Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)
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If the target is an inanimate object then it delivers force sufficient to punch a hole through twelve inches of reinforced stone wall +1’/2 levels.
If target is a magical barrier it has a 100% chance of destroying any tier 1 or 2 barrier, 75% chance of destroying a tier 3 barrier, 35% chance of destroying a tier 4 barrier. Even if it fails to destroy a barrier it depletes the health equivalency of the shield as if targeting a living being.
Range: 200’+5’/level. Cast time: 20 seconds. Cool-Down: 10 minutes - 5 seconds/level. Mana: 60 Tier 3
Well, no fireball, but there was no way that he would not be happy about these spells. Still, now he was going to focus on what to do next instead of dreaming up ways to use the spells. So between the new bow and these spells he had some ranged offensive capabilities and hopefully Mira would be able to teach him some more. Now he needed to look at defensive capabilities, so he applied forty points to Abjuration Magic.
Abjuration: The magic of protection and negation. It is never the aggressor, rather it always responds. Yet those who use Abjuration magic know that it is not he who has the first word which matters as much as he who has the last. With this, you may protect yourself or others and undo the spells of your foes. Effect: Determines the highest tier of Abjuration spell accessible to you as well as increasing the effectiveness of those spells by 5%/level. 1 spell of each tier 1st-3rd obtained.
Minor Shock Shield: creates a wall like barrier 4’x4’ which protects from physical attacks from one direction. It reduces the damage from physical projectiles by 50% and absorbs any electrical attack of up to Tier 3 that is used against it to increase its power by a like amount. The first melee attack that strikes the wall is negated by 75% and the source of that melee attack takes damage equal to 10-20+2/level. Cast time: 1 second Mana: 15 Duration: 2 minutes+1 tick/level. Cooldown: 1 minute-1 sec/level. Tier 1
Obscure Scrying: distorts the images received by anyone seeking to scry target or the area within 3’/level of target’s present location. Degree of distortion varies depending upon the Tier of the scrying magic used. Mana: 30 Duration: 2 hours + 10 minutes/level. Cooldown: 4 hours Tier 2
Ablative Armor: Target must be wearing heavy armor. Creates a magical aura which appears crystalline but does not impair the movement of target at all. The armor takes half the damage of any attack against the target. Beam type attacks are dispersed and their total damage reduced by 75% before the damage split. The armor has a health equivalent of 250+15/level. 20% of the damage taken by the shield is converted into mana for the target. Duration: 1 hour + 1 minute/level. Cast time: 2 seconds Mana: 100 Cooldown: 5 minutes- casting this spell dispels any previously cast version of this spell upon the target or previously cast by caster. Tier 3
Dave was so tired, the days of fighting in the mine and then all the drama of tonight, but he was not going to let that stop him from finishing out the build he had been thinking of. Well at least as much of it as he could. So he dropped forty points into the last school of magic that he was really excited about.
Conjuration Magic: this is the magic that controls the very dimensions of reality. A conjurer can both call forth items from the very aether of the universe and beckon forth beings from other places or even other planes of existence. With this magic, you will never be without. Determines the highest tier of Conjuration spells available to you as well as increasing the effectiveness of those spells by 5%/level. 1 spell of each tier 1st-3rd obtained.
Minor Messenger Bird: conjures a minor air elemental in the shape of a songbird. It can record up to 1 minute + 1 tick/level of a message to be delivered to any target in the known world. Can not cross planar barriers. Travel speed of the messenger is 400 mph. Caster knows when the message is successfully delivered. If a message can not be delivered within 24 hours then the elemental is dismissed and the caster knows. Cast Time: 1 minute Mana: 20 Cooldown: 5 minutes Tier 1
Alcoholic Cloud: conjures a cloud with a radius of 10’+1’/level which smells of strong alcohol and has the effect of inebriating any susceptible creature within its area. Every tick inside the cloud is the equivalent of drinking 16 oz of 120 proof alcohol. If a target passes out from the effect then no further absorption occurs. Mana: 55 Duration: 10 minutes + 1 minute/level Range: 500’ Cooldown: 5 minutes - 2 ticks/level. Tier 2
Summon Dire Rhinoceros: summons to caster’s location. A will contest is initiated and if caster prevails then the creature is under caster’s control for duration or until slain. If the duration expires, the creature is returned to its original location. If the contest fails, the creature will do everything in its power to slay the caster or if death is likely, flee. Level of Dire Rhino is 1-10+½ level. Cast Time: 30 seconds. Duration: 10 minutes+.5 hours/level. Cooldown: 1 hour-.5 minutes/hour Mana: 90
Well, Dave couldn’t say he had expected any of those spells. He was definitely going to have to put more points into his Wisdom if he was going to be summoning deadly creatures. Now he was down to thirty-two points, but some of the spells he had gotten had given him a slightly new idea about how to combine his old build goals with his new build goals. So what the heck, he put the remaining 32 points into a hybrid skill. The skill required that he have the heavy armor skill, a high strength score and Conjuration Magic of at least 20.
