“We’ve been saved!” Tag had cried.
Chloe hadn’t been so sure, not quite certain how the sherikans were going to take the fact that Chloe and the others had stolen some of their livestock, disobeyed one of their own, and gone out into the sand without permission.
The messenger sherikans had dragged them each back down below, for which they were all eternally grateful. The sand had been burning their feet and skin, and Chloe was worried about what damage the sun might do to her. When they had arrived back into the palace, they had been greeted by a convoy of official-looking sherikans with upside-down grins.
Chloe had a strange sense of déjà vu, only broken by the fact that she had the others with her now. Finley had worked its way to the front with an expression that was tough to read. After a few seconds of silence, Finley’s smile had broken out and the cluster of sherikans had erupted into cheers.
“Thank you, one and all, for erasing the greatest threat to our palace,” Finley had croaked, its tears welling up.
And then the group had swallowed them, celebrating, carrying the adventurers on their backs and bringing them inside. Finley had set them up with their bedrooms, and the adventurers had stayed up late into the night (or so they assumed), discussing their adventures and comparing notes from the fight with the blobs and the sandworm.
The biggest bonus they had all acquired was from taking down the enormous beast. Although Gideon and Chloe got the bulk of the experience, Tag and Ben had received collateral, beaming as they read their notifications.
“3,000 experience for holding back the tide while you guys did all the work?” Tag gasped. “Not too shabby.”
Ben scoffed. “3,000? I got 5,000. Guess I must’ve helped more than you.”
Tag grew red, visibly shaking. “Why, you…”
“I was kidding!” Ben exclaimed, putting his hands out. “Jesus. You get how easy you are to wind up, right? I got 3,000 too.”
Gideon and Chloe side-eyed each other, both reading their very generous 7,500 experience for taking down such a giant beast. The blob only counted as one monster in the end, the system revealing its proper name only after its death.
Monster defeated: Digestive Amorphi (Lv 23)
+1,575 exp
“Digestive Amorphi?” Chloe had snorted. “Sounds like a new kind of cookie.”
The others had started laughing, then talked deep into the night, comparing their skills and discussing Chloe’s new piece of armor. Jesepiah had fallen asleep on Chloe’s floor, her head woozy from her resurrection and the wine they had found in one of the bedrooms and popped open.
Chloe spent some time investigating her character sheet, wondering how soon she would be able to reach the next level.
Bio
Character name: Chloe (click to select a new character name)
Level: 11
Class: Battle Mage (Novice)
Race: Human
Stats
HP: 325/325
MP: 540/540
Stamina: 375/375
Active effects: Null
Boons: +15% luck to experimental magicks
Attributes
Strength: 22 (+32)
Intelligence: 10 (+34)
Dexterity: 20 (+34)
Endurance: 25 (+29)
Etheric Potential: 9 (+46)
Skills
Languages: Human
Acrobatics: Lv 3
Armed Combat: Lv 3
Charismatic: Lv 4
Cooking: Lv 2
Crafting: Lv 1
Creature Identification: Lv 4
Dark Vision: Lv 4
Dual Wielding: Lv 2
Experimental: Lv 1
Fishing: Lv 1
Hand of the Gods: Lv 1
Herb Identification: Lv 2
Saddler: Lv 5
Sneak: Lv 4
Swimming: Lv 3
Reckless: Lv 5
Available Points: 0
Chloe came out of her thoughts as the sherikan waiter returned. He growled and snapped his teeth.
“Finley?” Chloe asked.
“Any more hazelik?” Finley replied.
“Not for me, thanks.” Chloe smiled and it moved on to Tag, who accepted another gratefully.
“Seriously, where are they?” Chloe whispered to Gideon, trying not to draw Tag’s attention. “You don’t really think they’re…”
“No,” Gideon replied. “At least, I don’t think they are.”
“Aha!” Tag suddenly shouted, standing up straight (not that it made much difference to his actual height). “I knew it!”
Silence fell over the chamber, all heads turning to the poor woman standing in the doorway of the hall. She looked over her shoulder as if expecting to see someone else standing there, then pointed at her chest. “Who, me?”
Tag jumped down from his seat and marched through the narrow lanes between the tables. His footsteps were heavy, echoing through the chamber. He strode to her, determination and anger on his face. When he reached Jesepiah, he glanced past her, taking a few steps beyond and looking down the stairs.
“Where is he?” He said angrily. “Where is he?”
“He’s over there, idiot,” Chloe called across the hall, pointing towards another door where Ben had appeared, his arm draped over the shoulders of the sherikan that had blushed at him prior. He shrugged.
Tag’s shoulders dropped, the anger on his face dissipating instantly. Ben chuckled, the sherikans around him awkwardly joining in as a wave of laughter rippled across the hall.
“I’m sorry.” Tag flushed bright red as he addressed Jesepiah. “Where have you been? I was worried that… Well, Ben’s always been…” His voice trailed off.
“I was downstairs with the animals while you were all sleeping. Do you realize how cute those damn things are?”
Tag looked down at his feet. Jesepiah giggled, lifted his chin, bent down, and planted a kiss on his lips.
