Denny reached the original hill without incident. “It’s about time you came back. Where are the other two? Did something happen?” Kamila started talking before he even had a chance to see her. Glancing at the clock in the periphery of his LO he saw that the trip took over two hours.
Denny walked to within range and selected her for his periodic updates ability. “Let me set the refresh on this ability.”
“Wha- oh, good.”
As she perused his map Denny explained himself, “We heard water and wanted to check out the area before reporting back. It took longer to get to than expected. I came back as soon as I could. The water source isn’t great, but it’s something. Mitch and Alex decided to stay back and secure the hill while I came here to get everyone.”
Kamila nodded, “You chose well.” She stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder, “honestly, I worried, a bit when your part of the squad was gone so long. Mostly because you weren’t with us for explorer training. Still, you did well, water will be key for us. I had hoped the other squads, Umbra 2 and Martial 3, would have joined us by now. You didn’t find any stone deposits, did you?” Her head tilted slightly, her long loose hair tilting with it.
Denny took a step back and rubbed his neck, “Ah, no, no we didn’t find any stone deposits, unfortunately. Nor did we see any sign of the other two squads”
Kamila furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Denny for a second, “Ok, I’m going to get Alayna and Sophia then. We’re going to head to the new location while you continue exploring wait here for a minute.”
Denny took the moment to pull up his character sheet.
Name: Dennis Powell
Affinity: Psychic Attunement: 3 Specialty: Explorer
Abilities: 6 Ability Points: 3
3 more AP earned just from exploring to the creek and back. No one knew exactly what earned AP and it seemed to slow as you developed your character in each playground. Fortunately, the slowdown of progression did not get linked from playground to playground. Also, the higher your attunement the quicker you seemed to develop. Denny guessed that the creek probably gave him at least 1 of those AP. Maybe sharing his map gave him another, he’d have to pay more attention in the future. The three women approached.
Kamila led them and spoke as they neared, “We don’t have enough bags yet, but Sophia made something that should help you.”
“You look like you could use one of these,” Sophia said as she handed Denny a belt with no latch. The belt was made with some type of fur and was just a straight piece with three slots for the end to go through. He put it on and tightened it up to his waist.
“This’ll help, thank you, Sophia” Denny said, looking up at her. She held several items in her small, pale hands. Those hands matched her, shorter than anyone in the group, Sofia was young, with a light complexion, tawny hair, blue eyes, and freckles.
She grinned at him, “It’s no problem. Kamila set out a few traps and I was able to make three belts and two bags so far. Ally has been appraising the quality of the fur we’ve gathered so far. I’ve held off on using the best pieces until I can select better abilities, so there will be more, hopefully by the time we meet back up. Really, we were hoping that the other squads would be near enough that I wouldn’t need to take any building abilities. I’ve saved some points but may need to build soon.”
Kamila watched the exchange her focused gaze a little disconcerting for Denny. “The water will be an excellent landmark if the other two squads are nearby, which they should be. Find a different point on the creek and go down stream to see if you can find any sign of Umbra 2 or Martial 3. Remember, we’re logging off by 2:00 and meeting back at the warehouse in virtual earth. So, you don’t have much time. Good luck.”
“Good luck ladies,” Denny responded.
Ally touched his arm as she walked past him, “Be careful, and grab a sample or two if you see something new, Dennis.”
Sophia kept smiling, “Good luck, enjoy the belt.”
Dennis took off alone on his own path. Explorers often went alone into the great expanse. Then he remembered something, “Kamila,” he shouted at her retreating back, “I have a 12-hour reset on another share map skill. Should I share it with Sophie or Ally?”
“No,” She shouted back in return still walking away, “save it for if you find some of our allies.”
Finding someone this early could be a big if. Finding an ally an even larger if. Still, there should be 5 other ally groups around. Even though he had a way to hold it, he decided to leave his dowsing rod and sample sack in his inventory for now. He needed speed if he wanted to find the others. He walked diagonal away from their new hill, but still towards where the river should be flowing.
He saw small squirrels, birds, insects, chipmunks, nothing big, nothing dangerous. At one point he noticed a flock of birds fly away directly ahead of him. He heard the water running before too long and picked up his pace. As the water grew near, he realized that it was a much larger stream that the one he was trying to find. It began to drown out the sounds of the animals around him. He worried a bit, but continued, until he heard a massive roar ahead of him.
