To not interfere with other hunting parties we went a bit further in the cave.
The strategy was simple. I use 'Observation' to spot monster hideouts, run towards them with 'wind walker' to get their attention, run back to use 'camouflage' on both of us with already prepared “outfits” and then we ambush them from behind as they run past us.
“I think 4 kobolds is the limit. I can hold two with my magic while we focus our attacks on the other two.”
“The biggest problem we've faced so far was those two kobold archers. It was my fault, I couldn't see they had long range weapons with 'Observation'.”
The kobold archers are monsters of level 30 and the seconds strongest kobolds you can find in the dungeon. Normally you don't see them on the first floor but they sometimes spawn if there are too many players. I failed to notice they were archers and because of that Garnet almost died, she being a mage which have sub par defences from not being in close combat. She should have died but because when she was excluded from the party she was in, she had to hunt by herself and it made her put some points into vitality. She managed to get a skill totally irrelevant for a magician, blunt weapon mastery. Unbelievable.
“Ok let's go to the entrance, sell our loot and see if someone sells anything we might need.”
“Good idea but I bet the prices are going to be severely inflated”
“Nothing we can do about. Let's see first and then I might have a backup plan.”
“Buying bronze knife, 20 copper”
“Buying bronze knife in bulk of 20 for 450 copper”
“Selling bread!”
“Looking for lv.30ish cleric!”
The entrance was crowded with people, some were there for business and others looking for people to hunt with.
“I'll go sell our stuff while you look for items to buy, Malice”
“Yeah no problem, sell em as expensive you can.”
“Hello, do you sell any healing herbs or potions?”
“Nobody resells potions, go to the city for that! I got some herbs and some food though.”
“Show me all your herbs and I'll choose what I want.”
“Not like it makes a difference between herbs but if you want to then, here!”
There weren't many who sold herbs because they didn't bring in much money, normally a cleric or similar takes care of that. Weapons and armor were much more desirable.
Anyway. I'm going to buy the herbs that seem to be most potent for healing. Surprisingly his selection was quite diverse, he must have picked up anything that looked like a herb. There were mushrooms, bark, flowers, grass, fruit and vegetables and a few well known healing herbs.
'Identify!'
All the mushrooms were poisonous, the bark I couldn't identify, flowers and grass had some healing properties so I bought them all, the fruit and vegetables were food ingredients but I didn't need them. I also bought all of his mana healing herbs, all is an exaggeration there were 4. Two different kinds and one wasn't well known yet.
“That'll be 3 silver.”
“Oh come on, there is no way it's that expensive! What is it that costs that much?”
“I'm charging 80 copper for the flowers, 20 copper for the grass and 2 silver for the herbs.”
“how come you're pricing the flowers so high!? I just want to buy them for my girlfriend.”
“They're pretty so I just wanted to give them to her, be a gentleman and reduce the price. Please, look there she's coming.”
“...Fine I'll charge you 2 silver and 50 copper for everything then.”
“Yay thanks!”
Got to send Garnet a pm so she knows what's up.
“Hi, honey! I bought you some flowers from this gentleman here.”
“Oh they're wonderful darling! Thank you mister for having such beautiful flowers.”
“So why did I have to act as your girlfriend?”
“I told him the flowers were for you and then he gave me a 50 copper discount.”
“That's small change!”
“To me the flowers were actually worth 3 silver each. When I'm done with them I'll show you what I mean.”
“Since you're going to be busy with your alchemy you won't mind me going around talking to people and buy some books if anyone got any?”
“Try to get them for free, play your: I'm a poor girl part and you'll be fine”
“=P”
“It might take a while so you can take a break form the game if you've got time to spare, I'll be done in 2 hours real time.”
Fire and water. When brewing potions a steady fire must be kept burning at all times, sometimes a roaring fire is needed or sometimes cinders. It's good that there are branches strewn around everywhere and I brought with me enough water for 5 cauldrons. I have 1 large cauldron and 2 smaller ones for trying out new recipes. I'll start with making the trusty mana/poison potion because I haven't made it in a while and I'm running low.
Boil water, take the fruity flesh out of the plant and grind the skin to a paste. Boil the paste and water for an hour and skim the foam off when it forms. Store foam for future use in separate container, it is poisonous. When no more foam forms throw in the flesh and and cook for 30 to 45 minutes, until the flesh is tender. Take out the flesh and grind it to a thick juice. The potion is finished. Mana regenerated with a slight case of poison.
