Heather took the bone knight and made her way to the graveyard. She found Frank skulking amount the tombstones as he inspected the yard. He didn't react to her until she was nearly on him, and then turned to stare at her.
“Are you done spending your points?”
“I think so,” she replied and continued. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Do you think there is a camp in the hills?”
He sat on his heels and scratched his head in his familiar way as he stared at her.
“They probably respawn someplace far away,” he said. “So they would make camps on the journey here. There has to be one nearby someplace.”
“Does the camp allow them to respawn there?”
He shook his head and put his hands down to claw at the ground.
“No, they would have to go to a spawn or a spawning stone of some kind.”
She nodded her understanding and looked back to the distant hills.
“So it’s just a camp to sleep in. Do you think they left anything of value there?”
“I don't know; I guess they could have,” he replied.
She turned around with a smile and clasped her hands.
“Can we go look for it?”
“You want to look for their camp?”
She bounced and nodded her head excitedly. “I want to see what they left.”
“You just survived an attack and had a monster prowling your hallways; now you want to wander into the wilderness?”
“My tower's defenses are respawned and upgraded,” she said firmly. “If we all go, I should be perfectly safe.”
“You will never be perfectly safe,” he corrected. “But I will go if you want to. Let’s ask the others.”
Heather nodded her agreement, and off they went to find Quinny and Breanne.
They called into the tower and brought out Breanne, who quickly agreed. She hid the book in the secret room and joined them outside to enter the forest. Quinny was in her burial mound, trying to shift her forest a little to protect Heather's tower. She readily agreed to go, hoping for more experience and points to spend. Twenty minutes later, they were walking to the hills with eyes searching all around. The bone knight brought up the rear, carrying her scythe and wearing a backpack with some things she wanted to bring.
“Is this a good idea?” Breanne said. “There are ways to create magical portals between two places. Suppose they have one from wherever they respawn to here?.”
“If there is, then we need to know,” Frank said
“I hope there’s a portal to one of the cities,” Quinny added. “We could go and buy all sorts of things.”
“There could be a portal to a city?” Heather asked in confusion.
Frank sighed and nodded his head, drool flying from his jagged teeth. “Several classes can open magical doors between two places. They don't last long unless you do something to anchor them. Even then, they only last a few days at most. To make lasting portals, you need to build a frame of some kind and magically enchant it.”
“Could I make one?” Heather asked.
“Not that I am aware of,” Breanne said. “Though there was a rumor, the necromancers were traveling somehow.”
“That’s awfully vague,” Heather protested.
Breanne rolled her eyes and sighed. “I only know what I heard. All the magical classes were researching spells that were not given by leveling. That book is probably full of spells you could cast if you knew how. For all we know, there are a dozen ways to travel for every class; they just need to discover them.”
“I wonder what else I can do?” Heather asked as she looked at her tattoo. “I should probably see what I got for leveling.”
“You still haven’t done that?” Frank asked.
“I was upgrading the tower and then talking to you. There is only so much time in a day unless the sun decides to stop moving altogether.”
He shrugged and pushed on as Heather brought up her panel. She tapped to the level options and looked at her new spells.
“Wailing skulls?” she said aloud while pulling up the description. It was a spell that produced a floating skull that would circle her until she pointed at a target. Then it would race at the target with a shrill cry and do impact damage. At higher levels, she could make more skulls and cause them to burn doing additional fire damage.
“I guess that’s useful?” she questioned as she looked at the next spell.
“Invisibility to undead, why would I need that?”
“So the undead won’t attack you,” Frank said.
“They already don’t attack me,” she protested.
“We don't attack you because we're your friends, and our minions don't attack because you're on our friend's list,” Frank said. “But if you wander into another area with the undead, they won't care that you're a necromancer.”
“Hmm,” Heather mused and poked to the next spell. “Wall of bones?”
“That’s a very useful spell,” Breanne said. “Some of the other classes have that one too.”
She squinted a the description to see it made a three-meter high and twenty-meter wide wall of bones. Jagged edges and grasping hands stuck out of both sides to hinder anyone who tried to cross it. At higher levels, she could increase its dimensions and add other dangers to it.
