by K R Dimmick
I was surprised. Last time I’d seen her, she’d thought NPCs weren’t worth helping. Something must have changed her mind, I thought, putting the last pick in her hand.
Walking over to the next cell, I could see Mikael’s friend Jon Lytel leaning against the back.
“Jon,” I said, “Saris is going to get you out.”
I left her picking the last lock as I walked to the only other occupied cell.
“I needs out too, please,” begged a very ragged looking little girl with hair the same color as Kaylin. This must be her sister. At least they’re all in the same place, I thought.
“We’ll get you out, just hold on,” I said, rushing back to Saris as soon as she’d opened Jon’s cell. “We have one more over here.”
“Do you have more picks?” she asked.
“No,” I said, hoping she might.
“I don’t have any, either,” Saris replied. “Andrew made me empty out my inventory before he put me in here.”
“Will this do?” Jon asked, bending down and picking up a thin piece of metal off the floor.
“Maybe,” replied Saris, grabbing it and rushing over to try it in the lock. Sure enough, she managed to get it open and Kaylin’s sister stepped out of the cell.
“Okay, listen up,” I said, grabbing some XP Release potions from my inventory. “You can’t leave the guild until you’re not sharing XP with them anymore. So, this potion will make that happen.”
“I’s not in the guild,” Kaylin’s sister said shyly.
“How are you still here then?” I asked.
“We were all forced to be in a party with Joe,” Saris replied.
“Well, when you leave the party, you’ll be kicked out of the guildhall,” I explained. Before I could tell her to wait, Kaylin’s sister simply vanished.
“Arrrgh, I needed her to wait, we’re running out of time,” I said. “Are you in the guild, Jon?”
“Ay,” Jon nodded. “It were supposed ta help ma business. Was the stupidest decision I ever made.”
“That’s okay, just drink this,” I pushed a potion into both his and Saris’ hands and watched them both drink it.
“Now you should both have the Leave Guild option available in your menu,” I said, watching them both access it. “As soon as you leave the guild, you’ll be kicked out of here.”
“Saris, before you do anything,” I said, holding up my hands, which were rapidly starting to become visible again. “You need to message Baynor and tell him you’re out.”
Jon vanished as Saris’ eyes glazed over and I assumed she must be sending a message to Baynor.
Suddenly, Andrew arrived through the portal, sword in hand, frantically looking around the room. His gaze settled on Saris and the parts of me that were visible.
My heart sank. I’d been double-crossed.
59
Next Level Serious
I glanced at Saris, expecting to see a smirk on her face, only to be surprised by a look of utter horror. Maybe I hadn’t been double-crossed after all?
“Joe told me you’d left the party,” he said menacingly. “You’re both going to pay for letting those NPCs go. Whoever you are,” he added, looking at my hands.
“Leave the guild,” I hissed at Saris, who was standing still, staring at Andrew in shock.
I knew we didn’t have long. Pretty soon, Andrew would remember to use his mind control skills and we’d both be in big trouble.
I shoved her hard and she looked at me blankly.
“Leave,” I hissed.
Recognition dawned on her face, and before Andrew could react, she left the guild and vanished.
“Arrrgh,” Andrew ran toward me, swinging his sword.
I desperately tried to focus on leaving the party but got interrupted as I had to Dodge. My staff fell out of my hands and clattered across the floor, becoming visible.
“Orianna, I presume,” Andrew said in a silky voice. “Excellent. Time to end this, I think.”
I felt the pressure enter my mind and I did everything I could to resist as I crawled over to my staff.
I managed to get a hand on it before I felt him finally overcome my resistance and I froze, unable to move any further.
He laughed and raised his sword up, ready to swing at where he must have assumed my head was.
I tried to close my eyes. There was no way he was going to kill me. Instead, this would hurt, and I didn’t want to watch. Thankfully, I could still move my eyelids.
I felt the sword cut my arm, and suddenly, it was like my entire body had collapsed into the space of a single atom. He must have a magic sword, I thought.
A second later, I landed heavily on the floor.
Nothing happened. No further cuts.
Then, something warm and wet crossed my face and I held up my hands to push it away.
Wait. I could move? I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the floor of the hunters’ hut, with Soter licking my face and Baynor being restrained somehow by Arik and Aliz.
“What happened?” I asked, sitting up shakily as Soter tried to completely clean my face.
“I got the message from Saris that she’d left the guild,” Baynor said, struggling with Arik, who seemed determined to stop Baynor from getting near me. “Then, a few seconds later, she sent me a second message saying Andrew had arrived and you were still in there. I did the only thing I could think of doing and kicked you out of the party. Since you weren’t a member of the guild, that kicked you out of the guildhall. I just gambled on Andrew not having had enough time to put you in a cell or anything.”
I let out of huge sigh of relief and collapsed back onto the floor.
“Thank you,” I said. “That was way too close for comfort. I think I owe you one now.”
They’re all out. It was a success. I heard Arik tell Mikael as he released his hold on Baynor.
Yes! I’ll get the elves to finish up here and we’ll head back your way afterward, so we can get to Goran Thedgate before Andrew can follow us. Mikael replied.
