Current Quests
The Safety Of Walls: Reach a walled town with Samorn Khantong.
Sam and Dave didn’t have much chance to talk for the rest of the day. To avoid further battles with cultists Sam led them on a trek through some extremely dense terrain and across several streams, in case they had scent trackers. Sam was very, very grateful for Grand Mage’s Gravitas, which, as a function of the ‘feel fresh’ part of the prestidigitation description, dried wet clothes back to dry, fresh comfort. They did encounter a few minor monsters along the way but Sam frightened them off with her beetle swarm familiar.
What Grand Mage’s Gravitas couldn’t help with was the bumps, scrapes, bruises acquired along the way. Even Sam’s perpetual smile was waning when they finally came upon her cabin, tucked away between two hills, a stream not far away and an outhouse. It would, unfortunately, not get the morning or afternoon sun.
Stumbling inside, Sam peeled off her pack and sat down on the bed. Dave took a flask of water, some ham and half a loaf of good bread, looted from the cultists. She smiled and nodded thanks.
“Firewood around the back?” asked Dave wearily.
“Ka,” murmured Sam, sipping water.
Dave potted around for a while with the firewood, made shredded paper to get the fire started, got a pail of fresh water from the stream and Grand Mage’s Gravitas cleaned off Sam and then himself. By the time he was finished, Sam was boiling water for tea over a growing fire and handed the ham and bread to Dave.
“Oh, thanks. Tea smells good,” said Dave with a smile. He ripped the bread in half and stuffed the ham in to make a sandwich.
“It’s cha tra mue tea from home,” Sam smiled back.
“I guess you can’t go back because there’s a good chance that someone will notice your essences if you take public transit?” asked Dave.
Sam nodded with what could only be described as a sad smile.
“Isn’t there a magic way to… hide magic?” asked Dave hesitantly.
“Maybe,” said Sam with a shrug, “higher ranks can mask their aura so maybe.”
“Well, it sounds like that’s another spell I need to learn. Anyway, tomorrow you should probably use this,” said Dave, holding up the balance essence he’d taken from the monastery-chateau.
“Waa! No, I can’t. It’s too expensive. Is yours!” insisted Sam, laughing.
“No, I’m serious,” said Dave, holding it out. “I’ve been looking things up on my HUD, reading as best I can from my book and replayed a few memories with my mind library ability. When we met, you claimed to have a balance essence and the group you joined as a teenager were kind of naturalists and they also offered you the balance essence and… well… the balance of life and death. I’m guessing that was your philosophy, right? The circle of life. It’s not an evil idea, I'm sure! It makes sense, actually. There’s even a god for it! As I said, I’m sure you’re not evil and anyway, even if the essence is all evil the only way to take it out is by a god or some really heavy astral magic, like I said before.”
Dave continued on. He’d really been thinking about this.
“I really think we should just team up and do it. I need to secretly rank up so that an evil, end-the-world cult doesn’t kill me, you need to rank up secretly to make sure you won’t go mad and evil. The only other option is to live in the forest forever and hope. So, take the essence, let’s figure out your awakening stones and we’ll start tomorrow. No, wait! The day after tomorrow. We deserve a rest. Then we can go to town,” finished Dave with a wry grin and pushed the essence at Sam.
Sam hesitated. Dave hesitated at her hesitation.
“Unless I’m completely wrong and you wanted a different kind of essence entirely. I think I have a magic essence? Feast? Light? Or we could quest for something else?” said Dave, scrolling through his inventory in his HUD.
“No! Balance is good,” laughed Sam as she gave in and took the essence.
“Excellent!” said Dave with a grin of relief. “We can quest together and extract money from monster bodies. Free loot, yeah?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Sam, beaming and collapsed into giggles. “Actually, I wouldn’t say yes if you weren’t a looter.”
Dave tried to look affronted but failed.
“Yeah, it seems like a pretty necessary ability to go independant,” he conceded.
At that moment, An icon of Sam appeared below Dave’s icon. Complete with a health, stamina and mana bar. He checked his chat box. Samorn Khanthong has become your follower. He checked his configuration settings. There was now a follower menu with HUD settings. Dave noticed that Sam was no longer a neutral white dot on his minimap, she was blue. Dave kept this to himself for now. It didn’t seem like the time.
The kettle whistled and Sam poured the boiling water into a teapot and left it to steep. At the same time, Dave activated his spellbook, which floated onto the table and opened to a page displaying information about the animate confluence essence, which is what Sam would get with balance added to life and death.
“Well, let’s discuss abilities. May I use my knowledge ability on you and look up your abilities?” asked Dave.
“Alright! Wait, you can do that?” asked Sam.
“Tome, display my ability; Epistemology. Oh, and let her flip through the tooltips of all of my abilities if she likes. With your permission?” asked Dave, raising his hand. Sam, already reading Professor Tome nodded her permission. Dave selected Sam in his HUD, activated Epistemology, entered the search term ‘essence abilities’ and started reading.
Ability: Biogenesis
Essence: Life
Rank: Iron 7. 87% to iron 8
Awakening Stone: None
Type: Familiar
Cost: Very high mana
Cooldown: None
Description
Produce a swarm of life energy that flits and swarms around you as protection in the form of beetles. The beetles follow your commands. You have an empathic sense from them, can be protected by them, healed by them and have them swarm to disrupt and confuse an enemy. Each one counts as a single target for healing effects. If the swarm is not at full count, healthy beetles will perform mitosis until it is. You may absorb the beetles into your skin to increase your rate of health regeneration.
Detailed Information
Dave was wondering about those beetles. He realised that Sam’s swollen eye from their first meeting had already gone away. He’d thought that perhaps she just didn’t bruise easily but this made more sense. Her beetles were a defensive familiar, not an offensive swarm. He read on.
Ability: Corpse Explosion
Essence: Death
Rank: Iron 3. 34% to iron 4
Awakening Stone: None
Type: Spell
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: None
Description
A target corpse explodes with piercing damage and resonating force over a radius proportional to the creature. The damage is equal to the maximum health the corpse once had. This damage is treated as a physical attack and as such, is reduced by distance, armour and damage reduction effects.
Detailed Information
Dave immediately recognised this one as a mob-clearing ability. Whatever was dead, this ability would probably kill or seriously injure another of the same type in the area. He really liked it as an ability. Sam was still browsing his abilities so Dave poured the tea from the teapot into cups.
“Thank you,” said Sam absently, taking the tea, “your abilities are very… useful?”
“Esoteric?” supplied Dave.
“Yeah!” said Sam, laughing.
“Hard to remember?” grinned Dave.
“No wonder you always drop bricks!” said Sam through continuous laughter.
“It’s my only good damage ability!” protested Dave.
“Is fine! Is many bricks,” said Sam in teasing conciliation.
“Well, we’ve looked at each other’s abilities,” said Dave, moving the conversation along, “I think you know as well as I do that your abilities are incomplete. Corpse explosion is powerful but needs a monster to die first and biogenesis is really good defensively but still leaves you with no good way to get a corpse. I think you just need more awakening stones. What’s your assessment of my abilities?”
