Mageblood

by Christopher Johns

  “So, Al and Sundar will be here soon.” She glanced over in time to see Alvor walk over with my glaive. “Oh, we found someone to repair our weapons?”

  “For a price,” I amended as I shared the quest with her.

  “That’s understandable.” She frowned, then looked to Alvor. “What level are the creatures near the West Mines?”

  Alvor seemed to think it over for a moment, then shrugged. “I think in the neighborhood of five to six? The forest leading up to it is fairly calm, so it won't be too much of a problem.”

  “So, at worst, we’re going to be out of our depth by a hundred percent—we’ve handled worse odds in the past.” Mona grinned sardonically, but Alvor seemed to take a shine to her for it.

  “Miss, what kind of weapon do you use?” Mona held out her dagger to him, and he looked it over. “Well, if you’re to be that outmatched, may as well have it repaired and maybe an additional one?”

  I found the offer… vexing, but free gear was free gear, and Mona seemed to be interested as she batted her eyes dazzlingly, and her pink aura flarer to life.

  As the apprentice smith wandered away happily, I stepped closer to her. “Did you just use Allure on him?”

  She leaned closer, the scent of her fur the same flowery and musky scent I’d caught at my place, somehow, as she blinked over at me. My heart pounded briefly as she explained, “I wanted to see if there was a non-combat use for it. It seems like there is.”

  “That’s evil, and I love it.” I couldn’t not appreciate any edge we could gain, even if it made me a little uncomfortable for some weird reason.

  I was going to have to get over this.

  —We’re here!— Sundar whispered violently into our ears, I could almost see Albarth sighing as she did so.

  I taught Mona how to send our location, and she had the same question I did about barring a place, but neither of us had a clue why anyone would want to do that.

  The others made it to us swiftly, Sundar clearing the crowds out of the way as she moved, even though she was friendly about it.

  “We would have been here faster, but Sundar the Affectionate had to help an old lady across the street.” Albarth rolled his eyes.

  I snorted, and Mona just shook her head. “That’s not nice, Al.”

  “He’s not trying to blame me for anything guys.” Sundar’s eyebrows knit together. “I genuinely did stop to help a little old lady across the street. But it was worth it because she gave me these!”

  The giant healer held out a plate full of cookies with chocolate chips in them. “They replenish health and some of our Aether?”

  “Aether?” Mona raised an eyebrow. “All of our skills seem to be either toggle or cooldown—except for Kyvir’s—when does Aether come into play?”

  “Well, I’m assuming that Aether is this game’s term for mana, so likely when our skills evolve, or we get strong enough.” I shrugged. I had thought about it, but since I didn’t have any natural magic, we would have to see how things worked here.

  “Aether is the magic that your body naturally stores, but is also all around us,” Alvor’s voice made me turn around. He held out a dagger of similar shape and design as Mona’s, then her actual weapon. “Here you are, the edges needed honing.”

  “Thank you so much, Alvor.” Mona sheathed them at her hips slowly, a matching sheathe appearing for her to equip it with. “You were saying about Aether?”

  Alvor blinked and lifted his eyes from her hands at her waist and grunted, clearing his throat. “Yes, Aether is the magic all around us. From what my father told me when I was a boy, Wanderers have the ability to manipulate it almost instinctively; but there comes a point in their progression where their natural gifts and the use of Aether will both diverge and intersect. At the divergence, they learn to use a secondary type of magic that forces them to use their Aetherpool—the place where Aether is stored inside all of us.”

  So, we had cooldown abilities and abilities that would cost us something equivalent to mana, but we didn’t know how long it would be before that type of growth would occur, and it was highly likely that we would have to get to an appropriate level to do so.

  “What else can you tell us of this world, friend?” Albarth smiled in an amicable manner and stepped closer. “Are there ways to master things for wanderers?”

  “You mean such as weapons?” Alvor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Well, sure, if you can find a trainer to teach you the necessary skills with the weapons you want to use, you could begin the journey to mastery.”

