Chapter 9
Goblin Wards, Lightning, and Elfess Stroll and Leaf Attacks!
Raythiel and Star stared at Manuel, the summoner's angel. Zip reacted by grabbing the goblin and chucking her out one of the windows. Then she pushed Raythiel as hard as she could towards the front of the wagon. She wasn't sure what a magic surge was, but Zip was pretty sure she didn't want to find out right now. There was a splat as the half naked goblin girl fell into a mud puddle outside the wagon, in view of Tira and the rest of the caravan, who were listening to her warn them about goblins invading. Tira's speech to frighten the young elves, Manuel's shouts of warning, and a goblin flying out of a window, along with a nicely timed flash of lightning, briefly illuminated an airborne goblin. There was also a dramatic roll of thunder a moment later, which had some predictable results.
"The goblins are flying in and attacking!" "Lightning bolt attack!" cried random people in the gathering. Everyone, including Tira, ran for cover.
Raythiel, who is normally very athletic, stumbled into Manuel's arms from the push. The angel grabbed her and flew away from the campsite. There were more cries of flying goblins, and several rocks, pans, bowls, and other objects hit Manuel as the young elves tried to defend themselves with whatever was at hand. Manuel landed on a nearby roof and told Raythiel to cast a spell to calm the magic down. She didn't really understand, but she cast a healing spell to counter the friendly fire hits the angel had taken.
"What is a power surge?" said Raythiel.
"The goblin cast magical wards against you with everything she had," said Manuel. "You were partially inside her ward's range. Wards can't activate in that condition. If the ward situation does not resolve quickly, by the ward being able to activate because someone moves, for example, the magic doesn't have anything to do. Magic is unstable in that condition, and the magic will be active without any sort of control. We call that a wild surge; it can be really dangerous."
"Why did you just tell me to move?" complained Raythiel.
Manuel replied, "Because the others were not really in danger; you are first level, and no offense, but it is like a gentle touch might kill you. I was sort of afraid I would squish you by grabbing you."
"Ok, I know I am fragile, but I have more hit points than Allie!" complained Raythiel.
"You have fifty percent more!" said Manuel. "Three instead of two! Like I said, I could accidentally squeeze you too hard and kill you. That surge most likely wouldn't have killed Zip or Star, but it could have killed you instantly. Do you see the problem?"
"How did you know to rescue me?" said Raythiel, trying to change the subject.
"I was told to fly around with my ability, magic sight up, and as a result, I saw the surge and flew down to try to get you to go beyond her wards. Throwing her out of the window was ok, but more distance is better with your class being the same and all, so the range can be larger. Plus, the process had already started," replied Manuel.
"It looks like they have calmed down; let's get you out of the rain before you die from a sneeze or something," said Manuel.
"I wouldn't die from a sneeze; it would take at least three!" joked Raythiel.
Raythiel wrapped her arms around the angel instead of vice versa so she would not die accidentally, and Manuel flew her back to her wagon.
Meanwhile, Zip, since she felt responsible for throwing the prisoner out a window, pulled her wet rain gear back on to go retrieve the goblin. Zip told Star, "You try to calm everyone down, Star. That angel scared the Woodling out of me; I'm sure they need to be reassured as well. Actually, tell me that first."
Star gave her best comforting "Yoshi, yoshi" and a head pat to Zip, sighed, and put her wet gear on as well. She hurriedly put it on, and the water soaked her shirt; it was also difficult to breathe due to the moisture in the air; and the thunder didn't help her nerves, and she wondered who would soothe her?
While that was happening, the young elves were in shambles. Wet, and in a state of panic. Several were going to have to be tracked down, so Tira sent Raire to go do just that. Phenaquar ran to where he had seen the goblin. "What do we have here?" Phenaquar asked, surprised to see a bound, wounded but stitched-up half-naked female goblin lying in the mud. "Huh," he said out loud. Phenaquar stared at the goblin girl with twilight vision, and the goblin stared daggers at him with infravision. Another goblin girl—no, the woodling stepped out of the wagon.