Sam took a moment to flash her unsure smile, unaccustomed to Dave’s brusque evaluation but then tilted her head, thinking about his abilities.
“Umm, good. But very… how to say? Always thinking?” said Sam hesitantly.
“I know what you mean. Good for knowing things, planning things and finding things. But, no good at all for actually doing anything!” said Dave, rolling his eyes.
“Yes!” said Sam, nodding her head and giggling.
“Well, that confirms my plan.” said Dave, taking his spellbook back, opening to a blank page and he began writing a to-do list. “I need a combat spell that’ll last all day. A summon, most likely. A spell to hide your essences. What else?”
“Umm, watch dog spell!” said Sam. “So we can sleep without finding a cave!”
“Yeah, that must have slowed us down getting here?” said Dave, writing it down as Sam nodded. “Hey! How about a summon horse spell? Or something we could ride? Two birds with one stone?”
“What’s a horse?” asked Sam.
“Oh, large animal. Often used for riding, pulling carts and for farmwork?” said Dave, gesturing a bit with his arms.
“Oh, that’s heidel,” said Sam.
“The hell? Two heads?” Is that normal?” said Dave in surprise.
Sam nodded.
“Well, okay. Yes, how about a summoned heidel? They can probably kick our enemies real hard. An almost bronze rank heidel summon? I can work on that.” said Dave.
Sam smiled. Dave figured that meant ‘yes’.
“Thanks, Professor. Actually, Sam, I should ask. Do you have any awakening stones you’ve been saving for yourself?” said Dave.
“No,” said Sam.
Dave started taking out awakening stones but Sam protested.
“No, I can’t! It’s too expensive!” said Sam aghast.
“If it helps, these aren’t gifts. I have a looting ability, remember? If I make you into a strong teammate then I’ll get more loot more quickly, so no more protesting, Sam. Besides, as we’ve established, I’d have died in this forest without you so these are yours as much as mine,” insisted Dave.
“I’m sure you would make it,” said Sam. “Just walk away from the rising sun each day.”
“That’s a good way for people like me to get lost in the forest and you know it,” said Dave with a grin and an eye roll. Sam covered her mouth and nodded. He changed tack to get her thinking about the idea from a non-expenses angle. “Do you know anything about awakening stone selection?”
“Not really,” said Sam. “Rare ones are good but common ones can also be good? Is confusing.”
“Yeah, it messed up my mind a bit too until I read a good summation in A Treatise On Essences, Awakening Stones And Their Results which used Remore Academy data. They explained it well. Basically, trying to force results with essences and awakening stones seems to be a big no-no. What they recommend is taking all of your essences, seeing what four abilities you get and interpret them as foundations for building a theme. Like the first strokes of a painting or notes of an orchestra piece. Once there, select awakening stones within that theme to have the best chance at abilities with synergies. One example they gave was two students who both had the same essences; Wind, ice and magic into a blizzard confluence.
Well, apparently one of them went with the flow and took inexpensive but thematic awakening stones like magus, tundra and preparation. They got an intuitive ability set and became a respected cryo-mage. The other student, a bit of a snob, absolutely refused to take any awakening stone that wasn't a rare, epic or legendary. They ended up with a puzzling ability set that involved an ability from an awakening stone of dimension that teleported them but only into clouds. Unfortunately, they never got a safe way of coming down from the cloud without an extremely skilled use of several of their other abilities. Apparently, that second student figured out a way to become a flying monster specialist but it took years.
The authors of the book think it’s because the second student’s awakening stone selection was too restrictive and they didn’t provide their essences the opportunity to work together.” Dave sipped his tea and was happy to see that Sam was nodding along with his monologue.
“It’s a bit like telling a story,” said Sam. “If you just say random words, it’s a bad story but if everything fits it’s a good one.”
“That’s the impression, yes. So yours must be a story with life, death, balance and animation,” said Dave.
“I will be like a garden! Green plants, rain and fertiliser!” confirmed Sam.
“Ahh, Sam. You’re practically a poet,” laughed Dave. Her obvious joy at treating herself like a well-tended garden was delightful. They bantered for a while after but soon decided to sleep.
“Nice, soft bed,” bragged Sam lying down on the only mattress in the cabin. “No stones for pillows and wake up so soft.”
Dave grinned and set up his bedroll close to the fire on the hard wooden floor.
They woke the next day at dawn, set about breakfasting and doing basic housekeeping chores around the cabin. At first, it took the form of Dave watching Sam start a cleaning chore and Dave idly waving his hand at it, using Grand Mage’s Gravitas, and Sam finding another chore. It ended with Sam simply piling everything up on the table to be cleaned all at once and Dave complying.
After that they got curious and just started playing around with the ability out of sheer interest. Sam got three logs of wet firewood and Dave set about spending a few minutes drying it out with his prestidigitation to the delight of them both. They tried it with a living branch and a branch freshly broken off a tree.
“Alright; doesn’t work at all on the living tree. Just makes it the cleanest branch in the woods and on the freshly plucked branch, it’ll dry out and clean the outside but won’t dry out the inside. I wonder why that is?” said Dave, as much to himself as Sam.
“Maybe dead wood is only good for fire but fresh wood could also be grafted? Some plants can even grow roots and become a tree if you put the cut branches in good earth.” suggested Sam.
“Oh, yeah! You grow them from cuttings. I remember my neighbour did that with hibiscus when I was little.” said Dave, retrieving an old memory.
Sam nodded enthusiastically and handed Dave a pail of water.
“What’s this for?” asked Dave.
“Maybe you can clean water?” asked Sam.
“Maybe, let me check,” muttered Dave in concentration as he activated his Epistemology ability and queried ‘potable status’. ‘Non-potable water’ with follow up text on common methods of making potable water. The most common were magical purification and boiling.
“Well, I can clean things, I guess,” continued Dave in his distracted muttering and began using his Grand Mage’s Gravitas prestidigitation over the pail of water. A minute later, he repeated his Epistemology search and got ‘potable water’ as an answer with a follow up text on common uses. Unsurprisingly, ‘drinking’ was at the top. He dismissed his pop-up box.
“Yep! Clean drinking water now. Apparently,” said Dave in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You make everything easy!” laughed Sam.
“It’s part of my essence synergies, I guess. Quality of life abilities. Makes sense. How else will I have time to study while monster hunting?” said Dave, gesturing at his spellbook which was hovering nearby.
“Well, now chores are done. You go inside and study. I will check traps and herb garden,” said Sam, waving her hands at Dave to shoo him inside.
“You sure I can’t help?” said Dave, amiably.
“No, city-boy will only get in the way. Make helpful spells, go!” insisted Sam.
So, Dave went inside and did as he was instructed. He went inside, got comfortable and used Pauper’s Paper Production to make a sheet of plain letter paper to write on. Then he made a paper replica of a heidel and stared at them for a good while using his telekinetic scribe ability to take notes.
