G trailed Jowl Beard for hours through the winding tunnels and small caverns. At an intersection, Jowl Beard veered away from the direction of the smeared blood trails. The tracks led right, while the two travelers turned left. The hobgoblin remained silent, relying on hand signals to communicate. G didn't recognize most of the signals but grasped the basics, like directing movement or signaling to stop. The only sounds were their light footsteps on the uneven tunnel floor. Several icons blinked at the edge of his vision, and G opened them as they walked down a particularly long, straight tunnel.
Achievement:
Spider slayer II - You have slain your tenth Arachnid.
All attacks against Arachnids or creatures with eight legs do 7% more damage. Continue on your path to greatness to reap the rewards of your determination.
11 of 100 Arachnids slain.
+100 EXP.
The following prompt listed his kills. The notice appeared more condensed than the last time he had killed something.
Magically enhanced Black Widow spider x5 - 100 exp
Magically enhanced Black Widow spider Matron x1 - 200 exp
It seemed he gained less experience if the creatures he killed were at the same level. Conversely, he gained more experience for defeating higher-level creatures, like the Matron spider. That made sense since just one higher-level creature had almost killed him, while the level 2 spiders were relatively easy to handle once he figured out the strategy. They also awarded only 20 experience points each, compared to the 40 they granted when he was at level 1.
Congratulations!
You have reached level Three.
You gain the ability - Wizard Familiar.
Since you already have a familiar. This ability will be given as an enhancement. Your familiar Tocai receives one free ability.
G found this reassuring. He could easily imagine receiving nothing for a skill or ability he already possessed. The universe believed Tocai deserved something. He quickly examined the three abilities listed for his familiar.
The first option was Devotion. Your familiar can never be turned against you by magic or force. G considered the ability, recognizing its value. A prudent individual would definitely want this ability for future security. He hadn't known Tocai could be turned, but almost anything seemed possible in a world of magic.
The second option, Escape Artist, was equally appealing. Your familiar gains the ability to escape all traps, cages, or bindings once a day. It could prove extremely useful—a magical get-out-of-jail-free card. Who wouldn't want that?!
But the third option, Soul's Voice, this ability allows your familiar to communicate with you without the need to vocalize up to 100 meters. G looked at the back of Jowl Beard ahead of him. If he was going to be around more beings like this, he would need to be more careful. All of the choices looked great, but he chose the third one.
Congratulations!
Your familiar has evolved and learned the ability, Soul's Voice.
A small pink icon appeared above the purple mercenary contract on the edge of G's vision. He concentrated on it for a second, and it opened up.
Name - Tocai - Magical Familiar
Race - Magical Entity
Level - 3
Hitpoints - 1 of 1.
Abilities:
Soul's Voice - This ability allows a familiar to communicate with his master without the need to vocalize up to 100 meters.
Tomb of Languages - a magical link that ties into Vilamra's Great Library's knowledge of all known languages.
Codex of Creatures - a magical link that ties into Vilamra's Great Library's knowledge of all creatures.
That's nice, he could now see Tocai's stats. He looked for an icon for Crewton but didn't see one.
G thought about speaking to Tocai, "Tocai, can you hear me? " There was no response. He concentrated on visualizing his hat and mentally speaking. "Tocai? " Tocai had not talked since before Jowl Beard had sworn his oath of contract.
"G? What is this?" came a mental voice that felt strangely like he had heard Tocai out loud.
"Tocai! Great, it worked! It's a new ability. Soul's Voice, " G was mentally visualizing saying the words.
"Dr. Reamus said I had a soul. What is a soul G? How does this have a voice?" asked Tocai.
G's face became puzzled, and he sighed, "It's complicated, Tocai. It's what makes you, well, you. I don't know what it means in the Planerverse, and I think something more than just that, " G honestly didn't know for certain. He wished he could talk to Dr. Reamus again or someone that could clear that up.
Tocai was quiet after G's statements. G left him to his pondering because he honestly didn't have an answer for the newly alive magical entity. The information on his icon said Tocai was a magical entity. What is that? So many questions. 1 hit point, he sighed.
