Brandon cleaned himself in a small room with hard cut wood walls, removing the caked-on filth of the sewers. He had not noticed it after the first few hours, but even he could smell the sludge on himself when they arrived to the safe house. It had been a short walk from the sewer opening to the stone two storied building near the outskirts of town. Bert had explained that they were in the sweet spot between the populated inner city and off the main roads that lead out of town. The combination of the sewers so close and the forested foothills only a few hundred meters away most kept a healthy distance.
Because of the dangers that tended to wander in from the woods most of the bigger clans liked to stay closer to the inner city. Brandon had gotten the feeling of an 1800s city for the few blocks he had walked through the area. It was obvious that the city was built for more people that it currently held.
Every other building was left empty. Most were single or double story simple housing structures tightly packed together. A simple stone layout with the occasional wooden second floor. Janet had told him that there were no showers, but a small metal ball that she had given him supplied a constant stream of water when activated. Enough to fill the basin as many times as he needed while cleaning.
Sometime later he emerged from the small restroom to find Janet, Bert, and another figure sitting at a small wooden table in the middle of the open flooring. The chatter that he could not make out stopped when he entered the room.
After a pause Bert said, “I understand your concerns, Hellen. But we are taking all the precautions we can, and the ends justify the means on this.”
Hellen, a short blond-haired woman dressed in studded leather, a dagger at each hip, and a hood hung behind her. She had been staring at Brandon, then turned to Bert and Janet. “You are going to be the death of us all,” she said as she slammed two books down on the table. “I have already talked to some off the other leaders, you barely have the majority thinking that helping him is a good idea. One bad move and you two might just be exiled from the Outsiders.”
Hellen stormed from the building after a short exchange with Bert. Brandon was distracted by two books on the table, he could only read a title on the top one. ‘Artificing, it definitely isn’t Enchanting.’
“Don’t worry about her,” said Bert getting Brandon’s attention. “She is an old friend, and even old friends do not see eye to eye on everything.”
“Is she mad at me for the same reason as everyone else. Or is this a new thing?”
“New, believe it or not,” said Janet. “Even in the Outsiders, some think it is too risky to help you. Hellen thinks that you might be hated just enough for everyone else to come down on the whole clan just to find you.
“I have it handled,” said Bert. “In the meantime, we were able to get you some books Brandon.”
Brandon sat down at the table with the other two, taking the seat Hellen had vacated. “So, what, I just open these and magically know new spells?”
Bert chuckled. “No, it doesn’t work like that. From everything I know there are not even books with that capability. These are just regular old books. Most of these types are journals that one person or the other left behind after either dying or going through the portal. Not a lot of time to turn out proper learning material, so these will have to do.”
“The only way to learn broad new concepts is to learn it the old-fashioned way. You can learn basic information from drinking potions Alchemists can make. But that is only simple ideas like names and places. And the alchemist must know the information they are trying to put into the potion. But it is still very rare, very expensive, and very hard to come by.”
Brandon skimmed the first few pages of ‘Artificing, it definitely isn’t Enchanting’. The book contained hastily drawn pictures and scribbled notes. From what he could gleam it was basic information on how to create magical items, artificing. And some slightly disturbing notes on emotional control, enchanting. Mind control had always weirded Brandon out, and he tried to skip those sections when he could.
Brandon read the title on the second book, ‘Life and Death, the Difference Between Healing and Necromancy’. Brandon flipped through the first few pages and found that the book was aptly titled.
“You do have some advantages,” said Bert. “Since you have an interface, you have scratch pads and ways to call up information on books you have read. So, once you go through those you might not understand it all at first, but you can recall the information at least.”
“How slow do I have to read it; can I just skim it and then recall it all later?”
“It’s your magic you tell us,” said Janet.
He pulled his new books into his inventory. When the books did not disappear and a warning window once again notifying him his inventory was full, he hoped that the space increase he got with his next level would help solve this problem for him.
It was getting harder and harder for Brandon to find things he could easily remove from his inventory and free up space. After a while one of the bodies of the dead dire-rats came out on the table and he was able to store the books.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Gah, we eat at this table,” said Janet.
“You can teach yourself a cleaning spell after you practice with that,” said Bert. “Try not to cover the room in gore while we are in it.”
Brandon sighed. Even though the rat seemed to be in the same state as when he stored it, no new decomposition or decay, it was still covered in blood and sewage.
“That is fair,” said Brandon before he pulled out the second book and began reading.
The book was not easy to read. Random thoughts written down with crude diagrams haphazardly sketched on the pages made even basic concepts hard to follow. There was no order, it seemed more a stream of consciousness than anything else.
