A Healer's Gift: Adventures of Brad: Book 1 (Adventures on Brad)

by Tao Wong

  Power Strike was a very common attack for most melee fighters. It provided a high level of damage and could crush many lower level enemies if he could increase his skill level with clubs sufficiently. Shield bash was probably the next most common attack form, a safe skill that made both hands dangerous and that favored by shield users like himself. The stun effect could be very useful in a fight, but unfortunately, he didn’t own a shield at this time. Still, as Daniel thinks about the various sparring sessions he’s had with Mary, Daniel can only choose Double Strike. It was only with a flurry of blows did he ever make her move, make her take him semi-seriously. Satisfied, he selects the Skill Proficiency and stares at his newly updated Status Screen.

  Name: Daniel Lai

  Class: Level 2 Adventurer (0%)

  Sub-classes: Level 7 (Miner) (19%)

  Human (Male)

  -

  Statistics

  Life: 176

  Stamina: 176

  Mana: 136

  Critical Hit Chance: 4%

  Attributes

  Strength: 17

  Agility: 14

  Constitution: 24

  Intelligence: 15

  Willpower: 17

  Luck: 13

  Skills

  Unarmed Combat: Level 2 (47/100)

  Clubs : Level 7 (21/100)

  Shield: Level 5 (18/100)

  Dodge: Level 3 (16/100)

  Combat Sense: Level 2 (12/100)

  Perception : Level 3 (21/100)

  Mining : Level 7 (78/100)

  Healing : Level 7 (07/100)

  Herb Lore: Level 3 (31/100)

  Cooking: Level 2 (37/100)

  Singing: Level 2 (14/100)

  Skill Proficiencies

  Double Strike

  Mapping (II)

  Spells

  Minor Healing (I)

  Gifts

  Martyr’s Touch - The caster may heal oneself or others by touch and concentration, sacrificing a portion of his life to do so. Cost varies depending on the extent of the injuries healed.

  Chapter 8

  “Listen up children,” the guard in front of the dungeon entrance stares at the group of Adventurers before him. The beginner Adventurers grouped around him vary in size and clothing though most are in their mid-to-early teens and sport a single weapon, most often a short sword. The Adventurers are mostly human, though on occasion Daniel spots a Beastkin and even one dwarf in the group. “This is your first time in, so I strongly recommend you stick to the first floor. If you do manage to find the stairway to the second floor, you may go down but only to access the transportation gem. That’ll allow you to travel to the second floor directly when you are ready to take it on.

  “The number one cause of Adventurer deaths is overconfidence so don’t think about going down to the second floor until you cleared the entire first floor. Never start a new floor injured - it’s the fastest way to get yourself killed. Remember, the Guild buys mana stones of all sizes so make sure to collect every single drop that you get. The blacksmiths have asked me to remind all of you not to bring Kobold shanks back. They don’t want them or need them. Any questions?”

  Barely waiting for the Adventurers answers, the guard steps aside and waves them in to the dungeon. Gripping his mace in hand, Daniel nods his thanks one last time before stepping in, hand slightly clammy on the grip of his mace. On entrance, Daniel is immediately greeted by a simple stone room lit by the sunlight behind and the soft white glow characteristic of the Dungeon’s mana imbued walls.

  Grinning slightly, Daniel shifts his bag once more to ensure it is properly seated before following the sole corridor hat leads into the dungeon proper. The exit immediately splits into three earthen passageways and Daniel pauses, listening for the movements of the other Adventurers before choosing the middle pathway.

  As he moves deeper, a mental mini-map of the dungeon begins to form in his mind from the Mapping proficiency. Daniel had gained that option as a Miner like most others and chose to level it up a couple of times rather than other more traditional mining proficiencies as he knew it’d be more useful for him in the future. You never wanted to be lost in the dark. I wonder what other Adventurer’s do…

  Spending time thinking about inconsequential things like that is never a good idea in a dungeon, a fact that Daniel finds out to his chagrin when he turns a corner and walks into a Kobold. A runt even among its kind, the 3 foot tall creature looks like a grey, gangly, slightly malnourished child clad in peasant garb other than its rather elongated ears and too wide eyes. Somehow, even after Mary’s description, the Kobold looks nothing like he had pictured it to be. The Kobold reacts first, thrusting his only weapon, a shank made of metal and bone into Daniel’s chest. It hits hard, plunging through cloth and skin and grating against a rib. Daniel jumps backwards, groaning in pain as he feels blood begin to dribble from the wound, waving his mace to ward off the Kobold.

