Sam and Gavin faced off again in the training hall. After weeks of daily training he was showing some solid improvement, but it was no match for years of the same training that Sam had benefited from.
Sam's sword instructor, Gloria, sat in on this session, though she was happy letting Sam play the teacher to Gavin. Gloria, retired cleric of Paragon, was fanatical about her duty. She was, as far as he could tell, moonlighting as an instructor just for laughs. She wasn't a member of the wardens guild so didn't complete contracts for them, but offered her services to hire for them and the guards of the Starbourne estate. Her real passion was person to person combat, and could often be seen sparring with the veterans, usually outnumbered as her skills far exceeded theirs.
Sam fought extra hard under her watchful eye, pulling no punches. Gavin was grateful for the harsh training regime, he'd pushed himself hard to get better, any successful attack or deflected blow felt like a victory to him, knowing Sam was trying her absolute best to put him down.
Today Gavin had a secret weapon he was going to spring on Sam at an opportune moment and he was downright giddy to try it out.
They faced off, Sam with her wooden greatsword, Gavin with his training spear. They circled each other, he held his spear in both hands, ready to thrust or block at at any attack or opening that might come his way.
Sam flinched first, blurring in with a straight forward attack. Gavin thrust his spear, adjusting his footwork to maneuver to the side, he followed up with several quick attacks to try to put her off balance while her blur power was on cooldown.
Sam batted his spear aside easily as she retreated, dodging around a slightly misplaced thrust she pressed forward, chopping down at him, he stumbled back to avoid the tip of her sword, tripping over his feet to sprawl on his back. Sam darted forward to offer a killing blow when Gavin's spear suddenly retracted then shot out, the tip extending like lightning to smash her right in the solar plexus.
With the combined force of the spear and her momentum Sam was stopped dead, wheezing. Gavin regained his feet, launching forward in a vicious attack sequence, putting Sam on the defensive for the first time. Just as he was getting through her defences Sam blurred, darting around behind him. He activated his spear again, this time the butt launched itself backwards, thrusting to where he anticipated Sam would stop. It caught her again, this time in the chin. She stumbled back, caught off guard.
Gavin pressed his advantage, swinging the tip of his spear around to catch her in the neck. Sam fell to the ground defeated as Gavin's polearm pressed into her throat. A moment later Gavin offered her his hand, grinning.
“You got up early to enchant the training spear? You'll be sorry you did that.” Sam said, smiling.
“Totally worth it.”
“That was well done.” Gloria said from her spot nearby “Sam, I hope now that Gavin has demonstrated he does not intend to fight you on your terms that you will put more thought into what tricks he will use before he does.”
“Yes, Mistress Vale” Sam said deferentially.
Gavin lost every bout for the remainder of their training session, at the end he was bruised and bloody, having landed only a small handful of successful touches with his spear while he'd been beaten and kicked quite thoroughly around the hall.
“You did well today.” Sam said as they sat for lunch.
“Thanks. With a few more years I might stand a decent chance.”
“It'll probably be much sooner than that if you can use your brain to overcome your poor fighting techniques.”
“That hurts.”
“Get better then.”
“You just watch me. Should we go do the thing then?” Gavin asked standing up and equipping his adventuring gear from his inventory.
Spear in hand, he imagined he cut an impressive figure as he marched down the hill, late morning sun rising over his shoulder, scales of his greatcoat glittering vibrant green and orange in its radiant glow.
“Don't you look heroic this morning.”
“Pretty sure I look heroic every morning.”
Sam cocked an eyebrow, not bothering to make the obvious joke.
“Okay, maybe only most mornings.”
“Did you want to leave some magic items for the rest of us?” Sam said looking at the arsenal he had with him.
“What? These old things?” He said, running his hands over the handles of the half dozen wands he had strapped diagonally across his waist like braces of pistols “barely worth mentioning.”
“They'd better be worth mentioning if you made them all instead of any sort of armour. You can’t keep using just that unenchanted cloak, you haven't even bought something basic.”
“I'm working on it, and well, okay, they're sorta worth mentioning” He said, drawing one and handing it to Sam “and besides, armour is only useful if you get hit.”
[Item: Gavin’s prototype wand of magic missiles]
[type: Wand]
[rank: Level 1, uncommon]
[Description: Prototype wand that does more or less what the creator intended, probably not even dangerous. Warning: warranty void if used]
[Effect: Wand contains 9 charges that slowly regenerate over time. Each charge shoots one missile that deals [magic] damage to the target, deals additional damage to magical shields. Missiles track the target to a limited degree. User may expend more than one charge when using the device to shoot additional missiles]
“Probably not dangerous?”
“Hey, I didn't make the description, it just happened automatically, I'm pretty sure that it's an exaggeration anyway.”
“You're pretty sure it's probably not dangerous?”
“It's an improvement from device may detonate unexpectedly. In another month it'll be saying that it's dangerous to use anything I didn't make.” Gavin said defensively as he held out his hand to take it back.
“I think that's enough indulging your waffling for now. Come on, let's go get some contracts.”
“Lead the way boss.”
They jogged down the hill side by side chasing the shadows that stretched out in front of them. The town was bustling with activity, both having to dodge other people going about their day as they ran. Gavin worked on using his force of will to lift his boots as he ran, making running easier at the expense of mana. It was a skill he could use nearly constantly and had gotten pretty good at balancing his mana regeneration with exerting force on the objects around him. He'd been toying with the idea of making his telekinesis ability the core of his fighting style, and thinking of ways to incorporate it into as many aspects of his adventuring career as possible.
