by Ryan DeBruyn
Rocky hated himself but moved forward with his plan. He turned to Epsilon, interrupting the conversation between the golem and Sela. “Do you need Adam for this last bit of the journey, or can you make it back safely without him?”
“Adam has been valuable. However, the likelihood of another attack is very low. This area is known to be dominated by those birds and wolves hunting in tandem.” Epsilon glanced around and shrugged. “I would assume all other predators in this area have been driven out by the tactics of these creatures. Plus, he only has three constructs left. Why do you ask?”
Epsilon's speech indicated it would be ok to 'borrow' the boy. Still, something in his voice didn’t ring true. There was something he wasn't saying.
“I was thinking that his golems could run beneath Azoth and carry my bag of holding with these corpses.” Rocky pointed at the creatures surrounding them. “Plus, we are heading off to save people from the non-sapient golems that are 'protecting' them.”
Adam nodded excitedly and sized up Azoth, who was devouring the Batwing Bird. “I get to fly on that with you guys?”
The survivors, who had gotten used to the boy's Minions and owed their lives to them, weren't happy with the idea. People talked over each other, sharing their points of view. As the conversation finally shifted to grudging approval of the plan, Epsilon pulled Rocky and Sela aside.
It was a strange feeling to be metaphorically pulled aside by a creature that dwarfed them. Sela and Rocky jogged to match the stride of the Golem Knight Leader. Once they were a reasonable distance away, he turned to them, his face stony. “That boy may one day be able to create golems that are sapient. My two fellow Knights and I believe that he may be a key to our future survival, Rocky.” Epsilon raised his whisper slightly and pointed a green finger at him. “Do not let any harm befall that young man.”
Rocky swallowed and nodded at the warning. He waited for Epsilon to say more, but the golem remained silent, keeping his finger pointed at Rocky.
“He won't leave Azoth's back until the golems are defeated. I will convey to Azoth the importance of his life over ours. Does that appease you?” Sela offered. Under her breath, she murmured, “Like we would let him get hurt.”
“You could always send Delta with us, if you want to keep Adam with you,” said Rocky.
Epsilon shook his head and loosened his stiff stance, easing the tension in the air. “No, no. I apologize for my tone. I have spent a few nights in the boy’s company and have grown unnaturally attached to the tiny thing.”
Sela laughed. Epsilon shared his affronted look with Rocky, who shrugged.
Sela finally gained control of herself and waved a hand in a motion that seemed to placate Epsilon. “Humans call what you’re feeling ‘love’, Epsilon. I am sorry, but it is funny to hear you being so paternal toward the young man.”
The conversation ended shortly after that, with Epsilon questioning what Sela meant by paternal. She, of course, explained poorly, and Rocky stepped in, clarifying the phenomenon of parenthood and how the protective instinct could arise toward young offspring, even if the child wasn’t your own or of your race.
Soon the parade of survivors was moving away from the Rocky’s group as they went from carcass to carcass and looted.
Azoth and three Minion Golems followed Rocky. Behind him, the large creatures stomped along in unison with every tenth step of his. It was strange and surreal—he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to it.
Adam rode on Azoth's back, making occasional exclamations of delight as they progressed. The young man kept burrowing himself into the thick fur and feathers of the Chimera, and being the size that he was, the disparity was humorous enough. Add the fact that the kid could completely disappear into Azoth’s fur—priceless. Everyone had a few hidden chuckles about it.
As Adam continued to hug the fluffy Azoth, Rocky asked, “Adam, how old are you, if you don't mind sharing?”
The boy buried his head in Azoth’s fuzzy fur-feathers and said, “I'm ten and a half.” Azoth sported one of the largest cat grins Rocky had ever seen. Rocky reached out and scratched his friend, who had instantly made the kid feel like he had a best friend.
He left the two new buddies to their shenanigans, reaching to touch the corpse of the rat-wolf he had first killed and thought 'loot.'
Rat-Hide Cloak
● This cloak is exquisitely crafted and seems to be far more robust and durable than most other materials.
