by A F Kay
Book Title: 100 Best Vacation Spots for the Shy Traveler
Topic: Take Your Vacation on Another World!
Author: Hahak Hohovoto
Publisher: Black Pyramid Press
Book Id: 192017 (Lower Branch)
Quality: Common
Durability: 7 of 10
Weight: 3.4 lbs.
Loan Count: 1,232,399 (Overdue!)
Restriction: Black Pyramid mark required.
Description: Brown book covered in gate runes. Hahak had amassed years of vacation before facing his fears and venturing out to find the most exciting locales that still allowed for privacy. From dense pine forests to floating kelp jungles to glacier bound mountains, find your perfect vacation in this Black Pyramid Press Best Seller. Complete with an appendix detailing the information Mistress Mira requires for your transportation. No other resources are required!
Another Black Pyramid Press Best Seller. Did this mean the creatures here in Blapy earned vacation? And even more mind-blowing, could they take their vacations on other worlds? Who was Mistress Mira? Was she some sort of Black Pyramid travel agent?
The cover had a tall shaggy figure stepping through a stone portal like in the Blood Gate. Ruwen turned the book over and glanced at the back. The author stood upright and looked to be eight feet tall. Long, dense red-brown hair covered its body, and its face reminded Ruwen of an angry ape. He could see why Hahak was a shy traveler. The author looked terrifying.
Ruwen closed his log and thought for a moment. If this book had information about other worlds, he wanted to read it. He focused on the book and sent his desire to check it out from the library.
A popup appeared.
Copies: 5
Waitlist: 1,285
Do you wish to be added to the waitlist?
Yes or No
Ruwen chose Yes. That was a really long waitlist. If this had been the library in Deepwell, Tremine would have tried to get more copies. Could Ruwen order more copies?
The tree icon in the top left corner of his vision pulsed. Ruwen opened it, and his Profile appeared, along with the tabs for his Abilities, Spells, and Skills. A new entry had appeared in the Profile, and it glowed.
Black Pyramid Librarian Rank: Ink Archivist
Ruwen touched the glowing text with a mental finger, and a new popup appeared with a list of choices.
Inventory
Checked Out
Overdue
Wait List
Resources
Library Loans
Satisfaction
Ruwen chose satisfaction.
Patron Satisfaction: 3% (Very Poor)
Well, that wasn’t good. Ruwen closed that popup and selected Resources. It looked like the library had been collecting, but not using, its allocation of Black Pyramid resources for a while.
Resource Points: 391,609
When he focused on the text, it showed him that the library, in its current state, earned ten resource points per day. That meant if nothing had changed, the points had been accumulating for over a hundred years.
Focusing on the number, another popup appeared.
Print New Copy: 1 resource point
Recondition Book: 1/2 resource point
Create Branch: 10,000 resource points
There were more choices, but the ability to print new copies of books gave him an idea, and he closed the popups until he made it back to the main menu. He selected Wait List and sorted them by the number of people waiting. Not sure how complex a task he could project mentally, he spoke out loud.
“For every book that has a Wait List over ten, I wish to print new copies in a quantity of ten percent of the Wait List,” Ruwen said.
A popup immediately appeared.
Do you wish to consume 11,398 resource points?
Yes or No
Ruwen chose Yes and then rechecked the Satisfaction value.
Patron Satisfaction: 21% (Poor)
Well, that had helped considerably, even if the creatures here were still unhappy. He could try to improve things more when he had the time.
Sift flicked him on the forehead. “You in there?”
Ruwen leaned away to avoid getting flicked again.
“Stop that,” Ruwen said.
“You picked up that book, zoned out, and then started muttering,” Hamma said.
Ruwen dropped the book in his Void Band, and it disappeared. “Sorry, it was a quest thing.”
“Let’s go finish doing final rites and collect my hats for the quest,” Hamma said.
“Good idea,” Ruwen said. “I’ll meet you after I find my dagger.”