The power was next to useless on other people or anything they wore or carried, but worked well on inanimate objects well enough and seemed to have a special hidden affinity for items he had specifically made. If he strained himself he could make himself almost weightless, which seemed promising, but the real strength was accelerating small objects. Over a half dozen metres of constant force he could throw stones with the power of a small calibre gun, and with practice that would only improve.
Sam scoured the jobs boards, picking out four that returned the lowest rewards for completion, all of them from around a single settlement half a day north. They'd been out north west to Blacktree and north east to Ansville but not South West to Riverford in their excursions, Gavin was looking forward to traveling to the last close settlement to fill up his map of the local area. There were the sand dunes to the east and south of the city across the estuary, but that was largely just uninhabited wilderness the wardens and the other guilds used for training and resource gathering in something akin to a magically fenced off safari zone.
After picking up their contracts Gavin portaled himself and Samania south, just out of town to the furthest area in that direction he'd explored. As they left Wildenesse, they came across a merchant hauling a covered wagon with a pair of animals that looked like the horrific love child of a camel and emu. The merchant was more than happy to transport the two in exchange for the additional protection an adventurer escort provided. So, it was not even mid day by the time they arrived in Riverford. A town built around, uniquely enough, a river. The same one that eventually became the estuary that fed out into the ocean around Wildeness.
Riverford was an export town, famous for its lumber. Great Ironwood trees grew abundantly along the river's edge, popping up as if by magic over the course of a year or two instead of centuries like their size suggested. The wood itself was infused with magic, and was extremely durable compared to mundane varieties that could be found even a few hundred metres from the river.
Their first contract was to find and kill some spriggan, monsters that more closely resembled tree branches than living creatures. He asked around town for info on them and their other contracts, being directed to follow the river north and west, the spriggan having attacked any of the foresters who'd ventured up that far.
Sam was leading the way, sword drawn and slung casually over a shoulder when they attacked. A dozen waist height gnarled brambles that looked like a horde of tumbleweeds roiled through the underbrush. She unburdened her sword, preparing to attack the rushing monsters when Gavin stepped up beside her brandishing one of his wands.
[Item: Gavin’s prototype wand of cone of fire]
[Type: Wand]
[Rank: Level 1, uncommon]
[Description: Prototype wand that deals fire damage over a moderate area more r less in front of the user]
[Effect: Contains 5 charges that slowly regenerate over time. Each charge
[Can be used to conjure a cone of fire that deals low fire damage over a moderate area. May inflict the [burning] condition. Using additional charges increased the duration of the effect]
He let loose with two charges of his wand, feeling the power thrum through it and spurt out in front of them in a gout of orange flames.
The spriggan were caught up in the fire as Gavin moved to engulf a wide area in the flames. A moment later when his spell had ended the spriggan were little more than a smouldering wreckage on the forest floor, the smell of charred wet leaves acrid in their nostrils.
“Okay, that's wasn't too bad.” Sam said, impressed.
“It’s lucky they're so weak, this wand was pretty much the best answer I could ask for to beat these things.”
“And if they'd been something more resilient?”
“Well, I probably have an answer for that too.” He said with a grin. “Come on, I've got some loot to collect and we've got some more contracts to clear.”
[You have looted Twelve [lesser Spriggan]]
[You have looted]
[twelve level 1 copper coins]
[Bramblevine whip]
[Mantle of the wilds]
[Level 1 common healing potion]
“Huh, what are these?” Gavin mused, inspecting the two new items.
[Item: Bramblevine whip]
[Type: Whip]
[Rank: Level 1, common]
[Description: A common whip used by apprentice druid]
[Effect: Attacks deal additional piercing damage and may inflict the [tangled] condition]
[Item: Mantle of the wilds]
[Type: Crown]
[Rank: Level 1, common]
[Description: crown of leaves that enables the user to become blend in with the forest]
[Effect: Activate to camouflage the user for a moderate duration on a long cooldown, more effective in forest terrain]
“These could be useful to strip for parts, I dont think they're useful for either of us as is, but the enchantments could be useful if used for other purposes.” Gavin said, equipping the mantle which appeared as an animal pelt woven with twigs and brambles. He sneered at it distasteful but left it in place.
“Like what?” Sam asked
“I bet I could make a thrown weapon that tangles enemies when they hit. Scatter them out to tangle up a group of enemies”
“That does sound useful”
“Time will be a limiting factor though, I only have so much time to craft consumables, we'll have to balance that sort of utility with the cost of spending however many hours crafting, also, the enchantment is only good for level one, when I get to level two I’ll have to find a whole new set of enchantments, or figure out how to create my own, I’m just copying existing ones for now.”
“Just don't get too distracted and neglect higher priorities.”
“Is this the armour thing again? I'm working on it. Come on, we can't sit around here gasbagging all day.”
“Whatever.” Sam said, rolling her eyes before heading further up river.
Their next contract was to deal with some water Elementals, they weren't usually aggressive so long as you didn't actually go in the water, they were known to leave the confines of their rivers and oceans to disappear small children however.
“Are you going to handle these ones alone too? It’s good practice for when you become a warden.”
“Actually, I was hoping you could be ready with an assist with these ones, I've got one wand that I think could work but I don't know. Just step in whenever you want”
“Good. Knowing your limits and when to ask for help is an important part of the job”
“See Sam, I was made for this adventuring thing.”
“You have only one remotely offensive power, and you have yet to actually use it in combat.”
“I handled that last one no sweat.”
“Just because you've dedicated yourself to smashing a brick through a pinhole doesn't mean you're a combat specialist.”
“Can't argue with the results though.”
“Did you want to fight the water Elementals solo now?”
“Well, maybe the results can be subject to healthy debate.”
They bantered good-naturedly as they walked along the river's edge. The bush seemed wondrous to Gavin, huge trees as wide as he was tall towered up into the sky, their arrow straight trunks covered in thin cracked bark like torn paper, glued with the barest effort to the surface.
