1 Broka 10,391 day 10 of trip
In the morning it was a similar routine except this time it was only Six and Denny leaving camp and they did not intend to return for days.
They started up the mountain and soon Six was breathing heavy. It was much harder to keep up with Denny today, so hard that Six had to abandon any semblance of stealth. They climbed through the dense shrubs and over rotting logs, along and up stony ridglines. They didn’t go far up the mountain but far enough to see over the forest below and behind them. The green canopy stretching as far as the eye could see, it was breathtaking.
It took just over an hour before they took a break and Six could see an increase in Athletics.
“Alright,” Denny began. “Now how’s this for yer? Middle of nowhere.”
Six showed two thumbs up.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, this looks great Denny. Thank you for all your help.”
“Well I’m not done yet. Now that we aren’t leading those people we won’t need to slow down.”
“Is that why we came here so fast?”
Denny nodded. “I’m going to push you hard these next few days.”
Six controlled his breath and cycled air slowly, five counts in, hold for three counts, five counts out. Forcing himself to catch his breath and slow his heart. He mentally prepared for three days of nonstop focus and exertion. He could do that. It would suck, but then it would end.
Denny grunted. “First, I will teach you the art of trapping. This is to provide and protect. This is the last skill I will teach you. After we get you the Trapping Skill I will just focus on improving on your weaknesses and hopefully get you thinking in the right mindset.”
Six nodded. “Yes Denny.”
They spent the rest of the morning learning about traps. Trip wires, pit falls, and dead falls. Denny showed Six a variety of snares and Six focused with unwavering attention. Traps were a way to apply damage while being completely safe elsewhere, a powerful tactical mechanic. Six wanted to retain as much as possible and he noticed his Unbound Comprehension aiding in that. Denny had Six set a few up and tripped them, Denny then critiqued Six’s setting and dressing of the traps. It wasn’t mean, just constructive. By lunch Six had learned a significant amount.
Skill Gained: Trapping
Each level provides a 1% increase to the difficulty to detect the trap and the efficacy of any secondary effect of the trap interaction.
Skill Increase: Trapping - Initiate - 3
They settled down for some food and Six gave his raccoon a good skritch as Denny sipped from his water skin.
Denny cleared his throat. “Six… You have Blood Magic.”
Six blinked, he guessed he wasn’t as discrete as he thought. “I do.”
“That's bad.”
“Why?”
“Higher forms of magic mess with yer head.”
“I am fine, am I not?”
“For now,” the old man grumbled.
“Thank you Denny. I know it's illegal aswell. I’ll be careful.”
The old man looked irritated. “There is also the fact that, you have a Luck attribute.”
“Yea and?”
“Well, it's not a primary attribute and I’ve never heard of someone having it for a secondary attribute but, here you are.”
“Firstly, did you analyze me?”
Denny nodded. “I was gonna teach yah and I wanted to know more about yah.”
“Well, ok. So I got a Luck attribute, do you care?”
“I don’t, no, but there are others on Zarmul who would. Secondary attributes are highly sought after. Most are unlocked through certain classes and sometimes awarded for Formative Moments. You do not have a Class and I doubt you have created a Formative Moment so where it comes from I do not know. As well as you having a Gift? If Irduth knew of these two differences, you may have found yourself conscripted by the church or taken by a different power one day.”
“Yes, well, not much I can do about that at this moment.”
“You could willingly join a faction and have them develop you to a stage where you can properly defend yourself.”
“I’ll take my chances on the mountain. “
“Mmm. How many levels of trapping did you gain?”
“Three.”
“Heh, a powerful Gift indeed. It would take most, a few days to get those first three levels. You managed it in hours.” Denny put his waterskin away. “Come, there is no time to waste, we must train.”
For the rest of the night and the next two days there was a continual pressure, Six slept for 5 hours each night before Denny woke him. Denny did not sleep at all. They trained whatever the situation called for and with how Denny kept him moving they encountered many different situations.
