It took a while for us to stop laughing but once it began to die down, Clair cast her call creature spell bringing the spooked demon steeds back to us.
"Is there any loot on the skeletons?" Taylor asked.
"I forgot to check." I confessed.
"I was just about to check on the ridge." Raven said.
The left side of the road had a narrow but surprisingly deep ditch next to the road, that had to be where the skeletons had hidden. On the other side of the ditch, the husk of a broken and battered tree had given the skeleton archers the little cover they needed to stay hidden.
The ice walls Taylor had created to split the road had melted and left large cold, damp patches on the road. The first pile of bones lay half submerged in the puddle, there was nothing but bones, broken leather armour and a rusty shortsword in the pile so I moved onto the next one, more bones, broken armour and a rusty sword. In the next pile there was a small leather pouch tied onto the leather armour, it felt a little heavy so I put it to the side to come back to once I had gathered everything of value.
The next few piles had nothing but broken armour and weapons, it was only when I checked the two skeleton archer remains that I found the first item of curiosity. A large black bow lay next to the pile of bones, rather than using my Identification spell on it now I put it next to the leather pouch. The next interesting item was a pair of shoes that had an enchantment on them but he wasn't sure what it was, he'd have to get Taylor to look at them. The last item was a small golden locket that was a little dented and had a faded picture in it, it also had 'Alan' engraved on the inside opposite the picture.
I checked my side of the road again to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I even climbed down into the ditch to make sure there was nothing hidden down there. With loot in hand, I headed back to Taylor and Harold who were slowly working their way through what Raven had found.
"Find anything good?" Raven asked, she had a smug smile on her face indicating she'd found something good.
"Maybe?" I shrugged, "I haven't identified it just yet. What about you, anything good?"
"A few things but most was junk." Raven said holding up 3 items. "I have basic descriptions but I'm still missing the magical aspect to my Identification skill."
"I thought you bought the Identification spell book instead of the skill book." Harold said, he had a slight frown on his face.
"Do you know how much that spell costs?" Raven complained, "50 gold, 50 GOLD! I could sleep in a nice inn for a few weeks with that kind of money."
Raven looked around for support and agreement but didn't find it. Spell books were expensive for 2 simple reasons; firstly, the mage creating the spell book had to give up a spell and any levels they had for it, if they wanted to cast the spell again they'd have to relearn it from level 1. The second reason was that spell books gave instant results and greater understanding of the spell, this mainly meant that anyone using a spell book could instantly cast the spell with good effect.
Skill books on the other hand would give the user a foundation for the skill but it would be up to them to improve upon it and develop better functionalities for it. Like not being able to identify magical items due to a lack of knowledge about Magic Theory when a certain rogue gained the skill.
“Cheapskate.” Harold said, shaking his head.
"So how exactly is the skill meant to be able to identify the good loot when you come across it?" I asked.
"The question marks increase with how valuable the item is." She said with an impish grin.
“You know that’s not how it works right?” Taylor interjected, “Cursed items will show up exactly the same and then you’ll get stuck with some shitty curse that we have to try and remove.”
“That’s what friends are for.” Raven beamed.
We all groaned and shook our heads, it wouldn’t be the first time that things had gone wrong due to Raven. In fairness though over the last 8 years everyone had gotten into trouble at some point and needed the party to save their ass. Myself included but that is a story for a different time.
“Ok then, let’s see what we have.” I said as I put my items down and began using my Identification spell on my loot.
Item: Dead Wood Bow
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 15lb
Description: A longbow made from the dead wood of an Elder Tree, this bow deals extra damage to living creatures and good aligned creatures.
Requirements: n/a.
Item: Dented Golden Necklace
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 0.2lb
Description: An old golden necklace that has been damaged by neglect and war.
Requirements: n/a.
Item: Boots of Leaping
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 3lb
Description: A pair of stylish leather boots that increase the wearer’s jump distance by 15 feet.
Requirements: Bipedal humanoid creature.
I looked at the 3 items and sighed, none of these were ideal items for me. Sure the boots could be useful and an extra 15 feet jumping range was ludicrous but they would be more useful for Raven. The only person who could use a bow with any sort of competency was Clair and the necklace was destined to be sold.
“Interesting items,” Taylor said, they were using their identification spell on Raven’s items. “A few low value gems and the gauntlets give a +1 to strength as well as +2 to the Heavy Armour skill. The crystal orb gives a +1 to spell level and a -20% mana cost when it’s used to cast spells. The sword has a sharpness enchantment on it increasing the damage it deals but it’s close to breaking. The rings are an assortment of +1 or +2 to a characteristic.”
“Harold, did you want to borrow the gauntlets?” Raven offered, “I’ll take back or I can sell them to you when we get to a shop.”
Harold looked over the gauntlets for a minute trying them on and moved around getting a feel for them, his movements seemed to be smoother than a few seconds before hand but without asking it was hard to tell. Clair came back with the 4 legged monsters in tow, I stared at the demon that kicked me in the chest. I borrowed my eyes as it pulled its lips back in what could have been a grin or a snarl, my hand gripped my scythe a little tighter as I fought the urge to kill the bastard.