He still had a couple more flashing notices.
Skill increase Stealth +1
Skill increase Mana Bolt +1
He also had another stat point to add, so he placed that one in wisdom. The last one he set had raised his mana pool, and he needed more mana. He now had 18 in wisdom, which matched his 18 in intelligence. His mana pool was now 360 points. Already he saw mana tick into the bar filling up to the new limit.
He also had two spells to pick from, one druid and one wizard. He looked at his minimal options. He really hoped he could find a spell shop or a magic book shop.
Druid level 2 spells available:
Nature's skin - A Bark-like skin that adds protection to the caster for 10 minutes, +5 to defense against all physical damage.
Briar Patch - This spell creates a 10-meter wide patch of spiked plants that cause 2-10 damage if crossed, lower level creatures can become become stuck for thirty seconds on a failed will save. Higher-level creatures slow by 50% for 10 seconds.
Soundless passage - This spell allows the caster and all companions within 5 meters of the caster to move silently for one hour. They can not be tracked by normal means while the spell is active.
G wasn't sure what +5 was in reference to yet. He had no armor to speak of, but it had to be better than nothing, and all three of these looked great. He was level 3, but the spells had their own knowledge levels. Also, he was dual-classed in the wizard, which probably affected when he got them. A normal druid probably received these at level 2. He didn't know for sure either way; he did get two spells, one from each list. He decided to go with Briar Patch. If he had to fight or run, that would come in handy. Slowing the enemy down so he could cast more mana bolts or run away seemed like a better plan. He could have easily escaped those spiders if he had that spell before.
Briar Patch Mana Type: Life, Earth
This spell creates a 10 meter wide patch of spiked plants that cause 2-10 damage if crossed. Effected Creatures slowed by 50% for 20 seconds.
Lower level creatures can become stuck for thirty seconds on a failed will save.
Higher level creatures take half the damage on failed will save.
Giant creatures are unaffected by movement penalty.
Range: 30 meters
Damage: 2-10 point hit every 10 seconds if moving.
Mana cost: 100 mana
Duration: 1 minute
It was probable that the spell would do no damage if the creatures in it didn't move around. But the idea was to hold them or slow them. If it hurt them, that was a bonus.
G moved on to his wizard spell options.
Wizard level 2 spells available:
Silence - Cause no sound to be heard or spoken in the area of effect. 10 meter diameter sphere.
See invisible - This spell allows the target to see magically invisible items or creatures and gives a +10 for all spot chances to find a hidden creature.
Mirrored image - This spell creates three duplicates of your image that will randomly appear around the caster one meter distant.
"G was hoping for a damage spell here, but he didn't see any on the list. Silence would be useful if he had to fight another magic caster or move silently in a small area. See Invisible could also come in handy with casters. Hopefully, he would acquire an invisibility or cloak spell at some point. Mirrored Image would also be useful, although none of them seemed essential at the moment. He decided to go with Mirrored Image as it would help him cast spells for longer periods and avoid damage. He was also curious about what the void mana type meant."
Mirrored Image Mana Type: Void, Illusion
This spell creates three duplicates of your image randomly appearing around the caster one meter distant. Damage to any illusionary replica will cause that replica to fade away. Replicas are manifestations of light and can do no damage or cast spells. Each replica will duplicate the caster's movements for the duration of the spell, staying at the given range until it fades.
Blind creatures and creatures that can fight while blind ignore the spell's effects.
Further distances of effect are possible at higher skill levels.
Range: 1 meter per skill level
Damage: 2-10 point hit every 10 seconds if moving.
Mana cost: 100 mana
Duration: Duration 30 seconds per skill level.
"As he walked, G almost collided with Jowl Beard, who had raised a fist in the universal gesture for 'stop.' Whispering, Jowl Beard said, 'We'll turn left here. The way to the city is to the right. Left will lead us to a large mushroom grove, which should provide us with the food and water we need for our journey.'
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G nodded at the hobgoblin, and they continued moving forward. Crewton, G's companion, stuck by his side, rarely pausing to sniff their surroundings.