Hamma and Sift both nodded and then strode away. Ruwen walked over to the cleared circular area in the grass. His Fastidious Dagger lay at the edge of the circle, covered in cut grass. He picked up the blade and slid it into his belt sheath. Glancing at the long grass, he thought about searching for Bliz’s cup. But, Ruwen had no idea where it had landed, and he didn’t want to waste time looking for it.
Ruwen walked through the hole he’d made in the wall with his Boomer. As soon as he crossed to the other side, yellow dots representing some type of resource appeared on his map. It looked like they lined up with the wall. The grass had been cleared for ten feet on each side of the wall, but flowers and the more stubborn grass still grew.
Hamma had her arm in the air, giving last rites to each Goblin. Ruwen figured he had a minute to explore what had appeared on his map. He strode to the nearest location and knelt.
A clump of grass, much like the grass that filled the meadow, was the only thing here. Ruwen pulled the stem from the shadow of the wall. While the grass around him looked golden, this grass had a dark red top shaped like a braid. He had seen this grass when reading the Collector Novice Manual (part 1) and remembered only the braid portion had any use.
He snapped the braid off the stem, and warmth soaked into his fingers. A notification appeared.
Ring!
You have gathered…
Name: Burning Wheat
Quantity: 52 Kernels
Quality: Uncommon
Durability: 1 of 1
Weight: 0.02 lbs.
Description: Small red seed.
Known Uses: Fire magic, poison, food, alcohol
Hamma still chanted her Goblin rite in the distance, so Ruwen placed the burning wheat in his Void Band. He got the usual message about putting living things there, but the cost was insignificant. He removed the Falcon Gloves of Training, bit his lip in anticipation of the coming pain, and branded himself with Herbalism.
Dropping the disk-shaped gloves back into his Inventory, Ruwen quickly gathered the rest of the burning wheat along the wall. The grass was easy to pick, so it went quickly, and in just a minute, he had collected another fifteen stalks.
He dropped them all in the Void Band, the cost still negligible, and looked at the total kernels: 853.
Opening a notification, Ruwen smiled. He had gained another level in Herbalism.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Herbalism
Level: 4
Effect: Increase harvest speed by 8.00%. Increase harvest yield by 4.00%.
Ruwen noticed Hamma and Sift walking toward him, and he ran back to the hole he’d blown in the wall. He knelt, opened his Void Band, and rolled chunks of stone into his Inventory.
“What is wrong with you?” Sift asked.
Ruwen didn’t look up and walked on his knees to another pile of rocks. “We don’t have the time to answer that.”
“Are those valuable?” Hamma asked. “They just look like rocks.”
Ruwen added the last few chunks of granite into his Void Band and closed it, happy that he’d managed to find twenty head-sized pieces. They would make excellent ammunition. Standing, he faced his friends.
“They’re just rocks. But I’m starting to understand a friend of mine who keeps crazy stuff in here,” Ruwen said, raising his left arm.
“The
keyword there is crazy,” Hamma said.
“We should head to the castle before Hoarder here starts picking the grass,” Sift said.
Ruwen smiled and nodded. He’d already done that.
Chapter 40
They walked past the mounds that were the Goblins’ homes.
“Did you want to look inside any of these?” Sift asked.
Ruwen thought about it. It had become clear to him that the creatures here were not just mindless monsters. In fact, it appeared they had full lives outside the brief time adventurers encountered them. The Goblins didn’t actually live here, they were just going to work. Which meant the items here weren’t personal, but placed by Blapy.
“Yes, we should,” Ruwen said.
“To increase the level of the chapel, I,” Hamma cleared her throat, “or others, need to offer items or money.”
“Where do you do that?” Ruwen asked.
“The altar,” Hamma said.
“I’ll help,” Ruwen said.
Hamma beamed at Ruwen.
“He probably plans on slipping you those rocks,” Sift said as he carefully opened the door to one of the mounds.