It was a real pain figuring out how to increase the potency. I knew the plant regenerated mana and I tried to eat only the flesh but nothing happened then the skin and I got poisoned real bad, lost over 200 health. I knew I had to use the whole plant so I cooked the whole plant and then ground it up but I only got poisoned. After 10 tries I figured out that you had to skim the foam when it forms and not wait till the end. I hope when my alchemy level rises I’ll be able to make a better version of it. Less poisonous I hope.
I don't know if I'm cheating or what but thanks to Garnet I managed to buy a book on beginner Alchemy from the alchemy guild. It contained some basic recipes which I'm going to use for some quick health regeneration, basically as effective as a good herb.
“Plant identification!”
Behind the grave flowers
Normally grows close to cliffs or large broken stones.
Grows behind Tectite gravestones the Tectite provide extra nutrients.
Never grows over dead animals.
Ingredient for Alchemy or cooking
[Tier 2 Ingredient]
Restriction: Intermediate [5] Cooking, Alchemy [2]
“These are the flowers I wanted? SCORE!”
When 'plant identification' reached beginner [5] I gained the bonus of seeing restrictions and additional information on where they grow for ingredients. Good thing my alchemy was at level 2 otherwise they would have really been pretty flowers for a lady.
When boiling flowers there are two things to do if I'm reading this book correctly. You either soak the petals and lightly simmer them to extract the colour or you take the nectar/pistil for consumption. Since I'm making a potion I guess I'll try to make a reduction of the petals to see what happens.
“Hmm... It doesn't smell very appetizing but potions normally don't.”
{Sip}
“Blergh.”
“Mana regeneration rate -5% for 30 minutes.”
“Ok, that was a failure.”
Let's mash the rest of the flower and add it to the reduction with some extra water
{Sip}
Aroma paste
A thick orange paste with the smell of honey
First time discovering a recipe with stat bonus, you gain an additional bonus
+5 intelligence
+1 wisdom
stamina regeneration decreased 10%
All effects last for the next hour
Does not stack with other Potions
“Score, it's my first ever stat increase potion!”
Alchemy increased to Beginner level 3 (14%)
Higher chance to decrease negative effect when cooking
60% increase in alchemy from discovering this recipe!
“Hey you done yet Malice?!” Garnet had used the PM function.
“Yeah I'll meet you at the cave entrance and I'll show you something amazing”
I showed her the new Potion, I managed to make 2 of them and I also made some stamina regenerating potions, weak health potions and a 5 mana potions. Then I also had a bunch of herbs with healing effects, those I haven't managed to make into potions yet.
“Let's run through the first floor without fighting any monsters, Garnet.”
“I think we'll have to fight if we encounter any kobold archers though, we don't want them shooting at our backs for critical hits.”
“Fine I'll try to use Observation to run through the least enemies and I'll even try to use camouflage on both of us.”
“Have you ever tried doing it on another person? Won't I just look stupid?”
“Well...dunno.”
“Get some materials and dress me up then Malice!”
While I was playing with my alchemy I picked up things useful for my camouflage skill: grass still stuck to the dirt, I killed some big foxes and took their skin, I got plenty of vines, branches and a cardboard from town that I got painted in grey and brown for use as a rock prop.
Running like this was good training for 'observation', seeing faraway objects while moving fast really helped in mastering the skill. The more I focused while running the faster my reactions are going to be later. It was tricky though, it's not like 'observation' could look behind walls and round corners so I had to focus on other things like light from a fire or shadows from enemies.
If I reacted fast enough I could tell Garnet to use her 'vine' to trip an enemy to let us get more time. It took 30 minutes to get to the 2nd floor entrance. Most of the time was spent on running but we also killed any archers if there were.
“You ready Garnet?”
“No problem! Higher leveled monsters give more experience right.”
“Yep and on the next floor there are Goblins which drop much better loot.”
“Yahoo money!”
“Hey new people!”
“You guys got any herbs you could sell us?”
“FOOD!”
“Looking to join a party?”
“We need a magician if you want to join.”
“Want to buy some items from us?!”
Interesting, I wish I knew there was an item demand here. I would have bought more healing herbs.
“Garnet you check out...”
“Have you picked up any books you want to sell me?”
She's way too enthusiastic when it comes to books that girl. I guess I'll sell some food expensively.
“One stick of shish-kebab costs 3 silver each. I have 20!”
“No way man too expensive.”
