The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  “Sergeant,” Richter greeted him with a pained smile. The light filtering through the trees hurt his eyes. “I thought I told you to go to the kindir hamlet.”

  “That you did, my lord, and I followed your orders. Your dragonling told us about your mighty victory though, so I decided to come wait for you, knowing how much you hate to walk through a dangerous forest all by your lonesome.” The man’s smile was absolutely shit-eating at that point. Richter was pretty sure he’d have gotten a high five and maybe even an ass slap if they’d been back on Earth. All Caulder said though was, “Well done, my lord!”

  Richter got caught up in the man’s good cheer despite his massive headache, “He was a tough bastard, but I got him.”

  “I was pleased and surprised to find that your familiar can talk now, as well. It was always a bit odd to hear her voice inside my head.”

  “After a while, you might regret it,” Richter responded with a faint smile. Alma had many opinions about many things and loved sharing them.

  His grin was interrupted by a blast of air in his right ear.

  “Gah!” he exclaimed, while he swatted at his feisty familiar. She trumpeted her clear superiority as she flew high above his head. Richter fixed Caulder with a “why didn’t you warn me she was there, man” look and the sergeant chuckled in response.

  “Ready, my lord?” the guard asked.

  “Just one more thing,” his lord replied. “Help me with this.” He started hauling up the rope. Caulder grabbed a length as well with a puzzled look on his face and did as he was bid. Richter definitely could have brought the body up on his own, but hangovers and Shadow Shock debuffs had a way of making you want to fuck with your friends. Besides, he was pretty sure that Caulder had known Alma was going to sneak attack him. It was immensely satisfying when, with a final strong heave, the corpse flew into the air a bit and landed at the sergeant’s feet with a wet shlap.

  “Blech!” escaped the guard’s mouth before he could control his reaction.

  “Nowwww I’m ready to go,” Richter said with a laugh, before he winced at the volume of his own voice. With a pained expression, he asked Alma to summon a mist worker to carry the body.

  With Richter’s war badge Movement Speed III, they made it back to the kindir hamlet in no time at all. The two men would have made even better time had they not been slowed by the mist worker. As they entered the hidden glade, a resounding cheer rose up from the kindir and his uninjured guards. Many of them clapped him on the back, and the three elders had open smiles on their faces. Two foul-smelling kindir, who after a moment Richter identified as the pair he had freed from the ghast’s cage, fell to their knees and hugged his legs. They wailed their appreciation, and Richter gained prompts saying that he had gained over a hundred thousand Relationship Points with the two of them, increasing their relationship all the way to ally.

  Richter immediately searched out the three members of his warband that had been seriously injured. The man that had lost an eye was unconscious. The kindir told him they had given his guard a powerful sedative to help with the pain, and he had been asleep since then. The other two looked at him with pain on their faces, but they both had smiles. Richter quickly realized that it had something to do with the fact that as members of his warband they had gotten a large chunk of experience from him finishing the Lord of the Sepulcher quest. The three injured men had been too far away to share in the experience gained from grinding through the Lair, as they’d been outside of his War Leader Sphere of Influence. Both had leveled up from their share of the quest XP, however.

  They assured Richter they were fine. He told them that they would be returning to the village soon. He intended to use his settlement spell, Dungeon Transport, to get the whole party back to the village all at once. Whether he’d be able to do that with the Shadow Shock debuff remained to be seen. If they had to wait until the one hour timer elapsed though, so be it. It was a much safer option than traipsing back through the forest. The sun was close to setting now, and Richter didn’t like being in the forest at night even at full strength.

  He took the time to reach into his Bag of Holding and pull out a handful of coins. He put a gold crown into the hands of every one of his party members. The smiles of his men grew even wider, and he heard more than one speak about his generosity after he’d started walking away. If there was one mistake he wouldn’t make, it was letting his people feel unappreciated. Loyalty was more valuable than gold.

