She looked thoughtful for a second, “True, if they don’t respawn they’ll be missed, and it will draw a large response. They might even reinforce the twenty goblins outside the cave before we attack to free the elves and humans. I counted twenty elves, and four humans. You?”
I replied, “That sounds about right.”
We tossed around a few ideas as we got lunch ready and ate, but we didn’t come up with any better plans than what we had already. I’d be the loud obnoxious distraction and have to do my best to live long enough while Gwen freed the captives, armed them, and led a surprise attack from the rear. Hopefully she didn’t get busted on the way in, if she did things would go bad, fast.
After lunch, we headed into the forest. I let her take the lead, and I did my best to move quietly as we tracked down the wolves we’d caught sight of in the southern section of our forest. That’s not what we found first though.
She turned to me and mouthed, “Brown bear,” as she pulled an arrow from the quiver, and knocked it in the bow she already had in her left hand. It wasn’t until she’d sighted in the bear that I saw it myself through the trees about fifty feet away. I cast the spell assess life. The impression the spell gave me was that I should run away, apparently a large brown bear was much deadlier than a goblin with a sword. At least, the ones we’d faced so far. I also got very basic information, like the fact it was level six and letting it hit me would be a bad idea.
Her arrow glowed with a nimbus of darkness, and she released it before I could mention what I’d learned. Damn. The bear roared as it sunk into its flank, and spun and charged in an alarmingly fast manner. Well, damn.
Using fire in the thick forest with lots of brush seemed like a bad idea, so I cast Ice Spike, and poured over half my mana into it. Mana and water surged from my hand, and the spike was more like a harpoon as it formed and raced at the charging bear. It hit the upper left chest, right below its shoulder and sunk deep into the flesh. I knew it had done fifty-six points of damage, out of a possible sixty.
The bear roared, but didn’t miss a step as it charged. Just what level was this thing again?
“Gwen,” I said in alarm as she launched a second arrow. It took it in the throat, not that the bear even noticed, she hadn’t been lucky enough to hit an artery or vein. Still, the thing had absorbed over ninety damage between the two of us, and didn’t even look winded.
I cast another ice spike in its direction, pouring twenty mana into it, which did thirty-seven out of a possible forty damage as it struck the charging bear.
Gwen got off one more arrow that went into its arm, before we both dodged out of the way of the charging bear.
I circled a tree as I cast another Ice Spike, this time at normal mana levels, and did twenty-four more damage.
I heard Gwen pull her sword as the bear turned in her direction.
“It’s level six!”
A dark shadow covered the blade, turning it black as she whipped the sword up to block a wickedly fast paw strike. Gwen screamed as the bear bashed through her block and sent her flying into a tree. It wasn’t completely wasted though, as the blade dug deep into the arm and the shadow melted into the bear’s body.
I screamed at it hoping to stop it from lunging at Gwen who was struggling to rise, and cast growth at the ground with a tweak adding in a few of the new concepts. Roots shot out of the ground and entwined its legs and paws.
The bear lost it, and started to buck, roar, and struggle. The roots didn’t stand a chance, but it slowed the bear for a few seconds. Long enough for me to cast another ice spike for twenty-five damage, and for Gwen to get to her feet, and lunge at the stuck bear and run it through the neck.
The bears roar cut off, and it spat up blood as she twisted the sword and tore its throat to pieces.
The roots snapped with a loud sound, and we both took a few quick steps back. It turned to Gwen, and took two steps, then collapsed to the ground.
Congratulations! The Brown Bear is dead. You have earned three hundred and fifty Experience Points!
I walked over to Gwen, and touched her shoulder as I cast heal. It took a while, as I slowly fed my regenerating mana to the spell. The color returned to her face, and she lost the dazed shocked look from her eyes.
“You okay?”
She nodded, “I am now. Next time I’ll wait until you give me an assessment, that could have been bad.”
I grinned, “Still, that was good experience. Next time I’ll surround us in an ice wall, or we can climb a tree while we wear down its health. That was intense. I did a hundred and thirty-nine damage, you?”
She said, “About eighty with my arrows, more with my sword. That last strike to the throat was a killing stroke, wouldn’t have mattered how much life he had left. He had to have at least three hundred hit points though.”
We took the time to claim the pelt, we’d be able to use it to make some kind of crude sling to carry the weapons in.
We wound up sticking with brown bears, and killed five more to get to third level. The rest of the fights were less risky, using better tactics to prevent the bear from easily closing to melee range. I also learned a few things after leveling, and I checked my status. My Water and Life spheres went up with my level, but my fire stayed at level two. My Hunter and Sneak skills went up, while my Builder skill stayed at initiate level two as well. The reasons were obvious enough, I hadn’t used the fire sphere or built anything while gaining that level.