“Yeah it only costs 1 silver outside the cave.”
“4 silver each!”
“Shit what's your problem!”
“5 silv...”
“I'll buy 8 for 4 silver each!”
“I'll buy 5!”
“Give me 3!”
“...”
“Nobody wants any more?”
“Not for 4 silver you money grubber.”
16 times 4 equals KACHING! Good job, me. Buying so many before coming in. I even got 4 left, better save them or else we won't have any food. Now then maybe I should buy something, let's see if they have any spears or armor.
“I can buy some of your items if you want to lighten your load!”
“You'll just buy them from us dirt cheap won't you?!”
“We know what you're planning.”
Guess no one wants to sell anything... oh well.
“Look I bought 4 books, they might be an interesting read for later.”
“Oh yeah I just sold some food for 64 silver!”
“Did you sell all our food?!”
“Just 16 kebabs, hahahaha.”
“If we're done then let's go hunt.”
My level is 33 and Garnet is 28, she gets less experience since I steal most the kills but we don't fight over it. The weakest enemies starting now are level 37 so we're going to be in more tough situations from now on. As long as we don't meet more than one goblin then I think we're safe.
As always I surveyed the area and made simple plans on how to ambush the enemies. From this floor on the spear is going to be my main weapon. Barehanded mastery is at level 3, I've gained a level.
It's tough. We underestimated the difficulty here. Soon we're going to run out of food and we won't be able to hunt any more.
“Let's do this. I'll go run back to town with our equipment to get them repaired and buy food and herbs. You try to join a party to level up or go train your skills on the last floor by yourself.”
“When you get back I'll be higher than you!”
'Wind walker!' Whenever I had mana I ran at top speed. It only took 3 hours to get back to town.
I sold all the loot and got everything repaired.
0 that's the profit after repairs and I spent the 64 silver on cheap food ingredients and herbs. I'll profit from the people underground.
To kill 20 Goblin raiders. I found this quest. Goblin raiders were the highest level monster in the cave, they were level 65. Could even be considered boss monsters in the cave. They were accompanied by 3 goblin archers and 2 goblins at all times.
Garnet messaged me to go to the library to see if anyone had any quests there. They were only for those with prerequisite skills but since I was in a party with her I could take them for her. The smartest choice would be to ask the librarian.
“Have you seen the head librarian?”
“You're addressing her.”
“Me and my partner are in the closest cave to the north where kobolds and goblins gather. My friend having worked here before was wondering if you had any requests pertaining that place?”
“Yes I recognise your friend. Actually a customer borrowed some books but lost them when he was scared by some goblins when he was lazing around the underground pond. If you can find them could you bring them back to the library?”
Do you accept the quest?
Yes/No
“We will definitively bring them back here!”
The missing library books.
You have taken on a request find the lost books a customer forgot when he was startled by goblins in a nearby cave. Make your way to the pond and search for the books. The goblins might have taken them.
Difficulty level: E
Restriction: Librarians only
Quest Requirement: Find 3 books close to the underground pond.
“Garnet I got a quest from the head librarian, we got to bring back some books from the 3rd floor.”
“Great”
“I'm going back now it might take 4 hours this time since I'm overweight.”
I bought some extra mana healing herbs so I would be able to run with 'wind walker' as much as possible. It was expensive but running for 4 hours might be too much. I should be able to shorten the time to 3 hours running continuously.
I passed wolves so fast that they didn't have any time to attack me but some did run after me for a while, but stopped when I entered new areas. Wolves are territorial and they don't take lightly on people or other wolves stepping in their hunting grounds. I passed trees, shrubs and sometimes had to jump over stone fences but nothing was difficult with my running skill.
Apart from mana herbs I had to consume some food when I had run for 2 hours. Running without any rest really decreases stamina and satiety fast. Since I didn't have any money I just hunted a deer and barbecued it to rare with some light spice rubbing over an open fire. The taste was kind of similar to what a bought product tasted like from a food stand. To meet restaurant status I would need to spend much more time cooking.
Back to running.
It took me 3 hours to get to the cave. I had over half an hour of time to spare before the appointed time so I went to see if anyone was selling any under-priced herbs, I really wanted to buy more of those flowers.
No one was selling anything worth spending money on and I continued into the cave. Some people tried to warn me not to go inside alone and invited me to their party but I promptly refused.
“Oh I remember you! You're the greedy kebab seller.”