“What are my tools?” mumbled Dave to himself after a while and started writing a new heading in his notes. ‘Eldritch Eyes - lets me see magic,’ but what can I do to imbue something with magic?”
He read through his own abilities for only a moment before slapping his own head.
“You can telekinetically animate writing implements, Dave,” he said to himself.
Dave spent the next hour telekinetically moving the quill and noting the details of what caused the magical movement. Although it was easy to see that it moved by magical forces, the motive and control of the force came from a core of ethereal magic that was connected to him. Like a bit of his will was projected into it. Remembering, Magician’s Meagre Magics he looked up the prestidigitation.
Prestidigitation: Magician’s Meagre Magics
Description
So long as you concentrate on the prestidigitation, you can manipulate the magic about your person in small ways to perform minor magical effects such as, but not limited to, sparks, small sensory illusions, starting and ending candle-sized flames or controlling other minor elemental effects such as floating stones or controlling water near to you.
Detailed Information
He paused on ‘effects such as floating stones or controlling water very near to you’, Dave experimented with a few of those kinds of tricks and made notes on the similarities and differences between how different kinds of objects moved, those that had to be moved intentionally or those which he could simply instruct and would move on command.
It was approaching lunch time when Dave extended his hand over the paper replica of a heidel and focused his will upon it. The paper heidel, on stiff legs, started walking back and forth underneath his hand. Dave grinned and laughed.
Over lunch, Dave showed Sam his progress. She laughed happily at the paper heidel.
“I thought it’d be bigger!” said Sam.
“I’m getting my technique down using prestidigitations. I’ll commit to a big effort at the end of the day. When are you taking your balance essence?” asked Dave, enjoying the vegetable soup Sam had made.
“End of the day. Might not have energy for chores after a big absorption effort,” said Sam.
“Very sensible. After the expunging with the confluence essence you definitely won’t want to do anything other than be clean and drink wine after that.”
“Yes, wine!”
Dave spent the rest of the day focusing on animating the pieces of paper that he made with Pauper’s Paper Production. He tried making them of different qualities of paper, different types of paper and different sizes. Eventually, he looked up some origami books, learned a few patterns and made a few of them. Learning how to make movable joints was a game changer and so was the idea that you could make each part separately and connect two different origami constructions together. Bringing those concepts into his experiments brought a folded swan waddling across the table while flapping its wings.
He went further. Dave had noticed that his telekinesis of his quill didn’t need him to physically spell out every word in the same way that, when doing handwriting, he had to write every letter. As an extension of his will, the telekinesis was referencing his own concept of writing to perform its function. Dave brought this in line with his already established concept of movable limbs, modular construction and focused this new, layered idea onto a piece of paper. Dave’s hand hovered over a flat piece of paper for a while.
“Be a dog,” he said slowly, concentrating.
The piece of paper twitched hard and then efficiently folded itself into a simple origami dog which followed Dave’s instructions under his hand. Good. A self motivating construct.
It was approaching sunset when Dave went outside, called Sam over, summoned a large piece of paper in five major sections that was about as thick as his palm and then cast his new spell on it: The Animation Of Paper.
They both cheered as the middle piece folded itself up into a flat bottomed boat and the four pieces on the edges folded into sturdy legs. It was very much a sort of land-dingy but it worked. The body of it couldn’t flex much which created an awkward gait but it could walk, and that was a success. They hopped into the boat and let it carry them around. They agreed it was no more or less a smooth ride than any other riding animal but that they’d need seats if they were going to stay in it all day.
“Why you make it a big bathtub?” giggled Sam as she tried standing up in it as the animated paper walked around the cabin.
“It’s a boat!” called Dave from the side who was still taking notes for improvements. “Most of the patterns for animals had a vertical bit of paper for the body and it seemed a poor idea to ride that all day. Then Tome made me realise that I’m just using animals out of habit! It’s not really alive. It can be any shape I want!”
“Alright!” said Sam, grinning mischievously. “Now make it a comfortable walking boat!”
After enjoying the novelty, they hopped out and tested the combat capability of this paper construction. They found that without them in it, it could gallop and ram into things quite heavily as well as kick and stomp as savagely as any large pack animal.
“It’ll take damage doing those attacks but it’ll keep us alive,” said Dave pursing his lips.
“I like it. No more sore feet,” said Sam.
“Sore bum,” said Dave with a look of anticipated regret.
“Just make seats now?” asked Sam with a quizzical look.
“Hmm?” buzzed Dave, not understanding.
“Just make seats to put inside? You made walls, you made bricks and wand holder. Why not make seats and we,” Sam stood next to the construction and mimed picking something up off the ground and putting it inside the construction, “put them inside the boat?”
Finally understanding Dave covered his face and laughed.
“Typical Dave mistake! Thanks. Here I am trying to solve every problem at once when I can just,” Dave concentrated on a mental image of two sturdy, cardboard, slightly reclining chairs with high backs and headrests. “Milled for my purpose, solve one problem at a time.”
Two cardboard replicas of car seats appeared in the back of the animated leg-boat. It was getting cold and dark so Sam and Dave tried the seats out briefly as the animated boat carried them to the creek with Sam’s balance essence. In the boat Sam took a bar of soap, a bottle of pleasantly warm water, a towel and a plan. Dave brought a bottle of wine and two cups.
The plan was that Sam would take the balance essence, they’d toast to her new ability and then she would take the confluence essence while in the swiftest part of the stream. The purging would happen, she could use soap to wash all of the gunk off her body, pour the warm water over herself, wrap a towel around her body and hop into the boat golem, which they had taken to calling it, after which the golem would run back to the cabin and Sam could get inside and get warm before catching a cold. Once in the cabin, Dave could use Grand Mage’s Gravitas to get Sam fully clean and dry again.
Next to the stream, Sam had her hand on the spellbook with Dave while he chanted out the words to activate it. Then, Sam picked up a stone which was both smokey and clear but always displayed a yin-yang symbol no matter how you looked at it, and activated the ability. It absorbed gently into her skin.
“Oh! That’s… a feeling. Is like falling and jumping at the same time, somehow,” said Sam putting her hands over her belly.
Dave forced himself to be patient.
Three lights exited Sam's body, one that looked verdant in every colour, one that seemed to be the antonym of every colour, always fading to nothingness and one that always rotated between even halves. They came out in arcs, rotated in front of Sam, came together and made an opal-like rock with strings of colour in the shape of bones. Sam held her animate confluence essence with a grin.
“I got an ability that lets me switch two people’s health, mana and stamina,” said Sam. Dave, however, was already reading it in her character sheet that he had access to. It was called Transpose Composition and it switched the relative amounts of those stats, not the numbers so it was very powerful. He felt like looking things up with this might be an invasion of privacy but from his tentative clicks around Sam’s character sheet, it seems that his UI only displayed facts about her stats and abilities. Nothing private.
“Cool! That’s basically a healing ability. Just like you wanted!” said Dave happily.
