Jasper released his dedicated Energy allocated to his mentalism knowledge. He would probably still need it later to write a new tome. However, he also knew that trying to change Energy dedication in a critical situation might prove difficult, if not impossible.
On the other hand, Celeste seemed very happy with how things were going, and as they left town, she explained the Oath King Marcus had given her.
Jasper rolled his eyes. His wife could easily dedicate Impact to ensuring that she held up her end of the bargain, though it sounded like she would need to focus on not spending her resources too rapidly.
The oak forest outside of town was nice and warm. The sun peaking through the branches made what could have been a dark and gloomy forest feel welcoming, especially with the newly sprouted oak leaves, which the sun could easily shine through.
Everything felt so wonderful, especially when it was shared with someone you cared about. Celeste was still getting used to everything being so lifelike, but she was adapting quickly, treating the walk through the forest as simply going for a stroll. Just like they did in the real world.
The only difference was that when they walked in the real world, they had a plan and route in mind, but thanks to Celeste's Journey Domain they only paused after half an hour of aimless walking, none of them worries about getting lost.
"So we need to find a place with iron." Jasper finally said, and Celeste nodded.
"Yup, but none of us can feel it in the earth, so I was honestly hoping that you could do some knowledge magic and just know where the best place to set something up would be," Celeste said, giving her husband the biggest doe eyes that she could.
Jasper rolled his eyes. Of course, he could. There were no questions about him helping her out.
Jasper wondered what the best way of doing this would be. He could perform a miracle, like when he tried to get into Marcusburg, though that took a ton of Energy for the entire day. The god of Knowledge could also use his unspent Power Points to gain access to a knowledge power that could help him. However, with other options available, this didn't feel like an emergency. Finally, Jasper could also create a permanent item that could scan for iron using his Worship, though it would likely cost a lot more points than he had.
He thought about it long enough that Celeste poked him in the ribs. "Fine fine! Yes, I will help! Just give me a second. I was thinking about the best way of doing this. Either spending my unspent domain power points or just using Energy." He explained. Jasper knew he tended to get caught up in his head, and his wife had encouraged him to share more.
"First off, you still have unspent domain power points? Why?" Celeste asked, and Jasper laughed sheepishly.
"Well, what if I needed them for something awesome later?" Jasper countered, making Celeste's turn to roll her eyes.
"Fine, not the thing I want to discuss, but what do you mean that you can use energy?" She added.
Jasper took the glasses off and put them in a pocket on the inside of his robes. He wasn't worried that they might get destroyed. After all, Celeste could easily repair them.
"Well, Powers are the best way for you to spend Energy, however, it is not the only way. Powers are just the most cost-effective way of doing things. You can spend Energy to perform a miracle as well. Essentially, you think of something that would be within one of your Domain and try to make it happen. The trade-off is, as far as I can tell, that you dedicate Energy for an entire day, even if what you are getting out of it should only have used Energy until the next loading screen." He explained. "Furthermore, there is one more way to spend Energy, though it is probably the most expensive option. You can use any power in your arsenal, though the cost is that you dedicate Energy for the day to access it, meaning that if the power also costs Energy for the day, you end up spending two Energy for the day on a single power, which is the reason why it is always better to buy the powers you want to use... but it is possible to do." He concluded.
Celeste rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to wrap her mind around the hidden features of this game. She couldn't help but notice that Jasper had barely taken time to breathe through that rant.
"I would say go for the miracle, it would be a shame to waste the points," She said hoping that she could contribute at least a little to the decision-making.
Jasper felt the Energy pour out of him. Knowledge flooded his mind as he became aware of the geological structure of the entire area. As his mind was filled with this knowledge, he struggled. It was almost too much to handle.
He could see worry in Celeste's eyes, a hint of fear. At that moment, they both knew that the amount of 'Fun Facts' that Jasper could spew about the minerals and earth in the area would probably kill them both.
Jasper struggled not to mention the rich clay-infused soil in which the trees grew, but he regained his senses.
Without a word he simply pointed in a direction, but he still felt the urge to tell her that it was also the direction which one of the tectonicplates were moving.
Celeste didn't ask questions, knowing that something that basic might just have her husband talking about the average crust density for the next hour.
It took less than an hour of walking to reach the spot Jasper had designated for the mine.
As they walked, the landscape became more hilly, though it didn't affect the density of the trees. They did spot a couple of boulders lying around, scattered between the trees, which was the only indicator that the geological terrain had changed.