“I'm back but I'm not that greedy any more, I have learned my lesson. Taking advantage of poor souls is unfair”
“So you have come back to sell more stuff to us?”
“I got a small assortment of food for sale!”
“Medicinal herbs for sale!”
“Pig and chicken kebabs for 1 silver 70 copper!”
“Bread for 50 copper!”
“Rice 80 copper!”
“Tea 30 copper a cup!”
“Baked potatoes 1 silver!”
“2 of each!”
“5 baked potatoes and 10 kebabs one of each”
“Is the rice cooked?”
“Yes it is”
“10 portions of rice!”
“...”
I spent 30 silver on the food in town and here I gained 80 silver, 50 silver profit. Chump change but a considerable amount for newbies as us.
“I also sell medicinal herbs!”
Some new people arrived from hunting and joined the others in buying all I had for sale. Over 30 silver spent on herbs and a hefty sum of 1 gold 8 silver and 50 copper profit on herbs. If I was a merchant I bet my skills would have risen a lot.
“Hey Malice! I've leveled up!”
“Glad to hear that, how did you do it? Did you find some people to join?”
“Yeah I joined those people chatting with each other behind me.”
I looked over her shoulder and saw: two warriors, both male, one using a two handed sword and the other a sword and shield; 2 archers, a guy and a girl slightly older than myself, the guy was using a crossbow, the girl had a longbow; a magician, probably a cleric judging from the the brightly coloured clothes. It was a good team 2 people in the front to soak up damage and a cleric to heal them while the two archers dealt unrestricted damage. The only thing missing was an attack magician, Garnet took that role.
“I can see how they needed a magician but how did you manage to join them, you don't have any attack magic.”
“I do have one for emergency use though I don't like to use it.”
“You do!?”
“I found the skillbook in the library, it's the most basic of aoe spells, fire pillar.”
“Why haven't you used it before?”
“I said I don't like it didn't I!? I thought I'd use it to fool people if they sneered at my magic.”
“I only used it once per fight, the rest of the time I used 'Vine' and 'Mud', a newly acquired spell.”
“What does 'mud' do?”
“Mother Earth! Stop the unworthy that trample thy space. MUD!”
A small area further away suddenly got wet and uneven. The heavy stones that laid on top slowly sunk into the ground leaving the smaller ones on the bubbly mud. Then as sudden as it became mud it returned to it's ordinary solid form, though the stones that were sunken remained so.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“If my intelligence rises and skill level increases the effects will be much more devastating.”
“Did you learn this from one of your books? Isn't this a pretty high level spell?”
“You're right on both points. Normally one can't learn the spell at my level since they won't sell the skill book to you but I bought the book from a NPC with other books.”
“I didn't use it before since it uses a lot of mana. 300 mana to be exact, can't even use it twice in a fight.”
I gave her the repaired equipment, her part of the herbs I bought and some food. I also equipped my gear and wanted to ask her if she asked them if I could join.
“They said they only needed people with aoe skills/spells. I can introduce you to them if you want to?”
“Nah that won't be necessary, unless you're close with the cleric?”
“We didn't get along =P”
“Would have been nice not having to buy so many herbs.”
It would have been nice with another partner. Sigh... The monsters we could battle and the money we could save, just thinking about it makes me smile.
“You see the archer with the longbow? I think we could make her switch teams.”
“How so?”
“The look on her face tells me she doesn't really like hunting with them.”
“That's it? It'd be great to have another damage dealer.”
“I spoke with her a couple times and I think we got along.”
“Well don't just stand around go ask!”
Garnet went over and started conversing with the group, she smiled and raised her fists. Ah someone told a joke, even I can see a fake smile and Garnet was right. That longbow girl did look depressed standing there. I think the leader is the crossbow guy, when he speaks everyone turns to look at him. Tall guy with long hair and a bandanna, no facial hair but a he got a tattoo on his arms. A serpent with wings on both arms.
'It looks like they are logging off, waving to each other standing so close. Oh good job Garnet, walking with the longbow woman away from the group while talking happily. The look on her face, has it mellowed a bit? A nod! They're walking over here, good!'
“She said ok!”
“Tali meet Malice, Malice meet Tali.”
“Hey, nice to meet you.”
“Same.”
“Let's do some more detailed introductions!”
Garnet seemed much happier now. Girl power, I guess?
Both I and Garnet explained who we were and how we came to meet each other. Some quick explanations on how we hunt and small stuff like that.