Frost Armor: Creates aura around your armor such that any melee attack against you triggers- 10-20 dmg + 1/level and 40%+ 1%/level chance of being chilled for 2 minutes and 10%+1/2%/level chance of being frozen for 2 minutes. Costs 5 mana + 1 bravery /tick
Having spent his stats and character points, Dave went over his character sheet repeatedly. Considering what his options and potential was now, there were probably only two hours left till sunrise, and he knew Eisuke would be pressing them to break camp early, so he tried to calm his mind and snuggled up to Emily to catch the remaining sleep that could be had. If he had any luck, tomorrow they would find the tree sappers and end this quest.
Dave wasn’t the only one who had trouble sleeping that night. Mira spent most of the night tossing and turning. She shared a tent with Sara and so was careful not to disturb her, but could hear Krinnk outside prowling around. Goblins were primarily nocturnal, so despite whatever transformations he was undergoing through his connection with her little sister, he still had trouble sleeping at night. And even if he was able to sleep, she wasn’t about to let him in her tent.
Glancing over at Sara for the hundredth time that night, she was wracked once again by pangs of guilt. Mira knew how badly she had screwed up in that final fight. She was certain she knew it better than anyone else, after all, she had the highest Intelligence score. What all that cold, logical processing power was telling her was that her mistake had been inexcusable. If not for luck, she might have been responsible for killing her own parents, or even the entire party. She would have fallen shortly after them, of that she had no doubt.
It was terrifying to have lost control in that way. The entire time there was a part of her which knew what she was doing, a part which desperately wanted to stop, and yet she couldn’t. Her dad was always praising her for having grown so much in Eloria. She had gone from the shrinking violet to being bold and larger than life. Yet in that moment, she felt more helpless, more out of control than she ever had. The charm spell was like peer pressure on steroids. Even thinking about it now gave her a certain guilt about using that spell on other creatures. The logical part of her mind told her that was silly, but the not quite sixteen year old girl in her sang a song of fear and shame.
The worst part of it was that if they hadn’t stopped her, if she hadn’t been defeated, poor little Sara would have been an orphan. Not the kind of orphan who gets adopted by a kind family. No, she would have been an orphan lost in a hostile world. The kind of world that wouldn’t just figuratively, but literally, eat you alive. Her only friends would have been the little goblin and the half-orc woman. Her only family would have been hundreds of miles away. Who knows if they would have ever seen each other again.
Eventually though, she got control of herself. Logic began to reassert herself. The past was behind her or some such silly thing that the meerkat and warthog from her past life had said. All that she could do now was try hard, be better. She had to be, for herself and for her family. As she finally drifted off to sleep, the thing her dad always said stuck with her. Just a silly cheer he recited, but she would make it true, “You can’t keep a Nelson down.” Tomorrow she would prove it.
On the far side of the camp, there was yet another soul who had trouble sleeping. Rak’kar was a proud man. He had risen quickly through the ranks of his homeland of Kladika, near the capital of Naxos. It was not a simple thing to be allowed to join a quadrian, yet he had done so at the early age of eight. Not only that, but he had risen to lead a quadrian and not just any, but the one. Rak’kar’s quadrian had won the grand games of Dikastis three years in a row.
That showed that they had the favor of the one true God above all, the one who judged all. The truest judgment being shown by the point of one’s horn and the stomp of one’s hoof. The humans were weak, but their lands were rich by far to that of the minotaurs. Someday if Dikastis willed it, the people of the kodikas would gather together and sweep the hornless meat eaters away. For now though, the lesser races were safe as the various factions in Kladika fought for dominance.
The best quadrians were allowed to accept mercenary contracts from outsiders. With their tournament wins, Rak’kar’s crew received the best of those offers. Many times they turned them down, for they cared little for wealth. They instead sought missions which would teach them about the northern lands and provide them with valuable XP.
Thus the offer that came to them from the Cult of Alucien was so tempting. Rak’kar couldn’t care less about the religious or political affiliations of the meat eaters. As far as he was concerned, all of the so-called churches of the north were little more than cults themselves, but a mission to go to the far north, right to the edge of the Moon Elf land was a great opportunity. Every generation or so, the princes and seers of Naxos would send a boat up the eastern coastline and would attack the dusky elves from the North. It was a great honor to be chosen for such a mission as the Moon Elves were thought to be the truest warriors of the lesser races. What Rak’kar had heard of the orcs led him to believe that they might be even closer to the true people, but as of yet, few minotaurs had encountered tusked ones.
None of this mattered for him now though. He had been judged and found wanting. Now he was to serve his penance in this life by serving this Emily or Emiri, he wasn’t quite sure what the proper name of his idioktitis zois. It was shameful enough that he had been saved by an elf, but it was made one thousand times worse that he was saved by a cow. He would bear his shame though. He would prove his worth in penance before Dikastis and trust that his former strength would be sufficient to earn him a place in the halls of judgment. Tomorrow under the light of the suns, he would make his blood oath as demanded by the kodikas.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.” — Otto Von Bismark
Emily woke to the sounds of the forest. She felt strangely alive. Before this forest had been a terrifying place, but now she felt a connection to the land and the creatures which inhabited it. She didn’t know if this was a result of her new position or her becoming more connected to the elven way of life. Perhaps it was a little of each.