Quality: Good
Enchantments: Locked
He put the item into his bag and then collected the entire corpse. The arm of the nearest Minion Golem twitched for a moment, then adjusted to the added weight, seeming unbothered by the addition of the third corpse.
He nodded in relief and considered the other three items the creatures had dropped. A few other corpses had dropped a piece of gear. They were all affixed with 'Rat-Hide' for a different part of the body. He secretly hoped that they had some sort of set property, like the Ring from Bam-Bam the Ogre. His mouth soured at the thought of Derik owning the other part of that set. He probably should invite the exiles back to the Grotto. Maybe without Derik.
He approached the bloody puddle and bones of what remained of Azoth's Batwing Bird meal. He gingerly touched the bones and received:
Rat-Hide Helm
● This helm is exquisitely crafted and seems to be far more robust and durable than most other materials.
Quality: Good
Enchantments: Locked
His mouth twisted as he inspected the stiffened helm. It looked like a rugby cap, and the thought of wearing the scratchy Rat-Hide on his head made him feel sick. This corpse also awarded him five Crystals.
Maybe I can award this armor to someone and buy myself an Ether-Tech helm.
He didn't pull the remains of the bird into his bag of holding. Instead, he jogged to inspect the two creatures that the Knights had downed. He received twenty more Crystals and a pair of boots from looting both of them. After placing one of the corpses into his bag, the other body refused to enter into the container.
He opened his notifications to find that the bag was full. That was an exciting development, and when they returned to the Grotto, he would have to empty everything to determine the approximate size of the space within. He was able to put the boots and Crystals inside, so he knew it had some space remaining, but not enough to add the monster's prodigious corpse.
Much to his disappointment, they left three corpses behind. Before leaving, Rocky removed a bird corpse and replaced it with a rat-wolf’s larger, meatier one. Then the group of three mounted up on Azoth, joining Adam.
Sela spoke with Azoth, worried that the weight would bother him. However, the added weight of the boy hadn't phased the Chimera in the least. The real problem was with the available space to sit.
***
For the remainder of the journey, Sela sat in front of Rocky in the saddle. She was pressed tightly to his chest, and his arms wrapped over her to grip the tethering rope. He had once given Sela a piggyback and found that distracting, and now his brain wanted to categorize every sensation this new closeness entailed.
When the group returned to the Grotto later that afternoon, he wasn't sure if he was disappointed to dismount or relieved. They had saved three of the towns from starvation, but the fourth one had not needed help.
They arrived in Minden last, and Rocky immediately knew something was different. From Azoth's back, the group only found two golems circling the perimeter of the school.
There were several prone golem corpses, with hundreds of holes peppered into their Bio-Armor, but a quick Analysis confirmed they were dead.
The golden thread led them to a primary school. A rush of relief flooded Rocky when he saw a man on the roof duck for cover. He was pretty sure a flying lion would send him into hiding as well. Rocky, Adam, Zippo, and Sela took down the two remaining golems in short order after dismounting Azoth.
Adam's Minion Golems were left in the trees a
fair ways from the school. A few other schools had reacted poorly to the constructs, even after Rocky's assurances. This time, having seen survivors doing so well, he didn't want to be considered an enemy.
Sela told Azoth to go hunt. His pet jumped into the air, and Rocky yelled, “You better answer our call to come back this time, Featherbrain.”
“He says, 'Know you are, what is Azoth?'“ Sela relayed with a chuckle.
He had to crack a smile himself; he hadn't heard that one in a long time. The group cautiously moved to the front doors of the school, when a voice shouted, stopping the group in their tracks.
“That's far enough. We don't have any food or supplies for you to steal. I thank you for taking care of those golems, but I think you should move on now.”
Rocky heard a weapon cock, the sign of a clear threat. Shading his eyes against the low evening sun, he looked up and found the barrel of a rifle leveled at his chest. He wondered if he could survive a bullet. Hadn’t he survived much worse? This was not the time to find out.