My skills were: Foraging Beginner [5], Plant Identification Beginner [5] Alchemy Beginner [3], Cooking Beginner [2], Observation Beginner [2], Ambush Beginner [4], Camouflage Beginner [2], Light Sleeper Beginner [8], Wind Walking Beginner [3], Barehanded Fighting Beginner [3], Pole Weapon Mastery Beginner [3]
Garnet had: Vine Beginner [8], Mud Beginner [1], Fire Pillar Beginner [1], Meditation Beginner [4], Book Identification Beginner [8], Deciphering Beginner [1] and some passive skills.
“I'm Tali. I joined the previous group because it's hard going solo dependently. We got along but I don't think we clicked. Though after speaking a bit with Garnet I think we get along.”
“Yeah! I'd like it if we could be friends in the future.”
“Ever since I decided to go the archer route I've been thinking on how to make the best of it. I might not follow what everybody does and learn some weird skills.”
“Ha! Don't worry about that we like to forge our own paths as well, don't you agree Garnet?”
“Nod, nod”
“He he. I specialise in longbows and strength. From having a higher strength than dexterity I won't be shooting very rapidly. My signature skill if you'd like to call it is the Power shot and Focus.”
So she explained how she had always liked the idea of 'one hit, one kill'. I think it's a word change from 'One day, one kill' from HxH. Anyway, she had Powershot Beginner [7] which meant that she pulled her bowstring as hard as she could and maintained it to gather power and shoot it. Monsters of a lower level had a chance to instantly die and you could shatter enemies defences with it. Focus Beginner [5] this focused her aim increasing accuracy, worked similar to 'Observe'. She wanted a skill which she had seen before in the game. Restriction arrow: you can only shoot one of these per enemy, when hit the enemy loses control over a part of their body depending on where it was hit.
Garnet said she'd help her find it if it was written about in a book. Tali had also gotten a pretty unique stat. Patience. I didn't really get what it did but she had gotten it from all her concentration when firing arrows. I asked her if she had any plans on learning any secondary skills such as crafts or similar but she really just wanted anything that would help her raise her strength and dexterity slightly.
1 sniper, 1 no-damage magician and 1... what was I? Not an assassin and not a warrior!
Getting a long range damage dealer will decrease the fighting with the same group of monsters and make us able to battle much more. Which means faster levels.
The battles were pretty simple: Tali used her 'Power shot' at the strongest monster in the group, with my help she also received the ambush bonus; when the monsters were confused I ran up behind them and also used ambush; Garnet had in that time used 'Vine' on the wounded monster lying on the ground that got hit by Tali, with one monsters totally out of the picture it was smooth sailing; with two long range support I didn't need to worry as much on defence, there would be an arrow hitting or vines grabbing monsters behind my back.
Sometimes we led enemies into a ambush. If there were more than two goblins which was more frequent the further we went on the 2nd floor, Tali would shoot them from afar and I would distract their attention. They always came running after me but with 'Wind walking' I outran them and hid with camouflage. Then we continued our assault and it would be successful most of the times. This strategy made me use more mana but it was much safer than just charging in.
Finally we were at the last floor. It was much more different than the previous entrance. There were no people setting up a base but you could here sometimes the distant cries of goblin screams. I used observation and wind walking to find a location that was relatively safe from monsters, where we could rest comfortably. This floor had only Goblins and the goblin raiders were the most powerful enemy in the cave. We hadn't met one before but we would surely fight one here.
Or levels had increased to the forties: Tali was the highest level, 45; Garnet at 41, last place as always; I was at level 43, goblin raiders were between level 55 and 60.
I decided to scout ahead and try to find the pond, I just followed the little creak. To safely escape monsters I had planned to jump into the water but the stream wasn't big enough to hold me. Luckily there was moss and big stones around the creak so I hastily made a camouflage of the grass patch I picked up before the cave entrance and decorated it with moss and stones.
If the coast was clear I ran with 'wind walker' and if I encountered any monsters I quickly put my camouflage on and crawled slowly until I had bypassed the monsters. From time to time I couldn't move much so I decided to use the time to gather mushrooms and some plants that were growing next to the creak. Though there was no time to identify them.
Camouflage was holding up nicely and I took the time to remember the goblin camps position and number of enemies. I had soon reached the pond but to my horror there were 2 goblin raiders there. I think they were patrolling because they never stayed together more than passing each other. Before we could complete the quest we would have to raise our levels by ten.
