by Elian Tars
“I think that this is exactly what you need right now. Hurry up… While the boosting potion is still working.”
I looked up the gift’s stats and tried to keep a straight face.
72% Quintessence of Fixation with a Surprise
Alchemic
Unique item
Effect 1: Common, temporary buffs become permanent.
Effect 2: Has a 72% chance to grant extra stat or skill points in the amount equal to no more than 32% of those you already have.
Next use: prohibited use of any equivalent “Quintessence of Fixation”
“Come on, take it. We made a deal that I would give you a unique item. That’s exactly what you need right now,” the mayor said with a smile, demonstrating that there wouldn’t be a better offer.
But I didn’t hurry to accept the gift.
“What does ’equivalent Quintessence’ mean?” I asked seriously.
Godwin chuckled and smiled even wider. He then explained to me that there were, “of course”, other potions with a similar effect and that not all of them were unique. Most of them were just rare. Unique were those that a second effect. There were no other same exact phials with a 72% chance. But there could be, for example, those with 73% and 31%.
“…no matter if they are unique or rare, you can’t use Quintessence of such level,” Godwin said and something in his words grated my ears.
Of such level… Was that a hint?
“And what about more powerful ones?” I decided to test my theory. The mayor frowned and looked at me intently. Then he smiled approvingly.
“Try to find them first.”
“And what about the weaker ones?”
“There are no such potions,” he answered and got serious. “Now drink until the boosting potion hasn’t lost its effect.”
I reassessed the situation for the last time, thoroughly read the gift’s description in search of some hidden meaning in it, and then remembered how the mayor whispered his God’s name… Should I believe him? Still, if he wished to get into my head, he would have already done it. Without being cunning. He hadn’t been there, on the territory of Decay… That was why he had to get creative when it came to securing himself. But now… I thought that he didn’t need any additional tricks.
I mentally called the Old Man, asking him to look after me more carefully. I wanted to believe that I was his precious asset. But the God of Darkness failed to notice the trick the last time…
Okay, enough doubting. Quite unexpectedly I found myself among high level, sly foxes. I wanted to be closer to them in strength. I couldn’t let myself miss a chance like this one and get back to being level 27!
Deliberately slowly I took the phial from Godwin’s hands, uncorked it and drank.
Chapter 31
The Voice
Sitting on the horse behind Anda, I kept my arms around the girl’s waist. She looked over her shoulder several times, chuckled slyly and turned away.
During another halt I dismounted and cast another Tranquility of Darkness on Arthur, Lade, Dina and myself. Though the Effect of Decay in this part of the forest was quite weak, we still couldn’t do without the accelerated regeneration. Learning about my abilities, the mayor decided not to spend his stock of Glozeysk Crystals. Instead, he gave me additional two hundred gold coins. Taking into account that I had received five hundred from him before, I had almost one thousand in my inventory.
By the way, Godwin had no desire to give me anything else aside from the unique potion and money, and accepted my quest. Apparently, the “information” I was promised to get, which was written in the description of the quest, was the one I was able to get during the last two days.
And, of course, I got enough experience to level 55. My 55. Not the temporary one and not the one that would revert to 27… But the one that I would keep leveling up further.
The Quintessence worked as it should have. The second effect was as pleasant as the first one — the system’s bountiful hand didn’t upgrade just one of my stats by 30%. Instead, it gave 9 vitality, 5 strength, 7 agility, 3 intelligence and gave me 6 skill points. So, my stats looked like this now:
Level 55
Vitality: 111
Endurance: 88
Strength: 102
Agility: 100
Intelligence: 121
As for the skills menu; 8 free skill points in the fighting and special skills column, 6 in the everyday skills and 4 in the personality skills. The hasty leveling up made my skills points accumulate. It would be foolish to walk around with a full purse. Skills, just like money had to be spent and earned, as well as saved up. But I decided that it would be better to think about spending them in a calmer atmosphere; in a tavern room, for example.
