by Ryan Rimmel
Fenris watched me for a moment before shaking his head, “Most people don’t live to see a Shadow Goblin running away. You are already dead, by then.”
I nodded and walked over to Kappa, who was limping. The final Stone Blood managed to get in several blows before the Warg had torn his arms off. The wolf was licking his paw, which had been thoroughly smashed.
“You are going to need to see Jarra,” I stated, and the Warg looked at me puzzled.
“Jarra the Healer.” I clarified.
He nodded. “I will see what I need to trade to her for my paw. I hope she does not ask too much. One needs his paws to hunt.”
“I’m sure it will be okay. If there are issues, have her come to me,” I stated. I could use my mayoring skills to resolve this, I thought. Then, I realized how simple it would be. Bringing up my menu, I quickly went to the town interface and found the quest log. From there, it was simple enough to make a quest.
*Heal the Injured: Kappa has been wounded fighting for the village. He needs to be healed, so he can do so again. Who will aid him?”
I tried to start the quest, only to realize I couldn’t. Glancing through the options, I noticed that I hadn’t given a reward. I didn't make many quests, so, that was interesting. I did have an inventory of what the town could give out as rewards. It included everything from items, to gold, to experience. The actual amount of experience was pretty low, because the town was a starter village.
I could issue quests worth up to 200 experience points. The village had a pool of 250 experience points to work from. That pool increased by 50 a day. I assigned the quest 100 experience points and activated it.
Kappa’s eyes started flickering as he ‘read’ the quest. He nodded his thanks at me. The quest was valuable enough that one of the villagers, if not Jarra herself, would assist with it. Fenris went about his business, but SueLeeta and Cat walked Kappa’s way.
For as badly injured as Cat had been, he looked far healthier than I recalled. His fur still seemed a bit off, but that was to be expected, I supposed. Why am I certain it is a boy, now?
SueLeeta knelt and began examining Kappa’s paw. She then gathered up some herbs from Fenris’ pouch and instructed Kappa on the order to eat them in.
At my questioning look, SueLeeta smiled. “I have Pet First Aid as one of my Hunter skills.”
Well, that answers my questions about Cat’s quick recovery. Poor little guy. I thought he was surely on his deathbed.
While they were doing that, Fenris and I were looking for any goblins that might be hiding out. I hadn’t seen any, and Fenris had dropped from his highest level of guard to something more maintainable. The Shadow Goblin was mostly depleted and had fled. I’d initially been concerned that he was coming back, but, after a bit, it looked like we were in the clear.
Fenris cleared his throat. “Aren’t you going to claim the area?”
I almost dipped into menu time, before remembering that I’d claimed an area before. I at least knew what Fenris was talking about, which made for a pleasant change. I ducked into the nearby building and instantly regretted it. Goblins liked the outdoors for most things, but they liked a nice enclosed space to do their business. It was rank and I noticed the site’s focus, a large table. It stood by itself and made a perfect target. It had been used extensively by all the goblins and their friends, allies, and acquaintances. You could not even see the floor underneath it.
Glumly, I walked into the building, carefully avoiding steaming landmines as I went. Reaching the table, I discovered it had, at one time, been used as a makeshift desk. A pot of ink and a quill still sat atop it, despite all the … wear and tear around it. I reached down with my gloves and cleared a spot just large enough for my hands. I then placed both palms firmly down on the table.
You have found Ironpass Mine. It is affiliated with Windfall Village. The mine is currently unclaimed. Would you like to claim the mine? (Yes/No)
I selected “yes” and, instantly, I could sense something. A well of power flowed up underneath me, then expanded out to cover the nearby area. I guessed that meant that the little goblin and the Shadow Goblin were both truly gone, but then I received a prompt.
You have claimed Ironpass Mine. It is affiliated with Windfall Village. Mine barrier has been activated.
“The barrier doesn’t go underground,” I stated.
“Of course not,” replied Fenris from the doorway. He never actually called me an idiot, but I always seemed to know when he wanted to.