I also didn’t lose the skill level point either, when I used fire enough and fully integrated the concepts, I would reach another level. Another option would be to start learning a fourth sphere, but I resisted that idea. I needed to stick with three, so they’d be powerful and match my level. Three spheres were diverse enough, especially with Gwen around. At least, I’d believe that until I was proved wrong. Hopefully after the next day’s rescue, there would be others in our party as well.
From what I understood, damage would greatly increase when I moved from initiate to apprentice. It was mana invested in the spell, plus sphere level, plus intelligence, at that point, apprentice would double that, journeyman triple it, and so on. So, if I had twice as many spheres, they’d be greatly lessened in power. Not a big deal at first, but at level sixty all my spells from six spheres would be at level thirty, doing three times damage instead of six. Monsters of my level would kick my ass at that point.
I also assumed with such a radical jump in power, the concepts would take a huge step forward, once I’d mastered the initiate level concepts. Everything else would advance as well in large steps, like assess life, and commune would give much greater detail. In other words, the incremental levels within initiate would be nothing to the jump between initiate level ten and apprentice level one. I was already amazed at the small jump in concepts, and couldn’t wait to see what that would entail.
Between warming baths, lighting the fire, and meditating on the fire concepts when we returned to camp, I was able to jump to initiate level three before we turned in the for the night. Honestly, I think the meditation had the most impact, as I absorbed the concepts and considered new spell adjustments. One of those adjustments was giving the Fire Blast a larger area of effect if I wished. It would degrade the damage but affect more than one creature. For instance, the center target would take full damage, a goblin a yard away would take ten percent less, and five yards away would only take half. Those on the edges of the thirty-foot explosion would take ten percent damage. I thought it couldn’t hurt to gain that edge, before we attacked a fortified goblin settlement. Of course, I could only use it at the beginning of the plan, or I’d be hurting anyone on my side in range of the blast once melee battle started. I could adjust the size as well, thirty feet was just the max, and the damage drop off was consistent, so the goblins on the edge of a fifteen-foot explosion would take fifty percent damage.
The only catch was it tripled the mana casting cost to make it an area of effect spell. The ten-extra mana was to shape the s
pell, and it wouldn’t be included in the damage itself.
I pushed that all out of my head as we went to sleep after a quick dinner. It was still light out, but we planned to wake up in the wee hours, and go looking for trouble…
Chapter Six
Status, I thought as I got up in the middle of the night. The moon was bright, and three quarters full. It was enough to see by, yet still left plenty of shadows we could hide in.
Name:
Jason
Classes:
None.
HP:
86
Regeneration 1.5/sec.
Race:
Half-Elven / Half Human
Mana:
108
Regeneration 1.8/sec.
Platinum:
0
Stamina:
96
Regeneration 1.3/sec
Gold:
0
Level:
3
TNL: 3740
Silver:
4
Strength:
15
Bronze:
36
Agility:
14
Intelligence:
18
Willpower
13
Wisdom:
16
Magical Spheres:
Fire:
Initiate level 3
Water:
Initiate level 3
Air:
Initiate level 0
Earth:
Initiate level 0
Light:
Initiate level 0
Darkness:
Initiate level 0
Life:
Initiate level 3
Death:
Initiate level 0
Skills (Combat)
Combat Skill Name
Description
Level
N/A
Skills (Non-Combat)
Skill name
Description
Level
Sneak
Allows you to move silently.
Initiate Level 3
Builder
You can build a fire and create crude shelters and buildings.
Initiate Level 2
Hunter
Your ability to track and hunt animals.
Initiate Level 3
That would have to do, I dismissed the windows. We couldn’t risk waiting any longer, and I thought our plan had a good chance of success. We left the glade, and then moved north toward the goblin settlement. It was two miles through the woods, and then another few miles to the cave, so we were pretty safe for the moment. Though, I had detect life going just in case there were nocturnal predators out there, besides us I mean.
“We ready for this?”
Gwen nodded, “I think so, yes. I’ve got some new tricks I’m dying to try out.”
I shook my head, “This world is rather addicting, isn’t it?”
She bit her lip and nodded, “Can you see?”
“Umm, pretty well actually, is that a half-elven thing maybe?”
She shrugged, “Probably, if you’re doing it without a spell. I have it covered with an active spell, but I was pretty blind without it.”
“I’m glad you’re here, I think that’s part of it as well. I was too much of a loner on the other world.”
She smiled at me over her shoulder, and I suppressed the feelings that smile sparked. She was friendly, nice even, and the more I got to know her the more I liked her. She never complained or lost her temper, and treated me as a friend, but she hadn’t sent me any signals that she was even remotely interested in anything past friendship and grouping together for safety.
We’d talked a lot, about who we were and our past, and the immediate future, but we had no long-term plans. For all I knew she’d break off in another direction as soon as one became available.
