Zoey’s face was over mine when I shook off the haze from the fall.
“Did I get him?” I asked with a cough while I peeled myself off the ground.
“How do you know the werewolf was a him?”
“The big balls, duh,” I retorted and she shrugged sadly.
“This is horrible. Javee, Patree, and Odesia were good elvath. Chosen for their skills in battle and their loyalty to the cause,” Zoey said and then found her resolve. She dragged me forward to where the sudden fight had gone so poorly. “Come, Mysti has caught up. Your javelin broke spectacularly.”
I furled my brows at this statement. The javelins should not break as they were gifted from Perception.
Mysti leaped the tree while riding a fine chestnut mare. The Carolina girl grabbed the reins as Mysti dismounted. Carolina hopped on the saddleless back and a second elvath that I did not know mounted behind her. They jumped the log and spurred the horse into a run in the direction of the Chatty Box.
“By the creator what happened here? Donkey shit, Patree is missing her face. I tried to reach you in time. Where are they going?” Mysti said while thumbing over her shoulder. Her shiny diamond eyes were gone and I grabbed the three bags she carried. I tossed them in the bed of the wagon while she turned to loot the field. “Nice shot on the werewolf.”
“I need to find my javelins. They were god crafted. At least in my universe, they were.” I said.
“Not here. The javelin that went into this werewolf shattered on his spine and the shot that you used too much energy on fractured out the back of his skull. You are right, huge hairy balls. Gross,” Zoey said with a scrunched face of disgust.
“Were those two elvath who left the two who did not volunteer?” I asked on a hunch.
“Yeah actually. Oh, it makes sense now,” Zoey said while picking over an elvath body. The short sword was all she took. “They went back to the safety of Barry. We warned them you were called the harbinger. We need to hurry I do not think Nicole will last much longer.”
“From a simple ass smack?” Mysti said while being out of the loop. She grabbed the two handed sword and started to decapitate a werewolf. “Cut the heart out and cleave the head free. If there is an orb it will magically appear in place of the heart.”
“She had a parasite in her asscheek. Remember the mole we would comment on while bathing but never said anything about it? Not a mole. When she got a super ass smacked it died and I think released a toxin. Fuck these werewolves stink,” Zoey said while carving a heart out. “Hey Gryff, can you lift the body probably good coin in the skin?”
“No, Nicole is worth more than these mangy mutts. We call them werewolves but they are hybrids from what I can tell,” I said as I inspected the other body as I unsheathed my short sword. I added some power and cleaved into the monster’s neck; blood and bits of fur, tissue, and muscle flew everywhere. My sword became stuck. I yanked it out and gave it an inspection. The blade had dulled with the bone producing an indent. A gave an audible disgruntled hmm… “Well, I am not in the Prox universe anymore. God tier weapons were not given to me by the manager for this adventure. Shit.”
I flipped the sword to the sharp edge and finished the decapitation.
“This one dropped two,” Mysti said while studying the orbs. “These were overpowered creatures for this area. A year ago we had a report of these hitting a caravan then nothing. This road is always so safe. A fox is the biggest predator we ever killed around here. This orb summons a wolf pet and this one turns you into a werewolf. Who the hell would want that?”
Zoey cut the heart free and held the useless organ. When nothing transpired or transitioned she tossed the purple organ back in the body. Which brought up something.
“I could have saved this last elvath. If only I had summoned Kor between them,” I kicked the dead werewolf and then ran for the wagon. The ladies carried what they could and I helped them get over the tree. “Well, let us hope that this is the only trouble tonight. We went from eight to five to three and one is dying. Not a great start. Zoey, you are upfront while Mysti and I inspect the orbs.”
“What is a Kor?” Mysti asked while loading into the wagon bed with me.
“A hydra I acquired back in our universe.”
“Huh? That did not answer much and left me with more questions,” Mysti said while grabbing the least full bag and tossing it to me. I opened the flap and saw inside there were silver and gold coins. A lot more than I was expecting. She coughed for my attention. “You explain Kor and then I will tell you about the coins.”
“The gods here came to our universe hoping to acquire a large collection of new elvath from an undiscovered colony. They thought it would be a field trip. I murdered them all with my allies,” I said and Zoey twirled her hair as she glanced back and flashed a toothy smile. Her expression was clear, she was loving this story. “I know, it felt good killing them. Well, they dropped these orbs so I even executed prisoners. Anyway, some demigods from here got away from me and were going to erase Prox or our universe from existence. I sacrificed myself to prevent that and instead closed the portal. One of those orbs is a five-headed aquatic creature that can speak both this language and Horde. His name is Kor, and he is a bit looney but you will like him. Your turn, tell me about these coins, how did you get so many?”
