World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Harrison snorted one more time then shoved the captured slave to the ground. “And what is this better way?”

  Rose smiled, then shouted, “Listen up scumbags! First one to tell me where the slaves are gets to live.”

  Harrison howled with laughter.

  I felt my jaw drop. I should have seen it coming.

  Naturally there was a scramble from the prisoners to be the first to talk and tell us about the small camp they had just south of the quarry. Apparently, we weren’t very stealthy in our pursuit of the Mfalme Lion. As a result, one of their scouts spotted us and they quickly organized to attempt capturing us. Unfortunately, they informed us that there were at least ten Slavers still at their camp in addition to four wagons filled with slaves.

  “Great,” Olaf complained. “Bad enough we need to deal with taking these bastards to the Bazaar to stand trial, now we also need to free slaves. Meanwhile, that rotten chimera is getting further away.”

  “Ollie!” Micaela snapped, all her kindness and pixyish ways were gone. I had never seen Micaela so angry before and I hoped I never would again. “That is quite enough. Get your priorities straight or you can sleep outside the tent tonight.”

  I could actually hear Olaf swallowing nervously. “Sorry, Mic,” he said solemnly with his head bowed, occasionally glancing up at his wife who continued to glare at him.

  “Priorities,” Micaela said, turning away from Olaf and marching determinedly toward the quarry exit.

  “Where has this Micaela been all my life,” Rose said, rushing after the Minotaur, followed closely by Baby.

  “Which leaves us to look after the prisoners,” Sooty complained.

  “Alright you lot,” Olaf’s voice carried loudly. “Up you get, we’ve got a long march to the Bazaar and we still need to deal with your friends.”

  The captured Slavers moved, but slowly, seemingly intentionally slowly, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. I wasn’t about to inflict harm on them to get them to move faster.

  “Get those wagons moving, you lazy sots,” a voice yelled loudly followed by the crack of a whip.

  “Harrison, can you stay with the prisoners?” I requested.

  “Taking me out of the fight already?” Harrison complained.

  “I need someone to guard them. You were law enforcement before, right? A Patrolman?” I asked, hoping he got my point. “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t trust you.”

  “Alright, alright,” Harrison said, waving me on. “I will keep an eye on them. But you owe me one.”

  “Fine, fine,” I said, looking for my friends only to find them gone, followed by screams of pain coming from where we heard the Slavers say their camp was. “I can’t believe they left me behind.”

  Harrison just cackled with laughter. “Serves you right, keeping me out of the fight,” he teased.

  I grimaced. I might have had that coming, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less. I chose not to respond, instead I ran for the Slaver camp. It was chaos incarnate. My friends were all over the place. Any sense of organization was lost the instant Harrison wasn’t there keeping us on task.

  I would yell at them later. At that moment, the priority was helping my friends. Rose was easily handling three Slavers, keeping them in front of her and preventing them from splitting up to circle around her.

  Olaf and Micaela were tag teaming a pair of Slavers and didn’t appear to be in any kind of trouble.

  Baby was flitting about in the air, dodging arrows from the only archer I saw. The man was standing on top of a cage that sat on one of the wagons. Each arrow hit her barrier and fell to the ground without really damaging her, but I knew well enough that one lucky shot could pierce that barrier and possibly kill our healer. It made taking him out my priority.

  I took a quick look around for Sooty, Nahid, or Vision to make sure they weren’t in any danger, but they were all out of sight. I just hoped they were fine.

  Running again, I made a beeline for the archer’s wagon, hitting him with ‘Holy Shock’ as soon as I was in range. Before I could jump up after him, hands reached through the cage, tipping him toward me and causing the archer to pitch forward off the top of the cage. He landed with a thud, but it didn’t kill him. Still, it was enough of a distraction for me to close and prevent him from taking another shot with his bow.

  I immediately struck the back of his knee with ‘Ligament Rip’ after he tried to run away. I had a feeling that letting any of the Slavers escape would be bad for us. It was easy enough to whittle down the Slaver’s HP with his leg crippled, then to force him to surrender.

