The Cone version of the skill was absolutely devastating against the Kobolds. After stunning or disorienting the Shaman, when a group of them was charging at Will through the relatively narrow tunnels, a single Thunder Cone was enough to catch nearly all of them. And the skill dealt enough damage to kill off everything other than the Shamans, which seemed to be a higher tier monster.
And without the rest of the horde to stop Will from getting to them, the Shamans were remarkably easy to take out at melee range.
It cost twice as much mana as the other versions of the skill, but since casting it once was enough to more or less finish the fight, the extra cost was more than compensated for.
But while killing Kobolds was easy, completing the quest was an entirely different matter. By the time Will was done with the sixth group of Kobolds, he was no closer to finding their village than he’d been when he first entered the Space.
Things did change after the sixth group, but only in that the seventh and eighth group Shamans didn’t have Mysterious Pieces of Leather on them.
OK, Will thought while sitting down to recover his stamina and mana after finishing the eighth group. The first six groups all dropped pieces of leather, and then the next two didn’t. I won’t say that it can’t be random, but it is unlikely. And if it isn’t random, it means that there are six pieces, and I have them all. Which might mean that I have to do something with them to find my way to the quest objective.
Taking out all six pieces from his inventory, Will spread them in front of him to take a more serious look at them. The pieces were irregularly shaped, and were all blank on one side. The other side was marked, probably by a piece of heated wood.
And with all six pieces spread in front of him, it was very easy to see that the not only did the edges of the pieces fit together, but so did the markings. Very clearly, they were all part of a single, larger, parchment.
Fitting all six pieces together took Will less than a minute, and once they were all properly placed, the whole thing started to glow. When the glow faded, a few seconds later, the large parchment had been mended, and Will was left looking at what was obviously a map of the caves. Or, at least, some part of the caves. It even showed six small and crude drawings of kobolds in different areas of the map, and a large cave with a larger drawing of a Kobold with a very elaborate headdress in side it.
What it didn’t have, of course, was any indication of where, precisely, Will was located in relation to the, presumably, Kobold village.
This map looks nothing like the individual pieces did. There were definitely no drawings of Kobolds on the pieces. Then again, that’s pretty standard for Board shenanigans. Now, do I assume that the six smaller figures were the Shamans I took the map pieces from? Going to have to check that, at the very least.
Backtracking to the previous battle sites was annoying. Somehow, Will had actually managed to miss some of the traps on his way. And every trap he missed going one way, he managed to hit on the way back.
None of the traps was very dangerous, but they were time consuming, annoying, and on occasion disgusting.
Which meant that when Will had reached the place where he’d fought the last Mysterious Piece of Leather bearing Shaman, he was cranky enough to drop brass cogs.
And, of course, that wasn’t the end of his backtracking. He still had no idea which of the six marked points on the map he was at. Assuming he was actually correct about the meaning of the marked points on the map, of course.
So he had to keep backtracking to reach the next group’s location. By that point, Will thought he could actually tell which two points he’d seen. At least, the tunnel linking them on the map had the same general shape as the tunnel he’d actually taken.
Still, according to the map, Will had to backtrack all the way back to the first group of Kobolds he’d fought, and continue on from there in the other direction before he could actually reach the village. Eventually, he was fairly sure that he was standing at the exact place he’d appeared in when he first entered the Space.
And the question here is, Will thought, whether I could just go in the other direction to reach the village, or if the village only appeared behind me once I had the map. Good game design would have had the village there all along, but I’m really not sure I can consider whoever made this place a good game designer. Not that it matters, I guess. I know where it is now, so that’s where I need to be going.
There was an immediately obvious difference between the tunnels Will had explored earlier and the ones he was exploring now.
The traps were very quickly moving from being an annoyance to being an actual danger.
Covered pits suddenly had wooden spikes on the bottom. Spear traps that previously fired single spears were now launching two or three at once.
The dirty water was somehow more stinky.
Which meant that Will had to start sending his Lesser Mana Beast ahead of himself to spring said traps. And since the Mana Mandrill wasn’t the sturdiest thing in the world, Will found himself pausing every fifty meters or so to resummon it. And then, of course, he had to rest so that he wouldn’t reach a serious fight with sixty mana missing.
By the time he’d past maybe a tenth of the way to his destination, Will had to summon the Mana Mandrill five times. At which point, the wombat broke down and spent three hundred of his precious XP on bringing the skill up to level three, just so that it would last longer.
Skill shard: Lesser Mana Beast
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Tier: Basic
Type: Wizard
Cost: 40 mana
Level 3
XP 0/300
Creates a being out of mana to fight for the caster.
The Mana Beast has 20 health points per skill level and will remain until killed.
The Mana Beast can attack for lesser magic damage.
Level 2: Caster can transfer mana in order to heal the Mana Beast at a ratio of 2 mana to 1 health.
Level 3: Can transfer 1 skill to the Mana Beast. While transferred, the skill isn’t available to the caster, and doesn’t count against their skill slots.
Skill behaves as if it was the same level as Lesser Mana Beast.
If the skill uses stamina and/or mana, the Mana Beast gains that resource pool, with 20 points per level.
Mana Beast does not regenerate mana or stamina.
Caster can transfer mana or stamina to the Mana Beast at a 1:1 ratio to refill its pools.
What kind of beast? Why, it’s a Mana Mandrill Monkey, of course!
