by Ryan Rimmel
That was kind of handy. I checked out the other wagons. There was a food truck. . .er, food wagon that granted us a bonus on how long food stayed fresh. There was also a Cobbler. It would give a bonus on the Durability of our shoes. Finally, there was an Enchanter.
“You sell enchanted items?” I asked. The Enchanter lowered his book, raised his eyebrows, and lifted his spectacles. He placed the glasses on the top of his short-cropped, white, curly hair.
“A doy,” he replied, putting his glasses back down and raising his book.
Had he not been an Enchanter, I would have left at that point. However, his shop was just too full of useful gizmos and widgets. I decided to keep calm, for now. At least, that’s what I told myself, while I counted to twenty-seven.
I looked at his name tag. “Hubert, do you not want to come with us in the caravan?”
“No, I just don’t like being asked stupid questions,” he replied, holding his book higher.
“Fine, why should we invite you to accompany us?” I asked calmly. Semi-calmly. Almost calmly. I wasn’t going to kill him. He had fun toys.
“I’m an Enchanter,” he said, not even bothering to look up from his book this time. “Everyone wants to bring an Enchanter, and you have a +10% movement speed that I wouldn’t mind having.”
“Is that it?” I asked. Maybe it was worth looking into the food truck.
“Of course, that’s it. I want to join the caravan. I get a bonus on movement speed. You get access to some of my enchantments and the general buff an enchanting cart grants. Everyone is happy,” he huffed. I wasn’t sure he had stopped reading at any point while making his pronouncement.
● Enchanter’s Wagon: Expert Enchanter will grant the caravan a +9% boost on overall Durability.
“What kind of toys?” I asked.
Hubert exhaled loudly, put his book down, and fixed his face with the most fake-looking smile I’d ever seen. He began speaking like a carnival barker, “Howdy, pilgrim! If you look behind me, you’ll see all the wonders of the world!”
He grabbed a small cup. “Thirsty?” As he held the cup, it began slowly filling with water.
“Perhaps you have a pair of pants that need mended?” He produced a needle and a torn piece of fabric. Hubert deftly started stitching, the thread magically appearing as he sewed. In moments, the pants looked good as new with no evidence of being sewn at all.
“Is someone bothering you, asking stupid questions?” he asked, pulling out a small horn with a squeeze ball attachment. He pointed it at me and squeezed.
● You have been Silenced for 90 seconds.
“I think I love Hubert,” Shart sighed in my head.
Hubert smiled smarmily and sat back down. I used my Counterspell skill to break his spell.
“Nice tricks,” I stated.
Hubert frowned and looked at his horn, pointing it at his face. He squeezed the ball, then looked back at me angrily. I think he started yelling. I couldn’t hear him.
I invited him to accompany us when there was about five seconds left of his spell. He glared at me for about ten seconds before accepting.
“I need better wheels. Figure out a price,” I said, turning back to my wagon. Hubert was quiet for a moment, so I decided to check on my former shoulder mate.
“Shart, what’s up ahead?” I asked. I brought up my menus and started to look at my perks. It was past time I assigned those perks and talents.
“You will reach an actual city tonight, if you keep going,” stated Shart. “If you hadn’t been an idiot, you’d have some extra coin to spend when you got there.”
I had left the last village in a hurry, without even telling anyone I’d been involved in the battle. That meant that I had received none of the treasure from the fight. Several of the caravan guards were now wielding higher quality swords, taken from the bandits. While it was all seriously under my level, it also represented actual equipment. I was still wearing regular clothes.
There was that sword I had taken, but how would I explain that to anyone? Normal people didn’t walk around with swords. Further I couldn’t explain where I had gotten the sword without letting everyone know I had been at the battle, or I’d stolen it. If I could get some money in the next town, I could probably buy a sword.
What I needed was some wood to make toys.
I walked over to the side of the road, next to the wagon. Scanning for something I could salvage, I brought up my character sheet. My name was currently listed as O’Really, but Jim was right next to it, like an albatross around my neck.
“Why did the
“Probably because you were doing something heroic. O’Really isn’t much of a heroic sort of a guy,” stated Shart. “The
Great, even the
“Badgelor, how are you managing?” I asked, looking around.
“I’m sleeping, ya git. Some nice folks let me ride on their wagon,” he announced.
He was always so polite. I snagged a hatchet as I walked by a wagon and headed off into the woods. I couldn’t just use my Salvage skill on a tree. That would be too easy. I needed to cut off a branch and then use Carpentry to turn that wood into blocks I could use.
My hopeful cheat of using Hack and Slash with the hatchet didn’t work out very well. Hack and Slash allowed me to swing up to five times, but I was trained to use swords, not axes. Activating the skill got me a rather impressive error prompt, which I ignored. I flailed wildly at the tree, like a psycho, fervently hoping that no one was watching.
I wasted precious time recovering the hatchet, which, after a particularly aggressive swing, had gotten stuck in a branch halfway up a nearby tree. Next, I tried Powerful Blow, but that was a bust. I only had one rank of Powerful Blow for Axe-type weapons, which I’d earned from nearly breaking the hatchet on a tree branch.
