We leave the raid, heading towards our group. There is another group in a heated debate with them… Another group had come to clear the raid. All humans from Shienta, looked to be a mixture of people from the boot camp and magic academy. I recognize someone I went to school with. I call out.
“Hey what seems to be the problem here?”
Everyone turns to see my group exiting the raid. The leader of the new group speaks up.
“We're here to clear this raid. You're group stopped us from going in. We had our scouts here not even a week ago. They said that another group was in already clearing the raid bosses. If you're back already that means you must have given up on the raid then?”
“No, we cleared all the bosses inside already. No reason to stick around.”
The group looks at us, almost mockingly at what we just said. The leader speaks again.
“It hasn't even been a full week since we last checked. Most of these bosses take that long just in preparations for the fight. You're telling me, a group of children and non humans beat four bosses that quickly?”
“If we didn't arrive here so late yesterday we could have finished it all in one day.” I boast.
The group laughs at how ridiculous that sounds. They must think I'm lying at this point. It starts to irritate me, Greed speaks up.
“Instigate them so we can kill them to gain a few levels. Or let me talk, I'll scare them so they know we speak the truth.”
“No I'm not instigating an avoidable fight... I guess you can speak through me.”
Greed calls out to the group as their laughter starts to die down.
“You're more than welcome to check, it will be a waste of time though.”
He looks over my group again. With the strange voice that came out of me, it gave him incentive to look us over again. Eyeing everyone much closer this time. Seeing all the mishmash of races and ages must have confused him. He stops on Brick and gulps, then looks at Sock, then Zergnar… Seeing the giants of our group he probably thinks they average out on how weak the young people of the group are.
“We'll do a quick check to see if you're telling the truth. Without the raid bosses up we can still collect items to sell to make up the cost of coming here. We'll let your group go for now.”
With that we leave with our group. With a fight almost breaking out at the raid entrance, our raid group will stick with the new troops for the return trip home… Except for Hilda and Gobber, we'll send back ahead through the portal.
Side story: Raid leader's point of view
We've just arrived at the first boss, the basilisk. My raid group had recently come together but we have still cleared this enough to have strategies worked out before hand on how to fight them… This basilisk is decimated, most of the meat and scales have been collected. I didn't see the other group carrying anything out though… Our scouts should be returning from the locations of the other bosses.
Ten minutes later, the scout who was supposed to check on the roc perch came back. Faster than I expected. He yelled out.
“Reporting back sir! I didn't even make it to the roc's perch, he was dead at the base of the mountain… Mostly looted but what was left was a smoldering corpse of cooked meat and bones.”
What!? They fought the roc in the air? I didn't think it possible. The only way for us to beat that boss with no casualties, was to get the drop on it and wound it before it could take to the air. What is going on? Is that group really this strong…
A few minutes later the other scout came back. He yelled.
“REPORTING BACK SIR! I went to the living growth and… It was covered in ice magic. Still around since they had just defeated the raid boss… I found the remains of the golem, near the living growth was a giant hole though. Big enough to fit ten people in and deep enough for them to not get out if it was a trap. The edges were rounded in and on closer inspection I saw that there was some type of acid at the bottom of it. Inside was the remnants of a completely decimated golem.”
Did the fools challenge the living growth first! The mandrakes would have alerted the golem and they would have had to fight two bosses at once, guaranteeing at least a few casualties… Yet that might just be exactly what they did. Which one of them was the one who killed the golem… Avoiding a fight with them just saved my group lives and I don't think they even realize it.
Main story: Kite's point of view
We're almost back to the fortress. I let anyone who wanted too go back to the base. Besides the new troops, this marching is good for them. Epieoth and Brick both returned, Lance and his entire group stayed. Zergnar stayed but was preoccupied with flying around. Leaf sometimes joined him in the air. I guess I was right about her wanting to fly…
To go over the changes to each of my new pets. First is Darkclaw. He aged what seems to be a few years. Meaning he can fly, he just can't carry anyone yet. Flying is still crucial and with him evolving it means he can continue to evolve to get bigger.
Morpheus easily put on another hundred pounds. Meaning he can now carry me through the air if he changes to a griffin or other flying animal. He also has enough weight to change into a owlbear. I much prefer him to be in owlbear form since it is much better at fighting. Reminds me of back when Pokodo first evolved into her current form. How she almost got stolen… How I ended up killing someone for her. Greed speaks up.
“I would have killed him with no hesitation. You have to be ruthless when it comes to situations like that. Killing him saved the city a huge hassle of capturing him.”
“Of course you would Greed, how did you have any friends?”
“I guess once you go through my memories you'll find out how.”
Getting back to explaining what my pets look like now… Purple is a slightly bigger bat, the biggest change is the color has changed from being a streak of purple. To a much bigger streak with green running down the middle of it.
Purple didn't get the ability to talk yet, I hope it does eventually. Purple can however use one of the six poisons to coat itself from the green streak running down its back. The same six I have thrown at the golem boss Purple was hit by. I haven't gotten to see much of it yet. Purple is also even faster, which might make it the fastest thing in the army now.
We finally make it back to base. I need to do a few things again, before we head out to fight the pirates… Greed might be right, it feels like I'm stalling right now... Afraid to fight against an army that could potentially overwhelm us…
I want to be as prepared as possible. So I need to turn that mandrake into poison to upgrade my poison spit. I want to go through Greed's memories. I think it might help me later on if I do. I need to make my generals weapons. The more prepared they are, the less chance of them dying. I need to recruit the kobolds. I'll leave that to Greed… Greed speaks up.
