Chapter 7.
The Shock.
“Up ahead.” I heard Indaya say just loud enough to hear over the bubbling river.
We had been slogging up stream for the better part of an hour, the water up to our necks in the deepest parts of the overgrown jungle river. We paused and I tried to catch my breath… 'My physical attributes need a boost soon.' I readied myself, had we been spotted?
“Something big, swimming around the bend.” Indaya spoke again. I almost relaxed, glad we hadn't attracted attention from a Lizardman scout.
Elina boosted herself onto the bank in a single smooth spring, water pouring off her. I had realised her javelin case was Soul-bound a while ago but it was still amazing to see that it was dry, even after being completely submerged in the cool river.
She padded across the bank to look around the bend of the winding river gasping and pulling a javelin free of her leather case. She paused, and I saw the muscles in her arms tense and the veins on her forearm visibly pumped up.
She took careful aim and fired a javelin into the stream with a whip like crack, she quickly pulled out another and it flew into the river as well. There was a massive splash, the waters coming around the bend churning. She inspected whatever she had skewered and turned to give a thumbs up, I waved my hands through a streak of blood colouring the water trying to diffuse it into the river.
As we turned the bend and Elina rejoined us, I saw a massive fish spiked with two javelins through its gill. It looked like some kind of prehistoric monster catfish, with long whiskers and fearsome teeth. Easily big enough to swallow a man whole. its scales were thick, a dark muddy brown... Perfect camouflage for the shadowed riverbed.
Abu waded over to it and struggled to pull the javelins free, Elina had avoided the thick scales and accurately punctured the soft gills... There was no blood. Belatedly I realised Abu had healed the wounds closed to prevent them from polluting the river further, giving away our position.
It was a good trick, I would try to remember it. Elina packed away her javelins and gestured to the fish while rubbing her stomach. Abu nodded it must be safe to eat, the diagnosis spell he used on Jack would tell him otherwise.
Oleksiy pulled a rope from his pack and Keisuke started tying the rope around its tail. The intention to pull it upstream to our new home.
“No… Around the head.” I said my still eyes cycling between visions, keeping a close eye out for more danger. “Fish… Easier to drag ...Front ways…” It had ‘evolved?, or created?' to be streamlined pulling it by the tail would only create extra drag. It was massive and with its wounds sealed it would deter more animals than attract them, its sheer size scaring away smaller predators. Luckily it was a fairly safe encounter… The ranged javelins a good hunting tool against such large beasts.
The two fighters nodded and made a wrap around its pectoral fins to begin tugging it upriver, you had to take every advantage in a place like this.
We reached the ravine by midday, exhausted from staying at high alert for so long. We travelled up the narrowing river, the ravine walls becoming taller and tighter as we approached the waterfall. The stream was deeper now and we were mostly swimming, using our hands to drag ourselves against the current with the walls.
The walls widened as we reached a plunge pool beneath the rushing waterfall, it was around 15 meters across and I couldn’t see the bottom.
There was a crack in the wall that lowered into the pool with short rocky ramp, water flooded out of one side making a second small waterfall. Delia and Paula were there, clothes fluttering in the soft buffeting wind made by the roaring water.
“Come on, Tobias has made a lot of room for us. Ah! I see you have brought us dinner as well.” Delia smiled and waved us in.
I stepped out of the water into the cave and felt my [Infused Lizards Retreat Totem] soothe the aches of my muscles, they felt raw with the exertion of the day. Paula must have placed it as I had coached her to, I hoped she had remembered to coat it in bone dust to ease the durability loss of moving it.
I helped the guys pull Elina’s monster catfish up the narrow crack, it barely fit… the entrance was a rocky ledge we had to shuffle along, a tributary of water passed beneath our feet flowing from deeper inside to join the plunge pool.
We dragged our catfish into a wide room carved into the solid granite of the ravine wall, the stream of water passing along one wall. I saw my totem sitting pretty surrounded with glowing golden motes, it was in a small recess chest high on the wall. Clearly to keep it from getting underfoot.