“I saw the Shadow Goblin run off, but where did the little one go?”
I brought up my map and looked into the mine for enemies. Lo and behold, there was a little red marker for a goblin located not too far inside the mine. The mine was actually pretty large, and my map didn’t even show most of it. There were tunnels running off in every direction. The goblin must have run in there to hide after the battle. Since the barrier didn’t extend underground to kill him, I’d have to do it.
Then I heard a mind numbing, echoing scream from below. I checked the map again.
The little goblin was gone from my map. A quick check showed that the goblin had been killed by an unknown.
“The goblin died. Wonder what did him in?” I asked.
“Probably traps. Goblins love those,” stated Fenris. “We are going to have to check it out before the miners go in there.”
I nodded.
“Well, I think that’s over with,” I stated, before noticing a weird prompt. I activated menu time but didn’t see anything on my character sheet.
“Check your Party page, man,” replied my very mellow demon, causing me to jump.
“What the hell,” I thought yelled. “Where were you?” I noticed Fenris give me one of his patented looks, telling me I was acting like a weirdo.
“Chasing the dragon, man,” he replied.
My eyes went wide, and my insides froze. “Wait, there’s a dragon in the mine?”
“No man, the green dragon.”
I shoved my fingers into the demon’s nose, yanked him from my shoulder, and drop kicked him into a nearby tree. It had been my intention to stick him in the tree by his horns, but instead I ended up bouncing him off a low branch. He hit the ground hard. Fenris looked at me puzzled.
“It's a victory dance,” I stated, thrusting my fists into the air as Shart slammed into a tree branch.
“Weird dance. It looked like two of your fingers went missing,” commented the Woodsman stoically.
“Wouldn’t that be terrible?” I stated, before bringing up my character sheet.
I did as my high little friend suggested and found that I’d earned Party Experience. It was different than regular or War Leader experience, because, of course, it was. There were not a tremendous number of options for what I could spend those points on, though. The PE I’d earned translated into Party Perks. I would have to figure out what to use those new Perks on later.
After deciding all the party stuff could wait, I brought up the town interface. It had expanded to include the Ironpass Mine, even though it was over 2 miles away. It took me a few moments to adjust the map, but I was satisfied that I could now see everything of importance. The mine’s barrier extended out a quarter of a mile in all directions. That was enough to cover the whole mine, which was absolutely red with iron deposits and patches of green for other materials...
Glowing red with deposits? Red was usually a bad color. Glancing at my menus, I found the key. Green was Iron. Glowing red indicated traps. Fuck.
Chapter 8: Much ado About a Mine
Fenris walked over to the side of one of the buildings and sat down solidly. SueLeeta was still off to one side, wrapping Kappa’s paw. Cat seemed upset at the attention she was paying to the injured Warg. Cat truly was looking remarkable for having been so seriously injured; it was as if he hadn’t been involved in any sort of scuffle at all. I activated Lore and discovered that Cat was now named Cat Two. Huh, that’s weird. I wonder... Oh.
That expla
ined that. Poor Cat. He would be remembered. Or was it a she?
I brought up the town menu and started examining my mine again. It had jobs for over 16 people, mostly mine workers. There were also several positions for running the ore processing and storage buildings. The mine itself had a list of materials that needed to be supplied on a daily basis. These included tools, which could be damaged, and fuel for the smelter. The workers also had requirements, but those were covered in the general town menu.
Of course, I couldn’t assign anyone to any position at the mine, because everything was listed as damaged or dangerous. The buildings were damaged; both needed a thorough cleaning and some general repair. The mine was dangerous, probably due to the wall to wall traps that the map promised were contained underground. I was screwed, slightly. I, as an epic adventurer/hero/mayor, had been counting on the mine for finding jobs for my populous. Ideally, I would be successful with this task before they ran out of make work and decided to find new management. Could I be fired, even though I found the town and brought all the inhabitants to it? I didn’t want to find out. However, the mine would require some effort before a strong mining economy would flourish.
