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Rise of the Keeper
Chapter 32 - A Different Kind of Threat

Chapter 32 - A Different Kind of Threat

I surrendered to the hot water, sinking down into the tub up to my neck. The comfortable, relaxing water rippled and two others joined me. I cracked open an eye to see Rolada copy me, with her chin barely above the water. Lin was half out of the water and reaching for a lopsided cupboard. The inside was full of small, hand sized clay pots with strange letters covering them.

“Damn it… Rolada what do these say?” Lin asked. She sniffed at one and held it up for our fox girl to see. “Burn labelled them in goblin.”

Rolada begrudgingly looked at the pot and pursed her lips in thought. “Mint and strawberries. An odd combo, but I’ll take it.”

Lin cracked open the seal of the pot and dumped the contents into the large pool. The bright bubblegum pink coloured liquid made contact with the water, then a mushroom cloud rose out of the water and I was hit by the strong scent of mint. It made me tear up and after the blast cleared up we were left with a pink bath full of bubbles.

Lin’s ears stood up and her eyes were a mile wide. Her shocked blank expression remained until she recovered a few seconds later. She flicked her fingers in the water and looked at her wet hands.

“I’m going to hope that it doesn't have any lasting effects,” Lin said.

Knowledge Arcane : Failure!

“He wouldn’t make something that hurts us, right?” I asked.

“Ah!” Rolada squeaked.

She clutched her tail in her hands and at first I couldn’t see what was wrong. I moved a hand towards the ceiling and the dungeon lights grew brighter. Rolada’s deep red fur had changed to bright, bubblegum pink. Lin stuck her tail out of the water and hers was much the same.

“It's…ok…” I said, petting Rolada to calm her down. I fought back against my own laughter as I saw my wet hands change her ear colour to pink too. “It should wash out, right?”

“I’m going to kick that goblin straight back into whatever hole he crawled out!” Rolada screamed.

Thankfully for the girls the colour change was rather short lived. After a minute the pink colour of the water died out and the scent became stronger. The girl’s fur and hair turned back to normal too, and their desire to beat the snot out of Burn died down.

“This is certainly nice,” I said, running my hand along the tiles. “At this rate we can have all kinds of creature comforts and feel like we are in a modern city.”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever had something this nice before since I came here,” Lin said, staring out into space. She knit her brow and sighed, seeming exhausted. “I would never have thought living out in the middle of nowhere with a keeper would be my ticket to a safer, better life.”

“This is safer?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “With the amount of times we nearly got killed?”

“Pfft. Par for the course, and I rather deal with some stupid undead baddies or idiotic gnomes. When you get chased out of your own home at the edge of a blade, live in the streets and then get hunted down by the leader of your hometown… yeah this is safer,” Lin said, her tone firm and serious.

“Lin, I had no idea,” I said, reaching out and gently squeezing her hand. “Well I’m glad you're here with us, I feel safer with you around.”

Lin shuffled over and sniffed at my neck. After seeming pleased with what she found she leaned against me and let the hot water soak into her. She kicked out her feet and stretched across the bath. Her legs ended up beside Rolada who grabbed onto Lin’s foot and menacingly wiggled her fingers at the cat girl.

“No, no, no. Rolada, don’t you dare,” Lin said.

Rolada stuck out her tongue and let go. Her silly face broke the tension in the room and Rolada followed it up with a soft wordless tune. The humming melody made Lin tear up and she sang along, matching the tune. Once the brief song was over I felt hollow, wishing to hear more of it. Whatever it was had worked its magic because Lin’s mood had greatly improved.

“What about you foxie, what was your youth like?” Lin asked.

“School, school and more boarding schools. My mother was a religious leader and was far too busy for direct teaching. She pulled every string she had to make sure I always had the best teachers I could get. In truth they were like the second best teachers, just as smart, but not politically tied to any noble house,” Rolada said, waving her hand in front of her and summoning a bubble from the bath. “It was rather boring, but it was good to learn about the world.”

The bubble had images flash inside of it showing off what Rolada wished to show us. Lin and I sat up and watched the visions. It showed a young adorable fox girl going through school, growing up and pulling pranks with her friends. But as the years passed she had less and less friends until all of a sudden her human friends turned on her, leaving her alone.

