While in Mankerin they refilled their food supplies for themselves and their many animals. They had to get a little more food for the livestock as they'd been growing, the chickens fastest of all. Joe warned Melanie about the giant hawks they'd be encountering in a few days' time. He wanted her to think about her strategy to see if she could take one down on her own. The plan was for Joe to teleport out into the plains from the edge to try to attract the hawks to the lone, easy pickings target while the caravan traveled on their own further back. In case the hawks didn't fall for the distraction Melanie would be the primary defense of the caravan. Of course, Joe would be close enough to teleport back to it, and Eleanor had her bow, but it would be a great test for Melanie. Her armor should hold up to their talons a lot better than his clothes did, especially as her first level ability boosts her armor's strength passively.
When they got to the plains they enacted their plan. Joe did get the attention of the first giant hawk as it came swooping down at him. He made it more than a month ago, but it was finally time to test out his gun. He took aim at the rapidly approaching hawk and cast Lightning Jolt into the magisteel plate on the gun's grip. It took only a moment for the magical circuits of the gun to light up, the brightness shining forth despite how opaque he made the glass tube. A large beam of electricity burst forth from the opening at the front, contained by the ring of magisteel on the front into a cohesive beam in a straight line.
The beam hit the hawk right in the chest and bore a hole straight through it like it was a laser rather than lightning. The force of the blast through the hawk's dive off course and it crashed to the ground off to Joe's left. He got a CWEST notification of its death before it even hit the ground. Joe cast Harvest and made sure to get Eleanor some of the special talon-tipped arrows, and even made a talon claw weapon for Malcolm to use, as he favored weapons from the Quick category, which a claw weapon would fit.
Joe Backtracked to the party, dropping off the results of his Harvest. Gymmie was the first to mention what they saw. “What was that, Joe? I've never seen you cast spells like that.” From the looks on the faces of the others, they all wanted to know the same thing, naturally.
Joe took his gun out of the holster and showed it to the group. “I made this in Trenos. It lets me transform the regular Lightning Jolt spell from a touch spell into a beam that is even stronger than I can normally attack with thanks to the way I designed and imbued it.”
Kerras, in awe of Joe's first arcane gadget, asked what it was called.
“It's called a raygun. Legends and stories from my homeland told of them, but they never really existed cause none of us had the magic power to make them work. Now that I'm a mage I have that power, so I made it real.”
A distant cry got their attention and Joe quickly said, “I'll let you all look at it closely later, but for now I have to go make myself a better target.”
Joe disappeared from where he was and appeared back on the road further up, just past where he had killed the first hawk. Unfortunately the hawk was already on its way to the caravan, it probably wanted to grab an entire livestock pen.
Joe Backtracked yet again and appeared right in front of the caravan. Before the hawk could get close enough Joe fired his raygun at it. This time its trajectory was not significantly affected by the force of the beam and it was still on route to crash into the caravan. Joe had received notification of its death so hoped this would work. He cast Boost Strength, then activated Boost Spell, and finally Minor Levitation to try to grab the corpse with it.
Fortunately the spell counted it as an object even though it was still warm so he was able to arrest its movement and then land it to the side of the road. Now that he was able to feel its weight Joe wasn't sure he needed either Boost, but it was better to have them and not need them than the other way around. Joe found his plan for saving the caravan from the falling hawk got him enough extra experience to get to level 8 in his class.
Please pick one of the following spells to learn: Flame Burst, Extend Sight, Smoke and Mirrors, Blind, Slow, or Paralyze
It looks like Joe was getting to the point where he could learn spells that produced debilitating effects, which was nice. All three were good choices, but he decided to go with Blind. He of course put his two extra points into Intelligence.
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Blind (Level 1). The spell takes away the vision from a creature. The target has a chance to resist the spell based on the difference between the target's Wisdom and the caster's Intelligence. One creature can be targeted per spell level.
Mana cost: 50 mana per minute
Joe also noticed he had couple of new skills as well.
Ranged Weapons skill unlocked! +1 to Agility.
Spell Conduits skill unlocked! +1 to Intelligence.
