Duncan left the barracks and rushed toward the bar. He had three hours to kill. The books he picked up for Elland were ripe for reading. He figured it would give him one to two levels in Herbology and maybe an upgrade in his reading skill.
Duncan was back in his bed and opening the first book in less than ten minutes, grateful that he didn’t meet Wazsh on the way in. He started with volume one and just kept hitting them until he ran out. The [ LOG ] flashed a couple of times but he ignored it until he finished book eight of the series.
[ You have Learned Herbology Level 7. ]
Endurance +0.7
Wisdom +0.7
[ You have Learned Herbology Level 8. ]
Endurance +0.8
Wisdom +0.8
[ You have Learned Reading Level 15. ]
Perception +1.5
Intelligence +1.5
Wisdom +1.5
[ You have Learned Herbology Level 9. ]
Endurance +0.9
Wisdom +0.9
Since a lot of the knowledge was duplicated this was as far as his Herbology skill leveled from the books. Duncan didn’t even expect to get to level nine. The expected headache from reading all those books in a row didn’t follow. Duncan figured his rise in the intelligence stat was finally doing something. It sure didn’t stop him from making bad decisions.
He checked the time and only eighty minutes have passed since he started reading the books. Stashing them into his inventory he went back downstairs where Wazsh was yawning at the kitchen table.
“Morning,” Wazsh greeted.
“Morning. You are up late,” Duncan replied.
Wazsh waved his hand, “I woke up early to water the plants. Where are you off to?”
“Elland’s again. Then to the wilderness,” Duncan replied.
Wazsh frowned as he said, “Don’t overdo it. If you keep risking your life every day, one day you won’t come back.”
Duncan rolled his eyes, “I’ll be careful. I have to go now.”
“Take care,” Wazsh said with a yawn as Duncan left.
He ran down the main street to save time and to get better at using his new stats. Duncan quickly entered Elland’s place and found him talking to Marykah in the shop.
“Good morning,” Duncan greeted them.
“You are back?” Elland said with a frown as Marykah returned the greeting.
“I came to return these to your safekeeping,” Duncan replied and dropped the eight books on the counter.
“They are yours. Why should I be keeping them?” Elland said, frowning.
Duncan smiled at the frowning Elf as he replied, “I am done with them and I know how you like to horde knowledge.”
“I don’t horde. I preserve,” Elland protested with a raised voice, startling Marykah.
“Yeah. Whatever you say,” Duncan replied while rolling his eyes at the now embarrassed Elf.
“I will just check for some more useful books in the back,” Duncan said and left them to talk.
Elland nodded and waited for him to leave, which Duncan did.
Soon Duncan was at the book pile, checking the titles and sorting them into series. He found three books on potions but they were all volume one. They were very thick books and Duncan took one. There were a lot of duplicate books on Necromancy and surprisingly a lot of romance novels.
Duncan got tired of sorting romance novels as his time before he should be at the barracks was running out. He came to the storefront and saw Marykah was gone. Elland was putting some stuff on the shelves.
“There is a surprising amount of Romance novels in the book pile,” Duncan said to Elland as he saw him not respond to him.
That must have gotten his attention as he turned around immediately, “How many?”
“I would say two-thirds of all the books I have checked are Romance novels. Next, come the Necromancy guides. Also found this Alchemy book and the Herbology series. I didn’t have time to check them all out yet,” Duncan replied.
“Will you translate the Romance novels?” Elland asked, getting a glare and eye rolls from Duncan in return.
“I would think the Alchemy and Herbology books would have priority for you,” Duncan replied, observing Elland’s face as it changed color with a grin.
Elland hastily replied, “Yes. Yes of course they have priority. I mean it would be nice to have accurate historical records of how my ancestors lived, so when you have time please translate a few of those books too.”
“Yeah. Sure. Accurate historical records are very important,” Duncan replied with an eye roll.
Elland just nodded and skedaddled, not willing to explain and embarrass himself further.
“And here I thought that the guard’s obsession with romance books was funny,” Duncan muttered to himself while shaking his head.
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He sat down on the chair in the shop and opened up the book on Alchemy named ‘Introduction to making potions’. Activating his Reading skill he didn’t expect much. He still got a level of Alchemy and a level of Identify from it.
Duncan doubted it was the knowledge from this book that got him the levels. It was probably the accumulated knowledge from previous things he learned that got him close and this just pushed him over the hump. He welcomed the stats anyway and rose from the chair with a smile after he checked the [ LOG ].
[ You have Learned Alchemy Level 13. ]
Perception +1.3
Intelligence +1.3
Wisdom +1.3
[ You have Learned Identify Level 15. ]
Intelligence +1.5
Wisdom +1.5
Those were more than a level worth increases in stats in twenty minutes. After he remembered what awaited him next he sighed and dropped the Alchemy book on the counter before leaving Elland’s shop.
“I will just lead them out and stay at the ruin,” Duncan thought as he made his way toward the barracks.
“Crap. I asked Shaya to teach me how to track,” he remembered as he passed Bolgar’s smithy.
Duncan was ten minutes early from the appointed time and as he came closer he could already see Gabris, Shaya, and Demira resting their backs on the barrack’s wall waiting for him.
“Hey, Duncan. I already thought you would never let me join one of your little expeditions,” Gabris shouted as he saw Duncan coming close.
