by M J Sweeney
Alhain bowed a little on his stool.
/ Help Alhain gain Grandmaster status with the Elven Armourers Guild /
Accept Y / N
[Gain experience and improved disposition with Alhain and minor improved disposition with the Elven Armourers Guild]
Of course I blinked on yes.
“The first problem is time; the second is a unique elite or legendary artefact. I would need to take time off from working at the forge here to make the item I have in mind, and then I would need to go to Geras to finalise my claim. I have the skill to make a legendary item, but not all the resources. I have collected some iron-wood that I need, and some high-quality shadow-leather, but I also need to empower it somehow.
“There are two ways to do this. The first is to find an artefact of some kind to absorb and trade for its power. I don’t have one, and little way of finding it. The other is to retrieve a specialised body part from a legendary beast. Something unique, freshly dead—less than one month—and its most potent organ. The heart of a giant, the eye of a great wyrm, something like that.”
“So you need a legendary item or beast, which will be used up in the process?”
“Yes.”
“And you have iron-wood to make it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I ask what the item is?”
His tanned face creased into a frown for a moment, and then he nodded. “A special quiver of arrows. An ever-full quiver, with a couple of extra features.”
“All right, sounds good. I think I’ll be able to help.”
“Oh, and I should add—the artefact needs to be obtained from one of the unseelie directly. It needs to be… fresh, potent.”
Not really understanding that, I nodded anyway. It meant we couldn’t just buy something, which would have been a hell of a lot easier considering how much spare cash Elz currently had. “We should be able to help,” I said instead. “If we do manage to kill the necromancer, surely it will have an item or two we can use, plus its heart or brain or something.”
“When,” said Elz succinctly.
“Right. When.”
Alhain nodded.
“One question.”
“Yes?” Alhain replied.
“You decided to use iron-wood? Why not ghost-wood? You did say it was higher quality, more powerful.”
“Oh certainly, certainly. And for my project, also a lot better to imbue the particular enhancements I’m after. But I only have a small piece of it. Not enough.” He sighed.
“So if I could acquire some ghost-wood too…?”
“Really?” His eyebrows went up in surprise.
“I believe so. If memory serves, I’m thinking maybe I can get that at the same time as some elite or legendary loot. I imagine I can, but I won’t know until...” I waved my hand vaguely in an easterly direction.
Alhain smiled slightly, enjoying the thought. “If you can do that too… I think I can guess what you might next require.”
“Yes. Your word that you will vouch for me with the guild, and then make me a grandmaster set of high elven leather. I would, of course, pay the normal discounted fee.” I didn’t bother asking on Elz’s behalf as I was sure the answer would be no. He’d never get his dispositions high enough.
Alhain and I shook on it, elf style, touching fingertips of our right hands.
Chapter 31
The next morning, Elz and I made it out of town and set a fast pace for the ruins. After losing the last horse so quickly, I declined to buy a new one. To my surprise, Elz was able to not only match my best movement speed, but he could surpass me. I didn’t understand how until I asked later that evening, once we had made camp in a small grove of elms. We sat at a freshly made camp fire, sitting on some handy logs Elz had dragged over.
“Elz, I know wood elves are naturally fleet of foot, and so are most barbarians and beast races. But humans like yourself, not so much. How is it possible? It makes no sense.”
He looked down, suddenly shy. “You really want to know?” He toed one of the burning logs.
“Yes, truly.”
He stared down at his booted feet a moment and grinned. “It’s my little secret. Look.” He waggled his feet at me.
I frowned, not sure what he meant. “What?”
“Look. My boots… special.”
So I looked, and then I really looked with Identify. He was wearing ratty-looking lizard-skin boots, but then I saw—
/ Elven Boots of the Leaf-Lord / Legendary Chameleon Skin
(Optional appearance - presently lizard-skin)
[+33% Movement Speed, +33% Move Silently, +33% Fire Resistance, +5% Fire Resistance Cap, Chameleon Design] (Requires 50 Agility)
Lore
[These boots were believed to have once been worn by Lindane and then gifted to his High Priest, Lord Utteron, back in the beginnings of the second age. Their peculiar design allows the boots to be worn by any class, as the user is able to shapeshift the material into any master level wear—silk shoes, albino boots, or mithril links. Each conversion will change its inherent statistics to that of the armour type. Moreover the boots can be changed to any desired look or colour to suit the attire of the wearer. There is only one of these items known in Memory]
I almost fell off my log. Gods! They were nice. “Thanks, Elz; they’re a real handy item.”