That was the second reason why I wanted to visit Ekheim. The first was that Godwin had dropped a strong hint that he wanted to talk about something upon our arrival to the city. I couldn’t wait to hear what the mayor had to say. I wasn’t a little boy to hold a grudge over petty things and I wasn’t a saint to forgive them all. I would like to consider myself a rational man who is able to consider things from all angles and choose what’s best for him.
And I was also a bit tired. It would be good to get some rest and pull myself together. Being surrounded by allies, even if they were just formal ones, wasn’t all that tiring. I didn’t want to be somewhere far away — like in my distant lonely flat — but here, in this dark world. I thought that I wasn’t ready to come back home just yet. All these secrets and mysteries attracted me. I wanted to know the secrets of the Zurtarn and Unity, and to understand why the Gods were at odds with each other. Where did they come from? I wanted to learn where I could find the Old Man’s temple and to learn who he is. Who did he want me to become? And, in the end, I wanted to meet Vella! She must be missing me, my little dog.
Yeah, my homeland had to wait…
A little earlier, the guys were discussing the time they had spent the effect of the illusions. They didn’t reveal what they saw, though, but they all came to the same conclusion — the Will of the Mother of the Decayed showed us our secret desires. Hmm, if that was really true, I wondered what she would show me next time. That is, if I ever get lucky and get under her hypnotic spell.
The living trees loomed ahead. Thanks to Eyes in the Dark I saw them before the others did. Finally! We’ll be out of this sickening place soon.
Turning my head, I noticed Dina looking in my direction. Not for the first time, by the way. As soon as our eyes met, she slowly shifted her gaze to the nearby dry bush, pretending that she had noticed something there, and then completely turned away from me. The sorceress had to ride with the mayor. Although that seemed to be a great honor, the girl didn’t look happy about the Godwin’s offer. When she heard that I would ride with Anda, she made a wry face. I had a few explanations for her strange behavior. One of them was as flattering and pleasant, although impossible.
“Hurrah! The living world! I missed it so much!” As soon as we had crossed the border, Lade, who was sitting behind one of the captains, cheerfully exclaimed.
“Yep,” Berg muttered under his breath.
The further we rode from the decayed lands, the happier the people around me became. Even those who, thanks to the Glozeysk Crystal, didn’t have to experience all of the Decay’s lovely effects, felt relieved. And it was not only the air that was getting cleaner with every step; the sounds of the night forest timidly broke the dead silence of the border-zone. It seemed to me that their very essence had shrunk under the dark pressure of the Decay. Though, of course, I didn’t feel such a strong pressure upon me.
In quite a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere we rode along the winding road. I felt hungry and got myself a piece of meat out of my inventory.
“If you stain my cloak, I’ll kill you,” Anda said.
I wasn’t alone in my desire to have a bite; the rest of Arthur’s group did the same. Having fed my hungry stomach a little, I took out a flask, took a gulp and…
…almost spilled everything all over myself when the horse came to a sudden halt.
I put back the flask at once and looked around — none of the five horses dared to move.
“Who?” said Godwin in a quiet whisper.
“I can’t tell for now,” mouthed Captain Dier, who was riding in front of everyone.
I saw a glimpse of a figure ahead, hidden between the trees, wearing a familiar helmet.
“The Iron Faced,” I said. No one in our squad could see the enemy in the darkness. Our group, on the other hand, attracted more than enough attention with the lit torch in our guide’s hands. The mayor ordered to put out the rest of the torches so that all of the riders wouldn’t be in plain sight.
“Horsemen, in line! Second row — dismount! Everyone, drink the Night Vision Potion,” Elliot reacted immediately.
“Arrghh…!” Muffled, wheezing groans sounded from two different places united into one painful cry. The fingers that held the torch unclenched and the man fell into the high grass. Captain Dier’s body lopsided in the next second and he fell atop the previous victim, leaving us without any source of light.