The mound turned out to be one big room with three tables in the middle. Ruwen picked up two eight-sided dice. They were made from bone, and Ruwen dropped them when he realized they might be human. A rack held two short swords and six spears, all rusty.
“Do you mind if I take these?” Ruwen asked, pointing at the weapons.
Sift raised his eyebrows. “The first step is admitting you have a problem.”
“I’m going to use these as ranged weapons,” Ruwen said.
“Like the stalagmites?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen nodded. “See, she gets it.”
Hamma picked up what remained: ratty leather armor, a staff, and the dice off every table.
“For the chapel,” Hamma said, her cheeks red.
“You play dice in church?” Sift asked.
“The quest isn’t specific, so I’m donating whatever I can find,” Hamma said.
The next mound opened into bathrooms, which they quickly left. The last hill turned out to be a kitchen. The utensils were all wooden, so Ruwen left them. Hamma grabbed everything.
“If you get too close to your Encumbrance limit, let me know. I can carry some stuff for you,” Ruwen said.
“Thanks,” Hamma said, looking down in embarrassment. “I feel bad about taking everything.”
“Don’t feel bad. It’s for a quest,” Ruwen said.
“Unless you two want to break down these tables, let’s go,” Sift said.
Ruwen studied the kitchen tables and considered it.
“That was a joke!” Sift said, grabbing Ruwen and pushing him toward the door.
They strode toward the castle, which really looked like a big house with a turret, and Ruwen kept his Find Trap active. The double doors were banded oak and locked from the inside. They circled the castle, but the windows were barred, and there were no other doors. Ruwen activated Magnify long enough to confirm the turret had bars across its opening as well.
They stopped in front of the doors again.
“This never happened before?” Ruwen asked Sift.
“No,” Sift said. “He would always sit on some sort of throne, but this is the first time he has been in a building. He really liked the idea of being a king.”
Hamma frowned. “That probably means he enjoys an audience. So either there are more Goblins inside, or he’ll come and open the door when needed. Maybe we should just knock.”
“He never struck me as the type to open doors,” Sift said.
Ruwen shrugged and pounded on the door. After a minute, he did it again.
“It makes sense to have two entrances,” Ruwen said.
“But this looks like the only one,” Sift said.
Ruwen stared at the castle and then back down at the mounds and wall.
“I wonder if there’s a tunnel from one of those mounds,” Ruwen said. “We should search —”
“Kitchen!” Hamma said.
“Armory!” Sift said.
“You two suck,” Ruwen said, knowing that left him the bathroom.
Hamma and Sift laughed.
“Shade’s First Rule: slow thinking puts you in the pot,” Sift said.
“You just made that up,” Ruwen said.
“Maybe, but I am adding it to the suggestion box,” Sift said.
Hamma walked back down the hill, not waiting for them to finish arguing, and Ruwen and Sift hurried after her.
Ruwen entered the bathroom and quickly removed the Scarf of Freshness from his Inventory. He didn’t know what Goblins ate, but it smelled terrible. The bathroom was the smallest mound, and there were four stalls on each side of the structure. He gripped his dagger and pushed open the first door, praying to Uru he wouldn’t see a naked Goblin. On the fourth stall, Ruwen opened the door to find stairs descending into darkness.
He opened the remaining four stalls to make sure there weren’t other stairs and to ensure no Goblins remained. Then he walked outside and pulled down his scarf.
“I found something,” Ruwen said in a loud voice.
“You’re supposed to leave things in a bathroom, not find them.” Sift’s voice floated out of the armory.
Ruwen shook his head and pulled the scarf back over his nose. Less than a minute later, Hamma and Sift arrived. Each put on their own Scarf of Freshness without being told.
Ruwen led them to the fourth stall and pointed.
“Good job,” Hamma said.
