Tec Mage Chapter Fifteen: Home Sweet Gnoll
When Atlas entered the cells where Loki was held he found him scratching on the wall with a rock, he wasn't trying to escape but instead making rude pictures on the wall, he had covered the place with drawings of stick men doing strange and sexual things and poems that were dirty and funny, Atlas wasn't too surprise seeing as Dracken had warned him of his strange behaviour, Atlas coughed to get Loki attention
Loki turned around, when his eyes came upon Atlas he smiled "oh good some company, i see they got you too"
Atlas was accompanied by Beast and Atlas didn't blame Loki for thinking that he had been caught, this was deep in the cave system and Atlas was only a level 3 mage, Beast handed Atlas a key to unlock the cage, Atlas explained what had happened with the gnolls and how he and Beast had won he's freedom
After being freed Loki asked "what now?"
"I'm staying for a couple of moments then going back to town to pick up some stuff, and returning back to the gnolls, it's the conditions for your freedom and my safety" said Atlas
Loki was equipping him self with his gear the gnolls had taken off him, it looked like Loki had chosen a warrior class, in Atlas eyes that was odd, Loki was Atlas tutor and thus had a high wisdom and intelligence from teaching Atlas chemistry, Atlas had to ask "what level and class are you"
Loki was all smiles, "i'm level 35 and i have a hidden class called Fool"
"How does that work" asked Atlas
"I gain more power the more unexplainable things i do, so if i have high stats in wisdom and become a warrior then i get a boast in critical hit chance and all kinds of decent buffs" explained Loki
Atlas understood "well that answered that" he turned to Beast " i think the best thing you could do for your clan is to change homes, move as soon as possible, do you know of any other cave systems"
"Yes but it's a old mine and it's not big enough for all of us" explained Beast
"Show me" asked Atlas
The mine was further in a dark forest and took 20 minutes to get there, the mine was deep but small "with some hard work this will be a good home for your clan" said Atlas
Atlas explained to Beast that he needed to go in to town to gather some items and resources and when he got back to the mine he want every gnoll in the cave to be here with there belongings if they had any
Beast had no way to know if Atlas was going to run but he had a good feeling about him, plus Atlas had saved his life with the fight against the ex leader of the gnolls, he put the thought of Atlas running away behind him
When Atlas had got back to town with Loki the first thing he did was cash in his quest that the old lady receptionist of the tutor guild gave him
"Ahhh your back and with Loki i see, you did that incredibly fast, sit down and tell me about it" asked the old lady
"I can't Madam, the way i fixed thing mean i can't talk about it, sorry" replied Atlas
"That's ok son, i all ready know what you did" said the old lady
"Really?" Atlas was doubtful, "how do you know" asked Atlas
"I can't tell you in till you have excepted my quest reward"
"What's the reward" asked Atlas
"A class change and every thing that goes with it" said old lady
"Are you beating around the bush, what is the class" asked Atlas
"Loki could you sign in to the guild" asked the lady
Loki left to the next room to finish his paper work
"Before you take the reward you have to understand that this is a secret class in every way, do not tell any one about this class, the only people you can talk to about this class is masters and there apprentices of the same class, there is no immediate reason way you can't tell people but nobles and king will actively search you out and make you part of there council" said the old lady
"That doesn't sound so bad" said Atlas
"Maybe, but think about this, to get you under their thumb, they may use others pain and even death to control you" said the old lady
"Is that likely to happen" asked Atlas
"It's happened, lets just say that, it's to protect your self and other apprentices and masters" said the old lady
Hidden classes made a character stronger most of the time, but Atlas was a mage and he had to asked if the new class was magic base
"Yes and much more but first my name is Alison and i will be your master, this doesn't mean much most of the time you will have to learn on you own" said the lady
"Then i agree" said Atlas
Ding
Quest complete, Find The Missing Tutor
Level up
Level up
.........
You have accepted a new class
"The reason i offered this class is because i've heard good things about you, like the toys you made, the scarecrows that you modified, and especially the tutoring for more than 2 months and other good things" said Alison
Atlas levelled up 18, he also got a new message
Ding
A new title has been earned
Ding
Negotiation stat has been added
Atlas checked his new title, stat and class
[Character Name: Atlas] [Alignment: Neutral]
[Level: 21] [Profession: Apprentice To The Magus]
[Title: Levelling Fiend] [Fame: 115]
[Health: 1275] [Mana: 8650]
[Strength: 57] [Agility: 56]
[Vitality: 57] [Endurance: 42]
[Wisdom: 110 (+51)] [Intellect: 105 (+51)]
[Negotiation: 0]
[knowledge: 73] [Concentration: 51]
[Luck: 32] [Leadership: 47]
[Attack: 13-15] [Defence: 23]
[Magic Resistance: Fire resistance 28% water resistance 30%
Earth resistance 40% Wind resistance 15%]
+20 points added to wisdom and intelligence
+Enables you to equip certain items specialized for your class
+Decreases mana needed for spells by 20%
+Increases magic attack power by 20%
+Magic resistance to Fire, Ice, Earth and wind by 10%
+ knowledge stat gains extra 80 points
+ Enables you to learn all craft skills to the stage of a master.