Damn it, Fili. Why didn’t you tell me about this? I’d have gotten the damn thing some skills to use! Now I don’t have anything that will be useful for it, except maybe Bite Proficiency. And if I use Bite Proficiency, it’ll merge with Claw Proficiency. Which means I can’t transfer it to the Mana Beast without loosing access to Claw Proficiency for myself. The only other Shards I have are for Light and Medium Armor Proficiencies, and none of those will help without having armor to go with it.
Bah. At least I can heal it when it gets hurt, instead of having to wait until it dies before I can resummon it.
Pointedly ignoring the fact the Fili was, in fact, correct in telling him that the Lesser Mana Beast was more useful than the Shard let on, Will kept moving.
With the Lesser Mana Beast now having sixty health, it could actually survive the traps. It still cost Will a decent chunk of mana to heal it, especially after the spiky-bottomed pit traps, but it was still less than having to recast the skill every time.
A quarter of the way to the (presumable) Kobold Village, the tunnels led Will to another large room, similar to the ones he’d fought Kobold hordes before. And, predictably, this one had another group of Kobolds sitting around a cooking fire.
This group, however, had two significantly larger Kobolds sitting on both side of the Shaman. Will had just enough time to notice them before the monsters all jumped to their legs and started to run towards him.
Will was, by then, used to fighting Kobold groups, and started the fight by launching a Thunder Bolt at the Shaman, hoping to prevent it from shielding the rest of the group. This time, however, one of the larger Kobolds raised a large wooden shield and blocked the skill before it hit the Shaman.
“I protect Shaman!” the large Kobold screeched. For some reason, it was talking in a language Will could understand. Unlike every other Kobold so far. “You get delicious food, but save for me!”
“You slow!” Answered the other large Kobold. It was leading the charge against Will, waving a large club above its head. “I eat all delicious food before you can get!”
The first large Kobold screeched in rage, and abandoned the Shaman in favor of charging towards Will. It was, quite obviously, more interested in the delicious food than in protecting the caster. A fact that Will was very happy to capitalize on by using his Re-vole-ver pistol to shoot at the now-exposed Shaman.
He was still fairly bad at aiming the pistol, and the first bullet missed the Shaman. The second, however, hit. And with the Shaman’s concentration broken, his shield spell was down. A Thunder Cone blasted into the charging group of Kobolds.
Five of the regular Kobolds were instantly killed by the blast. The other two were fortunate enough to be directly behind one of the larger monsters, and managed to avoid most of the attack.
The Shaman was hurt, but still on its feet.
And the two larger Kobolds were looking slightly scorched, but otherwise unharmed.
“Little ones dead!” screeched the club wielding brute.
“More delicious food for me!” answered the shield bearer, just as shrilly.
The Kobolds were too close to charge at, so Will set the Mana Mandrill to attack the club-bearer from one side, while approaching himself from the other.
Just when Will was about to attack, the shield bearing Kobold blurred and moved so fast Will couldn’t even see it. Until, that is, the shield appeared between himself and his target, blocking the claws and bashing Will back.
The wombat flew away from the Kobolds. He wasn’t actually hurt, but he was very much reminded of the last time he went flying. It was a very happy wombat that smashed into the wall, since the existence of said wall was a reminder that he wasn’t, in fact, falling down from the clouds.
Meanwhile, the club bearing Kobold raised its club above its head, and the large piece of bone started to glow with a dull red color, before smashing down hard on the Mana Mandrill. It wasn’t enough to outright kill the Lesser Mana Beast, now that it had sixty health, but it wasn’t that far from enough either.
Will sent a chunk of mana to heal his summoned minion, and took advantage of his newfound distance to charge at the shield bearer, which was standing between himself and its ally.
The Kobold tried to shield bash Will again, but this time Mr. Momentum was on Will’s side, and the wombat slammed into the shield and bowled its bearer over, leaving Will with a clear path to the club bearer.
Unslowed by the collision, Will continued his charge at the second large Kobold, knocked it down, and pierced its side with his nose horn. Will ordered his Mana Mandrill to continue attacking the downed Kobold, and charged again, this time aiming at the Shaman, which had abandoned its shield skill in favor of trying to heal the large Kobolds.
It never got the chance. Between the pistol bullet, the Thunder Cone, and the marauding marsupial, the Shaman was dead before it hit the ground, leaving Will away from the rest of the Kobolds.
Will cast Thunder Volley, firing six bolts at the Kobolds. Each of the remaining regular monsters was targeted by one bolt, with the remaining four all hitting the club bearing Elite.
The large Kobold was finally starting to look hurt, but it was also back on its feet, and busy beating up Will’s Lesser Mana Beast.
The shield-bearer, also back on its feet, was standing between its ally and Will, shield raised and ready to block any further spell casting.
Which meant that Will’s next move was another charge. Like a chunky self-propelled bowling ball, Will hit a strike against the standing Kobolds, knocking both down and spearing the club bearer again.
One more Volley was all it took to finish off the club bearer, leaving just one enemy alive.
“All dead? Good! All delicious food for me!”
Will shook its head at the one-track minded Kobold, and charged it again. The monster still hadn’t learned how to defend itself from charging marsupials, and was knocked down for the third time in that fight.
It didn’t get a chance to stand back up. Left alone and knocked on its back, there was nothing stopping Will and the Mana Mandrill from tearing it apart with claws and teeth.
7 Kobolds slain!
1 Elite Kobold Defender slain!
1 Elite Kobold Warrior slain!
1 Kobold Shaman slain!
Gained 65 XP
Gained 560 copper bits
Gained 1 Power Attack Skill Shard