With a new cast of Identify, I regained my boosted state of greater clarity.
Their leader, Glod, took a water skin from one of his group and offered it to me, which I accepted. Noticing that his water skin looked a little fancier than the one I had received, I pointed again to it, gesturing for him to hand it over.
“Give you my Zlesh Viper water skin? But why…? You have the water you want,” he asked, looking flummoxed. I did not appreciate being talked back to or second-guessed.
“No, Glod! Don’t do it. It is just playing with you, grow a backbone,” one of their number commented. For the life of me, I could not tell if the speaker had been male or female.
“Many of us. One of him…” a more belligerent member opined, swinging a crude sling. A ranged attack might be worrying…
“Fool! What if he can…” a more even-headed member chastised.
My precious time was being wasted and my patience was being sorely tested as they refused to give in to my demands. I longed to vent my frustrations on something that was weaker than me.
I was severely outnumbered, but from my magical analysis of their leader, I was far from outclassed. In this narrow tunnel, the advantage that they had in numbers would be difficult to bring to bear.
Annoyed, I decided to change the conditions of our little deal.
“All,” I barked in my deepest voice. With luck, my Charisma would be high enough to intimidate these pathetic creatures.
The leader, Glod, addressed me again, a little patronizingly, “Alright, alright! All of our water skins… but first, we need you to help us. There is a Metal Restless One, wandering close to our homes. Perhaps if you…”
Even knowing that the chances were infinitesimally low, I decided to take a half-hearted gamble. "Answer me. Do you know of a way to life that is always full and never runs out?" I asked, keeping my words simple and vaguely hoping that they understood my meaning.
"Strange words from a strange man," Glod responded, his face twisted with curiosity. "Everyone knows there is only the Long Dream, then waking, then the Long Dream again—a cycle. To be awake forever is impossible. One cannot conquer the final sleep. One must always enter the Dream if they wish to wake," he continued in explanation.
"Then, no," I retorted sharply, a natural response to his foolish overture and explanation. I did not like his tone and there simply was no benefit for me.
These pathetic worms were merely wasting my time. Their problems were not mine, and I was under no obligation to help them. Stubbornly, I did however still want all of their water skins. It was the principle of the matter.
I walked up to Glod and loomed over him. I could almost taste his fear.
“All,” I repeated. I definitely did not like repeating myself.
Some people needed reminding of their place.
I flipped the weapon in my hand, causing them all to take a step back, and I smashed the hammer’s head against the wall. The force of the blow sent sparks, splinters and fragments of stone flying.
There was silence as I pointed once again to Glod’s precious water skin, before slicing it off the crude thing that served as his belt. Then, I pointed to them each in turn with my sword, gesturing at the skins at their hips before pointing downwards with my free hand.
“All,” I repeated yet again. If they still refused me I would cut them down to a man.
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The message was clear, for almost all of them threw their water skins down. Slowly they started to back away. Wanting to expedite matters, I smashed my weapon against the wall again, causing fresh sparks to fly. Terrified, they all started to flee. In a moment of rare inspiration, I used Dash and grabbed one of them, a smaller individual, by its long dirty, and matted hair, causing it to scream in abject terror.
Completely abandoning their comrade, the rest of them continued to flee back to the place from which they had come. The fading echoes of their flight served as a testament to their haste. The one I had captured continued to gibber nonsense, most of it howls and grunts interspersed with entreaties for me to spare its little life. It spoke to their strength of character, that they chose to leave one of their own behind, I chuckled to myself. Or perhaps it was simply because their fear of me was just so great?
I lifted the creature I had captured off the ground with one hand. Raising it by the hair to eye level caused it to emit fresh new screams and I could not help but grin. My own Strength surprised me, as a feat such as this would have been impossible not long before.
The thing continued to bleat out nonsense, causing me to realize that the magic of my spell, Identify, had faded. Recasting the spell yet again, I focused on the troglodyte in front of me.
“Please! No! No! I have a family! My brothers and sisters will go hungry without me! After many turns, I finally became a Scout! To end like this…” the Troglodyte continued to beg. I felt an uncharacteristic shard of sympathy lodge itself in my heart before I mercilessly excised it. Perhaps, a side-effect from my constant use of Identify?
Listening intently to the meaning of its words, I began the task absorbing its random blatherings and let my magic do its work. It was almost as if I was downloading raw data, and the magic of the spell was acting as a sort of key that lifted the encryption.
Remembering my time in a cell in Ansan, a brief shiver overcame me. Luckily, my cell had a barred window that gave me a tiny view of a nearby market. There in that cage, I learned the Trade language, absorbing words and ideas while behind bars. In comparison to those early days, my language learning skills were improving, of that there was no doubt.
For the sake of completion, I cast another Identify, not on its words, but this time on the prisoner itself, giving me a vague understanding of its physical and mental capabilities.
Zala - Troglodyte Scout (Human lvl.9)
Health: 121/137
Stamina: 32/41
Mana: 10/10
Zala the Troglodyte Scout was a non-threat, slightly weaker than Glod, but probably substantially more intelligent than him. If Zala’s and Glod’s attributes were anything to go by, they were both generally weak. Perhaps things would have been simpler if I had just rendered them all down for the experience? No, that would not do. A man had to live by the rules that he set for himself. They gave me what I wanted, so I let them live for another day.
Sometimes Zala would grow quiet. The stream of information from the spell would pause until I violently shook the humanoid, causing it to go on a fresh desperate rant. In this way, and over the course of a few experimental hours, I learned their primitive language. Well, at least, I gained a semblance of understanding. The world itself seemed to congratulate me.
You have learned Identify (lvl.4)
You have gained 1 Intelligence.
Finally, a reward for my efforts. Though no improvements to my maximum Mana, at least not yet, I could already feel the gears within my mind turning that little smidgen faster.
I discovered that the troglodyte's language was a tonal one. The inflections on certain grunts that served as words changed the meaning of them. From my improved intellect and my magic, I concluded that the Troglodyte language was also highly contextual. Various ‘words’ had very different meanings depending on the situation in which they were spoken. In short, it was a very difficult language. Odd, indeed, for such a primitive group of people.
When I thought I had learned enough of their cave speak, I waited for my prisoner to quiet down before taking a quick glance at my Status. I had only about a third of my Mana left. I ripped off the creature’s cloth shade and looked into its ever-widening eyes which were doing their very best to look away.
Taking a deep breath, I spoke to the creature thus in my most commanding voice, “Zala, you will take us to the surface.”