I got back much easier since I knew where the camps were located now. I explained to them that it would probably take some weeks in game time before we could complete the quest.
“Tali just told her old teammates that she left with us to hunt. They didn't sound happy.”
“I heard Torkel say he would remember this next time we met.”
“Torkel is the other archer, Malice.”
“I just hope they won't venture to this floor. I don't want a PK behind my back when fighting goblin raiders.”
“You found some?!”
“Garnet was just telling me what she read in her books about them, they seem strong.”
“You're right Tali. They're not only strong but there are two of them where the pond is.”
“Then I guess we'll just have to fight our way to the 50s!”
Garnet was more enthusiastic than usual. She had grown much since I met her for the second time. She no longer had any frowns on her face and always spoke her mind, she even invited another person she only knew for a couple hours. Great progress for someone who was crying her eyes out all alone. I guess Tali has that 'you can depend on me' look, Garnet might see her as a big sister. Big sister or not she was pretty.
Tali was of the barbarian race, the woman from there were almost all warriors so they had this strong look. Tali was taller than me she was 190, just a couple centimetres taller. I caught a peek at her body when she was fanning herself after a fight with some goblins, you wouldn't realise that under the clothes her body was well built for a woman. Firm small muscles on her arms and legs, a chiselled stomach and a medium sized chest. It was by no means a body-builder look. No no. She was kind of my type with long black hair, it was in braids but it must look beautiful when undone. I was hoping that we wouldn't be getting any more members any time soon so that I could get to know her better.
Water drops were covering the ceiling on this floor sometimes they fell on one of us and we'd jump away getting ready to battle but realizing it was only water. We snickered at each other when one of us did it, but after a couple of fights we stopped caring for the water drops. More important matters had to be attended like dodging into crevices in the walls if we heard the distinct sound of hooves. It wasn't that the goblin raiders rode on horses or similar, they were more similar to 'Pan' from Greek mythology. Lower body in the shape of a goat, a 2.5 metres tall goat-man. No other goblin made those heavy stomping noises. There were great opportunities for my camouflage to level up, since we weren't strong enough to face the goblin raiders and his entourage.
One day we were covering in a hole from the approaching goblin raider when a party of four people charged it. They had an ok strategy and it looked like they were going to take it down. It was really silly, they gloated before the raider happy they were going to kill it. They shouldn't have done that, the raider took off one of his horns from his head and blew in it. Not one minute later 5 other goblins had surrounded the party. Thanks to the quick thinking of the archer they rushed back to the entrance killing one goblin in their way and slightly injuring 2 with arrows and magic as the melee players were running away.
Before I could say anything Tali had already charged her bow and fired a second later. It hit right in the back of the goblin raider's head killing it. Her 'power shot' was formidable.
“Get the rest of them!”
It was an easy fight, disoriented goblins stood no chance to our ambush. The two injured goblins were first to die, I made sure to give the killing blow to Garnet. She needed safe experience. With support from Tali the other two goblins didn't put up much of a fight. Without the ambush bonus damage dished out by my spear was less than Tali's arrows. I felt as if the more we level up the less useful I am in a fight, I really need to learn a damage dealing skill.
I've asked Garnet to search for any information on famous spearmen and martial artists, but so far no clues to learn any skills. Worst case scenario I'll just have to pay a huge sum of money to learn from the warrior guild. It's not worth it though. They taught people in warrior guilds as well, all you needed was to pass a certain requirement that each guild set. Examples were: very high endurance to learn a defensive skill, a certain proficiency in your weapon skill etc.
It has been relatively easy to level up here, it only took 3 months in game time to get to get to level 50 from level 30. Goblin raiders no longer pose any threat as long as we can kill it before the reinforcements start to attack. It has only been possible because we have Garnet, her 'vine' was the perfect spell to immobilise the reinforcements so they didn't interrupt us. I've been using my body as a meat shield a lot lately, almost died a couple times and we're basically out of herbs, bandages and potions. Me and Garnet have regeneration skills, for different things but still very useful and we're taking longer breaks between fights to ensure victory. Tali don't need those kind of skills since she almost never takes any damage being far away from the battlefield.
We've decided to make a last stand against the goblin raiders at the pond. I've spent a couple days rearranging boulders and adding a lot of moss to the walls around the passages surrounding the pond. Everything to ensure victory. I saved one last 'Aroma paste' for Garnet to be used in the last fight, I've also found many new plants and mushrooms. When I was the only one logged in I used to spend my time experimenting with the plants I found and I made some progress with the alchemy craft, I bet if I spend some hours or days after this I'm going to get to level 5. The stat raising potion was the last of what we had, luckily we ate some mushrooms so we weren't totally famished.