Denny froze for half a second. He wasn’t proud of that half second, but he still froze. He knew that he needed to move forward. It could be a creature roaring at an ally. His pace slowed for caution. After the second roar though, Denny decided that the creature must be paying enough attention to something else that he could probably move more quickly.
With the hills and valleys, he decided it must be on the other side of the hill he currently walked around. He hiked up to the top and looked down. He saw the giant badger facing down a tree, the rock that flew out of it let him know the creature had cornered a human. A flash of baby blue convinced him that it was probably an ally.
Denny couldn’t face a badger like that. Alex’s job was to deal with them. Denny took a deep breath and reviewed what he knew. After another rock flew and another roar sounded Denny built up his nerve and grabbed a few sticks off the ground. Then he began pelting them at the badger, “Come on you dirty badger. You momma was a turtle and your father a mouse. You couldn’t catch me – “At that point Denny cut off because the badger not only turned to him but picked up speed fast.
Denny used his walking stick to the max of its abilities and ran all out towards the water. He just about kept his entire lead by the time he made it to the water. He jumped, as best he could, and barely made it. The stream widened out here considerably, much to his good fortune. The badger came after him but slowed down as it neared the river. Badgers, like most mammals don’t like to swim. Denny knew that the stream, or river really, sounded near and sounded louder than the little creek they found before. This badger, while sizeable, wouldn’t be able to jump the stream and would probably let him go. His 10% speed boost didn’t hurt either. He just had to hope that whoever was in that tree would take this opportunity and cross the river as well.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He began to head down river where he hoped to find his ally. The badger roared at him a couple times before moving off in the direction of the tree. It wasn’t long before the badger was out of sight. A few minutes of walking and he spotted Amelia, the mousy martial girl who asked questions from Monty’s group. “Hi,” he said as waved to her.
She ran forward and smiled, “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stepped in. I guess you didn’t get your groups gatherer spot if you’re out here?”
Denny smiled back, “No, I didn’t. I’m happy with it though. I originally applied for either gatherer or explorer so…” He trailed off. Then he realized that a combatant shouldn’t be out here alone either, “are you combatant, or explorer as well?”
She shook her head, “Totally an explorer. I got sorted in with the combatant from martial squad 3. He didn’t feel confident doing anything else, so I decided to take explorer. We tried to go south to join up with Monty since 3 of our members were from team 4, but a martial group already went that way, so we came center instead. We figured no matter what, Lead Gage would go West since he’s leading that direction. I guess you aren’t part of psychic squad 3 anymore if you’re here. Did you get sorted with Director Kamila or are you team 2?”
“I’m on team 1 with Kamila. My name’s Denny, by the way,” He said with a smile. Then Denny accessed his abilities and activated friendly terrain.
Before he could finish activating his ability she responded, “Oh my BOB! I’m so sorry, my name’s Amelia. You can call me Mia though.”
Denny nodded his head, “Nice to officially meet you Mia. Here, let me share my map with you.”
“Good idea!” She paused to review his shared map. “It looks like you came and went a few times from this center hill. Is that where you guys are set up?”
“No,” Denny shook his head, “we’re set up at the far hill on the other side of that creek. Can you share your map?”
“I can, but I think it’d be better if I gave yours to our combatant. I have a 12-hour recharge on my map sharing.” As she spoke, he noticed her fidgeting with a leather sling in her hand, “What I can do is share special points, and I can create some of them. I made our base a special point. While you won’t know the path I took, you’ll be able to see where it is at least.” Her voice rose at the end, like a question, even though it was a statement.
“Uh, yeah, before you do, did someone from your group make that sling?”
“This?” Mia asked, lifting it to signify her item, “no this was starting equipment. I also have a walking stick and a sample pouch. What did you get?”
Denny held up the walking stick, “This, then a dowsing rod for detecting things and a sample pouch as well.”
“Ooohh Nice!” She gushed, “psychics get some awesome starting items. The dowsing rod sounds better than this sling.”
Denny shrugged, “The sling helps with survivability. That seems pretty useful, especially early like this.”
“True, and I did get a couple of killer martial explorer abilities that you wouldn’t get.”
“Oh, like what?”
“Well, like my sharing strategic locations ability. It works once every two hours and can share any three strategic locations I mark on it. Though they can only be changed once a week. Here, before I forget.” She looked off and a few seconds later Denny’s map updated with a single point about 2 and half kilometers away. “The other martial specific ability I picked was kind of a climbing ability. Let me tell you, that helped more than the sling. The sling just made that ginormous badger angrier rather than took the fight out of it.”
