(Y6, December 12th)
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Vantegaard looked dubiously at the glass globe in Quandocor’s hands.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Communication globe. Comglobe, in short,” Quandocor replied.
“Oh? Never seen one before.”
“The Valkyries are looking to get a pair,” Birkathane interjected.
Both men turned with surprise.
“Yea. I mean, there’s only a day’s travel between Mt. Talbor and Valhalla Keep, but if you have a pair of com globes, you can talk and send news directly. They’re kind of expensive but very handy here on Northworld. No cellphone or internet.”
Vantegaard’s gaze turned back to the glass globe, which looked like it was full of weird, murky-white milk.
“You can only talk to its twin, right?”
“Correct,” Birkathane said. “They’re made simultaneously in pairs, and you pick one to talk to whoever is using the other. Can’t change the pair once they’re made. That said, they don’t have a range. Or at least, it covers an entire sector, since unfortunately, they lose link if moved to Earth.”
“More than a sector. From what I heard, the Cartographers Gamma HQ is now linked to the main headquarters here in Beta with one pair. I suppose they’ll ship one to Alpha,” Vantegaard added.
“This one will be used for the expedition to Deva territory, besides recess direct messages. So, while I’m away with you grinding some levels, I can use it to keep in touch with the Brethren,” Quandocor said.
“In case you get recalled early?” Birkathane asked.
Quandocor nodded in confirmation.
“Exactly. Berkleyyan said that if I went only up to Tarquar, I could get back fast enough, so that wasn’t a problem. I just have to be careful, or I’m in debt of 1 gold to the Brethren.”
“Wiping your savings,” Vantegaard grinned before being punched in the shoulder by Birkathane.
“Hey?”
“We’re all going. If we lose it, we’re all responsible.”
“Okay, okay. How come they’re so expensive, by the way?”
Quandocor shrugged, but Birkathane smiled.
“Demand. Everyone wants one. They require some esoteric crafting skills and semi-uncommon materials, so they take time to make, and few people can craft them. Yet.”
“I assume lots of people grind the required skills these days?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she confirmed. “If appropriate Skill Stones are on the market, they’ve probably come up in price.”
Backpacks full, the trio found themselves at the Earth Keep’s entrance. Given the number of people around, one of the gates was kept open during the day. Quandocor looked at the door’s heavy iron plates.
“I never asked, but were all of these already there when they found the Keep? Or did someone craft the gates afterward?”
Vantegaard looked at the 5cm-thick gates before saying, “Haven’t asked either. Maybe you’ll have time to ask Berkleyyan about the Keep’s story during the trip.”
“Don’t tell me. They found it entirely intact?”
“Like the Valkyrie’s headquarters, you mean?” Birkathane said.
“It makes me wonder what the other four’s ruins look like. Because all I’ve seen looked fit for humans, and you never heard about really weird ruins, didn’t you?”
“Well, you’re going to see that for yourself. So, where to?” Vantegaard asked, turning toward Birkathane.
“Based on the maps, exactly that way,” Birkathane answered, pointing north-northeast.
She immediately added, “There’s a roadway heading nearly toward there, though.”
Vantegaard rejected the idea.
“Need to grind, remember. If we keep to the main roads, most of what we’ll find will already have been visited.”
“We could check that dungeon area you have on your guide,” Quandocor proposed.
He indicated a slightly more eastward direction.
“It’s that way, and it seems to have some critters in it.”
“You can spot it? From here?” asked Birkathane.
“Just the edge of my range. But yes. At least one item and several dozen critters.”
“Ooooh, nice,” Vantegaard exclaimed.
“Lead the way then. For once,” Birkathane said.
They started, quickly leaving the main path. The Keep was straddling the edge between a lightly forested area and wide-open plains, but they were going to skim the border toward the dungeon. The plains had light threats, while the forest ramped up in ranks of enemies toward the 60+, making it a good training ground for the Brethrens.
As they moved, following the forest’s edge, Quandocor kept looking back at the Earth Keep behind. Vantegaard had no idea what was worrying him.
“Think you’ll be pressed for time until your departure?” he asked.
“What? No, it’s just that it still trips me how empty all of this is. There’s this huge keep that can host hundreds… and nothing else as far as you can see,” Quandocor replied.
“Population density is low on Northworld,” Vantegaard replied.
“I was on the East Coast. Low population density means middle-class suburb rows of houses,” Quandocor joked.
“It’s as populated as North Sweden, where we live on Earth,” Birkathane said.