“We are here to offer food and support. We have been saving people in nearby towns, but you folks don't seem to need it. You are the first group to take out any of the golems ringing the compound. At least, so far. Very impressive,” Rocky said, raising his hands placatingly.
Doran Hetch
Apprentice-Sharpshooter
Level 24
Health Points 140 / 140
Doran hesitated before he safetied his rifle and pulled the muzzle up. Rocky breathed a soft sigh—he hadn’t realized that he was holding his breath while the gun was pointed at him and his group.
“We can use food and water, for sure. Our supplies are running mighty low. I'll meet you in the cafeteria.”
“You heard the man,” Rocky said. Sela and Adam followed him toward the school doors. Rocky paused when Zippo didn't move to join them.
“Zippo?”
Rocky followed Zippo's gaze to a large number of freshly churched mounds of dirt. Graves. He counted sixty of them. These survivors weren't doing as well as he had thought.
They opened the doors and discovered the air inside the school wasn't rank and fetid, like others they had visited. As they made their way through the halls, following the signs to the cafeteria, Rocky noted signs of habitation, but no people. With each step, Rocky’s shoulders inched upward, his muscles tightening.
They found two men with rifles in the cafeteria. One was Doran, and Rocky Analyzed the other.
Simon Hetch
Apprentice-Bullet Smith
Level 24
Health Points 190/190
The two men stood in front of a pantry door that, while depleted, still contained food. Something was off, and Rocky slowed his walk.
“Where is everyone?”
Both men looked at each other and Simon pointed toward the graves outside. “We buried them.”
“What happened to them?” asked Rocky.
This time Doran answered, his voice just above a whisper, “We killed them.”
Rocky wasn’t sure he heard correctly. The sadness in the man’s tone didn't match his statement. “What did you just say?” His anger was flaring white-hot.
Sela stepped in front of him and put a hand on his chest. “Stop right now. Let them tell their story.”
“About two weeks back, the group realized we only had enough food left for a few days. We were on the verge of starving. So, we mustered the courage and attacked those golem creatures from inside the school.” Doran sniffed and wiped his nose, tears streaming down his cheeks. “We couldn't do anything to them. There were forty-nine of us then, and even combined, our Skills just splashed against them. We had all been hunting and leveling together before they trapped us here. So, everyone was equal at around level twelve.”
Simon picked up the explanation then. “You need to understand. We hadn't seen another human in a month and didn't even know how many of us still lived. We didn't think anyone was going to come to help us—”
Doran placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. “My brother and I killed them all, to save our supplies and last longer, but mostly—so we could get stronger Skills that might stand a chance of letting us escape.”
Rocky's first thought was to kill them. He formed Dark Tidings into a menacing blade. The brothers leveled their rifles at him.
“Rocky, stop. Take a second to think. While they killed the others, they didn't really have a choice,” said Sela.
Every emotion he had fired signals to his brain. He wasn't sure if it was his tangled Chidi or the proper reaction to the situation. “Sela, these men killed forty-seven people for their own gain. They buried them in graves just over there.”
Both guns cocked. “You two, put your weapons down now. Or I will let him kill you both! You offer even the hint of a threat against anyone in this room, and any amnesty I have for you will evaporate. You have three seconds,” Sela said. The guns lowered a heartbeat later.
“Good. Now, Rocky, I am not pleading their innocence. I am highlighting their necessity. Every other group we helped today was in a bad place. They couldn’t have survived long without us. These two would have. When the option is life and death, some moral lines drawn in the sand need to be swept away on the tide.” Sela laid a restraining hand on his forearm.
Forty-seven people. That was a rip current. “What, you want me to excuse their murders because they will survive because of them? That’s like saying starvation gives someone carte blanche for murder!” Rocky screamed as rage boiled in his chest.
Sela pointed to the two men. “No. Don’t lessen their suffering, Rocky. This isn’t a city where a starving man can beg for food. This isn’t safe. This is the wilderness. There was no help for these men. Make no mistake, they faced certain death.”