As I started to walk to the mine entrance, I noticed a prompt.
Quest: Heal the Injured is completed. SueLeeta awarded 100 XP.
Glancing over at Kappa, I saw that he was feeling much better. He could walk on his paw now, at least. A quick examination of him in the Party menu indicated that he still had to do some serious recovery time before he’d be fully healed. Then again, he was also chewing unhappily on heal root. I didn’t blame him. I felt like a cow, considering that I, too, was chewing the stuff most of the time.
Every warrior on Ordinal looked like they had a nasty chew habit after any combat.
“The mine is full of traps, I’m going to investigate it and, hopefully, clear some of the ones near the entrance,” I stated.
“Need someone to stay and watch your back?” asked Fenris. I looked him over, head to toe. He was too badly wounded to really ask to stay. So was Kappa. I didn’t necessarily want either of them getting into another fight unnecessarily. SueLeeta was pretty much uninjured, though, it might be best for her to aid the others back to town.
There was a gap between the mine barrier and the much larger town barrier. It wasn’t massive, only about a mile or so. The three of them could cross that quickly enough. The area around the village had become safer, after we’d ambushed a few goblin patrols. It was highly probable that the path was going to be safe. Safe enough for 2 experienced Woodsmen, at any rate.
“Not really,” I responded. “Why doesn’t SueLeeta escort the two of you back to the village? If you are really worried, she can return here to check on me. I promise I won’t do anything too interesting until she comes back. The mine is littered with traps, and I’d like to see about disarming some of the ones around the entrance before nightfall.”
“You have heal root or anything on you?” SueLeeta asked.
I nodded and lifted my man purse, or “pouch” as everyone here called it. It really reminded me more of a fanny pack than anything.
They nodded goodbye and took to the dusty dirt road. Kappa was absolutely done with this whole fighting thing, and Fenris could do with some down time as well. They didn't heal nearly as quickly as I did; Fenris would likely be out for several days, unless he was supplied with a steady stream of heal root. The town still had ‘enough’ of that, but rationing our supply slightly wouldn’t hurt, either. Until the herb garden was functional, finding the quantity of heal root that a village in this world needed was a non-trivial task. EstherSasha had been exaggerating when she said that only a few of us used healing roots. It was used by anyone injured, including animals, and that amounted to ten or more people every day during heavy construction.
I mean, I guess they could have healed naturally but who wants to do that? it's painful and takes too long.
Shart landed on my shoulder, “Ugh, that was weird. I woke up in a bush. I taste acorns.”
“Strange,” I stated. Glancing over, I saw my familiar’s eyes were back to normal.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“Clearing a mine of traps,” I responded, “What could go wrong?”
Chapter 9: Mine Alone
Once the rest of my group left the mine barrier, I received a notice that I was too distant from the rest of my party. A few seconds later, the party interface vanished. That feature, while quite handy, was like everything else. It was going to take some getting used to.
I was alone with my thoughts for the first time since the battle had started. Well, as alone as I ever get with my thoughts; my mind was constantly being violated by Shart. Mercifully, he was being quiet for a moment, giving me a much needed mental reprieve.
I approached the mine entrance and carefully peered inside. I tried to check the map but, with traps everywhere, it was less than helpful. I would have better luck just trusting my eyes. At least I could see perfectly here, as opposed to needing thick, expensive corrective lenses on Earth.
Almost instantly, I found several devious devices. The first one was a simple floor trap designed to impale a foot. It was just one step inside the door, where light and shadow played. It was a good spot, right where I’d put one if I was designing a torture dungeon.
“Oh, this is going to be good,” I heard Shart say, as he readjusted himself on my shoulder.
“Aren’t you concerned that this trap is going to hurt me… and by extension you?” I replied.
“I’m fully healed. I’m the strongest I’ve been since The Unfortunate Incident. I’ll be fine!” he exclaimed.
“Unfortunate Incident? Is that what you are calling our failed bonding? I prefer to call it The Amusing Comeuppance.”