I squashed the impulse to test the waters anyway. It was a natural thing I thought, she was attractive and the only one around. That didn’t make it a good reason to act on, did it? It was a horrible reason to want to get together, shallow, but I didn’t think that was the only reason even if it was part of it. Still, I couldn’t deny the last couple of days my attraction had only grown, but the last thing I wanted to do was make a mess of things. Things were kind of in flux right now anyway.
Or, maybe I was just a coward afraid of rejection?
Regardless, it was better to focus on freeing those people, and on learning anything they could tell us about our new world. I pushed the drama out of my head, maybe it had just been too long for me since I’d had female company. Still, I wasn’t as young as I looked, and could control myself just fine. Maybe I’d test the waters once she had other options, right at the moment we were kind of stuck with each other and I didn’t want to make things awkward for her, or for both of us.
She replied, “I admit, it has been nice to have you around. Worth giving up the solitude for the hot baths.”
I snickered when she chuckled at her own sally.
We chatted for a while, with occasional banter while I tried not to read into it too much.
We quieted as we reached the edge of the woods, and then retraced our steps from the day before. We moved a lot faster this time knowing what to expect, and only slowed when we got close to where the sentry post was.
The night was quiet, and the air was still and warm, humid. We moved at a crawl in the valley between the two hills which led to the tree.
Gwen signaled for us to stop before I could make out the lookout post, and then nodded at me. She moved forward, and disappeared a few feet away. Hopefully, it would go as smoothly this time.
I couldn’t see the platform from there, so I waited nervously, how would I know if she needed help? The sound of a body falling reached my ears before I got too stressed at that idea, and I took that as the signal to move forward and join her. I moved as quietly as possible, and Gwen was back on the ground by the time I arrived at the tree.
She closed the distance, and put her lips against my ear. Damn, that so wasn’t helping me hold back the attraction, and her scent was intoxicating.
“When I have you stop, start counting to a hundred, slowly, to give me time to get into position.”
She leaned her head back, and touched my arm for a lingering moment when I nodded in agreement. Wait, now she was sending me signals? She never touched me like that before. Or was it just nervousness at our plans, and worry about me being in danger, as a friend. Subconscious action? Some women were casual touchers, but Gwen wasn’t. I berated myself and pushed that down, now was hardly the time, I needed to concentrate on the attack, and not how good her hand had felt on me and what it meant.
I followed her quietly in a crouch, as we closed the last half mile or so to the ravine entrance.
She held up a hand, and mouthed, good luck, before moving forward and disappearing.
I started to count to a hundred. I was about to single handedly make a frontal assault on a fortified position with twenty goblins, two of which had magic of their own. Possibly more than that if some of the fighters had a magical sphere as well. Yet, all I could do was think about Gwen’s smile.
I meditated for a moment while I continued to count, and got my head in the right place. Gwen wasn’t going anywhere, I could figure it out later.
When I reach a hundred, I started to move forward along the right-hand side of the ravine rather slowly. I needed to get in range. I let out a deep breath when I got close enough, and it felt way too close.
The first thing I cast was my water elemental. I heard a few guttural cries of alarm, while I casted my fire elemental. The sound of rushing water was accompanied by the pops and snaps of a fire as the fire elemental appeared. At third level they were quite a bit larger, almost man sized. Both of them rushed forward to engage and distract the enemy.
An arrow whizzed past my head, and hit the wall of the ravine.
Shit. I cast an ice wall that was three feet
high, and three feet wide, and a foot thick. I ducked down behind it. Several arrows hit it, or went over it and my head, and there was an explosion of fire as well, while I cast my fourth spell. Another Ice Wall spell, this time filling in the cave opening with a foot-wide wall of ice that blocked the small entrance quite well.
That had taken a lot of my mana.
I peeked around the side of the small ice wall, figuring that was better than up and looking over. I cast Fire Blast with a nine-foot diameter explosion. It was enough to get the four archers that were pelting me with arrows. The night flashed with the light of exploding fire, and the two in the middle took twenty-five damage, the other two took twenty-one.
A stinging sensation on my forehead made me hide behind the ice again. I’d been grazed by an arrow for ten damage, and felt a bit shaken. At least I’d been right about not being rushed by goblins with weapons, they weren’t sure if I was alone yet.
I cast the spell again, and poked my head and arm out just long enough to aim it. The archers had split up a little, and I only got three of them. I cast one more Fire Blast, that last time I made the explosion encompass twenty feet. The two in the middle died, and the other two didn’t look at all well. Of course, that still left fourteen warriors with swords, and two goblin mages, but my elementals were keeping them busy.
It was my last explosive Fire Blast, because that’s when I heard the war cries of humans and elves as they fell on the enemy from behind. Despite the situation still being precarious, I felt a surge of relief go through me at that.
I switched to Ice Spike at that point, and took out the two severely wounded archers with one strike each. At that point, I had to watch for a half minute or so to regenerate mana.
Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG) Page 6