by A P Gore
Noah dashed forward with his dagger in his hand. The goblin was just a few paces away. He slammed his dagger against the shield, creating a tiny hole in it. Through that hole, he cast his curse of pain on the goblin, damaging him for five damage and increasing his physical pain by 10%.
The goblin mage’s fat nose twitched as pain radiated through his body. He looked strong, but he was strong with mage skills, not physical endurance. The increased pain made him lose focus, and the shield dropped.
“Rihala, now!”
An arrow flew past his nose, hitting the goblin mage in the heart. The mage lost his remaining concentration and looked at Noah with a frightened face.
Another arrow hit the goblin mage in the eye, scoring a crit. A spray of blood shot from his eye.
Noah jumped back to avoid getting his clothes dirty. He didn’t have so many pairs of clothes to waste on the goblin blood, and he hated washing them with soil as soap. The stupid town didn’t have washing soaps. He’d missed his real-life house when he first had to wash his own clothes.
The goblin mage dropped dead with the next arrow from Rihala, leaving a monster crystal behind for Noah. A mix of notification popped into view. He chose the experience notifications.
You have gained 900 experience for your contribution toward the battle.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a soft hand tugging at his. It was Rihala, trying to pull him up. “Let’s go,” she whispered in his ear, her lips brushing against his earlobe, sending tingles across his body. “A large goblin party is patrolling around.”
They sneaked out of the open space, hiding behind the trees as much as possible, moving as quickly as they could in the opposite direction. They could kill the two goblins, but according to Rihala around twenty goblins were patrolling the area. Twenty was a huge number, and Noah wasn’t ready to risk Rihala’s life just because he could get good experience.
“That was close.” Rihala breathed out a gusty sigh.
“Indeed, it was.” Noah tried to glance in the direction they came from but couldn’t guess which that direction was. He didn’t have a map to locate anything. “Where are we? And how far we are from town?”
Rihala blinked. “We’re six hours away from your town, and one whole day away from mine. Wow! That’s bad. My mom is going to kill me. But we can’t go back, as we might encounter the petrol again. We have to find a place to spend the night. My mum wouldn’t like it, but it is what it is.”
“Spend the night.” Noah’s body shuddered with desire.
A tail slapped him on the back of the head. Noah yelped in pain. “Ouch! Why did you do that?”
Rihala looked away, red blossoming over her cheeks. “Don’t even think I’d do some lowly things with a human.”
Noah raised his hand and shook his head like his life depended on it. “No-no. I wasn’t implying anything like that.” He bit his tongue, it had betrayed him.
“Forget it, and let’s find a place to camp for the night—separately.” She started walking and Noah followed her. After a few minutes of walking, Noah spotted a ruined house behind a large tree.
“I think someone is living there. We should check it out.”
Rihala quickly covered his mouth with her hand. “Let me check it out first. My mom always says not to go into an unknown ruined house.” She moved forward like a cat, and if Noah wasn’t looking at her, he wouldn’t have known she was moving over the ground. Her footfalls were non-existent. Was it a skill?
Noah released his breath when Rihala came back with a scowl on her face.
‘What happened?’ he asked with a hand gesture.
“The house is all good, but there is a chest in the middle of it and a note. And I triggered it accidentally.”
“What do you mean by accidentally?”
Her face darkened in shame. “I fell on it. Now I’m bound to it, so I can’t go away unless I defeat the two waves starting in ten minutes. My mom always tells me how clumsy I am.”
Noah facepalmed. The woman was an elegant design of an unknown demon god, but he forgot to offer her elegance while walking. She would keep walking—sorry, falling—into unnecessary trouble.
“It’s okay if you want to go.” Her tail dropped on the ground like it weighed a hundred kilograms, and her body couldn’t hold it in the air anymore. “I’ll take care of this thing myself. My mom has made me strong for such situations.” Her words had strength, but her voice belied her words; it was fragile as the glass test tubes Noah used to store the exotic specimens from the dark side of the universe.
“Why would I? We are in this together, right?” Noah grabbed her hand, giving her a reassuring smile.
“Would you, human friend?”
“Friends call me Noah.”
Her tail jumped up, hovering above her head like it was happy.
“Let’s see if we can get some more information on this new quest.” Noah trudged toward the house.
15. Skeleton House
Washed out light surrounded Noah as soon as he entered the two-story house. The first room looked like it had been painted white ages ago, but now only patches of the color survived. The air inside the house was stale and unmoving, like it feared to wake up whatever beast that lived inside. Something unknown was there for sure, and even the thought of facing it filled his heart with dread.
Noah traced his hand over the wall next to the door. Wooden chips crumbled under his palm and fell to ground, leaving a dust of wooden scraps everywhere. He jumped back, fearing the wall would fall on him, but it didn’t. The old wood held together, maybe for one last time.
The room was mostly empty except for the silver chest placed at the center, and the feeling of an unknown entity.
He opened the chest. It was empty, and he didn't get any quest alert. Strange.
“I'm hungry,” Rihala whispered, startling Noah.
He jumped, nearly tripping over a small crack in the wooden floor. “Don't do that, please.” Noah wiped the sweat away from his forehead. She almost gave him a heart attack.