“I’ll borrow them for now, I’m not sure if they’re better than the +5 skill levels in Block enchantment that I have on my current ones.” Harold said finally.
“No worries, just know, if you break them you buy them.”
“What’s in the bag Luca?” Taylor asked.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” I said lifting up the leather bag.
I opened the bag and felt a chill run down my spine as all the mana in the area around me was sucked into the open bag. I began to frown before I felt a push as the mana was expelled from the bag. My face went pale as I could suddenly see my breath in the freezing air around me, my hands and arms felt like there were hundreds of spiders crawling up my arms. A deep sense of wrongness washed out of me and my Mana Sense went haywire saying that there was a ton of mana flooding out of the bag. As I tiled my head to look into the bag, my Danger Sense kicked in and I was filled with the urgent need to throw the bag as far as I possibly could. I felt my Identification spell fire off just before I snapped the bag shut.
“Was that…” Taylor asked breathlessly.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I quickly scanned the notification and nodded slowly.
Item: Attuned Crystal Mana Generator (Death)
Rarity: Rare
Weight: 20lb
Description: The crystal has been formed out of concentrated death mana and from the sacrifice of hundreds of sentient creatures. The crystal generator will absorb ambient mana and expel death mana until all the mana in the area is death attuned.
Requirements: n/a.
“Forgotten Gods, unholy ancestors and abominations,” Taylor cursed, “How heavy is it?”
“20lb.” I said, my face was extremely pale and the second I told Taylor, they turned pale as well.
“What?” Harold asked, alarmed by our reactions.
“I’m holding a weapon of extreme mass destruction.” I said, I saw him frown at my statement so I began to explain. “Mana can be condensed into crystalline form, I don’t know how the exact process works but the attuned crystals have a huge variety of applications from power supplies for airship engines, all the way down to infinite clean water for a city. The crystal in this bag is attuned to death mana, and it will absorb all the ambient mana and expel death mana.” Harold nodded for me to continue. “I’m sure Taylor could go into details of what exactly happens then the crystal breaks, but the basic version is that for every pound the crystal weighs, 2 square miles will be flooded with death mana. The crystal in this bag is 20lb which means 40 square miles.”
I watched the realisation come over both Harold and Raven at the same time, I had to stop myself from chuckling as both of their faces drained of colour at the same time. They had followed the train of thought and come to the horror that was imagining what would happen if a city was hit by this crystal.
“While that is a crude description of what happens, you are right.” Taylor said softly, “Thankfully most countries forbid the use of them or have agreements not to use them in their wars. Unfortunately it looks like the necromancer doesn’t seem to care.”
“What the hell are we going to do with it? I don’t think I feel comfortable selling it.” Raven said to the shock of everyone, we all turned to look at her. “What? I have to live in the world as well, I don’t like the idea of giving someone a weapon like that.”
“I have no idea what we are going to do with it.” I said, looking at Taylor, “Any ideas?”
“It’s death mana so we can’t destroy it, we can’t open the bag else it will just pump out mana and if we leave it in there it’ll only get bigger.” Taylor said and began pacing.
“Get bigger?!” Harold and Raven said at the same time.
“It’s condensed the mana in the bag into denser death mana and that attaches to the side of the crystal, that is why they are so dangerous.” Taylor said absentmindedly, they stopped suddenly and turned to me, “Are we sure the necromancer made this and no one else?”
“As sure as I can be about anything found on the side of the road.” I deadpanned, “My guess is that it was the necromancer as there haven’t been any death mages for a few years and we are on their trail.”
“Right, right.” Taylor nodded. “Can I get my pack? I need my tools.”
“Where did you want the generator?” I asked.
Taylor looked around for a second before shrugging and creating an ice table in the middle of the road. I carefully placed the crystal on the table with all the gentleness and softness that I could muster, when it was finally out of my hands I sighed and shook my arms to get feeling back in them. I then pulled Taylors pack out of my bag of holding, she took it and began rummaging through it.
“It might be awhile before I have anything.” They said distractedly.
I nodded and stepped away from them so that I wasn’t going to distract them. I watched Taylor for a few seconds as they pulled out a metal rod and a few orbs of different sizes and colours. They placed them on the ice table next to the bag and went back to digging through their pack
“So what do you wanna do while Taylor works?” Raven asked.
“I’m going to take care of the horses, the poor things were terrified from the ambush and it took a while for my spell to find them.” Clair said.
“I think I might carve, I’m curious what my new carvings will turn out as.” I said when everyone turned to me.
“Boring.” Raven sighed.
“Want to spar?” Harold asked.
“Now you're talking my language,” Raven grinned, “Straight up spar or skills included?”
“Straight up, I think I need to work on my dodge skill.”
I left the others to it and looked around for a comfortable spot to sit while I carved. The left side of the road was not good as it was all downhill and nothing looked comfortable. The right side of the road had a similar ditch to the left side, however instead of sloping away the ground rose above the road to a small ledge. I used Etheric Step to appear above the ledge and I dropped a few inches to the ground. I caught myself as I stumbled from my left foot landing on a small pile of bones. The outcropping was devoid of any growth but instead had some large rocks that the skeletons must have hidden behind. The piles of bones I could see and the small pile of scrap loot made me confident that Raven had scoured this side of the road.
