The daekais’ eyes widened and he launched itself up off the boulder, flapping wings sending leaves and dirt scattering as he tried to escape. Max didn’t wait for him to get airborne in case he started zigzagging or something. He hurled the stone Orb, which struck the daekais in the chest with a sickening crunch of shattered ribs. A red -15 HP floated up. The daekais flew backwards, legs and arms limp as he landed in a heap on his back. This time, another red damage indicator didn’t rise, and Max suspected that this meant the guy was dead before he hit the ground. The daekais didn’t move again.
Critical Hit!
You have killed (1) Daekais Looter, Level 2!
You gained 100 XP!
Loot corpse?
You gained a skill!
Critical Hit.
Proficiency Type: Combat.
Level: 1.
You gained 25 XP!
Max brushed aside the messages. By now, the other daekais who’d crashed had risen to his feet to stare in horror at his dead companion. Max noticed his MP had regenerated to 1, just enough for Hand of the Grave.
“Feel the touch of Krairon,” he said, extending his arm. As the spectral hand soared across the ground and grabbed the daekais by the throat, his victim just watched helplessly, as if too afraid to move. He let out an awful shriek, peeing himself. Then he fell face first to the ground.
You have killed (1) Daekais Looter, Level 1!
You gained 50 XP!
Loot corpse?
Max let out a breath and looked around. The other daekais didn’t appear to be returning. Not yet, anyway. Maybe they’d come with reinforcements. He hurried over to the bodies and looted them just by accepting the prompt to do so; he didn’t have to rifle through their soiled, torn tunics or touch their grimy bodies, which he could now smell. Being this close afforded a better look, but there wasn’t much that differed from the character creation screen except that each appeared distinct in some way like real people did. Only now did he notice that there was no sign of the stone Orb of Doom he’d thrown. Had it rolled away, disintegrated, or just ceased to exist when the spell ended?
He received two slings of poor quality, two knives of terrible quality that were obviously useless and he threw away, two pouches with twenty-two stones total, a bunch of daekais feathers, a poor quality pack of valend cards, three talons, and two teeth. He wasn’t sure what the talons and teeth were good for but suspected crafting. Maybe he could extract the poison.
There were also two good quality talon gloves, which one of the daekais had been wearing. Each was a fingerless leather glove with two sharp hooks protruding beside the pinky and index fingers. These hooks seemed well fashioned, including the sturdy attachment to the glove. He couldn’t tell what they were for, as they didn’t look entirely like weapons even if they could be used as one. They were too small for his hands, but he put them in inventory to potentially sell, or trade to another daekais in exchange for leaving him alone.
The daekais also had 10 circular, metal coins between them: 9 copper pieces and 1 silver. They felt cold like real-world currency. One side read “Neistrum is Divine” and had the image of a money pouch with light shining from the top stamped on it. The other side read “Antaria, Llurien” along the top and had what looked like a date on the bottom. On that side, the copper coins showed a bird of prey with wings outstretched, but the silver piece showed a knight on horseback. The edges of both were milled, and Max picked at the ridges with his fingernail for a moment.
The other coins he’d found were rectangular gems with smooth edges – 8 amethysts and 2 emeralds. They were unmarked and slick on the backside but had designs on the front. As he looked them over, a message told him they were niquerran coins, made by the mountain-dwelling niquerra, who used poor-quality gems as currency. That explained the exquisite craftsmanship, the amethysts showing a fish, and the emeralds carved with what looked like a mountain goat. Wondering at the value, he looked at the message tried to click the words “niquerran coins.” It worked and another notification appeared.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Niquerran Coins:
1 amethyst = 10 cents
10 amethysts = 1 emerald = $1
10 emeralds = 1 ruby = $10
10 rubies = 1 sapphire = $100
10 sapphires = 1 diamond = $1,000
10 diamonds = 1 obsidian = $10,000
Then he pulled up info on the other money.
Metal Coins:
10 iron pieces = 1 copper = $1
10 coppers = 1 silver = $10
10 silvers = 1 gold = $100
10 gold = 1 platinum = $1000
Math was never his strong suit and trying to remember what everything was worth wasn’t helping, but he figured he had over twenty-one dollars. He had no idea what anything cost. At least the game designers told him how much everything related to Earth money as a frame of reference.
He finally looked over all the baubles the daekais wore, but most had no value. He put them into his inventory anyway, figuring he might be able to bribe the next daekais. His health bar’s rising had accelerated with the end of combat, as had his mana regeneration. This was now high enough to cast another spell.
“Mother Llurien,” he began, “mend your child.” He felt the soreness in his forehead vanish as his HP rose by 3. He’d need to wait a minute for more mana to get himself to full. With a glance at the sky, he jogged down the path and into the tree cover before slowing. From now on, he’d try not to make a sound. His Stealth skill would help. The stone Orb of Doom certainly made a noise on impact, so as much as he wanted to practice his aim, it probably wasn’t smart.
He walked north for half an hour, not seeing much else to trouble him. Along the way, he found a stream and quenched his growing thirst. He also practiced a bit with the sling, aiming at the water to minimize the sound of impact. He tried to save the smoother stones the daekais had. They looked to have come from a riverbed, based on their surface features, and he found a few similar ones in the water. Only now did he wonder what had made the trail he walked. Clearly the daekais had no need. What else was out here? As he did this, he gained two more skills at level one. Each giving 25 XP. The first was Foraging, the second Slingshot.
With the mountains further behind him, he hoped for some sign of civilization soon, like wagon tracks, an actual sign, or even an abandoned building. But the next thing he encountered was a bunch of humanoid figures lying on the trail and to either side of it. He slipped behind a pine tree and visually scoured all around him. Nothing else seemed to be here. The figures gave no sign of detecting him as the quiet minutes passed. He finally peered around at them a little longer and got a notification.
Riven swarm. Named for their dual nature, riven hate themselves as much as everyone else. They are perpetually dying from disease when not murdering others, and are torn between slumber and a frenzied state. Disturb at your peril.
Max leaned back and looked harder at the terrain. The decaying leaves of autumn were still everywhere. It wasn’t like in his neighborhood, where the landscaping service came by and used leaf blowers to clean everything out. He’d be heard if he went anywhere but the trail, and he wasn’t backtracking. The only way forward was through them. They looked like they were either settling down for a nap or just waking up. But since he couldn’t tell which, waiting them out wasn’t a plan.
He pulled up his Magic Menu, remembering the Sleep spell being there. He had plenty of feathers, the lone material needed, though some had necrotic damage. The spell worked from fifty feet away. With a radius of twenty feet, he might get them all. Their description suggested they were prone to sleep anyway. The necrotic feathers were tempting but he wasn’t sure what that would do. What if they turned into zombies or something? He could make things worse.
He pulled out one of the daekais feathers and reviewed the spell. Before casting it, he wondered what would happen if they didn’t all fall asleep. Would they realize magic had been used on the others? If so and they looked around for the cause, he’d have to stay hidden. He could always cast the spell again, except that it had a two-hour cooldown. If they stayed asleep for the full eight hours, that would work if not being ideal. Hoping for the best, he peered around the tree and retrieved a feather from his inventory into one hand and summoned magic power to infuse him.
“Feel slumber’s call to rest,” he intoned. Then he dropped the feather. As it fell, so too did the riven in the distance. They dropped down, one by one, some tumbling into a comrade to lay in a heap.
You have made (14) riven fall asleep!
You gained 225 XP!
The XP gain surprised Max. Was it worth something to spare a life instead of end it? Maybe the game designers were conscientious. He didn’t much care but appreciated the idea.