The next morning, I walked to the southwest edge of the village in search of training. The label on the Local Map said Gorlis's House, but calling it a house was generous. It was boarded-up shack surrounded by trees and overgrown weeds. I rapped twice on the door.
“Gorlis?” I asked. “My name is--"
“Go away!” a gruff voice called out.
“I’m a follower of Motiacca, and I seek training. Can you help me?”
“I’m not taking students. Off with you!”
“I ask nothing for free. I can pay for lessons.”
“Ha! This city is going to be overrun in less than a fortnight. You can take your coin and—”
I interrupted, losing my patience. “There must be something you want.”
Footsteps sounded from the tiny structure, and the front door flew open. Gorlis was as thin as a razor, with lithe, ropey muscles and a mop of wild gray hair. He peered at me through black-ringed eyes.
“Yes, there is something I want. You know the Groaning Gorgon?”
“Of course.”
“The tavernkeeper keeps bottles of Lennadoc Ale in her cellar. By Motiacca’s cloak, it’s the finest ale in the Two Kingdoms! If you want training, nick two of those bottles for me.”
Gorlis retreated into his house and slammed the door behind him. I shuddered at the thought of stealing from Zell. We weren’t the best of friends, and she’d taken a lot of my coin, but she’d never led me astray. And if she caught me trying to rob her, she’d have no trouble killing me.
⚔
I returned to the Groaning Gorgon and told Zell about Gorlis’s demand. She snorted.
“I figured he’d make some sort of crazy demand. Yes, I have bottles of Lennadoc Ale, and I’d be happy to part with them.”
“How much do they cost?”
“I’ll sell you the bottles if you can get hold of them, but that won’t be easy. A month ago, I tossed a drunken human out of the tavern for making unwelcome advances toward me. Turned out he was a wizard, and as revenge, he summoned a cobra to live in my cellar. A few weeks ago, I hired two adventurers to slay it and both died. Since I can’t get to my stash, all I serve at the bar is muddy ale. If I had any competition, I'd be out of business.”
“So if I can get past the beast and fetch the ale, you’ll sell it to me?”
Zell nodded. “Ten gold a bottle.”
Ten gold was fifty silver, so two bottles would cost one hundred silver. Much more than I could get my hands on.
“That’s a lot of coin. What if I kill the snake?”
“Slay the cobra, and I’ll give you the two bottles for free. Interested?”
I’d worked at the Beaver Lake Nature Center as a teenager, and though a couple months of handling garter snakes probably wouldn’t help me fight a cobra, I had an idea of how snakes thought. A plan started to form in my mind.
“I'm interested. But I'll need to talk to Orla first.”
A message in gold letters scrolled across the bottom of my field of view: NEW QUEST: SLAY THE COBRA IN ZELL’S CELLAR.
⚔
Once again, I was Orla's only customer. The prices were acceptable, and there were plenty of items to choose from, so it had to be Orla’s personality that kept the place empty. As before, she squinted at me with a look of disgust.
“You’ve chosen to follow the Lady of the Cloak? Afraid of moral rectitude, were you? Afraid of winning the trust and respect of your peers? Well at least you’re not a necromancer. What do you want?”
“I need to rent items. Gauntlets, greaves, and your best one-handed axe.”
“I don’t rent out my wares. My customers tend to perish in battle, so I find it more prudent to buy and sell.”
“I’m not heading into battle. I’m going to slay the snake in Zell’s basement.”
“The cobra that killed two adventurers? Sounds like a battle to me.”
“Ah, but I have a plan.”
I told Orla how I intended to kill Zell’s beast, and I explained why I needed the gauntlets, greaves, and axe. When I was done, her expression softened.
“That’s a fine plan, but there’s a chance it can go awry, and that’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”
I emptied the content of my purse—7 silver coins and 9 copper coins—onto the counter. I also set down the silver chain I’d taken from the adventurer in Lessel’s cellar.
“This is all I have—more than enough for a day’s rental. If I come back, you can take out the rental fee; if I don’t come back, it’s all yours. What do you say?”
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Orla looked at the coins, and then studied me for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, she nodded.
“I’ll lend you gauntlets and greaves, but I can’t let you walk out with my best axe. I’ll lend you my third-best, which has a fine obsidian edge. More than sharp enough to slay a cobra.”
⚔
When I returned to the Groaning Goblin, Zell’s eyes widened and she backed away from the bar.
“Wh-what is that?”
I smiled and raised what I was holding in my left hand.
“This is the man-eating rat the Enclave hired me to kill. The front part of it, anyway.”
I’d cut the giant rat in half, slicing through its midsection. I’d never tried taxidermy before, but after wedging a tree branch into its entrails, I’d formed a life-sized rat puppet on a stick. It stank of rot and death, but I hoped it would seem real enough to fool a cobra.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Snakes love eating rats, and I bet your friend will jump out for this one. When it does, I’ll hit it.” I raised the obsidian-bladed axe I’d rented from Orla.
“What’s with that strange armor?”
“If the cobra doesn’t go after the rat, it will probably strike at my wrists and ankles. So I rented gauntlets and greaves.”
“And if it bites you anywhere else?”
“You’ll have three bodies in your cellar.”
“Wonderful.” Zell beckoned me behind the bar. “The basement is this way.”
The hatch in the back of the tavern looked like the hatch in Lessel’s house. Zell grasped the chain and raised the door, revealing a stairway.
“Don’t you need a lantern? Humans can’t see in the dark, can they?”
“Followers of Motiacca can.”