Six fought the monsters alone. Relying on his massive health pool and near endless endurance to bulldoze and overwhelm his opponents, his style focused on trading damage and it forced him to confront one painful injury after another. Still, he was never wounded so bad it wouldn’t heal.
Denny stood vigil as Six cleared out a small cave that was infested with dog-sized spiders.
The stupid creatures doomed themselves by rushing him as he stood at the chokepoint to their cave. It was easy to swing and cross-check endlessly, his stamina regen was so high it felt like he could stand there for hours He began the fight with his trusty earth glaive but had quickly switched to a maul mid-fight, the spiders hard exoskeleton was resistant to the slashes and stabs of the glaive. The maul was enchanted with earth mana and Six had one lucky hit that shattered the creature into fragments.
Skill gained: Maces - Initiate - Level 1
Each level provides an increase of 0.5% of damage from end weighted weapons. Current increase 0.5%
Six had taken many stabs from the sharp legs of the spiders but once he had cleared the den of movement he soon healed the damage. He had expected that to be harder and told Denny as much.
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“This nest is maybe a week old.”
There was a pile of gore right at the mount of the cave, Six stepped over and inside, the cave was small and the light that streamed through the opening was enough to show him the piles of eggs. It also illuminated a small spring fed stream that came from the back of the cave. Well shit, with a little elbow grease this could be a nice safe hole to sleep in.
But for now he was training.
By the morning of the thirteenth day Six had gained another round of Skill increases to almost all of his skills.
But Denny had no more time to spare. “Alright Six, it's been nice. I hope you find what you're looking for out here, it's time I go.”
“Thanks Denny.” Six shook hands with the old man and inclined his head in respect. A manly nod. Denny had taught Six much and had been nice all the way, that was to be respected.
Six handed a bag of 45 gold over. “Remaining payment for services. I wish I could give you more because these extra two days have been extremely valuable but I just can’t afford it.”
Denny clapped Six on the arm. “Don’t worry about it, in fact, keep it.”
Six struggled to find the words. “But Denny… it’s 45 gold!”
He chuckled and waved it away. “Spend it in the village. I saw how you tried, how you did some good. You helped despite how much you whined. Also, consider it a discount because of what I learned from Charles. I’ve met a few evolved people and not one told me of the item requirement.”
“It's not a requirement.”
“It may as well be.”
“Yea sorry, I know what you mean.”
Denny pushed the bag back at Six. “I don’t need the gold but I would like a friend and place to stay next time I’m in the area.”
“Oh? You’re coming back?”
“Thinkin about retirement. I’m an old Six. Maybe evolving will ignite me again but right about now, I’m tired. Just wanna settle down, maybe become a guard. These people are nice and there's plenty of room to find a slice for myself.”
“Why not just stay?”
Denny made a wry smile. “I have some things to settle but who knows, I think I’ll come back sometime next year, after the snow. Snow is heavy round here, by the way. More the higher you go.”
“I’ll start gathering wood now.” Six looked at the coin pouch and gestured it towards Denny with his eyebrows raised. Denny made a negative gesture and Six shrugged before pocketing the coins.
They shook hands once more and Denny departed down the mountain towards the village in the glade.
Save for his raccoon, Six was alone.
He took a moment to savour nature. He looked away from the mountain and across the lands. Wispy white clouds, a blue sky and an endless sea of green. The detail was crisp and pristine, no smog to sully the landscape. He breathed deep and found a ray of sunshine to bask in. He laid on his back and just relaxed.
There was no one around but him and with that came a certain release of pressure. He was no longer in a social space and a different part of himself came to the fore. His mind turned to his desire to create.
First things first. He knew where he could find water, and a relatively safe place to sleep so he set out in what he thought was the right direction. He and Denny have covered alot of ground these past few days but Six was confident in his navigation and he eventually found the cave he was looking for.
