World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Chance to Craft Rank I Skill Book: +32.75%

  Chance to Craft Lesser Spell Book: +16.38%

  Chance to Learn Rank II Unknown Rune: 15.50%

  Chance to Craft Rank II Skill Book: +7.75%

  Chance to Craft Beginner Spell Book: +3.88%

  Professional Skill: Writing is the ability to communicate through the written word.

  Norse Expertise: +100% to craft any known Norse spell or skill book of Rank I regardless of level.

  Greek Expertise: +100% to craft any known Greek spell or skill book of Rank I regardless of level.

  And once I was done with the scrolls for ‘Body Control’ I spent time on my map, starting from the Root City portal and following the road all the way to the city in the distance, though that part wasn’t very detailed. I was able to do more with the lakeshore, the Hunter’s Union camp and our own camp.

  It was another hour after all that before Olaf returned. An hour I could have spent using ‘Meditation’. Instead, I sat and read the book ‘Never Ending Hunt’ to learn more about the province, which included a lot of information about the local wildlife. I was very happy for the information about the Pyrenean Mastodon, the four-tusked elephant we saw fighting the grootslang, which was also in the book. It also had information on the lions that killed us the day before, the Mfalme lions.

  “Ollie’s back,” Micaela cheered, sounding more exhausted than anything. Rose had really put her through her paces.

  “It’s about time,” Rose complained, her shields vanishing into her inventory.

  “Hey everyone,” Olaf said in greeting.

  “You’re late,” Rose stated, making her displeasure known.

  “Ah, but was I late? Did we really set a time for me to return?” Olaf asked, grinning obnoxiously.

  It might not have been an obnoxious grin, but it felt that way. “You were gone a long time,” I said, putting my book away and joining the conversation.

  “Yeah, just the way things worked out,” Olaf said with a shrug.

  “Was it at least worth it?” Rose asked.

  “I think so,” Olaf said, before relaying everything he had learned that day.

  “I hope Chief Chosi has a lot more information on this Leo guy or I don’t know what we’ll be able to do to gain access to the city,” I said worriedly.

  “Yeah, being an incompetent leader isn’t exactly a crime,” Micaela said. “Well . . . unless you’re in the military, then it’s dereliction of duty but I’m not sure that counts here.”

  “It doesn’t,” Olaf said. “Wish it did, that would make things so much easier. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t. He is level 57. I know Bye-bye’s spell can level the playing field, but it might be hard to justify that to your Goddess.”

  “Agreed,” I said. I couldn’t imagine my Goddess approving of me lowering the level of someone that wasn’t a murderer just to beat them in a fight. Only for them to come back without losing any levels and inevitably crushing my friends and me.

  “Okay, then what’s on deck for the rest of today?” Baby asked, earning sour looks from both Rose and Micaela. “Stop looking at me like that. I said I was sorry.”

  “You left and didn’t tell anyone.” Micaela said, looking at Baby disapprovingly.

  “We wiped! For the first time ever, we wiped, and it was because you weren’t there,” Rose said.

  That wasn’t entirely fair to Baby. It was also a little hurtful to me. I would like to think, that if it hadn’t been for the two lions that snuck up on me, we would have been fine. It was just really bad luck . . . not to mention little to no planning. In reality, we could have been smarter about the whole event.

  “Thorns, that is enough of that,” Harrison snapped, speaking up for the first time. “You have made your healer feel guilty enough already for letting her team down. Now it is time for those of you who were there to properly analyze what you did wrong.”

  “We didn’t do anything wrong,” Rose insisted.

  “Oh, Bye-bye, do you agree?” Harrison asked, giving me a hard look.

  Mentally, I cursed . . . repeatedly. Harrison really just threw me into the line of fire, especially when Rose’s head whipped around to glare at me, daring me to contradict her.

  “We should have fallen back,” I said.

  Thankfully, Olaf jumped in. “Bye-bye is right, we should have fallen back to a more defensible position. Then we could have used our various slowing effects to slow their progress and thus fight fewer of them at a time and from only one direction instead of spreading out in a semi-circle around Bye-bye.”

