by K R Dimmick
I held the sticks and rope and concentrated on building a large snare trap. My hands started moving by themselves, and pretty soon, I had a large trap covering the red mark on my mini-map.
“Once you reach the Apprentice rank in trapping, you can set your traps to notify you when they’re sprung. As you’re not at there yet, I’m going to do a small modification to this one, so I don’t have to keep coming back here to check it.” Mikael bent over and started fiddling with the trap.
A short while later, I’d created and placed all ten traps. My trapping skill had increased to level 2 and we were just starting to head back to Milgate.
“What?!” Mikael exclaimed. “That first trap just got triggered. I didn’t think there’d be any more corrupted beasts around yet. They’ve arrived in waves every four days up until now. I hope this isn’t a new trend.”
He scowled and started running back toward our first trap.
As we approached, I could hear something whimpering. Despite trying to be quiet as we approached, I managed to step on a twig, which snapped loudly. Suddenly, the whimpering turned into a low, menacing growl.
I pushed the bushes aside. There, caught in our trap, was a beautiful white wolf with stunning blue eyes. It was huge. Its head was level with my waist. The growling made me focus on the large, slightly yellowish, razor-sharp fangs that were a little too close to my hand that held the bushes to one side.
The wolf’s right leg was caught in the trap and stuck out at a horrible angle, with red painted over his fur. I looked up into its eyes and had the weirdest feeling of connection. My breath caught in my throat.
Help. Hurt. I heard in my mind.
Mikael raised his bow. Without thinking, I pushed him hard to the side. He released the shot and the arrow flew off into the distance.
“What was that for? The pelt on this thing alone would bring around eighty florins,” he drew back his bow again, ready to kill the wolf.
“Stop!” I yelled, shoving him hard and causing him to miss the wolf again. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about this wolf. We can’t kill it.”
“Well, we can’t leave it here, either. What did you plan on doing? If you try releasing it, I don’t think you’ll last very long against it.” Mikael crossed his arms and glared at me.
“I should have gotten healing magic unlocked instead of fire.” I muttered. A crazy idea blossomed in my mind. “Do you have any food I can give it?”
“You want me to feed the beast the food I picked up from my traps that I was going to sell in the village later? What then? Would you like me to give it a hug, too?”
“No, not you. I want to feed it. I can’t explain it, but I need to help heal it.” I thought that, if I told Mikael I could hear what it was thinking, he might think I was crazier than he already thought I was.
“Just give me some of the meat you have in your inventory,” I demanded, holding my hand out.
“Hmmph. Fine,” he scowled at me. “Just don’t expect me to rescue you when it bites your hand off.”
He threw a few pieces of meat at me.
You have received: Squirrel Meat x 3
I held one of the pieces out in front of me and slowly approached the wolf.
“It’s OK, I’m going to go and get help,” I said calmly.
“You’re going to do what?” shouted Mikael, making both me and the wolf jump. I could have sworn the wolf glared at Mikael.
Shaking my head, I put the chunks of squirrel meat on the ground in front of the wolf. It was still growling, but it almost sounded like the growl was followed by a question mark. I stood up and backed away.
“You’re going to stay here and make sure the wolf is safe. I’m going back to Jace, to either get him to come and heal it, or to teach me how to.” I glared at him, daring him to refuse.
“Fine,” he mumbled. “Wolf sitting duty it is. Just don’t be too long.”
I threw him a grateful look and turned and ran as fast as I could back to Milgate.
“Jace,” I yelled as I got within sight of his house.
He popped his head out of the open door, his eyebrows raised as high as they could go.
“I found an injured wolf. It got caught in one of our traps and I need to heal it.”
“Why would you want to heal it?” he blurted out.
“Don’t ask. It’s a hunch. Can you either come with us, or teach me that healing branch of magic so I can heal it?” I asked hopefully. “I’ve completed your quest and I’ll do another one for you in return for the magic unlock.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand you travelers,” he sighed. “I’m too busy right now, so come here.”
He reached out and put his hand on my head, and once again, I felt like I remembered long forgotten skills.
You have unlocked: Spirit Magic
Jace pulled two skill books out of the depths of his robe and handed them to me.
You have received the spell: Wound Seal
You can heal large wounds.
Wound Seal is part of the Spirit Magic skills
It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.
Increase your Intelligence to increase the amount of injuries you can heal.
Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.
Increase your Spirit Magic level to increase the effectiveness of Wound Seal.
You have received the spell: Healing Mist
It provides a health regeneration over time for those within 100 range of you.
Healing Mist is part of the Spirit Magic skills
It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.
Increase your Intelligence to increase the amount of HP recovered per pulse.
Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.
Increase your Spirit Magic level to increase the duration of Healing Mist.
I read both books quickly and watched as they vanished in a burst of flame.
“Here are your rewards for the last quest,” Jace said, causing a notification to appear.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Protect Milgate 2
You have received 60,000 XP.