Ruwen gripped the Falcon Gloves of Training and attempted to switch to Staff. But the gloves didn’t work. Opening his Inventory, he saw the hour cooldown had been triggered when he’d switched to Herbalism. He needed to think twice before switching in the future.
He considered using the oak staff Hamma had given him, but he didn’t want to give up the versatility of his baton. He put the gloves back into his Inventory, unhooked his baton, and unfolded the crowbar instead of the shovel. Ruwen cast Bleed and Backstab on the baton, and Hamma cast Consecrate on the Staff of Chimes.
“Is your guardian still here?” Ruwen asked.
Hamma nodded. “I dimmed it until it’s invisible. It would’ve given me away in the grass.”
“Can you brighten it back up and put it in front of us. The light will be useful,” Ruwen said.
Hamma’s eyes glazed over and her Light Guardian reappeared. It floated into the stall and down the stairs. “That’s as far as it will go.”
“That helps,” Ruwen said.
Sift took the stairs down, Hamma behind him, and Ruwen in the rear again. When Sift reached the bottom, he stopped.
“Give me a second to sift this tunnel,” Sift said.
Ruwen nodded and scanned the tunnel with his Find Trap. It looked like a mine shaft with large timbers providing support every six feet. Goblin tracks covered the dirt floor.
“Nothing,” Sift said.
“My Sense Harm activated,” Hamma said.
“So that probably means more traps,” Ruwen said. “Let’s take it slow to give my Find Trap spell a chance to work.”
They eased their way down the tunnel, Hamma’s Light Guardian lighting the way. Ruwen saw the stairs and the trap at the same time.
“Hold up,” Ruwen said.
“You find something?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen pointed to the top half of the wall, ten feet in front of the stairs. “Starting about five feet off the ground, the entire wall on both sides is red.”
“Smart,” Hamma said. “The Goblins are too short to trigger it.”
“Any idea what kind?” Sift asked.
“My spell level isn’t high enough for that yet,” Ruwen said. “Hamma, bring your guardian back. I don’t want to trigger the trap until we have more information.”
The Light Guardian floated back, and when they neared the trap, Sift crouched.
“You two wait here,” Sift said.
Sift
moved quickly under the trap.
“Okay, you’re clear,” Ruwen said.
Sift stood and faced them.
“Is your guardian as far back as you can push him?” Ruwen asked.
Hamma nodded.
“Let’s go then,” Ruwen said.
Hamma and Ruwen crouched and moved through the tunnel at a much slower pace than Sift. When they were clear, Ruwen stood and studied the walls while Hamma summoned her Light Guardian.
The guardian, made of energy, didn’t trigger the trap. Ruwen continued to study the walls, looking for clues that a trap lay concealed there.
“What are you doing?” Hamma asked.
“I realized I rely too much on Find Trap. I need to raise my Detect Trap skill in case my spell doesn’t work, or I can’t spare the two Energy per second to power it,” Ruwen said.
“That is a good idea. What are we looking for?” Hamma asked.
“I don’t know, really,” Ruwen said.
“Indentations, tiny holes, odd colors, too much symmetry, not enough symmetry, things like that,” Sift said.
Ruwen faced Sift. “You knew about this trap?”
“I saw it as soon as I stepped into the tunnel,” Sift said.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Hamma asked.
But Ruwen already knew why. “Because if you help too much, Blapy might consider it power leveling.”
“Yes, and then it gets unpleasant for all of us,” Sift said.
Ruwen turned back to the wall and activated Magnify. He scanned from the safe area near the floor up to the trap and back. The top section had more rocks protruding from the dirt walls, and even though they had been covered in dirt, Ruwen could see they were a lighter color.
He turned off Magnify and pointed. “I think the trap uses those lighter colored stones. See how there are a lot of them on the top of the wall, but none on the bottom.”
Hamma squinted and then nodded. “Yes, I do now. It’s hard to see with all the dirt on them. Good eye.”
It was Magnify that had done all the work. “Thanks,” Ruwen said.