  “It spread us too thin fighting the way we did. It also left large gaps for those two lions to sneak up on us the way they did,” Micaela added.

  “Good,” Harrison said with a nod. “And that is only one way you could have improved on that fight.”

  Rose looked like she wanted to argue but settled for crossing her arms. “Fine, I suppose that might have worked better. But it doesn’t excuse my sister for disappearing like that.”

  It took a minute for me to understand, but Rose wasn’t so much angry about the wipe. It had more to do with her sister disappearing. I was starting to get the picture that Rose had an issue with people disappearing on her, maybe something from her past. Even last month while we were in Hammerton, Rose reacted poorly when I did something stupid. I don’t think I fully understood it at the time, I probably don’t even fully understand it now, but I was starting to.

  “I’m really sorry, Rosie,” Baby said again.

  “Was it worth it?” Rose asked hotly. “Did you and Titan wandering off accomplish anything?”

  “No,” Baby said morosely.

  “Rose, that’s enough,” Titan said. “It’s my fault. I wanted to go check out the city. See if Baby could get in as long as a Beastkin was with her. She couldn’t. So, from that perspective, we did accomplish something.”

  “So much for just observing,” Rose grumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Fine, you’re right. I took one of your teammates away from you,” Titan said, his voice starting to strain as his irritation was beginning to grow. “That’s on me. Leave Babs out of it.”

  “Oh, I’m so going to pay for this later,” I grumbled, stepping in front of Rose.

  “Jack, stay out of this,” Rose snapped.

  Nope, that wasn’t happening. In one smooth movement I picked Rose up over my shoulder and activated ‘Sprint’, running as fast as my legs would carry us into our tent, closing the flaps behind me.

  “Jack, what do you think you’re doing?” Rose snapped again as soon as I stopped, breaking free easily once the surprise of the move wore off.

  “Stopping you from ruining your relationship with your sister. I could already tell you were about to demand Titan leave. Then you were probably going to say something even stupider, like making Baby choose between you and the man she loves,” I said, standing between Rose and the closed tent flaps, shifting as needed to keep myself between her and the exit.

  “He’s not good enough for her. She’ll see that eventually,” Rose snapped. “I need to protect her.”

  “Protect her, or protect you?” I asked.

  Rose reeled back as if she’d just been slapped. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Rose, I care about you. You know that, right?” I asked.

  Rose nodded.

  “And if Baby were to tell you that I wasn’t good enough for you and that you needed to choose between her or me, how would you respond?” I asked.

  Rose opened and closed her mouth several times without saying anything before crossing her arms angrily. “It’s not the same.”

  “It is the same,” I said. “It is. You and I have something special, we both know it. Can you honestly tell me your sister and Titan don’t?” I took a deep calming breath. Now came the hard part. “Rose, are you afraid that Titan is going to take your sister away from you?”

  “What? Of course not,” Rose answered insta
ntly, but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine.

  “Rose,” I said gently, lifting her chin to meet my eyes and seeing tears in her eyes.

  As if a dam broke, Rose collapsed into my arms in tears. “She’s my only family, I can’t lose her and he’s taking her. You saw what happened, we all died because he took her away from me,” Rose said between sobs.

  I just held her and let her cry. This was really something she needed to work out with her sister. Hopefully, I did the hard part in getting her to voice her fear. The next step was getting her to talk to Baby.

  When Rose finally stopped crying, I asked. “Are you ready to talk to your sister?”

  Rose took a shuddering breath and nodded.

  “Okay, want me to go get her?” I asked.

  Rose shook her head. “Not yet,” she whispered. “Just . . . just hold me a little longer.”

  I held her for a while longer before she told me she was ready to talk to her sister.

  Returning to the campfire where my friends were gathered, I found Baby talking with Titan. “Okay, Baby, you’re up,” I said, motioning toward the tent.

  “Should I wear armor?” Baby asked skeptically.