The midday sun filtered down from directly above, illuminating the deep river as it burbled next to them, and casting the trees into easy shadow. Small animals Gavin had no names for skittered and flitted about. Most looked like earth creatures but subtly different, like the flying squirrel with a beaked face and dark grey colouring.
Finding the water elementals wasn't nearly so hard as Gavin assumed it'd be. They were devouring a creature not unlike a deer in the middle of the river, a wash of red flowing down after it as they bludgeoned chunks of flesh off the carcass before devouring them.
The Elementals were stained red themselves, their bodies easy to pick out in the surrounding water.
Gavin took a position up next to Sam presenting another of his wands
[Item: Gavin’s prototype wand of gusting wind]
[Type: Wand]
[Rank: Tier 1, uncommon]
[Description: may have unexpected consequences when used other than directed. Directions; do not use]
[Effect: Contains 8 charges. Each charge can be expended to create a gust of wind that buffets the target, additional charges can be consumed to increase the strength of the wind]
“I think this should be able to tear the Elementals apart and shred the magic that holds them together” Gavin said, recalling the small amount of information he'd been told about elementals.
“Well, give it a try.” Sam said sceptically.
Gavin activated the wand, holding it firm as a column of wind rocketed out of the tip of his wand. He'd used four charges to optimise the damage against the risk that expending more charges would accrue.
Wind buffeted the Elementals, ripping red droplets of water from their bodies. Instantly their amorphous forms collapsed to the river. They could see the red stain spread out, drawing nearer to their position.
“Okay, so not so effective.” Gavin said, his palms suddenly clammy.
“Wouldn't seem so.” Samania agreed preparing herself to fight.
Gavin pulled out a second wand, the wand of cone of fire, ready to use the second the Elementals became visible. Backing away from the water, he activated them, six charges from the wand of fire and four from the wand of wind. The cone of fire became a raging inferno, burning hotter and brighter than before. It washed over the monsters as they burst forth from the riverbank boiling their bodies.
When the wands were depleted the Elementals were still there, rolling up the embankment, steam billowing off them as their bodies boiled from the inside. He holstered both wands, drawing his wand of magic missiles, shooting two bolts of blue-white magic at the closest enemy.
Chunks of water sloshed off the elemental but still it came on, two more bolts slowed it further, then the last two put it down. Drawing a second wand of magic missiles he shot four bolts at the second, then a fifth and sixth. The remaining three went to the third elemental.
He was out of time to draw any additional wands, even though he'd been retreating the whole time, the elemental was all but ready to tackle him. He plucked his spear from his inventory, the shaft materialising in his hands as he swung. Dodging a clumsy attack he slashed at it again, aiming to bludgeon more than stab.
His weapon wasn't very effective, and Sam chose this opportunity to step in, slashing at the elemental from its flank. Her sword bit deep, slicing through easily. Water flowed from the wound where Gavin's attacks had formed over. The elemental turned through itself to face its new attacker, Sam blurred, darting back away from the monster.
The elemental gave chase, though it was rapidly deflating from its wound. Gavin took his moments, extending his spear and poking at it, then retreating to let Sam come from the other side, each attack sapping more and more of its bulk.
Soon the last one had been reduced to nothing but another puddle on the wet loamy ground. Gavin dipped a toe into each pool.
[You have looted three: lesser water elemental]
[You have looted:]
[three level 1 gold coins]
[six level 1 silver coins]
[nine level 1 bronze coins]
[twelve level 1 iron coins]
[fifteen level 1 copper coins]
[Elemental soul: Bubble shield]
“Just looted a shield spell. I was looking at arcane shield, but this has a pretty similar effect” Gavin said, looking up the power in his book. “Gloria reckoned I needed one more defensive power, and it's either that or health recovery like yours.” Gavin said, his usual smile flashing happily “You want this one? Branch out a little more?”
“No, you keep it, I'm still thinking about the direction I want to take my skills in, but I think I have defensive powers covered.”
“Not going to argue there. Want me to run through the list with you later?”
“Ahh, thanks but no thanks, I think we have slightly different ideas about what constitutes a good set of cohesive powers” Sam said.
“That's fair, it's okay to be wrong.” Gavin laughed.
“I'm glad you're recognising your own flaws.” Sam countered.
“Ooh, thats cold. I'm definitely keeping it now, also how were your attacks so effective against the water elemental, they were leaking all over the place.”
Samania looked sheepish as she avoided Gavins eye.
“My parents found the soul power they wanted for me, it arrived at the guild yesterday. I got an ability that makes creatures bleed when I hit them, even ones that dont have blood.”
“Awesome, I'm guessing you still haven't told them then?”
“Soon. Can you just open us up a portal back to town, I don't want to talk about that right now.”
“Sure thing Sam, back to town, just like you said.”
Gavin's portal rose up out of the dirt ominously behind Sam, its centre filled with swirling etherial void, the gothic marble looking out of place in the loamy forest.
“Go on.” Gavin said, cracking a grin.
“This goes back to town right?” Sam asked, pointing at the portal.
“Ahh, sure.” Gavin said suspiciously.
Sam shrugged, stepping through.
“Damn woman called my bluff. Rude.” Gavin grumbled.
He followed through a moment later to find Sam folding her arms and looking satisfied.
“You might be petty enough to send me to the middle of nowhere as a joke but you're not petty enough to wait around by yourself for ten minutes until your portal cools down to bring me back then another ten minutes to go back to town.”
“Try me when I level up my portal power a bit more.”
“I will. Do you want to go to the mine next or collapse the dimensional pocket?”
“Dealers choice” Gavin said, taking a bite from a biscuit he'd taken from his inventory.
