by Grey Arney
Struggling to pull himself together, he returned his attention to salient affairs, and conducted his naming ritual on the three other wolves who had fallen. He decided to give them more descriptive names: Potato, Midnight, and Coal. After being restored, they rejoined the pack. The three spirit wolves who had fallen would not respawn until the next day.
After the battle, his companions trudged in to the center of the outpost. They solemnly regarded Sarah’s unmoving body. Amber made eye contact with Arcturus for just a moment. Just long enough to say, “I told you so.” He guessed she would never forgive him for coming to battle without the golem.
They cleaned the camp out, and looted it thoroughly. This time, nothing was left to waste.
As the companions looked for loot, Arcturus reviewed his long list of notifications. He discovered how Lyle was able to respawn. Just after tackling Lyle and pushing him from the volley of arrows, his bond level had increased.
You have increased your bond level with Lyle: Soul-bonded (Level 3).
Your loyalty has earned you Lyle’s undying allegiance. Only death will separate him from you, and even then, not for long. If your pet dies, he will respawn in one hour. If you die, he will be waiting for you when you respawn, no matter how long it takes.
- Your dog can now use Pack Leader.
- Your dog can now use Double Team.
-Your dog can now use Spirit Form.
Badger’s puppet has died. You earn 11,250 experience points.
You have leveled up! Level 22. You have new skill points to spend.
If it weren’t for that, Lyle would be gone forever already.
Now all there was to do was wait for Lyle to come back, so Arcturus sent the others back to the camp. He waited at the goblin outpost with Lily and the wolves.
“You’re lucky I was nearby,” she said, “I was actually on my way to visit you.”
“Yes, I’d say we’re even now,” said Arcturus. “But I may need more help. I didn’t get a quest update, so Badger is still a problem.”
“Flesh Magic allows the user to inhabit and control the bodies of constructs, as if they were puppets. All I did was destroy his puppet.”
“What else can you tell me about Flesh Magic?”
“It can be used to make people sick, to manipulate disease, to change the growth of living creatures, to create abominations made of flesh. You already saw the puppeteer trick, but there are limits to how many puppets can be handled at once, which depend on the user’s level.”
“Last time, he didn’t have those skills. Or if he did, he didn’t use them.”
“Maybe he was keeping some of his skills secret, or maybe his skills have grown since then. We’ll never know. I have to go now, though. The sun is almost up. If you want to talk more about this, send me a message.”
“Where is it that you stay? Is it nearby?”
“Mind your business, wolf-man.”
Lily disappeared into the twilight.
Arcturus waited by Lyle’s motionless body for the respawn. Every time he touched the wolf’s head, he saw the countdown message.
Lyle is dead. He will respawn in 3 minutes.
Lyle is dead. He will respawn in 2 minutes.
Lyle is dead. He will respawn in 1 minute.
After this last notification, Lyle’s body began to fade, melting into the earth. Soon there was no trace left of him. Arcturus had been expecting that the wolf would simply get up, shake himself off, and be back to normal. He feared that something was wrong, or that Lyle would respawn somewhere far away, never to be found again.
But then he heard the scampering of paws, like a miniature horse plodding across the forest floor. Lyle ran towards his master at full speed, barely able to stop himself as he skidded into a sitting pose at the Druid’s feet. Arcturus embraced Lyle, even though wolves don’t like hugs.
He noticed immediately that Lyle looked a little bit different. More dog, less wolf. His silver mane had given way to a tinge of bronze, like a cream-colored golden retriever. And, frankly, he looked a bit less vicious.
But most interesting of all was the fact that the wolf was wearing a collar now, and attached to it was an ornament. It looked familiar. As he grasped it, he got a notification.
You have found: Memory Sphere
QUEST UPDATE: Recover Your Memories
You have found the second memory by forming a high-level bond with your pet. One more remains to be found. Reward: Unknown. Recovered memories: 2/3.
Wasting no time, Arcturus held the sphere in both hands. His memories flooded into him from his late teens into his twenties. His graduation ceremony, how proud he was to earn his degree in Electrical Engineering. His first job, his first boss, an office romance, many nights bar-hopping with boring coworkers. His first apartment, the giant hole in the wall he made when he failed to perform the simple task of hanging a coat hook there. His first credit card, and his first impulse purchase—a lamp for his bachelor pad. A rotating cast of girlfriends speeding by, some dark-skinned and some fair, but they were all no better than strangers when he tried to sleep beside them. His twenties had been a search for meaning and fulfillment that had some small victories and many big disappointments. He had entered a race, with other rats just like himself, all vying for the cheese. But there was no cheese. Just breadcrumbs, cedar chips, and hamster wheels.
Then there was the day he followed a whim, the kind that sprouts forth from a long period of idle wishing. He prepared an area in the apartment and bought all of the necessary supplies before bringing home a tiny little ball of fur.
All he had wanted to do was to pick that little ball up and play with it. But it was not a toy, and it had desires of its own. On the first day, the eight-week old animal tested boundaries, and challenged him. It chewed the carpet and the furniture. It peed all over the floor, and worse. That night, he put the animal in the cage to go to sleep, and it howled relentlessly. So, he crawled down onto the floor, opened the cage, and the puppy settled down beside him, finally feeling safe enough to sleep, its abdomen rising and falling with each peaceful breath it took.
