Progress had stalled.
While Corminar and Lore had been fairly straightforward to locate, the other two members of the Hero Slayers, Tokas and Arzak, had proven significantly more difficult. It had been a week and a half since we’d retrieved Lore, and only now did we finally have a line on one of them; one of Corminar’s contacts placed Tokas in the large fishing town of Aptleed.
Aptleed was a town I knew well. I’d spent much coin as a teenager getting drunk in the taverns contained within the high stone walls left over from an age long forgotten, and I hadn’t much missed the intense stench of fish that plagued every corner of the town. I almost found myself excited to return, even if that might involve running into lovers past.
As we began our last day of travel towards Aptleed, I looked back on the progress I’d made levelling up my skills—particular Worldbending, which I’d been focussing on. Messing about with portals over the past week and a half had got me up from level 5 to level 7. This was even despite the fact that “messing around” hardly yielded much in the way of experience points, though this was counteracted by the Legacy of Sispyhus effect massively upweighting my xp gain, admittedly.
Active Effect: Legacy of Sisyphus
Days remaining: 968 / 1,000
XP gain increased by +400%
Already I’d made significant headway towards rebuilding myself up to a sufficient level—being up to level 7, now—and I was only a little over 3 percent through the effect’s active period. I couldn’t help but wonder just how strong I’d be by the end of it, assuming I lived that long, and that the Player didn’t track me down and kill me long before then.
The thought sobered me, bringing me back to reality and the coastal road on the edge of the Iron Sea. The water lapped gently at the shore in the distance, a man on a small fishing vessel wrestling with a cumbersome net, though my eyes were torn away from it by the sight of shapes emerging from the treeline ahead of us.
At the front of our pack, Lore came to a sudden halt, his eyes on the men and women on the road ahead of us. My own eyes lingered particularly on their long, thin blades.
There was a moment of pause, before Lore roared, ‘Bandits!’ and then all eight of us—bandits included—leaped into action.
If I’d managed to keep track of the fight last time around, it was because there had been only four of us: myself, Val, Corminar, and Lambkin. Now that the number of combatants had grown to eight, it was all I could do to focus on myself, and not getting killed. Corminar and Lore seemed to focus on the two bandits on the right—though how they were handling them, I didn’t know—and left the two on the left for Val and me.
Of course, Val knew that I wasn’t quite up to handling myself just yet, and she cast a quick nervous glance in my direction. ‘Stay down,’ she said.
‘I can handle my…’ I started, before trailing off when I realised both that Val had already leapt away into battle and that I, in fact, could not handle myself. I stayed down, just as suggested, and watched as Val whipped up a storm of dust and vines—her go-to moves. For a moment, I thought I wouldn’t even be needed, as Val seemed to be managing to hold off the both of the bandits on the left but then I heard a cry.
On the right, Corminar fell to the ground. Not bleeding, as I first thought, just unconscious. But this left our party down to two against four—a difficult challenge even for high-level individuals, which they were not, particularly. I was going to need to get involved after all.
My initial instinct was to charge forward, knife drawn—still the Ranger’s Blade, notably; I was not yet high enough in Knifework to get my old favourite out—and so that’s exactly what I did. I was a man of instinct, after all.
As I charged at the nearest bandit, growling, they turned toward me with wide eyes; apparently they’d already identified my class and level, and thought me no threat. That I was now charging at them, then, was… astounding.
Level 18 Bandit
Race: Human
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, I realised.
But it was too late; my blade had momentum, and I leaned into it, stabbing the bandit through his thick leather armour. The attack was well clear of any vital organs—unless we humans had a vital organ in our shoulder—yet it plunged deep enough to cause the man to grunt, and stagger backwards.
The bandit stared, eyes wide, at the knife sticking into his shoulder as I reached forward and wrenched it back out again. After all, it was the only decent knife I could actually equip; I wasn’t keen to lose it so quickly.
‘You get him?’ Val called out to me, her voice slightly strained as she tried to deal with one of the other attackers.
‘I… think so?’ I replied, not quite believing it myself, just as the bandit pulled a hand to his wound and a gentle yellow-white light glowed into existence.
Uh oh. Healing magicks.
Being the strong and capable man I was, I turned and began to run away. After all, what chance did I, a level 7, have against a level 18? It was a microcosm of a wider question: just what in the hells made me think I might be able to help take down a Player? But I put that other question aside for now, and concentrated on my fleeing.
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‘Styk…’ Val cried out, irritably, as I charged over uneven, mossy ground, towards the… sea.
I came to an abrupt halt at the water’s edge; I hadn’t quite considered what the plan of action was beyond running away. Behind me, loud—angry-sounding, if that was possible—footsteps grew nearer. I needed to think, and fast. By what means could someone of my level hope to come out of this alive?