  The chaos seed was escorted back into the largest house by the three elders, who continued to praise him. Richter saw broad smiles on the faces of all the kindir that looked at him, in fact. He wasn’t sure if it was just because he’d removed the undead threat or if the +20,000 Relationship Points he’d gained as a quest reward had just upped their opinion of him. Most of the kindir had been of the friendly relationship rank before the quest, but as he Analyzed more and more of them now they were all steadfast, a full five relationship ranks higher.

  Once Richter opened the door to the main building and walked inside, he was immediately ushered to the large table. Food and drink were brought to him, which he balked at until he was assured that his people were being taken care of as well. That was all he needed to hear. Adventuring all day had given him a fierce hunger. For the next short while all that mattered to Richter was stuffing his face.

  He let out a loud burp when he was done. It escaped before he knew what was happening, but good god, did it feel great! Rather than be offended, two of the elders, Flitwalker and Glintgrabber, let out belches of their own. Jewel let loose as well, but hers was from below… and Richter chose to believe it was a fart.

  With a broad smile on his face, Flitwalker stood and raised a mug of ale in salute, “You were as good as your word, Lord Richter. Not only did you return two of our own after they had been captured by the undead, but you slew our enemy. The body of the ghast is proof of your deeds. We are in your debt!”

  Congratulations! You have completed a Quest: Helping Hand I

  You have removed the undead threat that imperiled the kindir hamlet, Verget Kunig. The elders know nothing about the forgotten history of the Sepulcher of Verget Kunig. It is your choice whether to reveal this information. Whatever you decide, you have earned your rewards!

  Reward: The secret of the kindirs’ immunity to the mists

  Reward: 12,500 (base 10,000 x 1.25) experience points

  Reward: +25,000 personal Relationship Points with the kindir of Verget Kunig.

  Reward: +30,000 settlement Relationship Points of the Kindir Hamlet of Verget Kunig towards the Mist Village. Total Relationship Points: +52,813

  Congratulations! The Relationship of the Kindir Hamlet and the Mist Village has improved from Steadfast (+20,000) to Trusted (+35,000). “We trust your people to adhere to your word and feel comfortable placing our faith in you.”

  Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 7 and 8 in Diplomacy. +8% to negotiating power. +8% more likely that representatives from other settlements will take both threats and offers seriously.

  You have completed the quest of another settlement. As leader of your own settlement, you have earned Diplomacy Points! The Mist Village has received +100 Diplomacy Points in regard to the kindir hamlet Verget Kunig.

  Lack of a Townhall causes complete loss of any gained Diplomacy Points. Current Diplomacy Points (Mist Village → Verget Kunig): 0

  Richter gritted his teeth again at the waste. He decided to take the time to change his settings so he wouldn’t get the Diplomacy Point prompts until he had a Townhall. Seeing what he was missing out on over and over was really starting to piss him off. With that done, he focused on the awesome boost he’d just gained to both his personal and settlement relationships. The only reason he had the wood sprites as allies and trading partners was because he had done things to improve his relationship with them. The only reason Sion, Terrod and so many others were willing to fight and die for him on a daily basis was because of his relationship with
them. Anyone who ignored that facet of The Land would have to be amazingly strong by themselves, or sooner or later they’d end up dead.

  The quest experience did not hurt either, but the real prize of all of this was that he was finally about to learn how to plug the hole in his security. The mists were all that kept his small village safe from its enemies. Enemies far more numerous and accustomed to war than his people. The Mist Village would one day be a powerhouse, of that Richter had no doubt, but they needed time.

  Seeing the intent look on Richter’s face, Flit wasted no more time. He reached under the table and brought out a wooden box. It was closed with a simple metal latch, and when he opened it, he revealed a small jar, a piece of paper and three plants.

  “This is the secret to our immunity, Lord Richter. It is a salve that must be applied under the eyes. It removes the magical effects of the mists and lets you see as if they were not there. The Recipe is written here and these are the three herbs that are needed to make it.”