  “And I suppose that allows us to do more damage? Or fight more efficiently?” Sundar bent down so that she could look Alvor directly in the eyes.

  “Well, yeah, and it will also allow you to use weapons above uncommon tier.” When we just stared at him he sighed knowingly. “I’ll tell you this and then we need to go. Trash, poor, common, uncommon, rare, legendary, and mythic are the item tiers of our world. As their tier name states, as it goes higher, the harder it is to either find or make. Stats like Stregnth and Skill might help you use certain weapons, sure, but mastery is what will give you the ability to move up to the highest tiers of weapons. Now, is there anything we need before we go?”

  We shook our heads, and he held out the now cleared and clean pickaxe for me to take. “If there’s nothing else, follow me.”

  He grabbed a pack and slung it over his back and marched out from behind the counter, not even calling back to the other smiths that he was leaving. But hey—he knew his people.

  We traveled through the city with the various people, places, and things to see. The great brazier of fire in the center of the Fire Square being one such attraction that glowed and shimmered with light of all different spectrums around what looked to be a large salamander statue. It didn’t move, but there were smaller versions of it that crawled, clambered, and skittered all over it. Through the flames and out of them excitedly as we passed.

  “Ah!” Albarth cried out, and the rest of us turned to find a salamander had fallen onto his head, the little red-scaled rapscallion clambered about on Al’s hair as he tossed his head back and forth.

  “Stop!” Alvor barked, making us freeze as we were about to rush forward to assist. “It’s not going to harm him, this is amazing!”

  “Well, it sure as bloody hell isn’t on your head, is it mate?” Al said, and snarled angrily as he reached for it.

  “It’s a sign of favor among those who use fire magic!” Alvor rushed forward to stop Albarth from doing anything. “These creatures don’t do this—ever. And legend has it that if one of the guardian’s kin touches you, your growth will be exceptional… you’re a blessed man, sir.”

  “I’m Albarth, and I don’t really care for lizards.” The wood nymph grumped, but looking up at the tiny creature, it seemed content. “What do I do to get it off my head?”

  “Well, be gentle and try to coax it off,” Sundar offered helpfully. “If an animal likes you, it’s not their fault that you are scared, they just show affection how they do.”

  The insight surprised me, but then again, the older woman was more in tune with a great deal of things than any of us were aware of.

  “All right then, you little beast, come down here onto my hand, this instant.” Albarth adopted an imperious tone and held up his palm, but the salamander refused to move.

  “Offer the back of your hand, animals are smarter than we give them credit for.” Sundar turned her own hand palm down and showed Al how it was done. “He can likely tell how upset you are and is worried you will try to hurt him. Try to be soothing. Take a deep breath before you talk to him again, okay?”

  Albarth looked like he was about to tell her just where to stick that deep breath before she growled at him, “Now.”

  He rolled his eyes at her and did as he was bid, offering the back of his hand to the salamander. “Come now, little friend, let us take you home.”

  It took a couple heartbeats before the little creature stepped out on the
back of his hand, but it did. The skin of its body was covered by small scales that seemed to shift and ruffle like feathers as it regarded Albarth from mere inches away from his face. It made what sounded like a small, modified crackling sound, the scales along its body glowing blue, then orange as it did so.

  “Well, now that I can get a look at you, you aren’t such a bad looker, are ya?” Albarth whispered to the creature. “But I’ll see you home, mate, don’t fret.”

  He held the salamander up to the brazier, and all it did was cling tighter to him. “Looks like he wants to come along,” I called over to the confused man. “Either way, we’re burning daylight. Let’s move.”

  Albarth shrugged and offered his shoulder to the little creature who scurried onto it happily before we took off west again. It took us nearly an hour and a half to traverse the city, and that was with a talented guide who helped us avoid the more crowded sections of the city’s thoroughfares to move more swiftly.