There was a conspicuous pair of empty hollows flanking it, Tobias had a job for me I guess. My mana had recovered so I channelled almost all of it into a [Spirit Searching Totem] right away, the extra mana would speed the rest of the totems I wanted.
It popped up in one of the free recesses. I heard a groaning sigh of relief come from the back of the large room, when motes of blue-green light started lifting from the floor.
As the chamber lit up with the soft light, I looked over and saw Tobias emerge from a doorway at the back. He looked knackered, his eyes were bloodshot and he held a hand to his head.
Obvious signs of mana exhaustion.
“So you all made it, you didn’t lead them back to us?” He demanded, his voice strained.
“The ambush was a success, we did not get all of them, but we should have time to prepare.” Oleksiy spoke plainly not bothering to prevaricate.
Tobias nodded and turned around already walking back to rest, “Bring me food when it is cooked.”
As he disappeared Jack spat to the side, “Bossy little shite ain’t he?”
“He has worked hard to build us a shelter.” Indaya defended, he had sneaked in behind us while I was channelling. “Perhaps he will cheer up after he eats.”
I looked around the room taking in the details, it was surprisingly comfortable. There was an open space, with plenty of room for ten people. A flat stone grill with wood already packed under it in a fire-pit, it was recessed into the wall to maximise space. There was a ventilation hole running out of the back of the fire-pit.
As I looked over the oven like structure Paula spoke up and informed me that the hole led to the waterfall, it would suck out the smoke and the waterfall would disperse it, a design that Tobias had used before in the Eligere trials.
There was a doorway leading to what must have been a sleeping area, Tobias was in there now so I would leave it for later.
On the side of the oven was a pool of water, it was at the natural terminus of the original crack that Tobias must have expanded into.
It flowed out around the back wall, and down under the ledge of the crack joining the stream. Tobias must have dug under to make the pool and connected it to the top of the waterfall. It was a primitive water tank, always overflowing into the channel out of the entrance to the cave... While being fed from above.
The fish was already being cut apart already, Keisuke and Oleksiy using a raised rectangular island of stone opposite the oven as a worktop, and the running pool of water as a sink. Keisuke using his katana to make the large cuts Oleksiy using his smaller knife to remove the scaled skin.
The last thing in the room was a large table surrounded by comfy, cushioned chairs in the corner. The cushions and tablecloth glittered in runes, I had worked out that Delia was conjuring the cloth as a temporary magical item with something like [Minor Conjuration] and then using runes to make them last longer with something like [Inscribe Rune].
I was astounded at how ingenious it was for such low tier spells, her ropes had made a massive difference, ‘not to mention my sarong!’ They must be very high levelled like my own [Spirit Totem] spell.
After my mana had recovered I channelled another long lasting [Spirits Masked Totem] popping it into the last recess on the wall, finally feeling more secure after our long escape.
Our base as well built as I could imagine, and I just wanted a meerkat like [Sentry Ward Totem] near the entrance. I sat in one of the chairs and opened my Codex, we had been in a number of skirmishes by now and I wanted to see my Cassa gain.
Name: Crass
Class: None
Cassa: 1695
Level: 1
Attributes:
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Vitality: 4
Attunement: 4
Presence: 4
Spirit: 6
Luck: 1
Traits:
[Spiritual Self] – your Vitality is growing with your Spirit every 2 Spirit gives 1 Vitality
[Spiritual Connection] – your Attunement is rooted more deeply to your Spirit every 2 Spirit gives 1 Attunement.
[Spiritual Shadow] – Your Presence grows with your Spirit in addition to your Presence. Every 1 Spirit adds 2 Presence.
[Ethereal Heart] – Gain 5 Spirit per level. Increases your affinity for the Ethereal Sea.
Spells:
[Spirit Totem]
[Find Familiar]
[Cure Wounds]
Skills:
[Spiritualism]
[Carving]
[Survival]
Soul-bound:
[Ancestor Spirits Embrace] – Necklace created with [Spirit Totem] sub spell.