  Taking to the offense, Daniel lashes out once and then again, the Kobold scurrying backwards and staying out of range of his attacks. As Daniel recovers from his swings, the Kobold darts in again and attempts a stab and only a last minute hasty parry by Daniel forces the Kobold to stop his own attack or have his arm crushed.

  Daniel again steps forwards, attempting to strike the Kobold who dances back and swings at Daniel’s arm, nicking him. This fight is completely different from his earlier sparring matches with Mary. The Kobold is smaller and more prone to feints and is focused on short quick strikes to Daniel rather than a single painful attack.

  As blood continues to squeeze out from his open wound, Daniel pushes forward to finish the fight. He throws another overhand right and then as the Kobold ducks, charges forwards and activates Double Strike, his mace swinging faster as the proficiency activates. The first attack from the left is blocked, but using the force of the block, Daniel swings the mace around to strike on the Kobold’s unprotected right side. The mace crunches into the Kobold’s shoulder, cracking bone and mashing muscle.

  Panicking, the Kobold pulls itself away from Daniel and attempts to stab his attacker again with its shank. This time, Daniel is ready though and smashes his mace onto the Kobold’s outstretched attacking hand, crushing fingers and forcing the monster to drop its weapon. As the Kobold recovers, Daniel swings again, delivering a Critical Strike on the top of the Kobold’s head to deliver a fatal blow. A moment later, the body dissolves into acrid smoke leaving behind a small mana crystal.

  Daniel barely pays attention, slumping into the corner and holding a hand over his wound as he chain casts Minor Healing on himself. It’s only when the bleeding stops that he pays attention to the notifications he received during the battle.

  Critical Hit! 29 Damage Dealt. Kobold killed.

  Minor Healing cast on Daniel. 14 Hit Points Restored.

  Minor Healing cast on Daniel. 10 Hit Points Restored.

  Bleeding has stopped.

  Seeing nothing important in the information, Daniel dismisses it and resolves to stop looking at such information. Daniel bends to pick up the dropped mana crystal, looking around warily before heading deeper into the dungeon. He’d used over nearly a third of his mana already and he had just started. For the first time, he begins to truly understand Mary’s point.

  A half-dozen Kobolds later and a chance meeting with one other Adventurer, Daniel has found the staircase down. The other battles since the first one have gone quite well, with little additional damage dealt to him and bolstered his flagging confidence. As long as he paid attention, with his skill and level he should be able to deal with a single Kobold. Unlike most newbie Adventurers, this wasn’t his first class and as such, his Health was significantly higher than theirs. Of course, he had paid a price in time – most Adventurers who survived to his age were much higher level than him and would not even consider stepping into a Beginner dungeon. Confident and impatient, Daniel makes a decision and takes the steps down, ignoring the guard’s advice.

  Chapter 9

  The
staircase down to the second floor leads to a small ten-foot wide oval cavern that is currently empty. Unlike the first floor, the soft drip of water can be heard through the dungeon, stalagmites and stalactites dotting the floor and ceiling and just beginning to form. Lighting in the second floor is worst too with the mana imbued walls occasionally pitch black.

  Daniel feels the hair on his arms stand out a little more, the second floor actually felt dangerous compared to the first. The exit from this cavern are smaller too, more cramped and Daniel realises he’ll have to shorten some of his strikes. For a moment, he considers going back upstairs before he spots the portal stone and recalls the directions given. He walks over swiftly and places his hand on the stone where it gently lights up, ‘remembering’ his mana. The temporary distraction is enough to push the creeping doubts away.