“Any idea where Saris might be?” I asked Baynor, suddenly realizing she was in danger again.
He went pale as he came to the same conclusion.
“No,” he replied. “Where did you go when you left the Dragon Hunters? She’s probably there.”
That meant she was in Milgate and Andrew would know that.
I took a huge leap of faith. She obviously hadn’t double-crossed me, so I was hopefully doing the right thing. I sent Saris a guild invite to Just Us, hoping she’d guess who it was from.
Realizing Mikael’s friend Jon Lytel and Kaylin’s sister had the same problem, I quickly sent both of them and Kaylin a guild invite as well.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, they all accepted.
“Be right back,” I said, and selected Enter Guildhall.
I stepped through the portal to find Saris sitting on the floor, shaking.
“Thank you,” she looked up at me. “Andrew had just arrived and was about to grab me when you sent that. I was hoping it was you and not some trick.”
I smiled.
“I’m just glad this whole thing wasn’t a huge double-cross. I had my doubts when Andrew arrived, but you looked just as shocked as I felt. So, tell me I can trust you?” I pleaded, looking at her questioningly, my stomach tying itself in knots.
“I promise,” she said, golden lights suddenly swarming around her and settling themselves into place.
Hopefully, that meant all would be good. I reached out my hand to help her up.
Jon, Kaylin and her sister were all suddenly thrown out of the portal.
“I’m not entirely sure how to get you to exit somewhere you haven’t been yet,” I said to everyone, “But we have a few minutes to work it out.”
Kaylin and her sister caught up with each other after a lot of tearful hugging, while Jon simply stood there, quietly waiting.
After a few messages to Arik, who could ask Baynor what to do, we’d worked out how to get gu
ild members to exit via the entry gate, even though they hadn’t been to El Sanctum before.
In for a penny, I thought, and invited Baynor to the guild as well. He was, after all, the reason I’d escaped Andrew successfully this time.
We arrived at the throne room. King Faelyn waved at his guards to stand down. He greeted Kaylin and suggested that both she and her sister should go and see Suri for some food. Jon kept bowing over and over, all the while pledging his allegiance to the King.
“I’m a friend of Mikael’s,” he said. “I’ll be telling everyone in Ratters Town who Andrew really is. Gonna put a stop ta his plans.”
“Before you go home, I need to disable that protection sigil,” I said. “It does more than you realize.”
He looked surprised, so I briefly explained what Kaylin had told me about his sigil activating. He frowned.
“Was wondering how I got in there,” he said. “That explains a lot.”
I guess Andrew must have a way to undo the activation once the person has arrived at the prison.
“I hope it’s okay ta do this,” he said as a notification popped up.
You have received a quest: Help Ratters Town
Disable the protection sigils on at least 10 residents of Ratters Town.
Completion of this quest will give you 10,000 XP and 2 Florins.
Do you accept? Yes / No
“I don’t know how many of us got ‘em, but I know at least ten of ma friends have one,” he looked at me, worry written across his face.
I thought yes and accepted the quest.
“I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to do this, but I’ll do it as soon as I’m able to,” I replied.
He nodded and declared he was going to wait outside and leave his betters to talking. Whatever that meant.
Once the others arrived, I explained how I couldn’t reset my timer, but their timers would remain on day one until they chose to follow in my footsteps. I added that I had to complete the riddle today, and both declared that they wanted to come and help.
King Faelyn seemed content to trust my judgment, but they told the King they were happy to be surrounded by guards while on elven soil until he was convinced that they’d proven their loyalty. This set my mind at ease, even if the King didn’t look worried.
“One last thing,” King Faelyn said as I turned to leave his throne room.
He walked over and put his hand on my head.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Commander.
You have the ability to create and manage a war party.
Increase this skill to command more people and create more subgroups.
“Now you’re a guild leader, you’re eligible to become a commander,” he said. “So, I thought it was time you had the skill. I have a feeling you’ll need it for the trip to Goran Thedgate.”
He was right, I would. I had no idea how many people were coming with me, but I wanted to have them all in a single party, if possible.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have any extra inscribed Guild Growth potions for the new members, so we let them know they’d get one when I returned, if they wanted to stay in the guild. All of them agreed that it was exactly what they wanted to do.
I created my first war party and invited both Saris and Baynor to it.
“Where’s my invite?” asked Arik.
“Well, I didn’t think you’d want to come,” I said. “It’ll be dangerous. Plus, you’re only level 7 and I have no idea what we’ll be fighting.”
“And who’s going to be reading all those runes and finding the Dragon Gate for you?” he replied, arms crossed over his chest.
He had a point. I sent him an invite.
“I’m staying here, before anyone gets any ideas,” declared Aliz. “I’ll go and get you all some more potions.”
We’ll be there in ten minutes. Hope you’re ready. Mikael said in my head.
“We leave in ten minutes,” I declared, causing Aliz to glare at me as she hurried away to get potions for the others.
“My secret project worked. Hopefully, it will help us on the way. I’ll be back in time, so don’t leave without me,” Arik said as he ran off, grinning.