Accolades:
[Delegati of Terra] – You have passed through the Eligere and become chosen to Struggle. You are an exemplary member of your species, you understand all human languages.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I turned the page in shock, looking for the page called combat encounters, it would give a simplified break down of an encounter. And an estimate of the danger.
Combat Encounter:
Secta members: Large Group (10)
Enemies: Hunting Party (08)
Cassa: 550 (55 each)
Multiplier: x2
Adjusted Cassa: 1100 (110 each)
Estimated danger rating: Deadly.
The Cassa was one thing the danger rating was of more interest to me. This was for the moment we arrived in Potestas, Deadly right out the gates, 110 Cassa each not unexpected. The times two multiplier from Deadly however… that was seconds after we arrived in this place, we needed to gain strength and fast.
Combat Encounter:
Secta members: Large Group (07)
Enemies: War Band (17)
Cassa: 3700 (528 each)
Multiplier: x3
Adjusted Cassa: 11100 (1585 each)
Estimated danger rating: Extremely Deadly.
What the fuck… how had we lived?
I had only seen an Extremely Deadly once before, a lindwyrm had tunnelled underneath me, bursting out of the ground with my leg in its jaws. It was twice as big as a train and it could call lighting bolts from the sky, I didn’t even defeat it... I fled.
1585 CS split between the group was insane as well, I would have been happy if it had been 800.
I coughed. “Oi…” I weakly turned my Codex around to whoever I could.
Paula was closest working on improving her improvised shield quietly. She dropped it in shock, “Extremely Deadly…” Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“Don’t get it...” It changed everything I knew about the Lizardmen. A danger estimate that high meant that with the seven of us ambushing, with traps laid out, perfectly drawing the warriors into Indaya’s line of fire, we were still in extreme danger.
We were for the most part, still at level one… we all should have died, end of story. ‘The hunter and the captain like warrior must have been much higher level than the rest of the Lizardmen.’
maybe that was it, the discrepancy in our levels… it skewed the maths in the Lizardmen’s favour.
“We are low level. But we are not helpless.” Keisuke held out his blade, “We have soul-bound items, spells and traits.”
“Not to mention our tactics.” added Oleksiy, he was inspecting his own Codex.
It was a good point. We had accurately predicted the Lizardmen’s movements, knowing they would move for us during the day. We had angered them with psychological warfare, led them into a trap.
Elina had drawn them out into an enfilade for Indaya to pick them off with ease. Jack had burned them, and given us a smokescreen to retreat. I had covered the retreat erasing our tracks and helping us stick to the shadows.
But still the captain must be at level ten, Indaya must have only knocked him down… no way he died. I looked to Indaya.
“Did… He die… The big one?”
He shook his head wry smile on his lips, “No, I saw him raise his club and block it, [Shadowed Strike], [Silent Hunter], [Bow Shock] and [Full Draw].”
He looked at his bow as if it had betrayed him, smiling sadly. “He blocked it... He is at least level fifteen.”
I was even more impressed, to block an arrow with [Shadowed Strike] was beyond difficult, but it was a knife skill…
“[Shadowed Strike]?” I was confused, I didn’t know you could use it with anything other than a blade.
“If you level it enough…” Was the deceptively simple answer. He had struck from the dark a lot in his trial, levelling the skill to the point he could use it with other weapons.
[Bow Shock] strengthened the limbs of the bow. Making the arrow fly with a shock of pure power, increasing penetration.
[Full Draw] doubled the draw weight of the bow, massively increasing the flight speed of the arrow.
[Silent Hunter] sounded like a trait rather than a skill. Maybe it boosted his stealth, I never did hear his bow loosing arrows. I was beginning to think the huge Lizardman was pushing level twenty, it was a quartet of synergistic skills.
We needed to level up and get properly armed, I had spent a lot of time preparing myself to be a support in the Eligere. I had the technical skills, I just needed materials.
“Need armour...Weapons...Classes...He will come for us…” I said, planning how to spend my Cassa. I could buy so much with the unexpected windfall but I had to choose wisely.
The others mumbled agreements, moving off to their tasks.
I felt like it was a personal thing choosing how to improve yourself. I never appreciated how amazing it was, to write some numbers in a book and suddenly become something better. Choosing exactly how you wished to develop.