“I'm hungry. Do you have something to eat?”
“Yes, I have frozen chicken. Do you like it?” Hunger was creeping inside his stomach as well.
Rihala's worried face changed into a cute smile. She nodded.
Noah turned back for a moment, looking at the silver chest again. “But let’s do it outside.” He didn’t want the decayed smell affecting his food.
“Wow! You are so generous, human friend—” She shrugged. “—sorry, Noah. My mom always said to eat before getting into a fight.”
Noah stared at her, wondering if her mom had to say something or other about everything. Her mom at least seemed to be an interesting character to him.
“I wish I had raised those two goblins as zombies. We would have had a good defending force,” Noah said, munching on his chicken leg. Roderich was the best cook he had met in his whole life—better than the homemade real-life food he’d had. In real life, food came in three types: machine made food,which tasted like real, but it didn't have the charm of homemade food; nutrient food sources like protein tubes and all, which were mainly used by intergalactic marines; and homemade real food, which was awesome. It was made from real things like fruit, wheat, and so on. It was expensive, but being the son of a farmer, he knew the taste of it from childhood. Yet Roderich cooked meals that tasted more delicious than anything he’d ever eaten in the real world, and his mushroom-filled vegetarian junk actually tasted better than any meat.
“This is awesome. My mom cooks better than this, but if someone asked me to rate it, I’d rate your cooking at number two.” She paused. Half of her leg piece was in her mouth, and the other half was in her hand. “Or did you cook it? Wow! I didn’t know you had that talent as well.” Her lavender eyes were shining with every bite she took.
“No, I didn’t. The High Mage did.”
She dropped her piece on the ground and jumped to her feet, spinning, looking everywhere. “High Mage? Where?” the wo
rds sputtered out of her mouth hurriedly, like someone was about to kill her.
“He’s probably in his house, or Blacksmith’s Inn where I live.”
“Oh, you mean your town’s high mage. I thought you meant my town's High Mage came.” She dropped on her taut butt and picked up her chicken.
“That’s dirty. Take this one. I’ve packed plenty for the journey.” Noah handed her another piece, wondering if she carried anything for her journey or not.
“Thanks. My mom always says take extra for a long journey.”
And here you are, without a single ounce of food with you.
Rihala handed him a note. “Okay, read this. I got this from the chest.”
The quest popped up as soon as he read the message:
Beware traveler, the house is cursed.
Quest Alert: The house is cursed with a curse of skeletons. Defeat the waves of enemies and get the treasure. Accept? Yes. Compulsory quest once you read the note. Reward: Variable.
“What does it mean by variable reward?” Noah asked as they walked back inside the house. The timer was almost up.
“The reward will be determined by the way we complete the quest. The quest is of a rare type, so it can be anything from an uncommon item to a rare item or a crystal. But it’s not a good thing. Damn! Why did I get you into this too? The quest will be difficult and may kill us both.”
Noah paced around the house, leaving footprints in the dust. “Where is this rare modifier for the quest written?” Noah asked, not seeing it in his notification.
“You need to have high perception.” Her voice wavered a little.
He stopped in front of her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll beat this shit.” A bell rang from the upper floor of the house once the timer ran out. A skeleton immediately rose from the right corner of the room.
Noah dashed closer to the skeleton, hitting it with a poison orb. The skeleton crumbled into dust as soon as the poison orb hit it. “See how easy this quest is?”
“I don’t think so. My mom says, ‘never say anything is easy before the quest is finished.’” Rihala drew her bow and shot an arrow at Noah. The arrow brushed past his ears, raising his heart beat, and hit a skeleton rising behind him. She continued, “Come here, let’s do back-to-back formation. We both can use ranged spells.”
Noah hurried over to her, killing another skeleton in the way. They were only level three, with 100 life, so one crit was enough to kill them. “What is back-to-back formation?”
“Really?” She raised a brow. When Noah showed no expression of understanding, she spoke again. “Put your back to my back so we can cover each other.”
Noah moved into position, his back pressed on hers. Now they could attack the skeletons without worrying about friendly fire.
Two new skeletons rose and died by Noah’s dual cast poison orb. Noah heard the whooshing sounds of Rihala’s arrows behind him, and assumed she was holding her own.
One more skeleton rose, this time too close to Noah. He didn’t have time to cast his spell before the skeleton’s club struck, taking 10 life out of his health pool. Then another skeleton rose near him, and another, and another, and another. In seconds, they were surrounded by dozens of skeletons hitting them for 10 damage each. The damage piled up quickly.
Noah was casting continuously from both of his hands, and soon his spirit reached dangerously low levels. He panted from the exertion. When he couldn’t cast any more spells, he pulled his dagger out and started stabbing skeleton heads.
With his dagger, it was a slow kill. Though he was targeting weak spots, like their heads, the damage from a single hit wasn’t sufficient to kill the skellies, and they were hitting him continuously. When his life dropped below half, he felt the aftereffects of life drain slowly kicking in.