The rest of the group had already managed to uncork their phials and drink the potion that granted them night vision for half an hour. Of course, I wasn’t going to waste the bottle given to me.
“Arthur? Lade?” Godwin looked around, bearing his teeth. Two of his captains were lying dead in the green grass, dagger hilts sticking out of their sides. Luckily, both were alive, although their HP was gradually lowering. They had about eighty percent of it now.
“Traitor!” the third captain, a stout, level 73, black-haired knight named Koyne, who came with the mayor, cried. Spurring his horse, he got to Arthur in a moment of seconds and swung his sword at him.
Our former leader was able to take Dier’s place. Getting into the saddle and pulling the reins, he led the horse a little to the side and deflected Koyne’s blow with his shield.
Lade, who had dismounted his horse long ago, rushed to Anda and me. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t have time to get out of the saddle. To be exact, at first I was dumbstruck trying to estimate the situation and then I decided not to hurry with fulfilling Godwin’s order.
Without wasting her time on materializing any kind of weapon, the governor’s secretary raised her right arm and the lilac sand flew from her splayed fingers into the monk’s nose. Lade froze like a waxen statue. A moment before that Elliot took control of Arthur.
But it had lasted just for a second. A small, blue comet flew in our direction from behind the trees, landed into the grass and kept shining. Numbness was dispelled immediately. Lade took the distracted Anda by the hand and pulled her off the horse. Having lost its rider, the horse broke into a run. I fell from its croup and hit the back of my head against a stone that was in a wrong place at a wrong time.
Everything reeled before my eyes, but I clearly saw the system message:
You have suffered a “Minor Concussion”.
You lose the ability to control your body for 15 seconds.
My body felt weak. Abandoning the useless attempts to get up on my feet, I became all ears in order to follow what was going on around me. My head was aching, but I forced myself to think and remembered that I could always use Elusive Darkness.
The thud of hoofs was coming from everywhere… There were the sounds of fighting… The mayor’s curses…
I felt a warmth in my chest as if I got close to the bonfire.
Pierce used “Body’s Sleep” on you.
You cannot move during 60 seconds.
Damn it, somebody prolonged my time of my inaction. Maybe it was better this way? There are obviously too many enemies… What could I do against them?
“…crossed the line…baronial bastard!” Godwin roared.
Baron? The very baron of Leronta, Carl Tsunter? He personally led his Iron Faced mercenaries in an attack on the ruler of the biggest town in the area in the dead of night? But…
My head was aching badly, but I was able to piece the events together. How far did this mess go, in which I got tossed into because of the Old Man? What a hornet’s nest this was... Three barons were fighting each other. Nobody knew what the fourth one was doing and the fifth one was burning down villages and killing peasants… What for? For the Zurtarn, of course. The Iron Faced were after Grace, who was able to get the map somewhere. They had turned Bon’s village upside down… Did they know that the chief knew where the other part of the treasure was? They probably did.
And Godwin knew about it, too…
And now they were both fighting to the death. And it seemed like they were not the only ones! And I was lying on the ground like a rag-doll! I couldn’t even open my eyes!
I felt being rolled over onto my stomach; they wrung my hands behind my back and put on the shackles… Luckily enough, the Elusive Darkness could be cast from any position.
But it was so unfair! How could one dispel Sleep?! Could it be that the game was so badly balanced? Hmmm, it was possible. The glowing blue crossbow bolt that I took for a comet deprived the “Followers of Rugus” of the opportunity to use control. There had to be something like that that could be used against other magic spells.
I tried to open my eyes using sheer willpower alone. My brain had almost burst trying to do so. It was hard for it to understand how to make the body work without any muscle response.
“You’re too weak to do it now”, a thought crossed my mind. And it seemed a bit alien. Just a little bit.
I checked the timer — Body’s Sleep would soon be over! I listened to the surrounding sounds — the fight was getting close to the end.
“Aaahh!!!” a piteous woman’s groan spread over the forest. My heart shrank. My mind drew conclusions that I didn’t want to accept.