  After that, I moved to help Rose with the three she had been slowly breaking down. With the two of us working together they didn’t last very long. Unfortunately, two of them refused to surrender, choosing instead to die.

  “Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Rose said when the last Slaver surrendered.

  “Are you sure that’s what you want to tell Harrison?” I asked, enjoying seeing Rose blanche.

  “We had it handled,” Rose tried to protest.

  “Did you even assess your targets before charging in?” I asked.

  “Sort of,” Rose said, cringing. “Well, I saw these three grouped together and knew it would be best if I grabbed aggro on them. The two that Olaf and Micaela took out were isolated which is what they are supposed to do.”

  “And the archer that was shooting at Baby?” I asked.

  Rose cringed again. “I didn’t see that one.”

  “And where is the guy with the whip?” I asked, looking around the campsite. I counted three Slavers dead and six captured. We were told there were ten guarding the camp.

  “He ran,” Nahid said, appearing suddenly next to me.

  “We tried to follow but he was too fast, and I lost his trail when he entered a stream about a mile from here,” Sooty added, appearing on the other side of me and almost stopping my heart . . . again. Other people using ‘Stealth’ around me is going to be the death of me one of these days, and I don’t mean via an assassination.

  Class Quest Alert: Bandaka Slave Ring 2 – Completed!

  You have captured or killed the Slavers only to learn there is another group with several citizens being held against their will nearby. Stop the Bandaka Slaver caravan and free their prisoners.

  Reward: +25,000-Experience, +2-Sigils of the Goddess Issara, +1,000-Experience per Captured Slaver (x6), +1,000-Experience per Freed Slave (x65), +6-Sigils of the Goddess Issara per 10 Freed Slaves

  It was a lot of experience . . . well, the most we had gotten in a while. I hadn’t paid much attention to my experience reward lately, but I knew they weren’t as high as they used to be, not like it was when I was still getting the experience boost. It really drove home just how powerful that boost really was. I was also curious what kind of quest my friends got for this little event. For me it was a class quest, was it the same for them? Or something different?

  Vision appeared next, speaking before I could ask my friends about their quests. “Minion Number Two, we . . . we-” whatever Vision was going to say next was cutoff when the pup vanished from view again only to reappear. “Olaf, look out! Above you!” Vision cried out in warning, but it was too late.

  The chimera was back, landing heavily on top of Olaf, slamming him into the ground and biting into his neck.

  Micaela reacted quickly, swinging with both of her axes but missing as the chimera shot back into the sky, taking Olaf’s body with him. He didn’t go far before releasing Olaf’s body to fall with a sickening crash.

  The chimera roared one more time in triumph before flying even higher and once again out of sight.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” Rose asked before I could.

  Olaf was resurrected again, and he was just as angry as the last time. Maybe angrier.

  “Vision, I think you’re going to be on chimera watch until we finally kill that thing,” Micaela said.

  “You got it, boss,” Vision said, before looking to O
laf. “I am sorry, Minion Number One. I will try to warn you earlier next time.”

  “It’s okay, Vision. You saw him this time. That means his days are numbered,” Olaf promised darkly. “Keep getting stronger and we’ll get him.”

  Vision seemed to sag in relief. “I will, I promise,” Vision added before vanishing again.

  “For now, let’s worry about these people and getting the Slavers back to the Bazaar,” I said. I was more than ready for this awful morning to be over.

  “Except for the chimera attack, I think you are finally getting what it means to work as a team against superior numbers,” Harrison congratulated us when our two group came together.

  Quest Alert: Developing a Strategic Mind – Complete!

  John Harrison is well versed in the management of a battlefield and the various strategies to be employed. He has offered you a chance to learn from his experience if you are willing to show him a little trust.

  Reward: +25,000-Experience, Mark of Teamwork

  I assumed ‘Mark of Teamwork’ was another trophy for if we ever form an order as there was nothing physical given with the completion.

  “Thanks, Harrison,” Rose said. “Thanks for helping us.”

