Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  “Load me up.” I groaned.

  A short while later, I had staggered over to Isviar’s house with what felt like Aliz’s entire store of ingredients and he agreed to look after her Alchemy equipment while she was gone. I’d been promoted to an Apprentice in Herbalism, but sadly got no new recipes for that. Apparently, nothing new happened until Journeyman rank. I was simply supposed to refine my current skills so I could create better quality ingredients.

  To get to level 20 in Alchemy, I worked out I needed to create a total of 150 potions. Since Aliz only needed 120 of them, I decided to spread the remaining thirty out between the three types of potions.

  360 finely ground flux beans and kudzu seeds, followed by 180 finely ground lightning bugs, and I was ready to never see another mortar and pestle again. However, all of that effort had taken me up to level 20 in Herbalism. Isviar promised to raise me to Journeyman once I was ready, which I guessed meant that I had another quest line I needed to find and complete. For now though, I could level up my Alchemy skills without restrictions.

  By the time I had very carefully created 60 average HP and SP potions and 30 average MP potions, Aliz had moved all her extra ingredients and some of her equipment over to Isviar’s. I hit level 20 in Alchemy and she let me keep the extra ten of each type of potion as an added bonus for completing her quest. I knew I couldn’t use them until I was level 10, but I had to stay positive and believe I was going to get there.

  Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Brew Potions

  You have received 20,000 XP.

  My little XP bar grew to 59% of the way to level 8. I also noticed, from a quick glance at my stats sheet, that I’d gotten an extra 20 Karma points for helping Aliz, so I was finally at 100. I had no idea if it would go higher, or whether it was a percentage-based stat. No amount of querying my interface got me the answer, either. I guess I just had to wait and see.

  It was starting to get dark, but I wanted to try and get one more quest done before I absolutely had to sleep. Hopefully, with Soter’s help, things would go faster, and with the need to get to level 10 looming over me, I didn’t have the time to take things slowly.

  Heading over to the quest board, I discovered that it, however, had other ideas. There were no quests with decent rewards on it. I wasn’t quite so desperate that I’d put up with getting 500 XP for several hours of work. I walked to the inn, thinking that, at the very least, I could get an early night and be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow and hopefully get a quest done before I had to head out.

  “Ah, I am finally reunited with my lovely rescuer,” I heard a voice from the bar declare as I entered the inn.

  I turned to see Allion sitting at the bar, saluting me with his glass of wine.

  “Please allow me to offer you a glass of the finest elven wine. It is the very least I can do after you saved me from a fate worse than death,” he said, patting the stool next to him.

  I guess elves liked to over-exaggerate. Although… Kailu didn’t act like that, so maybe it was just Allion.

  “Thank you, but I was going to head to bed so I could get an early start on some questing. I need the XP,” I said as I turned to head over to the innkeeper.

  “Nonsense, I won’t take no for an answer. If you need a quest that badly, I’ll give you one,” Allion put his arm over my shoulders and started to guide me back toward the bar.

  A low growl erupted from behind me as Soter made his presence known.

  Bad man. Smell wrong. I heard him say.

  “Pets are not allowed inside the inn,” shouted the innkeeper. “Please either stow it or leave it outside. I’m not in the business of tidying up after filthy, wild animals.”

  A red-faced man with a receding hairline stood by the open door with his arms firmly crossed over his ample gut.

  “Sorry Soter, I don’t make the rules, would you prefer to go outside or,” I paused, or what? I had no idea where pets went if I were to stow him.

  Soter solved the problem by slinking out of the door, taking a fake snap at the irritable innkeeper’s groin on his way out. I struggled to hide my smile at the man’s yelp.

  “Now that that’s taken care of, I insist on helping you out with a quest,” declared Allion again.

  You have received a quest: Drink Up

  Join Allion in finishing the bottle of elven wine.

  Completion of this quest will give you 30,000 XP.

  Do you accept? Yes / No

  This guy must really be grateful. That was an insane amount of XP for just having a drink. I thought yes and followed him to the bar.

  28

  Acid Shots

  “Urrrrrgh,” I groaned. My head felt like it was about to explode.

  I was lying on a wooden floor. Gingerly looking around, I realized it was the floor of the bar.

  “… didn’t even pay for a room.”

  I could hear someone grumbling loudly as they walked into hearing range.

  “Good, you’re finally awake!” Shouted the innkeeper as he stood over me.

  My vision swam and I felt like I was about to throw up.

  “Oh no you don’t!” He poked me with his broom like he was trying to sweep me out of the inn. “You’re not throwing up in here again. I had to clean up the entire bar last night, after you stupidly drank that bottle of elven wine with that elf. Don’t you know how potent that stuff is?”

  I did now.

  “It’s not meant for humans, you know,” he glared at me. “I’m going to have to air out the entire inn because of you. The place smells disgusting. Like some cheap drinking hole. This is a nice establishment, where decent people can come for an expensive meal.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t know about the wine.”

  I glanced down at my XP bar to find that at least I’d completed the quest, even if I didn’t remember it. I was now 97% of the way to level 8, which was a nice consolation.