  I frowned. “Baby . . . no, Barbara,” I said, using her real name. I know it was against the rules, but I needed to make a point right now. “Rose needs her sister right now.”

  Baby was slightly wide-eyed after I used her real name. “Okay, I’ll . . . I’ll go talk to her.”

  “Good, Titan, come with me,” I said, walking toward the exit path out of the camp. Olaf had put in a path that passed through one barrier then shifted left or right to pass the next and so on until you were able to completely exit the camp.

  Titan followed, asking questions nervously as we moved away from camp. Eventually he asked the question, “Are you going to kill me?”

  “No, I’m going to talk to you,” I said, nervous about this conversation, necessary though it was. And he thought I was going to kill him? Am I really that scary? Shaking my head, I pressed on. “When you came with us, we agreed to help you learn to play the game better. We are going to keep that promise to you. But it will be on our schedule.”

  After a short pause, carefully, I said, “You are aware of the . . . situation.”

  Titan nodded.

  “We know that It is up to something in the province, but don’t know exactly what that is. When you distract one of my team like you did yesterday, you put all of us at risk in a very real way,” I said. “Do you understand?”

  “Yeah, I do,” said Titan, sounding remorseful. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you guys would get into anything so soon.”

  “I know, there was no way either you or Baby could have known. So, I can’t be too angry that Baby wasn’t there when we needed her. Next time, make sure you tell us if you’re going to be taking Baby somewhere and if possible, tell us where so that if we need her, we know where to find her,” I said. “Is that reasonable?”

  “Yeah, that is perfectly reasonable,” Titan said.

  “Good,” I said. “Now on to the other issue. Rose and I haven’t been together long. I’ve gotten the impression that Rose has some abandonment issues,” I paused to hold up a hand before continuing, “Stop, don’t tell me. Rose will tell me when she’s ready. I bring this up because when Baby vanished with you, Rose seemed to have taken it as Baby choosing you over her.”

  “Ah . . . that all makes more sense now,” Titan said, his eyes glancing back toward camp.

  “I think Rose and Baby are sorting it out now, just . . . be mindful in the future,” I said. I didn’t really have any answers for him as to how to handle the situation. I had never personally dealt with such things myself . . . at least not until now. “I think . . . I think Rose just needs some reassurance from her sister that you joining the family doesn’t mean abandoning her.”

  “Okay, so no distracting Babs while you guys are on mission . . . quest. I’m fine with that. However, I need something to do in my down time,” Titan said.

  “And I’ve got just the thing,” I said. Olaf’s report on the city included an interesting tidbit about the bartering system in the Bazaar. “I want you to go buy a gift for Baby,” I said pointing to the city.

  “That’s it?” Titan asked.

  I grinned wolfishly. “Oh, that is only the beginning. You are to buy her a necklace with a simple snake charm, something pretty, and it doesn’t need to have stats. And you can’t spend more than 1-Gold on it.”

  “Easy enough,” Titan said confidently.

  “Do you have the ‘Barter’ skill?” I asked.

  Titan shook his head ‘no’.

  “Then, you cannot buy anything until you have unlocked that skill. That means, no matter how much they ask, even if it is under 1-Gold, you cannot accept the price. You will continue to counter lower,” I said.

  “Still easy,” Titan said.

  “And after you make your purchase, you are going to ask for information,” I said.

  “What kind of information?” Titan asked.

  “Where you can buy a necklace with a simple Fairy charm, same rules,” I said.

  “Okay, I can do that,” Titan said.

  “Then you’re going to ask for more information. This time, I want you to ask about Chief Chosi,” I said.

  “I thought you didn’t want me to interfere,” Titan said.

  “I don’t. And I don’t want you to give me the information. When you’ve completed those tasks, I want you to check your Charisma,” I said.

  “That’s it?” Titan asked.

  “That’s it,” I said. “Well, almost. When you come back to camp tonight, I want to make a show of giving Rose and Baby the necklaces, snake for Baby and Fairy for Rose and then say something about how strong their bond is or something. Reassure Rose that you are not trying to take her sister away from her.”