+ Grants extra options to items that are produced or refined.
+ Enables you to learn secret skills based on your level in Magical Mastery.
+ Increases Fame by creating new technology or knowledge value.
First thing was the title, because he had gained almost 20 levels at once the game had awarded a title, the title effects were, mission experience was greater than normal, next was the new stat
Negotiation, the user can ignore Fighting Spirit if the stats is high enough, the user has a greater chance to persuade others and gain a better deal with merchants
Now the class was fine and all but what grabbed Atlas attention was that it looked like when he was a mage he couldn't master craft skills, this was a great bonus because when a skill got to the next stage in development gave the user a boast in stats and made it easier to use the skill
"Thank you, is that all, because i'm needed else where" asked Atlas
"Yes, i know" replied Alison
"How do you know" asked Atlas
"I was coming to that" replied Alison "each master will teach their pupil a type of magic that the master has made them self or added on a existing magic, now this point is very important, so listen carefully, pupils can learn from other masters but they must not teach other masters magic to there pupils, for example i will teach you a type of magic called Soul Sorcery, but in my younger days when i was a pupil i learned from a master that could talk to any living creature and transfer his mind to those things"
"So now you know how i knew about your adventures with Beast and the gnolls but more importantly you know about the rules of learning from masters and never teaching masters magic to others, without their permission" said Alison
Atlas was fine with this, "ok i now know how you know, and i'm informed on the rules of master and pupil, but tell me about you magic"
"Ahhh your interested in magic, my magic deals with the soul as the name suggests, your beginning step is a skilled called soul transfer, the user can drain mana from living things and when that skill reaches level 6, you can transfer your mana to others, there's lots of things you can do" Alison looked brighter than Atlas had ever seen before, Atlas knew that magic was her passion
"That's not even the best part, all masters and pupils gain a eye technique, it makes the user able to see mana in its raw form" explained Alison
"But i didn't receive the skill when i changed class" said Atlas
Alison was fumbling in her bag that she kept by her side, " first things first, this is for you", Alison pulled a big black hat out of her bag and gave it to Atlas
The hat looked like a witches hat, except the tip wasn't pointed but droop at the back "This is a little something to welcome you to our world of learning, it not much now but with crafting you can upgrade it any way you can think of" said Alison
"Identify" said Atlas
Apprentices Magus Hat: Durability 40/40 Defence: 5
A mage hat made by the Magi Alison, covers the head completely, offers low defence because it's made from cloth, this hat can be upgrade with items and crafting
Restrictions: Belong to the magical class, can't be dropped as loot
Effects: +10 wisdom, +10 intelligence,
Atlas put on the hat, he was starting to look like a mage, with his robe, hat and belt that hanged from his shoulder and across his chest that was filled with different coloured potions with different effects
Alison put her old weak looking hands in to Atlas "the skills i'm going to give to you isn't gained by the class but by the teacher" a warm light emitted from her hands and started to seep in to Atlas, the feeling was warm, like the warmth from a fire, not unpleasant but if it lasted too long it would start to become uncomfortable
Ding
New Skill: Magical Aura Of The Eye
Magical Aura Of The Eye
Able to see hidden magical energy, a essential part of magic users, mages without this skill will find it hard to pass a certain level in magic
Ding
New Skill Set Has Been Learnt: Soul Sorcery
This was new to Atlas, magic that was a set, he opened it up to inspect it
Soul Sorcery
Soul Drain:
Able to take mana from a any host by physically touching them and fill lost mana that the user has
Atlas knew this was a very useful skill for magical users to have, in fact it was useful for all classes, the more mana you have the more skills you can use
But Atlas had to ask "why is it called a set when i have only one skill"
"When i think you or worthy to learn the next skill i will teach you, and who knows you might learn by your self"
Atlas was looking at Alison with a mix of confusion and annoyance, why would she give him these skills but not all of them it seemed that she didn't trust him
"That's right i'm not totally trusting of you yet" Alison said, she seemed to be able to read minds as well " i've had bad experience with my first apprentice", she turned and stayed quite, it seemed that this was all she was going to say about her first apprentice, "go on, get out of here and make your mark on the world, don't forget i'll be watching", the last sentence she said almost sounded like a warning
Atlas made he's why out but was stopped by a running Loki "HEY WAIT UP"
Atlas stopped and made his way to Loki "what is it"
"Ummm do you want to team up" asked Loki
Atlas was thinking, he's next plans were not going to be normal for the game, but having a extra pair of hands would be useful "i have to warn you that i'm not going hunting or killing but if you can follow my instructions and tell no one about what i'm doing, the yes, and you can carry on teaching me
"No problem, my lips are sealed" Loki put his hand up to his lips and pulled it across his mouth
This didn't make Atlas feel comfortable, in the pass 3 months, there had been a man trying to steel his money from him, a blacksmith with mental problems and a whole enchanted guild after him, "i will give you a chance but remember this is important to me don't mess this up"
"You got it" Loki was beaming, Atlas thought he looked like a misfit, but even misfits could be trusted, it was like the saying honour between thief's, Atlas just had to wait and see if there was honour between a fool and an apprentice
"I need to gather some items, so get your self kitted up and wait near the North exit" said Atlas
Loki saluted and moved back in to the tutoring guild
It was now time to get ready
Atlas meet with Mary beside her standing hut store, as usual there was a big line waiting to buy her weapons that she had made and Atlas had enchanted, "hello"
Before Atlas could say any more to Mary a man in the line with full iron plate armour started to shout at Atlas, "GET TO THE BACK, CAN'T YOU SEE THE LINE, YOU MUST BE DUMB AS WELL AS DEAF"
The rest of the line was laughing at the man's remark, Atlas decide to ignore the man's words "Mary, i need to ask y.."