With no other options, I had to use my Lumberjack skill. Fortunately, it was at Initiate rank. Unfortunately, Lumberjack took a while to use and was pretty draining on my Stamina. What I had hoped to do in seconds ended up taking me the better part of ten minutes. I managed to hack off a decent-sized limb before being notified that I was out of the caravan’s range. I gathered my wood and rushed back.
Julia watched me come out of the woods. She was strolling beside Hubert’s wagon, trying to keep the children in check. They were taking turns jumping on and off the Enchanter’s wagon. Most people were still walking, but enough had crowded onto the wagons to make them uncomfortable. Hubert looked pissed that people were riding on his wagon. I mollified him by assigning all the children to the Caravanner’s Wagon.
“Thanks,” said Julia, leading all the children forward.
“If you’d waited too much longer, there would have been a tragic accident,” stated Shart sadly.
“I know,” I replied. I knew why he was sad.
RonJared had gotten us moving with our new cohort wagon in tow. Surrounding our wagon train was a host of eager people following along, hoping to see Grebthar, the hero, again. The wayward group seemed to grow continuously. I walked over to Cole.
“These pilgrims are going to make the trip more complicated,” I said.
“Well, shoot,” stated Cole, grinning, “You don’t live by the road. Here, in Falcon, we all say ‘Howdy, pilgrim’ if we see someone, and we help them on the best we can.”
Suddenly, I was in Utah, and they were all on a mission. They had all brought their own supplies or money to buy supplies. The rates for traveling cross-country with a caravan were extremely cheap. It wasn’t so much that they were a permanent part of the caravan, but they were headed our way and would stay with us until we reached their destination. Safety in numbers.
All things considered, they didn’t bother me very much. The extra people were mostly walking. The ones that rode did s
o on unused parts of the wagons. Then, I noticed, for this large a group, everything had grown suspiciously quiet. I decided to go to my desk and investigate.
“I have made a mistake,” I said, realizing something. I looked down the hallway full of children. Some fool had placed the kids in my wagon to keep them contained. What I believed to be just a few children had expanded, like a gas, and were occupying every available location. They were jumping on boxes, running around, and doing everything short of causing real havoc. They were also being very, very noisy.
“Whatever you’re doing sounds like an absolute nightmare,” Shart remarked.
When I finally got to my desk, I saw two little girls sitting in the driver’s compartment, talking to RonJared. He was patiently speaking to them. It sounded like he was explaining how the wagon worked, and what jobs people had to do. I was almost mollified into a sense of complacency, until RonJared smelled a traitor. He looked over, glaring at me. It was the expression of someone whose man cave had been despoiled. It was clear that my presence was not welcome. Grumbling, I took a ladder and climbed to the roof, avoiding about a dozen children in the process.
Losing access to my desk meant that I couldn’t work on any caravan business. Shucks. I plopped down and started carving my branch into blocks of wood. The kids on the roof were interested for about three seconds. Then, they turned back to inspect the far more interesting oxen. One of the animals was in the process of taking a massive dump on the road.
It was kind of funny.
There were three Talent Points I hadn’t assigned to either of my Domains yet. I figured now or never. I cast Heightened Senses first, just to see what it did.
The effects were different than what I’d expected. I thought Heightened Senses was some sort of zoomed-in vision, but it was more like going from HD to 4K. Everything was just a bit too sharp. Because of that effect, I could see things I would have otherwise missed. It reminded me of the time I watched Prince of Peoria in 4K instead of HD. The handsome king was amazing, but his monkey really could have used some additional time with the groomers. Without 4K, I would have never noticed.
With my new outlook, I was seeing things I hadn’t seen before. For example, I saw the small pile of wooden garbage at the side of the road. It would have been perfect for my salvage skill. I glanced down at my blocks and decided it was too late now.
Next, I checked the Divination talent tree. Many of the talents on it just enhanced Heightened Senses. There was a talent that made herbs or animals visible from longer ranges. If you selected the animal talent, there was one for monsters later in the chain. It was tempting, but then I noticed that each new level significantly increased the spell's Mana cost. I reviewed it and whistled
● Heighten Senses: You gain increased perception from your senses. Compatible with the Perception skill. Cost 50 Mana, channeled.
Fifty Mana was a bit extreme. Casting it channeled meant that I didn’t recover any Mana while using it. It only took a few minutes for my Mana pool to recover, but I wasn’t going to be casting much while Heighten Senses was active. In other words, it was an out-of-combat spell.
I saw a few talents I was truly considering. Magical Fonts let you find powerful magical sources. Mana Sight let you see Mana, which I could only see through a Mana Control trick I knew. Finally, I found that I could take Heightened Senses II.
● Heightened Senses II: Reduces the cost of the spell by 15, duration: 30 seconds, Channeled.
I considered what that meant for a moment. Many of the terms Divine magic used were interchangeable with terms Arcane magic used. There was a degree of commonality between the two. I could probably use my Arcane knowledge to determine what my Divine spells did.
