by Sean Oswald
Dave began his pacing again and quickly clicked on the notification he received.
Skill Level Up! Congratulations! Level ups by practice alone are difficult to achieve but for conducting your first experiment you Research skill has progressed to 51.
In Eloria, life is conflict, but one subtle form of conflict can be found in testing the limits of your knowledge.
That was gratifying to Dave, and he passed on the notification to everyone else but didn’t really have time to dwell on that or on Eloria’s backwards progression system. He really had to now decide on a strategy based upon the evidence before him.
“I have reached a decision. Feel free to add something, but I believe that our best strategy with the giant snails will be to use physical attacks and avoid magical effects. Only cast spells while in there if it becomes absolutely necessary. Agreed?”
Everyone, even Mira nodded in reluctant agreement although she mumbled something about being relegated to being a healer. Everyone just ignored her. Even Jaselm and Daichi had learned that she could be moody. “Jaselm, we are going to once again call upon you to act as the tank. We will move you just far enough into the snail cavern for Daichi and I to be able to take up positions on your flanks. The girls will stay in the tunnel. That way if they are tougher than we expect, we will be able to retreat faster. If it goes badly, Daichi, you will retreat first, then Jaselm and I will move out last.”
“Dave, no matter how much you want me to call you by your first name, the truth remains that you are a noble of the kingdom and the husband of a chosen. I will not leave you there to fight, especially when I am better qualified to defend,” Jaselm said.
The two men stared at one another for a moment. Eventually, Dave had to concede that this society didn’t operate on the same rules that he was accustomed to or even the same rules that he wanted to create for his barony, but there couldn’t be too much change too quickly.
“Very well, we will do it the way that you want.”
They then moved into place, traipsing slowly through the tunnel till they entered the cavern to take up their flanking positions. At least that was the way that they intended. When they actually entered, they each slipped in rapid succession. The floor was still covered in moss and vines, but over that was a thick coating of lubricant. Each of them moving in quickly trying to get in place lost their balance. Jaselm ended up flat on his face, Dave on his side, and Daichi managed to stay upright but almost did the splits before he gained his footing again.
In the three seconds that it took for them to play slip and slide, four of the large snails slid up by them. It seemed inconceivable that the mollusks could move so quickly, but it happened nonetheless. Then in the next breath, they were each being pummeled by those fleshing knots on the end of their stalks. Each blow landed with the force of a hammer. None were able to bypass the physical defense given by his new bracers. Jaselm was getting the worst of it from two of the creatures, yet for all the pounding, he was taking very little damage through his armor. The bigger struggle was trying to get to his feet.
Dave managed to roll off of the slime covering the ground. He was shocked at the level of thought that had to have gone into this trap, but now wasn’t the time to admire the beasts who were pounding on his team. Each blow only did between five and ten damage after his damage resistance, but it was adding up. Just as he managed to get his sword out, he saw Mira push past her mother and step to the mouth of the tunnel.
“No Mira, we’ve got this. No spells.” He shouted but she wasn’t listening. She was already in the moment as she launched first her Minor Charm spell from the staff and then a quickened Flame Fan. The charm she targeted at one of the snails attacking Jaselm who was surrounded. The flames jetted off of her fingers and ignited portions of the floor, but the majority of it seemed to be absorbed into the shells of the snails.
Dave heard Mira crying out commands to the snail she had cast charm on, but it paid no attention. Something told him this fight needed to end, and it needed to end now. He quick cast Sure Strike while activating Offensive Stance and hit the snail next to him with a downward chopping swing. The slash cut its head clean off with little to no resistance. (398) Meanwhile, on the other side, he saw Daichi landing a series of blows which crushed the shell and then splattered the creature attacking him.
This left only the two snails looming over the prone paladin. Each extended out a stalk with their bulbous ends, and Dave expected to see them strike at Jaselm again. Instead, streams of flame jetted out from the stalks. One stream of fire at him and one at Daichi. Both were caught off guard and hit. Dave felt the flames scorch around his chainmail even to the point that the metal was getting flesh-searingly hot. Just as he performed a stop drop and roll to put the flames out, he got a notification.
You have been hit by Enhanced Flame Fan. Damage equivalent to Tier 2: 71
What? Not only had they absorbed the flames, but they had enhanced it. Dave would like to think he had given a lot of thought to that and sorted it out, but between being on fire and the simple shock of flame throwing snails, it was all he could do to get the flames out. He stood and moved to attack the snails. He still had plenty of health left, but it was slow going trying not to slip on the slime covered floor. On the other side, Daichi was doing much the same.
Meanwhile, the snail which had supposedly been charmed continued to ignore Mira as evidenced by the fact that it had just tried to charbroil her father. It then turned another of its stalks at Mira and a quick flash of light was all that could be seen before she stiffened up.
Dave heard Emily yell out, “No!” but he wasn’t sure exactly what the creature had done to his daughter. Then his worst fear was realized as Mira raised a hand at her mother and cast Ice Daggers. The translucent blades spun through the air before striking Emily. (74)
Dave yelled, “Emily, she’s charmed. Cast your Cancel Magic spell.” From the corner of his eye, he saw Daichi was making short work of one of the two remaining shelled fiends. With another step, Dave was likewise on top of his own snail and two slices in quick succession ended the last of the four creatures.