"DID'T YOU HEAR ME" the man in the line was being encouraged by the laughing people in line, when Atlas ignored him again, the man in iron armour stepped out of the line and pushed Atlas in the back
You have lost 5 health
The robe Atlas was wearing offered almost no protection
Atlas turned to the man and tried to explain to him the situation "i'm not here to buy but to talk to my apprentices"
The man looked Atlas up and down, then he looked up Mary, no way in his mind that these two were master and apprentices
Atlas was getting good at reading peoples negative emotions "just ask her" said Atlas
The man in iron was about to ask, when Mary spoke " it's true, he's my master and helped with the weapons i make"
The man in iron couldn't believe what he heard but like a true ass he tied to turn it around "well you should of said some thing sooner" he backed up and tried to go back in to the line were he was
"No cuts, back to the line" said Atlas
"What, i was just in line" said the man in iron
Atlas didn't like this man, "Yes?, but you left and now you have to go to the back of the line, or are you dumb as well as deaf"
The line started to laugh at the man in iron, his face was bright red and his face was contorted, "if my weapon hadn't been destroyed, i would challenge you to a duel"
"You are stupid, you all ready know that the seller of weapons is my apprentice, but you still challenge me, do you even want a new weapon from here" said Atlas
The line of people started to laugh again
"Just go to the back of the line and leave this whole situation behind you" said Atlas
Hesitantly the man in iron back off to the end of the line, while looking back and muttering to him self
Atlas continued with Mary "i'm going off to do some work and i was hoping that you would join me"
"Of course i'll come" said Mary
"Wait, you need to hear the whole thing first" under a hushed breath Atlas started to tell her what had happen to him and the gnolls
Mary was shocked with the story she heard, she was thinking how could Atlas trust monsters, they were the bane of humanity, Atlas answered as he had been reading Mary's mind "i'm just giving them a chance, i need to gather some items so i will be busy for the day but i will be leaving about 3 hours before dawn, that should give you enough time to decide"
Atlas told the same thing to Dracken when he entered the grounds of his home, without any hesitation Dracken agreed to come with him, apparently Drackens confidence in Atlas was unfailing, Atlas told him to pack his things and and get ready, he told Dracken that he would be back but first he needed things and it would take a couple of hours
Half an hour Mary came home, instantly she started to talk to Dracken about what Atlas had told her
"I can't believe he's helping monsters, what does he expect he going to get from doing this" said Mary
Dracken was bent over packing his things and getting ready for Atlas return, "i don't know, but what i can say is he hasn't failed me yet, i trust him"
"But it's monsters, i don't think we will return alive if we go" Mary was scared for her life, after all she was a npc and had only one life
Dracken was practical and had more run ins with humans than monsters, he tried to explain he's reasoning "people in my opinion are the one's who do the most damage", Dracken wasn't quiet sure how he should phrase his next statement, after a pause he decide to jump in, "Mary, when your family was murdered, it wasn't done by monsters but people, Atlas is asking for our help, he's protected us and gave us purpose, if there's some one to believe in why not him"
Mary was shocked that Dracken had mentioned her family, Mary had been 4 years old when she became a orphan, a fire had been set by a unknown person and burnt her home her parents and all of her belongings, she never found out who did it, after all she had no money to hire anyone to look into it and the city watch was useless, Mary had many years for the pain of the loss to heal so she forgave Dracken for bring this unpleasant memory up
Dracken carried on saying "you don't have to come, Atlas wont hold it against you"
A moment passed and Mary said "no i'll come, after all who's going to look after you" she still looked worried but she said what she said because of the affection towards Dracken
"I'm glad, i didn't want to be the only one that was scared and going" Dracken patted Mary on her hand "go and pack your stuff
Atlas returned to the dojo behind the training hall were he lived 4 hours later, Mary and Dracken was ready, Atlas only had to pack the items he wanted to take with him, he packed his complete alchemy set in to his bag and his lifted his tool bag that every thing from a wood saw to a stone cutting and shaper tools
Atlas was almost ready to leave but before that he checked on his skill Avatar Of Fire
Avatar Of Fire beginning level 7
You can call on a aura of heat, later levels the heat turns in to flames, acts as a sustained buff
200 mana is used and won't be regain in till the deactivation of the skill
Fire resistance +5%
cold resistance +5%
unknown
unknown
Atlas was checking to see if he had enough heat energy to sustain Forge, the skill was very slow to increase a level in, ever since he was granted the skill by Forge two months ago, Atlas hadn't turned it off but it was still only beginner level 7, but Atlas had a plan to increase the levelling of the skill and make it more comfortable for Forge, now Atlas had reached intermediate level with Mana Manipulation he could cast two different based spells at once or two of the same
Mana manipulation, intermediate level 1
lets the user use spells faster and makes spells stronger or weaker depending on the users will
a seconded mana source has evolved in you, duel casting is now available
Increases and decreases Attack Power with a magic by -150% to +150%
Increases Attack Speed with a magic by 40%.