“Probably even less,” Vantegaard mused. “The maps of the main sectors cover about one-third of the US. Or Europe’s size. Three million square kilometers, for under one million Gaters total at most.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Wow. So, one person every three square kilometers. That’s empty,” Quandocor said.
“It’s more like the north of Alaska rather than Atlanta metro. But yes, it’s a bit like your farm area, Birka, maybe slightly less populated. It’s also odd for me since the West Coast is nearly as bad as the East Coast,” Vantegaard said.
“People still congregate in small villages and towns, though,” Birkathane said.
“For each Mt. Talbor, there are thousands of empty square kilometers around. Although that’s changing fast, since everyone keeps finding Silvergates,” Vantegaard said.
“Where do they all come from? We’ve found two of them total so far, both in dungeons.”
“That’s usually where they come from, but not always. The Guild stopped keeping statistics after a while since there didn’t seem to be any pattern. It’s like dungeon items; you have a better chance of finding one in an unexplored area, but keep finding some everywhere.”
Vantegaard added, “Except non-dungeon locations. Cities like Fanduk or places like the Valkyrie Keep, nobody’s found a Silvergate there.”
Quandocor held his hand up, pointing forward. A group of three medium-sized cats with purplish fur was not far from the forest’s edge. The former FBI agent threw an inquisitive glance at Vantegaard, who was their living repository of all facts in Northworld.
“That sounds like Otocolobus Purpura. The purple cat, although it has a very flat head and round eyes. And big weird ears.”
“Time to stretch those battle muscles, you think?” Birkathane asked.
“I do not think they go very high in ranks, but they’re very agile. Very hard to hit.”
Birkathane cracked her knuckles in answer. Her build was unarmed-oriented, unlike the other two. But even without that, she had collected a few offensive magics. The two men smiled and turned toward the group.
“Around rank 30,” Quandocor announced. “But if they are as agile as you say, they might be a bit harder than that.”
A hundred meters later, the feline pack noticed the three primates headed their way and stopped lazing. Quandocor started stretching his staff muscles while Vantegaard drew his main short sword.
Just because he’d said those Northworld critters were not considered big threats didn’t mean Vantegaard would not use as many of his current tools as he could. You expended a lot of energy from such a type of fight, but your skill gains would be commensurate by a significant margin.
For anyone but someone from Fanduk, conserving energies was a sound strategy. But for people with tier 1 Meditation skills? Every fight was an all-out unless you knew another was coming before you could meditate again, even with geomancy. Outside of the Earthen Keep, his maximum earth Power had dropped to less than 20% of its previous version. Each point he spent right now was one he wouldn’t get until at least Tarquar and its leyline knot raised his max again.
Vantegaard ensured he was ready to raise his little stone ally while raising Earth Armor. Even Immutable Mind was put up because even if the cats didn’t use mind attacks, it would grow the skill a little more than simply trying to use it outside of combat. At his side, Birkathane’s skin was rippling. All of them were Archmages, calling on multiple skills from three different magical forms, but Vantegaard’s girlfriend used way more in preparation. Ironbark Skin, Arcane Speed, Earthen Presence, and more, all made her extremely resistant and durable, if not quite as deadly as the more offensive men.
The cats were starting to come at them and predictably spreading to cover the maximum opportunities to strike the three humans that were methodically walking toward them.
Then, the first feline decided to rush them, and the combat was joined. The hapless attacker was immediately hit by Arcane Weakness, Decay Strength, and Impose Load, having to dodge Rock Darts before he reached melee range. Rather than deterring them, the two other cats took it as a sign to attack themselves and ran in.
The three split their targets, each picking a different cat to keep them all busy and avoid exposure to their attacks.
Vantegaard was already using Drain Living Aether to drain and slightly damage the enemy cat before he reached him. He found quickly that his Sure Strike was a massive help. The cat tried to dance around his long dagger slashes, but he raked at the sides. At his side, the collection of rocks in a vaguely humanoid shape pummeled the purple feline. His Call the Stone skill was still low at 17 as it was based on his lowest stat, and the summon of low rank compared to the cat, but every bit helped. At least the cat was distracted enough by him to ignore the rocks.
Quandocor struck the cat facing him with his silvered staff, forcing it to attempt to dodge. A literal deluge of magical attacks fell on the beast. Wizard’s Breach, Drain Life, and Fatal Distraction all let him pummel Deadly Punches with the staff by forcing the incredibly swift feline to react to unseen assaults. The former FBI agent reached out to apply a Cold Grasp, making the cat slightly slower. A quick flurry of hits, and the beast dropped to the ground, mortally struck. His Sense Life and Death confirmed the change in status, and he immediately surveyed the rest of the fight.