  Eventually, the gate for the western section of the city came into view, the armed guards glancing at us and smiling grimly. Likely inwardly celebrating our impending doom.

  We ignored them and walked by without issue into a lushly forested area. The blue sky filtered through the canopy of the large fir trees, their leaves giving off a needled scent that I had always associated with them. It made me sneeze. I wasn’t allergic, but the scent just did that occasionally.

  “How far out are the mines?” Sundar asked, pulling out her large club as we entered the forest.

  “About another hour and a half or so on foot,” Alvor explained, looking at the ground for a moment, then nodding and standing tall. “We’ll likely have a cart full of supplies for the trip home, so it won’t take too much longer on the way back as it does to get there, I hope.”

  “That’s good, because the way I reckon, being out here after dark is a bad idea,” she muttered, and we pressed on.

  I rubbed my chest and confirmed it with a grunt of affirmation, remembering my first death.

  The forest was alive, our presence seemingly barely registering for some of the wildlife in the area. Moving along our chosen path was relatively easy due to the well-traveled earth, shrubbery and other bits of wood life seemed to have been cleared away considerably as well.

  According to Alvor, the only predatory animals in the area were wolves, and they steered well clear of the city, we would only need to worry about them near the mountains and even then, only nearer to dusk.

  Travel went swiftly from there on, the trees eventually growing more and more sparse as the looming mountain in the distance came more easily into view. The shaded areas of the stone and rock face looked more and more ominous as we approached.

  “There it is, the Demon-faced Mountain,” Alvor’s voice was a whisper as he spoke.

  “Hardly looks demonic to me,” I observed aloud, the apprentice smith glanced at me, before shrugging. “Any legends about it?”

  “That it was formed from the face of a fallen demon lord who had almost stripped the world of its Aether until the Mages figured out a way to stop him.” Mona’s eyes were rolling in pleasure as Alvor told the story, but he didn’t seem to notice her. “Legend doesn’t say how it happened, but he fell, and his bones became that of the earth and soil, the blood in his veins becoming the ore that we mine. The items we’re going to pick up now are the ore samples and the materials we need to support the war effort.”

  “War effort?” Albarth asked as he tickled the salamander on his shoulder. “I thought that the adventurer’s guild was fighting demons, and you’re telling us there’s a war?”

  “That is the war,” Alvor pointed toward the mountain. “They aren’t just legends, they’re in this world, fighting to corrupt it and wrest control of it from us. They feed on the Aether, most of them being slightly resistant to magic and the stronger ones using it themselves.”

  “So then the front lines are the adventurers and the armies of several different nations standing against the demons.” A sort of amber glow from up ahead flickered, and I decided to take out my glaive, just to be cautious. “Can the beasts in this forest use magic?”

  Alvor seemed confused as a large bird burst from the underbrush, then he screamed, “Demon Thresh!”

  Lvl 5 Demon Thresh – Hostile

  The large bird looked like an eagle in coloration and size, except for the eyes that burned a crimson so deep it could’ve been fire.

  It took a few hopping strides toward Alvor who backpedaled and fell before I rushed forward with my glaive set out and up like a spear, the tip on the top of it ready to pierce the bird’s flesh.

  It dodged my attack and smacked me with a wing.

  5 dmg taken

  The smack had been enough to turn me so that it could peck at my shoulder before a burst of flame washed over it.

  7 dmg taken

  10 dmg to Demon Thresh

  “I’m going to use allure, get ready.” Mona began to glow with her pink aura that signaled her use of her ability and then she began to sway, and the aura moved into the area around her like a wash of color.

  “Go for the wings!” Albarth snarled as he waded into the fight with a stick in his hands, held like a sword.

  I shifted the trajectory of my attack to go for the wings as the beast followed Mona’s movements in a daze. She wove closer and closer until finally we struck at the same time she did.

  27 dmg combo to Demon Thresh.

  Demon Thresh suffers Broken Bone Debuff.