  Titan nodded and grinned. “You’re . . . a little manipulative, did you know that?”

  “Only to protect the ones I care about,” I said.

  “Glad you’re on our side then,” Titan said.

  I left Titan walking toward the city while I returned to the camp where Micaela and Olaf were waiting expectantly.

  “Did you kill him?” Olaf asked bluntly.

  “Why would . . . no, I did not kill him,” I said. Why would they assume I killed him? Why did he think I was going to kill him for that matter? You know what, it doesn’t matter. “No, I needed to talk to him about not distracting our team while we’re on quests. I also gave him his own quest.”

  “You can give quests now?” Micaela asked in wide-eyed amazement that made me want to facepalm.

  “No, I gave him a task to help him with his Charisma stat,” I explained.

  “Oh, that’s good,” Micaela said. “Not as awesome as being able to give quests, but still good.”

  “Right, so now what?” Olaf asked.

  I produced two scrolls from my bag, holding one out to each of them. “Gifts. I spent a good amount of time today working on these, sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”

  “Skill scroll of ‘Body Control’,” Micaela read the description aloud. “Is this the skill that lets you ‘Sprint’ and ‘Jump’ and stuff?”

  “Yeah. I plan to make a few more scrolls this month but this was all I could manage today,” I said.

  “You’re a good friend, Bye-bye,” Olaf said clapping me on the shoulder, the scroll already dust on the wind. “Just one question.”

  “Yeah?” I questioned.

  “Uh, what’s it do? The skill just says, ‘Body Control, Level: 1, Experience: 0.00%’. There is no other description or skill effect,” Olaf answered.

  This time I did facepalm. The skill didn’t do anything without subskills, I should have known that. I did know that. I groaned in annoyance at my mistake. “Uh, I need to make a few more scrolls for the subskills.”

  “No worries, mate,” Olaf replied. “It’s the thought that counts.”

  “So, what are we d
oing with the rest of the day?” Olaf asked.

  “Well, if Rose and Baby can settle their issues soonish, I want another crack at those lions . . . assuming they ambush the same location daily,” I said.

  “Count me in,” Harrison volunteered. “They sound like fun.”

  “I will join as well,” Nahid said. “I want to see the ‘Stealth’ of these lions for myself. I may glean a new skill from studying them.”

  “You can do that?” Harrison asked, sounding surprised.

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “I can,” Nahid said. “I have the ‘Glean’ skill.”

  “And what is the ‘Glean’ skill?” I asked, ever curious.

  “I am able to study animals, beasts and monsters in their natural habitat and distill skills from it,” Nahid answered.

  “How does that work?” Olaf asked.

  “It is difficult to explain,” Nahid said. “I watch . . . carefully. Sometimes, I understand. I ‘Glean’ information from my target. And very rarely, I will ‘Glean’ a skill.”

  “Is it like an insight into their condition?” I asked, curious if it was similar to my ‘Perception’ subskills ‘Analyze Mana’ and ‘Analyze Stamina’.

  “Yes, that is how it begins,” Nahid said. “But then you must look deeper. See their scars and understand what caused them. See the history of their weapons and armor if they wear any. It is very difficult and requires extensive study of such things. I was trained from the time I was a kitten. It was only in my ‘Dragon Dust’ induced haze that I was able to unlock the skill. I do not recommend taking such a path.”

  “Is it related to ‘Lore’?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Nahid answered simply. “Ah, they come,” she said, her head swiveling toward my tent.

  No one said anything as the sisters returned to us.

  “I’m sorry everyone,” Baby said again. “I . . . I didn’t think about my actions when I went off with Titan. We are supposed to be a team and I was not a good teammate.”

  “It’s okay,” Micaela said first. “We still love you.”

  “I’m also sorry,” Rose said softly. “I . . . overreacted for personal reasons. I shouldn’t have let my personal issues affect our team like that.”