I learned a lot of enchanting effects. The boot enchants seem very useful. All of the rings boosting magic from tier one to tier two are also valuable. I wonder how to learn effects that give two effects like "duality of magic". Maybe someone synthesized the scrolls together? Or synthesized two wands with effects. Not sure how, so I can only speculate for now.
I do plan on paying back this old enchanter for helping me. I taught him a few of the enchants but it takes too long to do all in one day. I go to leave and ask him. He seems trustworthy and to push forwards with telling him the truth about my class seems like the best idea right now. If I want him to be an ally in the future befriending him now would be the best choice... Having him indebted to me also isn't a bad idea.
“I don't even know your name yet.”
“It's Merlin.”
“Well Merlin, you should put a sign outside to signify this is an enchanters place of business. I had to ask for directions to find it. You should take on some apprentices to help make the magic paper for enchanting. If you want, I can ask the students at the magic school for you. You could enchant peoples gear with one stat for far cheaper than it is to make a rare. That would help make money until someone buys a rare piece.”
He takes all my advice to heart. He's the most skilled enchanter I've met so far but he has no business sense. I head to the fortress and fall asleep tired from teaching.
The next few weeks I continue to teach Merlin enchanting. I've brought the 2 gnolls who I thought enchanting with me. While I'm teaching Merlin, it would be a waste to not teach them as well. They'll live with him until he's been fully taught then they'll come back. As they live there they can help him with the enchanting too. Their enchanting job is slowly going up in levels. They'll soon pass me. All the gnolls who've learned jobs are going to pass me soon. Just like the gnolls who learned classes have passed me already.
Soon enough I'll have a few of the rares I've been trying to make ready. The main ones I wanted were the tent and bag void storage. Seems like they'd help on adventures so they're both close to being finished. I had the gnolls working on them separately while I worked on enchanting a ring with time magic.
After that, I'll do the rest of the rings that improve magic tiers. I'm not sure if black mage and white mage will stack with my wand. If I make a white mage ring and it doesn't. I could give it to Gargarz or Pokodo to wear as a necklace.
From what I understand ring enchants can be used on any jewelry but that's normally the best thing to make with it. You can also only have three rings on each hand, split by a finger because if they touch the magic could backfire and explode. That's also why you can't store rare gear in a void storage container. So I'll have to leave my wand outside of the tent when I camp in it at night.
The void tent and bag have been made. I head inside the tent and its around five times bigger on the inside. It would also be easier to transport some harder to carry things. I put a few bedrolls in it. That wont increase the weight of it by much. I don't need many because if the gnolls use it they'll just sleep in a giant pile. So they wouldn't take up that much space. All the gnolls at the fortress could probably fit in the tent to sleep if it came down to it.
The bag I enchanted is also big enough to sleep in. Maybe I'll use the bag as my own private tent. It's a lot smaller than the tent. If I get too much to carry I'll keep the items in the bag and have to sleep in the tent. Schools going normally, I've started to learn less and less from it. I think the only way to increase the speed I learn at would be to level my main class. So maybe I'll try this tent out and head to a dungeon within the next few days.
Me, Gobber, Pokodo, Sock, Gargarz. The leader of the gnoll beast riders. And the leader of the gnoll thieves have headed towards one of the closer dungeons. It's only a few days away. I won't have to miss school for very long. There's also another dungeon close to it. If this one goes smoothly enough we'll head to the other one.
I mount up onto Sock. He's big enough to let me ride him for now. In a few years that wont be the case. Pokodo is also riding on him. Gobber has his dire wolf and spider but he's too big to ride on either one. Gobber let Gargarz ride on his dire wolf once he's too tired to continue.
One major problem with bringing Gargarz is his fatigue are going to be low. We'll either have to travel slower or let him ride on one of our pets. Increasing his fatigue now will be helpful later on. So until he's out of fatigue he needs to walk.
Thinking along the same line once the gnoll thief was too tired to continue. I switched with him, letting him ride Sock. Sock is already well accustomed for long runs. Training everyday with me increased his fatigue to beyond normal levels. We're making quick pace and might reach the dungeon earlier then expected, maybe even today.