It took a few dozen pages but Brandon’s initial take away was that his first attempt to push magic into the dire-rat had made it explode because there had been no clear intent tied to the action. His ensuing attempts had been more healing the creature as a whole than an individual injury, hence the last rat had gotten up and tried to run away.
Brandon placed a finger near one of the rat’s injuries. As he pushed mana into the wound this time, he willed the muscle and skin to stitch back together. He heard a crack in his mind as a chunk of his mana disappeared. He had to separate some of the fur to see, but sure enough the injury was visibly mending itself, tendrils reached from one side to the other and pulled the gash closed. He worked his way through each of the injuries on the creature and repeated the process. It was slow since each heal took a fair chunk of his mana and he had to wait for it to slowly fill back up.
After an hour, and all the external wounds had been healed, Brandon was back to full mana. Brandon was nervous about the next part. If he screwed this up and failed again, the entire room might turn out splattered in blood. The other two members of his group had long since gone to bed, but he did not want their wrath to aimed towards him. He remembered how they had taken down the monstrous alligator.
Brandon gently placed a finger on the dire-rat’s forehead and began to push mana into the creature all the while sending his intent into it as well. He rotated through the ideas of bringing the rat back to life, all the time that he had spent training his childhood dog, and the loyalty of a minion.
At 50% of his mana, he began to get worried, but the violent spasms that had always started at this point did not, so he continued. At 75% Brandon felt a lock seal around his remaining mana, he knew no matter how long he waited, as long as the creature was attached to him, his mana would not regenerate past what he had now.
The rat staggered to its feet, sniffing at the air and slowly stumbling its way across the table.
The notification counter ticked up at the corner of his vision. He told himself he would have to go through that at some point.
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Dire-Rat: Undead Minion Level 3
Enthraller’s Description: Your dire rat is an undead minion. Due to its level being higher than yours and your Multi-Classer debuffs, this creature is currently commanding 75% of your mana pool to continue functioning. Reducing or increasing this number will affect the abilities of your minion.
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The rat came over and sniffed at Brandon, then sat looking up at him. Brandon gaged at the smell that came from the creature. The rat’s movements were sluggish and awkward at first, but when Brandon gave it simple commands it followed them exactly.
Brandon pulled the small water stone from his inventory and told his minion to follow. Brandon gave the rat a bath, he could not be sure but it seemed a little happier after he did.
While Brandon was drying his new minion, a loud bang sounded at the front door. Janet came crashing down the stairs, shield in one hand and sword in the other. Bert stood up in the corner of the room, Brandon had not known he was there.
Everyone stood frozen staring at the front door. Janet walked over to Brandon and plucked the small water stone from his hand. “This is mine,” said Janet.
Someone knocked at the front door again and Bert signaled Brandon into the small room he had just emerged from, all the while staring at the dire-rat next to Brandon.
Once Brandon was hidden, he could hear the two others talking with someone but could not make out what. After a while Brandon was allowed to enter the main room. Bert held out a small pouch and a rolled-up piece of paper to him. The pouch held 2 round orbs.
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Lesser Experience Orb
Description: Consuming this orb will award 200xp
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Without thinking Brandon popped both orbs into his mouth.
The rolled-up paper had P.A.T. stamped vertically down one side, a slightly glowing red wax seal depicting an exploding sun kept the scroll closed.
“Told you it was for him,” said Janet pointing at the glowing seal.
“Hmm,” said Bert. “Someone still knew he was here even with all the anti-tracking and scrying we put on this place.”
“P.A.T. can see through anything we have. Always have. They just don’t care enough to do anything directly. Plus, they are the one group we don’t really have to worry about. They would not have brought him back in the first place if they immediately wanted him dead or found.”
“True,” said Bert.
“I’m right here,” said Brandon. “You can talk to me.”
“That scroll will give you a new mission,” said Bert. “The essence was your part of the payment for our sewer mission. Unusually high payment. It must have been the gator’s involvement. Normally one of us would have had to go back to the job board to get the reward, but it seems that P.A.T. was in an uncommonly nice mood and delivered it with the scroll.”
Brandon cracked the seal on the scroll and got a golden notification that matched the writing on the paper.
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Mission: Setting things right
Description: Something isn’t right in the forest. Go and check it out.
Reward: Unknown – Dependent on level of fulfillment
Step 1: Go to the location indicated and investigate
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Below Brandon saw a little map with a gold star. He showed the paper to Bert and Janet.
“Looks like you are going to have a long day tomorrow,” said Bert.
“I suggest you get some sleep,” said Janet as she walked back up the stairs.
It wasn’t until Janet had mentioned it that Brandon felt the fatigue of the day weigh on him. After cleaning the table off the best he could with his hands, Brandon found his own little corner of the room and laid down. In seconds he was asleep.