“I'm going to assume from context that means I choose?” Sam asked.
“It does.” Gavin said, nodding his confirmation.
“Then we're going to the mine.”
“Sweet as. Also, most of my wands are fairly depleted, it'll take a full day for them to recharge, I might have one charge built back up on a few of the ones I used, I do have a couple full ones though.”
“Guess you'll have to fight them the old fashioned way when you run out then.” Sam said, slapping his upper arm.
“Bite to eat first?” Gavin said, finishing his biscuit, frowning at his still complaining stomach.
“We can eat on the way.” Sam said, not stopping
Gavin retrieved a couple of pies from his inventory, as hot and fresh as when he'd put them in there four days earlier.
“This one's pretty good, what is it?”
“Bacon and egg, well, lizard and lizard egg, just needs a good tomato sauce. Haven't been able to get that one right, I keep getting something almost like ketchup.”
“What's the difference?”
“Ketchup is more vinegary and less sweet”
“What's vinegar?”
“Never mind, it's hard enough trying to explain what I want to replicate with a chef let alone a soldier. I wish I could find something like a potato.”
“What's a potato?”
Gavin ran a hand down over his face as he groaned. How did you describe a potato, or any food, to someone who'd never seen or tried it before, when he hadn't even tried all the local foods to compare.
“It’s a root vegetable that tastes both amazing and really bland at the same time.” Gavin said, taking his best shot. “Its like those round vegetables that we had the other night that taste a little bit nutty, except the real thing has that flavour taken out.”
Sam didn't bother to try to understand what he was talking about, instead just nodding in agreement as they continued on to their next destination. The mine was a short distance from Riverford, it was well past its most profitable years, though still supported a small contingent of miners.
The pair approached the main entrance, a wide rough hewed cave twice as tall as a person. A crag-faced bloke sat at the mouth on a weathered wooden bench eating a grubby pastry.
“Yo.” Gavin said as they drew nearer.
“Hello!” Said the old man, oddly reminding Gavin exactly of a stereotypical old-man gold miner accent “you lot here to kill the stone Elementals? They've taken over the lower levels of the mine.”
“That's right, mind showing us how to get down there?”
“Not a chance. Union rules. I ain't leaving this spot till my break is over.”
“What about after your lunch break?”
“Sorry, union rules. Can't play delivery man.”
“Okay, where are you going to after this?”
“Back home. I'm done for the day, no way am I going into a monster infested mine.”
“Then why come here at all?”
“Can't get paid if I don't show up.” he said, stretching the suspenders on his overalls, broken teeth flashing through his thick beard.
“Right. Well, come on Sam, looks like we're in for a classic dungeon crawl.”
The cave was dry and dusty, a well worn rutted path led further into the complex. The walls were hard packed clay reinforced by wooden beams. As they walked further inwards the tunnel system widened and narrowed, branching off on alternate paths. They had a map, but no idea where the Elementals actually were within the lower complex. They'd been sealed in where they'd been discovered, but that still covered a large area.
They followed the tunnel along the main path, which remained relatively straight and flat for a few hundred metres before terminating in a wide platform overlooking a vast cavern under the mountain. Dim light from scattered glow globes illuminated pockets in the gloom. A sturdy elevator made from thick wooden beams and rope dropped down from the edge.
As a rule Gavin was wary of elevators made from wood and rope, but this one looked like it was designed to haul tons of ore and appeared to his eye to be maintained decently well. It took the two of them a little while to figure out how to activate, there had been a control panel under a cover with magical runes. Gavin had spent some time deciphering them until he was confident he'd figured it out.
Touching the rune to descend as well as the medium gear ratio they began to lower at a steady pace, the rope creaking as it wheeled past them on unseen pulleys. The elevator stopped at various levels as they dropped through the darkness, requiring Gavin to reenter the inputs to get them to resume their descent.
Finally they got to a level that had a magical barrier blocking the tunnel. Sam pulled out a shard of clear lavender crystal that matched the barrier's colour, touching the surface of the barrier causing it to shimmer and distort letting the two step through. On the other side Sam touched the wall again where it snapped back to a hard translucent wall.
“On your guard, I'll go first, you back me up” Sam said, suddenly stern instead of returning Gavin’s constant banter.
“Got it boss” Gavin acknowledged, retrieving his spear and an enchanted torch that illuminated the tunnel in bright gently flickering fire light from his inventory.
“Couldn't you have gotten a normal glow globe?” She said, exasperation in her voice as she looked at his stupid grin.
“It took me ages to figure out how to enchant it so the fire was realistic while also being bright enough to see by.” Gavin said defensively.
“You actually wanted that effect? If anything jumps out at us I'm not going to be able to tell the difference between a real enemy and a shadow from your torch.”
“Well, feel free to use your own torch.”
“I don’t have one, you said you had it covered. Do you have a spare?”
“Yes I do.” Gavin said, smiling.
“Is it enchanted the same way?”
“It is.” He said proudly.
“Then no. Not unless you've got a normal light source.”
“It was you that was telling me I should use the time I was in that sewer without proper illumination as a learning experience right?”
“I have a glow globe. You know perfectly well that its been playing up since the sewer.” Sam said through gritted teeth. “You said you'd make a replacement.”
“If you're not happy, you've had quite some time to buy another.” Gavin said flippantly.
“Give me the spare torch.” Sam said, holding her hand out with an annoyed gesture. “and when we get back you're going to learn how to make normal glow globes.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Gavin retrieved a second identical torch that added its flickering light to the tunnel. Between them every nook and cranny was lit adequately.
“We're looking for rock elementals right? Are they the can't be spotted until they attack sort of creature or the oh hey, what's that big black rock doing near all this light brown rock?.”
