Vultressant was nearly out of mana, and Taloc was operating with a single arm. Isla had only been hit once, and most of the impact had been absorbed by her shield, so she looked to be fine. With Ewtain now down, she took the lead in the fight. She used the tree to her advantage, preventing the ape from hitting her with the branch. Taloc attacked from the other side of the tree, as he didn’t wish to go behind the beast and end up like Ewtain. He had less of a chance to avoid an attack since he lacked both the prescient reflexes ability and the dodge skill that normally protected the Night Stalker.
Vultressant had recovered enough mana to cast another bolt of fire, and he again sent it high. He had little chance of hitting his friends from his flanking angle, but his spell didn’t seem to be doing much damage. The health bar for the ape had barely moved after any of his attacks, so his main focus was to distract it for the fighters to get an opportunity to strike without fear of a return strike. The ape roared when the bolt struck the side of its head. Isla and Taloc advanced and each chopped at the exposed legs of the beast. The ape swung the branch at them, but it was mostly a defensive move, and it had not even looked before it made the attack. The attempt was slower and lacked the force of the earlier attack on Ewtain; Taloc and Isla were able to retreat to the safety of the trees. The ape was injured and moving much more slowly, but neither Isla nor Taloc would strike—they knew that just one hit from the ape could incapacitate or even kill them.
Vultressant triggered his enhanced mana regen ability for the second time in as many days and sent another bolt at the ape’s head. This time, it brought up his arm to cover its head, blocking the spell. It still did some damage, but it was not able to cause a sufficient distraction to allow the two melee fighters to safely come out of cover.
Taloc called out, “Keep peppering him with the fire! It’s wearing him down.” Vultressant did his best to oblige, trying to time his next strike to coincide with an offensive move by the ape. The ape swung the branch at Isla, and Vultressant sent another bolt that landed on its side. She ducked back behind a tree for cover, and the branch split in half when it impacted the thick trunk. The momentum caused a large piece of the branch to whip around the tree, and it struck Isla as she ducked behind it. Isla was shaken by the blow, even though much of the impact was absorbed by her ever-present shield.
Just then, Vultressant’s spell connected with the head of the ape, but only Taloc could take advantage of the distraction. The Ranger struck twice at the planted arm then retreated, but not quite as far as he had previously the ape now lacked some of its reach with the loss of half of the branch. Vultressant’s next bolt allowed Isla to join in as well, and the ape dropped what remained of the branch to steady itself.
Seeing weakness, Taloc advanced and stabbed the ape using his special move, impale, and while the strike landed and caused a deep gash in the creature’s side, it was able to retaliate by punching Taloc in the hip. The strike knocked Taloc back a foot or two, but it lacked the force that the earlier attacks had. Taloc was uninjured by the attack, so he kept attacking until the beast finally fell over, dead.
Isla checked on Maroftis and Ewtain while Taloc looked at the loot options for the creature. “We have the skinning, butchering, and essence extraction options,” he said. “I don’t know what we could do with the hide, and we’re good on food, so I guess we just need the essence. Want to do the honors, Vult?”
Vultressant looked at his MP and found that he had 249 of 350; he had already activated his enhanced mana regen ability. He hoped that he wouldn’t run out of power again. He needed to allocate some of his ability points soon, but he had yet to decide where to put them. He waited a few minutes for more mana, and then began the extraction process.
Three minutes into the process, he felt the essence slipping away from him; it felt like he was trying to pull a piece of egg shell out of an egg that had been cracked and emptied in a bowl. He renewed his efforts as he fought to pull the life force from the creature. Another two minutes passed, and he took a quick look at his current MP: he was down to only 70. If this was going to take that much of his mana, the prize better be worth it. He strained and fought to pull the essence to him. Less than a minute later, he was finally able to produce the essence. This one was a deep green, and when he inventoried it, it was listed as a greater essence. He used the interface to label it as “Giant Ape Essence,” in case he got so many that he forgot where they came from. He hoped that this would be the case. His MP was down to 32 of 350—he had nearly gone beyond his limit again.
Vultressant looked around to see that Vanya was tending to Ewtain, who was still unconscious. He walked over to her and asked, “How is he? Did you come up while I was doing the essence thing?”
Vanya shook her head. “He’s still out cold, but he appears to be stable, and no, I came up during the fight so that I could cast my blessing buff.”
Vultressant had not seen her approach, but he’d been too focused on the fight to notice anything else. “Good idea, and I’m glad that the ape didn’t just try to go for you.”
“I have the Elf concealment skill that works in the forest, which went up for the first time, and it’s now at level three,” Vanya said, smiling. “I’ve used it before when not in combat, but that wasn’t enough to level it. The ape didn’t seem to notice me for the entire encounter. My divine magic skill leveled as well; it’s also level three.” She looked down at Ewtain. “Do you think that I should try a healing potion on him?”
“If he’s stable, then I would give him a few minutes to come to.” Vultressant looked at his notifications to find that he had gained a level in extract essence, putting it at level five. He had also made gains in his magic affinities; wind magic was now at level four, and his fire magic had gone up twice—it now stood at level six. He had been focusing on the spell-casting skills, and they were outpacing his other skills. He brought up his skills page and noticed that his bow and long shot skills remained at level one. His traveling skills had increased, though; cartography was now level five, and his direction sense and travel sense were both level four. He had also increased his concentration skill to level three at some point. He was uncertain if that last one was tied to what he did when casting or extracting essences. The skill allowed him to focus his mana, though, so it probably leveled from both.
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“Could you stay with Ewt while I go have a drink?” Vanya asked Vultressant. “I did promise him that I’d go first.”