Garnet used the ointment, Tali readied her 'power shot' and I followed the goblin raider that was entering the pond area. We waited for the moment when the other goblin raider was out of sight and HIT! The arrow hit right in the back of the head, following the arrow I stabbed my spear at it's neck. 2 fatal blows after each other made the goblin fall face first on the ground, 30% of it's health fell.
“Vine!”
Vines came burst out of the ground and held the raider in place for a while, never losing an opportunity we attacked it lying on the ground.
{Snap, crack}
The vines were breaking apart by the strength of the raider.
Tali readied another 'power shot'. It took a while for it to be shot so I occupied the raiders attention.
Soon the goblin raider's health was at a critical point and it used it's horn to call for reinforcements. As we predicted a second horn was heard shortly afterwards.
“Mother Earth! Stop the unworthy that trample thy space. MUD!”
The ground became soft all around us, Garnet took precautions and learned to control what area was liquefied. Where we stood it was rock hard.
The approaching goblins slowed down as their feet sunk into the ground. They all wore a confused face as they didn't realise why it was so hard to advance.
Anger took over their faces as they couldn't do anything when we were killing the raider off.
Wasting no more time Garnet yelled.
“Coil around my enemies and throw them to their knees. VINE!”
Garnet was the star of this battle. Using every once of mana she had all goblins were pulled to the ground and their faces were completely covered in mud.
Slowly the goblins health were decreasing. As they were grasping for air, mud filled their mouths and soon their lungs.
Tali had been focusing on the newly arrived goblin raider shooting off 2 'power shots' and attacking it normally.
With her high strength she wasn't an accurate shot but her damage compensated for it. Especially when she hit a vital point.
Garnet's mana was running out fast, I quickly stabbed and cut all the goblins trying to rise from the mud.
Alternating between the ones trying to stand forcing them back to the ground and going for another who tried the same.
2 Goblin captains and 1 Goblin raider with 50% health was left.
Garnet had spent all her mana and was meditating at a safe distance.
I also spent my last mana using 'wind walking' to employ a hit and run strategy.
I managed to force an ambush by letting their attention focus on Tali.
Focusing a stab onto the back of the raider I inflicted a critical hit, as he groaned out loud the two goblins tried to slash me with their swords.
Now we changed strategy, Tali would fire as many 'power shots' she could at the raider while I tried to dodge and kill the two captains.
“Vine!”
“I'm sorry it took so long! I got enough mana to finish this fight now.”
“You're the best Garnet!”
Both Tali and I yelled.
The fight ended with no problem with Garnet's help.
“Haaaa...”
“Huuuu...”
“We...did...it..”
“Garnet we owe it all to you”
“Stop it Malice, everyone did their part.”
“Garnet, Malice. When I went to pick up the items from the monsters I found 2 books.”
“Let me see.”
You have found 2 of the 3 lost books.
“So the goblin raiders each had one book.”
“Then where's the third book?”
“I'll use observation as soon as I have enough mana to search for it.”
“Ok, I'll read the books while you do that.”
Tali picked up all the loot and showed us what it was. Nothing fancy some broken armor, goblin raider horns which were a alchemy ingredient or could be made into a musical instrument and iron ore which was the best drop we had gotten.
“I've been using observe now for a while but I still can't find it...”
“It must be somewhere around here, look harder Malice”
“Maybe we have to kill another goblin raider?”
“I don't think so, Tali.”
“What do you mean Malice?”
“I've been looking and the only thing that doesn't fit in around the pond are drag marks on the moss.”
“It looks like there might be some kind of animal or monster inside the pond.”
“You think it stole the book?”
“It's possible.”
The water was coming from the pond and when it was full it formed the stream that flowed through the 3rd floor. The water had to come from somewhere. I took of my clothes and jumped into the water. It was cold! I started to shiver a little bit and I dived deeper. It took me 5 dives to see the whole pond, I still couldn't see anything out of place.
“Observation”
I could clearly see things I hadn't seen earlier. I could see bugs and fishes close to the bottom. Squinting my eyes I was able to see the flow of water thanks to the small dirt particles floating in the water. I swam forward and an opening in the wall was hidden behind a stone. After taking a new breath I swam inside the hole.