Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  “Exactly,” added Damir. “I can only assume that the gem on the necklace Faelyn just described was a Soul Crystal.”

  Several faces around the room went pale, and I felt the color drain from my face as well.

  “The tapestries in Andrew’s study show that he killed a dragon. Do you think it was that dragon’s soul?” I asked the King, hoping I was going to be wrong.

  “Well, there’s a bit more to it than that,” Arik interrupted my visions of dragon souls being enslaved. “There is a myth that if an elf has lived a good life, they will be granted rebirth as a dragon. It is why Goran Thedgate is where we believe we go when we die.”

  “Exactly,” said the King, who had gone rather white. “And I watched my mother’s soul go through the Dragon Gate after Andrew killed her. I think she might have been granted a second life as a dragon in order to stop him, since she had seen his true nature.”

  The King sat down heavily on his chair.

  “I think that energy might be my mother’s soul,” he said.

  Silence descended on the room.

  39

  Lack of Wisdom

  As soon as the meeting was over, I pulled Arik aside and arranged to meet him and Aliz. I needed to get this riddle solved as fast as possible and find out what ingredients we needed for the mysterious potion in the riddle. I was a little nervous as to what my side effect would show, but I didn’t have time to worry about that at the moment. Hopefully, Arik had found some way for Aliz and me to raise ourselves to Master rank. If not, some true nature side effect would be the least of my problems.

  There was just one thing I needed to do before I met up with them, and that was to get back to the Alchemy hut and discover one more potion, so I could reach level 40 in Alchemy.

  While I was walking toward the hut, Mikael caught up to me with a huge grin on his face.

  “Going to be testing another potion by any chance?” he asked. “Thought I might come along for a laugh.”

  Suddenly, Mikael yelped and jumped into the air. I looked back and started laughing. There was Soter, standing where Mikael had been, baring his teeth at him. There was a small piece of leather in his mouth and it was the same color as Mikael’s pants.

  “He bit me!” Mikael exclaimed.

  I just laughed and patted Soter on the head. It was good to have a pet.

  I looked through my notes from Aliz to work out which potion I wanted to try next. Flipping through the recipes for various bombs and resistance potions, I suddenly knew which one I wanted to make. The Magic Resistance potion. It made sense to have something that would reduce any magic Andrew could personally throw at us. He was clearly more dangerous than I’d realized. Not to mention older. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it was obvious that players didn’t age, while the NPCs did. That was going to be rather lonely in the long term, when everyone I currently knew grew older and died. I wondered what would happen to Soter.

  We are bonded. If you live, I live.

  Well that was a relief.

  I shook my head. I was once again getting lost in my thoughts. I needed to get on with it and create this potion. I opened my notes at the right page.

  Magic Resistance Potion:

  1 bottle of water

  20 drops of Harpy blood

  4 drops of Skeleton Flower clear tincture

  1 dried, finely crushed, Flying Jacaranda blossom

  8 Decoy Spider eggs

  Combine the liquid ingredients over Molten heat for 3 minutes.

  Add dried ingredients and stir continuously until the mixture starts to become invisible.

  Quickly add the eggs. Whisk until the mixture stabilizes.

  Well, this recipe was more complicated than the others had been so far, and the instructions weren’t the clearest I’d seen, but I needed to get this done. Grabbing the ingredients from the Herbalist’s stores and an Alchemy flask, I got started.

  I added the water and dropped twenty drops of the harpy blood into it, which floated on the surface, looking more like an oily stain than blood. The skeleton flower clear tincture was completely clear and looked no different than water. However, as soon as the first drop touched the harpy blood, the entire mixture started to bubble. I added the second and third drops easily enough, but just as I was about to add the last drop, one of the large bubbles in the mixture exploded and made me jump. The tincture drop missed the flask entirely and landed on my foot. Thankfully, there was no burning, corroding, or really anything to show what had gone wrong. Thank goodness, Mikael would never have let me forget it if he’d known. I quickly added the fourth drop to the flask before anything else could happen.

  Toggling the torch to molten, I grabbed the tongs and held the mixture in the flames. My convenient little timer popped up and counted down three minutes for me. The longer the flask was over the heat, the less it bubbled, until finally, with only ten seconds to go, the mixture turned milk white and stopped bubbling at all. The color change worried me a bit, since that’s what had happened with my last mistake, but I couldn’t think of anything I’d done wrong, so hopefully Aliz had just forgotten to tell me about the color.

  I picked up a leaf-wrapped packet of finely crushed flying jacaranda blossom. I’d learned my lesson from the last set of powder-like substance I’d used, so I poked a hole in the side of the package and tipped the fine dust carefully into the flask. I snatched an Agitator off the table and started stirring the mixture rapidly. I wasn’t entirely sure what Aliz had meant by the mixture becoming invisible, but hopefully it would be obvious. About a minute later, I got my wish as the entire flask and mixture vanished from sight. The only thing letting me know it was still there was that I could see the top of the Agitator that the mixture hadn’t touched, sticking out of the top. Well, it was definitely going to be interesting trying to add eggs to an invisible container, I thought.