I sent out war party invites to Mikael, Kira, Allion and Damir. Each of them accepted as they got within range.
With my spare ten minutes, I disabled Jon’s protection sigil so he wouldn’t be a liability to the elves while we were gone.
“Guild leader,” a shy looking Kaylin and her sister approached me.
“Please, just call me Orianna,” I said with a smile I hoped looked welcoming.
“Thank ya for saving ma sister,” she said.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Save the NPCs 2
You have received 10,000 XP.
I’d completely forgotten about her quest in all the chaos. My XP bar increased by 7,500 XP. I did a double take, then remembered I’d assigned 25% of my XP to go to the guild.
“I owe ya a ring,” she said. “Any idea what stats ya might be wanting’? I got ma collection with me.”
She pulled out loads of different rings from her inventory. All stunningly beautiful and intricate, and all of them a lot better quality than the ones I’d seen on her table in Ratters Town. Some had gems in them, others were woven bands of different-colored metals and I had no idea what the last few might be made of.
I thought about my stats. I really needed to keep increasing my Intelligence, since all my leveling points were going into Wisdom. And after my encounter with Andrew, putting even more into Fortitude would probably be a good idea as well, I thought.
“Anything with either Intelligence or Fortitude would be awesome,” I said.
“Yer a magic user?” she asked, looking a little shocked.
“Mostly a healer, yes, but I have some Fire Magic, too,” I replied.
“I got just the thing,” she declared. “Was an experiment an all, but I’s glad I did it now. Here ya go, I reckon this’d suit ya right well.”
She handed me a silver ring that looked like four different strands had been plaited together.
You have received: Celtic Ring of Spirit
+ 20 Intelligence
+ 10 Fortitude
+ 10% effectiveness to Spirit Magic
Quality: Superior.
Rarity: Unique.
Wow. I didn’t know what to say. I’d never seen a unique item before. I guess since there weren’t many magic users out there, it kind of made sense, but I was still overawed. The superior quality was nice as well. Kaylin was obviously very good at her craft. Before long, she’d probably be producing exotic items for our guild, and hopefully to trade, as well.
“Thank you,” I said. “I really appreciate it. It’s an amazing ring.”
“Tis the least I could do,” she replied, blushing. “Good luck an all, and thanks again for inviting us ta the guild.”
I equipped the ring with a thought, and couldn’t resist a quick glance at my stats sheet to see how I was doing. It might be the last time I got to look at it, I thought morbidly.
STATS, ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
NAME: Orianna
LEVEL: 10 (Progress 7%)
GUILD: Just Us – Guild Leader
HEALTH (HP): 465 (10 x 40 + 45 + 20)
MANA (MP): 835 (10 x 79 + 45 + 0)
STAMINA (SP): 365 (10 x 30 + 45 + 20)
STRENGTH: 25 (25 + 0)
DEXTERITY: 58 (25 + 33)
INTELLIGENCE: 79 (20 + 59)
TOUGHNESS: 40 (25 + 15)
ENDURANCE: 30 (25 + 5)
FORTITUDE: 68 (26 + 42)
WISDOM: 62 (26 + 36)
KARMA: 145
BONUSES:
+10% effectiveness to Fire Magic
+20% effectiveness to Spirit Magic
Magic Skills:
Arcane Magic: 1 (Progress 0%)
Fire Magic: 3 (Progress 42%)
Spirit Magic: 9 (Progress 15%)
Physical Combat Skills:
Arche
ry: 9 (Progress 2%)
Dodge: 9 (Progress 54%)
Stick Fighting: 2 (Progress 10%)
Non-Combat Skills:
Inspect: 2 (Progress 57%)
Lock Picking: 1 (Progress 10%)
Perception: 10 (Progress 14%)
Stealth: 7 (Progress 89%)
Partnering Skills:
Pet Bond: 3 (Progress 95%)
Crafting Skills:
Alchemy: 51 (Progress 75%)
Gathering: 12 (Progress 17%)
Herbalism: 20 (Progress 0%)
Scribe: 5 (Progress 15%)
Guild Leader Skills:
Commander: 1 (Progress 0%)
Well, that answered the question of whether or not Karma was a percentage. I now had 145. It looked like I’d gained 15 Karma for each of the prisoners I’d released this time, instead of just the ten I’d gotten last time. Plus, I’d managed to gain an extra point in Wisdom and Fortitude along the way.
My mana pool was looking great and my Spirit Magic skills were really doing well now. I was also about to level up Pet Bond again, which was exciting.
As for the rest of it, however, it was time for a little pruning of my stats sheet again. I needed to archive a few more skills I didn’t need to track the progress of. I thought about what I’d committed to and decided I really didn’t need to see anything except the things I wanted to focus on.
I clicked the little red circles next to Herbalism and Lock Picking, before reluctantly doing the same for Archery. If I was going to go forward after today, I had to be all in on using magic. Yes, I’d keep my bow with me, but I didn’t need to be distracted by seeing it on my stats sheet. Just like with Herbalism, seeing my level and progress would simply tempt me to try and level it. It was time to take things to the next level and get serious.