“I guess I should be grateful you let me fumble about for an hour setting up our camp,” Hal said sheepishly.
Ashera waved away the thought. “It is my pleasure to watch you grow,” she said fondly, a small smile curving her lips. Her snow-white horns caught the light of the campfire and glowed a little as she bent her head to her preparations. “I have almost forgotten what that feels like.”
“What do you mean?”
“Watching somebody explore the world. The joy of discovery clearly stamped upon their features. That wide-eyed wonder about the new and unknown… it is invigorating being in your company. I thought I would never feel hopeful for another day again.
“And yet….” She motioned to the dark woods around them and the swift-flowing rivers that joined nearby. “Here I am, separated from the rest of the group, and still excited to see the next day. It is a feeling I never expected to have again. One I have you to thank for giving it back to me.”
She raised a hand to hold off Hal’s reply. “I do not mean when you saved my life from slavery. Of course, that will always be a debt I cannot repay. But I would be glad to live the rest of my life trying to do just that. No, I mean something more. More than my life, Hal, you have given me back my will to live.”
Your Leadership has risen to Level 12.
+1% Party damage (+12%).
+2% Leadership efficacy (+24%).
Hal didn’t know what to say to that. When a few moments passed and Ashera touched his shoulder lightly, he looked up to her smiling face. All he could do was smile in return.
Using the Wortlings, they had found a fork in a rushing river that provided ample borders on three sides. There they camped, at the narrowest portion of the V between the rivers. His Wortlings stood guard at the mouth of their campsite and two behind where the river split around their small section of land – just in case – while Ashera readied her stew.
It would have involved a good deal of backtracking as the rivers were practically impassable. As much as Hal trusted to his shadow-limbs before, after the humbling experience of being dragged through the air and then left to fall, he wasn’t about to risk being swept up in the frothing water.
The Wortlings didn’t have the same trouble, though, so he used them to ferry them across. By alternatively triggering Root, one leg at a time, they were able to anchor themselves to the river bed and cross.
Albeit slowly.
It was still faster than following along a rushing river to find a suitable crossing point.
I could get used to having these Wortlings around, Hal mused. It was a sentiment he felt reflected in Vorax. The little mimic enjoyed the company of other non-aggressive monsters.
It seemed to find a unique sense of enjoyment seeing Hal control them.
For quite some time while Ashera busied herself with the stew, Hal turned to the Wortlings trying to see what was around them through their Woodsense.
The rivers, unfortunately, were blankets of shadow but they could see beyond them. Which meant that they didn’t need a continuous line of vegetation, but merely any other vegetation within 60 feet.
Hal didn’t have any idea how long his Dominate would last and he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out. The System, for all its explanations, seemed particularly cagey about Founder Sigils.
So, as a precaution, Hal wove his fingers through the air again recasting Dominate. He noticed, with more than a little curiosity, that his mark once more slid to the back of his left hand as he cast.
Golden lightning arced out, startling Ashera who looked up from the stew to watch with a look of wide-eyed wonder she so loved to see on Hal. Watching her impression of his Founder magic at work, he had to agree with her sentiments. It was soothing to watch, it uplifted his spirit.
He felt the sigil take hold again, just as a wave of exhaustion hit him so hard he nearly passed out. Ashera was at his side in a second, a strong arm looped around him.
She gently set him to the ground, a worried look replacing her previous sense of wonder. “Hal, what’s wrong?”
But all Hal could do was stare at the notification.
Your Founder Sigil: Dominate has risen to Tier II.
Duration increased to 24hrs.
Lowered Experience Point cost.
Total Dominated targets increased to 25.
Hal’s heart nearly stopped at the second line.
Hold up. What did that just say?
52
A quick look at his Discordant Stone confirmed the prompt’s harrowing words as Hal explained what just happened to Ashera. The amount of EXP he expected to find was definitely less than the last time he looked. And that was after he killed the Belladonna.
He had been steadily gaining EXP since he had entered the Coffin District, so he couldn’t be sure but he had a sinking feeling that all Founder Sigils used EXP as their resource cost.
He felt a little sick just thinking about it.
Hal focused back on the task at hand, all the while he kept a keen eye on his Discordant Stone. The first – and most important – thing he wanted to know, was whether it was a constant drain of EXP or a single-use.
After staring at his EXP for the next several minutes, he saw no change. But instead of having over 6,000 EXP, he had a scant 1,720.
Casting Dominate twice had taken a serious chunk of his EXP.
Once he thought about it rationally though, even a couple thousand EXP was a good exchange for the sharp boost in power he received by dominating a dozen Wortlings.
He now had a veritable squadron at his beck and call.
Four of his Wortlings had made relatively short work of the poisonous Belladonna. With the majority of them moving in unison, he imagined it would be very doable to recoup and even have a net gain of EXP while using Dominate.
Rend was another story.
If that also cost EXP, as he suspected, then it became all the more costly to use. He needed to know, however, and resolved to test out Rend once he encountered an enemy.