The enemy grew closer and closer with every second that passed, and that did nothing for the growing panic taking root in my stomach. On a whim, almost, I reached inward for my local portal ability, meaning to buy myself some time, when suddenly an idea occurred to me that I could only label as… genius.
I turned my head for the sea. Local Portal II said “another location within range of sight or within ten yard radius”, and ten yards was not going to cut it. One hand stretched forward, reaching for the deepest, furthest part of the Iron Sea that was in sight, while the other reached for just in front of the approaching bandit. With clenched teeth and tight, apprehensive shoulders, I… opened the portal.
The contents of the Iron Sea plummeted out of the open portal into the bandit’s face with an intensity I hadn’t quite been prepared for. So shocked was I by the man flying through the air, propelled by a blast of water with enough volume to sate a whole town for a year, that I forgot for a moment to close the portal again. By the time I finally stopped using the power, my mana reserves were already approaching halfway empty, and that was with having invested a few more points in Intelligence over the past few days.
As water washed over my shoes—these shoes were not waterproof, I realised—I looked at the bandit I’d aggressively bathed.
Level 18 bandit defeated!
Worldbending — +1,000xp
Worldbending increased to level 9!
Base Points gained — +2 INT, +2 Free Points (INT/WIS/CHA)
Defeated? Defeated was good, and far more than I’d hoped for. I passed the man on the rocky shore, glancing at his back for signs of life, and found myself strangely relieved when I noticed his shoulders moving up and down, ever so slightly. I shook my head; this was no time to be wrestling with questions of morality—Val and Lore were still fighting off the other three bandits, and they were going to need some help.
With renewed confidence, I charged back into the woods, making sure to keep the Iron Sea well within sight, and prepared myself to launch my newly invented water spell—well, kind of—at the bandits. But because I’d drained my mana reserves a good some already, I realised I was going to need to wait; I only had one or two more shots at this.
Ahead of me, Lore roared with a rage I didn’t know he was capable of as he swung his heavy, two-handed blade with ease enough to make it look as light as my ranger’s blade. It was enough to repel two of the bandits’ attacks, but he was doing little more than holding them off, and surely his stamina reserves would exhaust eventually…
Val, on the other hand, was up to much the same as I’d grown used from her—a combination of her wind-based and vine-based spells. That she was in a woodland gave her an advantage of sorts, and it seemed it was only a matter of time before she triumphed against her foe.
So, I concentrated on Lore’s two attackers.
‘Lore!’ I cried out.
The hulking barbarian class—I thought that class label was slightly unfair, knowing him somewhat now—didn’t respond, all his attention fixed on fending off the attacks.
‘I can see you’re busy, Lore,’ I continued, ‘so don’t worry about replying to me.’
‘He wasn’t worried about that,’ Val called back to me.
‘Thanks, Val. Lore? Could you… could you…’ I searched for the word. ‘Duck?’
The sword-wielding shepherd, thrown by this request, faltered on his sword swing, and looked at me with both eyebrows raised. Fortunately, he ducked just in time for one of the bandit’s swords to pass safely over him; my request hadn’t just cost him his life.
I seized the advantage, opening a portal just over my fellow party member and another in the depths of the Iron Sea. Again, water shot out of my portal at a rate of knots, sending the closer bandit flying across the woodlands, and pushing the other, staggering, to the floor. Having learned my lesson, I closed this portal quickly, leaving a quarter or so of my mana left.
Level 16 bandit defeated!
Worldbending — +200xp
Lore looked at me with wide, excited eyes. ‘Woah! Where’d you learn that?’ he said.
I responded by nodding towards the bandit who was still conscious.
‘Oh, right, yeah,’ he replied, then hurried off to bash her in the head with the butt of his sword.
Level 18 bandit defeated!
With only one bandit left, we had the advantage. And I, a level 7 bladespinner—well, novice bladespinner—had been the one to turn the tide. It was nice to feel useful. I raised my hands towards sea and bandit, readying myself to launch another wave over the last remaining enemy.
‘Save your mana,’ Lore said. ‘We got this.’
Val glimpsed the hulking barbarian coming out of the corner of her eye, and dove to the side to make the bandit turn, shielding lore from his sight. As she pressed on with dust clouds and whipping vines, a great shadow grew over the enemy as Lore stood over them.
The bandit finally noticed his approach, and turned to face him, gulping, raising his blade in shaking hands.
‘Don’t you even think about it, fella,’ Lore said, and didn’t even need to swing his sword.
Level 19 bandit defeated!
Worldbending — +400xp
"Styk"
Level 7 Novice Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 10
Intelligence — 37
Dexterity — 15
Strength — 27
Wisdom — 15
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Knifework — Level 12
Worldbending — Level 9
Identification — Level 6
Stealth — Level 2
Abilities:
Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Stab — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR].
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Basic Stealth Attack — Passive. 10% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Basic Identification — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +400%