  I grabbed the first egg and cracked it on the table, since I couldn’t see where the edge of the flask was. I could see a disgusting looking, green, jelly-like substance inside the shell. I quickly tipped the goop over the end of the Agitator, hoping that meant the egg was within the flask. Another seven eggs followed as fast as I could open them. Picking up the whisk, I removed the Agitator and picked up what felt like an Alchemy flask. I whisked the contents as fast as I could. My arm was getting ready to fall off when the mixture finally came back into view. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

  I carefully decanted the potion into a potion bottle and securely fastened the lid.

  Success! You have created: A Potion

  Try it out to see what effect is has.

  It was milky white, with what looked like glitter running through it. I sincerely hoped this was correct, because I couldn’t afford to die and lose XP right now.

  I left the hut to find Soter and Mikael having a tug of war with a branch. Thankfully, Damir was also there, since testing a Magic Resistance potion would have been difficult without some magic. He was currently sitting on a rather precarious looking log with his back to me.

  “I’ve got the potion ready,” I said, making Damir jump.

  The drink he’d had in his hand flew up and splashed down my leg, onto my foot. Great. I really didn’t need that. I’d have to make another trip to the stream to wash the mess off again.

  “Same place for the testing?” I asked.

  Mikael and Soter stopped trying to pull the branch away from each other and both turned to stare at me.

  “What happened?” asked Mikael.

  “What do you mean, what happened? I made a potion, now I need to test it,” I said, starting to get irritated. “Do you want to come or not?”

  Mikael pointed at my leg and the remains of Damir’s drink. Sighing, I looked down. I nearly fell over. I had no leg. I mean, I could feel my leg, I just couldn’t see it. I bent down to touch it, and sure enough, my leg was solid, just invisible. Well, on the plus side, I’d obviously made some headway on an invisibility potion. Then I remembere
d the drop of skeleton flower clear tincture that had fallen on my foot.

  “What was in that drink?” I asked a rather worried looking Damir.

  “Just water.”

  “Well, nothing hurts, and my leg is still there, so hopefully this will wear off soon. If not, Aliz might know what to do,” I said. “Time to test the new potion. Come on.”

  I turned down the path and could hear the others scrambling to catch up.

  By the time we reached the clearing, which had thankfully dried out from the melted ice, my leg had become completely visible again. Damir had sadly never seen a Magic Resistance potion before, so he couldn’t tell me if it looked right, either. I walked into the center of the clearing, while the others stood well back.

  Popping the lid, I downed the potion in one gulp. It fizzed and bubbled in my mouth. Tiny little explosions covered my tongue and went down my throat, making me smile.

  “Anything?” I asked, hoping I hadn’t completely disappeared now.

  “You look the same to me,” Mikael ventured. “How do you feel?”

  “Fine,” I said. “Can you hit me with a small electric bolt, Damir, one that won’t kill me?”

  He looked a little pale at the thought, but took a deep breath and held out his hand. A small bolt of lightning shot from his hand and hit me. It felt more like someone had tickled me than electrocuted me.

  Success! You have discovered: Magic Resistance Potion

  Reduces the effects of all magical attacks by 50% for 2 minutes.

  Excellent. I looked down to see a little blue hand with a line through it in the bottom left of my vision.

  “It worked,” I shouted, “I’ve got 50% resistance for two whole minutes. How much damage should that bolt have done?”

  “I thought you’d be around half health,” Damir said, looking a little perplexed, “Instead, it looks like it did less than 25% damage.”

  “Hit Mikael with the same attack,” I grinned. “That way, we can compare them and be sure.”

  “What?” Mikael shouted. “I think that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

  “Oh, come on, I can heal you. Get over here before this wears off.”

  Damir had started to get a glint in his eye.

  “I could simply hit you here, if you prefer?” he told Mikael, who glowered back at him before stomping into the clearing.

  “I just want to say…” Damir hit Mikael squarely in the chest, taking him to 81% health. “Owww!”

  I cast Healing Mist on Mikael as he complained bitterly about getting hit.

  He obviously had a much larger health pool than I did, but it was still a sizable attack.

  “Now hit me again,” I said.

  Sure enough, another bolt hit me and only took my health down by 22%. This was amazing. I knew it didn’t last long, but it could be the difference we needed in a fight. I’d have to make a lot more of these when I had the time.

  The two minutes for my potion was finally up, so I had Damir hit me again, just to make sure it wasn’t a resistance I personally had and wasn’t aware of. It wasn’t, and Mikael had been right, it hurt. I recast Healing Mist to repair the damage and we headed back toward El Sanctum.

  “Can you unlock Arcane Magic for me?” I asked Damir. It was definitely a branch I wanted to get spells from, having seen some of what he could do during the fight.

  “Sure. Hold still,” he said, putting his hand on my head and chanting. Once again, I had the distinct impression that I was remembering something I’d forgotten.

  You have unlocked: Arcane Magic

  “I’ve only got one spell book on me, but I can teach you other spells later, once I’ve had the time to make more books,” he said, handing me a scroll.