We do manage to make it there but it's too late in the day. Everyone is tired besides myself so they can sleep in the tent while I keep watch and switch with someone in a few hours. I wall us off with control earth magic. Even so I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to attack a group like ours. Unless they had the number advantage.
Bandits could also be waiting for us to complete the dungeon to attack. No reason to risk injury if you can just rob the rares and money people get from the dungeons afterwards. I haven't seen any around here, same with Gobber. With mine and Gobber's scout being so high level. Chances are we would spot them before they spotted us.
Its a few hours later the fire I started is running low. There are no trees in this area so it will die down soon. I see movement of someone running out of the dungeon. He notices my earth walls and the light from the fire. It's barely visible but it's just enough to be noticed.
“Help, my group got trapped on the second floor.”
I wake everyone up. I couldn't really tell for sure it wasn't a lie. He's covered in injuries though but it could still be a trap. Even if he was with bandits. With the group we have right now we could take over double the amount of bandits our party numbers. Gobber alone could probably kill five by himself.
We head inside. A few of the monsters that had chased him to the entrance were still visible. We head inside semi rushing towards the second floor. While we clear some orange slimes with one light blue slime as the leader.
The light blue slime is immune to both fire and ice magic. Meaning it's harder to kill. It also splits more often so blunt weapons are the way to kill these things. The ground is also covered in a foot of water which makes it much harder to kill the slimes since they regenerate in water. I cast control nature into spikes impaling them. Both immobilizing them and lifting them out of the water.
With all the melee strength we have, we easily clear the group with no real problems. The water is signaling that this is a water dungeon. Thankfully this is only a tier two dungeon. Since higher level water dungeons are extremely dangerous. While we're heading towards the second floor, the thief leading the way since he just came from it. I ask.
“How did your group get stuck inside?”
“We set off a trap. They're all hiding in a room close by the trap. We were overwhelmed by enemies outside the room. They managed to distract the horde of enemies long enough for me to escape and run for help. I'm a thief/scout, so I was fast enough to make it passed them. I was still injured escaping... I think... The white mage died in the escape attempt.”
We clear a few more slime packs. Then we fight the first new enemy I've seen in awhile. Four lizard men attack.
Two of the lizard men are carrying a net. Another has a crossbow with a flaming arrow sticking out. Another is wearing armor, probably a warrior. The lizard men with the net seem to be the weakest in sense of killing potential. I fire an arrow at the warrior. It's enchanted with poison. So when it hits his arm he loses control of it dropping his shield.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The lizard archer got annihilated by a bolt from the giant crossbow I made for Gobber. The bolt not only went through his head but dug into the rock wall behind him enough to stick to it nailing the lizard to the wall. Damn that's strong! The giant crossbows could increase the range of any army that gets a hold of it. Just something else I have to be worried about people learning I can make.
We brought all our pets inside the dungeon. I'd have liked to leave a few outside to protect our equipment. We were in a hurry. I didn't think about it until we were already inside. The pets overwhelm the net carrying lizard men, just like expected after they threw the net they were pretty easy to pick off. It might be nice to make a weapon out of that net...Maybe a net launcher?
The warrior put up the biggest fight. Several bolts later, even dodging Gobbers giant bolt. The gnoll thief manage to sneak up to him, attacking with a stealth strike. I enchanted both the thief's swords with poison magic but his attacks were enough to kill the lizard. I still need to teach the gnoll thieves how to use the skill assassinate.
Blue mage passive skill gained Reptilian regeneration- Able to regenerate wounds more quickly and lost limbs over many years of time
We head down to the second level. A few more lizard men groups later. We finally make it to where the group was stranded. I can see a dozen lizard men standing in a narrow hallway. One knives cannon could probably take all of them out. It's my trump card I have to hold onto it for the dungeons boss. I'd like to not use it though. It seems to weaken the amount of experience I get when I use my trump cards. Also the amount of things I learn.
