“I will,” she said. “And you’d better be the best tank in the group. Thank you, again,” she told him before going back to her room.
“Too much drama,” he muttered, and proceeded to have wild crazy sex with his sword.
Forty-Eight
Before going to meet the Nerf Herders, Hawke took stock of all the changes he had undergone, both in terms of levels and gear:
Name: Hawke Lightseeker. Race: Half-Elf. Class: Paladin. Level: 6 (Levels 7, 8, 9 Unclaimed)
Experience/Next Level: 6,664/10,000
Attributes:
Strength 17(27), Dexterity 16(28), Constitution 19(28), Intelligence 15(17), Spirit 20(24), Perception 14, Willpower 16(20), Charisma 19
Characteristics:
Health: 122 (Regain 8.8/min)
Mana: 107(407) (Regain 9.4/min)
Endurance 108 (Regain 8.8/min)
Identity: 19
Skills
Dodge 7, Lore 3, Shield 7, Spear 4, Stealth 1, Survival 3, Sword 7(15), Swimming 2, Tracking 1
Languages
Common Fey, Vulgate, Lesser Celestial
Perks
Dark Vision, Speed-Casting (Light Magic), True Sight, Undying, Unlimited Potential
Spells
Aura of Light, Bolt of Life, Bulwark of Light, Consecrated Ground, Dark Step, Enlightenment, Growth, Hammer of Light, Hammer of Twilight, Lesser Healing, Shadow Step, Shield of Light, Shroud of Darkness, Shroud of Twilight, Touch of Light, Twilight Step
Special Abilities
Mana Channeling I
The biggest increase was to his Mana; the massive +300 bonus came from the Battle-Mage weapon and armor set. It would have been greater if the twin swords’ Mana storage wasn’t being used to help house Saturnyx’s soul, but Hawke was glad to have made that trade. Between the Orb of Life (which had magically duplicated itself to fit both swords) and the Masterwork Quality weapons, Saturnyx felt certain her new ‘home’ would last years, which gave Hawke plenty of time to find a permanent solution.
Saturnyx Blades of the Battle-Mage (Legendary Artifact – Set Item)
Item Level: 10 (Minimum Level 5). Level Six Soul Blade
Base Damage: 31-51 Physical, 2-20 Elemental (Air)
Enhanced Attributes: +9 to Strength, +6 to Constitution, +9 to Dexterity.
Skill Bonuses: +8 to Sword Skill, +2 to defensive actions (Only when both swords are used).
Spell Focus: Reduce casting time by 2 seconds or 20%, whichever is better.
Durability: 400/400. Requires Sword Skill (Paired Weapons)
Dragon-Bone Hilt: Provides Damage Resistance: Elemental (Fire) 55% Elemental (All Others): 25%.
Elysian Steel Cross-Guard: Reduces the Mana cost of spells by 1.
Orb of Light: Provides Spell Focus (+3 to the effective level of the caster to determine effects, damage and range.
Set bonuses: Two pieces: +50 Mana. Three pieces: +10% Damage Resistance (All). Full Set: +100 Mana; Reduce Casting Time by 1 second or 10%, whichever is better (total -3 seconds/-30%).
Thanks to the armor set, his casting time for Light, Darkness and Twilight spells was reduced so much that he could throw a whole lot of them instantly, with no need to gesture or say anything. He was still restricted by spell cooldowns and Mana costs, although that wasn’t much of a problem anymore. He not only had a better Mana pool than most Mages of his level, he also enjoyed a 3 Mana or twenty-five percent discount on spells. He couldn’t wait to try out his new Darkness and Twilight spells. He wasn’t just a Paladin Ninja, he was a Paladin Ninja Mage.
You deserve more. Would you like to be free from being a sword, Saturnyx?
The living weapon was silent for several moments before answering:
What you are saying is we would need to figure out a way to fix that issue first, and then find you a new body.
“Okay,” he said out loud. “I will look into it before I swear to do anything. But I want you to be free.”
“At least they can choose.”
“Wouldn’t you like to find out?”
“Love you too, but don’t get mushy on me.”
* * *
The Nerf Herders’ compound was a fortified manor house surrounded by a ten-foot wall, with one tower overlooking its main gate and a second one perched on top of the manor’s roof. As Hawke walked up the path leading to the main gate, he saw several people waiting outside and two bored-looking guards standing watch behind a girl with bright blue hair. She wore a robe and sat at a table, alternatively taking notes or reading papers held together by a clipboard. Hawke hadn’t seen any clipboards in the Realms until then, so he figured some Earthling had just introduced that invention.
The guards by the gate were fourth level, one Warrior and one Gladiator; the main difference between the two classes was that Gladiators were more oriented towards damage-dealing than tanking. Both of them were wearing plate-and-mail armor of Good Quality and were armed with Enchanted Quality shields and spears. A fifth-level Ranger with a longbow stood on the gate tower and kept a close eye on Hawke, who stood out both because of his level and the Masterwork Quality armor he had on. Hawke had decided to make a grand entrance and had all his gear on display.