My XP bar shot all the way to the end, then cleared itself and started lengthening again.
Congratulations! You are now level 7.
You have 5 unassigned stat points to use.
You have also gained 5 HP, 5 MP and 5 SP.
All changes are final. Place your points mindfully.
You need 80,000 XP for your next level.
“If you’re serious about this, you need to get a good staff!” Jace yelled after me as I turned and ran back toward the forest.
Since all my magic skills worked off Intelligence, I threw my five points into that while pelting back through the forest to where I’d left Mikael and the wolf. Hopefully, they hadn’t tried to kill each other while I’d been gone.
27
Trapped
Legs burning as my stamina approached 10%, I finally reached the area to find Mikael and the wolf sitting on the ground, an uneasy tension between them.
As I pulled back the bushes to get in, the wolf gave a half-hearted growl, then placed its head back between its paws on the ground like it had given up.
“I’ve got it,” I said. “Jace unlocked Spirit Magic for me. The question is, do I try healing it before I release the trap, or after?”
“Well, if you heal it before, the trap will still be in the way, so the healing will either fail, or simply heal anything other than its leg. So, I don’t think you have much choice, unfortunately.” Mikael looked resigned to my craziness too.
“Okay, well, I have two skills: one for regeneration and one specifically to seal wounds. I’m going to cast a regen, and it’ll hopefully realize I’m not trying to hurt it, then I’m going to undo the trap. After that, I’ll heal it up the rest of the way.”
I moved over to the wolf who looked up at me.
Help. Hurt. I heard again.
> “Don’t move. I’ve not done this before,” I said.
I thought about casting Healing Mist and my hands started moving on their own in a complicated gesture. A second later, an electric, blue mist coalesced around me.
A little blue icon of a star appeared in the bottom left of my vision to show I also had the health regeneration working on me, even though it had nothing to do.
The glow started to concentrate around the wolf, since it was the only one of us that was hurt. As I watched, its health bar slowly increased from 45% to 55%.
“Hold still, I’m going to get you out of this,” I stared at the wolf, willing it to understand so it wouldn’t bite me.
Hurt less. I heard. Hopefully that meant it knew I was responsible for the healing and it trusted me, at least a little bit.
I reached out toward the trap, wondering how I was going to get the wolf’s paw out of it. As soon as I touched the trap, a pop-up appeared in my vision.
Disable trap? Yes / No
Quickly thinking yes and silently thanking the gods for making that easier than I’d hoped, I reached out and moved the fallen collection of sticks and rope away from the wolf’s paw.
The wolf’s head came up with a look of surprise on its face.
Before it could move any further, I held out my hand as if to say stop. Rather than getting up, it simply looked at me.
Again, I thought about casting Wound Seal. This time, the wolf turned mostly transparent, with a blue grid that overlaid its shape. Looking at the injured paw, I could see the lines of the grid were broken and frayed at the ends. I focused on joining the ends back together and making the join perfect. As I did so, an electric blue mist extended from my hand toward the grid of lines shaped like a wolf. The mist enveloped the damaged area and I watched as the broken ends knitted themselves back together.
As soon as it finished, the wolf came back into view, this time with a completely undamaged paw and a health bar that read 100%. If anything, I thought, that was even more amazing than being able to create a fireball.
Before I could even think about moving, the wolf padded over to me and put its right paw on my shoulder. A pop-up appeared in front of me.
As a reward for helping this wolf, he is offering you a 10% chance to tame him.
Do you accept? Yes / No
That was surprising. I thought yes and was rewarded with another notification.
To increase the chance of successful taming, name the wolf.
100% success rate if you use the wolf’s real name.
I looked at him, my mind going blank. I’d grown up around various dogs called Spot, Snoopy and Fido. This wolf deserved a great name, but I had no idea how fast I needed to think of one.
Soter. I heard. Was that his real name?
“I name you Soter,” I declared.
Congratulations! You have tamed a white wolf: Soter
Communication with your pet improves as your bond levels up.
You have unlocked the partnering skill: Pet Bond
You have unlocked the partnering skill: Summon Pet
A fifth line appeared at the bottom of my vision. Above my own health, mana, stamina and XP bars was a little pink bar. It was labeled Soter, and was currently full. I assumed it was his health bar.
“I’ve never seen anyone manage to tame a wolf,” Mikael said, a look of astonishment on his face. “I thought you only had a 10% chance to tame one?”
“He told me his name,” I looked sideways at Mikael, hoping he wasn’t going to declare me insane.
“What do you mean he told you?”
“It’s like he spoke into my mind,” I said rather shyly. “It’s why I didn’t want you to kill him, he asked for help.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of that before. It was rumored the dragons used to talk to their companions mind to mind, but I assumed that was simply a myth. The only people I know with a pet don’t have the ability to talk to them. Maybe it’s a special skill travelers have. No matter. Congratulations are in order,” he reached into his inventory and pulled out another piece of squirrel meat that he gingerly offered to Soter.