As I descended, Zell lowered the hatch. I held the rat corpse close to the ground and shook it to make it seem like it was walking. Snakes smell by flicking their tongues, and I hoped the cobra would catch the rat’s scent.
I reached the stone floor, still holding the rat corpse near to the ground. Zell’s cellar was larger than I’d expected, with large crates stacked against the walls. Above the crates, wooden shelves bore glass bottles of different shapes and sizes. In the center of the room, amidst broken glass and crates, two bodies lay dead. There was no trace of a snake.
“Eeek!” I cried. "Eeek! Eeeeek!"
I approached the prone bodies slowly, and after I took five steps forward, I saw something slither. A moment later, the cobra leapt out from under one of the two bodies. I gasped at its size. Its green-and-black body was at least twelve feet long and its hooded neck was wider than my shoulders.
The cobra bit into the corpse of the giant rat, curled back, and bit again. Remembering my plan, I dropped the puppet and raised my axe. I hit the cobra three times just below its hood, but its scales were so strong that the axe never broke its skin. Its health only dropped by a quarter.
The cobra turned and hissed at me, extending its hood and raising itself two feet off the floor. I extended my left arm quickly, as though I was going to punch it. As I’d hoped, it mistook my arm for a snake, and it struck at my forearm. But its fangs couldn’t penetrate the gauntlet.
With the cobra locked on my arm, I drove its head against the stone floor twice, as hard as I could. This brought its health down to half, but to my surprise, the cobra’s jaws didn’t loosen their hold. Instead, its long, scaled body started wriggling around me.
Dropping the axe, I unsheathed Ebonclaw and stabbed the cobra in the belly, just a few inches below its mouth. Its ventral scales weren’t nearly as strong as its dorsal ones, and I finally managed to pierce the skin. Dark brown blood oozed from the wound, flowing slowly at first and then spurting out in bursts.
The cobra’s health fell to a quarter, but it wasn’t giving up. Its body wrapped around my feet and threw me onto my side. I shouted in pain, and after I hit the floor, its body curled around my torso. My stamina had fallen to a half and it was dropping fast.
Panicked, I drove the snake’s head against the floor. Then, instead of stabbing it with Ebonclaw, I cut through into its belly with long slashes. Three cuts and the grip on my gauntlet loosened. To my relief, the cobra’s body went limp as its health dropped to zero. +800 XP!
I lay on the floor, gasping. I’d lost five health points, but aside from that, I was fine.
After getting to my feet, I searched the two bodies. Both wore leather armor in even worse shape than my own. Leaving the armor aside, I found thirty-four silver pieces and twenty copper. I sighed with relief as I placed the coins in my purse. No more gouged, second-hand armor for me. With real money, I could buy real equipment.
I pushed the hatch upward and threw the beast’s body onto the floor of the tavern. “Here’s your cobra.”
Zell watched, silent and wide-eyed, as I ascended the stairs.
“I thought I’d never step foot in the cellar again.” Zell shook her head. “Is it really safe now?”
A message scrolled across the bottom of my field of view. QUEST COMPLETED – SLAY THE COBRA IN ZELL’S CELLAR. +600 XP!
“That’s right,” I said. “And I’d like those bottles of ale. But before I take them to Gorlis, I need to return my gear to Orla.”
As I walked out of the tavern, I saw a golden plus sign shimmering in the upper right of my vision. When I focused on it, my character sheet opened and told me I’d reached Level 3. My maximum health had risen from 12 to 18.
Another dialog popped up. WELCOME TO LEVEL 3! SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ABILITIES:
1. Advanced Perception – detect creatures and traps at greater distances
2. Rogue’s Regeneration – heal faster in the presence of shadows
3. Weapon Specialization – become more skilled with a weapon
The perception and regeneration options looked useful, but so far, killing monsters was the only way to make money and complete quests. I chose Weapon Specialization and scrolled through the types of weapons until I found Dagger. When I looked at the character sheet, it said that Ebonclaw’s accuracy bonus had risen from +2 to +4 and its damage bonus had risen from +2 to +6.
But the most important change wasn’t on the character sheet. Slaying the cobra hadn’t seemed awkward or abnormal—I’d enjoyed the fight more than I used to enjoy playing games. The gamecast and my diner job were ancient history. I was Dylan the Beast-Slayer, and I couldn’t wait for the next battle.
⚔
Orla’s expression transformed as I carried the body of the cobra into her shop. Her eyebrows rose and the sides of her mouth curled upward for the first time since we’d met.
“Your plan succeeded.” Orla held out a small purse of coin. “I’ll take back the gauntlets, greaves, and the axe. After subtracting the rental fee, you’re left with five silver.”
Five silver was less than I’d expected, but I thought it best not to argue. I put the silver in my purse and then heaved the cobra’s body on the counter.
“These scales are very light and your axe blade couldn’t pierce them. Can you make armor out of this?”
Orla ran her fingers over the cobra’s remains. Her eyes narrowed.
“I can’t pierce the snakeskin with my needles, but I should be able to weave these scales onto a good suit of leather armor. That will increase protection without adding weight or restricting your movement.”
“How long will that take?”
“Three days. When I’m done, I’ll sell you the armor for 20 gold. If you can’t pay, I’ll set it to others for 80 gold. Agreed?”
We both knew that no one in Raven’s Rest had anything close to 80 gold to spend on armor, but I’d never met a shopkeeper who cared about supply and demand.
That left me three days to obtain a lot of gold. I hoped the mages at the Enclave paid well.
I nodded. “I’ll be back in three days.”