  A small, red icon in the bottom left of my vision caught my attention. It looked like a little pile of poop. I focused on it, hoping to get some more details.

  You are repulsive.

  Duration: Indefinite. Lasts until you’ve washed, sobered up and have made amends for your bad behavior.

  Temporary debuff: -150 Karma

  Oh, this was so not good.

  The innkeeper tried to sweep me out of the door again.

  “Look, I didn’t realize about the wine, I’m a traveler. It’s the first time I’ve drunk elven wine,” I said, trying to look apologetic. “Can I at least pay for the cleanup?”

  “Humph. Too little, too late by my reckoning. Plus, it would probably cost more than you have,” exclaimed the greedy little man, a glint appearing in his eyes at the thought of more money.

  I didn’t have much experience with bargaining but I could spot someone trying to extort money a mile away. Time to call his bluff.

  “Okay, I’ll just go, then.” I slowly got up and wobbled over to the door on very unsteady feet.

  “Well,” blustered the red-faced innkeeper, seeing money about to walk out of the door. “You could at least give me five florins for the hassle of dealing with your mess.”

  Well, I only had four, so that wasn’t going to happen.

  “After all,” he carried on, “you didn’t pay for a room last night and we don’t let people simply sleep on the floor. I tried to put you in a room, but you simply threw up every time someone tried to move you.”

  Oops. I was starting to get an idea of why I had this debuff. I needed it gone, however, or I was never going to get any quests to get me to level 10. Time to use my bargaining skills.

  “Once again, I’m really sorry, but I don’t have five florins. I know the rooms here are a florin a night, so how about I offer you two and we part as friends?” I flashed him my best smile, which, given what had come out of my mouth the previous night, probably wasn’t that nice to look at.

  “I have to pay the staff extra today to air out everything, otherwise I won’t
get any customers coming in. After last night, the ones that were here will probably never come back again, anyway. Four florins, and that’s the lowest I can go.”

  “Since you have the only inn in the village, I’m sure they’ll be back. After all, where else would they go? Three florins, final offer, or I’m simply going to leave,” I bluffed.

  “Fine!” He scowled, holding out his hand.

  I took three of my four florins out of my inventory and handed them over. The debuff remained, but I probably needed to go and wash up before that disappeared.

  Walking out of the inn into the predawn darkness, I wondered where I’d find some water. I turned back to ask the innkeeper, only to find the door slammed in my face. Okay. Wandering around it was, then. I knew there was a stream that came from the mountains past Kailu’s place, so I headed out in that direction.

  Congratulations! You have discovered: Algor River.

  “Arrrgh!” That was one cold stream. I finally submerged myself completely in the ice-cold runoff water from the mountains. Scrubbing quickly at my armor, face and hair, I finally cleared the debuff. Now I was just ridiculously cold.

  I stepped out of the stream, shivering, with frigid water dripping off every part of me. Thankfully, the sun was just starting to rise, and with the time compression of the game, sunrise was a quick event. I sat on the bank to take stock while I dried out a little bit.

  A large, red number two in the top right of my vision caught my attention. All the fuzziness from my hangover instantly disappeared, leaving me colder than the stream could have ever managed. My timer had advanced. That meant this just became real. I now had five days left to solve this riddle or die. Andrew hadn’t been bluffing.

  The sun was just starting to rise. I had to meet Mikael in about an hour, so if I could find a few corrupted mobs, I might be able to reach level 8 before we left. At least I knew that level 10 was something I needed to accomplish. It was time to put all my energy into that.

  Now all I needed to do was find Soter.

  I walked toward the place where I’d seen the corrupted mobs the day before while yelling for Soter. No response. I was pretty sure I hadn’t dreamt that I’d tamed a pet wolf. Nope, there was a bar for his health above my own health bar. I shook my head. That hangover must have affected my ability to think clearly. I thought Summon Pet, and my hands moved on their own again as I also found myself whistling. A few seconds later, a large, white wolf shot out of the bushes and made a beeline for me.

  Soter stopped in front of me, looking at me with piercing blue eyes.

  Awake. Good. I heard inside my head. Hunt. Follow. With that, he turned and padded away back into the forest.

  I quickly followed, wondering if he could hear my thoughts like I could hear his.

  Before we’d gone very far, Soter suddenly stopped moving and crouched down. His eyes focused on something I couldn’t see.

  Quiet. I stopped.

  I peered into the forest ahead of us, trying to see what he was stalking. Without warning, he quietly slunk forward a few steps, then abruptly froze again. I had no idea how something as big as him could move so silently.

  Finally, I caught sight of a massively oversized, red and black beetle. It was the size of a large dog. I tried to Inspect it and the text over its head changed to read Corrupted Bombardier, with a small 6 beside it.

  I looked around and could only see the one beetle.

  Once again acting without even a growl to warn me, Soter pounced forward, hitting the side of the beetle. Collecting my wits, I quickly started casting Fireball. I threw the fire at the beetle and guided it toward its head.