“How is that spell useful?”
“Being able to summon a wall between you and an enemy instantly is very useful,” Breanne said. “Especially if you need to get away or time to prepare.”
“It’s just bones,” Heather said. “It’s not like it stone or steel.”
“It’s magical,” Frank corrected. “And it’s probably a foot or more thick.”
Heather shrugged again and tapped her way through the character sheet.
“It says at level fifteen I get resistance to negative energy, what is that?”
“Some spells, weapons, and especially undead have attacks that use negative energy,” Frank said.
“Ok, but what is it?” Heather asked as his explanation told her nothing about it.
He pondered how best to explain it and settled with a comparison.
“Think of a lightning bolt as positive energy, negative energy is its opposite. It does roughly the same thing but from the opposite effect.”
“Like hot and cold?”
“That’s a better analogy,” he replied. “But negative energy often has special side effects. It can leave you weakened for a short while or drain away health. It’s how my paralyzing touch works.”
“And my shadow spells,” Breanne said.
Heather nodded and looked to Quinny, who shrugged.
“Don't look at me; all I can do is bite you.”
“So when I hit fifteen, I will be immune to negative energy?”
“Not immune, resistant,” Frank corrected. “You will take less damage from the attacks or be able to fight them off for a short while.”
“I see,” she replied and looked at her panel again. “When do I become resistant to paladins?”
“Never,” Frank said. “Paladins and some other classes do holy damage. Undead are never resistant to holy damage. In most cases, it does bonus damage to us and infernal races.”
“So the demon, devily types take extra damage too?”
“All of them,” he said.
“Is holy positive energy?”
“No,” Frank replied. “It's very similar, but positive energy is more like a raw natural force. Holy power is from a divine source. The two do a lot of the same things but are treated differently for resistances. If you were resistant to positive energy, it would do nothing for holy.”
“That seems silly,” Heather said as she closed her panel. “It's two names for good magic. Why doesn't evil magic have two names?”
“It does, well, I guess it does. There is unholy magic as well.”
A long sigh escaped Heather’s lips as she rolled her eyes. “Why is this world so complicated?”
Quinny laughed and answered her question.
“Because they ripped off every game, book, movie, and tv show imaginable. You have shadow magic, dark magic, black magic, and unholy magic, which are all nearly the same.”
“But that seems pointless,” Heather argued. “You're just making a whole lot of work for yourself.”
“I don’t think the visitors care,” Frank said. “And they keep adding more.”
“Great,” Heather moaned. “Not only is it complicated, but it will become infinitely complex over time.”
“It's not so hard if you boil it down to tropes,” he replied. “Like Quinny said, the names are different, but most of the powers are the same.”
“I don’t know any of the tropes,” Heather said. “But I guess I am going to learn them.”
The crested a small hill of thick green grass the blew in a gentle wind. Rising before them were the beginnings of a series of towering hills with a few scattered trees growing mostly on the summits.
“So. where should we look?” Heather asked.
“They would probably put it on the top of a hill so they could see around themselves,” Frank suggested.
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“We have to climb all these hills?” Heather asked as she looked up the steep slope. The hills hadn't looked so intimidating when they were in the distance, but from here, they seemed like mountains. The thought of having to trudge her way up a dozen of them wasn't very appealing.
“You wanted to look for the camp,” he said in a teasing tone.
Heather wanted to swat him but smiled as a simple solution came to mind. She turned to her bone knight and took the scythe from his hand and then pointed to the top of the nearest hill.
“Carry me up there,” she commanded.
Silently the creature obeyed sweeping her up, so her legs dangled over one arm while her back was cradled in the other.
“That’s cheating,” Frank said sourly.
“Hurry up, don’t fall behind,” Heather cried as the bone knight walked passed him.
“Now I’m jealous of Heather’s class,” Quinny laughed.
“I am starting to like this class,” Heather said as she watched the summit grow closer.
“That class was made for you,” Frank grumbled. “You like to have somebody to order around.”