Birkathane had a bit more problems with the cat that had targeted her. The beast might have a hard time scoring a good hit, and his claws’ strikes were dulled by Immutable Flesh and Ironbark Skin. But conversely, her attacks were dodged by the twisting and almost anatomically impossible bending cat. She had Weak Points instinctively targeted and could Pierce Defenses, but that assumed she hit. Even with Arcane Speed, that was more of a hit-and-miss than real hits.
Then a staff’s end came from her left, the cat tried to dodge that one, and the punch perfectly aimed hit the beast’s side, bouncing it back onto the staff. She smiled.
Dodge two, you fiend.
The additional debuffs imposed by Quandocor slowed the beast enough that she could finally hit reliably, and the Northworld critter finally bounced to the side, failing to rise again. She turned just in time to see Vantegaard finishing his own cat. The stones near the corpse hovered for a fraction of a second before falling to the ground and seemingly burying themselves.
“Now that’s a proper way to start our grind run,” he said, smiling.
“Remember when rank 20 carnivorous horses made us shiver?” she said.
“Don’t diss those horses. Some of the packs we saw could still be a serious problem,” Quandocor said. “It’s not about the number, but about numbers.”
He bent to drain the corpses, even if he did not strictly need that to replenish his reserves, unlike Meditation-less necromancers. Then he realized there was something more to do, and he whipped out a large knife and started hacking.
“Hard to skin, but I got one good one,” he finally announced.
“You’ll need to check, but I don’t remember it particularly useful. Although, purple fur… that might sell back on Earth. I know there’s a lot of those exotic furs that end on specialty markets.”
Quandocor shoved the skins in his backpack.
“Don’t need the money, but we’ll see that. Maybe I can turn them into small armor pieces?”
“Guys, I need those skills, or the wolfman won’t be happy. I checked and got barely half a level in that fight. And I don’t have all those grinding skills to compensate,” Birkathane said suddenly.
Both men looked a bit more sheepish.
Birkathane
Health: 1201/1411 (recovers 228/day)
Stamina: 887/1690 (recovers 3.5/sec)
Lifeforce: 1100/2194 (recovers 0.60/sec)
Power: 22442/1920 (recover 2.7/sec)
Arcane: 991/1091 (100 in use; recovers 6.0/sec)
Presence: 41
Resilience: 38
Reasoning: 35
Fortitude: 35
Dexterity: 34
Reflexes: 30
Strength: 30
Perception: 27
Intuition: 23
Meditative Cultivation 53 (8%)
Shore Weakness 49 (59%)
Infuse Vitality 45 (58%)
Arcane Precision 44 (29%)
Absolute Compass 31 (32%)
Draw on the World 30 (87%)
Arcane Weakness 26 (9%)
Infuse Stamina 23 (40%)
Rooted Existence 21 (22%)
Arcane Speed 20 (75%)
Pierce Defense 20 (67%)
Pacify 20 (39%)
Steadfast 18 (7%)
Immutable Flesh 17 (77%)
Ironbark Skin 17 (9%)
Deflect Strike 17 (5%)
Night Sense 16 (69%)
Weak Points 16 (41%)
Rock Dart 16 (25%)
Carry the Load 15 (98%)
Extended Bestiary 15 (45%)
Stand Guard 14 (70%)
Purify Tincture 13 (96%)
Immutable Mind 13 (11%)
Earthen Presence 13 (0%)
Evaluate Flora 12 (62%)
Interrupt 11 (92%)
Brew Potion 11 (56%)
Effortless 11 (5%)
Arcanic Entanglement 10 (89%)
Surface Climb 11 (22%)
Interpose 9 (98%)
Level: 250 – 73%
Unused points: 37
Leather Iron-Toed Boots (lvl 23), +2 Strength
Black-Tinted Cloth Glove (lvl 15), +5% Resilience
Fur Notched Belt (lvl 11), +1 Presence
Leather-Chain Jacket (lvl 20), +1 to self-buff skills
Leather-Chain Pants (lvl 22), +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity
Leather Circlet (lvl 19), +1 Presence
Oak Ring (lvl 13), +75 to Lifeforce
Engraved Copper Ring (lvl 22), +2 Resilience
Iron Elaborate Necklace (lvl 16), +2 Presence