“You're giving me a job?”
“Yea, I just think… If you want to scare someone. It would be better to have someone scary do it… I could make one of my generals do it… But then the kobolds would be following them and not me at that point.”
“Don't worry then, if I get to do it, they'll have no chance of resisting you anymore.”
“Greed… We are NOT using slave collars on potential allies!”
“Fine! I'll just scare them into following you then!”
I start working on the poison… It is surprisingly easy to make since I have all the ingrediants… The thing is, this is a hallucinogen… Meaning I might have a bad time and try to kill someone or something else bad. So I have my generals lock me in the new prison I had made. I'll take this, then have Gobber make sure I'm still sane before he opens the cell… Here goes nothing I guess.
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Taking the medicine… I don't feel any different… Wait a second I don't feel anything. I look down at my arms… WHERE ARE MY ARMS! BOTH ARMS ARE GONE! AEGIS! AEGIS HELP ME! AEGIS IS RUNNING AWAY WITH MY HANDS! GET BACK HERE! FUCK MY STOMACH HURTS! I CAN'T FEEL IT THOUGH SINCE I DON'T HAVE HANDS! AEGIS BRING MY HANDS BACK DAMN YOU!
I throw up, I start throwing up an intense amount of food. All the food I've eaten in the last ten hours easily… I start to feel a little better afterwords. My hands are back… Aegis is too… Nevermind, I'm still behind me. Well my real body is behind me… Did I die? It feels like I'm a ghost. I move towards the bars of the cell. I go right through them… I'm moving around outside the cell but as soon as I make it out of sight of my body I feel a tinge of pain in my chest. I ignore it and continue to the main room of the mines.
Everyone in there isn't normal. They all have something weird about them. Epieoth has one giant hand while his other hand has shriveled up to being incredibly small. He yells out.
“I'm ready to arm wrestle you now Brick! This will be for all the marbles!”
Brick and Epieoth both throw down a bag of marbles each. Everyone around starts to cheer for them. Brick isn't a normal person anymore… He's like the color of the moon! The group around him is full of both gnolls and demon tribe members. All sort of blurring in and out. Getting bigger and smaller. Epieoth slams Bricks hand down. Then yells.
“There we go! Now you have to eat all the marbles like promised.”
Brick grabs both bags and lifts up his shirt. Revealing a stomach underneath. He tosses both bags into the stomach mouth. Then yells.
“Hah, I lost on purpose because I was hungry!”
...I wake up back in the cell after the interaction… Covered in vomit and I soiled myself… The room is full of puke from me getting sick... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?
Blue mage skill upgraded Poison spit- Can now use seven different types of poisons
Druid skill upgraded Poison resistance--> Poison immunity- Can no longer be effected by most poisons
Shaman secret passive skill unlocked Spirit quest- Unlock the ability to make a special unique to you totem from going on an out of body experience
...That was a nightmare, it might not have even been worth all the new skills I gained. Greed began to laugh in my head… Yea I bet that was funny watching it from the outside. He spoke up.
“No, it reminds me of my older days when I was addicted to drugs. Kind of a similar trip to mana crystal dust.”
“Wow! If it is similar to that count me out!”
“It is a well traded commodity. It's more valuable then gold per pound. We'll probably see a bunch of it if we capture any ships from the pirates. That stuff is lousy for getting people addicted.”
Well… Regardless that is one thing I needed to do out of the way… I guess I should ask to be let out so I can go change my pants… Aegis speaks up.
“Hey before that, you should make a few golems with your mana. If you're not doing anything besides looking through memories. It shouldn't matter that you have all of your mana reserved. It will help keep this place protected while you're not here. Rock won't be able to defend this place by himself. Some little brothers and sisters to help protect the base would good smart.”
“I'll do just that... After I change my pants though.”
The next day I start working on designing some golems. I want them to be smaller than Rock so they can fit inside the base. If we wanted to get Rock to the ocean it would take us longer than two weeks to go around the mountain. Rock can only ever be on the side that Shienta is on. I work on smoothing them out with control nature. Far more than what Rock is. I can't enchant them with control nature so they'll only be so strong.
I decided on a gargoyle design for my sentries. Gargoyles are a real monster in the world that are extremely dangerous. They turn to stone during the day, but at night they can destroy towns in large numbers. Vampires like to use them as sentries for their bases. A similar design to mine might deter anyone from attacking. I enchant them with my conjure familiar. Ten altogether, so my mana is completely empty. Blocking off eighty percent of my combat potential… I'll lock myself in my room until I get it back…
In the mean time I'll go through Greed's memories. When I unlocked them, it only showed me a brief overview of everything. I know that Greed was a bad man. Killing many people I would have made into my friends, all for the sake of coin…
(Kite stats before raid) (strength- 270) (dexterity- 250) (intelligence- 300) (stamina- 350) (total = 1170)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost before raid) (strength- 1350) (dexterity- 1250) (intelligence- 1500) (stamina- 1750) (total = 5850)
(Kite stats after absorbing bosses) (strength- 300) (dexterity- 280) (intelligence- 330) (stamina- 380) (total = 1290)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost after absorbing bosses) (strength- 1500) (dexterity- 1400) (intelligence- 1650) (stamina- 1900) (total = 6450)