“Either. They could also be the walls, a dead end, or just walking around.”
“Helpful, alright, keep your eyes peeled.”
“Keep your eyes peel- Gavin! Look out!” Sam shouted slashing her sword at Gavin.
Gavin made to jump past Sam's strike but was thrown heavily into the wall, shoulder slamming hard into the bare rock.
He pushed himself up with his spear as Sam fought a shambling pile of animated rock and dirt. Forming up behind Sam, he jabbed his spear high over her head to poke in at the monster. The tip grazing lines and small divots where it struck. Sam's sword was more effective, it gouged shallow grooves which spilled trickles of sand wherever she hit, the effect stacking up more and more as the fight went on.
Sam blurred to the side and around as the elemental rolled forward to crush her, leaving them each on opposite sides. He retreated, step by step, extending his spear to fight further away.
The elemental had turned to face Sam who was clearly the bigger threat, giving Gavin an opening to throw a star, using his force of will to push on it, driving the metal fully into a wound in the rocky flesh. Gavin was showered with shale as his throwing star exploded within.
Moments later the elemental crumbled to the floor, its internal magic no longer sufficient to keep it together. Gavin took another wailing blow from behind, sending him tumbling forward past Sam, his spear dropping from his grip as he flew.
She he stood from his prone position, defending him against their new attacker. Behind them he saw another elemental, and another behind that stalking down the way he and Sam had come from.
“Two behind us. I'll hold them off, you deal with the other one.” Gavin called, throwing one after another star, pushing on them with all of his strength. Small detonations rang out, chunks of stone splattering the walls. He held his ground as he continued his assault, expending his stockpile of resources.
His mana reserve was dwindling with each push of his force of will. He used the last of his energy to push on one of his few remaining stars, blowing a large chunk out of it, dissipating its energy.
“One down Sam, I'm low on mana though.”
“Got it, this one's nearly ready to fall.” Sam said
Gavin pulled out one of his remaining wands, shooting a distorted wave down at his second elemental. The wand vibrated dangerously, flooded with heat as he expended all of its charges in one go. The elemental kicked off the ground sending it tumbling through the air to crash into the walls.
[Item: Gavins wand of light as a feather]
[Type: Wand]
[Rarity: Level 1, uncommon]
[Description: Not a substitute for proper diet and exercise]
[Contains six charges. Expend one or more charges to reduce the weight of the target]
He sent a small column of wind down at the tumbling boulder, reversing its advance. Giving him a moment's respite as it struggled lamely through the air, not having its reliable weight to gain purchase against the solid rock. He turned, shooting a single magic missile down to impact Sam's elemental which was leaking sand from myriad small cuts. He spotted his spear lying discarded on the floor between them.
Dashing to pick it up he helped Sam with her quarry, driving it backward as she rained battering blows. The elemental falling under their combined assault. They turned to see Gavin's 'light as a feather' spell end, the elemental crashing to the ground then surging forward.
Gavin loosed his last remaining magic missile and cone of flame past Sam, though neither was especially effective. Drawing his final unused wand he launched a bolt of lightning down the tunnel, its crackling white hot light blasting streaming showers of sparks across its rocky form.
[Item: Gavin’s wand of lightning]
[Type: Wand]
[Rank: Level 1, Rare]
[Description: Wand that deals lightning damage, works pretty good, probably]
[Effect: Wand contains 9 charges that slowly regenerate over time. Each charge can be expended to conjure a bolt of lightning. Expending additional charges creates additional bolts of lightning.]
Gavin felt his wand beginning to heat up and vibrating as he expended additional charges. He'd just expended the fifth when the elemental came apart.
“That last one seemed weaker than the others” Gavin mused.
“We've been fighting Elementals all day and you had lightning damage up your sleeve?” Sam asked, incredulous.
“Yeah so?”
“All Elementals are weak to lightning.”
“But doesn't lightning have a reduced effect against earth?”
“Yes, if you're trying to tear down a wall, but you're not trying to destroy the rock these elementals were made of, just the magic that holds them together.”
“Oh, well, lesson learned, guess we aren't running on the pokemon weakness table.”
“What's that?”
“Oh, like how fire beats grass, water beats fire, fairy beats dragon et cetera.”
“How would a fairy possibly beat a dragon?”
“I don't make the rules.” Gavin said facetiously.
“Just loot the bodies then we can check we got them all. When you get back to town I'm going to buy you a book on magical creatures so you can look up their weaknesses before you fight them.”
[You have looted four Lesser rock Elemental]
[You have looted:]
[Level 1 potion of physical resistance]
[Level 1 potion of resilience]
[rockbreaker]
“What on earth is a rockbreaker?” Gavin asked no one in particular as he pulled the magical pickaxe from his inventory
[Item: Rockbreaker]
[Type: Pickaxe]
[Rank: Level 1, uncommon]
[Description: A pickaxe that is unusually effective at breaking up rocks and rigid magical constructs]
[Effect: Deals additional magical force damage]
He tossed it to Sam to inspect, she easily snatched the odd weapon from the air and looked it over. While she didn't have the exact descriptions of items that Gavin did, any magic user could get a rough idea of what a magic item would do by holding it.
“Should be able to strip it down for parts too so I can make something more wieldy.”
“Good, having a backup weapon for specific enemies would be useful.”
“Lets get on with searching this place, we've still got another contract to close.”
They explored the rest of the level thoroughly, finding nothing aside from a seam of glittering metal that Gavin extracted by deconstructing what he could touch and the wall around it to get the last little bit with his new pickaxe when his mana ran out..
[Item: Level 1 mithril ore]
“Mithril? Is this as useful as I think it is?” Gavin asked as he inspected a lump of ore.