"Sorry for the commotion, I just need to grab my goblin back," said Zip.
"Why is she naked?" said Phenaquar to Zip.
"Apparently, that is above my paygrade, you would have to ask my mistress that," said Zip solemnly. Zip grabbed the muddy wounded goblin and walked back into the wagon; there was an "eek," and then Star helped Zip into the wagon and exited the wagon into the night.
"Star! "I have a question for you," said the knight.
"Yes, well, I forgot, ok?" Star wondered how her night was going to get worse from here. In response, when she closed the wagon door, a large stream of water caught between the door and the roof of the wagon, hit her in the eyes. The stream of water entered her hood, soaking her magically regrown hair that had so far escaped the rain, but no longer. Her hair fizzled, and electrical-like magical sparks caused her to scream in agony as the running water shorted out Tira's magic spell, which was growing it.
"I had to ask, didn't I?" Star addressed the universe.
"How do you get the system to recognize that you are remorseful?" asked Star of Phenaquar.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
"Maybe you are just unlucky," said Phenaquar.
"Is that a stat, and where is it listed?" said Star, pursuing her status sheet.
"I think it affects skills, attacks, and defense. But it would only show up if you were under a lucky or unlucky effect, Star," said Phenaquar. "Well, given your name, I suppose it's possible."
"Star!" came Zips' voice from inside the wagon. "Maybe go ahead and calm down the others first?"
Star cleared her throat and, using her diplomacy skill, tried to calm everyone down, but her heart wasn't in it.
The next morning, it was still raining. The heroes decided it wasn't wise to continue in this downpour, so Tira had an extra day to get the goblin's story out of her. Raire and Phenaquar pulled shopping duty, while the summoner and Tira kept a watch on their charges, and Syran and Alliasaz, being ahead of schedule due to Allie defeating bugs and Syran using his natural star elf "abilities" to win an encounter with a level six dryad, leveled up the next day after harvesting chickens for lunch and dinner preparation.
Raythiel and the crafter, a boy named Ambrose, were told they were going next. Ambrose turned out to be a willowy boy with light brown hair and honey-colored eyes. Raythiel found him to be incredibly shy, and it was going to be a struggle to get him to kill chickens to level up. The caravan needed his intelligence crafting skills, so Tira told her to find a way to help him out for the week or so it would take to level him up. He had to choose to take the experience points after all.
"I need you to help me with Ambrose, Star," said Raythiel. "Maybe you can do my job for me and convince him that leveling up is something he would like to do?"
"Well, you did confess what was troubling you; I suppose I can try to help you out," said Star.
"Great! what do we do first?" said Raythiel.
Star started talking while thinking about Ambrose. "Well, all we really have is sex appeal and diplomacy, and since he is really shy, I bet he would like girls taking him on a date instead of trying to work up the courage to ask someone out."
Star smacked her palm with a fist. "A pity date, great idea!" nodded Raythiel enthusiastically. "I'll go set up a reservation at this house that doubles as an eatery. It's far superior to Lost Souls. Seriously, Star, I can't believe you went to that rat hole. You go ask him out for us because you don't have any self awareness. Put on that fancy robe you wore to the ceremony. I have a nice Wood elfess outfit that between the two of us should get him to agree to everything."
"I am not sure what you are talking about exactly, but I will put on my robes and ask him out for us," said Star. "I wonder if I have to ask Phenaquar if he can go out, being so fragile and all."
"Please don't talk about being fragile to me right now, Star. Manuel was afraid he would crush me accidentally," said Star.
"Oh, do you like Manuel now that he saved you?" asked Star.
"He is pretty with wings, and I am a monster; of course I like him," replied Raythiel. "Good motivation for me to level up, I guess, not that I needed it."
Star had Zip help her doll up as her mother liked to say, which made her homesick for moment, and had Tira cast a new spell on her shorted out hair. It was at the stage where it wanted to stand up straight instead of coil and fall into place like she was used to, so maybe the rain was a blessing. Maybe that dryad didn't make such a bad deal after all! By this time, Raythiel was back and said everything was set; she would get ready while I asked Ambrose out.