“The mayor,” Lin hissed.

“It wasn’t safe to be friends anymore, I don’t blame them for ditching me,” Rolada said, unbothered. “Sten stuck by me and that's what matters, because it led me to meeting you guys.”

“I'd rather get my head out of the past myself. Winter is just around the corner and we need to know what we can work with. Hey Josh, maybe we should do that level up?” Lin asked, flicking water at my face.

Current Experience 598/250

Do you wish to level up?

Yes/No

“Yeah, just give me a second,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

With the minions hard at work and the battle I had banked a ton of points. The little gains from experience would become even smaller which meant I would have to work harder or find a better way. Making magic items might be a safe bet since making that first heating crystal had gotten five points alone. But that was for the future, and I was in the now. I hit yes.

Unallocated skill points : 3

Currently available to you.

Some options have requirements that are not met.

Purchase a skill rank

Ranks I-V requires 1 skill point per rank

???

-Strength requirement 10

Martial talents available

-Power Strike

-Combat Reflexes

-Constitution requirement 11

Toughness II

Requires 2 skill points

This talent grants a minor damage reduction from physical attacks and improves stun resistance.

-Intelligence requirement 13

Spell Casting Rank II

Requires 3 skill points

Further improvement of spell casting potency, and the ability to cast tier II spells. Choosing this talent grants the knowledge of two tier 2 spells from your benefactor.

Requires level 4 of a spell casting class.

Spell Casting Pool rank II

Requires 2 skill points

Further improves the amount of mana points a spell caster has. Current mana points is 5, the purchase of this talent raises total mana points to 7.

Requires level 3 of a spell casting class.

Efficient Casting rank 1

Requires 2 skill points

Tier 0 spells no longer require 1 mana point to cast, instead costing a small amount of stamina. Mana blight can still affect the user after excessive magic use.

Requires spell casting rank II.

The keeper tab was hidden by default now and I checked it to see if there was anything new.

Knowledge of the Keepers

Requires 2 skill point

Improve your knowledge skill bonus from your keeper crystal by increasing the bonus to +2. Additional crafting recipes will be added to you and your minions. New minion recipes will be unlocked and the cost of drones and scouts will become halved.

Mantle of Ancient Power - Channelling talent

Requires 2 skill points

Improve the combat effectiveness for all minions and creatures under your command within a small area of effect that follows you. All physical stats are improved by +2 while you are channelling this effect.

Further Keeper talents are obscured because of low keeper crystal level.

Sadly there wasn’t anything new, and since the crystal was a gold sink it would have to wait for the moment. I shared the page with Lin and Rolada, and I could see they were carefully going over each option.

“What are you feeling Josh?” Rolada asked.

“Honestly I like the sound of the knowledge skill, but I think I’ll wait till we are safer. I wish I could get something to lessen mana blight, because I want a bigger mana pool. That last fight stretched my resources to the limit, and if we have several fights over a long day I’ll be running on fumes after the third battle,” I said.

“Listen I get you two are doing the magic thing, but don’t forget physical talents,” Lin said. She tapped me with a nail on the shoulder, and while it was sharp it didn’t cut my skin. “Another rank in toughness goes a long way. You should probably get the first rank in it too, Rolada.”

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Rolada looked at her arms, and ran a hand down them. “But I like having silky smooth skin. Does having the talent change it?”

Lin held out her arm. “I have it and you don’t complain.”

“What can I get on my own without skill points?” I asked.

“Toughness can go up on its own, eventually,” Lin said with a shrug. “It might take a few more fights with skeletons with dusty knuckles slugging you. That or you might get a discount if you're lucky.”

Rolada hummed. “You can get magical talents by studying, but it’s really hard. I think if I remember my arcane study classes they said increasing your magic pool is either from upgrading it with skill points, or bathing in pools of raw magical power hidden in the world.”

“How hidden?'' I asked.

“Kings pay adventuring teams to find it for their court wizards. Some even crashed their economy because of it,” Rolada said.