It was humbling in a way, the Codex controlled your growth in a fundamental way. I feared what would happen to humanity as the power became more and more available, I feared Kraas’vub’s warnings.
As I thought about how to spend my Cassa, I noticed my mana feeling full. I trotted off to the end of the entrance and tucked a [Sentry Ward Totem] out of sight. I wanted some early warning of anything trying to sneak up on us.
I returned to lunch, grilled catfish. It was surprisingly good, Delia had rubbed it in some ginger like roots she had found on the banks of the river and it had a sharp tangy flavour.
Tobias emerged and hearing the conversations around the table about our Cassa gains.
“Jack will advance to level five and take the spell [Wall of Fire], we can use it as a defensive option.” Jack shot up, her eyes flaming with affront... 'Or just actually flaming...'
However, I grabbed her shoulder. Pre-empting her outburst, I wanted to see what the imperious man had to say.
Ignoring Jack he continued “Paula will purchase a set of [Half Plate] for 550 CS from the auction, she will be our front-line.”
I shook my head.
Buying a set of half plate from the auction would empty her points, she probably only had 600 total.
She had not been present while springing the ambush and would have only gotten a nominal amount for helping set it up. Not to mention the quality of the cheap armour could not be guaranteed, nor had Tobias accounted for the location we were in. Half plate would be hot and weigh her down, it would be loud in the undergrowth. It was an objectively bad idea for Paula.
It would cripple her out the gates, forcing her to be full reliant on the group for other things.
“Excuse me?” Paula’s voice was whisper soft, but the undercurrent of danger made it seem like she had roared in my face.
“You need armour, you are the tank after all.” Tobias didn’t seem to notice her imminent anger, or more likely didn’t care. He was showing himself to be entitled, maybe he thought his ability to make hideouts was too indispensable. ‘He shouldn’t dare to dictate peoples choices like this...’
It was some kind of twisted power-play, he was making a line in the sand. Next would be threats to kick us out of the shelter if we didn't spend our Cassa as he chose.
Disgusting.
I slowly stood before Paula could respond, putting my hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m grabbing shoulders left and right today.’ I reached into myself with [Spiritualism] and touched my own heart with a tendril of thought. It was only through my years of practice that I could do this... I felt I needed to set the tone.
“Tobias Dahm… You will not speak of this again…” My eyes glowed brighter than ever and my voice came out warped and distorted, as if many people spoke through my mouth at once. Under cutting my voice was a droning hum in the background, like a group of overtone singers were giving me an accompaniment. A feeling of gravitas spread through the stone space.
I breathed deep to speak again.
My mana instantly bottomed out...
‘Bugger I need more Spirit…’
All eyes were fixed on me in pregnant silence, watching me intently.
For a brief moment I had called through my trait [Ethereal Heart] with my high level [Spiritualism] skill.
It was something that existed outside of my Codex, a skill that wouldn't appear on the page describing my life and powers. it was a skill I had learnt for myself, not bought but earned.
I had tried to speak with the voice of the Sea itself, opening my heart to the fallen spirits of my species... But my frail level one Spirit was not enough, the vessel of my body too weak to sustain such a journey yet.
A full minute passed as I stood silently in front of the staring group. ‘How embarrassing...’
“The choice is your own…” I looked at Jack for a long moment, then at Paula.
These people were the best of humanity, character flaws aside. They knew how to spend their own Cassa.
“Do not overstep…” I warned Tobias softly, it wouldn't do to create a rift in the group. His transparent attempt to establish himself as our leader was pathetic. It showed him to be a true danger to our continued survival, in a way it was scarier than the Lizardmen.
“Crass-sama speaks true, Tobias it is not your decision to change Jack-san or Paula-san’s build path.” Keisuke stood grabbing the eyes of the group, he bowed respectfully.
“We should know each others strengths and weaknesses, and only give advice in good faith.”
Once again it was if someone had read my mind, advice and support were the correct way. The skill trees we had available were varied and discussing synergies between us would be vital, but to force a certain path for greed was too far.