Mira cried out, “No, master!” as Dave struck down the snail which had sent her own charm magic back against her. Raising her hand in anger at Dave she gave him a taste of one of his own spells. A copy of Lesser Repulsion which he had stored in her ring blasted into him and sent him flying into the central column cracking it and causing a goodly size pieces of ore to fall to the ground.
Too many things happened at the same time then. Mira prepared to cast a magic missile spell at him, while Daichi was helping a badly bruised Jaselm to his feet and Emily finished casting her Lesser Cancel Magic. A faint orange glow appeared around Mira and then the spell controlling her was shattered. Just in time to cause her to jerk her fingers up and send the missiles created by her spell awry.
They all stood there panting. Emily who was bleeding from the ice daggers which had caught her at point blank range began casting a heal spell first on Jaselm. Dave wanted to go and hug Mira or Emily, he wasn’t sure which one the most, but he maintained the presence of mind and picked up the dark gray metal that had fallen at his feet. With that action, they all got a notification.
Congratulations! Your party has completed the quest: Clear Unnamed Mine 714. Party leader, David Nelson is now the rightful owner of the mine and may name it accordingly. All creatures remaining within the mine will now obey you. This mine remains a dungeon but may be entered by any member of this party or any designated by David Nelson without being trapped or attacked.
Dave almost didn’t know what to say. It was thrilling, but at the same time, he was just glad it was over. “I guess that means we struck it rich.” He tried to laugh, but none of the others joined in. They were all looking at each other and more than one angry look was turned towards Mira. He knew that at some point he was going to have to have a conversation with her about breaking the plan and putting them in danger. After the various challenge
s this dungeon had presented to them, the snails were comically easy. That is until Mira got nervous and broke with the plan. It was her spells that put them all in danger. Dave realized that he and Emily would have to talk about this. Mira might be an adult by age in this world, but to them she was still just a teenager and punishment was in order. Of course, how do you punish someone who can shoot fire from their hands?
Around them, all of the snails small and large along with two other monstrous sized versions similar to the ones which they had fought all were turned and stared at the party. They made an odd plaintive mewling sound. It wasn’t scary, but more like a scene from an episode of SpongeBob. That gave him the perfect name for this zone. Henceforth it would be called Gary’s Playground. Once everyone else got the notification, Emily was just as confused as Jaselm and Daichi, but at least Mira caught the reference. Her, “Really dad? After a stupid cartoon?” indicated that she might not appreciate his sense of humor, but it was funny to him.
Beyond that, he was thrilled with the way the battle had gone. No plan survives past the moment of engagement. They had not known about the slippery mucus trails which the creatures could leave on the ground or that they could think tactically enough to lay a trap. Yet, stopping and researching the shells had worked out well. If they had all gone in casting spells it might have gone much worse. Now that they were going to have full shells from the snail corpses that he had stuffed into his back of holding, he envisioned a lot more research and hopefully some cool applications for the magic absorbing material.
Then as he looked at the rest of his notifications, he didn’t care if anyone else joined in. He was so happy that he jumped for joy.
Your party has slain four level nine Flail Snails. After all modifiers and racial bonuses you have gained 34 XP.
Ding! Levels gained: 20. This now makes you a Tier 3 character.
Stat Points Gained: 9. Character Points Gained: 2.
You have 102 unspent Character Points. You have 15 unspent stat points.
You have gained a tier bonus: Gain 1 class specific skill up to level 21.
Watcher’s Preparation: ongoing- As a result of reaching character tier 3, five of your prior life skills will have their base level doubled. Each tier gained will provide an increase to a decreasing number of these skills and only the skills enhanced at this or a prior tier gain will be eligible for future improvement. Choose wisely.
There was too much good stuff to think about to do it on the fly. So he told everyone his good news and then began helping everyone get ready to leave. An hour later, they were healed up and back at the entrance to the mine with Kraden. Dave and Jaselm took turns carrying the miner as they stepped out into the Murkwood.
It had been dusk when they had entered the mine, and while the sun had set, there was still a sliver of red at the horizon indicating how little time had passed. It definitely was odd to have lived through what must have been nearly three days and yet only a little more than an hour had passed for everyone else. The possible applications for that mine/dungeon were pretty substantial. The first thing they saw when they exited was the six soldiers who had been posted as guard. The humans and elves snapped to attention when they saw who it was.
“Thank you for watching out for us, can one of you point me to where my younger daughter is?” Emily asked with a smile.
“Yes, Lady Emiri,” one of the elves said, “She is with Hogo-sha Eisuke, questioning the prisoner they captured.”
“Wait. What? Sara captured a prisoner? What exactly happened while we were gone?” Her questions came out a million miles an hour without ever allowing the poor elven soldier to answer. “Never mind. Just take me to them right now.”