“If you're thinking it's very useful then yes. Some of the best gear is made from mithril, though it's less useful at low ranks, you'll be too powerful before you get much use out of whatever you make”
“Well, I'd better make something fast and useful when we get back, I didn't get a lot anyway.”
Their last contract was to collapse an extradimensional pocket, he had some reservations over this sort of contract, namely they were all or nothing, either you won or you died. The guild was pretty good at detecting the power level of each incursion, so at least they knew they could theoretically beat whatever was inside. After he portalled them both to the mine entrance they set out, following a map Sam retrieved from her pack.
“The pocket is out in the bush about here” Sam said, indicating an area about half way between the mine and riverford but off the trail about half that distance again. “They're usually pretty easy to spot, especially when it starts getting dark.”
“I can set a marker in my interface in the same place and portal us back to about there on the road and we can walk the rest of the way.” Gavin said, indicating a point on the map they'd walked along earlier.
“That's a really useful power. We do need to be careful though, the contract says this one is on the upper end of level one.”
“What sort of things can spawn in there?”
“It varies, could be anything from an arcane soul, a magic item, a really big demon or a bunch of smaller ones. It could even be some sort of magical effect, when I was training I went into one that was just a bunch of healing magic that needed to be used up before the space collapsed in on itself, we had a sparring match against each other until it was all gone.”
“That's pretty cool actually. Did The contract say when the space was going to collapse?”
“It'll be fine, the contract’s only a few days old and these things last for weeks. Bigger ones maintain stability longer.”
“And how long has it existed?”
“Probably an hour or two before the contract went up, the guild is pretty efficient at that sort of thing.”
A few minutes later Gavin’s portal power came off cooldown, and he sent them roughly halfway back to town to an area with a lookout over the river. From there he and Sam got their bearings and they headed out into the bush.
The forest was peaceful, great thick trees grew up smothering most underbrush, wispy shrubs grew scattered through the dry leaflitter that scrunched under their feet as they walked. The air was clean and fresh, a light breeze filtering through.
They paused to have a drink and a bite to eat, this time thick sandwiches and mugs of chilled not-quite-lemon water for their afternoon meal.
“Having your portal and inventory powers are really handy” Sam said, finishing her sandwich. “I see why teams like those utility powers in their group, getting a magical pouch that preserves freshness is really expensive, and that's if you can even find one to buy.”
“Can you not talk about me like I'm a particularly good vacuum cleaner?”
“If I'm understanding you from context then no, I plan on talking to and about you at length as if you were as useful as a cattle lizard.”
“Rude.”
“If you didn't want to be thought of as a pack animal maybe you shouldn't have got the pack animal powers.”
“Also rude, hey, is that it?”
Through the trees they'd been resting at, a glimmering mirror of pearlescent light distorted the landscape. Approaching, Gavin saw it was oddly similar in appearance to the Chicago bean, though this one had an addition; a large black-barked tree grew right through the centre, towering up into the canopy above them while its roots splayed out underneath.
“There better not be any tree elementals in there. If I have to kill another elemental today I'm going to be well angry.”
“What's wrong with elementals?”
“They're annoying” Gavin huffed.
“Wait till you fight more higher tier monsters, there's a giant toad beast that shoots its tongue out as fast as you can see, then pulls you in and digests you slowly while you're crushed inside it. Even if you get out, everything you're wearing gets soaked in acidic slime, they're almost impossible to avoid, so you just have to jump in and try to fight your way out.”
“Sounds way more fun than fighting rock elementals in a cave.”
“I personally would rather fight Elementals all day if it meant I didn't have to get covered in acid snot.” Sam said, wrinkling her nose.
“What about more poo elementals?”
“Excluding poo elementals.”
Gavin chuckled at Sam's gagging expression as they remembered their trip into the sewers. Sam reached out a hand to touch the mirrored bean, which rippled out under her hand.
“Still stable. When they start to break down they behave a lot more erratically”
“Good to know.” Gavin said.
“Well, we wont clear this contract just standing around.” Sam said, jumping into the bean.
Gavin followed behind, jumping into the same spot as Sam, still rippling tiny waves out as he plunged into it.
They found themselves in a large meadow, the tightly packed trees at their back stretched out to form a wall that encompassed the clearing. In the centre a huge tree loomed over them, three gnarled limbs of unequal size grew up out of the earth to form into the main trunk leaving a person sized hollow underneath. Around the tree was a rough circle of waist high rocks of various shapes but fairly consistent size.
Patches of wild flowers grew in clumps around the field in discrete circles of one of three colours, deep alizarin, vibrant indigo, and sunshine yellow.
“Hey Sam.” Gavin said contemplatively.
“Yeah?”
“I think those flowers are supposed to restore our health, mana and stamina.” He said, pointing out the patches.
“Seems like a big leap in logic.”
“And if I'm right, that tree is-”
Gavin was cut short as the colossal tree tore the first of its three legs from the ground, scattering great clumps of earth below.
“Boss monster.” Gavin said, his spear appearing in his hands.
Gavin stepped into the nearest patch of flowers, one of deep iridescent blue. As he did, the colour drained into him, the flowers becoming a more muted hue.
[You have absorbed mana from an area of heightened mana saturation]
[Mana pool is full, mana has been restored to equipped magical items with depleted mana capacity]
“You don't have a good dump for mana do you?” Gavin asked as the tree tore its second leg from the ground.
“Not right away, my escalating enhancement can use up my mana quickly when I can get multiple hits in close together, but I think I'll be dodging too much and the ability won't have time to stack up.”
“Okay, I'll leave most of the yellow ones to you then, I’ll take the blue, and we'll use the red ones as needed.”