Sam looked doubtfully at her animate essence and back to Dave.
“Yeah, probably no healing with that,” said Dave sheepishly. “But probably with some awakening stones on that life essence.”
“Okay,” said Sam nervously, holding her confluence essence, “everything ready?”
“Yep!” said Dave who had prepared meticulously in a manner to make his German heritage proud. “In fact, we now have two warm bottles of water, a bar of soap, I made a scrubber out of paper, I’ve gotten an extra towel out of my inventory so you have two if you like, and I’m wearing a winter coat so that it’ll be warm when you put it on after you’re dry. Shall we?”
They walked to the stream a little way from the cabin where Dave had used salt to set up an essence absorption ritual circle. The boat golem followed.
“Is it really as bad as you’ve said?” asked Sam again.
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” answered Dave seriously.
“Okay, go inside now, ka?” said Sam in a shaky voice. “Make ready!”
Dave activated the circle and jogged back inside to make sure there was a warm, dry nest in the cabin where a betowled woman could comfortably recover from an expunging, mountainous bath.
“The water is cold! Okay, I took it!” called Sam from outside. “I still feel good… Very good.. No, I feel so-so. Wait… Oh!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The sound of Sam’s body rejecting impurities and her reaction to it drifted across the small distance to the stream. She swore a few times in Siamese. Dave didn’t understand the language but cussing always had a certain international sound to it. The noises cut off for a second as Sam presumably ducked under water to wash herself followed by more expunging. This continued on for a minute before it subsided and there came the sound of splashing as Sam poured warm water over herself and scrubbed. Dave didn’t presume to know when she’d added soap but he would be astounded if it didn’t make an appearance in the routine he was hearing. Dave poured some boiling water into a teapot. Something warm to drink would definitely be a nice touch.
The sound of galloping legs preceded the boat golem kneeling at the door and Sam rushing inside with her towel around her hair and Dave’s towel around her body. Dave had already taken the coat off and put it over her shoulders as she sat in front of the roaring fire and Dave started using Grand Mage’s Gravitas on her immediately.
When he’d finished magically removing water and residual gunk off of her body and into the fire, Dave asked what ability she got. Sam grinned guiltily.
“You can ability me. That… impeziology?” Sam tried valiantly at the foreign word.
“Actually, now is probably a good time to mention that since you agreed we should work together you’ve been on my HUD. Remember how I said that I can see my health, stamina and mana?”
Sam nodded while undoing her hair.
“Well, now I can see yours as well and I can see your abilities. Is that alright with you? I can turn it off,” said Dave uneasily.
Sam’s reaction was to become excited.
“Don’t turn it off! I only have normal feeling. Tell me about it, ka!” her happiness was palpable and rather bowled Dave over.
“Floating text isn’t normal?” said Dave, baffled.
“What? No!” Sam laughed. “Only with magic society rituals. Your ability is very good.”
“Oh? Well then,” said Dave, squaring his shoulders and looking up Sam’s character sheet. “Summon Skeleton. Awakening stone, none. Summon five skeletons from the ground that return to the earth in six hours. High mana, cooldown 6 hours.”
There were tooltips in the text that could expand into more detail but Dave figured he could read that later. Even just on the surface, the ability was very impressive.
“That. That is a good ability!” said Dave, giving Sam a grin. “This will work really well with my aura if they can wield weapons.
“It’s a little bit evil,” she said in a small voice but her smile didn’t leave her face.
Dave shrugged.
“Nah, only if you think death is evil. Where I come from we’d probably call it recycling. Anyway, I bet those who’d say it’s evil are the same people who don’t even know that their vegetables are fertilised with the ash of dead creatures,” said Dave.
Sam covered her smile with her hands and nodded.
“It happens in my world too. People who live in cities make sure that the animals who die for their food are kept out of sight and out of mind. Graveyards are kept out of sight too. People seem to think that their natural fear of death means that death must be evil,” said Dave with a shrug.
“Without death there is no life,” said Sam as though remembering something, “and to have life, means to die.”
Dave smiled at her.
“Where’s that from?”
“It’s a quote from hymns that are sung in the church of Life and the church of Death. I used to hum while I was gardening with my mother,” said Sam with a slight smile of memory.
“Well, it’s very true,” said Dave. “Tea?”
“Thank you!” smiled Sam, snapping out of her daze.
Dave prepared dinner. It was quite easy for him to do so with his outworlder ability Skilled Item Creation. It was a part of his inventory ability.
Skilled item creation.
Once you have the skill to make an item, you only need the ingredients or pieces in your personal inventory or within reach to be able to make the item instantly.
And, he knew how to make a turnip and onion stew. He put all the ingredients in a pot along with all the kitchen tools required to make the stew and two plates for the meal, sat next to the fire and activated his ability.
You have made; Turnip Stew.
You have made; Turnip Stew.
Dave took one out of his inventory, handed it to Sam and then the other for himself.
“Are you this world’s idea of a field biologist?” asked Dave, sitting down to eat.
“What’s that?” asked Sam.
“Someone who finds plants or animals and studies them?” guessed Dave.
Sam thought for a second.
“Um, I guess? answered Sam. She grinned, “I like beetles best! They are cute! I could always find them on my parent’s farm and there are always so many. My parents were always telling me to stop finding beetles and being dirty.”
Dave nodded. It made sense.
“A farm girl who studies beetles and got caught up in an exciting nature cult,” Dave said and Sam looked self conscious. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it like that. They took advantage of you, that cult. Your beliefs were pure, I think. You just followed the wrong leader.”
Sam nodded.
“Maybe I should have known better,” said Sam.
“Everyone does stupid things when they’re young,” said Dave. “I had a few times where I got so drunk I didn’t remember an entire day. In this world that’s enough time for me to have taken death, corruption and sacrifice essences all in one go on a dare.”
Dave shook his head thinking about his late teenage binge drinking with regret.
“The only thing that stopped me making mistakes like yours is that I couldn’t have, not that I wouldn’t have,” said Dave seriously, looking at Sam. “So don’t overthink your own morality. You did what we all do when we’re young and stupid.”
Sam relaxed and smiled thinking it over.
“You know it’s true. You’ve seen young men do lots of stupid stuff, haven’t you?” asked Dave, chuckling. “Come on, what’s the worst you’ve seen?”
“Yes!” said Sam, laughing. “One time, a rich boy in the village was in love with my friend Nam. He tried to impress her by eating an iron rank ghost chilli!”
Sam couldn’t stop laughing with the memory and Dave couldn’t help but laugh vicariously with her.
“So, he eats the chilli and Nam is there watching when he’s crying, turning red, drooling and he even vomited. Some splashed on her shoes,” Sam was partly crying with mirth now. “Nam could never look at him again without thinking of that.”
“I bet Nam loved that,” groaned Dave sarcastically, holding a hand over his face, thinking about his own youthful misadventures with romance.
“Oh, was so bad,” laughed Sam, coming down from her mirth. “Nam doesn’t even like spicy things. He got everything wrong!”