  Richter shook his head in bemusement. The unadorned box before him was smaller than a loaf of bread. The wood was rough and there was a stain marking one corner like a drink had been spilled on it and carelessly cleaned up. It was crazy to think that this small, innocuous box had something in it that could mean the death of every member of his village.

  It was only the magic of his Place of Power that kept them safe from enemies that were popping up all around them. Goblins and trolls to the east, bugbears to the south, and bigoted nobles to the west. There were even thousands upon thousands of little lizard fuckers living in the ground beneath their feet, and some of them had a real hard-on for him. Hell, the only reason he didn’t have enemies to the north was probably because that was the one direction he’d hadn’t yet gone. Everywhere he went, his rising power invited challenge. Seeing that the primary defense of his people could be overcome by a mere salve, and not even one that looked hard to create, made his heart drop.

  He shook his head. The chaos seed just needed to pray that his enemies never found out about this. Richter examined each item in turn.

  You have found:

  Mist Vision Salve

  Alchemy Class: Uncommon

  Alchemy Level: Solution

  Alchemy Strength: Enhanced

  Durability: 6/6

  Weight: 0.4 kg

  Traits: When applied beneath the eyes, gives immunity to the sight-confusing properties of the mists of Kirimuratq for 115 feet from your position, for 3 hours and 27 minutes.

  Doses: 3/5

  The first thing that jumped out at him was the word “Kirimuratq.” The last time he had seen it was on the activation key for the Dark portal that led to the lich’s domain. The word was a melding of two ancient words, “home” and “vapor.” Put together, they were how the Mist Village was denoted in runic script. The fact that the word was used in the description could mean that the Recipe was incredibly old.

  The next thing that occurred to him was that the effect of the potion was extremely specific, most likely due to the level and strength of this particular potion and the alchemist that had prepared it. The fact that it didn’t last all day was good, as was the fact that it only revealed a hundred and fifteen feet from the wearer’s position. That at least gave his people a chance to stage ambushes if a hostile army approached his lands.

  Richter picked up the piece of paper next.

  You have found:

  Recipe: Mist Salve

  Item Class: Common

  Durability: 3/4

  Weight: 0.03

  Ingredients:

  2 Mist Roots + 1 Dark Briar Thorn + 1 Four Leaf

  Process: …

  The paper also had instructions on how to specifically prepare the salve. The good news was that certain steps needed to be followed that couldn’t be guessed. It looked like it took about four hours to create at baseline. The first half of the potion had to be prepared with sunlight shining on it, whereas the second half had to be finished in darkness. The pestle also needed to be dipped in pure water at 25%, 50% and 75% of the way through the process. It would be almost impossible to figure it out by accident. That was the good news.

  The bad news was that if you knew the process and ingredients, it only required a mortar and pestle to create the salve. The Recipe didn’t need any of the advanced alchemical equipment that higher level Recipes required. If his enemies ever found out about the process, the village would have to rely on conventional defenses. His people were growing stronger, but most of them hadn’t even held a blade or shield a mere two months ago. The sprites were trained fighters and imbue arrow was powerful, but an army needed more than ranged fighters. The average level of his villagers was around twelve or below. It was nothing to sneeze at, but combat was one of the most reliable ways to gain experience. If they went up against professional fighters, they would probably be outclassed in regard to both levels and combat expertise. The Mist Village was dangerous, but their attacks had succeeded by virtue of stealth, magic and superior weaponry. They needed time to shore up their defenses. They needed the mists.

  The other bad news was that the dark briar thorn and four leaf were common ingredients. They could be found anywhere in the forest. Richter had seen them plenty of times before, though he had had no idea then, of course, that they could be used for this purpose. The mist root was something that Richter hadn’t heard of before, but his Herb Lore skill showed him that it was only uncommon in rarity. It wasn’t everywhere, but it also wouldn’t be overly hard to find. Even worse, when he looked at the green stalks and yellow flowers on top of the root, his Herb Lore skill identified it by another name, a name he was well familiar with.