After a short while, a massive cavern, about the size of a football field, opened up in front of them. The cavern's roof was adorned with stalactites and rough stone surfaces speckled with calcium growths. A trickle of water flowed down one wall into a pool at the cavern's center, leaving a stripe of white calcium residue in its wake.
The cavern's outer edges were lined with hundreds of tall mushrooms with fan tops and massive ones as big as trees. The larger mushrooms emitted a soft blue or pale yellow light illuminating the smaller mushrooms nearby. Despite spending two days in the tunnels, the brightness of the cavern was still overwhelming for G, although he considered it a soft glow. The grove had a surreal appearance, with mushroom caps of various soft colors, much more than he had anticipated.
G was feeling both hungry and tired, and he didn't understand why Jowl Beard thought this would be an ideal place to find food and shelter. Most of the mushrooms looked poisonous, and there weren't any visible animals for them to eat. However, G noticed some movement ahead of them."
A large shambling mound of a creature with a thick fur coat and four tiny black padded hooves moved. There were other slight movements, and G realized five of the creatures stood there. Their fur looked like the curled wool of mountain sheep, and they were almost entirely white. Their heads or faces had no eyes, and there were two thick curved horns coming back from their forehead on each side. They stood almost up to his chest in height and were grazing on the smaller mushrooms near the pool.
Jowl Beard had stopped at the cavern's entrance as he crouched down near the wall. G crept up behind him.
The hobgoblin never turned his head, "Those are finglets. " He pointed across to where G had seen the creatures.
Tocai used analyze on them.
Finglet
Level 4
Hit points 40
Mana 0
These blind, sheep-like creatures are the result of magical experimentation by a long-forgotten civilization that once lived in the dark pathways. Their attempts to create a sheep that could thrive in the darkness resulted in the creation of the finglet. Generally, finglets are harmless and will not attack unless their herd or grove is threatened. They are typically found in herds that vary in size depending on the availability of mushroom patches. Finglets are not known for their intelligence and are about the same size as a large bovine. Although omnivores, Finglets primarily consume fungi and mushrooms, like most other creatures that live in the dark pathways.
"G observed the finglets, noticing they didn't move much as they leisurely grazed on the mushrooms. They appeared to be eating the smaller, fresher mushrooms from where he stood as they wandered around the pool. He thought they looked kind of cute.
Jowl Beard directed G's attention toward a large boulder with a flat surface on top. The stone surface was clear of any mushrooms, and it was over two meters off the cavern floor, with a small indentation towards the center. They approached it cautiously, and G climbed up first, then handed Crewton up to the hobgoblin, who followed. G saw evidence of a long-abandoned campfire in the center of the small platform.
"These stones were carved from above," Jowl Beard pointed to the almost circular indentation that matched the stone's shape. "Travelers in the past created these so they would have a safe place to rest above the cavern floor. We will harvest some of those mushrooms over there. The tall ones with the fan-shaped tops are edible, as long as they are not red in color." Jowl Beard had taken some time to teach G some of the basics of living in the pathways, and he was doing it again. "We should also be able to retrieve water if you have more of those bottles. I suggest we fill as many as we can. The walk to the dark pathways city of Mirbor, where Ryan sits next to the dark elf queen, Cisandra, is several days away. She rules an area several days' walk in every direction from there."
G checked his quest timer, which indicated that he had eight days, one hour, and twenty-three minutes left to complete his mission of finding Tocai a body. "Is there any way to get there faster? Are there any markets in the city? How big is it?" he asked as he pulled out all the glass bottles from his inventory. Two still had water, while the rest were empty. He also needed to find something to cork the tops of most of them.
"Mirbor is a large city with three markets, but we can only use the goblin's market. The dark elves and hobgoblins also have markets, but it would be dangerous for us to go there. There are guards and many magic adepts. Few from the upper levels of the city venture into the goblin warrens. I know someone who can help us while we work on your mission. Once we reach Grerkag at his tavern, The Rottened Worm, we will rest, then make our way to the palace and kill the consort. I happen to know much about the palace, and there will be a wedding soon between the consort and the queen. Many servants and new guards will be brought in with the guests. Also, many dark elf lords are not happy with the human as her consort, so we might be able to find an ally or two if I can reach my contacts there." Jowl Beard paused to take a breath before continuing, "The travel will take so long because we would be arrested if they caught us. Me for not fulfilling my duties to my clan, and you because the royal consort wants you, which is why my mercenary company was sent in the first place." Jowl Beard examined the bottles as G poured some water into a low spot on the boulder's surface for Crewton to drink from.