It looked like the spider gore at the front had been fed upon but there were no new tracks leading inside. Still, Six was careful and held his weapon at the ready as he slowly crept into the foul cave. It was empty of anything dangerous, just the mounds of eggs were present. Six spent the rest of the day cleaning. He moved the eggs out first, he wasn’t sure if the spatial ring would kill them or not. He might burn them, or maybe take them to Indigo. Then using a pot and broom from his spatial and the water from the spring in the cave, he slowly washed the gore and pieces of giant spider out. He used a torch to clear the final bit of webs off the ceiling and took a break.
Stepping outside to the setting sun Six went to do something about the eggs only to find them gone and instead there was his raccoon, lying on its back, belly distended, it purred in victory.
“What the fuck… you need a name, you little glutton.” This was his pet and he hadn’t named it yet. “You will be, uhhh, Nibbler.”
Skill Increase : Taming - Initiate - 8
Nibbler froze for a second, its purring ceasing momentarily. It relaxed and went back to soaking up the sun. Must have farted or something.
The eggs were gone and Six moved on from that idea. He needed a door to this cave and he wasn't too sure on how he could make it work. After some thought he came up with a simple solution. Using Stonewall Six narrowed the opening of the cave to the size of a small man. Six had to crouch a bit to enter but he wanted a small opening. The spring’s stream had a small cut out that Six had been careful to leave open for drainage. On the inside he created a Stonewall just larger than the opening and while it was heavy, it was actually quite easy to move by walking it along on its corners. He was already strong when he came here and the extra four points he put into strength were actually a huge difference in helping him maneuver this stone slab.
When properly placed it acted as a door to the opening. To prevent it from being pushed open Six cut down a young tree and made a robust door jam out of it. With that in place the stone slab could not be shifted away.
There were small gaps for the water and a flue for air flow but Six could have Ravna create grates to cover them.
He sat in the halo of a small lamp and he thought about his adventure so far. He smiled. Yes there was pain, his skin still bore the scars of boars, bandits, Irduth, of spiders and canines, but, there were huge rewards to go alongside the pain. Now, he had a place of his own, something that was extremely unlikely in his previous life.
This was the true power fantasy.
He slept well that night despite his dreams of being atop crumbling apartment buildings.
4, Broka, 10,391
He spent the morning building a fire and relaxing. The cave was nice but he didn’t really want to live in a cave. He would need to get stronger and train. That means hunting and figuring out what was wrong with his Ley Core.
Error note: Ley Node affinities are being redirected and/or blocked. The Ley affinities, and the Spire Mountain mana pool and mana regen are restricted until this issue has been resolved.
Something was interfering with his connection to the Ley Core and he needed to clear it. But where? It was unlikely that it was on the surface, the Ley Core was connected to the land and that connection was probably within the land. He needed to find other caves. Surely some would lead inside the mountain. That is where he would fix that problem. He could feel it in his bones. He didn’t look forward to becoming a spelunker, it had always seemed sketchy, but it needed to be done.
Until then he needed to hunt monsters and grow. There was no point in building something fancy for himself until he could protect it. This cave would do.
He needed to repair his armor before endangering himself further so he began to descend and eventually found his way to the settlement that was growing next to the river pool. A ditch had been dug and a palisade had already been erected, there was one longhouse almost finished. The longhouse looked big enough to hold forty people, double if everyone squeezed. Five or ten more of those and no one would have to sleep outside.
Six made his way around and soon found Ravna. She was sharpening an axe on a grindstone and lifted an eyebrow when she saw Six step up.
“Six.” She spoke somewhat curtly but inclined her head. “How can I help you?”
“Looking to get my armor repaired.”
“No can do.”
“Oh?”
“I was talking about you to Alison.”
“About me? Oh my.”
“Yea and imagine my surprise when she said that you were out for yourself and we shouldn’t expect to see you anytime soon.”
“That makes sense that she would say that?” He had been clear with his intentions.
“It's been what? Four or five days?”
“Something like that.”