Atlas casted Avatar Of Fire with this in his mind, a seconded coat of Avatar Of Fire increased Atlas heat by 50% on top of the other Avatar Of Fire skill, Atlas had a deep heat distortion around him, it could be seen quiet clearly, Atlas didn't want people asking questions about it so he compressed it, this caused a stronger but smaller heat distortion around him, now he was ready for Forge, Atlas picked up Forge and wrapped the snake like creature around his shoulders and neck
"Are we going some where" asked Forge he was flickering his tail with excitement
Atlas wrapped his scarf around Forge so he could see out but no one could see him, "we are going for a adventure out side the city"
Forge was moving around a lot, he seemed excited and couldn't keep still, the heat that the skill was emitting seemed fine with Forge for he hadn't said anything
Atlas lead out side the dojo/training hall home to the main street, "Atlas what about our home" asked Mary
It's fine, i've all ready talked to Borin the training hall instructor to look after things and i gave him a jug of my honey citrus fruit mead just to sweeten the deal
When the group got out side of the grounds the apprentices found a big cart filled to the brim with odds and ends waiting there for them, it was being pulled by a brown mare
"How much did that cost you" asked Dracken
"100 gold for the horse and 30 gold for the cart, the stuff on the back came to 500 gold" replied Atlas
If it wasn't for the weapons that Mary had made and Atlas enchanted that they sold from the pass month Atlas wouldn't be able to offered it
The cart was comfortable to ride and easy to use, they stopped near the north gate and picked up Loki, as soon as they left the city Atlas could hear heavy foot steps coming from behind him
"Stop, i challenge you to a duel"
Every one on the cart looked around, the person running to catch up was the man in iron that was in line to buy weapons from Mary
Atlas was so very tired, to him it seemed that every other person had an ego the size of a small island, Atlas didn't want to deal with this, in one small motion small earth hands grabbed the heels of the man dressed in iron, he fell over, as suden as he fell Atlas casted and gesture with his hand, a massive clay hand erupted from the ground and held the struggling man in place
"What is this" said the man in iron, he looked shocked
Atlas got off his cart and walked over to him, "you god damn coward, fight fair" shouted the man
The man was being too noisy, two smaller hands erupted out of the massive clay hand and covered the man's mouth, "i don't want to fight but your the kind of man to either stab me in back or follow me in till i agree, i can't have either one of those" said Atlas, to make sure they had lots of time to escape, Atlas placed a 2nd clay hand around him, he also used a new skill on him, Atlas placed his hand on top of the mans head and drain him of his mana using the skill soul drain, this would stop him from using any skills to escape faster
Atlas got back on the cart and as they went further away from the man, the muffled shouts became weaker, "that man didn't know who he was dealing with" said Loki, all three of Atlas apprentices was smiling, they knew not to mess to much with Atlas, they knew that Atlas wouldn't kill for no reason but they had also seen him fight in ways that they hadn't seen before, to mess with Atlas wouldn't end up with you death but being extremely embarrassed
On there way to the mines where the gnolls were living, they would get attacked by wolfs and bears but none of them touched the cart because Atlas was using the same skill and technique he used on the man in iron, it was funny to see these animals being pinned down or held in the air by massive earth hands, Atlas didn't worry about them, he made sure that the spell didn't last long on them and that as soon as they were out of sight the hand would turn back to lose earth, Atlas didn't want a trail of earth hands leading to the mines
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
When Atlas reached the mine, he was confronted by Beast, "Where have you been, i thought that you may have discarded us"
Atlas introduced Mary, Dracken and Forge to Beast and explained to the gnoll priest that they were his apprentices and was going to help with the remoulding of the clan, "a deal is a deal" Atlas didn't want to go back on his word, he felt it was the only thing that he knew was true and real while in game
When Atlas moved his cart in to the mine he was confronted with about 200 gnolls, some of them were old and some were children but most of them looked weak
"So few, i expected more gnolls than this" said Atlas
"I left it up to them to decide, the higher level warriors didn't want to leave, but some weaker gnolls wanted a more secure life for them self and there children" answered Beast
"Well it might be easier with this many" mentioned Atlas "lets get to work"
The first thing Atlas did was to ask Beast to separate the stronger gnolls from the old and children, Atlas had to make more room for the gnolls to live in, so he had him self, Mary, Dracken and the stronger gnoll equip the mining picks he had brought with him to extend the mining cave, Atlas even gave a small hammer to Forge to help with the mining
Atlas had looked up the mining skill on his personal computer and found out that by mining you could gain permanent health gains and infinity with earth elements, this would help with him self and the apprentices but what Atlas was aiming for was the gnolls to gain more strength, it was part of his plan to make the gnolls independent and safe
With many gnolls, himself and apprentices working the mines they were making a good amount of space, Atlas got the gnolls to mine the rocks in square blocks, After two hours of mining rocks and making the place bigger Atlas received a message