  The bird screeched in agony and went to try and snatch Mona up in its beak when Sundar’s massive club thumped against its head once, twice, then a stick covered in flames whipped into the beast’s eye.

  10 dmg to Demon Thresher

  9 dmg to Demon Thresher

  CRITICAL STRIKE

  23 dmg to Demon Thresh

  Lvl 5 Demon Thresh died

  54 EXP

  “Nicely done, but where there is one Demon Thresh, there are others, we must move.” Alvor nodded enthusiastically and waved us forward.

  “Seemed almost too easy, if you ask me.” Sundar growled, casting her eyes about cautiously. “But hey, enough experience to get me to four with that quest I turned in for us.” I froze and glanced at the others whose levels had gone up. I sighed in relief, my face slackening a bit. “Looks like you guys all leveled too. Is that right? Could it be for some kind of bonus due to level difference?”

  “I agree, and I wouldn’t know, but good job, though, with the fire and braining that thing to death,” I cast my eyes toward the sky as I spoke, but it seemed we were okay for now. “I’m on lead, we’re going forward in diamond formation, and I want our biggest in the rear. We can level and heal up when we’re clear and safe. You all good with that?”

  “Diamond what?” Alvor whispered as we all moved to stand around him.

  “It’s an audible we use to describe the type of grouping we think is best,” Albarth explained from his left, where he stood less than three feet away. “Our damage dealers, myself, and Monami guard the sides, while the tank takes the fore and the brutish healer the aft.”

  “You sweet talker.” Sundar grinned from her place at the rear of the formation. “All set.”

  “Moving,” I stated, and we all began forward with Alvor in the center. The others would keep an eye on our surroundings while keeping our charge safe.

  With constant whispered communication, we kept a good pace going forward and didn’t run into any trouble, not until we got to the mouth of the mine, that is.

  “What is that thing?” I hissed as I watched something that sat and licked itself clean of drying blood.

  I focused my gaze and received a message with a prompt in scrawling writing.

  (Nothing escapes your sight, magical or otherwise)

  I blinked, and the message changed into a system message.

  Skill unlocked: Evil Eyes (Greenhorn) – Your hidden skill has been realized enough to come to the fore. When you gaze at a creature an
d focus, you can see data concerning themselves and their magical aura. There are some who can hide their information, or tinker with what may be seen—be wary.

  Skills can be obtained and grow at rates of their own, with use and practice, you can cultivate others of all kinds. Some skills will allow you the ability to grow into certain jobs. Be on the lookout.

  Oh wow, so that’s why I can see what I do? But why is it affecting the real world too? And what had been with that first message? And what does it mean about jobs? I guess there was a bevy of questions still to ask.

  Lvl 7 Hell Cat - Docile

  I motioned to the people behind me, making a circle slowly with one finger, then motioned back toward the bushes along the path we had come down.

  We moved slowly and cautiously; I was grateful we had found cover when I felt something wasn’t right.

  Once we arrived, the others bombarded me with questions in hushed tones. “Would you all just be patient?!” I whispered harshly.

  “No?” Mona blinked, and I had to fight the urge to push her off her feet where we crouched.

  “Hell Cat, level seven, and it’s licking blood from its body, so it has to have killed recently,” I whispered hurriedly, recalling other information as I spoke. “There’s a shelf above it with the entry to the mines behind it. No corpses, but there was blood on the grass and earth, and I’m not sure what’s what.”

  “Well, the miners may be safe in a passage or something,” Alvor reasoned, his eyes on the ground with his hands clenched tightly. “I’m not sure. This kind of beast doesn’t normally come down from the mountain unless something drives it. Something larger, or more dangerous.”

  “You think we should head back and see about getting some help?” Mona glanced my way, but I was trying to paint the scene in my head again to find an advantage. The thing was three levels higher than us, but there were four of us here. Five if we counted our charge, but that numerical advantage wouldn’t mean much if it got a hold of one of us. We would need to use the environment and teamwork to our advantage.