That wasn’t going to help me any time soon. “I can save the skill points, right?” I asked.

“Of course, I got three incase I find I’m lacking in something. You always get more when you level up, so be careful, but not tight fisted,” Lin said.

That made up my mind. For now it would be more magic power. I held my finger over the button, and mapped it out in my head. With any luck the next level would net enough for me to get both magical upgrades, with a higher tier of magic and more flexible use of my spells I could get way more use out of them. Plus I could then practice more with my fire spell and test its range out.

Then I could focus on shoring up my sword skills and melee strikes. At the end of the day if I couldn’t get anything to lessen mana blight I would need to swing my sword at the baddies.

Spell casting pool has increased to rank II!

Mana points : 7/7

“Thanks,” I said. I took a deep breath and felt something stir within my core. Like the mana crystals soaking up magic to change I felt my body absorb the heat of the bath water, and deep down I felt like there was more to my magic. “Between this and my crystal I should have lots of magic to use here, I just need to space it out.”

“Awesome!” Rolada clapped. “If we go to make crystals again we can make bigger ones if you have mana to spare.”

The vast amount of things I had to keep track of started to build up pressure in my head. I needed to level up again soon if I could help it. The crystal would also need it sooner or later, because a quick glance told me we were at max capacity for power right now. We needed to secure more food supplies until the farms were growing, and maybe even a way for long term water storage. I mentally sent off a command asking the drones to make a cistern, water was the most important thing to survive and I didn’t want to be without.

There were so many things I never would have thought of preparing for back home and I was regretting having a rather relaxed lifestyle. But I was here now, and I had people to rely on, and in turn I would make sure they could rely on me. Until I was up to speed all I could do was offer them a comfortable home in the dungeon.

Did I regret accepting the crystal? The strange thought perplexed me. Here I was having nearly died to a garden ornament riding a petting zoo rabbit with horns taped to its head. I had opportunities my new friends would have loved back on earth, and I was wishing I was more like them. Perhaps it was the challenge, or the constant stream of discoveries that had won me over.

A small part of me hoped to find a way back home, away from all the danger here. If I did find a portal, or gateway to freely return, perhaps I could take Rolada and Lin on a vacation there before coming back to Ewyernar. But no, I didn’t regret it. I took a risk and my life was moving in a very interesting direction, and I want more of it. I wanted more magic, more things in my dungeon and a safe space to experience it all.

“You look like you're going to burst into flames if you keep thinking that hard, Josh. Lay down a bit and relax,” Rolada said.

She pulled me into a hug, laying my head down on her chest with her arms wrapped around my shoulders. Her soft touch could only be topped by the hot water, and the embrace enchanted me with its spell, driving my eyes close. Even after hibernating for the better part of three days I was already falling asleep.

Unknown people are approaching the dungeon, the keeper’s presence is requested by Scout 1!

I sank further down and hovered at the water's edge. “Oh for the love of…”

I leaned against the wall facing the steady flow of the river passing by our home. Pulled up to the bank and tied off on the rotting pier was a low sided river boat with three goblins and two dwarves on it. The boat had one of the goblin engines on it, a spot light on the front and a shield strapped to each side to protect the person seated at the back controlling the motor. The boat's occupants all wore rough spin clothes, layered on to protect against the cold wind today. The goblins had necklaces around their necks and finer jackets setting them apart from the nervous looking dwarves.

I already missed the bath and Sten seemed to share my sentiment. I hadn’t managed to convince the girls to come with me, with them saying unless it was life or death they were going to enjoy their soak. I didn’t even try to push the issue, they more than deserved their rest.

“Those are no warrior caste men. My guess is unskilled workers or paper pushers. Must be with the refugees and jumping at any work they could find,” Sten said, nodding at the dwarves approaching us. “Notice how they don’t carry tools or weapons? It’s undignified, I’m getting embarrassed for them.”

“Only the goblin’s have daggers and hatchets, I doubt this is a raid,” I said.

“Could be a warlord demanding tribute, or worse,” Sten said bluntly.