  “Let’s see what I can find down here…” whispers Daniel to himself, filling the oppressive silence. It only takes a few minutes of walking for Daniel to run into his first Kobold, a far cry from the relatively quiet first floor. The fight does not take much more time than his fights on the first floor, though the Kobold is more skilled and is able to leave a long cut across his left arm. Daniel ignores the damage, only spending enough time to wrap a simple cloth bandage around his arm to stem the blood flow.

  Emboldened by the successful fight, he journeys deeper into the dungeon, stopping only occasionally to check his surroundings and his minimap to ascertain his location. Another fight with a Kobold brings him a third of the way to his next level. Obviously, actual Adventuring and fighting was a faster form of levelling than training.

  It has been hours since the start of the day and the intense concentration required is wearing on him. The mental fatigue is something different from mining and once again, his wandering mind betrays him as he doesn’t notice the Kobold that creeps up behind him. His first impression of it is a sharp one, the shiv plunging into his back and nicking a kidney.

  A hasty back kick glances off the Kobold’s body, Daniel’s larger size managing to push the monster away long enough for Daniel to spin around. Daniel snarls, stepping forward and swinging his mace to injure the Kobold who ducks into a smaller passageway that it came from to dodge the strike. The side passage is much smaller, barely five feet in height with almost no lighting.

  Daniel crouches to follow the shorter Kobold in to extract his revenge, forced to shorten his swings and to jab the mace forwards in strikes. He doesn’t have much room to attack properly, but the Kobold is still forced to back away from the stronger human or risk getting injured. Both parties trade insignificant blows for a few seconds, before another sharp pain in his buttocks makes Daniel realise that he’s surrounded.

  Trapped! For a moment, Daniel panics as the tight quarters, monsters in front and behind him and open wounds make his chest tighten and his vision narrow. He freezes, body locked in fear as he realises he might truly die here, his momentary pause allowing the Kobold he faces to lunge forward and stab his arm.

  Instinctively, Daniel grabs the smaller Kobold’s arm and holds the monster to him, picking the creature up and rushing forward to escape the confines of the passageway. Almost trampling the monster as he shoves the creature ahead of him, his panicked body attempts to create space away from his pursuing attacker and fails, the shiv from his attacker behind him plunging again into his back and eliciting another grunt of pain.

  The Kobold he holds tight scratches and bites at the arm holding it but is unable to do significant damage without use of its weapon. Daniel continues rushing ahead, crouched over and finally, the pathway breaks open into a larger room. Still gripping the Kobold, Daniel spins around and flings the smaller monster into its brethren’s path before he falls back away from the two monsters, blood from his back continuing to pour out with every exertion.

  In the larger room, Daniel’s moment of panic begins to subside, the two monsters pulling themselves apart and beginning to flank the novice Adventurer. Realising he cannot let them set themselves for an attack, Daniel rushes forward and activates his Double Strike proficiency, attacking the closest Kobold of the two. A pair of strikes lash out, one dodged but the second landing properly. It forces his attackers to grow warier as Daniel begins to swing his weapon with abandon, able to properly wind up in the larger space. Every time he is able to, he activates his skill proficiency, the mace suddenly moving faster.

  It takes only a few more passes before the fight finishes, a lucky blow to the top of one attackers skull stunning it long enough for a second attack to finish it. Faced one-on-one by Daniel, the second attacker falls with relative ease and the injured Daniel slumps to the ground in pain. Out of battle, he feels the additional wounds on his arm and torso he received during the last few moments of desperate fighting.

  Grunting in pain, Daniel focuses on calling forth his Gift and begins to stich the wounds in his body together, cutting off the bleeding immediately. Once that important task is done, he proceeds to heal up the last of the damage with his mana, casting Minor Heal on himself and watching the last of the wounds stitch close.

  “Well, that didn’t go well…” Daniel whispers to himself before finally pulling himself to his feet. He looks around before sliding one of the Kobold shanks into his belt, finally recalling Mary’s initial advice on having a shorter reach weapon on-hand. It definitely would have been helpful in the smaller passageway he had been trapped in. Thank Erlis he had more vitality and experience than a typical novice Adventurer. With a last stretch and a quick looting of the mana stones, Daniel stares at his mini-map and ponders if he should head back upstairs or continue searching the second floor.