“I do not!” Heather protested.
“Ha! Heather is a dominant woman,” Quinny laughed.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Heather said with a scowl.
Quinny shrugged. “You like to be in charge.”
“You make it sound like I’m pushy,” Heather said. “I saw a problem and used my abilities to solve it. That isn’t being bossy or pushy, just smart.”
“She saves bossy for Frank,” Quinny replied with a glance at Breanne.
“I do not!” she snapped. “Frank, tell them I’m not bossy!”
Quinny started to giggle, and even Breanne had to cover a smile as Frank wisely chose to stay quiet. Heather realized what she had just done and folded her arms to sulk silently. She stewed in anger as the others giggled all the way to the top of the hill. There were two large trees at the top of a relatively flat peak. It was covered in weeds and had a large stone, but no camp of any kind.
Her bone knight put her down, and she paced around looking for anything out of the ordinary, but it was just a simple country hill.
“Maybe they didn’t have a camp,” she admitted.
“They must have,” Frank said. “It might not be here, but it has to be someplace. There are a hundred more hills to search.”
“It may not be on a hill,” Breanne suggested. “They might have found a rock outcropping or a cave to hide in.”
Heather started to realize this could take longer than she expected. Thankfully the bone knight could do most of the work for her if they had to search a dozen hills. They started down the slope, which she was happy to walk, and worked their way to the next hill in line. They spent a little time exploring the dip between looking around any stones or in the thick brush but found no camp.
“I wonder if those rangers were high enough to pass plants?” Frank asked.
“They couldn't pass my vines in the hallway,” Heather said. “And I heard one of the warriors ask if they could do it, and they said they couldn't.”
“So they must have left a trail of some kind,” he suggested. “The weeds are tall, so there has to be a path where they walked.”
“How do we know they were hiding in the hills?” Quinny said. “They could have been over the stream instead.”
Frank shrugged and looked up the next slope. “It won't hurt to search a few more. Maybe we will find something of interest even if we don't find the camp.”
Heather felt disappointed to think that the camp might not even be here. She had her bone knight carry her up as the thought lingered in her mind. The top of this hill had no trees, but it did have something of interest.
There was a stand of wooden posts tied together with strings and then covered over with brush. The wind had blown some of it away, making it more visible in the tall grass.
“What is that?” Quinny asked.
“It's a hiding spot,” Frank said. “It's camouflaged so that nobody will notice the person inside.”
They approached the structure to see it was large enough for two men to sit inside comfortably and had a narrow slit window facing the plains to the tower and graveyard. The grass inside was well trampled down as if the place had been used recently.
“They must have been hiding in here to watch us,” Frank said.
“How?” Heather asked. “All you can see from here is the tower and the trees. You can’t see into the graveyard at all, and you can’t make out any detail from this distance.”
“This isn’t a camp either,” Breanne said. “Just a place to watch us from.”
“They must have a camp on the far side of the hill, hidden behind it so we wouldn’t notice,” Frank guessed.
“From this distance, I wouldn't have noticed it if they put it right here and lit a bonfire,” Heather remarked.
“We would have seen the smoke,” he countered.
“You know what I mean,” Heather said with a frown. “This is too far away to be of any real use.”
“They may have been using magic to spy on you more closely,” Frank suggested.
Heather thought back to that morning and then blushed.
“You mean they were watching me sunbathe!”
He shrugged, unable to answer that question either.
“Ugghh!” Heather groaned. “Even in fantasy worlds, I am surrounded by perverts.”
“There's probably more of them here than in the real world,” Quinny said. “They can make themselves look like almost anything they want. It's a playground for them, really.”
Heather groaned again as Frank moved on following a path of trampled grass down the far side of the hill. It wound its way down the slope and into a gully between two hills. A small stream flowed through the area that had thick brush growing on the banks. The path became harder to follow, but in short order, the stream widened, and an island of stone formed in the shallow expanse. There were four tents erected on the island and a visible pile of charred wood from a fire. From this distance, something looked wrong; however, and as they crossed the shallow waters, it became evident.
