by A P Gore
“I'm hungry. Do you have something to eat?”
“Yes, I have frozen chicken. Do you like it?” Hunger was creeping inside his stomach as well.
Rihala's worried face changed into a cute smile. She nodded.
Noah turned back for a moment, looking at the silver chest again. “But let’s do it outside.” He didn’t want the decayed smell affecting his food.
“Wow! You are so generous, human friend—” She shrugged. “—sorry, Noah. My mom always said to eat before getting into a fight.”
Noah stared at her, wondering if her mom had to say something or other about everything. Her mom at least seemed to be an interesting character to him.
“I wish I had raised those two goblins as zombies. We would have had a good defending force,” Noah said, munching on his chicken leg. Roderich was the best cook he had met in his whole life—better than the homemade real-life food he’d had. In real life, food came in three types: machine made food,which tasted like real, but it didn't have the charm of homemade food; nutrient food sources like protein tubes and all, which were mainly used by intergalactic marines; and homemade real food, which was awesome. It was made from real things like fruit, wheat, and so on. It was expensive, but being the son of a farmer, he knew the taste of it from childhood. Yet Roderich cooked meals that tasted more delicious than anything he’d ever eaten in the real world, and his mushroom-filled vegetarian junk actually tasted better than any meat.
“This is awesome. My mom cooks better than this, but if someone asked me to rate it, I’d rate your cooking at number two.” She paused. Half of her leg piece was in her mouth, and the other half was in her hand. “Or did you cook it? Wow! I didn’t know you had that talent as well.” Her lavender eyes were shining with every bite she took.
“No, I didn’t. The High Mage did.”
She dropped her piece on the ground and jumped to her feet, spinning, looking everywhere. “High Mage? Where?” the words sputtered out of her mouth hurriedly, like someone was about to kill her.
“He’s probably in his house, or Blacksmith’s Inn where I live.”
“Oh, you mean your town’s high mage. I thought you meant my town's High Mage came.” She dropped on her taut butt and picked up her chicken.
“That’s dirty. Take this one. I’ve packed plenty for the journey.” Noah handed her another piece, wondering if she carried anything for her journey or not.
“Thanks. My mom always says take extra for a long journey.”
And here you are, without a single ounce of food with you.
Rihala handed him a note. “Okay, read this. I got this from the chest.”
The quest popped up as soon as he read the message:
Beware traveler, the house is cursed.
Quest Alert: The house is cursed with a curse of skeletons. Defeat the waves of enemies and get the treasure. Accept? Yes. Compulsory quest once you read the note. Reward: Variable.
“What does it mean by variable reward?” Noah asked as they walked back inside the house. The timer was almost up.
“The reward will be determined by the way we complete the quest. The quest is of a rare type, so it can be anything from an uncommon item to a rare item or a crystal. But it’s not a good thing. Damn! Why did I get you into this too? The quest will be difficult and may kill us both.”
Noah paced around the house, leaving footprints in the dust. “Where is this rare modifier for the quest written?” Noah asked, not seeing it in his notification.
“You need to have high perception.” Her voice wavered a little.
He stopped in front of her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll beat this shit.” A bell rang from the upper floor of the house once the timer ran out. A skeleton immediately rose from the right corner of the room.
Noah dashed closer to the skeleton, hitting it with a poison orb. The skeleton crumbled into dust as soon as the poison orb hit it. “See how easy this quest is?”
“I don’t think so. My mom says, ‘never say anything is easy before the quest is finished.’” Rihala drew her bow and shot an arrow at Noah. The arrow brushed past his ears, raising his heart beat, and hit a skeleton rising behind him. She continued, “Come here, let’s do back-to-back formation. We both can use ranged spells.”
Noah hurried over to her, killing another skeleton in the way. They were only level three, with 100 life, so one crit was enough to kill them. “What is back-to-back formation?”
“Really?” She raised a brow. When Noah showed no expression of understanding, she spoke again. “Put your back to my back so we can cover each other.”
Noah moved into position, his back pressed on hers. Now they could attack the skeletons without worrying about friendly fire.
Two new skeletons rose and died by Noah’s dual cast poison orb. Noah heard the whooshing sounds of Rihala’s arrows behind him, and assumed she was holding her own.
One more skeleton rose, this time too close to Noah. He didn’t have time to cast his spell before the skeleton’s club struck, taking 10 life out of his health pool. Then another skeleton rose near him, and another, and another, and another. In seconds, they were surrounded by dozens of skeletons hitting them for 10 damage each. The damage piled up quickly.
Noah was casting continuously from both of his hands, and soon his spirit reached dangerously low levels. He panted from the exertion. When he couldn’t cast any more spells, he pulled his dagger out and started stabbing skeleton heads.
With his dagger, it was a slow kill. Though he was targeting weak spots, like their heads, the damage from a single hit wasn’t sufficient to kill the skellies, and they were hitting him continuously. When his life dropped below half, he felt the aftereffects of life drain slowly kicking in.
Fortunately, Rihala had finished her side and turned to help him. With her help and his gradually climbing spirit, they finished off the remaining attackers in the next few minutes.