Duncan smiled awkwardly. “It was Captain Fenris who made the setup of previous expeditions, not me,” he explained and got a nod from Gabris.
“Are you all ready?” Duncan asked.
“We are. Will you create a party or shall I?” Shaya asked.
“You do it,” Duncan replied since it made no difference to him.
He joined her party and they went off toward the mine. Except for Gabris asking random questions about the mine they remained unusually quiet.
As they were about to enter Duncan noticed the members of the party summoned burning torches from their inventories. He always lit his torches when he went in. It never occurred to him that he could store a flaming torch in his inventory and resummon it when needed. Shaking his head at his preconceived notions of how things worked he followed inside the mine.
Soon they reached the fork that led deeper into the crypt or to the outside. As they were all specialized in archery, except Duncan, and unsuited to fight in tight spaces they chose to go outside. When they neared the border the trio of archers began to feel unwell.
“You should move back to where the effects are tolerable and I will take one of you to the other side and then come back for the other two,” Duncan advised and got a nod from the three archers in response.
“Who wants to go first?” he asked and the archers went into a lengthy discussion before they finally decided on Shaya. It was like watching preschoolers whine as Gabris and Demirah sulked after Shaya had enough of the arguments and took the spot for herself.
Duncan held Shaya’s hand as they walked to the other side.
“Sorry about that. I sometimes wonder if they will ever grow up mentally,” Shaya said as they were nearly there.
“What do you mean?” Duncan asked, although he himself thought the duo was behaving like a couple of teenagers, he still wanted to hear it from Shaya.
“When the previous guards were drafted for war Demirah’s and Gabris’ fathers being one of them went with them. Their mothers died in the Ghoul attack. You might find this a bit odd but I can swear the time seemed to have stopped then except for the kids. Well, not time but we stopped aging. The kids grew up due to leveling up but they really did not grow mentally. I don’t know how I can explain it,” Shaya said as they walked.
“Mentally?” Duncan asked.
“Demirah is over 160 years old but she still acts impulsively like a teenager. Gabris is the same. The rest of us were older when it happened so it didn’t have that effect on us,” she explained.
Duncan thought about his own impulsiveness at that age that got him to buy painkillers from a drug dealer and into the juvenile hall. He shivered at the thought of being in puberty for 150 years.
“Well, at least they don’t have acne,” he thought before he nodded at Shaya letting her know he understood.
They were well away from the threshold of the barrier and were quiet as Duncan said, “Do you still feel unwell?”
Shaya shook her head from the thoughts she was having and pulled her hand away before she replied, “Sorry. I am alright. You can go fetch them now.”
Duncan nodded and turned around. He was once again confused by Shaya but shook his head.
“This is not the time or place for this,” he reminded himself.
The almost two-century-old teenagers were leaning each on opposite sides of the tunnel as he came toward them.
“Shaya explained things to you?” Duncan asked and they both nodded.
“Give me your hands,” Duncan commanded and they complied without words. He had to put his torch in his inventory to hold their hands and they supplied the light.
Demirah was blushing and Gabris was feeling weird holding hands with a male but neither of them said anything as they walked down the long corridor.
As they joined up with Shaya they went up the stairs and exited at the ruined temple. The forest was chirping with trees and the green color of the leaves was brimming with life.
“What now?” Duncan asked Shaya as he nervously looked around for any movement. His memory of the oversized kitty incident was still fresh in his mind. Meeting an oversized piggy again was worrying him too but not nearly as much.
Shaya took out the map she made the last time they were out in the wilderness and oriented herself with the help of the position of the surviving columns of the temple.
“We can go this way for a while,” Shaya said and pointed at a direction that was not explored previously, “then we circle back to the temple.”
Duncan nodded as the two old teenagers looked eagerly all around.
“I will take the lead. You stay between Demirah and Gabris,” Shaya said which immediately set off a bickering over who will be going as the second.
“Whose smart idea was it to take them both out here at the same time?” Duncan asked himself as he was observing Shaya playing the judge. They finally decided on Gabris in front at first and Demirah on the way back.
Duncan was losing patience and was looking for plants he could use his herbology skill on. All he found near the temple were unfortunately plants that were of no use in alchemy.
As they finally started walking through the forest the two old teenagers finally stayed quiet and alert. Shaya moved carefully, stopping every ten paces looking around, and waiting for any unexpected sounds. After half an hour of such pace, even Duncan was getting bored and looked around for any useful plants. Demirah’s and Gabris’ alertness went away after the first 15 minutes and were leisurely strolling with the bows in their hands after Shaya who checked for tracks and marked any landmarks like big trees on her map.
Duncan finally saw something he could use a few meters away from the trail that Shaya made. He went over to pick it up and Demirah ignored him and followed after Gabris.
As he was getting closer he was suddenly hit by a blast of something white which spread all over him. It was sticky and the more he struggled the more it stuck to him. Just as he thought he would get it off, Duncan got knocked over from behind.
He didn’t see what hit him. Before he could stand up he was rolled like weed in a blunt but instead it was a thick cocoon. Duncan felt like being in a tumbler of a laundry machine on the spin cycle as he was wrapped. Later he felt himself being dragged across the ground.
He could hear a muffled panicked voice from Shaya and the others calling for him as he got bumped into trees and rocks while being dragged across the forest. One of these rocks he hit with his chin and even though he was well-padded it was lights out for him.