“Sure,” Vultressant said while closing his HUD. “Let me know what it does.”
“Will do,” she said, smiling. She made her way to the fountain, using a stick as a makeshift cane. Vanya looked into the fountain and scooped up a handful of water with her free hand then drank. She paused to access her HUD for a moment. Afterwards, she touched her wounded leg. A soft light pulsed around her hand and leg. A moment later, she dropped the support stick and took a few steps. She seemed to be walking without any discomfort, and she went back to stand over Ewtain.
“What happened?” Taloc asked
“I learned life magic, and it started at level five,” Vanya said, smiling broadly. “I also got a new spell called healing touch, and it works pretty well!” She hopped on her formerly injured leg for emphasis.
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Isla. “I’m tired of walking around in pain all the time.”
Vanya knelt down and placed her hand on Ewtain’s chest, and a soft white light began to glow in the area. The spell took significantly longer to work than it had on her leg, possibly due to the severity of the injuries that the Night Stalker had suffered. When she had completed the spell, Ewtain’s breathing had become far less strained, but he did not regain consciousness. “Hopefully he just needs more time,” Vanya said, but she looked concerned. “Who’s next?”
“I could use some healing,” Taloc said. “My arm is trashed.”
“Oh, I meant who would be next for the fountain,” Vanya said, “but I can start on that if someone else wants to take a drink.”
“I’ll go drink while you work on Taloc,” Vultressant said as he started walking towards the fountain.
The fountain looked more like an enormous bird bath than anything else. The water was still and clear, and there were no pipes to move it around and spray it up. Vultressant cupped his hands together and dipped them in the pool of liquid. He drank some before opening up his HUD. He felt no different, but he did have a few notifications. The first one notified him that he had drunk from a Font of Power and gained experience. The rest of the notifications described the results of that experience. He was surprised to see that the experience was enough to put him at level seven, an increase of three levels. Since he was a Gnome, his Intellect had gone up by one point each level, putting it up to 38, and his mana points had increased accordingly, giving him a maximum of 380 MP. There were perks for getting to level five; he had gained access to new spells.
“Hey Vanya, did you make level five yet?” Vultressant asked. She shook her head. “I got experience from the font, and I’m now character level seven,” he said. “At fifth level, I got new spells.”
“Awesome!” she replied. “That must be a threshold for skills.”
This was a wonderful result, but he wondered if he would have preferred a new spell and magic field, which is what Vanya had received without even reaching level five. He had no idea how easy or difficult gaining new skills was, so he had no way to gauge which boon was superior.
He took another drink in the hopes of receiving extra benefits, but nothing happened. He read the new information about the Font of Power. It said that to receive any benefit, you must drink the water at the source, and you could not benefit from it again until it moved. There was no indication as to the duration of a font at a given location, so he had no idea how long they had with it. Vultressant walked back to the group. “You guys might want to hurry. That Font of Power could disappear. I don’t know what sort of timer is on it, but I wouldn’t take any chances. Also, extra sips or taking the water away won’t work.”
“Yeah, I told them about that part,” Vanya said.
Isla and Taloc carried Ewtain to the fountain, and the rest followed. Taloc’s arm appeared to have been healed successfully, but Maroftis still looked pretty bad as he lagged behind the group. Either Vanya had not healed him yet, or maybe she didn’t plan to. His regeneration ability would fix him soon enough, so she might be saving her mana.
They filled Ewtain’s mouth with the liquid and got him to swallow. They had hoped that he might be revived by the fountain’s power, but he was not. Then the rest of them took a drink. Maroftis grew in height and mass, but his abilities and skills didn’t change. The group thought that this would help him in combat, and the consensus was that that was likely the boon that the ape had received. Isla gained ten points in both Charisma and Dexterity, and Taloc gained experience like Vultressant had; he too had attained level seven. Taloc also received another special attack upon reaching level five; it was a bow attack called triple strike, and it made one arrow split into three upon release.
They worried that the font might be a beacon for creatures in the area, so they decided to move away before making camp, but with Ewtain still incapacitated, they wanted to wait until he revived. Ewtain finally woke shortly after they had finished the evening meal. “What happened?” he asked groggily.
Vanya, who had been watching over him, was the first to reply. “You were knocked into a tree. I healed you, but it wasn’t enough to get you to wake up. You were stable, but it’s possible that if the fountain hadn’t given me a healing spell, you could have died.”
“Well, thanks then. I told you that the fountain would be a good thing.” He looked at his interface and hooted. “I got 20 Dex points and extra quickness from the fountain! Nice!”
“Dude, you could have died,” Vultressant said sternly.
Ewtain looked around. “I regret nothing. We all apparently made it; Vanya got a healing spell; I got useful stats; Maroftis is enormous; and presumably the rest of you guys got cool stuff too. Now, feed me some more of that magic water.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Vanya said. “You only get one until the font moves; only if you can find it again can you get another benefit.”
“Did anyone grab any to sell?” Ewtain asked.
Vanya nodded. “Taloc bottled some, but it isn’t supposed to work away from the actual fountain.”
“Ah, well,” Ewtain said, sighing in resignation. “What do we do next?”
“How do you feel?” Vanya asked with concern in her voice.
“Like I was in a car crash,” he said, grabbing his forehead and massaging it for emphasis, “but I can travel.”
“Then I say that we continue on to Ildul,” Vanya replied. She looked around. “We should probably camp here for the night, so you have some more time to recover if you want.” They all agreed, and Taloc scouted the area as the rest of the party prepared to make camp.