Congratulations! You have defeated the first wave of the skeletons. 60 total skeletons killed. Time to next wave: 10 minutes.
“What the hell. Another one?” Noah squatted, grabbing his knees. Sweat flowed freely over his whole body. It was clear with his limited spirit supply he wouldn’t last much longer, and his life was already low.
He pulled two minor healing potions from his bag and handed one to Rihala.
Rihala looked at it in shock for a moment before taking it.
Noah emptied his and watched his life slowly rise up to the 75% mark before the effects waned. Damn! 75% was bad, and he didn't have any extra potions. He’d forgotten to buy more from Mathial.
Rihala's life was at 85%. “Sorry,” he said. “I don't have more.”
“Wow! You are generous Noah. These potions are rare, and not everyone has enough money to afford them.”
His spirit was back up to full when the next attack began. This time, it was rats that rose from the floor. Fortunately, the rats were slow, and Rihala had an easy time picking them off quickly. When the wave ended, they were in better shape than they had been after the first wave.
A notification popped up when the last rat died.
Congratulations! You have defended the second wave. 30 total rats killed. Time for boss: 10 minutes.
“Damn! We’re both are at sixty percent,” Rihala said, her forehead covered with wrinkles.
“Don't worry, we should be good. We’ve got some meat shields now.” Noah looked around at the rat corpses littering the room. Though low level, rat zombies would be good to hold off the boss or whatever would be coming for them.
When the boss—a large skeleton with a bone club in each hand—appeared in front of them, Noah raised four zombie rats and attacked the boss. As expected, the boss was low level and couldn’t kill the rats in one shot. When a rat died, Noah raised another one. It became a game of attrition. Between the rats, the swarm of Rihala’s arrows, and Noah’s poison orbs, the boss only managed to get close to them a couple of times before they killed
it.
“Wow! That was easy. If only I’d raised the goblins as zombies earlier, we would have sailed through this.” Though triumphant, Noah sank to the floor, exhausted. He’d thought they were both done for after the first wave of skeletons outnumbered them so badly. He could die, but he couldn’t let Rihala die.
Congratulations! You have defeated the first boss. Would you like to proceed to the next level? Accept: yes/no?
Noah looked at Rihala, who was drenched in sweat. He selected 'no'.
A slew of notifications appeared.
Experience gained: 1510.
He did a quick calculation. Each skelly gave them 40 experience, each rat gave them 50 experience, and the final boss gave them 500 experience. The total experience was multiplied by 2 for party size and divided by 2 for level difference. Then, based on the participation, Noah was awarded 1510 experience.
Congratulations! You have completed the first phase of the Skeleton House challenge. Complete all five phases to gain a unique item. Phase 1 reward: 50 silver, 2000 experience.
Congratulations! You have reached level 6. You gain 3 skill points and 3 stat points to allocate.
Your dedication has proved your mastery once again. Though low-level rats, they are still counted as zombies. You have gained +1 to raise zombie.
Wow! Noah hooted when the divine light washed over him and recharged him. The same happened with Rihala, who was now smiling the most beautiful demon smile he had ever seen before. Not that he saw many, but he bet hers was the most beautiful smile in her town too.
“We did it, Noah. We did it.”
“We did it.” Noah stood and moved forward to inspect the items things that the rats, skellies, and boss had dropped. There were a couple of things glowing with a blue aura.
16. Sacrifice
Noah kicked a couple of rat corpses out of the way and headed for the beautiful monster crystals the boss had dropped. There were two. He tilted his head to look at Rihala, who sat on her knees, her eyes distant. Maybe she was looking at her character sheet.
After a moment or so, she locked eyes with him and nodded in response to the question in his eyes. He dropped the crystals in his bag of holding. He would inspect them later to see if they were good enough for his mold box.
Grah! Let’s do this now.
He quickly went into his design mode and pushed the two crystals into a mold. A two day timer appeared next to the mold.
Did I get faster with this stuff?
He left design mode to check out the rest of the loot and found a bow with unknown properties.
Rihala looked confused when he handed it to her. “I can’t read this. My inspect skill is not very advanced. It just looks like an old dirty bow to me, and my mom always says ‘don’t keep unnecessary things.’”
Noah raised his brow upon hearing about her mom for the hundredth time by now. “Let me try something.” He pulled the magnifying glass out of his bag and focused on the bow.
The faint blue aura around the bow expanded into a light yellow aura.
Crimson Bow of Haste
Quality: Rare
Attack Damage: 10-20
Attack Speed: 1.08
Adds +2 frost damage to bow attack
+1 to wielder’s speed
+1 to frost shot
“Wow! This looks great. I’m sure you’d love this.” Noah handed it back to Rihala with a smile.
Rihala’s eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for a moment. It seemed using the magnifying glass on the item had revealed its properties for her too. “This is awesome!” A tear dripped down her cheek. “My damage will go up exponentially with this bow.” Her tail moved forward, almost wrapping around his waist. There was a strange tension between them. “Thank you, Noah. You are a noble man to hand me your loot.”
“My loot?”