Ding
Mining skill
What a good start thought Atlas, now that there was enough stone to work with Atlas used his Architect skill to form a forge to start reinforcing the clan, he asked Mary to make iron curved doors, Atlas unpacked coal bags from the cart, coal burnt clean, which means no smoke emitted from it, which made it a great fuel for inside places such as a mine
When Mary started to heat up the forge Atlas set up his alchemy set, he might as well brew some potions while he worked the mine, Atlas had reached a wall with his alchemy, he was finding it hard to make any different potions or make the ones he already made stronger, after grinding the ingredients and placing them in the alchemy set he left it to brew
Atlas went back to mining but what he noticed was the gnolls were mining faster than Dracken, Atlas knew Dracken wasn't slacking, when he asked Beast the leader of the gnolls about if the gnolls had mining experience, the answer he got back was "no, but they are using the great beast skill to increase speed and strength"
"What a useful skill, any chance of teaching me and my apprentice the skill" asked Atlas
"Yes but the great beast skills have down sides too" explained Beast "when wolfs go into a frenzy, there speed and power go up but there intelligence and wisdom goes down, for every increase in stats this buff gave there was a decrease of equal value in other stats, the cool down rate on this skill was non existing but it cost 100 mana a time and only lasted 10 minutes the biggest thing to this skill is that after the ten minutes of the skill running out the boasted stats go back to normal but the negative stats would remain for a further hour"
"That's fine it will help with the mining and the skill maybe useful in the future" said Atlas
"There is also a condition you have to fill before learning the skill" said Beast "but you've already passed it, you have to learn the body movements of the creature before learning the skill, in our case The Way Of The Frenzy Wolf is the skill name and your apprentices will have to wait in till they have worked with us and study our movements some more"
It sound like Beast was finished with his explanation, Atlas was a bout to say he was ready to receive the skill when Beast started to talk again, "oh, i almost forgot to tell you that your intimacy might drop with other animals if you use the skill in front of a opposing species, like using a dog skill in front of a cat, in other words natural enemies
Atlas nodded to signify he understood, "i'm ready"
Learning the skill would of taken longer to learn but Atlas had all ready spent time with the gnoll's and learnt about there rules and even seen the fight between Beast and the ex leader
Ding
New Skill Set: Great Beast Skills
New Skill: The Way Of The Frenzied Wolf
Atlas could feel the difference straight away, strength had increased by 5 and agility 10, Atlas found that he could stack the skill three times before it stopped stacking, the bonus was great but with each stack the mana cost tripled
Atlas had so much more mana than most, and he didn't mind the increase in mana consumption, with 3 buffs stacked it cost 900 mana, with increased speed and power Atlas went back to mining
Many hours went by, night time had started and the mine was now big enough for all the gnolls to lay down, but unrest was happening, in the old gnoll nest the higher ranked warrior gnolls would go out to hunt and bring food back at night but all the gnolls that had followed Beast to a new home were too weak to go hunting
Atlas plan was to keep the gnolls out of sight, so they wouldn't be attacked by adventures and so he had brought tons of food with him, Atlas placed Forge in to the burning coals so he could get some sleep and then started to prepare the next step in the plan
Near the Forge Atlas had made small rectangle boxes with the front missing and replaced by metal mesh, he stacked them on top of each other, each of the boxes had a lid on top and a draw at the bottom, Atlas pulled a cloth off the pile that was in the cart to reveal live stock and bags of seed, the live stock was just chicken, but in Atlas opinion it was the best meat, he didn't know anyone who didn't like the meat and the whole bird could be used not to mention the eggs, there was a total of 40 hens and Atlas placed two hens in each box, after he had place all the birds in to there new homes he had 20 boxes with nothing in them, he's plan was to catch some rabbits and breed them but it was close to night and the monsters out side had the night time boast, so Atlas waited for the morning
Only two people were awake at this time of night, Atlas and the other freedman Loki, Loki was still mining but he was doing it with Forge's small hammer, Atlas put that behaviour down to his unique class, the fool
Seeing as both of them were in the same place, Atlas persuaded Loki to tutor him for 6 hours
Morning had broke and the bonus that the monsters had a night were back to normal, Atlas checked on the chickens, they had laid about 3 eggs per chicken but they didn't look happy, there was no bedding for them so Atlas had asked a gnoll to gather some grass from out side, the gnoll Atlas asked to get the grass understood and ran to the entrance, almost out of sight Atlas saw that this gnoll had a bandage on his leg, this was the gnoll that Atlas had help when he went to pick up Loki from the bloody gnoll clan