Dave chuckled at the way in which someone who was so against a hierarchical society could be so commanding to an underling, but he too fell in behind the elf as the soldier led the way to Sara. They went through the camp weaving around where the different squads had set up for the night. Dave was gratified to see that they were in fact following his orders and staying in their mixed squads even if each race seemed to gather together. He noticed that the camp was not set up with straight lines or any military precision that he would have expected from his days of service.
He looked at Daichi and Jaselm, “Is there a reason that the tents and campfires are set up all willy nilly?”
“Um willy nilly?” Jaselm asked.
“Sorry just another expression from home. I just mean why are the camps set up without any sense of organization?”
“I can’t really say. This is different from the way our forces normally set up,” the paladin answered.
“It is simple really. With both Baron Murkwood and Lady Emiri gone, Eisuke was in command, and so he set the camp up in the fashion of the circle. In your foresight, Baron, you ordered the squads mixed so that there are elves in each squad. Thus it wasn’t really hard to do,” Daichi spoke up.
“That doesn’t explain why it is so unorganized.”
Surprisingly, it was Emily who answered, “It only appears so to a human eye, the elven way is to set up in a manner calculated to least disturb the forest.” Husband and wife exchanged a look with a raised eyebrow from Dave as if asking why she was talking about him like he was different from her. Dave knew that he didn’t fully understand all the merger into the circle had done to Emily, but he was still surprised to hear her describing humans as something alien to her. Now wasn’t the time though, and so he simply raised an eye, and they both knew it was a conversation for time alone.
By the time their conversation ended, the party had reached a spot in front of an ironwood tree. Sara saw them and came running over first hugging her mother and then jumping up for her father to pick up. Balayria walked over after her with that tusky grin which was terrifying, and yet at the same time, it was somehow friendly. Strangely enough, Krinnk didn’t follow her. After Dave set Sara down, he noticed that the goblin was surrounded by a pair of elven forest wardens. He wondered if something really bad had happened. If there was one thing that the humans and elves had in common it was a distaste for the little green man.
Dave started to walk over to make sure that the goblin was okay, but as he got closer he saw a shocking sight. At the base of the tree wrapped up in bonds of magically warped ironwood was a creature out of myths and legends. On the ground it was impossible to say exactly how big the minotaur was, but he guessed a good eight feet. The simple presence of the huge bull man was enough to get his attention, but the horrid burns up and down his entire right side made him wonder just what exactly had happened while they were gone.
Eisuke was speaking to the minotaur in a deep guttural language, which after a moment of focus, Dave realized he was able to understand.
“No healing for you until you explain why you were outside our camp. You can simply suffer in silence if you don’t want to speak.” There was a cruelty in the elf’s voice which Dave was unaccustomed to. The forest warden was a stern man but Dave had never witnessed him doing anything like this. While questioning the minotaur, he was rubbing the heel of his boot against the burns clearly causing excruciating pain.
Emily pushed past Dave, “Shinrin Hogo-Sha.”
She didn’t say more but her tone was such that all the eyes within ear shot focused on her. “What do you think you are doing?” Then without waiting for an answer, she quick cast a regeneration spell followed by a Minor Heal on the minotaur.
Eisuke was staring at her, “What do you mean Lady Emiri?”
“You were torturing a prisoner. What excuse could there be?”
A confused look went across the forest warden’s face. “What is the problem? That is how we get the information we need.”
“It is wrong. We will not act like that.”
“My Lady, perhaps you don’t understand what sort of beasts minotaurs are. They are mercenaries who sell their loyalty to the highest bidder with no consideration of honor.”
Dave stepped in, knowing full well that there was no
way that his wife was ever going to consider torture to be okay. He was a bit more pragmatic, but even Dave wanted to find a different way. “Perhaps we could talk about this in private.”
With that, the forest warden walked some distance away with Dave while Emily stayed and continued to work on healing the minotaur. As they walked, the two of them were joined by Jaselm, Daichi, and the other human and elven leaders.
“First off, it is not our intention to challenge your orders or authority before the men. As best as possible we will always support you with the troops.” The leaders nodded as he said this before continuing on. “Wait, is Emily safe with both of you here with me?” he asked, eyeing the paladin and monk.
“Anytime we step away, other members of both her Meiyo Eihei and the soldiers of the forgotten goddess assemble around her. There is no need to worry, but anything you can do to share insight into the odd behavior displayed by Lady Emiri just now will be helpful.” The monk’s tone was solemn but confused.
“I can and will try to explain that, but I want to make sure that each of you understand the nature of our relationship. Where we are from, we don’t have nobles, at least not ones with real authority. In fact, many people in our home nation mock the very idea of nobility. Yet, we have famous people and those who are very rich who still command others around them. What is true there is likely true here. For there to be a proper relationship between the leader and those who follow, it is easier if they share or at least understand each other’s motivations.”
They all nodded which Dave took to be agreement or at least understanding. “So now, we are placed in an unfamiliar position, but we intend to make the best of it. We do not believe that we have been given charge of this land for our own benefit. We are the servants of the people who live here, including each and everyone one of you who wishes to remain with us. The political structures here require us to work in certain ways and there must always be leaders, but we don’t believe leadership is a reward, it is a privilege and a sacred responsibility. The same applies to you if you are to remain in positions of leadership.”