Ranged Weapons (Level 1). This skill is for aiming and attacking enemies with ranged weapons like bows, crossbows, or other weapons which launch projectiles. Higher skill levels improve aim and damage done with ranged weapons. To train this skill keep attacking with ranged weapons.
Key Attribute: Agility
Spell Conduits (Level 1). This skill is for using items that channel spells and alter the way they act, such a wand, staff, or even some crystal balls. Higher levels increase the benefits provided to the spell by the conduit item. To train this spell continue to cast spells through conduit items.
Key Attribute: Intelligence
Apparently his raygun counts as both a ranged weapon since it fires a projectile, the beam of lightning, and also a spell conduit since it literally transforms and enhances the lightning-based spells.
Before another hawk arrived and swooped into the area, Joe grabbed the corpse of his newest kill and teleported further ahead again before he began to Harvest it. He got another bow for Sally along with more arrows and meat. Joe didn't have time to teleport the newest load to the caravan, so he left it on the road and moved forward as the next hawk started moving in. This one did target Joe, instead of shooting it immediately Joe decided to use his new spell. He cast Blind as it got closer and immediately teleported slightly further along the road out of its path. The hawk crashed to the ground and started swinging its head around in fear. Joe could feel the spell holding, so the Blind was working.
Joe used Minor Levitation to get up to the hawk's back and started punching and kicking it. It tried to shake him off, tried to twist its head around and peck him off, but he kept scrambling around thanks to Minor Levitation keeping him aloft even without a firm handhold. Eventually he did kill it from his punches and kicks, but by the time he did another hawk was diving down to the caravan.
Joe teleported back to the caravan but found nothing to aim at. The hawk had completed its dive, but was dead with several arrows sticking out of its head and chest.
“I haven't earned combat experience in decades. I forgot what a rush of adrenaline it was,” Eleanor said, putting her bow away.
“Joe, the horses and livestock and not handling the presence of these hawks well. I think we're going to have to speed up some and rest the horses under the tree cover on the other side,” Tess advised.
“Yeah, that's a good call. I'll move these hawk corpses to the tree line now so I can get back out there and draw their attention better.”
Joe grabbed the corpse of the one full of arrows and used Boost Spell to get all the way to the other side, then repeated that three times to come back for the corpse of the one he punched to death, get it to the trees, and then back to the open area before any more hawks showed up.
- - - - -
Joe gained one more level in Ranged Weapons and Spell Conduits from using his gun to kill many off the hawks.
Joe took the handcart back from Melanie as the caravan got to the tree line on the other side of the plains and she moved back out to the open area. She wanted to kill her own hawk before they left the area. Joe believed she could do it, but again cast Karmic Bond on her and himself, just in case.
The giant hawks never expect people to avoid their dive bombs, but her Speed Boost made that pretty easy. Its feathers caught on fire as she started swinging away with her Channel Fire fueled sword attacks. She dragged the corpse to the caravan under the trees and Joe began to Harvest the seven corpses they had gathered by then.
More bows, arrows, and meat were all collected. Joe left some meat fresh, but most of it was turned into jerky. As they rested the horses after pushing them harder than normal Joe warned about the creatures he faced in the swamps, which would be next. Melanie should be able to kill a group of Swamplings easily with her Boost Speed. The alligators should be easy for her for the same reason.
The first few batches of swamplings were killed just as easily as Joe expected for Melanie. Instead of harvesting completed Potions of Speed from them, he just harvested their adrenal glands so he could have Eleanor teach him how to make them through Alchemy when they got back to town. The Harvest spell gave him both adrenal glands for each one suspended in a solution of alcohol in a sealed flask.
About halfway through the swamp Joe could no longer find any swamplings or alligators with the sight options of his hat. Portions of the swamp looked frozen in the distance, far out from the road. Joe used Telescopic Sight to get a closer look but didn't see anything that could account for the randomly frozen bits of swamp.
Joe heard a roar far in the distance above the swamp. His Telescopic Sight allowed him the first view of the cause of the freezing.
“Uh, guys? Can dragons be reasoned with, or do we need to fight?”
“There's no fighting dragons, Joe. If it notices us we're lunch,” Tess answered stoically.
“Challenge accepted,” Joe said.