“Y-yes… of course, I misspoke.” Tobias managed to stammer out, his eyes were darting around. Trying to re-evaluate the rapidly shifting power structures of the small group. I could feel it in his wake, the spirits were basically screaming it to me.
“Tobias… You are not the leader… Keisuke is not the leader… I am not the leader…” I paused to drink deeply from a bamboo cup. My voice was raw from speaking, still rusty after all these years. 'A broken thing like me leading... No way.'
“We are a Secta… All are equal…” Even the Codex said so, specifically naming us as a group. It was folly to divide ourselves with power struggles and political games.
“B-but…” he stammered, my brief connection to the Ethereal Sea had shaken him.
“Read.” I couldn’t continue the argument, I pulled my Codex up and wrote my thoughts on the matter.
[ In the Eligere I stumbled aimlessly at first, I was trapped on a high mesa thousands of meters above a wide steppe.
There was no escape.
No where to climb down.
No water but the moisture I could lick from the rocks.
In the middle of the mesa was a temple like building, when I approached it I felt a chilling cold pass through me and my hand froze solid, I nearly lost it from frostbite.
I ran.
I looked through the skill list for hours.
Finally finding [Spiritualism] I thought it would help me see the ghosts in the temple.
With [Spiritualism] I could sense the dangerous wisps and avoid them. Even making torches from the low hardy bushes growing on the mesa, to disperse them with fire. This is how I grew my [Spiritualism] skill and when I reached the middle of the temple after many weeks, starving and alone... I felt a presence.
The presence did not harm me like I expected, but guided me to a hidden staircase.
Freeing me from my prison in the sky.
Over the years the presence guided me through the Eligere and eventually I levelled [Spiritualism] high enough to speak and see the presence.
It was a Goblin shaman, he was a Delegati once. Long ago.
Kraas’vub trained me, we became close.
After what must have been decades of struggle he told me the tale of the Goblin tribes.
We cannot splinter our unity Tobias.
We cannot give in to selfish greed.
We cannot fail.
We must not fail. ]
There... I had said what needed to be said.
Tobias and the others read slowly. Tobias’ eyes were hooded and unreadable.
“What happened to the Goblins?” he finally asked his voice no longer shaking.
He asked the question the entire group wanted to know.
“They fell…” No doubt they had all faced Goblins before, they littered Potestas and the Eligere… Feral creatures… Depraved cannibals… they revelled in sadistic delights, bathing in the blood of friend and foe alike…
“Infighting…” It was an over simplification, but it got the idea across.
“Goblins were a people once?” Elina asked me, her voice quivering with dread, strong hands shaking.
“Lizardmen too…” I replied, not pulling any punches.
“They Fell...” I emphasised, as in out of Potestas. Out of the race.
“Oh shit.” Oleksiy whispered quietly, tears in his eyes. The implication was now obvious.
Delia was openly weeping.
Indaya’s ever present smile faded away like ice melting in the hot sun.
Keisuke’s calm nearly slipped, before he visibly gathered himself.
Jack was huddled small her back to the wall, eyes looking for an escape route.
Abu looked like he wanted to scream, but knew no one would hear him.
I grabbed Tobias hard, an arm on each shoulder. I forced myself to make direct eye contact with him for the first time.
“THEY FELL!” I screamed in his face, covering him with spit… My eyes wide… Desperate to convey how bad it could be.
Silence fell around the cave, and I stepped away from Tobias.
I looked around slowly, I hope I didn’t break their resolve.
Paula was quiet her eyes were clear, she had already known.
“Humans will become a part of Potestas if we don’t rise up. We will be the new monsters the next group has to face.” She capped off my point beautifully, how she had known was a mystery.
But she was correct, the truth Kraas’vub had told me long ago.
“Crass is right, we cant fall to internal forces. We must be united.” her quiet voice was iron, her resolve was even tangible in the Ethereal Sea like a pillar of steel.
“No bullshit politics, no demands for Cassa, no backstabbing.” She rose to her full height towering over the sitting group.
“We will not fail.”