"G asked, 'So we're taking the long way?' He needed to find something for Tocai's quest quickly, and this trip needed to be shorter.
Jowl Beard replied, 'Yes, we will be entering along a back passage that my clan has been using to move things into and out of the city unnoticed.'
G put the bottles back in his inventory and looked down at the small stream of water running nearby. It made a quiet gurgling noise as it jumped over small rocks before flowing down the small slope thirty meters to the pool. He glanced at the hobgoblin, who had assumed a cross-legged position on the boulder and closed his eyes, no longer paying attention to G.
G shrugged, climbed down, crouched into a sneaking position, and made his way towards the water. He smelled it and put some in his hand to examine it. It smelled like water, and there was nothing unusual in it. Although he had no way of knowing if it was poisonous, he didn't see anything suspicious since it had come out of the wall. He put a small dab on his forearm and waited several minutes to see if it would itch or burn. Although it wasn't the best way to check for toxicity, it was better than nothing. He then put it on his tongue to test it, and it tasted like water.
Since he didn't find anything unusual with the water, he filled one of the clear bottles and looked at it through the glass. It appeared clear and didn't have any odor. He filled the remaining nine empty bottles, each of which could hold a liter of water. G thought they may have once had markings indicating the level for each. He watched the finglets grazing by the pool and had finished filling seven bottles, placing them in his spacial storage without spilling any water. He hadn't seen anything he could use as a stopper for them yet. As he reached for the next bottle, he accidentally bumped it, causing it to tip over. He winced as it started to roll down the incline, making more noise than he had expected: ting, glang, ding, ting.
The finglets didn't seem to care as G retrieved the bottle before it rolled into the shallow edge of the pool.
One of the waist-high mushrooms near the pool puffed up as it drew in air, emitting a horrible wailing sound that made G cover his ears. His elvish hearing was hypersensitive to this noise, causing him to stumble back. He looked around, searching for more mushrooms or any nearby threats when he heard a bellow from behind him near the pool.
The finglet bull, an obvious male, bellowed and charged at G as he tried to back away. The other four finglets just stood there, continuing to chew their mushrooms. The wailing ceased as G put some distance between himself and the mushroom.
Jowl Beard shouted, "If you stand still, they can't hear you."
G stopped moving, standing as still as possible, and watched to see if the finglet bull would lose track of him with its blind eyes. However, the creature appeared to speed up as it approached him, snorting and huffing. As the creature was only a few steps away, G dove to the side, away from the pool, rolling and coming back to his feet as another large mushroom inhaled and let out a shriek that rocked his hearing. Crewton started barking from the boulder, looking for a way down. The finglet bull turned towards G, and the other four finglets bellowed as they started to charge toward him. The shrieking mushrooms seemed to make these creatures aggressive.
G ran for it, with the bull right behind him as he tried to jump up and grab the edge of the stone they were camping on. His fingers grasped the edge of the stone lip just as the bull swept below him, throwing him a meter up. G crashed back into the stone floor with a thud as the wind knocked him out. He was pretty sure he had just dislocated something. He stood back up and saw that ten points of health had disappeared. The bull had barely grazed him! Ten, damn it! The bull was coming back around, and the other four finglets were bellowing again as they charged toward him. The weird bellows of these creatures sounded like a broken goose who had eaten a goat.
G started to run around the boulder, using it to block the bull's charge, which slowed to turn and keep up. The female finglets caught up about then and were right behind the bull's hoofs as G ran around the boulder with five angry finglets chasing him, all the while bleating and honking.
G yelled, "You said they couldn't find me if I stopped moving!!"
Jowl Beard laughed, "Yes, but you were still breathing. You need to stop all movement. They have great hearing." Jowl Beard watched as G made his fifth circle around the boulder while Crewton was running all over, barking down at the finglets and enraging them even more.