The gods paused when they heard voices coming from the other side of the hill. The voices were accompanied by the sounds of someone breaking the stone with iron tools.
Celeste and Jasper didn't even have to look at each other before they both started sneaking closer.
This could just be villagers from Marcusburg, but it seemed unlikely as the King had sent them out to claim a mine. Sneaking closer, the gods soon spotted what was making the noise.
A group of greenskins were hammering away at the stone. The rocks broke under their might before they were picked up by some much smaller green creatures and thrown into massive sacks. The sacks were thrown into a cart which was already struggling under the weight.
Celeste slowly pulled back and looked at her husband. Jasper did the same, allowing them to talk quietly among themselves.
"What do you think?" Celeste asked.
"Good question. I am not sure if they are hostile. We haven't heard anything along those lines from the villagers, but then again, they don't even know that there are orks in the forest. I am sure we would have heard as much. I am fairly sure that the small guys are goblins, though without someone doing a deep dive into ork culture, I am not really able to tell you what that means. We could try and negotiate with them, but that would lose us the element of surprise, or we can try and storm them." He explained.
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Celeste shook her head. "Violence begets violence. If we go in there with the intention of killing, we will not be able to gain them as a resource." She argued, and Jasper felt proud of his wife.
She was greedy as hell, and wouldn't let a potential ally pass her by. Jasper smiled and nodded.
"Well, then let's make an alliance." He said with a smirk.
Celeste swallowed hard as she stepped onto the ridge of the small hill overlooking the minicamp.
One of the greenskins almost instantly spotted her, the ork howling with fury and alerting the camp to her presence. Celeste prepared herself to try and turn time back but found that she had only one Energy left, the goddess had forgotten that she had spent one to create the oath, meaning that she couldn't access the time power that allowed her to roll back time.
However, instead of rushing the humans, the orks and goblins seemed to form into small groups. It didn't take long before a massive ork stepped from a ragged tent, the only structure in the mine.
The Ork was almost twice Celeste's size, even towering over the others in the camp. He was sporting metal plating that had been knitted to leather scraps, making the entire outfit seem like it had been hastily assembled, though Celeste recognised that it would still be quite effective.
The massive ork looked to her and then to Jasper, who was standing behind her.
"Hu yah be and what ya want?" The ork asked, its words clipped and commanding.
Celeste wasn't sure what to answer, they were here to take over the mine, though she didn't want to fight.
"I am here to talk about sharing this area. I can help increase the amount of ore you receive from this mine, and I can help you refine it as well." She suggested, though she had no idea why she was the one talking to the orkish warlord, since she wasn't the best at negotiations. She could almost see the shift in the ork's face when she suggested they could share the mine.
The ork grinned and shook his head. "Share, what are urz? No. Why bother?" He asked though it seemed rhetorical.
Celeste had to agree. She didn't have much claim to the mine besides that Marcusburg was nearby. It seemed vague at best, and Celeste knew that her offer of helping them increase production might not have any appeal if it meant that the overall resource would be lower.
"Kill 'em" The ork's words were casual and dismissive, and before Celeste or Jasper could react, a horde of goblins and orks were storming towards them.
Most of them were ill-equipped and didn't have armour, but the metal tools they had been using were far beyond anything Marcusburg used.
Jasper was the first to react, hurling a ball of fire towards the group of orks, hoping to incinerate as many of them as possible. However, the spell went wide, hitting a tree and setting it ablaze. Jasper couldn't help but consider that he should have trained with some of the guards in town before he got into a real fight.
Celeste was quick to follow up. She dedicated her remaining Energy to Withering Hour and felt the power flow through her. She poured her will into the power, and pointing her hand at the green horde, she let her powers consume their time.
Three orcs started to wither away, but one was pulled out of her temporal field, saving their life, while the other two became dust and rot.
Then the orks were upon them. The weapons were hard to dodge, though thanks to Celeste's ability to see the attacks in the future she felt her body move in a flowing motion. She dodged the attacks, feeling a couple of pickaxes graze her but nothing more. She cringed when the future showed her that she was in a no-win situation. If she didn't dodge the next attack, the follow-up would kill her, though avoiding it would leave her open to another attack, which would simply hurt her. She didn't have a choice in the matter.
She took the non-lethal hit, and pain flowed through her, though not to the degree she had expected. It was the only reminder that she was in a game and not in real danger, as the pain was more a dull ache than mind-shattering trauma. A quick check of her health revealed that she had taken 1 point of damage.