Gobbers giant crossbow is up again. Stealth attack snipe arrow into the group. Out of ten he killed two and injured another. Everyone else with crossbows fire. I kill one and the beast tamer injures another (he doesn't have archery but he's still been taught how to use a crossbow). The gnoll thief finished off the injured lizard. The thief that asked for help is fairly useless. He's not very skilled and has no ranged weapons. If he brings up the fact I'm using multiple classes I'll kill him on the spot for questioning.
Before they were even aware over thirty percent of their group had taken damage or died. This group's different though. I see caster lizards near the other side of the group. I fire an arrow through the group at one of them but it's blocked. This is going to be a hard fight from here because of that caster.
Gobber was still loading another bolt into the giant crossbow. The pets have started blocking the entrance to the hallway. I activate both of my harmonicas. I start casting haste magic onto Sock. The lizard black mage in the back also started casting. Shock magic through the water on the ground!
All friends and enemies have been injured by it. I'm at half health and judging by the thief's look. He's badly injured from it. All the people close to the black mage have fallen down from the shock. He killed 2 of his allies in the attack. Should I attack or focus on healing?
I hear both Pokodo and Gargarz chanting, so I switch and fire a bolt at the now downed black mage easily killing him. I fire another bolt at the furthest away down lizard killing him too. Gobber fires a giant bolt through two enemies on the ground. Almost all the enemies are dead except one more mage on the other side of the hallway. I take the initiative and start running to finish him off.
I'm halfway through the hallway when I see an opening to the left coming up. Even if there was an enemy where I couldn't see he would've been hit by the magic stunning him. I go to run passed it and see a lizard warrior swinging a hatchet down at me. Fuck!
The ground must be dry that way. I jump back and block with my crossbow. He destroys my crossbow but I didn't get hit. I can hear the black mage on the other side has started chanting the shock magic again. If I'm already at half health, there's no way for me to survive one this close range. I have to make it to him or get to the safety of dry ground where the hatchet wielding lizard warrior is.
Some of my group might die if I take the cowardly way and try to save myself. So I jump as high as I can, kicking off the walls I clear the range of the hatchet wielder. I cast every movement speed increase I know that's instant. Sprint, feral roar to increase my speed. I sink in as much fatigue as it will allow me. We're all about half a second away from getting fried to death. I get an improved counter spell off on the last mage with no time to spare. Interrupting him less than a fraction of a second before everyone would have been sizzled again.
The hatchet wielder started to chase after me but was stabbed in the back by Gobber and I pull out my sword and finish off the defenseless black mage.
Blue mage passive skill gained Water affinity- Movement is no longer hindered by water
Master of learning 14 to 15
Thinking about it after the fight. I could have used control nature to raise the ground up cutting the water off before we got electrocuted the second time. It all happened too fast for me to think of that in time for it to be useful. Having so many skills, sometimes you don't think of the best way to handle a situation until after it's already happened.
The thief say's his group is the way the hatchet wielder was. The area that way is raised up enough so the ground isn't covered in water. We head forwards after recovering our health and I see even more lizard men pounding on a door. I'm guessing that's where they are hold up at. Three left they're easily killed before they even notice us.
Fifteen enemies altogether. What kind of trap did these adventurers set off to make that happen? It must have been an obvious trap with a rare on a pedestal. Once it's removed it sets off a much harder than normal trap. The thief knocks on the door
“It's me, I brought help.”
The door slowly opens. I see a few adventurers on the other side. Some wounded badly.
We heal the injured, it seems like their white mage might have died in the attack. I guess I didn't notice his corpse because there were twelve lizard men standing right on top of it. But even still besides the white mage. I don't see a single support mage class in the group. They all look like warriors, archers and thieves. No wonder they struggled.
They're going to quit for now and head back to the city. Without a healer they wouldn't be able to finish the boss in the dungeon. We head out with them. Thankfully the tent is still there. It would've been awful if the brand new rare we just made was stolen.
The void bag I have is already full of weapons and equipment. The weight is over one hundred pounds so Gobber has to carry it with both hands. He looks silly carrying a small pouch with such difficulty. I keep watch for the rest of the night. I'll sleep in the morning once everyone wakes up. Then we'll finish the dungeon.