Fortunately, Rihala had finished her side and turned to help him. With her help and his gradually climbing spirit, they finished off the remaining attackers in the next few minutes.
Congratulations! You have defeated the first wave of the skeletons. 60 total skeletons killed. Time to next wave: 10 minutes.
“What the hell. Another one?” Noah squatted, grabbing his knees. Sweat flowed freely over his whole body. It was clear with his limited spirit supply he wouldn’t last much longer, and his life was already low.
He pulled two minor healing potions from his bag and handed one to Rihala.
Rihala looked at it in shock for a moment before taking it.
Noah emptied his and watched his life slowly rise up to the 75% mark before the effects waned. Damn! 75% was bad, and he didn't have any extra potions. He’d forgotten to buy more from Mathial.
Rihala's life was at 85%. “Sorry,” he said. “I don't have more.”
“Wow! You are generous Noah. These potions are rare, and not everyone has enough money to afford them.”
His spirit was back up to full when the next attack began. This time, it was rats that rose from the floor. Fortunately, the rats were slow, and Rihala had an easy time picking them off quickly. When the wave ended, they were in better shape than they had been after the first wave.
A notification popped up when the last rat died.
Congratulations! You have defended the second wave. 30 total rats killed. Time for boss: 10 minutes.
“Damn! We’re both are at sixty percent,” Rihala said, her forehead covered with wrinkles.
“Don't worry, we should be good. We’ve got some meat shields now.” Noah looked around at the rat corpses littering the room. Though low level, rat zombies would be good to hold off the boss or whatever would be coming for them.
When the boss—a large skeleton with a bone club in each hand—appeared in front of them, Noah raised four zombie rats and attacked the boss. As expected, the boss was low level and couldn’t kill the rats in one shot. When a rat died, Noah raised another one. It became a game of attrition. Between the rats, the swarm of Rihala’s arrows, and Noah’s poison orbs, the boss only managed to get close to them a couple of times before they killed it.
“Wow! That was easy. If only I’d raised the goblins as zombies earlier, we would have sailed through this.” Though triumphant, Noah sank to the floor, exhausted. He’d thought they were both done for after the first wave of skeletons outnumbered them so badly. He could die, but he couldn’t let Rihala die.
Congratulations! You have defeated the first boss. Would you like to proceed to the next level? Accept: yes/no?
Noah looked at Rihala, who was drenched in sweat. He selected 'no'.
A slew of notifications appeared.
Experience gained: 1510.
He did a quick calculation. Each skelly gave them 40 experience, each rat gave them 50 experience, and the final boss gave them 500 experience. The total experience was multiplied by 2 for party size and divided by 2 for level difference. Then, based on the participation, Noah was awarded 1510 experience.
Congratulations! You have completed the first phase of the Skeleton House challenge. Complete all five phases to gain a unique item. Phase 1 reward: 50 silver, 2000 experience.
Congratulations! You have reached level 6. You gain 3 skill points and 3 stat points to allocate.
Your dedication has proved your mastery once again. Though low-level rats, they are still counted as zombies. You have gained +1 to raise zombie.
Wow! Noah hooted when the divine light washed over him and recharged him. The same happened with Rihala, who was now smiling the most beautiful demon smile he had ever seen before. Not that he saw many, but he bet hers was the most beautiful smile in her town too.
“We did it, Noah. We did it.”
“We did it.” Noah stood and moved forward to inspect the items things that the rats, skellies, and boss had dropped. There were a couple of things glowing with a blue aura.
16. Sacrifice
Noah kicked a couple of rat corpses out of the way and headed for the beautiful monster crystals the boss had dropped. There were two. He tilted his head to lo
ok at Rihala, who sat on her knees, her eyes distant. Maybe she was looking at her character sheet.
After a moment or so, she locked eyes with him and nodded in response to the question in his eyes. He dropped the crystals in his bag of holding. He would inspect them later to see if they were good enough for his mold box.
Grah! Let’s do this now.
He quickly went into his design mode and pushed the two crystals into a mold. A two day timer appeared next to the mold.
Did I get faster with this stuff?
He left design mode to check out the rest of the loot and found a bow with unknown properties.
Rihala looked confused when he handed it to her. “I can’t read this. My inspect skill is not very advanced. It just looks like an old dirty bow to me, and my mom always says ‘don’t keep unnecessary things.’”
Noah raised his brow upon hearing about her mom for the hundredth time by now. “Let me try something.” He pulled the magnifying glass out of his bag and focused on the bow.
The faint blue aura around the bow expanded into a light yellow aura.
Crimson Bow of Haste
Quality: Rare
Attack Damage: 10-20
Attack Speed: 1.08
Adds +2 frost damage to bow attack
+1 to wielder’s speed
+1 to frost shot
“Wow! This looks great. I’m sure you’d love this.” Noah handed it back to Rihala with a smile.
Rihala’s eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for a moment. It seemed using the magnifying glass on the item had revealed its properties for her too. “This is awesome!” A tear dripped down her cheek. “My damage will go up exponentially with this bow.” Her tail moved forward, almost wrapping around his waist. There was a strange tension between them. “Thank you, Noah. You are a noble man to hand me your loot.”