On the fifth circle around the boulder with five angry sheep-like creatures still pursuing G, Jowl Beard reached over the edge, lowering his hand to grasp G's. G grabbed it, and the hobgoblin easily swung him up onto the boulder, out of reach of the angry finglets, who stopped as the bull rammed into the boulder. The boulder trembled for a moment, but it didn't budge. The finglets stomped around for a few minutes, bellowing.
Jowl Beard motioned towards Crewton and then sat down in the middle of the boulder in a meditative cross-legged position. G picked up Crewton and went to sit across from Jowl Beard, watching the hobgoblin. After a few moments, Crewton stopped barking, and a few minutes later, the finglets stopped rampaging around the boulder. The females wandered back to munch once again on the mushrooms, and the bull stomped a few more times, blew air out of its nose loudly, snorted, turned, and followed his herd back to the large patch of mushrooms to munch once again.
After several minutes of waiting, G asked, "What were those wailing mushrooms?"
Jowl Beard didn't open his eyes but chuckled slightly. "Those are guardian mushrooms. They can be found anywhere you find finglets."
"What? You knew those were here? You were supposed to help me!" said G in a hushed angry tone.
Jowl Beard chuckled some more. "I did help you. You're on the boulder, aren't you?"
"You know what I mean! Before they attacked me," said G sternly.
"Ahh, every novice knows about guardian mushrooms. I seem to have forgotten that you are not aware of how to move in the dark pathways. However, you did learn an important lesson. Not everything that looks peaceful is safe. You should keep that in mind when traveling here. There are many creatures that hide and wait for the unaware. Some can wait for many months without moving," said Jowl Beard.
G cast Healing Petals and ate one petal at a time until his health bar was full, and the pain went away in his shoulder. He handed a petal to Crewton to see if he would eat it. The dog sniffed and ate the petal. G didn't think that would fill the dog up, but he wanted to make sure he could give them to Crewton to heal him if needed. He had a few petals left and placed the flower on the boulder for now, just in case.
Once the finglets settled down to munching fungi, Jowl Beard stood up and climbed down to the stone floor. He walked slowly forward a few paces and cast spells toward the mushrooms that shrieked. After each cast, a guardian mushroom listed to the side. He then walked by the guardian mushroom, used his sword to cut a large chunk of one of the mushroom caps off, and carried it back to the boulder. He tossed it up onto the flat surface and pulled himself back up to the top. He picked up the chunk of mushroom again and brought it over to where G was still sitting with Crewton, watching the hobgoblin.
"You should always put them to sleep before walking near them or avoid them altogether. In here," he pointed at the cavern around them, "the noise was harmless, but if there were other finglets in the nearby caverns or a predator creature like a Stalker or Shambler, you would have been in serious trouble. This boulder would not stop those creatures for long. Novice adepts learn the sleep spell early in their training. It will put any plant or fungus creature to sleep as long as you can overpower its will. Some plants do more than just sit still, as you saw." He broke off a fist-sized chunk of the mushroom and tossed it to G. "Eat that. I'm not sure if your animal can eat it, but most creatures in the dark pathways eat that and survive. It shouldn't hurt it anyway." He tossed a second chunk to G.
The two of them sat there and ate in silence. Crewton munched on the mushroom a few times, and G examined the mushroom piece that Jowl Beard had given him. It had a rubbery texture and a slightly sweet taste. He chewed it slowly, feeling the mushroom's tough fibers resist his teeth. It didn't taste bad, but it was a far cry from the savory meals he was used to. He wondered how people could survive on this kind of food for years.
Frond Mushroom
These species of fungi are common in the dark pathways and other subterranean areas. It can be eaten raw, cooked, and made into a fine stew.
The mushroom tasted bland, like a corn biscuit without the corn. G didn't look forward to eating it for an extended period of time, and it also felt slimy in his mouth, like raw oysters.