Hawke noticed as he walked toward the gate that any non-Eternal Adventurer that approached it was told to go away. The Nerf Herders seemed to be an Eternal-only Guild. Maybe they had a good reason for that, but Hawke’s already bad opinion of the group dropped by a few more notches. Without the help from people of the Realms – everyone from Kinto’s family to Marko the guardsman – Hawke would have run out of lives by now. Turning regular Adventurers down was stupid, not to mention narrowminded.
The girl behind the desk – Amelia Blueflame, third-level Mage – waved at Hawke and curtly ordered the people gathered by the gate – all level two and three Eternals who looked as needy and ragged as Nadia and Desmond had been – to get out of his way.
“Good morning, Paladin!” she called out in English. “Speakee the English, or are you from somewhere else on Earth? We have Spanish, German, Korean, and Danish translators.”
“I’m from the US,” he said. “Heard about your guild and figured out where you came from.”
Amelia grinned at him. “Yep, we are all victims of the Eternal Journey mass-abduction. Welcome to the Herd! Are you interested in joining?”
“I’m interested in learning more before I give out oaths or anything,” he said.
“Understandable, what with oaths being sorta hard to break around here. We would also like to know a little more about yourself, if you don’t mind answering a few questions. We would love to welcome everyone, but we prefer that our members are a good fit for our organization.”
“Sure. Can I ask a few questions of my own?”
“Well, because of your level and gear, if the answers to my questions are satisfactory, you’ll get to see the Bossman himself: Kaiser Wrecker, founder and President of the
Guild. You can ask him your questions and get the answers straight from the top.”
“Sounds good.”
“Very good. Let’s get this out of the way, then.”
Amelia asked a few basic questions: age, real name, previous occupation. When he said ‘plumber,’ she wrote a note on her clipboard.
“Do you have any military experience?”
“No.”
“Law enforcement experience, or, in reverse, criminal history? We don’t judge here, by the way, and appreciate honest answers.”
“No, and no.”
“Okay… Knowledge of explosives, chemistry, incendiaries? Gun-making, reloading, that sort of thing?”
Ah. “I used to hunt, and my family had a reloading workbench. I knew how to use it.”
“Good. Very well, Hawke, if you could wait by the gate, someone will be by to bring you to the Boss.”
A little weirded out by the official way the Herders conducted business, Hawke waited next to the low-level types by the gate, two guys and a girl, all Warriors. He made small talk with them and found they had disappeared during the first week of the game’s release and had gone through a pretty rough time since then. Like Nadia and Desmond, their first spawn point had been in the middle of the swamp that filled much of land to the west of Akila. They all had been killed several times trying to get out, and all looked like they were suffering from PTSD as a result. One of the guys’ head kept twitching; the others had a haunted look to their eyes that bothered Hawke. Maybe he could talk to them into coming with him as well.
One of the guards took a few pages from the clipboard and headed to the manor house. He came back a few minutes later.
“Come with me,” he told the female Warrior. She nodded and followed him into the compound.
After another ten minutes, the guard came back. “Hawke Lightseeker. Follow me.”
“We were here first,” one of the male Warriors protested.
The guard sneered at them. “And you two can come back tomorrow. Better yet, hit level four before you show your face again. We don’t need noobs in this guild.”
“We’re Americans!”
“I’m from Canada. And I don’t care.” The guard turned to Hawke. “This is your lucky day, buddy. You’re going straight to the top.”
Somehow, I don’t feel lucky.
Forty-Nine
Hawke followed the guard through the compound’s courtyard. There were several sparring areas where a dozen men and a few women practiced with weapons or spells. A level five Warrior was yelling at a couple of them like a Marine drill instructor. Maybe he’d been one in real life, although he seemed so over the top that he might just have watched too many war movies. There were two more guards by the entrance of the manor house, a Monk dressed like a reject from a Kung Fu flick and a Summoner with a two-foot tall critter made of living fire by his side. The fire elemental flared up a little when Hawke walked too close to it, but calmed down when its master fed it a couple of pieces of coal.
“You guys have a good mix of classes here,” Hawke told the guard.
“As many as we can get,” the Canadian said. “And always looking for more, as long as they are willing to fight. That’s becoming a problem; a lot of people from Earth are wimps.”
“I hear you.”
They walked down a long hallway until they reached a large door with another pair of guards, a Rogue with twin sabers hanging from his belt, and a Mage in bright orange robes that made him look like a traffic cone with legs. Both were level six. Hawke chuckled when he saw that the Rogue’s name was Naruto Ninjato.
“What’s so funny?” the anime fan asked him.
Hawke ignored him. He wondered if they were the Guild’s elite. Probably not; he figured their top guys wouldn’t be pulling guard duty. The Rogue scowled but said nothing else as he opened the door, revealing an office similar to the Prefect’s, back in Orom. Same style, with the desk on a dais so its owner could look down on people even while sitting down. No chairs for visitors, either; you stood up, stated your business, and left. Probably more efficient that way.