“Yup.”
I noticed as I looked at them intently that the leather was a plush layered design, and looked like overlapping green leaves. When I stopped trying to see, they returned to the usual muddy (and ugly) lizard-skin boots. Interesting effect.
“Where did you get those?” I asked.
“From ’nelf,” he replied promptly, then looked down. That was it. Okay, clearly I wasn’t going to get more out of him than that, at least for now.
“Got any other surprises?” I asked.
“Uh… mebbe.”
I raised my eyebrows. He bent his head down and shrugged off his bone and tooth necklace. I had seen him scratching marks in some of the bones with his dagger, and so thought it was some kind of memento, maybe a holy symbol of some kind. I was surprised to see this:
/ Greater Amulet of Hidden Dangers / Elite Bone and Sinew
[+25% Find Traps, +10% Poison Resistance, +10 Perception, Detects traps, landslides, and other natural disasters]
I handed it back. Also a useful item. “You’re a lad of hidden talents, eh, Elz?”
“Thanks.”
You know the expression, famous last words? We finished our meal in relative peace—I was mulling over the future—up until I started smelling something off. Rank. Elz had just farted. And not one of those little numbers that passed in a second or two. A full, lasting, debilitating effect, making me gag and cough.
“Gods, Elz, what was that?”
He looked up from where he was poking the dimming fire with a stick, and smirked. “Goblin gas… you like?”
“Shit, no. Please sit on the other side of the fire in future.” I spat phlegm from my mouth, still disgusted.
He shrugged, seemingly unrepentant. Hidden talents, indeed.
***
We sorted through our gear as we went, talking strategy and random ideas. We had a bunch of new purchases from Max, Menisme, and Alhain. We had bought some new clothes for Elz, including some of the clothier’s makeup supply. We had pieced together some leather armour for Elz that Alhain had lying around—not the best, but it would do for now.
From Max we had bought a couple of new oh-shit telescoping rods, as my original one was too busted up, some extra rope, forty Molotov cocktails—here they were called ‘jars of fiery burning,’ and over two litres of oil for making more, or for other purposes. We’d also stocked up on some hardware supplies—door spikes, nails, wire, hammer, and tongs—for some special surprises we were planning. Unfortunately, as I no longer had my Bag of Holding—damned Ingriss!—we couldn’t carry a vast weight of goods.
In sorting out my pack, I found the deck of cards I’d originally discovered at
the Eragdas. When I showed them to Elz, his eyes widened. “Oh… Iserrad’s luck,” he murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“Full deck is rare…” he was counting the cards and shuffling them dexterously. “You have all of them, it’s excellent. Good for getting Isserad’s notice, helps with luck…”
He made to hand them back, but I just shook my head. “You keep them then, you’ll probably make better use of it…”
“Really? For keeps?”
“Sure, why not.”
He clapped happily and sorted them out into the three suits, admiring the colourful pictures.
Next we went through some of our other purchases—as we had each bought some new magic rings; I bought a Ring of Elemental Resistance, a Greater Ring of Shock Resistance, and I had to replace a Greater Ring of Fire Resistance, as Ingriss had stolen the last one. Elz also bought a Ring of Elemental Resistance, a Greater Ring of Poison Resistance, and a Greater Ring of Frost Resistance. Max unfortunately didn’t have any Greater Rings of Elemental Resistance—they were quite expensive anyway. I also bought all the various minor elemental traps that Max had in stock, only eight of those and two Greater Scrolls of Fire Resistance, for emergencies.