G brought out two bottles of water and handed one to Jowl Beard. The two finished their meal, and Jowl Beard climbed down again to fill the two empty bottles as well as the ones they had just emptied. G now had eleven full-liter bottles in his spatial storage, stacked with a tiny "11" in the corner. It was nice to use only one inventory slot out of 200 instead of 11.
Jowl Beard spent the next twenty minutes teaching G the Sleep Plant spell.
Sleep Plant, Mana Type: Life
Will place one plant that is aware in a sleep-like state for the spell's duration. Any form of attack or harm will remove this effect.
Range: 10 meters
Mana cost: 40 mana
Duration: 1 minute per spell rank
G analyzed the shrieking mushroom. Then spent the next several minutes trying to cast on from a distance.
Guardian mushroom(Shrieking)
This species of mushroom is the result of magical breeding. It was created to alert the owner that danger was approaching. They were initially used to alert dwarves in the Holds but are now a common sight throughout the dark pathways as other races found them useful, spreading their spores. Finglets are known to carry their spores and many other species of fungi in their wool as they travel.
After several attempts, G cast the spell successfully on one of the mushrooms. Jowl Beard spoke with a bewildered tone, "I do not understand how someone with almost no knowledge of how mana, magic, or foci work is able to learn any spells. The magic comes naturally to you, but at the same time, you stumble into the simplest of problems, like the shrieking mushrooms. Are you sure you are not some form of elemental or djinn?"
G smiled, "Yes, I'm sure Jowl Beard. I told you I am Aardsylvian. We have a knack for magic coming naturally." G didn't really know if this was true, but since the hobgoblin had no idea what an Aardsylvian was, it was the only excuse he had for his magical abilities. He certainly wasn't going to tell him it was through some magical system that controlled his universe. This magic was real, and the results when he fought those spiders had been real. The pain of death had been very, very real.
"As you say. And again, my name isn't Jowl Beard, Kragan will do," said Jowl Beard shaking his head. He looked at the stone surface of the boulder, "You can practice now. You have first watch. Wake me in a few hours, or if you are too tired, awaken me. Do not fall asleep in the dark pathways without a watch, or you will wake up in the gullet of some monster."
G nodded. He checked the timer for Tocai's quest, which was displayed in the corner of his vision, and he had a precise way of telling time until the quest ended.
G mentally asked Tocai, "Can you tell the time here?"
Tocai responded, "Yes, the hour cycle here is twenty-eight hours per cycle or day. I have been watching it since Dr. Ben Reamus said I had ten days to live, and I probably spend too much time watching it. G, am I going to die?"
G frowned. He had forgotten his AI had actual feelings now, at least some of them. G knew from his college classes that higher-level emotions were based on several lower-level ones, and as a child matures, they learn how to work through socializing with their parents. In many ways, Tocai was a child.
"Tocai, I will find you a new body or receptacle or whatever we need. As soon as we get to Mirbor, that will be the first thing I look for if we do not find something sooner. You are not going to die. I promise you this, Tocai. I will find you something; ten days is a long time."
"Thank you," said Tocai, and then he was silent.
G put the remaining mushroom frond in his spacial storage inventory to see what would happen as the hobgoblin took off the vest part of his outfit to roll it into a pillow and went to sleep.
G pulled it out, and it looked the same. He could store this food in his inventory.
He looked at Jowl Beard. Spiders had fed on him, and then he had walked all the way to this cave without complaining or slowing down. He hardly looked tired. The hobgoblin was definitely not someone G wanted on his bad side. Were all hobgoblins this sturdy?
G sat in the dim light of a cavern filled with glowing mushrooms, watching out into the darkness beyond, wondering what Ryan was doing right now. Did Ryan think G was dead? The goblins who escaped the spider attack had likely seen G's body or assumed he was killed when they returned to their queen. The image of Tina burning in her VR capsule flashed through his mind, and G's anger flared as he imagined Ryan's smirk while pushing buttons on the console. He needed to take his mind off this. He repeatedly practiced the sleep spell on the nearest mushroom, picturing Ryan's face with a grim expression.
He had learned a valuable lesson from the finglets. Attacks could come from anywhere, and he needed to be prepared and understand how to use his magic, or even a group of sheep could crush him.