“Yes, this bow didn’t drop for me. Any rare or unique item will drop with the name on it, so it can only be picked by the person who it belongs to.”
“It does? I didn’t know that.” He had so much studying to do.
“How can I repay you?” Her face flushed a reddish pink.
Noah considered his options. “We are companions, right? Take it as a gift from me.” Noah smiled faintly, wondering if he should have asked for something else, like a kiss from those cherry red lips. From the moment he saw them, he had the desire to taste them, which wouldn’t go over well even if he tried.
Damn you Noah. Don’t think about her lips. She isn’t human.
“A companion?” Her voice dropped low, like an erotic purr. Her breath quickened, and she locked eyes with him. There was something inside those lavender eyes, something Noah hadn’t seen before. Something so sensual that Noah’s cock jumped.
“A friend, I mean. A friend who shares things with friends.” The word companion must have some different meaning here. If not, Rihala’s reaction would have been normal.
“A friend, you mean. Aha!” Her voice returned to its usual pitch. “Yes, we are good friends now, Noah.” She winked.
Congratulations! Demonstrating the capacity to share, you have gained +10000 reputation with Rihala. New level of reputation: Friend.
“Let’s sleep.” Noah started clearing away the bones and stuff, making some room for them. Thankfully, with one thought the game had dissolved all the rats into the meat pieces, otherwise their corpses would have smelled rotten in the open air.
Rihala pulled a small tattered bedroll from her bag of holding and offered it to Noah. He declined politely, but Rihala insisted, so he set about collecting a bunch of small branches from outside trees and made a makeshift bed for himself. When she was assured he was okay, she went to sleep on her bedroll.
The morning brought a dull sun and a chilly wind. At first, Noah didn’t recognize where the hell he was and why was he sleeping on a few tree branches sticking into his body through his light shirt. One particular branch had made its way inside his pants and scratched his butt painfully as he turned to sit up. He pulled his pants lower to pull the nasty stick out.
Sweet laughter echoed around him. Damn! Rihala was awake, and he was flashing his ass at her.
Ashamed to his core, he turned to her with a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“No worries, Noah. Let me help you.” She jumped to her feet in a fraction of a second and approached. And then she did what she was famous for: she tripped on something and fell flat on him.
Her lips once again were mere inches away from his, inviting him to taste them. He knew how they would taste: chocolaty. She smelled like dark chocolate, and her lips would taste like it.
“I might not be able to stop myself from kissing you if you do this again.” His tongue betrayed him, and he regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. He was damn attracted to the she demon, but that didn’t mean he had to say it.
She stared in his eyes for a moment, then pulled away from him, cheeks flaming red. He’d expected a slap, but instead he only got a blush.
They walked back to the town of Sumara in silence. He caught her looking at him now and again but kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t sure if she liked him too, or if she was offended.
When they were few miles away from the town’s gate, Rihala turned to him. “We’ll meet again, Noah. Our paths don’t end here.” She flashed him a heartwarming smile before departing.
Noah watched her round ass vanish into the forest. With a heavy sigh, he turned toward his town, wondering what she meant. Their paths don’t end here? Was it a hint or something? Was he getting into something weird?
Noah had entered through the south gate as usual, so the sacrificial grounds were on his way to the inn. He was supposed to stay away from it, but he went to the alley anyway. He was there for a reason, and as soon as he went closer to the sacrificial grounds’ gate, he smelled it. Coffee. The sweet aroma of the coffee plant was coming from of a bunch of small plants that had grown at the foot of the sacrificial grounds’ wall. He was
half relieved to find it outside of the walls instead of inside the sacrificial grounds. Technically, he would be plucking it from outside the grounds and not entering them. A property appeared next to the leaf he plucked from the plant.
Teccino: A plant used for instant stimulus. Used in stamina potions.
So, there were stamina potions present in the game as well. Good to know. If only he could make potions, he could have felled all the skellies in the zombie house quest. He would have to keep buying them for now, but considering the cost of a health potion he could only imagine what a stamina or spirit potion would cost. An arm and a leg, maybe. Or a kidney. Whatever!
Before stealing a glance at the sacrificial grounds, Noah picked all the teccino plants he could. He would put them through the same process of tea making: plucking, drying, rolling, and so on. He needed to learn a couple of steps in the latter stages from Roderich.
Just before turning back, he raised himself on his toes to steal another quick glance of the sacrificial grounds. His heart flipped inside his chest and his eyes nearly popped out of his eye sockets. He recognized the site. It was where was he’d been slain by the demon the other night. No, not slain. Sacrificed.
A goblin female was currently being sacrificed. Noah recognized her as the archer he’d seen with the hooded demon couple a few days back. But today the demon doing the killing wasn’t wearing a mask. In the bright daylight, High Mage Roderich was sacrificing the goblin female.
Roderich’s knife descended before Noah’s poison orb hit him. It pierced her neck. A stream of blood sprayed out of the wound, and the goblin died on the spot.
The poison orb hit Roderich’s knife hand, and he dropped knife. But the deed was done; the goblin archer was dead. Noah jumped over the wall and ran toward Roderich, shooting as many poison orbs he could with both hands.