When the gnoll got back with a mountain of pulled grass Atlas was mining some more, he was ripping the rocky surface up efficiently, this was a combo effort, the mining skill with the frenzied wolf skill not to mention his stats in stenght were good, not good for a warrior but great for a mage, this was because of the iron bracelets he wore on his wrists and ankles, they didn't give any stats and little defence, but by wearing them he got stats upgrades from every day actives, but lately they were going up much slower
Atlas thanked the gnoll for picking the grass and the gnolls tailed wagged, he place a bunch of grass in each cage when he picked the eggs up and feed the chickens with the grain he had, most of the gnolls had woken up and all of them looked hungry, Atlas cooked the eggs in three different ways, boiled scrambled and fried, and gave each gnoll some eggs and dried meat that he had in the cart, when Atlas was almost finished Mary came over and said she had finished the curved doors, Atlas handed a bowl of scrabbled eggs to her, now it was time to make the place more secure, but at the same time he couldn't have the gnolls that wasn't mining doing nothing
"Beast, can you teach the other gnolls" asked Atlas
"No problem, when my master taught me we had a language barrier but after some time i learnt his tongue, so it should be easier, what do you want me to teach" asked Beast
What Atlas was going to say was going to sound a bit brutal, "i want you to teach the children as much as you can, i want there intellect to increase, but i want the old to go out side and forage for plants, berry's and catch some rabbits alive, 40 if possible and any animals they kill make sure they bring them back,
"But what about enemies, there not the strongest gnolls" asked Beast
Atlas had gone though the forest twice and there were no monsters even close to the gnolls level, the gnolls were a dungeon monsters so there level and power dwarfed other creatures in the forest, players on the other hand were different but being a wolf they would hear and smell them before they saw them, even if they did see them a quick retreat back to the mine with there speed would lose any followers and the pursuers would likely think the gnolls they had seen was from the old clan of bloody gnolls
"Tell them not to leave the forest and make sure to keep there eyes, ears and noise alert for humans and not to confront them but retreat as quickly as possible to the mines, also make sure they forage in teams of three" explained Atlas
Now that every one had a job, Atlas started to take on the fortification of the mine, the entrance was the first step, with the help of Mary Dracken, Loki and some of the mining gnolls they brought the steel door to the exit, Atlas spent many hours fiddling about with the steel door in till he was satisfied with what he had made...so far
The steel door wasn't actually a door but was closer to a drawbridge, Atlas had attached metal chains to the tip of the steel door and led them inside the mine at the top of the wall he had attached a pulley system, so they could raise the door easily, not satisfied Atlas went out side and asked the gnolls to pull the door up
The pulley system work really well, what took 9 people to carry over, only took two gnolls to pull up, it look good, it looked like it could stop a small army of players, but the thing that was better the defence was if no one knew it was there and right now there was a great steel drawbridge advertising some thing important was there
Atlas pulled out a vial of clear liquid from his bag, the liquid was a strong adhesive, Atlas started to stick rocks on to the door from the out side, every now again the older gnolls would return and drop of what they found in to a pile, Atlas didn't take notice in what they were doing and carried on sticking rocks on to the door using the adhesive, after he finish Atlas started to push mud in to the cracks and place turf on the rocks
If Atlas left the turf like that it would drop of every time the door was dropped, he couldn't use the adhesive to make sure the grass stayed on the rocks and they didn't have time to wait for the grass to grow roots and anchor it self to the door, but Atlas had a plan for this as well
Atlas noticed when he used the healing potion on the injured gnoll that his wounds healed immediately and there was no scar or loss of flesh, with this knowledge Atlas had cut a small part of the roots from the turf, if he left it this way the grass would die but Atlas started to pour one of his healing potion on to the grass
Immediately the grass started to regrow there roots back bigger and better than before and rooted their self to the rock, the grass looked green and lush like it's always been their
Now that Atlas had finished the door it looked like there was nothing interesting there, just another mould of earth
Atlas waited out side checking all the items that the older gnolls had brought back, there was many rabbits and at first look they looked dead but further inspection showed they all had been paralysed by having there necks broken but not twisted, it was brutal but the most efficient way of carrying a live animal with out killing it, there was a lot of forage items out side that the older gnolls picked up, using there experience from being alive longer than most gnolls they had collected seeds, nuts, fruits, weeds, tree bark, bugs, flowers and a couple of dead animals like wolfs and foxes, at the weakest gnolls were level 50 and wolfs were level 5 to 10, there didn't seem to be a problem so far
Atlas carried the paralysed rabbits into the mine, potions ware incredibly expensive but Atlas needed these rabbits to be well and healthy
so he used his healing potions on them, the good news was that they had such a small health bar that they didn't need to drink a lot to restore them to best conditions, when he was finished there was two rabbits of opposite sex in each box fully restored with grass for bedding and food