“I can take you to Ratters Town tomorrow and introduce you to the town’s beast-master so you can learn more about your Pet Bond skill if you’d like? I want to get over there to warn the residents about the Dragon Hunters anyway. What do you think?” he shot a calculating look at me. “They also have a library where you could look for information about your riddle.”
Yep, that sealed the deal.
As I walked back to town, I repeatedly cast Healing Mist over myself, Mikael and Soter. I figured it would make a great buff before a fight because my mana seemed to recharge quickly while I was out of combat, so it was essentially a freebie. Plus, the higher I leveled up my Spirit Magic, the longer the health regeneration promised to last. By the time we’d reached the outskirts of Milgate, I’d already gotten my Spirit Magic up to level 3.
I arranged to meet Mikael the next day so we could visit Ratters Town, then Soter and I headed to Aliz’s. I doubted Suri could have gotten the journal to her yet, but at least I could warn her to be careful, since I had no idea if Andrew had discovered it was missing yet. Hopefully, she would also agree to unlock Apprentice rank for me in Alchemy.
“You found the journal?” Aliz asked, shock written across her face. I’d told her I’d left the Dragon Hunters and why. Explained who Soter was and how he wasn’t going to attack her. She was now happily talking to me again.
Soter was curled up contentedly in a corner of the room, chewing on a bone Aliz had grabbed from her kitchen.
“Yes, I found it. Suri is going to get it to you tomorrow, provided nothing goes wrong. Then she wanted you to get somewhere safe, so she can leave the guild too.”
“I can’t leave Milgate. That’s ridiculous. She must know that,” Aliz started pacing back and forth, scowling.
“Once Suri leaves the Dragon Hunters, Andrew is going to realize the journal is missing. If you’re still in Milgate, he’ll come straight for you,” I said. “Either he’ll take it back, or, if you’ve already decoded it, he’ll destroy it and make sure you can’t teach anyone else the recipes. I honestly don’t think you have much of a choice.”
She sat down hard on one of the stools at her bench, looking rather white as she realized I was right.
“How am I going to practice Alchemy?” she whined.
“Well, you gave me a portable kit. Don’t you have one for yourself?” I asked. “You can take everything you want to keep safe over to Isviar’s. He can claim it’s all his stuff, and he’ll keep it for when this is all over. Then we pack up what you need, and you can come with Mikael and me tomorrow.”
“We’re going to need to leave a bunch of potions in the village. I know most of them are well below level 10, so they can only use the basic potions, but there are a couple of people who are higher than that and need the average level potions. Since you wanted more training in Alchemy, how about I raise you up to Apprentice, give you the recipes, and you get started on those?”
“Perfect,” I smiled. “I really need to start leveling my Alchemy because I have a feeling I need a potion that’s in that journal.”
Aliz reached over and put her hand on my head.
Congratulations! You have become an Apprentice of the craft: Alchemy.
Brew potions to increase your skill level.
You can learn all Average or lower level recipes.
She handed over three more recipe books.
You have received the recipe: Average Healing Potion - Apprentice.
You have received the recipe: Average Mana Potion - Apprentice.
You have received the recipe: Average Stamina Potion - Apprentice.
I knew the drill. I quickly consumed the books while Aliz wrote out a list of the potions she needed me to create.
Recipe: Average Healing Potion
1 bottle of water
10 drops of Cress-Rose Flower tincture
6 fi
nely crushed Flux Beans
2 drops of Star Bramble tincture
Combine the ingredients over molten heat until potion is deep red.
Cool for 1 minute.
It looked like all I had to do was double the basic recipe ingredients. This should be easy.
“I know the average recipes look like the basic ones,” Aliz said, looking up from her list, “but they require you to be a lot more accurate with your timing and preparation of your ingredients. So, don’t take any shortcuts. I’ve noticed that most travelers can get a little sloppy from time to time, which is why most won’t ever progress past Apprentice rank. Try not to be one of them.”
She looked down her nose at me, then pointed toward her bench.
“You’ll find all the ingredients you need there, and the torch is over at the far side of the room,” she waved her hand toward what looked like a furnace. I guess, given the explosion I’d caused last time I’d tried a new Alchemy recipe, this was probably to keep her house from being burnt down or blown up.
“I want to leave them fifty of each of the Health and Stamina potions and twenty of the Mana ones. Can you handle that for me?” She passed me the list and a pop-up appeared in my vision.
You have received a quest: Brew Potions
Create 50 Average HP and SP potions and 20 Average MP potions.
Completion of this quest will give you 20,000 XP.
Do you accept? Yes / No
“Definitely. I’ll let you know when I’m done,” I said, thinking yes and pulling out the flux beans to start crushing them.
“Not quite so fast, genius. You need to visit Isviar and get raised to an Apprentice Herbalist before you start, or you’ll be wasting a lot of experience,” she said, clearly enjoying herself at my expense. “So you might as well help me carry a bunch of things over to his house along the way.”