Just once, though.
It would answer a lot of questions in one fell swoop. One of the most important, besides the question of its resource cost, was whether he could use it on another living creature. And if so, what would it do?
The description of the Sigil made it seem like it worked at the most magically fundamental level. He had no idea what the Weave was but he could guess based on the context clues easily enough.
Working the rough math backward in his head, Hal discovered that each use of Dominate cost somewhere around 2,500 EXP. And now it would cost less, though he wasn’t about to test how much.
That meant that each Wortling cost a little over 200 EXP each. For every Wortling he Dominated he would need to send them out to overwhelm and kill another monster to make up for the cost.
Seeing how quickly they took down their first monster, Hal was fairly confident in his ability to recover his lost EXP. And, barring that - they were looking for a way to find their friends still, not merely wandering about killing monsters for fun - he could likely keep up the cost of their upkeep by sending them out on forays.
Bending his mental focus back to the Wortlings’ Woodsense, he felt a dim awareness of water but to the Wortlings, it had the same shadowy, unknown appearance as a sudden cliff would have.
Hal moved the creatures about, probing at the theory by using their Woodsense and gauging their proximity to the water with his own eyes in the light of the Guild’s badge pinned to his breast.
Even though there was clearly vegetation of some kind in the water around him, the Wortlings could not sense it.
Maybe the water acts as a barrier.
Additionally, if Hal hopped on top of a rock, they could no longer sense him. It seemed obvious considering the way their Woodsense worked but it was still a glaring weakness.
Discovering their weaknesses was important. Both to fight with them more effectively and because he had, technically, stolen the Wortlings from another master.
He fully understood there was another creature in this place – perhaps several – that was deeply interested in reclaiming its stolen property.
When the time came that Hal had to fight these things, he needed to understand them inside and out. He could always resolve to simply kill the things or order them to do it to each other. But that felt unnecessarily wasteful.
Not to mention cruel.
They had no mind. No awareness of pain as far as he knew but it felt wrong to order them to kill each other. Just as it felt wrong to do the deed himself. While they were under his control, he felt as if they were also under his protection.
To kill them would pervert the very command he had over them.
There was nothing that said he couldn’t simply reassert his control over them by casting Dominate again. The only way he could see himself losing control of them was if their master came calling, or he somehow was unable to use Dominate again within a day’s time.
So while Ashera cooked dinner, Hal probed the weaknesses of the Wortlings and tested his theories. As he delved into the inner-workings of Woodsense Hal realized that it wasn’t like any other sense.
It did not constantly seem able to perceive the world around them like vision or hearing. It was closer to a ping every second. The farther out any particular entity was from the creature, the longer the delay.
To Hal, it was closer to echolocation. The Wortlings relied upon whatever signal they received from the vegetation around them. It wasn’t nearly as omniscient as he had first thought it to be.
He set four Wortlings to rush at him. It felt strange, like playing chess by yourself. Eventually, Hal got into it and the awareness that he was essentially fighting himself fell away.
Using the weakness inherent in the Woodsense, Hal frequently changed position in quick bursts. The Wortlings, however, were more than up for the challenge and they tagged him with a heavy mitt more often than not.
Obviously without the use of their sleep toxin. An effect, he was happy to learn, he could turn off with a command.
Though Hal assumed it was due in part to his sluggish, tired muscles, he switched up his strategy. He sent two Wortlings after himself again with orders to tag him with a heavy swat when they got close enough.
As soon as he saw them heading for him, he reversed direction. The results were eye-opening.
Fully expecting to be smacked to the floor with two heavy swats, Hal slipped between two of the Wortlings that he had reversed into. They turned around and chased him a moment later and did indeed knock him to the ground like an overzealous game of tag.
But when Hal got to his feet, he tried it again. And again.
With his increased AGI, DEX, and VIT, he actually stood a chance at evading them. Even better, when they did hit him, it didn’t cause any permanent damage.
He would have more than a few bruises to show for his trouble, but once he saw the new notification he figured it was well worth the effort.
You have unlocked Evasion (Level 0).
The best defense is the one where you never get hit in the first place. The art of Evasion takes precise timing and quick reflexes to keep ahead of an opponent’s constant barrage of attacks.
Hal found was that the Wortlings weren’t able to update his position fast enough. Not when he was so close to them. If he constantly moved in opposing directions up close, they had a difficult time hitting him.
Even as Hal upped the number of Wortlings to six, he still managed the upper hand more often than not. And when a giant black mitt came down, it was a glancing blow that he could easily roll with.
Their chief weakness was their inability to accurately predict where a target was going to be in between pulses of their Woodsense. If Hal was close enough and switched direction fast enough, the Wortlings failed to reconcile the change in time to react.
While Woodsense seemed to work faster the closer a target was, it was still had a blind spot within a small window. A window Hal - and any opponent smart or fast enough - could exploit if they moved fast enough in the opposite direction. The Wortlings would swing wide thinking their opponent was still coming at them only to hit empty air and leave themselves open to attack.