One could only hope Sten couldn’t set fate in stone. I tried my hardest to appear relaxed while leaning against the low defensive wall. I tried to watch the faces of the approaching strangers, but they were stone faced or scared offering little insight to what was about to happen.

The lead goblin brushed her long black hair aside revealing several piercings above her brow. The punkish goblin held out a smooth glass orb the size of my fist and inside it was none other than the snarling face of Rodney.

“Josh, I think you owe me some money,” Rodney said, through his teeth. “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

I flattened my hands on the wall, showing I was currently unarmed like Sten had suggested. This eased the tension from the goblins and dwarves, like we had hoped. I shrugged my shoulders at Rodney and looked bewildered at what he meant.

A static filled recording played on the orb showing me taking the sword out of the bin and the dust cloud destroying the shelves. Then to the dwarf teen putting the flyers in my bag, and the orb zoomed in to show a small rock covered in runes getting tossed in with them. Rodney returned after the play back and a second goblin held out a paper.

Sten took it and whistled, hesitant to pass it to me.

Knowledge Arcane : Success!

Tracking stones are simple divination devices crafted by the divination guild. They are difficult to detect, can be linked to a sister stone to detect locations via a map and are easy to make for a mid level mage. However they degrade rapidly over several days.

+1 XP gained.

I reached into my bag and took out the flyers. In between them was rock dust and a dot of silver the size of a pen nib. I cursed, and shoved them back in. I held out my hand and took the note, it was a bill.

“Two hundred gold, are you out of your mind?” I blurted out, seeing the total at the bottom. “Those shoddy shelves couldn’t have cost that much.”

It was a total bluff, I had no clue how much they were. All I knew was we were in need of money and couldn’t afford losses. Rodney for his part looked almost impressed with me. His smile returned and this time it had a cruel edge.

“A little birdie whispered around the market said that you might be more than you seem. Now I know that means you are a man hoping to make a mark on this world, which is good for my business. So tell me how we are going to make this work out, Josh,” Rodney said, stressing my name. He curled his fingers into a sign and I saw a spark of magic.

Note from Rodney

That birdie I extracted information from witnessed little fuzzy gremlins fighting with you. I’m not an idiot, I can recognize a keeper. Lucky for you I’m very agreeable, and I’ll do business with anyone.

“Josh, a word,” Sten said, pulling me aside.

Rodney waved his hand, giving us the go ahead while his goons backed up out of ear shot. Once we had space to breathe Sten started to wiggle his fingers and mumble numbers to himself.

“Hear me out, I have a crazy plan. The minions can make things quickly and cheaply, better than a clan of starving artists. That goblin is the kind of man who only cares about his own pockets. Offer him a deal, he can buy stuff on the cheap from us, and flip it quickly at his store. Four, maybe five months from now we can foot the bill. If he already has diviners in his pocket to pull up info on you, then we are on the back foot,” Sten said, sounding grim.

“We get money, he gets money, everything is always about money,” I said, shaking my head.

“Gold makes the world go around lad, even makes your fancy pants mages spells work too,” Sten said.

“Let’s try to play ball with him then,” I said.

Sten looked bewildered at the expression and just gave a tentative shrug. He got back on his box at the foot of the wall and I returned to my starting place, calling Rodney back over. I just hoped his greed focused on the long term and not on beating me senseless for my lunch money today.

“I’m hoping to hear the clinking of coins falling into my hands soon,” Rodney said with a forced smile.

“About that… would you be willing to take…future payment?” I asked, putting my hands together and doing my hardest to draw on Rolada’s charm.

Persuasion : Failure!

“I can have a group of adventurers kicking down your door within the day, start speaking,” Rodney said.

The greedy goblin tossed a silver coin high into the air, the shiny coin was distorted in the glass orb and when Rodney caught it, it changed into an hourglass. The sands rapidly depleted and I tried my hardest to extract every ounce I could from my charisma stat.

“I got people, I can make you products to sell. I make it cheap, you sell it cheap and we can move it fast. If you kill me then that revenue stream goes out,” I said, summoning a burst of sparks into my hand, only to snuff it out. “That would be bad business.”