“Well, every time you think you made mistakes, you think about the essences boys like that would’ve absorbed to get a date with Nam,” said Dave with a cheeky grin.
Sam rolled her eyes.
“Alright, I will. That is a good idea. I promise!” said Sam brightly.
“Now let’s eat, not magic chilli, and discuss awakening stones,” said Dave.
They ate and laughed.
Sam looked over Dave’s selection of awakening stones while they ate. Dave had told her about his last racial ability evolution and she seemed excited to try it with some ‘safe’ awakening stones. Meaning ones that she’d like to take anyway and then she’d judge if the abilities she had got were rare and powerful. So, she browsed awakening stones while she ate.
When she finished, Sam asked for a quill and paper which Dave provided. She did a bit of writing on her piece of paper while requesting book pages from Professor Tome. Dave finished eating, used Grand Mage’s Gravitas to clean the dishes and put everything used to prepare the meal that was in his inventory back into the kitchen.
“Good. Now, I have three awakening stones that I like,” said Sam triumphantly, displaying her working out.
“Only three?” asked Dave, putting down a bowl and coming to look.
“Yes,” smiled Sam. “See, I wrote down the essence story, like you said.”
She indicated the top of the page where she’d written, ‘An animated story about the balance of life and death.’ with the key words underlined. Beneath that were about ten awakening stones written down with all crossed out but three: Hand, vision and preparation, which she had circled and had arrows pointing towards them from the text box ‘use these!’”.
“I wrote down the ones I liked the best from their general description,” she gestured at a page in Tome she was keeping open with her finger from The Iron Ranker’s Field Guide To Awakening Stones. “And then I checked their interactions in this book here.”
Sam flipped to another page she was keeping with another finger from The Adventurer’s Advanced Guide To Awakening Stones”.
“Most of your awakening stones are good stories for big magic users and teachers,” said Sam with her usual smile turning more warm than ever. “But I only want to grow strong so that my family can enjoy plants in my garden and I can see cute beetles happy! That’s why I first took essences.”
The look on her face made Dave smile.
“Sounds good. I’ll have to trade the essences I have for the ones you like” said Dave brightly. He figured that since the essences were connected to the soul, and that the soul was, from his reading, able to hold the imprint of someone’s personality then it made sense that a personal sense of satisfaction with one’s essences and awakening stones might affect the abilities awakened.
It was at this moment that Dave noticed an exclamation mark had appeared above Sam’s head in his HUD.
“You have a quest! What is it?” asked Dave, bewildered.
Sam smiled her widest, most guilty grin.
“I think I know where we can get more stones! But, it will be dangerous, ka!” said Sam, pleating her fingers together.
“I agree. We can do it. Now tell me, how bad is it?” asked Dave with a grin.
Sam laughed.
“You crazy! Alright, alright. Yes, there is an abandoned village near from before I was born. Before even you were born. Only old grandparents remember it. There was… I forget, a high-magic spot that moved through the area? It would make monsters. Every few years it would move the same direction and bring monsters. Yes, so this village is in the way of moving spot so everyone just packs up and slowly moves away. Then there was monster surge and nobody comes back so everyone forgets is there. Everyone who lived there has now either gone far away or died.” Sam grinned mischievously at the implications. “But I found it while walking as ranger. There are too many monsters for me to go near but it will have a lot of magic. You can make a golem so, we can get to it easy and use your powerful spells to defeat the monsters inside and take the magic we find there!”
Some text flashed up in Dave’s text box asking if he wanted to accept the quest ‘Abandoned Forest Town’ Dave selected yes.
“Sam, I accept your quest. Even if it wasn’t a good way to get you everything you need to get home and see your family again, it sounds like a good way to get a lot of magic rocks which we can sell for money,” said Dave.
Sam beamed at Dave.
“Also, come to think of your family. I think one of my abilities is a letter delivery service. If you know their address, would you like to write your family a letter?” said Dave in a hesitant way, not knowing if he was stepping on an emotional landmine.
Naturally, Sam was utterly confused by Dave’s announcement but after a quick explanation of his spell, Sam sat down with a quill, letter paper and an envelope and wrote a long letter into the night. Dave double checked his spell to make sure that he hadn’t over promised.
Spell: Mail By Appointed Rounds
Description
Place a properly addressed written document into a dimensional space. It will travel at the speed of a fast Heidel until it reaches its address where it will deliver the letter. Higher ranks will allow the delivery directly to a named recipient and at faster speeds.
Detailed Information
It didn’t say that he had to write it so he guessed it would work as advertised if Sam wrote the letter and he mailed it. He could send letters to anybody so long as he knew their address which might be useful if he knew anybody. Dave figured he’d examine the magic details more closely while casting the spell later.
While Sam wrote, Dave tweaked his animate paper spell, wrote notes for new prestidigitations and used his third spell slot of the day to cast Paper Mill Production to make a narrow but soft cot appear on the floor where he slept. Sam grinned at him cheekily when she saw it and got back to her letter. When she finished writing, Dave posted Sam’s letter. The magic displayed no indication of a distance limitation that Dave could see and so, they both went to sleep.
They awoke in the morning, breakfasted and Dave acquitted four copies of Animate Paper Construction to memory. After all, it was his only non-default choice. They were munching on toast lathered with butter and sipping tea, staring at the awakening stones that were still sitting on the table from the night before. Sam kept on looking at the stones uncomfortably as though they were watching her and Dave was trying not to look at Sam for fear of laughing at her discomfort with the three rocks. Eventually, they caught each other’s eyes and burst into laughter at the awkward situation.
“Just take them now!” said Dave, still chuckling. “Professor Tome? May I enlist you?”
The spellbook which flapped over to the table.
“Thank you, Professor Tome,” said Sam, giving a small wai to the floating book.
Dave opened the book to a ritual circle upon which he placed his hand. Sam placed her hand on top and Dave spoke the chant to activate the ritual.
“Which one first?” asked Dave.
“Ummm… This one!” said Sam with her brightest smile. She selected an awakening stone of vision. It had a very high chance of giving a sight-based ability. She took the stone.
Samorn has used, awakening stone of vision. She has gained a new death essence ability, Death Sight. Death Sight; You can see auras and information about how close to death a creature is in their current state.
“Boom! Aura sensing first try, Sam!” cheered Dave, raising his arm for a high five. Sam looked at him in utter confusion.
“Oh,” said Dave, looking at his hand and remembering he was in a different universe, “it’s a gesture of celebration, just raise your hand like mine and we clap them together.”
Sam raised her hand and Dave gently completed the high five.
“It’s a really good ability.” said Dave, “You’ll know who needs healing the most on the battlefield and in towns, you’ll be able to know who is sick and get them care before even they know they need it. You’ll save lives.”
“Oh, really? Oh, yes. Yes, you’re right.” said Sam going over it in her mind and then smiling happily.
“Yeah, just because someone looks healthy doesn’t mean they are. Notice it says ‘information about’ as well? It’ll probably let you sense what conditions someone is suffering from that are bringing them closer to death,” said Dave.