Tents were ripped, and the bedrolls tossed about. A backpack was torn open, and its contents were strewn around the camp. They consisted mostly of clothing and personal items and a few scattered scraps of rations.
“Did an animal ransack the camp?” Quinny asked as she poked through a tent.
“It would have to be something the size of a bear,” Frank said. “The tears in the tents are too big.”
“The tears are single rips,” Breanne pointed out. “A bear would have made four with claws. This damage is more like a sword.”
“Who would hack up an empty tent?” Heather asked.
Frank could only scratch his head and shuffled around the island, inspecting each tent. Heather watched the display as he scratched about and then rose high, standing on his toes and looking out across the stream.
“There’s something in the rocks over there,” he said as he pointed.
Heather turned to follow his pointing to see something glinting in the sunlight along the shore. They made their way across the shallows to find a metal cooking pot resting a meter from the water.
“It must have floated here,” Quinny offered.
“This is upstream; the water flows the other direction,” Frank said. “Something carried this here and dropped it.”
“Great, my first treasure is a cooking pot,” Heather sighed.
Frank gave her a sideways glance and stood tall on his feet again, looking upstream.
“Maybe whatever did this has a lair nearby. It seems to have been following the stream.”
“Yay, a monster hunt,” Quinny said. “I hope it’s a troll again.”
“You fought a troll?” Breanne asked with a shocked look.
“More like ran from it,” Heather quipped. “We were lucky to get away.”
“Let’s follow the shore and see what we can find,” Frank suggested and led the way.
Heather shouldered her scythe and followed with the bone knight walking right behind her. The group made their way another twenty meters before finding a metal plate on the shore.
“Yay, I can stock my kitchen now,” Heather laughed. “Monica will be so pleased.”
“Who is Monica?” Quinny asked.
“My cook,” Heather said with a smile. “I added her to the tower.”
“You added a woman? Why didn’t you pick a man?”
“Why would I pick a man?” Heather asked.
Quinny shrugged and tossed her head. “If I was going to add an NPC that would do anything I told it, I would add one that had multiple uses.”
Heather was confused a moment before the realization set in, and her face went red.
“I don’t want an NPC for that!” she snapped.
“Why not? He would be the perfect partner. Always ready to do your bidding any time of day or night.”
“I wanted a cook, not a consort!”
Quinny giggled and shook her head. “Trapped in a game world and no imagination.”
“What kind of games do you play?”
“I played a few spicy games, but you read manga, didn't you? That stuff is full of spicy stories.”
Heather thought about it as they followed the stony shore. True many of the stories she read often had some element of sex, but it was often played for humor.
“I didn't read all that many,” she said at last. “I was so focused on school and career that I didn't do much of anything that didn't further them. I saw games, and I thought about playing them, but there was always something more important that needed doing. I kept telling myself I would have time later to explore other things.”
“Now you have all the time in the world,” Quinny replied.
“I guess,” Heather said as they rounded a large bush on the shore and came to a stop. There in the side of a hill, some eight meters above the stream was a cave. A path was worn through the weeds on the hillside to the cave's entrance.
“Neat, a cave,” Quinny said excitedly.
“I bet whoever ransacked the camp is inside,” Frank said as he scratched at his head.
“Then let’s go in,” Heather said. “I am sure there are more pots and pans to collect.”
“You wanted to come out here,” Frank pointed out.
“I wanted to look for treasure. What kind of fantasy game doesn’t have treasures and magical things falling from the sky?”
“She has a point there,” Breanne said. “We have seen very little the way of loot.”
“We're not adventuring. Most of the things we fight are animals and will have next to nothing. If we want treasure, we need to tackle something bigger in its lair,” Frank said.
“This cave is probably a lair,” Heather said. “So, let's go in and find some treasure.”
“Call it loot,” Quinny said.
“Loot, treasure, whatever, let’s just go find it! I want a magical pair of slippers or something.”
“Really? Ruby slippers are the only magical item you could think of?” Quinny teased.
“I know about rings that make you invisible,” she retorted, but Quinny only laughed.
