanked my axe free as he fumbled for a short sword at his side, badly hurt. My second stroke ended him for good.
+1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Point
Surprisingly enough, the archer wasn’t an Urok, but an Eedari — basically MythRune’s standard human class. This was surprising, as Ugola had never mentioned this bandit group was mixed race. I’d assumed they were all Urok.
I was also surprised by how easily they’d died. True, the sword-wielding Urok had taken friendly fire, and the archer had no business engaging in melee with me, but I suddenly liked our chances a lot more. Plus, I was earning Skill Points left and right! Two more, and I’d be able to get the necessary number to unlock my increased swing speed.
Ready to join my comrades in fighting the rest of the raiders, I paused upon seeing an Attribute Orb on the ground near the archer’s body. When I picked it up, I saw a sandal with wings attached to the lower ankle floating inside, the symbol for speed. I crushed the orb in my hand at once.
Speed increased by 1!
Level up! Congratulations, you have acquired enough Attribute Orbs to reach level 3! You have received one Unassigned Skill Point that may be used in any Pursuit you have already unlocked!
Character Stats
Name: Zane
Title: None
Race: Urok, male
Level: 3
Total Attribute Points: 15
Attribute Points to next level: 5
Health: 3 (60/60 Hit Points)
Attack: 3
Defense: 4
Speed: 2
Agility: 1
Intelligence: 1
Luck: 1
“Hey, moron!” Leesha’s voice carried from across the camp and sounded more frantic than insulting. Activating my Combat Assessment skill again, I saw she and the remaining guards were trying to fend off the other six raiders. Except that one of the raiders was marked in red, not yellow. How had I missed that?
+1 Combat Assessment Skill Point
To make matters worse, the red-marked raider hung back and, raising his hands, sent a fireball blasting toward the guards and Leesha. The shot narrowly missed the Valkyrie’s head, instead striking a merchant wagon and immediately igniting it.
I charged to my allies’ aid as the bandits closed in. The fighting was fierce, Leesha and the caravan guards hard-pressed to hold them back. With everyone so focused on each other, I got a full windup on one unsuspecting bandit. Between my axe stroke in his kidneys and a stab through the throat from Leesha, he went down quickly.
+1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Point
“Where’d you run off to?” I shouted, barely missing a spear thrust from a raider aimed at my guts.
“Where’d I run off to?” Leesha’s voice rose to a shrill pitch. “That’s rich!”
I ignored her and fought my way toward the raider with the red text over his head. A blast of fire struck our remaining Urok, but I didn’t have time to see if he’d survived. Knocking aside another spear thrust with the head of my axe, I advanced on the mage, only to take a shield ram in the right side. I staggered under the blow but managed to keep my feet even though it felt like a defensive end had just trucked me.
“What’re you doing?” Leesha called out from somewhere behind me. So far, she hadn’t proven to be a very reliable fighting companion.
“I’m a tank,” I said. “I’m tanking!”
I swung my axe at the magic user — another Eedari, from the looks of it. He narrowly dodged my blow, and the side of my face erupted in searing, hot pain. I ducked to avoid a fireball, but the heat followed me, growing more and more intense by the moment, my HP slowly eroding with it.
Blue Hand Raider mage strikes you with Fire Leech!
The bastard was using his magic to steal my health! I swung out blindly in the direction he’d been, but my reach was nowhere long enough to actually land a hit. I screamed from the infuriating, burning pain. I could barely focus, let alone fight. Then, all at once, the heat stopped, and I was left to see the stunned face of the Eedari, his hands frozen out in front of him.
“What’re you waiting for?” Leesha yelled. She had the mage in a stranglehold, pivoting the Eedari as a shield against
the other raiders. “Take him out before the stun wears off!”
But the other raiders had the caravan guards on their heels. If I didn’t help them, we’d lose more NPCs that didn’t respawn. And who knew how many more attacks the coming days would hold.
I’ll admit, it was a tough decision. I was still bitter at Leesha for disappearing, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. I launched forward toward the weakened raider, only to see Leesha ripped from the mage’s back by a powerful gust of wind. The mage lifted his other hand and a second blast of wind hit me in the head like an armored fist.
Blue Hand Raider mage strikes you with Tornado Blow!
My head snapped back, and I lost a quarter of my health in an instant. So much for my Helmet of the Lucky. I grunted and swung out. My axe hit something, though I couldn’t tell what.
+1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Point
But I wasn’t in any position to celebrate. I was hit with another blunt attack and managed to only partly avoid another raider’s spear thrust, which took me in the arm instead of through the side like she’d intended. Before I could counterattack, my body was thrown aside by another powerful blast of wind, and my health dipped below half.
The female bandit appeared above me, two hands on her spear, readying an overhead thrust. Then an arrow sprouted through her chest. In a stupor, my head lolled over and I spotted Lucas standing on one of the wagons, nocking another arrow to a bow. Where had he been this whole time?
I rose to one knee, feeling like a punch-drunk boxer. Leesha shouted again, but I couldn’t make it out over the roaring wind. And then another blast hit me in the face. My mouth tasted of copper as my nose smashed like a day-after-Halloween pumpkin. I fell backward. Stunned was too kind a word for my condition.
God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1) Page 13