  You have found:

  Yellow Primdale

  Herb Class: Common

  Weight: 0.01 kg

  Uses:

  Novice: Component of a pain relief potion

  Initiate: A yellow dye that might make people like you more

  Apprentice: Component of a medium-strength glue

  While he hadn’t been familiar with “mist root,” Richter had seen yellow primdale plenty of times. The damn flower was growing in the village garden! Isabella was cultivating it because of its multiple uses and because she liked yellow dresses. What was strange was that when he looked at the roots of the plant, a different prompt appeared.

  You have found:

  Mist Root

  Herb Class: Uncommon

  Weight: 0.01 kg

  Uses:

  Novice: Threads treated with this can be used to create a Mist Cloak

  Initiate: Component of a recipe to give sight immunity to the mists of Kirimuratq

  Apprentice: Can create a tea to deepen the connection of the Master of the Mist Village with his domain

  Richter obviously knew that different parts of a plant could be used for different purposes. This was the first time he’d seen different classifications for different parts of the same plant though. He had several questions about the various uses of mist root, but his first was, “Why is the top of the plant registering as common, but the bottom is showing as uncommon? I’ve personally picked primdale. The roots always just look like simple brown tubers. They didn’t have silvery threads like this plant does,” he stated, pointing at the plant before him.

  “Jewel is our herbalist,” Flit responded. “She is the best person to answer.”

  “And I would have already if you hadn’t interrupted,” the cantankerous woman snapped. When she turned her face towards Richter though, she was all gap-toothed smile. “Some herbs must be picked in a specific way to unlock their hidden properties. To manifest the mist root, yellow primdale must be picked at night by the light of either Aquiel or Caelean.”

  Richter nodded, both fascinated and annoyed at once. Every time he thought he was getting a handle on how things worked in The Land, one more detail popped up to show how very little he actually knew. It had never occurred to him to harvest his herbs in different ways in order to unlock their full
potential. On the upside, it did place one more roadblock in the way of anyone trying to make the salve. There were seven moons orbiting The Land, and picking a specific herb by the light of either the Water or the Air moon was extremely unlikely to just happen by mistake. What kind of weirdo picked plants at night anyway?

  “I appreciate you sharing this with me. Now I need to ask you for something else. I know that it wasn’t part of our original deal, but would you agree to not share this recipe with anyone else?” Richter asked.

  Flit didn’t hesitate to speak, “For such a wonderful and trustworthy friend, we are happy to agree. We would not do anything to risk your safety. As you know, our settlement is a waystation as much as a home. As more kindir come, we will tell them of your great deeds and ensure that they also know the importance of keeping this secret.”

  Richter nodded in relief. Flit’s specific verbiage didn’t escape his notice. The trusted status between the kindirs’ settlement and his own was already paying off. Then another less warm and fuzzy thought occurred to him. “How many of your people know how to make this salve?”

  “All of them,” Jewel replied brightly and with pride. “When the mists returned, I remembered the old tales my gammy told me. She made it clear that every kindir passing through Verget Kunig should know how to make it themselves in case they ran out. So that is what I did!”

  “Sooo, you’re saying there are kindir who have already left the hamlet, have no idea they should keep the mist salve a secret, and know everything required to create it?” Richter’s voice rose slightly with each point he made.

  The three elders looked at each other, comprehension dawning, “Ahh, yes,” Flit replied slowly, “but as Shinecatcher has already shown you, we do not give our secrets away to just anyone!”

  Richter remembered his first conversation with the gabby kindir. Shinecatcher might not have explicitly given the secret of the salve away, but he had let Richter know that his immunity to the mists had something to do with a potion within the first thirty minutes of them knowing each other. That memory did not exactly fill Richter with confidence. The kindir could be crafty, but they could also be ditsy nutterbutters.