“Sounds like a solid plan, got any more tricks up your sleeve?”
“Not many, if any.”
“Great.”
“Don't worry, not many got the skills to rock a show like this.”
“What are you talking about? Wait, is this one of your home world things? I don't want to know, just get ready to fight this thing.”
“Roger roger.”
The giant tree pulled its third leg from the ground, as it began to lumber forward, great branches breaking free to form huge arms. One arm scooped up a rock from the circle encompassing it, casually tossing it at them. The rock, so effortlessly thrown, hurtled at them fast enough that they barely had enough time to dodge aside.
“Go.” called Sam sprinting forward at full speed towards the tree.
Gavin began circling the meadow, stepping in each blue patch of flowers, absorbing its energy. He felt each patch was restoring charges spread out randomly across his wands. He checked their level in his inventory as he ran, once he'd absorbed the mana patches from most of the way around the outer perimeter they were full.
Sam had been busy fighting the tree monster, dodging and blurring around its sweeping attacks, getting in raking cuts with her sword as she could find them. The tree was oozing thick yellow sap where she'd scoured its thick bark.
Gavin ran in, finally ready to fight. He circled round to Sam's flank, getting into range of the tree, blasting it with four charges each from his dual air and fire wands. White hot flame spouted out in a wide cone engulfing part of the tree. A lashing branch whipped out, smashing heavily into his chest, sending him tumbling head over heels through the soft grass.
Staggering to his feet he could see his wands had minimal effect, mostly blackening and charring the bark that fell away to reveal fresh armour growing beneath. Where Sam had cut it however, the sap had caught alight and was flickering with red-black flames.
“We need to get some hits in on the main body not just the legs” Gavin called.
“How? I can't get up there without getting hit”
“I can reduce your weight, you should be able to jump.”
“Do it.”
Gavin blasted Sam with a charge of light as a feather, then watched as she leapt into the air, clearing its legs to get a solid slash in across the trunk. A massive arm swiped at her but missed as she cut then kicked off the tree redirecting her movement. A thin trickle of sap seeped out between the crack sliced into the bark
“If I get behind you I can blast you with wind to give you more speed” Gavin called as Sam leapt again, bashing her blade against the tree and drawing another small line of sap.
Sam nodded as she landed a few metres in front, turning and leaping back at the tree. Gavin hit her with a jet of wind, shooting her straight back up past an arm that had mistimed its swat. Her sword thrust straight in, sinking half a foot into the wood.
Sam latched onto her sword, hauling on it to pull it free but it was wedged stuck. Thick sap pooled around the wound.
“Jump Sam!” Gavin called, giving her a moment's notice to leap free of the tree branch aimed at her.
The branch raked down its trunk, scraping bark off and hitting her embedded sword, levering it through its own wooden flesh. The tree groaned a painful creak as more sap glugged from its open wound.
Gavin blasted Sam with another charge of light as a feather then another gust of wind as she leapt at her sword, timing it to shoot past another intercepting blow. Sam caught her sword, turning it into another long cut, opening up the wound further.
She leapt off in time to slice a branch it came crashing in again. Gavin shunted her back in mid air with two charges from his wind wand, Sam using the momentum to batter at the exposed wood, now scraped free of bark. The sap began to flow freely, running over itself and setting like candle wax.
Gavin pressed forward then used several charges of his wand of fire and wind from below to wrap the body of the tree in a wreath of fire. Flames sprung up, catching the sap alight and billowing black smoke up into its upper boughs.
Sam continued her assault, though more cautiously as the tree became enraged. Gavin ran another half loop to pick up more mana patches to restore his wands. By the time he was done they were nearly depleted, and the tree was thoroughly alight. Huge splintering cracks glowed with orange embers from within as fire spread up into the upper branches. The tree shook violently, a hail of flaming leaves raining over the whole meadow, pattering off Gavin's armoured cloak and scorching the exposed skin on his hands and face. As he brushed the embers free, the tree exploded in a shower of glowing coals and razor sharp splinters. Gavin fell into a crouch, turning to protect his face and letting the brunt of the damage clatter against his armoured back.
He stood to see Sam tumbling like a leaf on the wind before his spell wore off, sending her clattering to the ground, crashing through red then yellow patches of flowers. In a moment she'd rolled to her feet. Stretching and dusting herself off.
Gavin sauntered over to her grinning “That was pretty sweet.”
“Yeah, go loot its corpse, and we can get out of here.”
“Oh, we're not done yet” Gavin said, mirth playing at the corners of his eyes.
“It's in a thousand pieces around us Gav, I'm pretty sure it's dead.” Sam said, gesturing around them.
“We haven't had phase two yet.”
“Huh?”
“Watch.”
Gavin turned to see a glowing green haze filled with motes of yellow light collecting around the base of the blazing ruin of the tree
Rising out from the ashes the top half of a lithe, half naked woman, her skin was so thin it was nearly translucent, formed from paper-white bark. Her hair was a tangle of brambles framing her carved face, sharp angry eyes burning orange coals, filled with hate. A slim, delicate waist melded into the lower half of a powerful tree, sprouting thick knotted arms and legs wrapped in ornate corded vines, emerald light glowing within its core.
The enraged dryad raised a sinewy arm in their direction crying a shriek that pierced their ears.
“Take this” Gavin said, pressing his fire wand into her hand “You'll be able to get closer than I will.”
They surged into motion as a beam of emerald light shot out, carving a furrow of death through the wildflowers. Sam blurred as the beam nearly sliced across her. Gavin ran in the opposite direction, throwing one then a second throwing star, straining his mana as he pushed on them with as much force and precision as he could. Whip vines lurched up from the ground around the dryad, swatting them out of the air in fiery explosions as streamers of burnt vine fluttered down in their wake.