Sam looked at Dave with a calculating look.
“Maybe you could drink some cleaner and we’ll find out? No, no, no. I’m kidding!” laughed Sam.
“That’d probably work, actually,” said Dave.
Sam looked around the room more carefully.
“It can’t see anything on you, you’re too healthy,” said Sam accusingly. “I want to try my new ability!”
“Can we find a sick animal later instead of cutting me open at breakfast?” said Dave warily. “Besides, we’re going adventuring soon. You’ll have a lot of practice.”
“Alright, next stone,” said Sam, giving her resigned smile. She selected an awakening stone of earth. Dave wondered what the result would be. Earth was, after all, necessary for life to grow but also the place that the dead returned to. On the other hand, it was also a bunch of rocks. Most likely was some death essence spell that’d drain speed or some kind of wall spell.
Samorn Khanthong has used, awakening stone of earth. She has gained a new life essence ability, Regrowth. Regrowth; Place a long heal over time spell on an ally within range. No cooldown. Low Mana.
Dave raised his eyebrows but Sam seemed extremely happy. That wasn’t what was expected at all. Welcome, but unexpected. Dave wondered how much his Bringer Of Change ability had to do with it. He’d been expecting small, subtle pushes in the direction of unexpected and powerful but now he was wondering if his ability was more powerful than expected. Still, details later. Focus on the happiness of the moment.
“My first healing spell!” she cheered. Dave raised his hand. Sam took a moment to recognise the motion and then awkwardly slapped his hand, laughing.
“Congratulations! May you get ever more healing synergies,” said Dave.
“I can hurt you now and test my first ability,” said Sam, covering her mouth.
Dave pulled a face.
“Alright, next!” said Sam.
Sam picked up the preparation stone she’d saved until last and used it.
Samorn Khanthong has used, awakening stone of preparation. She has gained a new balance essence ability, Life Recirculation. Life Recirculation; Upon activation, your next damaging effect heals you and your allies for an amount equal to the damage dealt. Low mana. 30 second cooldown.
Both Sam and Dave looked at each other with wide eyes, appreciating the powerful ability that had an obvious synergy.
“You can do a lot of damage with corpse explosion,” said Dave solemnly.
“Yes!” beamed Sam.
“It affects you too. You are going to be a very alive woman, Sam,” said Dave.
Sam just grinned and nodded. Professor Tome was gliding around the cabin in celebration.
After some congratulations and still feeling positive, the pair finished packing and prepared to start their trek to the abandoned town.
“Sam, what was the town called?” asked Dave as he cleaned the cabin with his prestidigitation.
“Courbefy,” replied Sam, packing extra towels in the boat golem because she wouldn’t be carrying them and why not? Soon, Sam hoisted her pack into the belegged boat and put a couple of extra pots in. Dave just cleaned the morning dew off the boat and used Grand Mage’s Gravitas to dry out the paper before animating it, which used a spell slot that wouldn’t come back until early evening. Sam sat in the forward seat driving and Dave sat behind her, studying.
They had a three-day trek by foot to the east towards the alps. They’d go well around and past Chateau Chamois where the cultists were, although Sam expected that after the first day they’d start encountering monsters.
Dave settled into his seat with a pen in hand and his Tome open, writing notes on a specific idea for a prestidigitation. Dave had taken to browsing lists of Adventure Society abilities and found that fire-mages of different types often awoke abilities that could, unsurprisingly, just start a stationary fire. Although the listed spells were often entire walls of flame or an intense, roaring, furnace-like projection, Dave wondered if scaled down to a prestidigitation, he might just be able to have a comfortable campfire crackling away. After all, he could project candle flames from his fingertips with Magician’s Meagre Magics.
These thoughts flowed through his mind and into his notes for a couple of hours until Dave was brought back to reality by Sam tapping him on the head sharply.
“Hmm? What?” asked Dave.
“Spine hog!” Sam announced seriously. There was a loud snuffling and grunting ahead of them and Dave quickly craned his head sideways to see a very large boar-like creature with sharp looking quills squaring off with the boat.
Dave used Stop And Think, selected the spine hog, used Epistemology and queried ‘definition’. After reading the entry Dave decided he would surmise the spine hog as a particularly large, aggressive wild boar that could shoot spines from around its neck. Dave unpaused time.
“Boat, tip!” commanded Dave and willed the animated boat to obey. It turned and tipped slightly to the right, depositing the contents of the boat on the ground. While Sam and Dave were picking themselves up, the boat jostled and rocked slightly as the spine hog rammed into it.
“Attack the spine hog!” commanded Dave, willing the command into the unfamiliar connection he had with his animated golem. He climbed to his feet, drawing his wand and his sword but realised quickly he didn’t need to bother. The boat-golem used one of its large, heavy legs to swipe at the spine hog and sent it sprawling. The hog replied with two spines shooting into the side of the boat but the golem didn’t care. It reared up on its back legs and flexed downwards crashing the keel of the prow into the spine hog with bone crunching force.
Displaying the tenacity typical of hogs, the spine hog stayed standing on weak legs with crossed eyes, grunting aggressively and shooting spines but the boat merely reared up again to smash down onto the spine hog’s shoulders taking it down where the boat savagely stomped on its head.
“Enough, boat! Geez,” said Dave when he saw the health bar had already hit zero. He walked over and knelt next to the dead spine boar. He checked the loot in his text box. He’d mostly looted humans up until now.
You have looted, spine hog. You have gained 17 lesser spirit coins, Monster Core (lesser), spine hog tusk and 3 boar’s meat.
“Was that supposed to be here?” asked Dave, nodding at the boar.
“Boars, yes, but not monsters. Normally when I see one that strong, I just use beetles and run away but I don’t see many,” said Sam thoughtfully, while putting their belongings back in the kneeling boat.
“Well, we got a test of your death sight. Did it work?” said Dave brightly.
“Yes!” smiled Sam. “Your boat is very powerful. Almost all of monster health; SMACK! One hit and close to death.”
“Good then! How damaged is the boat?” asked Dave, coming over to help Sam lift the heavy items in.
“Not very! A small rip from the tusk and two small holes from spines.” said Sam pointing.
“Oh, that’s not so bad,” said Dave, thoughtfully. “I can plug them,” and he put solid paper plugs over the holes with Pauper’s Paper Production.
As they got going Sam asked a question.
“Hey Dave?”
“Yeah?” said Dave, opening Tome.
“Can you just keep making paper all day with your prestidigitation?” asked Sam.
“Ugh, probably not? Seems too much. I’ll check the complete spell details. Tome? Could you open to the relevant page?”
Tome opened to a page from a book entitled David Bauer’s Character Statistics and Details written by Professor Tome and read the spell details.
“Oh, it looks like if I make more than about 35cm3 in a day then it starts deleting the oldest objects but if they stay until the next dawn then they’re permanent. Thanks for that! I didn’t even think,” said Dave, shaking his head at not noticing this potential loophole earlier. How could he miss an exploit like infinite items?