● You have discovered Divine Lore: Your knowledge of Divine magic has expanded greatly! You know secrets only known to the gods!
“Did you just pick up Divine Lore?” Shart groaned. “Magical secrets known only to the most wizened of sages and you.”
“It was technically an accident. I was thinking about Divine magic,” I defended.
“That doesn’t make it any better,” replied Shart. “If anything, it makes it substantially worse.”
“I’m surprised there isn’t a group skill, like a Magical Lore,” I stated. I actually sighed when nothing appeared.
“It's called Mystical Lore, Dum Dum,” stated Shart.
● You have discovered Mystical Lore: Your knowledge of various subsystems of magic have culminated with you learning the most challenging of all Magical Lore skills. Congratulations! By achieving level 0 in all primary casting classes, you have successfully unlocked this rare skill.
● With your current ranks in Arcane Lore, Divine Lore, Primal Lore, and Psychic Lore, your new skill level will be Unskilled.
I coughed. Shart said nothing for a long moment.
“I counted to 100. I’m good now,” he finally responded.
“Somehow, I’m sure this is all my fault,” I grumbled, going back to my new spells.
“Everything is your fault,” growled Shart.
My Mystical Lore fired up, supplying a definition of channeling. If I cast Heightened Senses channeled, the spell would last until I stopped channeling it. With a duration of 30 seconds, when I stopped channeling Heightened Senses, the spell would last 30 seconds. If I channeled the spell for an hour, it would actually last an hour and 30 seconds.
“What about magical fonts?” I asked innocently.
“What, Dum Dum?” replied the demon absently. Then, he gasped. “Wait! Magical fonts are places of power that you can attune. They can grant you great boons, depending on what they actually are.”
“Neat,” I said, but Shart shushed me.
“The
“Cheat? How?” I asked.
“Your Max Level! I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to code around it, but your soul just isn’t powerful enough to sustain more levels. If I can link you to a bunch of places of power, then I can make your soul more powerful. I can bump up your Max Level!” stated Shart. “I’m brilliant.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “So, I should take the talent?”
“Yes, you nitwit,” grumbled the demon. “Wait a second. What about your new Mystical Lore skill?”
“I am just asking questions. What is the downside, little buddy?” I asked in a stilted manner. I had already decided to take the talent, but, with Shart, there was always a downside.
“Well, you aren’t going to get the boon from the Font,” stated Shart cautiously, before coughing, “Neither is anyone else.”
“I’m not smart, remember? Please, explain that to me,” I said.
“Well, we are going to have to drain the Fonts to empower you,” stated Shart, growing more confident. “After you drain them, they aren’t going to have any power left for anything else, like granting a boon. Don’t worry. Once I get back home, I can fix that in a maintenance cycle.”
“What happens to me?” I asked. “Will I lose Max Levels?”
“No, I’ll find some new power from elsewhere,” replied Shart. “Plenty of unused fonts around Ordinal.”
“Excellent, it's great that I have someone like you to help me out,” I said appreciatively. Shart was bad at recognizing when someone was laying it on thick, but I really needed him to fail his Sense BS check.
My new skill, Mystical Lore, was great at figuring out some complicated parts of magic. However, Shart brought much more practical experience to the table. Most of the information I was getting with Mystical Lore involved specifics of how magic worked, like magical fonts being power sources tied to the
I selected Magical Fonts and Mana Sight, for good measure. Those two upgrades i
ncreased the cost of my Heightened Senses spell to 70 Mana, which was most of my supply. I only had two Talent Points left over, and I hadn’t even checked out my Regeneration Domain.
Looking through Regeneration, I discovered it worked similarly. I could buy talents that made Renew better. There was one talent for making Renew work on injuries. Much further up the chain, a talent made Renew work in combat. However, I needed five other talents before I got there.
In order, the talents were:
● Affect Injury: Renew will also heal injuries
● Renew II: Renew Base healing increased to 3, gains channeled
● Regeneration: Renew II becomes Regeneration
● Fast Regeneration: You now heal crippling injuries 10 times faster.
● Combat Regeneration: Regeneration loses Out-of-Combat condition.
That could be incredibly powerful, if I threw all my points into it. Right now, Renew did not heal injuries, so I had to take at least the first point. Renew II didn’t sound impressive, unless you understood how channeling worked. I could just leave the spell active, as long as I was not in combat, at the cost of all my Mana recovery.
Regeneration was useful, though. I already had a weak form of regeneration through my bond with Badgelor. It took forever to repair any severe injury, though, as it used my natural Hit Point recovery. When I’d lost my fingers, it required thousands of points of natural healing to recover them. Spinal injuries were even worse. Being able to pour Mana into Regeneration meant I would recover within days, instead of months.
Regeneration would let me cast a channeled spell. I would be able to regrow entire lost limbs rather quickly. The idea of being stuck on Ordinal with my arms and legs hacked off was a fear of mine, as was being blind.
If I kept on going down the tree, Fast Regeneration reduced the time from days to hours. Combat Regeneration was the apex power, though. It would let me maintain my healing in combat, at the cost of my Mana Regeneration.