Even more interesting was the way they were able to sync up as one unit. The flaw, Hal found, was also related to Woodsense. Because the nearest Wortling had the fastest response to its Woodsense, all other Wortlings used the closest of their brethren as the signal for all.
Their connection, after all, was practically instantaneous.
That meant that Hal only had to fool the Wortling closest to him at any given time. He would make sure to use his newly gained knowledge to close gaps in his defenses by ensuring that he supplemented the Wortlings’ Woodsense with his own.
He had tried to split them up into groups, each using their own Woodsense independently and while it was possible, Hal had to keep managing them to the point that he couldn’t keep his own thoughts straight.
It simply was not worth the effort to sort through the constant barrage of confusing sensations. Worse, the more he tried to control them the stronger the sensation of being watched became. It made his skin itch.
He eventually chalked it up to fatigue and fraying nerves. But he didn’t try to control them again in that way, and the sensation didn’t return.
He never strayed far from the camp, so it took him no time at all to cross over to the blazing campfire – which he instructed the Wortlings to keep a safe distance from considering their weakness to fire – when Ashera stood up with two bowls of steaming stew in her hands.
She didn’t even have to call out before Hal was there, stomach rumbling in anticipation.
“After we rest, I will teach you some of the basics for Alchemy,” Ashera told him as Hal went for a second helping. “I could use the help in making some potions,” she elaborated.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Hal asked. “I know we need to sleep and eat but aren’t we trying to reunite the party?”
Ashera calmly folded her hands into her lap. “I need the help,” she said simply. “How much do you know about healing magic, Hal?”
“Not very much. Nothing, really except that I enjoy it better than the slow alternative.”
The lamora nodded. “Many people don’t understand the cost of healing magic. It is an incredibly costly spell and it is difficult to heal appropriately without knowing how somebody is hurt.
“Potions usually work better but they have toxicity issues if the user is not careful. However, potions when supplemented with healing magic, work fantastically well for the short term. There is, of course, the healing from Leveling Up but that is short-lived.
“Since most people use Discordant Stones to allot Experience, the healing effects of Leveling is halved after each use until it is functionally worthless. The truth is, Hal, we are one bad fight away from suffering mortal wounds. I feel honored that you place so much faith in my magic, but I know better.”
She looked so sad and worn all of a sudden. Ashera’s shoulders drooped for a moment before she straightened them and looked up at Hal. “I won’t get into the details, but healing magic is not a simple spell you cast and it makes you all right. The spell does not distinguish minor damage from major. It simply heals.
“If I don’t know specifically how a person is injured, then it is a guessing game at best. I can tell if a person is injured if I focus on them but not the exacts. It is also why actual Healers are so rare. It takes decades of medical study and knowledge as well as magical talent. You are unlikely to find a person who possesses both.”
“I’m sorry, Ashera,” Hal said. “I didn’t know. I thought it was like most other magic.”
“It is quite all right. Most people think like that and I do not blame them. But it is blatantly wrong and I did not want you to harbor any illusions as to what it could do. Even when I know how the damage was done, it still takes an exorbitant amount of mana to cast.
“I would not be able to li
ve with myself if something happened to you Hal and I was powerless to stop it. With a small supply of potions, I can make sure we get out of here. Together. And you can bet once we rejoin with our friends, they will be in need of healing.”
“I understand,” Hal said. “Thank you for explaining it. I didn’t mean to come off as… criticizing.”
“You did not,” she said with a smile. “Your concerns were valid, if misguided. It is part of my task to make sure you understand how things work. If ever you have questions, please seek me out. I will never judge you for wanting to know more.”
Hal found he was the most relaxed around Ashera. Just the two of them together felt oddly intimate. But if Ashera sensed anything similar, she gave no outward sign. He could be himself around her and he knew she would accept him without judgment.
That was a hard trait to find in any person. Much less a friend like Ashera.
When the food was ready, they ate and talked about more pleasant things. Like what they would do once the settlement was built. What hobbies they wanted to pursue and what kind of house they would build.
The stew was delicious, as he had expected. It was similar to beef stroganoff with a mixture of creamy and sour tang that cut the richness of the meat. Hal had no idea how she had gotten the ingredients to stay so fresh when they were in her inventory this whole time. Ashera seemed confused when he asked.
“I took the food from my inventory,” she answered, giving him a strange look. Then it dawned on her and she apologized as she shook her head. “Oh. How could I have forgotten? You must not know much about how Expanded Space works! I am so sorry. I took it for granted that you knew because I noticed you had Expanded Space inventory as well.”
Ashera launched into a lengthy explanation about the reality-bending nature of Expanded Space.
Most notably, that unless otherwise fashioned, the inventory space was a lightless, airless void. And so, if the food was properly prepared it could last a very long time within any inventory of Expanded Space. Just like his.
Beastborne- Mark of the Founder Page 46