Finally, the debuff ended. I groaned and just barely opened my eyes.
“Oh no…” I whispered. Fifty feet ahead of me was Dina’s cut off head.
I gritted my teeth till they gnashed. Now I would never know whether the girl was acting or if she really was too kind for this dark world. But she disobeyed the mayor’s wishes in order to thank me for rescuing her. Her actions moved me deeply. As well as her fake… no, let it be sincere kindness.
“Sit down!” somebody roared and forced me onto my knees. I looked angrily over my shoulder. Level 50 Iron Faced… Bastard…
I looked at the battlefield again. Berg, Anda and the three of the captains were all in shackles. They all looked beaten up and had little HP left. They all bared their teeth as they watched seven high-leveled Iron Faced that had surrounded Godwin and were taking away the last bits of his HP. They were like a pack of curs trying to bite a furious bear to death. And what was frustrating was that they were succeeding at doing so. Well, of course they did! The “bear” had lost his claws because of the crossbow bolt that was stuck in the ground and shining like a little star. He could now only fight with his body and teeth, if he got lucky enough to reach his opponents.
I identified the magic control blocker and memorized every line of its description.
Common Crossbow Bolt Soaked in the Potion of Supreme Will
Very rare item
Damage: +1
Effect: Disables all the spells that suppress other people’s will in a 65 ft radius.
Exceptions: Effects of Decay; hidden
Duration: 3 minutes
I was definitely not further than 65 feet, but had spent a minute lying there, unable to move. Apparently, Body’s Sleep was one of the hidden exceptions. And the concussion was not a spell at all.
I shifted my gaze beyond the Common Crossbow Bolt… Not far from it was a man on a jet-black stallion, wearing black armor and a massive helmet, which covered his face completely.
Baron Carl Tsunter
Level 120
HP: 8895/8895
Near their leader were two more armored riders. They definitely weren’t the Iron Faced but seemed to be Carl’s perso
nal guards. They were both level 100 but their HP bars weren’t full — they must have fought with Anda.
Beside them were a couple of the traitors. Arthur stood near the baron’s horse, with his head low, and Lade was explaining something to his master.
“Ohh…” A stifled groan was followed by exultant cries. The Iron Faced had defeated the mayor.
“Shackle him and bring him round,” the baron ordered in an imperious tone.
While the other captives were made to wear the glowing light-blue shackles, the ruler of Ekheim was put in stocks. As soon as the boards locked together, magical patterns started to glow with cold light on the black wood.
The monk-traitor put his hand on his former boss’s forehead and recovered his one hundred HP. The mayor, on his knees and supported by two Iron Faced, started coughing and slowly raised his head.
Carl Tsunter had already dismounted and had given the reins to Arthur. He put the helmet into his inventory, revealing his austere black-bearded face, disfigured by a scar made by big claws.
“Give me what they’ve found in the decayed lands,” he demanded stretching out his arm.
“Go to hell!” the mayor spat on the ground, almost hitting the baron’s boot. The baron just shook his head.
“You do understand that I can take it from your inventory, don’t you?” the baron notified, but Elliot gave no answer. Carl bared his teeth, pulling up his lip. “Sometimes I have to do what a warrior shouldn’t,” he said unexpectedly. “But there’s no other way. I think you have already guessed that Arthur and Lade aren’t the only ones working for me? Yes, you were able to find some of the traitors and sentence them to death… You’re very smart and cautious, Elliot, but I’ve been looking for these artifacts longer than you have and I’m better prepared. I know that you have ordered to evacuate your family if you don’t get back till next morning. But who did you give that order to? To the chief of their guards — Maximillian? My old friend…”
I couldn’t see the mayor’s face, but it was hard not to notice how his body jerked forward.
“Come on, Elliot,” the baron said coldly. “Let’s cooperate. I give you my word, if your family members agree to change their Patron, I’ll spare their lives.”