“Teamwork!” cheered Sam. She was still giddy from the spine hog encounter but it was good to see in her.
“Teamwork,” agreed Dave.
As it turned out, when she wasn’t shaken up from being attacked by cultists and fleeing into the woods with a stranger, Sam liked to sing to herself while she was travelling. So she sang while Dave studied, he was working on his fire prestidigitation again. As they walked he’d occasionally hold up a thick paper tile and try his latest effort. He’d managed so far, an impressive sparkle and something that reminded him of a gas stove but he persisted.
Suddenly, Dave had an idea.
“Hey, do you have any armour?” asked Dave.
“No,” said Sam, “too heavy. I’m always walking.”
“Not at this town you won’t be. We’re going to be fighting there. Want me to make you some?” asked Dave.
“Paper armour!?” asked Sam, incredulously as she laughed.
Dave grinned sheepishly.
“Strangely, yeah. I can make a paper twine and if I can make twine, I can make thread and with thread I can make a gambeson and I’m thinking I can make plates over the gambeson as well. I should be able to make something the same design as stiff leather,” said Dave, already looking up leather armouring books with Tome.
“Alright!” said Sam.
The day progressed uneventfully as Sam guided the boat while Dave designed and studied. They encountered no more monsters but quite a few wild animals rushing away from them. Sam said this was a good thing.
“It means no monsters are near because animals run away from monsters,” Sam said.
Dave has also taken a little time to look up the name of the town and what a few books had to say about it. Dave found that Courbefy had been a small logging town that also did seasonal trade in furs from hunting, as well as selling some river fish and there was even some panning for gold in one of the streams nearby but Courbefy imported most of its metals and metal products for use in those primary industries. All-in-all, it wasn’t anything exceptional. It would have been just another dot on a map if it wasn’t for their bad luck with a roaming monster spawn.
The sun was well behind the forest when Sam found a place to stop for the night and she started unpacking a tent.
“Don’t bother,” said Dave. “Milled for my purpose.”
A small cardboard construction about the size of a large tent appeared. The door was liftable and could be propped up on a stick. Inside it had two hanging cots with space underneath for their packs that currently had a small pile of paper bricks underneath for burning.
“I designed it just after lunch,” said Dave. “It’s bigger than both of our tents put together and, well… what do you think?”
“It’s good!” said Sam. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Oh? I should have. Yes,” said Dave awkwardly. “I just started thinking about something else and forgot until just now.”
Sam waved her hands in front of Dave’s face.
“Hello from the world to Dave in the sky,” said Sam in a sing-song voice and laughed.
Dave’s current Warming Fire prestidigitation was a little lacklustre. It appeared more like a plate full of very large candles all burning at once than a campfire but it worked well enough for the early Autumn that neither of them cared to find firewood. In fact, because the flame used no fuel and thus emitted no smoke, Sam suggested adding a fireplace to the back of the camping cabin.
“It gets cold in the mountains,” said Sam with a smile that was also a grimace of bad winter experiences. “You can cast your spell inside the frying pan so the floor doesn’t burn. A layer of paper brick for the walls shouldn’t catch fire and if we need to we can make coals and keep them in our pots to help keep the room warm.”
“You are getting really good at my abilities!” grinned Dave.
Sam smiled widely and nodded.
They settled down for the night. Sam immediately went to sleep because she was taking second watch. Dave was taking first watch late into the night because he could sleep in the saddle tomorrow, so to speak. He cast Grand Mage’s Gravitas over Sam, wished her a good night and spent the next hour sketching out some patterns for a new version of the spell he was coming to call the paper golem. He was realising more and more that although his summoning spell Paper Mill Production required a single, continuous mass of paper, the animation of paper didn’t.
In fact, Dave was quite sure that he could animate a tonne of A4 into a perfectly functional whirlwind golem. Not to mention that the animated golem had life-like properties beyond normal paper and was capable of bending and flexing long, unfolded bits of paper together and apart as though with muscles. With that in mind he designed long insect legs with high knees.
As with most origami animals, the foot would end in a pointed tip if not for a final ‘foot’ fold of the limb back on itself. Dave coloured in the foot area to represent a denser, more solid paper that wouldn’t wear down so easily. The boat golem was currently suffering from fraying feet quite badly.
With the insect-like legs designed, Dave designed the body. He figured, keep with insects. Ants were famous lifters so he made a stumpy boat section for a thorax, a raised abdomen with a reclining chair and a head for balance with a dangerous mandible section designed for combat.
Dave kept on tweaking with the design, coming up with a net over the thorax section to stop their belongings falling out in battle, a seatbelt - well, seatloop for the abdomen but for the head, Dave just couldn’t figure out how to make the pincers come together in a crushing motion so he redesigned them as tubes that could widen and narrow which could hold knives, daggers, pitons or anything pointy that the head could drive into his enemies.
Satisfied with his modifications, Dave used The Papyral Conception of Pulp And Press to make the physical thing which he covered with his tent to hold off the morning dew, made some paper brick shoes for the boat golem with Pauper’s, held in place with a paper imitation of a velcro strap, and settled in to wait out the rest of his watch composing a letter to Hugh.
It was a difficult letter to write. Just in case Hugh was captured or, more likely, at a shared residence with his church, Dave had to write in a way that didn’t tell enough information to let another reader know how they’d met and that Dave was an outworlder.
Tome helped him proofread the letter at the end, declaring it suitable for purpose. Dave had written to Hugh that he was safe, he was adventuring with a friend that they both knew of and not to worry if he didn’t see Dave for a while. Dave posted the letter through his Mail By Appointed Rounds dimensional space noting that there were now two of a possible three letters in transit and woke up Sam for her watch.
“I made another paper golem for tomorrow. Don’t forget to cover boat golem with your tent before sunrise. Professor Tome is happy for you to read him,” said Dave sleepily once she was awake.
Sam only nodded, wiping sleep from her eyes, but smiled when she saw Tome open to a brilliant, hand drawn picture of a sunrise with the words ‘welcome back’ stylised across the sky.
Dave bedded down and went to sleep.
Sam woke Dave up at dawn and quickly bundled him into his paper ant golem. Dave quickly memorised 4 copies of his Animate Paper Golem spell and cast it twice. Sam asked for a ball of twine from Dave, which he summoned for her and settled into his golem’s inbuilt chair.
“Ant golem, follow Sam and her golem. Do everything she says,” said Dave so that Sam could hear and went back to sleep knowing that Sam would lead him true for the next couple of hours.
The next thing Dave knew he was being bumped awake by Professor Tome.
“Hmm?” hummed Dave while blinking. Tome flickered open.
Dave unpaused time. And looked around from his raised seat on the abdomen of his animated mount feeling very exposed. He fumbled for his sword, which was across his lap and drew it.
“A flying lynx? That’s a thing?” asked Dave as he took two daggers out of his inventory and threw them in front of his giant paper ant which put them in its pincer-holders.