Chloe applauded from her table, standing up and kicking her chair back. Gideon joined in. Then Finley, then the whole back table. Before they knew it, the entire hall had burst into applause, half of them not even aware of why they were clapping but enjoying the uplift in the atmosphere after Tag’s awkward interruption.
Chloe winked at Tag and raised a drink in the air.
A dull clinking sound came from beside them as Finley banged his mug with its knife. “Attention, please,” it shouted.
When no one paid attention, he snarled loudly, snapping his jaws and growling.
Silence fell almost instantly, the only sound Ben finding his seat at the table.
“Sorry,” Finley mumbled to Chloe. “Even I forget that many don’t understand human.”
Then ensued some of the strangest moments of Chloe’s life. Finley snarled and snapped, grunted and growled, speaking the language of his people. Its inflections were impossible to read, the only barometer for the tone of its speech found in the applause and cheers from the sherikan people.
The speech was long, with Chloe, Gideon, Ben, Tag, and Jesepiah guessing when to laugh, when to nod, and when to show emotion. Finley pointed at them a lot, so they knew the speech was about them. They just had no idea of what was being said.
Eventually, Finley raised its glass, and the entire hall raised theirs. Chloe and the others lifted their own and smiled. Chloe leaned toward Finley after it finally sat down and asked, “Okay, no offense, but what the hell was all that?”
Finley grinned, revealing its jagged teeth. “In short, I celebrated once more your destruction of one of our greatest enemies, I welcomed you to our home, I offered you anything and everything you would wish to take from our people, and I warned every single sherikan that you are off the menu.”
Almost as if to emphasize its point, it sucked in a string of drool from the corner of its mouth.
“Hold on, did I hear that right?” Ben asked. “What do you mean, ‘we’re off the menu?’”
Finley raised its hands. “Oh no, don’t mi
stake me. Being taken off the menu is a good thing. It means the sherikans won’t eat you while you’re here.”
“Eat us?” Chloe laughed uncertainly. “That’s a joke, right? Why would you eat us?” Then she remembered all the hungry looks she had received during her initial tour of the palace, fleeting fancies that had faded in the instant they came.
“Tell me, Chloe,” Finley said. “You speak of sharks from your realm. What do sharks eat?”
Despite herself, Chloe laughed. “Meat, mostly. Sometimes people.”
“Right.”
Gideon looked less than reassured.
The meal came to a close a long time later, the sherikans moving away in clusters and groups until only the adventurers, Gilly, Finley, and a few others remained. They learned a lot about sherikan culture, scaring Ben to pieces when Gilly mentioned that often when two sherikans mated, it was an unspoken contractual agreement that the two would be forever joined.
“You’re kidding,” Ben exclaimed, eyes darting across the table to where his sherikan friend sat. The color drained from his face.
Gilly kept his face straight for as long as he could, before spluttering with laughter.
And then they were back on the topic of staying at the palace, Chloe once again protesting to Finley that they simply couldn’t stay. They had a quest to complete, and they must continue on their way.
Finley once more extended his offer to provide them with anything they might need, and Chloe and the others thanked him for his words.
While they sat there, sherikans arrived with bags of food, skins of drink and water, and various types of potions that were exclusive to the sherikans. They thanked them deeply, bowing their heads low.
“The only thing we need now is a way to get out of this desert,” Chloe said, more to the adventurers than the sherikans.
“Or something to fend off the heat,” Jesepiah said. “Honestly, if I sweat much more out there, we’re going to run out of water so fast it’ll hurt.”
Gilly raised a finger in the air, leaning across the table. “Erm, aren’t you forgetting something?”
Chloe heard a squawk and clapped with glee when several bright-yellow birds were brought into the hall on leads and she raced toward them with her hands outstretched. The scoopers bashed into each other playfully, clearly enjoying being away from their pens. Chloe reached them, hugging their bodies tight, the feathers bristling beneath her.
She pulled back and counted them, wondering where the additional scoopers had come from after they had released several into the wild.
“How many of these do you have?” she asked Gilly.
“Just five,” he said with a broad smile. “We’ve only ever had five.”
Chloe’s eyebrow went up as her mind struggled to catch up with what Gilly was saying. “Wait, they came back?”
Gilly nodded, rubbing the closest one’s beak. “They always do. Fiercely loyal. Impossibly good at navigating the sand. They always come back.”
A load of guilt Chloe hadn’t even been aware she was carrying suddenly lifted. She felt lighter than she had in ages.
The sherikans helped the adventurers saddle the creatures, each person now having their own beast to ride. After their last experience, Chloe could forgive Jesepiah and Tag for seeming so nervous. They took their places before the blocked loose-sand doorway and offered one last round of thanks to the sherikans.
“Where are you headed now?” Finley asked. Chloe was surprised to see tears in its eyes.
Chloe flicked up her map, looking for the sigils of the gods. Immediately she felt like something was slightly off. She was sure there had been another sigil considerably north of their position, near a shaded mountain range, but now there was nothing there—just empty space.
She looked east and saw her next destination, then went back and counted the others, certain there had been at least one or two more sigils waiting for her.
She flicked away the map, thinking that maybe in all the excitement of her adventures, she had miscounted or just remembered incorrectly.