  “Yeah, yeah, Red, enough with the mushy stuff. Let us get back to the Bazaar,” Harrison said, then added, “I think I am hungry. Anyone else up for getting a bite to eat?”

  Chapter 20

  It took hours to transport everyone back to the Bazaar. The former slaves were grateful for being freed. The Slavers were bitter and angry about being put in cages themselves.

  The fanfare that we received from the people in the Bazaar was excessive in my opinion. I was just keeping to my word to put a stop to the Slavers. Hopefully, this at least put a dent in their numbers in addition to hurting their bottom line. I couldn’t imagine losing so many slaves would be good for their profit margin. It took another hour to get everything sorted with Zemira, who had recently been chosen as the new Lady of the Bazaar.

  The chimera only appeared once more, dipping just below the clouds before flying out of sight again. It seemed, now that we were actively looking for him, he wasn’t as eager to ambush Olaf.

  On the last leg of our trip, the walk from the Bazaar to our campsite, Olaf kept glancing skyward. He’d squint his eyes as if trying to see through the cloud for any dark shapes.

  “At least the beast does not seem to know a ‘Stealth’ skill,” Sooty said, clapping Olaf on the shoulder, jumping to reach.

  I shuddered at the thought of that and I was sure the rest of my friends did as well.

  “How does a beast become a chimera?” Olaf asked, looking away from the sky and down to the short statured Sooty, hoping the Dwarf had answers.

  “Not sure. I have heard legends of course. About beasts corrupted, twisted, turned into something . . . other,” Sooty answered.

  “Tell us one of the legends,” Baby requested.

  “Well, one Dwarven legend says a chimera was first created when a mad Shaman forced a malevolent spirit into her dead pet knocker, but I have heard it told that was how the first Gremlin was created as well,” Sooty started.

  “Are there others?” Baby asked.

  “Several, the most told is about the Dwarven Goddess of Night, the Goddess Nótt and her pet, a spirit of the night. I know the Norse also like to claim her as their Goddess, but she was our Goddess first,” Sooty answered.

  “Tell us the tale,” Baby insisted.

  Sooty looked around and saw that we were all interested but looking around showed how close we were to camp. “How about tonight after dinner? Might go well with a few drinks,” he added.

  “I may not know much about legends, but I can tell you there was definitely a malevolent spirit involved with this chimera,” Micaela said. “That’s why Vision had so much trouble seeing it before. It was able to hide its spiritual presence in the Third Astral Plane. He and I only learned there was more than one spirit plane yesterday. We also just learned to see into the Third Astral Plane yesterday. I was originally planning to spend all of today practicing until my husband got a quest to hunt his arch nemesis.”

  “It is not my arch nemesis,” Olaf said. “Stop calling it that. You’re giving it more credit than it deserves.”

  “Olaf, he’s hunted and killed you four times, five if you count that first ambush at the beach. Though I don’t know which lion struck the final blow at that time.” Rose said thoughtfully, tapping a finger to her chin. Shaking loose of the thought, she continued, “Anyway, I think your wife calling him your arch nemesis isn’t too far off the mark.”

  “Fine, call it that if you must. I won’t give it that much credit,” Olaf said petulantly, earning a laugh from the others and me.

  “Want to stop into the Hunter’s Union camp?” I asked. “Maybe they can tell you something about chimeras.”

  “Yeah, that sounds alright,” Olaf said, sounding slightly despondent about the whole thing.

  “I think I’m going to head back to camp and get an early start on dinner. I’ve almost got that dinner meal figured out,” Micaela said. She had been subjecting us to the same dinner every evening for the last week with very subtle changes. She claimed she was trying to learn a new meal for her ‘Cooking’ profession. I was starting to think she was pranking us.

  “Titan’s been alone all day, I’m totally going back to camp to see him,” Baby chirruped excitedly. Baby was always pretty happy before, but with Titan around, she seemed absolutely giddy. Titan himself wasn’t actually around the rest of us much except for breakfast and dinner. I had been meaning to check in with him, check on his progress, but I was also a little afraid he would rope me into one of his tutorial videos.