Shart growled but said nothing further, as I attempted to disarm the first trap. He most likely was going to save up a scathing retort for when I failed. It was just a nail on the ground, though. How hard could it be? As I took one last step towards the spike trap, I realized my error. It was a distraction.
*crack*
The spike trap on the floor had kept my attention off the ceiling. That was unfortunate, because a heavy, barbed, wooden pole swung down and crashed into me at crotch level. Thankfully, I was bent over, looking down; it just hit me in the face, instead of anywhere critical. Out of pure fortune, my head was between the two large pole spikes that would have made living complicated. However, the impact still had my flying backward at an angle. I whizzed through the air, over the mine cart path, and back out into sunlight. A hard landing caused me to tumble down a short hill, into a patch of muddy water with rock underneath. I may have used my face as a sled at one point.
Oh, that’s what Marv felt like.
After a few moments of shaking my head clear and spitting out mud, I realized that Shart hadn’t said anything. I turned my head to the side, hearing a disgusting pop in my neck as I did so, and found he wasn’t on my shoulder anymore. I reached into the mud for a moment, searching for his unconscious form. I then discovered two problems. One, I had mud inside my eyelids, and two, I didn’t hear Shart thrashing anywhere. After finding the least filthy water and cleaning out my eyes, I started climbing the slope back up to the mine entrance. It was there that I found Shart. He was face first on the wooden pole, with a spike impaled into his mouth, causing his cheeks to bulge wide.
I missed my wife.
You have learned Disarm Traps. You are unskilled. Hope you liked your fingers!
You have learned Trapfinding. You are unskilled. It is a sub skill of Perception. Oh, that’s what that is!
Placing a heel into the log, I pried the demon free. After an audible squelching sound, he came loose and mumbled about staying further away. I fed him some Mana and continued working. Despite my earlier admonitions, I kept chewing a steady stream of heal root, as I leveled my Disarm Traps and Trap Finding skills. By the time I’d bloodily finished the first room, SueLeeta had returned and I
was up to Novice in both.
With Novice Trap Finding, I actually spotted a few of them before they were triggered. That was quite a relief.
As I stumbled out of the entrance, carrying a leg damaging trap which my Trap Finding had NOT found, I spotted SueLeeta. She looked horrified as she examined the pile of bloody discarded trap parts. A whole room’s worth of traps made a fairly impressive heap next to the mine. Next to my trap treasures was my longsword. It had gotten caught by a magnet, holding me firm. That’s how I’d gotten the crossbow bolts in my side.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a whisper, as I discarded the latest trap.
Both of my eyes were black. I had a bruise across my forehead. I was limping heavily. My right earlobe had become partially detached. There were flame marks on my armor. I had a fire burn on my right cheek and an acid burn over my right arm. There were numerous holes on my left shoulder that were still oozing blood. I had a longsword shaped bruise from a magnet on my left leg. When I exhaled, smoke shot out of my nostrils.
“I’m fine. I am running low on heal root, though. You got any more?” I asked.
She shook her head and swallowed. “I’ll find you some.”
She quickly moved toward a patch of trees that looked like promising candidates. I only had 4 heal root left. If she could find me 3-5 more, I’d probably be okay.
Walking back into my own personal hell, I cautiously advanced into the second chamber. Patiently and with absolute focus, I searched the walls but found nothing. Next, I thoroughly inspected the goblin trails. They sometimes put traps on their trails, and sometimes they did not, just to confuse you. Still nothing. Then came an exploration of the ceiling, where they sometimes dropped things on you. There, I saw the faintest outline of something.
That’s when I screwed up. I took only a quarter step and heard the click. One moment, I was standing there on solid ground. The next, a hole had opened beneath me. I was too far away from anything to grab onto, so down I fell. Each bounce off the wall caused a sharp intake of breath, as I felt bruises form instantly. I just kept falling. How far down is this hole? After a last hard collision that surely caused a concussion, I was slammed flat on my back into the ground.