Frank led the way, stepping into the entrance of the tunnel and peering inside. It was maybe four meters high and wide but seemed to get wider further in. It looked like smooth walls cut from the stone by flowing water. The floor was littered with pebbles packed down to make a relatively level surface except on one side where a trickle of water still flowed in a tiny channel.
Heather used her undead sight and made her way in with the others. She felt oddly excited to be exploring a cave again. Just a few years ago, she thought of taking a cave tour, but school work got in the way. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how little she did besides work and study. Now she had a life all of her own choosing; maybe this would be a better existence?
“Look,” Frank said as he pointed down. They gathered closer to see tracks in a muddy section of the floor. They had three massive toes in front with a deep hole in the rear. It resembled a bird if that bird was as tall as a man and had toes as wide as two of her fingers.
“What made those?” Heather asked as she traced one with the butt of her scythe.
“A monster,” Quinny teased.
“Were all monsters,” Breanne snapped. “The question is which one specifically.”
Heather looked up and down the twisting tunnel. “There is only one path, so it must be further in.”
“Let’s hope it isn’t behind us,” Frank said.
“How could it be behind us?”
He turned to look at her and pointed back the way we came. “How do we know it wasn’t outside when we came in? It could come in behind us and trap us inside.”
She hadn't considered that and turned to look around before getting a hold of herself.
“We came in here to find the treasure. It doesn’t matter if the monster guarding it is in front of us or behind us.”
Frank shrugged again and moved on following the damp tunnel.
Eventually, they arrived at a larger room that had a partial collapse along one wall. And a pool of cloudy water that fed the little stream. Water dripped from the ceiling into the pool, causing a continuous tapping sound that echoed faintly.
The issue that presented itself now was the six tunnels that led away. Each was as large as the entryway or bigger and radiated off the main room like spokes on a wheel. There was also a smell in the air, something acrid and animal-like. On instinct, she sprayed the air with her scythe to mask the unpleasant odor.
“Which way now?” Frank asked as he studied the nearest tunnel.
Heather held an arm over her nose as she looked down another tunnel. There was a faint clattering sound, and something moved ahead just out of her view. She sprang back and raised her scythe in alarm.
“Somethings down there!” she cried in alarm, her voice echoing off the walls.
The others moved to her side as the clattering was heard all around them.
“What was it?” Quinny asked while drawing her sword.
“I didn't see it clearly,” Heather admitted. “I saw motion and got spooked.”
“Whatever it is, it's coming,” Frank said as a shape moved in the darkness beyond.
It crawled out of the tunnel on four spider-like legs that carried a barrel-shaped body. It had two large segmented eyes on either side of the body and two additional arms it kept curled under itself. Its mouth was beak-like and hooked with a tip that looked like it could bite through stone. The whole of its yellowish surface was plated like a beetle. As they watched, it unfurled its front arms that rose in three bone-like segments to end in a bladed tip. The whole monstrosity was half the size of a human, but it's bladed arms rose to 30 centimeters above their heads.
“What is that?” Quinny said.
“Some kind of insect,” Frank replied. “But I don’t know it.”
The creature let out a hissing squawk that was answered from other tunnels.
“This is a nest,” Breanne said suddenly. “There could be more down every tunnel.”
“Then let’s kill this one quickly before more arrive,” Heather said and pointed to the creature. “Kill that!”
The bone knight raced in, and she quickly fell into a spell. If more were coming, she was going to make it dangerous for them. The center of the room filled with a mustard-colored gas as her grave blight settled in. She wadded into the mist unharmed as Frank and Quinny aided the bone knight in battle. The creature shrieked and flailed out with the bladed arms, scraping the shield of the bone knight as the others attacked.
Heather landed a few rotting bolts to speed things along and then turned her attention to the other tunnels. If more were coming, they could show up from nearly any direction. Quickly she pointed at tunnels and fell and a singing chant, causing vines and plants to grow out of the walls, choking them off and blocking passage.