On the whole, the mine had been discarded because it had very little valuable resource but due to many hands working and constant work more and more useful ore was building up, Atlas asked Mary with the help of Dracken to make as many steel heavy bracelets with the iron that was mined, Atlas plan was to make the gnolls wear them to make it more difficult to mine but increase their strength, health and speed
Atlas had a bit of spare time, so for the very first time he went to fill his vow he made when he said he would use every part of the animal he could, bringing in the animals that older gnolls had killed, Atlas drained the blood from them by cutting the throats and hanging it up, the blood was kept in a bucket
While he waited for the blood to completely drain he started to make supports for the mine, stone pillars would be made by hand to hold the roof and stop cave ins, the places were the mining happened Atlas created arches so the weight of the roof would cause a stronger support
Now the blood had stopped Atlas went back and skinned the pelts and scraped the fat of the pelts, any part of the animal Atlas didn't know what to do with like the eyes, brain, fat, lungs and the bones he would make a stew with them, the food would make human puke by just looking at it but the wolf like gnolls wouldn't care what it looked like, the intestine were used as casings for sausages and the herbs, spices and some meat was used for the filling, the big pieces of meat on the wolfs and foxes were kept on the skeleton and was going to be used on a spit later for dinner
For lunch Atlas made odds and bits stew with blood pudding, blood pudding was herbs and spices mixed with the blood that had clotted and shaped into round disk shapes, when the lunch was being served the older gnolls came in with a huge a mount of random stuff, Atlas served the gnolls, after the lunch was eaten the left over bones that had boiled in the stew was taken and grounded into fine dust to be used in potion making, the smaller animals that the gnolls had brought in were striped the same way but the meat was cut in to long strips and smoked and salted ready for breakfast
Atlas was feeling over worked, with mining, cooking, sorting out the ingredients and identifying them, making support beams and looking after the animals during the day, and at night being tutored, more mining, he just couldn't do it all, only a mad greedy god could mange it all
Mining was some thing Atlas wanted to do, and the sorting out the animals was a vow he had made, cooking helped with his skill so the only other thing was taking care of the animals
With the help of Beast, Atlas taught the kids how to take care of the animals, cleaning the waste and being careful with the by products like eggs, feeding and changing the bedding when it got too fithy
Atlas thought it would be a good idea to teach the older gnolls how to strip the animals they brought back down in to piles for cooking, this would save Atlas a huge amount of time, still Atlas didn't trust them with cooking because 20% of the herbs and mushrooms were poisonous, they would need the identify skill and know how to read
At end of the 2nd day After dinner had been served, this time it was roasted meat and bread with a slice of cheese, Atlas sat down and tried his hand at turning the pelts into some thing, most of the gnolls were full and sleepy they were all around the forge to get some warmth and even some gnolls were around Atlas, they had notice that Atlas was a lot hotter than the other places, Atlas looked over to where Beast was sitting, he was packing his pipe with weed and had his legs up on a stone, it always threw Atlas off how human like Beast was, Beast saw that Atlas was looking at him and gave the crocodile smile he had and nodded, Atlas nodded back
"Atlas, pick me up" Forge had wandered over, Atlas put down the fur he was using and picked up Forge and wraped him around his neck, all the gnolls had been introduced to Forge but they still look wary of him, this was due to the fact that Forge was able to survive in fire, only the strongest or legendary creatures could be fine in flames
"Tell me about your day" said Atlas, he picked up the fur again and started to brush the fur to get rid of any lose hairs
Forge was like a excitable child telling Atlas what he had done, "not much,a bit of mining but i did get a skill called mining that makes me faster in mining, oh and it gives 500 hp for every level i gain"
Atlas knew about the skill and most of the gnolls did as well but still listened and responded "oh that due to hard work, you deserve it"
Atlas had just praised Forge and he was happy about it,his tail was twitching and dancing about
"Yea, oh and i found a cavan" explained Forge, Forge was smaller than every one else and thus he didn't need to mine as much area to go forward "it looked big and was a bit colder than outside, so i couldn't explore it"
Atlas was sewing and had stopped briefly and carried on " don't go to far off and make sure you tell me about these thing straight away, don't forget there is many thing out there to get you and your not ready for them yet, tomorrow i will explore it to see what's what"
"Can i come" asked Forge
"Mmmmmm, it will most differently be dangerous, so..." Atlas was beginning to say but was cut off by Forge
"Come on, i found it, can't i come with you" asked Forge
Atlas was thinking, there was a way that Forge could come and if the worse happened he would be fine "i'll think about it, ask again tomorrow"
Midnight was close and most of the gnolls were asleep, now they had a steel door that was camouflage they felt safer and slept better, Atlas was putting the finishing touches to what he was making, Atlas was a terrible tailor but to make quilts with the fur was a easy task