The use of an arcane trick grabbed the goons attention and now they were more leery of me. Rodney on the other hand was thinking hard, made all the more apparent by the hourglass beside him rapidly vanishing. He tipped it over to stop it from ticking down, a sign I could continue.

I felt like I was having deja vu.

“How would we move the product?” Rodney asked. “It’s a half day of marching from Wyrmbreath to you.”

I coughed, I didn’t think of that. “I…can come up with something-”

“I got connections,” Rodney said, raising a hand to cut me off. “I also happen to know where a cave connected to this stream is, that also just so happens to have a minecart trail directly to Wyrmbreath.”

“That's great then. Should I get them to bring what I have on offer?” I asked.

“Then there's the issue of employees. Slow moving river barges are easy pickings, and I rather not risk my people.” Rodney then got an evil grin. “The refugees here think highly of you. Why don’t you recruit a few boat men from them? The honest coin in their pocket can go a long way to help them move into Wyrmbreath. You do want them to be able to help themselves, don’t you?”

I rested a hand at my side, hiding it on my side of the wall. I clenched it into a fist that was so tight I felt heat radiate off it and scorch the bricks around me. Those people were in dire straits and he wanted them to be in the danger zone, just for a paycheck. Worse, he wanted me to make it happen for his benefit.

It was like when Dan made me fire that kid, that damn kid I ran into at Paul’s pawn shop. The boss just kicked back and watched the money roll in while the people down below busted their asses off. It was the same story on earth as it was here in fantasy land. I was a wizard, a keeper, with a growing circle of friends and a growing legion of minions.

That was it. I wasn’t a normal guy anymore. I had power here, I had skills and magic. I was damned if I wasn’t going to do anything about it. It was time to make the world I wanted, one step at a time.

“They will be getting a fair wage,” I said.

Knowing guys like Rodney I was low on options. He knew those people had limited options, and I kind of agreed with him. The refugees couldn’t get into Wyrmbreath because they were penniless, and while I might have to put them into danger it was better than starving. Maybe I could even find a way to have that minecart trail connect closer to my growing town, letting there be direct shipments instead of exposing them on the water.

Rodney shrugged, barely registering what I had said. He picked at his teeth with a toothpick and said. “Still need to settle your debt before we become business buddies. There’s rules in Wyrmbreath. If you come down I can put a word in for you at the bank.”

“Who’s running it?” Sten asked, gripping the edge of the wall fiercely.

“Stone’s Bank of Dastow, or something else dumb like that. They opened a branch here years ago, doing quite well. Run by dwarves, so if I was you Josh, I’d bring your little friend here,” Rodney said, his voice dripping with boredom. “Now if you will excuse me, I have an appointment to get my nails done. I think I’m going with gold today, courtesy of the money I expect tomorrow Josh.”

I was taken aback. “Tomorrow? That doesn’t leave me any time-”

“Bye my little worker ants,” Rodney said, waving first before turning to the punk girl. “Minx, get the damn boat back to the cave, and don’t scratch off the paint or I’ll tell your mother what you have been smoking behind my shop after work.”

The goons took off in a hurry to appease their master and I was starting to get the sense Rodney was far more dangerous than he let on. The silly attitude and attire was just a ploy, and now I was in the deep end. I turned to Sten to see if he was ready to crack a joke, but found him as white as snow.

“Sten, buddy?” I asked, moving my hand across his vision. “Are you doing alright?”

“Yeah, just… you might need to go to the bank without me.” Sten said.

“But they are your people right?” I asked.

Sten gulped, and steadied himself against the wall. He took out a flask and downed it in one go. When the liquid courage hit him he spat on the ground, tightened his belt and smoothed out his beard. Once he was looking more presentable he put his hands on his hips and broke his silence.

“They are. My uncle runs that bank, and I’m out two thousand gold on my student loans. I fled with Rolada because his loan sharks were hunting me down to break my knee caps and sell organs for cash,” Sten said, delivering it like he was on the stage. “Woe is me, to have the noose of my family come to haunt my friends.”

I took out my possibly cursed sword and held it up to the light. I tapped it against the wall and asked Sten. “Think I can use this as collateral?”

His expression didn’t fill me with hope.