Over time, he learned to train the dog. With patience, the loyal animal developed a level of obedience that stunned passersby. It would sit, stay, come, or heel at any time, no matter what the circumstance. It was truly a dog worthy of love and affection. With consistency, the dog learned to behave beautifully, and it took pride in doing so. The pair were inseparable.
That dog became his best friend. A twinkle of hopeful light in an otherwise joyless period of his life. No matter how inane his daily routine might once have been, something felt right about coming home and seeing a true friend waiting for him.
Lyle. The dog’s name had been Lyle. When he looked at his wolf pet, he understood why he had thought of this name when he saw the wolf for the first time. Because being friends with one dog means being friends with all dogs. And even though the old Lyle wasn’t here anymore, he could see a part of Lyle in every dog he met.
CHAPTER 12
Back at the camp, everyone rested, exhausted from the battle. Arcturus summoned his sprites, sending them back to the goblin outpost to dismantle it completely and leave no trace. And as unlikely as it was, many of his team slept, including Arcturus. While he slept, he had a dream. He had just reached Level 23 in Shoe Magic, and he still couldn’t make anything fit right because his feet were too wide and his arches too high.
After the camp stirred, many approached him, clapped him on the back, expressed congratulations about the return of Lyle, or asked who the scary lady was that came to save them. Amber was notably absent.
“Where did Amber go?” he asked Fish.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out for you.”
“It’ll have to wait. We’re taking a trip.”
Arcturus, Fish and Lyle took to the skies, scouting the Mudluck war camp, and finding it to be muted there in comparison to how it had been just days before. But carrying out an attack on the war camp remained im
possible. There were just too many goblins there. However, it seemed that their victory at the forest outpost had forestalled the events to come.
That was good because he had plans for today.
They flew down to Aurora, making good time with their powerful wings. They didn’t bother with subtlety, this time, landing in the middle of the street and Shapeshifting out in the open.
Fish got some hostile looks from the locals, but after a word from William, the local players grudgingly accepted his presence in Aurora. Despite the nervous tenor of the settlement, money talks. It didn’t take Arcturus long to sell the emerald that Cobalt had uncovered inside of Blackfang Ridge. It netted him 13 gold. He had brought a few other items to barter with, as well. A number of locals all made the same recommendation, so he headed down to the Hopping Cow Saloon.
When they entered and asked to book the whole place for the night, the proprietor came out from the back, wiping his hands on a towel. He introduced himself as Peaches, and by then, Arcturus had learned not to judge a book by its cover.
Peaches had never closed his restaurant for a private event before, but he became a believer when he saw Arcturus counting gold coins.
“I’d like to reserve this whole place for some of my friends tonight,” he said.
“Ten gold should cover my expenses, before food and drink.”
“How much to feed about twenty?”
“Food, maybe three gold or so. For drinks, it depends on what you’re having.”
“What can you get?”
“Beer is plentiful here, you can get a whole barrel for 2 gold and 1 silver. Wine is imported and it’s one gold per bottle.”
“We’ll need two barrels of beer and ten bottles of wine. Will that be enough?”
“Well, it depends on how drunk you want to get, but I can’t imagine twenty people finishing all of that off. You don’t have any dwarves in your group, do you?”
“Just one.”
“Well, in that case, better make it three barrels of beer.”
“I’ll also need some beds, any idea where I should look?”
“Just across the street, there’s an inn there. I expect it will be empty what with everything going on here.”
Arcturus gave 10 more gold coins to Fish and sent him to go negotiate the nearly twenty beds that they’d need, and to manage the process of helping everyone find their room after the bacchanalia.
Then he and Lyle took off again, leaving Fish in Aurora.
Arriving back in the campsite, he gathered everybody around. He barely finished his sentence when they started cheering. After all they had been through, they were glad to take a break.
Arcturus transformed everybody into bird form, giving each a Golden Eagle acorn so that it wouldn’t be a one-way ticket. As he approached Amber, he felt a weight lifted off of his shoulders when she looked him in the eye.
“I feel terrible about what happened to Sarah,” he said.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “And maybe you were right. Badger seemed much more prepared to deal with your Shapeshifting this time. Maybe keeping some of our tricks hidden will pay off next time.”
Whatever had happened back there, it seemed like she hadn’t forgotten whose side she was on.
The entire flock of birds flew off to Aurora to party. He had told them they could start drinking as early as they wanted and that Fish would take care of anything. He hoped he had budgeted enough money for them to have a great time.
And it looked safe enough. He’d have plenty of notice if the Mudluck goblins set out for Aurora. It’s hard to hide a thousand goblins traveling overland.
When the last of them had flown away, he was left alone with his pack again.
Finally, he had gotten rid of them and he could put his Earth Magic to use. He got to work right away, tearing trees, cleaving the earth, forming stones and boulders. There would be no rest for him. He worked all through the night, repeatedly casting Firefly for light. When he was done, the campsite was unrecognizable. But by then, it was already dawn.