Denny squinted at her, “How much does the climbing ability really help?”
“Well, it’s upgraded. It enables me to run up a 90-degree incline for 4 steps. If it’s a steeper incline that’ll decrease, but it’s pretty solid either way.” Her smile bobbed a couple times with her head, “Mostly, I grabbed it to be able to see hard to reach locations. But the survival benefit proved itself more than worth the 8 AP it cost.”
“That’s expensive. How could you afford any detection abilities?”
Mia shrugged off the question, “If you must know, when I saw it, I decided it was worth waiting until I got at least 1 more point. Strategic locations cost 7 points and detect stone cost 5 more. Plus, friendly terrain which you seem to also have. As soon as I came upon the river, I got 4 more AP though so, I took vertical running. Anyway, I should get back to my group and update them. See you around 2:00.”
“Sounds good, see you then.” They waved and headed in different directions. She went down stream and he went up it. Denny looked back once, to find Mia already out of sight.
Denny looked at his map and figured that he’d be able to make it back to camp even without the 10% speed bonus. He loosened his belt and then wrapped it once around his walking stick before putting the belt back on stick behind his right shoulder. Then he pulled out his dowsing rod. 6 meters wasn’t far, but he hoped it would be enough to detect something.
When he was about halfway there, he could see that the river came from a slightly wider spot. This spot flowed more slowly than the rest of the river, and he could even see a few different creeks and streams flowing into the wide spot. This was where they met up to form the river. He definitely wouldn’t be able to jump over this, but he could walk further up and cross several of the streams individually or just ford across the shallows here.
As he approached the confluence, his senses finally picked up something. The detect abilities were slightly different for different people. They were always a bit subtle the further away you were but glaringly obvious when you got close. They said the different affiliations were the largest factor for how you detected things. In Denny’s case, he felt a pull towards something. A direction he should walk with no reason for it. He did not follow the pull because he also felt the danger behind it and realized that he detected a lair instead of an ore deposit.
The best part of valor was knowing what you can handle. To try something brave, where you could only lose, would be foolhardy instead. Denny very quickly decided to cross as soon as he could, the lair clearly on his current side of the river. He put his dowsing rod into his belt and pulled out his walking stick. His sense of the lair disappeared. He knew its distance though and hurried to the river. Every step looking over his shoulder in case something should come his way. Denny heard a movement; he glanced behind him and saw a tuff of black fur behind a bush.
He vividly recalled a Black Leviathan that he saw a few years ago in a different world. It was powerful enough to swim through space and could draw in any other creature, ship, moon, planet, or even star. He found one’s lair and thought it was a black hole, it wasn’t. It was the leviathan eating its way through a solar system.
He began to run outright hoping the water would stop whatever chased him. He crossed the ford faster than he thought possible, fish swimming past his feet. Then he turned around again. A squirrel there, a black bird on a bush right where he saw the fur. Denny breathed a sigh of relieve. It wasn’t a creature from the lair, it was just a small bird.
After gaining a few minutes of distance Denny paused to make a note. There was a lair symbol on his map, but it took up quite an area, probably based on where it could possibly be from where he sensed it. Either way, he let his note explain it.
Lair, Ford here
On the other side of the ford is a lair. Caution
Denny checked his AP to see if detecting the lair gained him any. He sat at 28 AP! How in BOB’s name did he get up to 28 AP!? He had 3 when he spoke to Kamila, and, and, and he forgot to check when he spoke with Mia. So, sharing the map with Mia must have given him at least one or two. Finding the lair gave him some. Maybe fighting the badger gave him several. He didn’t defeat it, but he did survive. The ford was probably important. He wanted to spend his AP right then and there but realized that he needed to get back to camp. After just a moment’s consideration, he swiftly bought detect stone and then continued towards camp.
Detect Stone Level 1 Cost 5
th a stone deposit symbol.
Limitation: Either Explorer or Gatherer specialty.
He pulled out his dowsing rod again and put his walking stick back in his belt then followed the most likely creek towards camp, periodically double checking his map to make sure.
He did end up discovering one ore deposit in the ground. It was either very deep, or ridiculously small because he could only find a small bit of it. Denny inspected his AP and saw the ore deposit gave him 3 more though, or at least he had 3 more already and assumed it was from the ore deposit. He made a note on his map there.
Small Ore Depo.
This small deposit is fairly deep, maybe valuable.