Either way, for the first time in as long as she remembered, Dave was still sleeping when she woke up. He must have been exhausted after guiding them through the dungeon. She really respected his leadership and had a growing appreciation for the realities of what life in Eloria would entail. All she wanted was to be a healer and a teacher. She wanted to guide the people of Eris’ Rise to be something more than they thought they could be. It might not be fair, but Emily was truly grateful that Dave was willing to take on the ugly part of this life, the brutality and violence. Oh, she still wanted to be a ninja, but she had gained a new appreciation for the strength it could take to be a soldier, the kind of person who could do violence, not violence out of a love of it but from the necessity to protect a better way of life. She swore in her heart as she sat there watching Dave sleep that, as much as he would be her sword and shield, she would be his safe place. She would create something grand to make his sacrifices worthwhile. Of course, the tree sappers still had to be stopped.
As Emily walked out of the tent she and Dave shared, she looked to the fire pit in between their tent and the one shared by the girls. Kneeling down next to the coals was Balayria, busy frying eggs on a small metal plate. Next to her, Sara and Krinnk were eyeing those eggs hungrily. After hugs and soft words of greeting, Emily asked them to make enough food for Dave and her also and to save some for when she got back.
She crossed the camp and found Eisuke and Daichi in conversation while sipping warm tea. A stream of heat escaping the mugs highlighted the fact that it was a cool autumn morning.
“Lady Emiri,” both elves said in unison as they saw her approach.
She nodded as she said, “Good morning, can you get the other leaders here. I want to get started as early as possible, but I believe my husband still needs a bit of sleep.”
“Camp is already being broken, but out of respect for what your guardian tells us about your time in the dungeon, we chose to let your family sleep. I hope that this is okay, some Lords and Ladies wish to lead from the front and others prefer to be carried in the back,” Eisuke’s tone was respectful, but she saw the challenge within them.
“You will find that I am more of a lead from the front kind of woman.”
“As it should be, Lady Emir,” Daichi spoke quickly with a glance at Eisuke as if daring him to go on any further. When nothing more was said, the monk added, “There is one matter which requires your attention this morning. The minotaur is demanding to make a blood oath to you under the light of the sun. He claims that this is a formality that must be observed pursuant to their ways.”
“I don’t know that I am that keen on any sort of oath that requires the spilling of blood. Oh, and his name is Rak’Kar, not the minotaur.”
“Surely, the Chosen will not wish to offend another culture. You have already embraced your native culture, the ways of Albia, and your heritage as a moon elf,” Jaselm said as he walked up and joined them. He looked at Emily as if to give her an opportunity to answer before turning to Eisuke and saying, “The squads that I oversaw will be ready to move out shortly.”
The paladin and forest warden seemed to be getting along better than they had upon first meeting. A grudging respect was forming between them as both men saw that the other was efficient and willing to do what was necessary.
“Very well then. If this is the way that it must be done.” Emily was honestly a little bit embarrassed that she had had to be reminded about respecting other cultures. If this was Rak’Kar’s culture, then who was she to dispute it?
All around her, she saw the camp being quickly taken down. Sticking out in the midst of it was the eight-foot minotaur pacing impatiently and surrounded by four elves dressed in similar attire to Daichi, so they were his students which had opted to come along and serve as part of her honor guard. There was no use in putting it off, so she strode over to that group.
“I understand that you have an oath which is part of your culture that you wish to make,” Emily said as she looked up. In the light of day Rak’Kar looked even more massive than he had the night before. Her previous estimate might h
ave been a little bit short as he was nearly three feet beyond her 5 '6".
“It is part of the Kodikas. What you would call the Code. This is the way of life which Dikastis requires of all who wish to be true believers. His voice was deep and as he spoke, she couldn’t help but be reminded of a cow chewing its cud.
“So Dikastis is your god?”
Rak’kar snorted before saying, “He is the one true God, and all serve Him whether they know it or not. It is not my place to serve out my shame.”
There simply wasn’t time for this. Emily didn’t want to start an argument, or worse a fight right now. “Please pardon my ignorance, I am not from this land and have never heard of your beliefs. I would be happy to discuss them with you sometime. But now we are on a hunt after a grave danger and cannot delay. How long will your ritual take?”
“But a moment, however, I will need a dagger, preferably silver if such a thing can be found here. Mine was lost on my prior mission and I have naught but the damaged clothing I wear along with my battle axe. After I make the oath, I will ask that you, as my idioktitis zois, return it to me so that I may better serve you.”
“So long as you remember that your oath is to serve and protect Eris’ Rise and all the people who make up this district, which you are now part of.” Then turning to Daichi, “Please see that he gets a dagger so that we may get on with the hunt.”
“My Lady, are you sure that this is a wise thing? Giving a brute like that a weapon?” Sir Belmore asked, his expression leaving no doubt what he thought about the idea.