He had expected he wouldn’t have time to join the festivities at Aurora, which is why he had taken a bottle of wine back for himself. He uncorked it and finished the whole thing in an inadvisably short amount of time.
Feeling dizzy, he settled down to rest on his new bed.
That afternoon, he awoke to the cacophonous din of the revelers returning home to roost. It sounded like they were rioting outside.
So he stepped out into the day to greet them.
“Did you all have a good time?” he called to them, sheepishly emerging from the command center.
The entire campsite now sat on a high bluff, an elevated platform of earth that rose above the forest by about twenty-five feet, making it clearly visible from the distance. A semicircle had been carved in the earth around it, forming a pit another twenty-five feet deep and almost as wide. It was still surrounded by the towering trees, but these were now impossible to approach due to the steep drop surrounding them. There was a single entrance—a sloped bridge about ten feet wide, made from living trees. It crossed over the ravine, and even had a guard rail made from strong vines.
The inside of the camp was almost the same as before, except that most of the trees had been cleared and tossed down into the pit. The command center and the storage sheds had been reinforced. Their walls were plated with stone, and most had large windows made from a thick glass that that let plenty of light in but was too opaque to see through clearly to the other side. All of the structures now had jade-green grass sprouting from the rooftops.
The tunnel was still there, too. He had left that portion of the camp at ground level, where it was concealed by several of the giant trees. A web of vines formed a makeshift ladder up to the cliff’s edge.
The stone golem was inside of the camp, guarding the entrance by the bridge. And outside there were now additional sprite elementals. Arcturus’ Earth Magic had increased to 52. And he was able to accomplish all of these feats in record time due to the increased mana flow from his Earth Magic.
You have improved Earth Magic (Level 52)
Your spells of this school are stronger, have broader effect, and use less mana.
Golem (Elemental) x1 : 3,532 lb out of 4,960 lb
Sprite (Elemental) x27 2,435.2 lb out of 2,480 lb
Elementals summoned: 28/30
Later that afternoon, he was approached by Gardenia.
“I’ve finished this. I hope you like it. I did my very best.”
Arcturus held up the Dire Bear pelt and admired it.
You have found: Dire Bear Cloak (Unique)
+12 attack
+10 luck
+ 8 defense
+ Dire Bear: Unlimited Shapeshifting (Req: Shapeshifting Level 50+)
This cloak is a unique crafted item for the Druid class.
He pulled the cloak over his head, and the terrifying animal face settled over his, with fangs holding the hood in place over his eyes. He looked truly frightful.
“This is incredible! I’m going to try it out.”
Arcturus moved away further, and then shifted into Dire Bear shape. The transformation was instant, just like his wolf shape. He shifted back just as quickly. Then he did it again, this time shifting directly to wolf shape from bear shape—something he had never even thought of before.
“This is great! I can now shift to bear shape instantly, with no penalty—even in my wolf form.”
“Really? When I looked, I saw some stat boosts, but nothing else.”
“Maybe you have to be a Druid to see the class-specific bonus?”
“Huh. I wonder how many valuable items are hiding in plain sight in Lydia?”
“This is wonderful, and it could save my life someday. Tell me, did this require a high Crafting level?”
“My Crafting level is not high at all, at Level 23. But I was working with excellent materials, so that helps.”
Next, he approached the elves.
�
��I need to ask for help from the elves past the river east of here. But they’re secretive. I’ve been told that they’re neutral and also that I am not to approach uninvited. In fact, I still don’t even know what their village is called.”
“Moon Reap,” said Glen. The others glared.
“I understand you have your own secret code or something, but I saved all of your lives. Isn’t there some way you could help?”
“There’s nothing stopping us from taking you there. Especially after what you did for us, I’m sure you could enter Moon Reap,” said Amber, “but don’t count on getting the elders to listen to you.”
“They’re a bit… bureaucratic,” said Glen. “They might argue about it for weeks or months before doing anything.”
“I don’t have that kind of time. This affects them, too. Where do you think the goblins are going to go when they’re done marauding Aurora? Do you think they’re going to stop there and start a peaceful agrarian society?”
That’s when three of Arcturus’ Golden Eagles came back, all at once, and started flapping around in his face. This was the signal for enemy movement. The Mudluck Goblins were on the way.
Before he could decide what to do, another three birds came to sound the alarm, this time Black Ravens that had been tasked with monitoring Aurora. Aurora was under attack!
With no time left to discuss, Arcturus decided to send all of the elves back to Moon Reap to try to persuade their fellow elves to intervene. He gave them the shrunken elf head he had found. They recoiled in horror at the gruesome trophy, but Amber didn’t seem to be bothered. Tired of listening to the overreacting elves, she calmly stowed it in her belongings while the others retched.
With that, the elves were off to Moon Reap.
Before leaving, Arcturus removed the bridge of trees completely, making his campsite inaccessible. The bridge fell down into the ravines as its roots were retracted. He ordered all of his elementals to begin the journey to Aurora, under the cover of the forest. He hoped that they wouldn’t be seen.