The man behind the desk looked nothing like Fat Felix, however. He was tall enough for it to be obvious even while seated, and wore a padded suit of cloth meant to be worn under armor; you could even see the marks where straps holding the sections of an articulated plate suit would be fastened into place. His head was shaved and he sported a blonde beard. A two-handed sword leaned against the desk, ready at hand.
Kaiser Wrecker, Human (Eternal)
Level 12 Warrior, Battle-Mage
Health 664 Mana 404 Endurance 633
And I thought Brunes was tough. This guy had almost as much Health as the Prefect’s bullyboy, plus the Mana of a magician. The sword was of Masterwork quality, and he bet the armor was as well. Not somebody he wanted to pick a fight with.
“Hawke Lightseeker. Born Benjamin Velasco,” Kaiser said. “Plumber. Somewhat unusual. Most of the Earthlings we’ve seen are college-educated, mainly liberal arts majors. Why didn’t you go that way?”
Hawke shrugged. “I saw a lot of people go to school and end up owing hundreds of thousands in student loans while waiting tables for a living. Figured it wasn’t worth it.”
“I suppose that makes you smarter than them.”
“I was doing okay, until this happened.”
“Plumber is a much more useful skill set here, that’s for sure. Think you could get us running water?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. They have aqueducts, pumps, and pipes here. The rest is details. Put a water tank on the roof, install some non-lead pipes, and you’re all set. Showers, faucets, easy. Flush toilets, a little more work, but also doable.”
“That sounds promising. One of the goals of the Nerf Herders is to bring some twenty-first century know-how to the Realms. Technological, social, economic. Change the paradigm, if you will. It won’t be easy, though. Do you know what’s the first thing I did when I got out of the damn swamp they dropped me into?”
“Look for a shower?”
“Heh. No. I tried to invent black powder. I know the formula.”
That got Hawke’s interest. “I don’t see any cannon around, so I guess it didn’t work.”
“Turns out the locals have known about black powder for quite some time. Unfortunately, the stuff burns but doesn’t explode. Someone or Something – the gods, the Arbiters, or the Makers themselves – have messed with the laws of physics. One of my people was an engineer on Earth. He tried to get a steam engine going. Didn’t work either. You can boil water into steam, but it won’t push pistons or even explode a sealed container. It just sits there.”
“Guess the Powers that Be don’t want machinery or guns,” Hawke said.
“I don’t care what they want,” Kaiser snapped back angrily. “We are going to change the rules in this primitive hellhole!”
“No arguments here. I want to have a word with the Makers at some point.”
“Whoever they are, they wanted to create a reality that works just like a fantasy game,” Kaiser said; his eyes were bright with rage. “I enjoyed playing games, but I don’t want to live in one. I’m going to make them regret bringing us here.”
He turned his attention back to Hawke. “You seem to be doing better than most. Sixth level without the help of a Guild, and with damn good gear, too. We could use someone like you.”
“I’m listening.”
“There are lots of Lairs and Dungeons around Akila. Even a famous Labyrinth,” Kaiser went on. “Some of them are like carnival rides; they make you buy tickets to go in, grind experience and loot, and then head out. Expensive, but you usually come out ahead. If you join, we’ll put you in charge of a leveling team. We’ve already raised half of our members to level five or better.”
“And the other half?”
“Turns out a lot of people who were happy slaughtering Orcs by tapping on a keyboard don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do it in real life. They can learn a trade
, however. Become a crafter-slash-gatherer, and earn their keep producing things the rest of us need. We protect them, and they make whatever we need, with the surplus used to bring money to the Guild. I have a guy organizing an assembly-line system. We are getting things done faster than the locals.”
Hawke noticed that the crafters didn’t seem to be getting anything out of their work besides protection. In a city, they could sell their products to the highest bidder. It didn’t sound like Kaiser gave them a choice in the matter. Saturnyx had said slavery was illegal here, but the Nerf Herders didn’t care.
“If I sign up, what are the terms of the guild charter?”
“Good question. You would swear a magically enforced oath to obey the orders from any and all guild officers. You would be on the fast track to become one of them, so that shouldn’t be much of a hardship. You’d still have to follow my orders, of course. You would owe guild dues, payable monthly, and a share of any loot you acquire, although that will count towards your dues. Our roving parties usually come out ahead.”
Having seen how magic oaths worked, Hawke had no desire to pledge to obey any orders from this wild-eyed guy or his officers. No, he and the Nerf Herders weren’t going to work out. He still wanted to learn more before he got the hell out.
“You mentioned you wanted to change the rules. How?”
“The Realms revolve around the accumulation of power. Levels, magic, wealth, political influence. I aim to make the Nerf Herders into a power in its own right. With enough power, we will change things to suit me. Us.”
I didn’t miss that ‘me,’ bro.
“We will start with this city. I’ve been studying its power structure over the past month. We will play off competing factions against each other, pick off the weaker players, and grow in influence. In a year or so, we will take over. After that… There is a whole Empire to conquer. With those resources under our control, we can move onto the Higher Realms. Rinse and repeat until we get to the top.”
Twilight Templar (The Eternal Journey Book 1) Page 29