  Chapter 10

  “Damn. That’s 6.” Sighing, the guard hands his friend a silver piece and shoots Daniel’s tired form an unfriendly glare at his loss. Who would have thought that another beginner would show up this late at night? Most of the beginners from this morning’s batch had called it a day hours ago, those that survived that is.

  Daniel barely notices the look or the words, dragging his feet towards the awaiting Adventurers Guild. He had long ago eaten all the food and drunk most of the water he had carried down and he just wanted this to be over it. Adventuring seemed to take more energy out of him than even the mines and he was thoroughly ravenous. Vowing to carry more provisions the next time, all Daniel wants to do is to sell the mana stones he has collected and sleep.

  In the Guild, Liev is finally coming to the end of his long shift when he spots Daniel. A flicker of relief breaks his professional facade as Mary would have been thoroughly upset if Daniel had died. His demeanor restored, he calls out. “Working hard I see.”

  “Hi Liev. Got a few stones for you…” Daniel empties the pouch on the counter, the shower of mana stones making Liev raise an eyebrow.

  “That’s quite a haul you have there…” practised hands dance across the stones, pushing and sorting the stones by quality as he continues. “You went to the second floor didn’t you?”

  “Ummm…”

  “There are no rules barring that Daniel. The Guild does not monitor, condone or judge such decisions. No matter how foolhardy,” Liev states as he works on a piece of paper, totaling up Daniel’s earnings.

  “How did you know?”

  “These here are all D Grade 12 stones and 11 stones, what I’d expect to see from the first floor. These three though are D Grade 10’s which you’d only get if you were really lucky or were hunting on the second floor,” as Liev speaks, he points to each pile before he twists his pad around and shows Daniel his total. Knowing that a number of clientele cannot read, he states as well. “4 Silver and 3 Coppers. Third best haul among your group.”

  Daniel nods jerkily at the announcement automatically, picking up the coins as Liev deposits them on the counter. A decent amount, though an experienced miner could earn five silver a day for much less risk. After a moment, Daniel recalls what the attendant said, “Third?”

  “Yes. Two of the Novices managed to find the
chest on the first floor.”

  “Chest?” Feeling like a parrot, Daniel leans forward. Truth be told, after his nasty encounter on the second floor, he had grown a lot more careful and worked the second floor with caution, checking each side passageway carefully before moving on. Unfortunately, that meant he encountered Kobolds at a slower rate.

  “You didn’t even look for it did you?” Liev smiles slightly bemused, reaching under his desk to pull out a mana stone. Almost the same size as the shards that Daniel has been bringing in, this one is noticeably clearer than his. “On each floor there is a chest which contains a mana stone which is a number of grades higher than what you’d find defeating the mobs on that level. It moves around after it is found, respawning every two to four hours but it’s always guarded by an Elite of that floor. This one here is a D Grade 8.”

  “Oh…” Daniel falls silent, tapping his fingers on the counter before looking up at Liev. “It’s a matter of quantity over quality then isn’t it? If I stay on the first floor, I’ll be trying to find the chest to get a good, high quality stone. If I go push down to the second floor again, I’ll be able to fight more often, but it’s more dangerous and I wouldn’t be able to get a chest yet.”

  Liev nods, internally surprised that Daniel has come to that conclusion that quickly. Most Adventurers take a while longer to work out those options by themselves.

  “Thank you Liev. I’ll keep it in mind. Goodnight!” Daniel waves goodbye, moving away from the counter. It’s been a long day and it’s time to get to bed.

  “Morning Daniel. Slept in did you?” A laughing Elise waves him over to the bar where she is busy cleaning up from the breakfast rush. “Breakfast will be out soon.”

  Daniel nods, plopping down onto the stool. He has his gear with him already, but a good meal to start the day seems like a great idea. That and coffee.