Some of the effect I was going for was ruined by the rain. Putting on my defective rain gear, I used my courtier stroll walking like I had been taught, and it was reinforced by my most versatile performance skill. I strolled the length of the caravan campgrounds to the second boys' wagon, getting some stares despite the rain gear. I didn't have to knock on the door because the boys had been watching me already. When I asked Ambrose to go on a date with me and Raythiel, I became afraid for Ambrose. The other boys looked mad for some reason. Ambrose didn't say anything, but his ears turned red. In the end, I had to grab his hand and take him away, with threats to his life and questions like, "Why can't I be a craftsman?" and the like echoing through his wagon from the other boys.
Raythiel dolled up pretty nicely as well; in her case, her outfit would be better in the rain, as there was a lot less of it than my fancy robes, plus it was waterproof. It was made out of fancy alchemically treated leaves, and I thought it made her look like a flesh fall dryad with all the scarlet hair and pretty colorful fall leaves. Well, not that there were that many leaves. We each took a hand so he wouldn't run away and led him to dinner. I used my massage performance skill on his hand, while Raythiel just walked closely to him; both seemed super effective on his ears. The villagers seemed to like it as well, as we got lots of nice comments and whistles. One unfortunate person fell in the mud though.
The house had a fairly large dining room. It was much nicer than the Lost Souls. It was themed in red, and I guess it was a date spot. Instead of using all the space, I decided to set Ambrose in the middle between Raythiel and myself on one side of the table. We were served by an older hero and commoner husband and wife. The menu had both heroic and common meals. Star swapped out Ambrose for Twixia in the party, and we all ordered the noble food. This made the couple happy, and we were waited on by the elfess as the hero did the cooking. Star excused herself for a bit to help cook a little so that Ambrose and I could eat the noble meal.
Raythiel looked over at Ambrose and saw that he didn't know what to do with his hands or his eyes. "So, Ambrose, I haven't seen much of you; do they wrap you in soft cloaks for the journey so nothing happens to you?"
"Well, I, um," he looked over to her and then quickly turned away at a loss for words. The Wood elf leaf dress was working fine, it seemed.
"What kind of stuff are they making you build? Does it have anything to do with wood?" asked the Wood elfess.
"No! I don't have wood," mumbled Ambrose unconvincingly.
The waitress had to hold back a laugh.
"Do you think Star will get back soon?" asked Ambrose, while fidgeting and barely being able to not drop his glass of ale, which he needed refilled a lot.
"Star loses time when she is cooking, as she is used to cooking for over twenty people," replied Raythiel. Geesh, this boy is shy; she had better back off a bit. She let him off the hook to talk about how he repaired a wagon wheel that had become damaged. He complained about not having enough tools and such, which calmed him down some until the hero and star showed up with the food.
"Welcome back, Star," said Ambrose, happy that the less forward girl had shown up. His relief was short-lived, however, as she sat closer to him than was necessary, and he eventually noticed it was the princess who smelled like strawberries, a favorite of his.
"I like your perfume," said Ambrose.
"I just smell like that all the time now," said Star, blushing and smiling.
Ambrose was defenseless against this attack, and the girls used it to grab a hand each.
Star and I could tell how well things worked by carefully watching how twitchy and red his ears were. So we held hands with him so he couldn't feed himself and took turns feeding him noble, well-cooked beef dishes, as that seemed to work the best. We appealed to him by talking about the benefits of leveling up. After all, that worked on me, and we needed his skills. We wanted him to teach us alchemy, as that sounded really powerful. Also, he could sponge off parties for ten years at the academy. They will let him since he can make items like weapons and armor for a lot less than the hero versions. After all, the higher his level, the better the gear he could make for them and the higher the profits. Maybe he could even find a human girl? There were rumors going around that some of them even put Alliasaz to shame. The double attack was super effective, and Ambrose swore he would kill chickens and level up for us! The motivational pity date was a great success! Another victory for Star's performance and diplomacy skills, as well as her scent.