Atlas walked around the forge where all the gnolls had laid down and placed the fur on the kids and old, before Atlas started studying with Loki the last thing he needed was to start a new batch of potions
Atlas started to grind the herbs and separate the juices and pulp, Atlas put some of the bones dust into the boiling juices, the colour of the juice became darker and thicker, the heat was reducing the juices, the water used for the potions needed to be purified, the water was poured though a up side down glass bottle that had no base, in side the bottle was small stone that got steadily smaller as the water went down, at the tip there was mesh and cloth, to put the final touches to the clean water, the water then went into a new rounder bottle that had a glass pipe coming from it, when the water heated up to a point the hot water would travel up the glass pipe and empty into a fresh enchanted bottle, the enchanted bottle was some thing Atlas had made by learning how the enchanted bag worked, so now the bottle could hold 10x the amount and 4x the weight, where the water entered there was also a drip that lead to the enchanted bottle, this is were Atlas put the reduced juices from the herbs, the potions now had to be left alone to brew and cool down, Atlas had place one more enchanted bottle in a bucket filled with water, when the potion had finished brewing the heat would carry the liquid to the enchanted bottle in a bucket and quickly cool down, this was the best way Atlas had found to increase the potency of the potion, but only time would tell if bone dust would make it better
Salves were easier to prepare, all he had to do was mix the herbs left overs with lavender, ginger and beeswax but this time he put the last of the bone dust in to the mixture as well
Ding
The god of the land has witness your dedication to your vow
Atlas spent more time studying with Loki and in the morning he explained to Beast, Mary, Dracken, Forge what his planes were
"I'm going to be a way for a couple of days, four to be exact, don't worry i'll be back but in the meantime i want you to carry on with the gathering of plants and stuff like that, make sure the young keep the cages clean and the animals fed, tell the old that i've prepared enough food for the clan in till i return and tell them, after they they finished with dismantling the animals to place it in my bags that i leave behind" Atlas found that drops would disappear after a while but any thing put in a bag would stay, "finally Forge has found a cavan and i want you to work that way, just listen to forge, oh and when you get there i would like you to block the whole up with boulders in till i get back"
Atlas pulled Beast to one side "this is important, don't let anyone in the new cave system once you find it, there may be some thing down there"
"Do you think it really dangerous" asked Beast
"I'm not sure but lets keep it on the safe side" replied Atlas
Now they had finished there discussions Forge wiggled over, "are you taking me with you" his tale was shaking with anticipation and his eyes was looking directly in to Atlas
"I will take you but on only one condition, you have to become my pet" Forge looked like he was going to throw a fit "wait, wait, it will only be for as long as we go exploring, i found that if your pet dies you can resurrect them by sacrifice two levels and after 4 days they will return with one level deducted"
Forge still looked miffed at the suggestion of him self becoming a pet "well you have four days to decide and after we gone exploring you can become my apprentices again, it's for your safety and my piece of mind" said Atlas
-----------Real Life----------
Ben was going to spend the day doing things he had put off for weeks, cleaning his home, doing a spot of cooking and preparing food for later, Ben's body was a bit sore, not for over ten years had Ben done so little with his body, Ben belonged to a dojo, so he spent his morning and afternoon there, on the way back Ben picked up more food and picked up his rent from his other properties, when he opened his door to his home and turned on his personal computer, he checked his messages, bills, adverts and a message he had been looking for, Ben looked over the letter and read the important bits out load
"Dear Sir, Your test in chemistry is in 2 weeks time.................the examination will be in your town hall....................... please turn up 30 minutes sooner to sign some documents.................prices................ yours sincerely
Ben clean him self up by having a shower, cleaned his home and sat down to watch tv, the royal road game had whole stations and channels dedicated to showing peoples adventures and other things,
"Ladies and gentleman, this is end of the broadcast of the players known as Geomchi, but before we end, how about some funny moments in the game"
Ben wasn't paying attention towards the tv but reading the letter on his personal computer
"Here's a funny feast for your eyes, a player known as Kirby recorded and sent this moment for your enjoyment"
The man in iron that Atlas had pinned down was on tv, little rabbits had hopped all over him and some even slept in front of him
The host of the show was chuckling at the state of the warrior "looks like he was stuck between a rock and hard place" this got a comedic grown from the audience, " thats all folks, see you next time"
Ben was listening to more show while he tidy up and made dinner for himself, after dinner Ben felt sleepy. he had been grabbing just a couple of hours of sleep every now and again, Ben went to sleep and didn't wake up for almost ten hours
End Of Chapter Fifteen: Home Sweet Gnoll