He escalated the stakes in his mind. His teeth creaked from his straining jaws’ pressure. If a human was attacked and fought back for fear of their life, the old world had a name for it. Self-defense. Did this situation fall under that umbrella?
No. It didn’t. Did it land in a morally grey area?
Maybe on the very fringe. Rocky stared at Sela. She shrugged. “Weigh all of the factors. Death is final, and I don’t think these men deserve it.”
His stomach lurched. He hated that she made sense. Could he condemn people to death for something that they had needed to do?
He dropped a week's worth of rations onto the floor, then moved to pour some water into the sink. He turned to both men. “I won't condemn you to death, but I also won't claim what you did was right. You two have to live with that decision, not me. However, I am going to give you a week. Then I am going to send a patrol through here. If you two are still in this school or the area, they will have orders to try you for your actions. I don't ever want to see either of you again. Do you understand me?”
He didn't bother waiting for a reply. He gathered Adam and Zippo and stormed out of the school.
He felt a little less human as they flew away. In the early days, he would have immediately condemned the individuals to death.
***
The Kingston survivors had made it to the Grotto before them, which was cause for celebration.
Rocky opened his interface to check the current numbers of citizens within the Grotto and grinned. Sixty-three hundred and forty-two souls resided within Algonquin Valley—his Territory. That number would soon grow, as more and more survivors arrived.
He emptied his Bag of Holding, leaving only the Bottle of Gaia's Essence inside the Ethereal space. He was unsure of its worth, but he wasn't stupid enough to lack the understanding that it was immense. The contents of the bag surprised him, and he estimated its interior would hold goods in amounts roughly equivalent to the interior of the Guild Tent. He gazed up to the flapping fabric still speared atop the black-scaled tower.
Honestly, how do you get something like that down from way up there? We never spent much time in the observatory, but I bet that stupid tent blocks the view.
He m
ethodically sorted through the corpses and contents from the bag, stowing the bodies in the Territorial Inventory and smiling at the thought that the butchers would be in for a surprise. He secretly wished he could hide in stealth near the Butcher's yard to see the reaction when the corpses were pulled out. They had probably never carved up something this big.
But a leader couldn’t spend much time in such frivolous ways. He placed the Enchanter's pen, mortar, and pestle back into the bag, along with all the new gear.
With all of the organization out of the way, he checked his waiting notifications to find he had reached level eight. After a full day of questing and fighting, he couldn’t believe that he had only managed a single level.
Come on. Did the system not see the size of those monsters? And their teeth? I had pee in my mouth, for Gaia’s sake! That alone should be worth a level.
Rockland Barkclay Level 8
Class: Journeyman-Dark Chimera Knight
Level 3 Strategist
Class Skills: Dark Blade, Dark Mend, Soul Blade, Dark Cloak, Shadow Clone, Knight’s Resolve, Knight’s Quest
Health Points = 420/420
Dark Ether Pool = 280/280
You have 1 stat point and 0 skill points to distribute.
Stamina – 42 (Strength of Body +9) (+4 Stat V)
Strength – 44 (Strength of Arms +18) (+4 Stat V)
Agility – 51 (+4 Stat V)
Dexterity – 51 (+6) (+4 Stat V)
Intelligence – 28 (+4 Stat V)
Wisdom – 43 (+4 Stat V)
Charisma – 45 (+4 Stat V)
Luck – 12
Non-Class Combat Skills: Ether Cleanse - 10
Common Skills: Barter – 8, Camouflage – 7, Fall – 3 (+2), Tracker – 19
Profession Skills: Actor – 5, Cook – 2, Grooming – 6 (+3), Herbalist – 19, Miner – 1, Teacher – 20, Trader – 5
Moderate Skills
Non-Class Combat Skills: Combatant – 11, Ether Channels – 4 (+1), Ether Manipulation 5 (+1) , Stealth – 15 (+2), Swordsmanship – 14 (+5)