  “I suppose I should head back and keep working on enchanting my armor,” Rose said, then added after letting her shoulders droop, “I’m not even a quarter done.” I smiled a little at that. Rose had been working hard on enchanting her armor but refused to touch her shields until she mastered the profession. When I pointed out that it could be a long time before that happens, she pointed out that her shields scaled with her level and that it was best to maximize the enchantment the first time. She had a point.

  “I will join you, need to pick up the missus anyway,” Sooty said.

  “I will follow,” Nahid said, appearing from ‘Stealth’ to speak then immediately vanishing.

  “You can see her, right?” I asked, trying to spot the young Assassin. It reminded me that I really needed to work on my ‘Detection’ spell.

  “Aye, I can see her, you do not need to worry about that,” Sooty said, his eyes glancing to his left.

  “Alright, let’s split up here then,” Olaf said. “Come on, Vision, you stick with me.”

  “Yes, sir,” Vision said, appearing and disappearing in much the same manner as Nahid just did.

  The guards at the entrance to the Hunter’s Union camp greeted us with smiles and waved us in without any issues. My daily bacon hunts quickly raised my reputation with the Hunters. It also made me a little coin from the materials.

  “Knock-knock,” I said, entering the largest tent of the camp.

  “Bye-bye, I thought you gents would have been back much sooner. Did that Mfalme Lion give you some trouble?” Twill, the Huntmaster of the camp, asked on seeing us.

  “You could say that,” Olaf replied gruffly, crossing his arms in a huff.

  I relayed the main points of the story and was surprised to see the Huntmaster grow more and more excited.

  “A chimera? Really?” Twill asked again. “I never thought I would have such an opportunity.”

  “Opportunity? For what?” Olaf asked, looking somewhat put out by the man’s joy that Olaf was being hunted and killed regularly.

  “To hunt, my boy, to hunt,” Twill said excitedly. “Chimeras are a rare occurrence. Hard to find and even harder to hunt. No one quite knows why they come into being or how, but when they do it is a big deal to Hunters and crafters alike. For that matter
, any time rare creatures come into being it is a big deal.”

  “So, you want to hunt it?” Olaf asked, now sounding surprised and a little interested.

  “Yes, of course,” Twill replied. “And we already have the perfect bate,” he said, staring at Olaf intently.

  I really tried not the laugh at that, but it was just too funny. It was worth the dirty look and the grumbling from Olaf. I couldn’t wait to tell Rose and the others about it.

  “But that will wait a couple of weeks. Hunting a winged chimera takes a lot of prep work,” Twill said.

  “Like what?” Olaf asked before I could.

  “Ballista to start,” Twill said. “Going to need a number of them setup to throw large Bolas to tangle up the wings and keep it from flying away. The standard Ballista arrows to help kill it once we have it grounded. A large stock of anti-venom if it develops poison like most chimera do. Going to need to find a way to counter that Terror skill you mentioned, probably need to hire a specialized mage from the Mage’s Guild.”

  “But first, and often the hardest part, finding a financial backer,” Twill said with a sigh.

  “A financial backer?” I asked. It was my turn to be interested. This sounded like something I would be able to help with.

  Twill nodded, “As profitable as a hunt can be, especially for a rare monster like a chimera, they are expensive endeavors. Most of our hunts are small, we generally pay for them ourselves and they let us Hunters make a decent living. Big hunts, like going after a chimera, require financial backing. Assuming the hunt is successful, the backer will make his money back and more . . . sometimes, a lot more . . . many, many times more. The problem comes when we fail a hunt. All that money put up is a loss. Hunters might get paid . . . if they live. But the financier, whoever it is, loses everything, sometimes even their lives if they choose to join the hunt.”

  “How much?” I asked.

  “Last big hunt I was part of, I made almost two hundred gold myself. Our backer made at least ten times that even after deducting his initial investment,” Twill answered.