“Well?” Finley asked.
“Due east, beyond the desert.”
Finley and the others shuffled uncomfortably.
“What?” Chloe asked.
“The lands to the east of ours are unknown now,” Finley said. “Our people haven’t visited them for centuries. It is not fair for us to say what may be there and what may not.”
“What was there?” Ben asked, his scooper bucking slightly beneath him.
Gilly answered for Finley. “Put simply, the farther east you go, the hotter you will find the lands. East of the desert, there was once only volcanic rock and magma and a land by the name of Bahrum. There’s no telling now what you’ll find there or whether the volcano has settled.”
Chloe remembered the volcano she had seen in the vision she’d had at the Seat of the World, a flash of a location that displayed the glowing items she now sought with her entire being.
“Big volcano? Dangerous lava? Throw in a large man in black armor and a ring, and I can tell you how this story ends.” She pointed a finger at Tag. “You can be a hobbit, I’ll be the wizard. Now, let’s get this fellowship on the road!”
They all laughed as Chloe and the others waved their goodbyes. With whistles to their faithful steeds, they disappeared one by one into the sand, ready to begin the next part of their adventure.
Epilogue
Valoric_Warrior_219 approached the altar with an easy calm. Each footstep was measured and delicate. Her hair was tied into a long flowing ponytail behind her and her fingers flexed open and closed, relishing the touch of the foreign metal on her skin.
Without a word, she took the final steps to the top, a chill wind blowing around her. The shrine was ideally located just a small distance away from the completed dungeon’s entrance. Snow-capped mountains surrounded her, each one lesser in height than where she stood now at the literal top of the world.
Within arm’s reach of the gods.
Something that should have taken her breath away.
Her men remain behind, immature adventurers who had no idea what a game like this one could yield. She was sure that her band of warriors, archers, Berzerkers, mages, and clerics were only children in reality, teens and pre-teens with a taste for glory and a drawer full of dirty, crusty socks.
That was fine with her. That was all she needed to journey on the mission she had been sent on—a team of willing allies ready to lay down their lives for her. Dive in front of boulders. Swim in piranha-infested waters.
Willing to race ahead and distract the monsters while Valoric_Warrior_219 reaped the rewards.
She placed her hand on the top of a small statue of a woman with a fierce expression on her face, a woman she had come to know as KieraFreya, the goddess of retribution.
She closed her eyes, willing the shrine to dedicate to the god she sought. A smile souring her lips as the statue changed from its grayish hue to the black of onyx. The woman transformed into a creature not unlike an imp, with teeth jutting out over its lips and eyes as red as summer fire.
“Fukmos. It is done,” she said, falling to one knee, the emerald and gold gauntlets gleaming on her hands. The same pattern decorated the armor that clung to her thighs. Two pieces acquired now.
The statue of the imp rotated its head, eyes fixing on her with greedy intent.
“Good, my child,” the imp Fukmos said, its voice laced with malice. “There is still more to gather, however, and less time than we anticipated. The other—she is out there, racing you to the finish. Are you sure you have what it takes to complete this quest?”
Valoric_Warrior_219 nodded, face resolute. Who was this imp to question her abilities? She was a veteran at these type of games, someone who had spent a lifetime killing off noobs and taking what was owed to her. What did she have to fear from this...other?”
“Consider it done,” she said, looking up and seeing that the statue had returned to its normal position. Plain
black onyx stared back at her now.
Standing up, she flicked up her map, spotting the other sigils the impish god of mischief had planted on her map. She still wasn’t sure why he had appeared to her in the first place, nor why he was so fixated on this quest, but as long as the experience kept coming, Valoric_Warrior_219 would continue driving forward, dragging along everyone and anyone who was willing to use themselves as battle fodder for her task.
She took the stairs two at a time, calling for the others to follow, then leaped onto her horse in one single bound and rode down the mountain.
She was unaware of the mischievous imp as it giggled to no one, rubbing its hands as it watched both adventurers from afar, eager to see the culmination of its meddling.
Yes, he thought darkly. As long as her body is divided, KieraFreya can never, ever be whole.
Character Sheet
Bio
Character name: Chloe (click to select a new character name)
Level: 11
Class: Battle Mage (Novice)
Race: Human
Stats
HP: 325/325
MP: 540/540
Stamina: 375/375
Active effects: Null
Boons: +15% luck to experimental magicks
Attributes
Strength: 22 (+32)
Intelligence: 10 (+34)
Dexterity: 20 (+34)
Endurance: 25 (+29)
Etheric Potential: 9 (+46)
Skills
Languages: Human
Acrobatics: Lv 3
Armed Combat: Lv 3
Charismatic: Lv 4
Cooking: Lv 2
Crafting: Lv 1
Creature Identification: Lv 4
Dark Vision: Lv 4
Dual Wielding: Lv 2
Experimental: Lv 1
Fishing: Lv 1
Hand of the Gods: Lv 1
Herb Identification: Lv 2
Saddler: Lv 5
Sneak: Lv 4
Swimming: Lv 3
Reckless: Lv 5
Available Points: 0
Skills-dex
Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1) Page 51