  You have received the spell: Shield

  You can create a shield around a person or object that can be infused with various properties, from being impenetrable to invisible.

  Shield is part of the Arcane Magic Skills

  It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.

  Increase your Intelligence to increase the strength and size of your Shield.

  Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.

  Increase your Arcane Magic skill to increase the duration of your Shield.

  I eagerly looked at the scroll, but nothing happened. I tried again, and unsurprisingly, got the same result.

  “I think there’s something wrong with the scroll,” I said, “I don’t seem to be able to learn it.”

  “How many magic skills have you learned so far?” asked Damir.

  “Five. One Fire Magic skill and four Spirit Magic skills.”

  “And how much Wisdom do you have currently?”

  “Twenty points and my gear adds another thirty-six, giving me a total of fifty-six,” I said, double-checking my stats quickly.

  “Hmm, well, there’s the problem, then,” Damir looked at me as if that explained everything.

  Seeing the blank look on my face, he carried on.

  “You get one free spell, then after that, you can only learn a new spell for every five points you have in Wisdom. With your twenty points, you can only have a total of five spells in your arsenal.”

  Well that was annoying. Not that I’d give up any of my current spells. I used the Spirit Magic ones all the time, and Fireball when I could be sure I wouldn’t burn the place down. Still, I really wanted to learn some Arcane Magic spells. I guess I’d just have to be patient and wait until I leveled again.

  “I’m still happy to give you the spell books for Lightning and Port if you’d like. That way, you can learn them when you’re ready.”

  I thanked him profusely, putting the spell book into my inventory. Now I just needed to level three more times and put everything into Wisdom. Oh well, at least I’d be casting all my spells incredibly fast at that point, and I probably wouldn’t be running out of mana either, even when I used Resurrect.

  Mikael and I climbed up to Arik’s house a little while later. Aliz was sitting with her head down, pouring over her journal, while Arik was deep into another book. After telling her about my invisible leg, she explained how skeleton flowers had invisibility properties, but that it only worked when the area was wet, which is why Damir’s drink had triggered the effect.

  Much to my annoyance, Arik threw his glass of water at my leg to see if the effect could be triggered again. It could not, so I simply had a wet leg for no reason. A fact I was rather unhappy about.

  “I reached level 40 in Alchemy,” I said, attempting to dry my leg with a towel Arik had offered me by way of an apology.

  “Excellent. Not a moment too soon,” declared Aliz. “I’ve finally unlocked the journal code and can now read the whole thing.”

  40

  Someone Is Here

  I grabbed a stool and sat down, eagerly waiting to hear if the journal contained what I needed.

  “Well, it’s part recipe book, part description of the properties of some new ingredients I’ve never heard of and part actual journal about my mother’s life,” Aliz said. “The last part is a little disturbing. She knew Andrew.”

  That got my attention.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “I know he does some Alchemy, because that’s how his army ended up with Alchemy bombs, but this sounds worse than that.”

  “My mother was a Grandmaster Alchemist. She was the only one in the region, all the others who were killed off were only Master Alchemists. At some point, Andrew came to her to study more about Alchemy. She was already selling the Timer Reset potion to all the travelers who came through the gate, so he didn’t have to worry about the timer like you do. Apparently, the potion only works if your timer is still set to day one, though. The moment it advances, the potion is unusable.”

  I guess that explained why he’d seemed to have so much time to accomplish everything he’d done. It also meant that I now had no backup plan. I’d secretly been hoping that, if we couldn’t get the potion I needed created in time, maybe I
’d at least be able to work out how to reset my timer. Clearly, that option was off the table. I could feel the panic welling up inside me.

  “He persuaded her to raise him to Master rank,” Aliz said, dragging me out of my thoughts of doom and gloom. “Because he wanted to be able to make the potion himself. For some reason, my mother seemed to have a soft spot for him and agreed.”

  That sounded familiar. I was starting to think Andrew’s mind skills must extend to getting people to like him, as well as manipulating them.

  “He asked her to join the Dragon Hunters and told her his plans for becoming the biggest guild in the area and helping all the travelers that came through. When he declared that he wanted his guild to be the only place a traveler could get the Timer Reset potion, however, my mother disagreed with him. She refused to join the guild and carried on selling the potion. The journal ends a week later, with her suspicions about an upcoming massacre and why she wrote the journal for me to read.”

  Aliz looked like she had more to say, so I simply nodded along to encourage her.

  “She added in an extra part that I don’t understand,” Aliz said, looking worried. “She addresses the section to me, saying I’ll need it once I reach forty. Considering she was only around level 35 herself, I doubt it has anything to do with my level or my age, so I can only assume it means level 40 in Alchemy, which is when you need to unlock Master rank. She told me I’ll have to progress after forty on my own, but that she has done everything in her power to help me. She also said that she hopes I took her advice and either trained as a magic user or befriended one, because otherwise, I won’t get very far. After that, there’s just a riddle I have to solve. All I can guess is that she didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands and have the information get out.”