  The beetle squatted down and started shaking. All of a sudden, the beetle reared up, pointing its abdomen at Soter. A stream of liquid shot out from the beetle toward the wolf. He leapt to the side, but the liquid still caught the end of his tail. Just as Soter let out a horrible scream, my Fireball hit the beetle’s belly.

  Soter’s health dropped to 90%.

  The beetle let loose a second shot of liquid before the fire from my Fireball had completely dissipated. All of a sudden, there was a huge explosion. Whatever the beetle was shooting was obviously flammable.

  I flew backward into a tree. Pain burst through my back. All the air was forced out of my lungs. A little red swirl icon popped up at the bottom left of my vision.

  You are dazed.

  Duration: 5 seconds.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Soter lying crumpled at the base of another tree. A quick glance at his health bar showed he had 10% HP left. Thankfully, the beetle had come off worse. There were pieces of beetle carapace littered around the clearing, with a rapidly expanding hole in the forest floor as the liquid ate away at the ground.

  “Arrrgh!” I groaned again. This seemed to be the theme for today.

  I pulled myself up to my feet using the tree. As soon as I felt like I could stand without falling over backward, I stumbled over to Soter and cast Healing Mist on both of us.

  Slowly, our health bars started to refill.

  Soter came out of his daze as his HP reached 50%. I recast Healing Mist and sat down beside him to recover. His tail was starting to knit itself back together, so I figured there wasn’t much more I needed to do.

  When the beetle disappeared, I got up and walked over to collect my loot. There, next to the smoking hole in the floor, was a slightly charred stick. I bent over to pick it up. As soon as my hand touched it, there was a golden-white flash.

  You have received: Oak Staff

  50-80 Magical Attack Damage.

  Quality: Superior.

  Rarity: Uncommon.

  There were runes carved into the staff that were now glowing a faint golden color. At the top of the staff, growing out of the end of the wood, was a blue crystal, shaped like a pointed claw. The white glow coming from it was slowly fading away into the background.

  A distant humming sound caught my attention. It was almost like my staff was resonating with the magic in the area. I was enthralled. This was going to seriously help my magic skills.

  More. A clicking noise finally penetrated my vision of being a great mage. There, in front of Soter and me, were four more Corrupted Bombardiers.

  I quickly started focusing on creating a Fireball. The runes on the staff started glowing a brighter gold. Almost instantly, I had a ball of fire in my hands. I threw the Fireball at the closest beetle. As it left my hand, a white mist formed around the crystal on the top of my staff. As the mist spread downward, I could see a matrix of lines running through the Fireball. It was very tightly woven. I pushed the fire with my thoughts toward the beetle’s head. The fire unwound again like it was growing wings. This time though, it grew as well. By the time it reached the beetle, it was nearly four times the size it had been before. The fire hit the beetle’s head, causing a huge explosion.

  You have been blinded.

  Duration: 5 seconds.

  I blinked, desperately trying to get rid of the white spots in my vision.

  Down. I hit the floor as quickly as I could. Something flew over the top of my head and landed on the floor behind me. I could hear the floor bubbling and spitting as the acid from the beetle ate another hole in the ground.

  Finally, I could see again. Soter was on the back of one of the beetles, raking his claws across its head. There was a ring of destruction in front of me where I’d blown up the first beetle and set two of the others on fire. I Dodged to the side to avoid a second spurt of acid.

  Rolling to my knees, I created another Fireball and threw it at the closest beetle. This time, I looked away before it hit. Another huge explosion sent me reeling backward. Both beetles had taken damage. One was now at 5% HP and the other was still at 20%. I instantly created another Fireball. Before I could throw it, a scream cut through the air. The beetle Soter was battling had thrown him off its back and then sprayed him with acid. He was down to 2% health. I abandoned the Fireball and quickly started casting Healing Mist while sprin
ting toward him. I had no idea what would happen if he died and I didn’t want to find out. I got within range just as the cast finished. His HP started to rise as the regen kicked in.

  I spun on the spot and cast another Fireball at the beetle with the least health. Covering my eyes as that beetle exploded, I cast a second. I looked up quickly before I released it, only to realize the explosion had taken both the beetles out. There was only one left. The one that had attacked Soter. I threw the Fireball at it and set it ablaze. The acid was still eating away at Soter’s health. Swapping again and casting Healing Mist, I tried to circle around the beetle and take its attention away from Soter. It ignored me.

  “Run!” I yelled, as the beetle reared up to shoot acid at Soter again.

  Somehow, he limped far enough to the side for the acid to miss. I tried to cast another Fireball, only to discover I’d run out of mana because I wasn’t watching it carefully enough. Since my bow worked off mana as well, I was out of options.

  I launched myself at the beetle, thumping it with my staff. Hopefully, I wouldn’t damage it or cause the crystal to fall out. I brought the staff down as hard as I could on its head. Spinning, I swiped at its spindly legs. I heard a crack as the closest leg broke. Before it could react and spray acid at me, I used the staff like a spear and poked it as hard as I could into the beetle’s side. It punctured the carapace and the beetle collapsed.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Thrust.

  Thrust is part of the Stick Fighting Skills

  It is linked to the stats Strength and Dexterity.