I saw a small rock that rose up to my knees, the top of it was flat and the sides curved away down to the base which looked like it went into the ground. I ran my hand over the top to make sure it was smooth, with a smile I sat down on top of it and I was about to pull out my carving knife when I saw that I had notifications vying for my attention. I sighed and looked through them.
You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Archer Level 8, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 10xp.
You have slain a Skeleton Archer Level 8, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 10xp.
No skill, spell or level increases, just kill notifications with next to no experience to remind me that my class does not progress from fighting. I shook my head with slight disappointment and pulled out my carving knife and a small block of wood. I stared at it for a while and turned it from side to side before putting it away and pulling out a different block, this one was slimmer but taller than the other. I had a flash of inspiration and began furiously carving the block of wood, to an untrained eye it looked like I was stabbing and slicing randomly but…who am I kidding, with my skill at the master level some of my movements were more instinctive than active knowledge. I did know that I was still following my idea with the odd strikes and odd cuts so I carried on and let myself be absorbed into the process.
Harold and Raven began sparing and the dull thunks of training swords rang out from the road below me, creating an almost white noise for me as my focus sharpened on the wood I was carving. My breathing slowed down and evened out as I entered an almost meditative state. My awareness of my surroundings shrank down to my body, my carving knife and the block of wood. Time became an abstract concept as I became one with my craft. I cut, sliced, stabbed, twisted and jabbed the wood like a mad man taking out all their frustrations on a helpless tree.
When I was finished I held up the figurine to the sky and blew, the loose bits of wood flew away from what had been a small block and revealed a warg and goblin rider. The warg was positioned to look like it was in the middle of landing from a large leap, I looked at its face and could see the sharp teeth and intelligent eyes, I could almost hear the growl in my head. The goblin on its back had a spear that was being thrust forwards, its face looked like a mix for rage and glee. I didn’t remember cutting the wood like that, but it gave the goblin a sense of realism that I was not too comfortable with, however it looked so real.
I decided to pull out the other figurines I had carved, I lined them up on the stone and looked at them. I had Harold and Taylor, 3 goblins, all 5 members of The Lonely Hearts and the warg with goblin rider. As I looked at them I received an odd but welcome feeling from my Carving skill, I’d had this feeling a few times when I’d started work on a large project. This was the feeling of looking at an incomplete item set, too much of the set was missing for my Identification spell to tell me what the set would be but that didn’t matter. Item sets were great ways to progress skills and for creative skills like Wood Carving, they were the best way to break through bottlenecks. My skill had been stuck at Master Level 10 for a year and I was dying to find out what having the skill at Grand Master would be like. I was dragged out of my musings and hopes for the future when Taylor shouted.
“I’VE GOT IT!” Taylor shouted.
I stood up and used Etheric Step to appear near them. Harold, Raven and Clair also came over to find out what Taylor had done. Taylor was smiling and staring proudly at the bag that held the crystal mana generator, they gripped it firmly in both hands which was a little odd.
“Tell us the good news.” Harold said.
“I have a way to track the necromancer!” They said in an excited rush, we all stared at them trying to understand what they’d said. “The necromancer cheated when they created the mana generator. They didn’t form it out of pure mana like most mana generators, instead they used a Comms Crystal for the original structure and, through possibly the most creative and ingenious arcane artificing I’ve ever seen, plastered on the converter runes and enchantments to the side. It took me a while to find them as they were hidden under the dense death mana crystals growing around them, but they couldn’t stay hidden forever with how strong they were.”
“What does that mean?” Raven asked. “And how does it help us track the necromancer?”
“The good news is that if the crystal is destroyed it won’t kill us outright but we will have to run quickly as the death mana will invade our bodies and try to burn out our mana channels. More good news is that the bag is strong enough to contain the mana for maybe 4 hours.” Taylor said matter of factly, I grimaced but they carried on before anyone else could interrupt. “The idiot who created this used blood in the process to increase the power of the runes and enchantments. Blood enchantments only work if the owner of the blood is still alive, if that person dies the enchantments stop entirely.” Taylor’s smile grew a little too wide and they showed a few too many teeth. “I can use the blood to track the creator. I’ve turned it into a homing crystal, the only problem is that with the enchantments being so strong, it has to stay in the bag else it will start flying towards the creator extremely fast.”
“Okay, so how does it work?” Clair asked.
Tylor smiled and let the bag lower so that they were only holding it by the strap, their hand was stretched out from their body so we could see they weren’t interfering with it. The bag didn’t point downwards, instead it was leaning back towards Taylor, we all looked at the bag then back up to Taylor expectantly. Taylor shook their head and stepped to the side, it pointed towards the right side of the road. We all looked up to the large cliffs in the distance that we could just about see over the outcropping.
“That’s Wyrm territory isn’t it.” Raven stated rather than asked.
“Yeah.” Clair said dejectedly.
“Well shit.” Harold added.