Sam had manoeuvred in behind the monsters guard, led by a cone of flame from her outstretched wand that immolated the vines that writhed up to entangle her. The dryad screeched again, pointing an arm out either side, swinging them round to cut two laser arcs across the battlefield. Gavin leapt over one, the tip of his foot clipping a beam as it passed under him. He looked on in horror as his health indicator instantly turned from a vibrant crimson to a deep umber from the barest touch. A wave of lethargy washed over him, like his very life force had been partly obliterated.
“Watch out for the beams, they're fuckin strong” Gavin called, stumbling into the nearest health flowers.
Gavin pulled his wands of magic missiles from their holsters, loosing all eighteen bolts, sweeping one across horizontally and the other up vertically. The bolts of magic soared out in an array, tracking back down into their target. The dryad saw the rain of missiles homing in on her, raising a thick emerald shield around herself. The first bolts collided with the shield, shattering it to shards as more thundered in to impact it, carving welts out of herbark armour.
Sam came in again asit staggered, she engulfed the dryad in another gout of orange flames as she scored a handful of solid hits in with her great sword. She ducked and blurred back out of range of two clobbering arms, circling to keep it off balance.
Gavin's wands crackled with arcane energy, suddenly nearly too hot to hold. He stashed them in his inventory to deal with later. Drawing two more wands he pointed one at the ground, a gust of wind throwing up a cloud of soil as he shot into the air, narrowly avoiding twin beams of green light that crossed the field like sickles of death where he stood. With his other wand, he pointed it at the dryad as he soared through the air, an arcing bolt of lightning streaking to crackle against it.
Gavin hadn't considered his landing as he hurtled back to earth, realising at the last second that falling from five or six metres was probably going to hurt. In a rush he pointed his wand at the ground again, buffeting it with wind, he shot back at an acute angle, crashing on his ass to roll back painfully, feeling ribs crack.
Gavin let out a muffled “oof” sound as he lay on the ground, trying in vain to pull himself to his knees.
As he struggled he felt a hand slap his shoulder, healing energy flooding into him, knitting together cracked bones as he rapidly healed.
“Get up, we've got work to do” Sam said, rushing past to re-engage the monster.
“Right” Gavin said, following, trailing a line of lightning at the dryad as he ran.
Gavin's mana resources were rapidly decreasing, forcing him to pull out his spear and join Sam in melee combat. As he drew in close he saw the dryad was looking worse for wear, leaking translucent red sap from gouges carved across its charred body.
Sam blurred inside its guard, slashing at the tree body again. He extended his spear to thrust at the vulnerable torso of the towering woman using his force of will to enhance the attack, the tip gouged a bloody line above her hip.
Her eyes fixed on Gavin as her lower half engaged Sam in a brawling fight, her hands pointing at him. In a moment of clarity he launched his spear like a javelin, pushing on it with as much force as he could muster, his mana racing down to nothing as the spear shot from his hand with a crack.
Two green lights filled his vision as he was cut down by the dryads attack, his health vaporising. He collapsed to the ground, barely conscious, his skin ashen grey as his life force withered inside.
“No!” Cried Sam, crashing atop him, her hands flooding precious life into his body.
Gavin felt a wreck as he watched Sam's face grow pale
“I'm- okay, finish- fight” he grunted.
Sam nodded, pushing herself up. Gavin saw over her shoulder the dryad swaying, dazed as his spear protruded half through her eyesocket, the tip extending through the roof of her skull
“Jump Sam.” Gavin slurred as coherently as he could muster, pointing his wind wand up at her, blasting her forward as she leapt.
He watched her sword arc upwards, catching the dryad under an armpit to trail a ragged line up and out through the opposite side of its neck.
Red sap gushed out as the top half of the dryads body split open, held together with the last splinters of wooden bone Gavin sat up, gulping down one after another healing potion as he watched, then offered one of his few remaining ones to Sam
“No need, I have that heal over time power, it's good to work it out” she said, offering her hand to pull Gavin to his feet.
“Good work, that was an epic fight” he beamed.
“We're done then?” Sam asked.
Gavin kicked a toe against the fallen dryad.
[You have looted: Demon matriarch of the forest grove]
[You have looted:]
[1 level 1 platinum coin]
[10 level 1 gold coin]
[100 level 1 silver coin]
[1000 level 1 bronze coin]
[10000 level 1 iron coin]
[100000 level 1 copper coin]
[level 1 potion of resilience]
[Demon soul: Heart of the Forest]
[3 level 1 ironoak heartwood]
“Payday” Gavin said, tossing the soul crystal to Sam “interested in this?”
[item: demon soul, Heart of the Forest]
[Rarity: Unique]
“Unique demon soul? This is worth an absolute fortune” Sam said with wonder in her eyes “You could retire off this.”
“Well, heart of the forest doesn’t seem like where I want my build to end up, and I'm not super concerned about money, remember I'm like this close to having infinite money. If you don't want it, I'll probably just hold onto it.”
“I don't even know what it does.”
“I don't think I saw it in the list of powers I looked up the other day.”
“It wouldn't be on any list, the whole unique thing sort of gives that away a bit.Your book came from Soliece right? She cant know what it does until one of us uses it.” Sam said, holding it up to the light.
“So you are gonna use it?” Gavin asked.
“Just so we're clear, you want me to experiment with my soul with an unknown permanent power?” Sam said, raising an eyebrow.
“If that's what you want, yeah.” Gavin said, clearly excited for her to do just that.
“I'll think about it.” She said, tossing it back to him.
“Well you don't have long, we’re only a couple portal cooldowns from home.”
“I don't have to do it straight away.”
Gavin stared at her, nonplussed, having not considered that to be an option.