Max had also put in a few courier orders for us—special delivery from Asadeena Bay—firstly for a pair of ‘Humble Gladius,’ an elite shortsword Elz wanted, and fairly cheap at only fifty-four zorb each. As he said as he was prone to loosing weapons, he didn’t want to get anything too expensive, at least not right now. In any case, legendary shortswords were highly prized by rogues and warriors, as they were a versatile weapon, and so also very expensive—they began at about 800 zorb. Neither of Elz’s jagged daggers were magical, but both were made from silver-steel.
The second item Elz ordered was something called a Random Ring, and very expensive, almost 300 zorb. But Elz really wanted it—it was only usable by rogues, and could not be stolen once equipped. The last items were for me: two elite spears I thought might be useful, and an Elven Cloak of the Forest. We’d have to wait on these items, hoping the delivery was made in time.
By the end of paying for all that, Elz had just over a hundred zorb left, and I was owing both him and Max some money.
I got to know Elz a little bit better on that journey. He was fairly quiet when traveling, didn’t say much unless prompted, and was fully sneaky-quiet at even the smallest hint of danger. That, plus he would disappear from view at random moments, fading from sight and suddenly reappearing, causing me to jump and curse more than once. He was also nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. When he was resting or relaxing, his fingers would twitch involuntarily, randomly, a bit like he had some kind of nervous disorder. But as soon as he was focused on fighting or running, he was as controlled as anyone could ask.
He was also a lot smarter and more knowledgeable than on first impression. He had great tracking, camping, and cooking skills, so he took over the role of making meals each night, as that really wasn’t my forte. He was also a budding herbalist and naturalist, able spot different kinds of plants, multiple breeds of birds, groundhog tracks, that kind of thing, with ease. He was also a level 33 rogue, while I was a lowly level 23. I had levelled up from completing a few social quests; helping Elz and helping Alhain, and getting a step closer to solving the Eragdas Ruins.
I also learned he spoke a few languages, though none of them that well. “How did you learn all that Elz?”
“Elz grew up in a goblin village, had some dizzini teacher, some human. I learned trade tongue later. Little bit low-elvish too. And dwarf, gnome, sprite tongue, anachran, doiblish. Slow learning.” He shrugged as if it were nothing. “Dizkali kan na feztoriko…” he added, something in goblin.
Elz voice was raw, as always, and his mouth constantly sounded like he had marbles in it, also making him seem a bit dull or stupid at times. But it clearly wasn’t the case. He’d also grown up as a goblin. I didn’t know what that meant: it was apparent that he didn’t think like a normal human, or a teenage boy for that matter, at least not usually. He’d learned to fight, become a rogue, steal stuff, and survive in the wilderness, all with barely nothing, and learned the rudiments of a bunch of languages. He was actually adaptable as hell, more than any other person I’d met, this life or the last one.
The fisherman’s hut was much as I had left it—Marcus’s repairs to its walls and roof had left it in good stead. When we nervously checked out the ruins, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it looked as though nothing had changed. I was a bit disappointed.
The skeletons were there as usual, maybe a few more than before, but otherwise mindlessly patrolling their assigned areas. Elz and I quietly climbed the first of the large stone blocks that dotted the outer perimeter—he’d acquired a large tree branch that would work as a two-handed club. He was certainly keen to test it out.
The first skeleton took a little while to die, as did the next, but they displayed no particular difference than before. They certainly seemed to have more health, but that was about it.
Elz was dexterous and capable, he’d let me take a swing, then lean over, sometimes precariously balancing on one leg, to bash the next one in line. If he took a wide overhand swing with the club, its heavy weight and momentum would do the rest—As a minimum it would knock the relatively light skeleton over, if not crush something significant—an arm, some ribs or better yet, stave in a skull.
My Holy Aura was also more effective. Its glow had deepened, and the silver sparks were a little more visible. It now emitted little silent, glowing music notes that faded into nothing as you looked at them: Anthul’s Aura. The risen soldiers were just as stupid and just as keen to flay their weapons at the top of the block. Twenty-nine skeletons were soon dead. When I checked the log, I was pleased to notice they varied between level 22 and 30, and already my experience bar was filling towards level 24. My first assumption was correct—they had increased in power since the beginning of the year.