“Yes, it’s a kind of monster. Iron rank. I looked it up with Tome,” said Sam.
Tome helpfully flicked to an Adventure Society bestiary and saw that it was basically a big, aggressive lynx with membranous skin between its forelimbs and top of the hind limbs for limited flight. It was an ambush predator that would climb high trees and dive on its prey from a distance. It was considered about mid iron rank in difficulty. The real danger of this monster is that it’d stalk a group through a forest and attack a back liner when they were distracted. Like when engaged with another monster, for instance.
To alleviate the chance of being ambushed Dave cast Maestro’s Instant Image Of Manifested Illusions around himself in the form of an opaque cardboard cover over his raised seat. This gave him the confidence to study spells without being afraid of being pounced on. Thankfully Sam was surrounded by her familiar which obscured her and could provide her with warning.
Dave spent his time tweaking the paper golem spell and working on a new one; a cabin spell beyond the scope of what could be made with Paper Mill Production. Fifteen minutes into that time Dave was interrupted.
“Dave,” called Sam in an unsure voice. “What’s that?”
They were crossing a shallow stream and Sam pointed off to the left. Upstream from them were two large, cadaverous creatures with prominent narrow, pointed teeth along a large, frog-like jaw. Dave immediately selected them with his UI, used Epistemology, cast Stop And Think and read the details.
Monster: Corrupted Giant Toad
Rank: Iron
Description
This is a [Giant Toad] that has been affected by an innate corruption. It has powerful leaping attacks, bites, a pulling tongue attack and is [venomous].
Detailed Information
Dave concentrated on ‘venomous’ and read the tooltip.
Toxic dart venom. A class of venom that has many natural sources but is famous in tropical jungle frogs. The venom is a potent muscle relaxant that causes death by paralysis.
Dave returned to real time.
“Out!” shouted Dave. “Venomous Toad! They’ve got a nasty para-”
That was as far as Dave got before the closest toad made a mighty leap at the boat golem. Fortunately, it was focused on killing the boat and had landed with its mouth crunching around the neck-area of the vehicle, the force of the impact crushing in the side.
Sam was already moving when the toad impacted and so was launched over the side to sprawl on the ground. Dave was already exiting his own mount, drawing his sword and running over to help Sam.
“Sam! They’ve got poison. Do-ARRRGH!” screamed Dave suddenly as a flying lynx crashed into him from behind. It came in too low and missed sinking its bite into Dave’s neck but still crashed into him, claws first, sending Dave heavily face-first into the ground with claw marks all over his back.
Sam scrambled to her feet, drawing her sickle and rushed over to help Dave, hurling her familiar ahead of her. Distracted by the beetles, the lynx bounded quickly to the side and squared off with Sam. The boat golem had now recovered and was using its superior weight to try and bear down on the toad but the toad was hanging onto the neck and ripping the thick cardboard while the boat was using its stumpy legs to kick at the toad and keep it underneath the prow.
Biting back the pain of the claw wounds, Dave turned to look for the second toad and turned to see it in the air already bearing down on him. Time seemed to slow as Dave looked into the razor sharp maw of the toad, the tongue already flicking out and Dave lifting his sword too late.
With a wet crunch of breaking bone, ant golem smashed into the side of the leaping toad at a gallop with its front two legs, the speed of the ant taking it and the toad splashing across the steam before it body slammed the toad onto the ground and started repeatedly driving its dagger-pincered head down.
Tearing his eyes away from the extravagant violence of that scene, Dave looked at the rest of the battle. The boat golem was slowly overcoming its toad but had lost most of its prow. Sam was in a stalemate with the lynx. It was easily shaking off the beetles and prowling back and forth, waiting for Sam to make a mistake who had her sickle extended in front of her to impale the cat if it jumped.
Dave raised his wand and shot a mage bolt at the flying lynx, singing fur across its shoulder. The cat gave a high growling, snarl and chanced a look at Dave who extended his sword point towards the cat defensively.
The cat took a moment, assessing that it was now outnumbered, flicked its tail and scurried up a tree. Dave shot another mage bolt at it but missed as the lynx leapt from the tree and flew away.
Dave turned back to the golems to see boat golem pinning its giant toad down while the ant golem reared up on its back four legs to smash its dagger-tipped face into the creature. Dave and Sam looked at it with expressions of shock and awe.
“Your ant is very dangerous,” said Sam.
“Ugh… I’m glad it's on our side,” said Dave pathetically.
A notification was highlighted on Dave’s HUD that he hadn’t noticed in the commotion. He mentally concentrated on it. Quest: Abandoned Forest Town has been updated. Dave clicked on the quest and the quest menu opened with that quest selected.
Quest: Abandoned Forest Town
Description
Investigate the abandoned forest town Courbefy with local guide Samorn Khanthong and collect magical items throughout the town; 0/32. Remove the evil from the town; 0/1.
Detailed Information
Dave realised that he’d never read the details of the quest on the basis that he was definitely going to do it anyway and immediately kicked himself for how short sighted this was. He noticed that the quest didn’t specify awakening stones, only ‘magic items’.
“Hey? Is thirty-two magic items a lot?” asked Dave, staring at his HUD.
“Yes?” said Sam in an unsure voice and looking at Dave quizzically.
“There’s thirty-two magic items and a source of ‘evil’’ in Courbefy,” said Dave in a flat voice.
“Really?!” exclaimed Sam.
“Yeah,” said Dave with a sigh. “I think this quest might take longer than we thought.”
----------------------------------------
Yeah, adventuring as a Booker can be difficult. At first, because there was nobody to train me. You show up and people look at you like you’re a heidel at a ball. "A Booker? Going to cast one spell and leave?" Of course, that’s what industrial Bookers do in the monster surge because there’s nobody to teach them how to fight. The surge happens, the bookers are conscripted and told to fire away like everyone else, so they do. Then they’re useless for the rest of the day. But they’re useless because that’s what the adventurers told the terrified spellwright to do.
That’s why I wrote that book. Most magic users are about quantity–pouring out spells as fast as possible–but for bookers it’s about when and where. You have to be a tactician. Or, be standing next to one. As a booker, you can brute-force your way through a monster but do you have to? Can someone else handle it? You have to know the battlefield, anticipate and spend your precious slots where they’ll make the biggest difference.
The hardest part is choosing the spells to memorize. They call it ‘memorizing,’ but these days, I think it’s more like wiring an outlet to those giant capacitors called ‘slots’ the ability installs between your soul and your magic. Four slots by default but you can gear it up to eight. Still, memorisation is a limitation. The limitation, really. Start the day with a plan, and when things go sideways, you're a sword at a sewing circle.
It’s great when it works, though. Scry a monster, teleport far above it with Johan and slap a force transference spell on him at the last moment. Gods, but a clean scry-and-die combo never gets old. You use the right spells at the right time in the right way and the battle just falls into place. Easy-peasy.
- Excerpt from The Booker Interviews, 2686th year of His Majesty Byzas The Great’s reign.