Jasper, on the other hand, was doing everything in his power to try and erect magical barriers to block out the attacks. As soon as one broke he would chant an incantation and erect another, layering them upon each other.
The god of magic realized that he was fighting on the defensive, and the orks were pushing him back, putting him in a losing position. He would have to start turning some of them to dust to win the engagement.
Jasper quickly decided to try another one of his spells, this time following his own advice and using hand motions and incantations to cast it, instead of just willing a fireball into existence like before.
"Pyros, Presentis, Presentis, Pyros, Magus" He called out the magical words that he had been teaching just this morning, and found himself with much more control over the magic, and as any proper spellcaster, he ended the incantation by announcing the spell's name.
"OCEAN OF FLAME!"
Thick fire spread from him, burning the orcs that had been trying to overrun him. Power poured into the spell, and eight of the orcs were instantly burned to a crisp. Had he been more skilled at Elementalism, he might have been able to put out the flames that ignited the forest around him in the same breath, but Jasper wasn't at the level he had been yesterday when he had dedicated Energy.
Celeste managed to dodge the flames that poured from her husband, though only due to her foresight. She got the feeling that armour wouldn't have protected against those flames, and she would most likely have burned to a crisp.
Almost half of the orc horde had been eradicated already, and they had barely taken any hits. She had expected the horde to flee, though the reason why they hadn't became clear as the leader was running up the hill towards them.
The Architect of Reality decided to target him, letting her husband focus on the horde around them. With nothing but a thought, she tried to wither him where he stood, but as she threw her power out, the massive ork jumped, and she lost her focus on him.
It didn't take long to refocus, but as she did, she saw him plummet through the air, landing a clean hit on Jasper's face with a padded knee. As the attack didn't target Celeste, she had no foresight of it, and she winced as she could only watch her husband get knocked down.
Jasper groaned as he was pinned against the dirt and the ork. This should have hurt a lot, but thanks to the Deep Dive helmets, the pain was reduced to simple aches.
Celeste tried to level another withering hour at the ork boss but was forced to pull back as she was attacked by the horde around her. None of them managed to land a hit on her, thanks to her powers, though she didn't feel like she had as explosive attacks as Jasper.
The horde didn't show any mercy to the spellcaster as the ork boss had him pinned under a knee. The greenskins managed to hit him over and over again with pickaxes, though most of them only scored glancing blows thanks to his endurance domain.
Jasper looked at his health. 7 out of 10. It wasn't as bad as he would have expected, though it was not optimal. The ork boss pressing against his face made it hard to think, and Jasper tried to assign his remaining points to his Endurance domain, only for the notification box to spawn inside the body of the massive ork. Not only that but picking powers left him open to further attacks.
The mage didn't have a combat build, the only reason why he had been able to do as much damage was due to the Elementalist spell school. He tried casting another spell, though with his face mushed into the ground he couldn't throw out incantations for another Ocean of Flame.
Instead, Jasper focused on using a gust of wind to throw the Ork Boss back, allowing the god to get free from the pin. He groaned, feeling the effects of the beatings on his body, and as he got up, it was like he had been sleeping wrong.
Celeste was quick to follow up on the ork being thrown back. Without being able to navigate in mid-air, the ork boss was an easy target for her powers. The ork crumbled under the weight of time itself. Her willpower forced him to age rapidly. The ork boss never landed, instead scattering to the wind as dust, which was consumed by the burning trees.
The horde of orks seemed to realize their leader wouldn't be backing them up and scattered.
Jasper slowly walked around, using his Elementalist powers to extinguish the flames that were quickly consuming the trees around him.
Once done, Celeste hugged him.
"I don't like fighting," She said, and Jasper knew what she meant.
The fighting had felt real, even if the pain was minimal, the adrenaline of combat was intense. It was as if their life had depended on the fight, and for a brief moment, Jasper had feared for his life.
"You know, we did well though. Even though none of us have focused on combat, we still managed to beat almost 25 orks and their leader." He said with a grin, knowing that it was important that Celeste had a positive experience with the game.
Celeste gave him a soft slap on the head, only afterwards realizing that she might have been hitting the place where the ork boss had kneed him.
"Sorry. But you know, I had thought that combat would be a lot easier with us being gods and everything." She said, still hugging her husband.
He hugged her back now that they weren't in danger of burning down the forest.
"I know what you mean. Seems like we aren't really that powerful yet. We might need to rank up a bit before we can show off." He said with a sigh.
Celeste nodded, and they stayed in the hug for a bit longer.