“That's pretty soon to me.”
“Now who's being pedantic?”
“Whatever, listen, even if you were staying to help, I can fix that without a proper forge and it will be a while before Franklin and the others are free to help me build a forge. After the houses there is a townhall, a healer's hut and then my smithy.
Six looked around at the activity and made a rough estimate. “That's like two weeks away.”
She nodded with an exaggerated face of frustration. “But I can still move forward on these smaller tasks.”
“What if I made you a smithy? I worked on a few residential projects back home. I’m confident I could make a basic one if you don’t need it to be fancy.”
She looked at him with a stare of skepticism.
“I’ll build it first. Then you pay me.”
“How much do you want for an entire smithy?
“Well I’m not putting tools in it, no anvil or anything like that, just the building.”
She nodded.
“I dunno, how much should something like this cost? Would it be free if you wait for the village to do it for you?”
“No, I would owe them and would pay it off through completing a free contract for a year.”
“How many weeks in a year?” Six asked.
Ravna looked at him with a face of incredulity.
“Charles usually tells me this stuff.”
“Forty eight.”
“Ok, I'll make this smithy for you and you complete uuuuh, twenty four contracts?”
She thought about it. “I want to supervise, and have final say on layout.”
“Does each piece of armor count as a single contract or does the set count as one?”
“Sets count as one and sets are defined in the smithing guild guidelines.”
“Done!” Six said. He was excited. He was confident in having the building completed in less than a week. Once he had his armor repaired he would start grinding, until then he had a cool project to work on.
They began to work out the details of the build and drew a rough floor plan. Ravna talked about the forge and her needs regarding it. She lacked a spot to build it but would go and buy a plot from Alison. It really wouldn’t cost much, at this point in the settling process it was more of a formality and acknowledgement of ownership. Once she had the deed Six would begin construction, that would be tomorrow. Six thanked Ravna and left back to his cave. He spent the rest of his day making a dozen raised garden beds, the spring stream flowing right next to them. He planted the seeds and potatoes he brought and watered them. There wasn’t enough time to apply the Plant Growth buff but now was a perfect time to experiment with the spell.
Six performed the gestures and incanted the spell. “Plant Growth!”
Spell: Plant Growth
Rank: Minor
Cooldown: N/A
Range: 2km
Casting Time: Instant
Duration: Channeled
Mana Cost: Variable
Effect: Channel the spell to affect the growth of plants in a chosen area of effect, speed of growth depends on size of area, mana expended and the level of the Earth Magic skill. If channeled uninterrupted for half a day, the area’s vegetation will benefit from a temporary 200% growth buff.
Nothing happened. Six kept channeling the spell. There was a fine degree of mana flow control with this spell. Even with a low amount of mana regen Six could maintain the spell indefinitely over the entire two kilometer radius. He supposed that's how he was meant to apply the growth buff but it would take until the morning to cast that so he continued to experiment.
He reduced the area and discovered that he could place an area of effect wherever he could see within the spells range. This didn’t become significant until Six reduced the area to the size of a flower and pumped as much mana as he could as fast as he could, into the spell. The seedling he targeted squirmed and shot up almost two feet in a second before he ran out of mana.
He had not even dipped into his health and yet he had achieved two feet of growth. He began to Bloodcast in his solitude. He grit through the pain it elicited and revelled as the plants grew to his command. With a precise control of an area he could control the direction and overall shape of how a plant grew. With the right plant he could grow many different things, His mind went to cart wheels and beams. He could use this to make a perfect mast for a ship. It took a great amount of mana but the result was incredibly gratifying to him. It was almost as if he was sculpting.
The skill increase was gratifying aswell.
Skill increase:
Earth magic - Initiate - 8
Blood magic - Initiate - 4
Blood casting - Initiate - 4
Six worked into the darkness of dusk before he retired inside his cave and jammed the stone slab. He read his book on masonry in the dim light of the lamp gaining a level in that before falling asleep.