The archers actually seemed a lot less of a problem than before. Between my improved skills and better dodge ability, I was able to time my strikes, evade their shots by ducking behind a stone block, or avoid it when they tried to bite me up close. Then there was Elz.
After I attracted the attention of two archers by throwing a stone and hiding behind the dilapidated sandstone wall, I Charge-stunned the first one, hit the second one up close to get its attention, then used my haft to club the first one again. Before I could do more than wind back for another swing at its knees, Elz appeared behind it with his big tree branch in both hands and brained the thing so hard, its head popped down into its rib cage. It de-animated, insta-kill.
“Yentik!” he shouted.
Before the other skeleton could react, Elz disappeared, smirking at me the whole time. I kept hitting the archer while it tried to shoot me point-blank, v-stepping so I was perpendicular to its line of sight. That manoeuvre (thank you Allih) basically made it impossible for it to get off an effective shot, as I was also staying close. When I had its health just under halfway, Elz appeared and skull-smashed his makeshift club into this one also. Holy crap! This kid could bat.
“Yentik!”
Elz whittled down more of the over-sized tree branch in between sets of undead, so it was a little more manoeuvrable as a two-handed club.
The three sergeants were also relatively easy. I Charged the first sergeant, got in a few good blows, and dodged when another one tried to charge me. Now that I knew what to look for, it was relatively easy to see them coming. Elz brained the archer who was trying to shoot me, and it turned and tried to shoot him, but its shot went wide. Elz disappeared. By this time, I’d killed the first sergeant and had managed to manoeuvre behind the nearest sandstone block.
I had lost sight of the archer and began duking it out with the second swordsman, which managed a few solid blows through my defences, pesky bastard. But when I activated Stoic, that put a brief stop to that—I had its health under halfway when Elz abruptly ap
peared behind it and killed it. I thought that a little unfair somehow—with the skeleton archer now obviously dead, I realised he’d killed two to my one.
When used in the right circumstances, I found I could apply Stoic to take a couple of heavy blows and return more in kind, usually killing whatever I faced before Stoic ended. It only lasted six seconds, but was still good despite the time limit. As a one-shot-wonder, Stoic was also good remaining at level 1, with a flat 40% physical damage resistance at all levels of its ability—only the duration and cooldown changed when you added points to it.
Chapter 32
I tried something new at the front entrance—“Anthul!”—while holding my silver harp holy symbol, and was glad when the door unlocked. I also had the amulet of Cylvai with me, just in case, but was happy I didn’t need to use it. Elz looked on with interest, so I said “I think you need a holy symbol of one of the elven gods, plus a priest or divine warrior of the same.”
After taking out a Stone of Light, I activated one charge. It lit the interior quite nicely, so I tied it to my leather skull cap with a leather strap, part of it with a hole so the light could shine through. We paused at the very top of the stairs and got ready to fight off a swarm of cursed spirits. Elz health, mana, and stamina bars showed up transparently on my interface. We’d been grouped up for some time now, and gotten used to eachother’s basic manoeuvres and teamwork. It was a good feeling to have someone at my back.
When I grasped a silver candlestick, Elz stood by my side, nervously waiting… and then we got to it. The howling wind picked up, and one spirit appeared, mouth agape and rushing towards us. We killed that one, then another; then the whole mob started crowding up the stairs, crying, howling, and carrying on. They got in each other’s way more often than not, and we only had to contend with two or three at a time.
We killed a whole lot of cursed spirits, all semi-embodied as usual—some with insubstantial arms or legs, but still made corporeal once they were aggravated enough. It was fairly easy with the two of us; plus Elz was a lot higher level than Marcus. He was plenty fast, and was handy with shortswords, daggers, or his club. Both of us took a few claws and scratches, plus blows from household implements—as it was impossible to avoid all the hits. When I applied Breath of Life, touching his shoulder, he literally yelped, “Fuck!” and glared at me. Then, with eyes wide, he blinked when he realised he was being healed.