She had two tunnels completely sealed when a second creature arrived. It raised its bladed arms in a cry of alarm, but boney arms burst from the ground, grabbing hold of its legs and preventing it from moving. It tried in vain to slash at the arms underneath it, but its limbs were not designed to reach below it.
She turned back to the fight to see the monster hobbling around on three legs. One was cut off, leaving a long stump on the beast's side that oozed a greenish liquid. Its body looked battered and as it lashed about trying to keep the others away. Breanne tore it open with a bolt of shadows, causing the monster to flail wildly in desperation.
Heather knew it wouldn't be long. These beasts were nowhere near the threat some of the other things they fought were. She turned back to the tunnels in time to see two more of the creatures emerge. Skeletal arms grabbed at another one, but the third dashed at her with amazing speed. It leaped into the air as a skull raced up to meet it. The two collided, and the skull made a small explosion of dust before vanishing. The monster was thrown down, landing on it's back and twisting about to right itself.
Heather was pleased with how calm she was. After the day before, she realized she couldn't afford to panic when danger was near. Still, her heart raced, and a slight trembled shook her hands, but her spells came quickly. She pelted the free insect with rotting bolts as it got up and cast a second grave blight choking off the entire chamber in the caustic gas. Her skin took on a woody texture and thick leathery leaves wrapped over her chest and limbs as the natures armor spell protected her.
The bone knight ran past and took the still mobile insect into combat even as it blistered in her spell. She raised her scythe and ran in after him attacking from the side to avoid the bladed arms. Frank and the others were there in a moment later, and this insect lasted less than a minute. The other two were already half-dead in the cloud when they pounced on them.
“Wow, Heather, you annihilated them,” Quinny said as they felled the last bug.
“I just wanted to keep them busy,” Heather said.
“You practically killed them all yourself,” Frank said. “I bet you could have done this alone with just your bone knight.”
“Why were they so easy?” Heather asked.
“They were lower level,” Frank replied. “Not everything in this world is as dangerous as a dragon.”
Breanne looked over a bladed arm on one of the insects.
“This explains the tears in the tents,” she said.
“They must have found the camp after the others left it,” Frank said. “They probably carried off anything shiny.”
“So, there should be a treasure in here someplace?” Heather asked.
Frank could only shrug again, so Heather looked around. Vines blocked two of the tunnels, but a bug had come from all the remaining ones. She chose the first one on the right and led the way herself walking into the gloom.
It ended fifty meters in at a large round chamber strewn with branches, and loose stones. There were even a few animal bones from meals it must have dragged back. The next tunnel was more of the same, but they found another pot in the third. The fourth tunnel ended in a wider chamber with a depression to one side. Here they found what they were looking for, and Heather smiled at her success.
“Well, it's treasure, I guess,” Quinny said.
“I am happy with it,” Heather said as she began to dig in a mound of sticks and woody bits. There were coins scattered all through, and a few other items came up as she dug. One was a silver goblet, and that was quickly joined by a matching plate. To the coins, she added a tiny green gem and a helm with golden inlays. There were a few rusty weapons, a shield, some belts, and even a small mirror. It was near the bottom she found something of interest that captivated her gaze. Carefully she grabbed the small black statue of a raven.
“What is this?” she asked as she held it up for the others to see.
Frank squinted at it as Quinny ran a finger over a wing.
“It’s a statue,” Breanne said sourly.
“But is it magical?” Heather asked.
“I have no idea, I can’t detect magic,” Breanne said.
“None of us can,” Frank replied. “But even so, there is no reason to think it's magical.”
Heather sighed and looked around a bit more before finally giving up. She climbed out of the pit to look at her haul and wondered why she bothered. She had a dozen gold coins, some silver, and a pile of oddly colored ones. Frank explained they were copper coins and were worth the least amount. The silver goblet and plate were nice, as was the small gem, and she really liked the statue even if it wasn't magical.
She stuffed it all into the backpack on her bone knight and quickly headed out. She wondered if there might be more in the sealed tunnels but didn't feel like fighting more of the creatures. This was enough for one day, a small reward for a small adventure. As they left to go home, Heather held the raven statue in her hand and wondered where to put it.