“Woah that is awesome, so home is safe, and the advancing seven defeated?” Mysti asked as we started rolling again.
“Um… yes and no. I have no idea how things are there now. I merely know they are cut off from the influence from here. I do know that a few gods were switching sides and the biggest threat, Warg, is here somewhere. So if…” I said this part with a long exhale while scanning the woods. “If things worked the way I think they did. The advancing and retreating gods are now on one side and are simply called gods. Hopefully, life inside the universe is finding a new balance and my sacrifice was worth the reward. Story of the gold please.”
“Uh, same as anywhere really. We hunted for foxes, rabbits, and deer. The town we are heading to, it is called Bonwe. Good mix of aliens there without discrimination. This is a peaceful planet on the outskirts of the universe so most folks regardless of species type are fairly friendly,” Zoey said from upfront while handling the reins. Nicole muttered something about a dwarf as she tried to rotate in her sleep and failed. “Oh, there was a quest to kill a few dvaren. Called dwarves here. Three brothers had turned bandit and were robbing travelers.”
I shook my head in amazement. “And how did you find out about the bandit dwarfs?”
“The quest board. Same way we went and killed five foxes or collected a dozen rabbits,” Mysti said as if the answer was obvious. I clenched my eyes closed in frustration.
“The manager, observer, or manipulator is clearly a gamer. Has to be. Speaking of which,” I looked inside my center and the physical superiority orb was an image of me hurling trees now. I watched a few cycles of the same animation seeing if I would throw rocks. While epic I was more curious as to what number level the orb showed. Nine and the circle around it was three quarters full. Huh. My translucent energy container was slightly bigger too. I tried to find a number and a level indicator and gave up. I muttered this next bit. “Well, that answers how we level.”
“What is it?” Zoey asked from upfront while she was carving something into the bench.
“If you use an orb enough it can level. If you use it while killing something it can gain experience quicker. I used my physical superiority orb to kill both those wolves. My orb shot to a nine in rank but I think my main level is only a two. I am sure someone in Bonwe will have some answers.”
“How about we go over the orbs since they are so important? We learned you can only use five.” Mysti said as she rummaged through the bag that was mostly full. “When we tried to sell them, these were rejected as trash. I can grow a flower, summon a bunny, ha, this one summons a butterfly, and so on. Let me see. This one hurls a rock. That was the m
ost offensive this bag gets.”
“Can they be broken down into a conversion or something for experience? Most gaming systems let you apply trash to increase value elsewhere. Normally the value is minimal but if you kill enough boars in super long grind session it adds up,” I asked and both the ladies shrugged. I pulled out my notepad for writing down lists and jotted down the question. “I make lists. So this bag of orbs is mostly trash. I want you to put the rock aside. Is there more than one?”
“Like four of them, why would we want a rock? I tried this orb. A small pebble is magically summoned into my palm or I can let it fall at my feet,” Mysti said with a scoff while leaning back against the wagon frame. “I cannot use magic to make it wizz across the land like you hurl a javelin. Even if I throw the pebble and it hits my target at most I can give someone a headache.”
I gazed at Mysti’s armor and weapons. She had a short sword and a bow. The way her calloused fingers were worn I assumed the bow was primary. I already knew Zoey was a dagger loving fiend. Where Zoey was lithe, thin, and flat-chested. Mysti had supple breasts and wide hips. Both girls had the gorgeous elvath faces and long legs.
“Mysti, you are an archer, correct? Zoey is a dagger thrower or long dagger fighter?” I asked wanting to confirm my suspicions. Both ladies gave quick nods for a yes. “Well, well. I am a solid melee fighter of sorts. Guess I get to be our group's tank. A story for later. Let me focus on the rock. I want you both to add one and then spawn a rock in your hand.”
I crawled across the wagons length to Zoey up front and handed her the summon rock orb. A small pebble was in the central image of the container. I had to admit to myself that I could have fun with the magic system here. Zoey accepted my delivery and the orb dove through her outfit as if both objects did not exist in the same universe. Moments later she had a pebble in her palm.
“Great. You are now high up in a tree and the orc you are about to ambush starts to look up. Toss the pebble thirty feet.” Both girls rolled their eyes and chucked their small rocks in the woods. “Now the fun part. Do it for the rest of the night. I bet you get a bigger pebble or maybe more rocks once it reaches a certain size. Or it can cap out. Actually, hold off using your central energy just yet. Did you see the validity of the pebble though?”
“I get it, never had much use for it. Might have helped with the dwarves we killed. Nicole had to roll away from a few attacks while we got the melee setup,” Zoey said with an intrigued tone. “I have done almost no fighting so some of this stuff will simply not be known to me. Show him the other bag babe.”
I raised an eyebrow at this. “You two?”
“An item. Yeah, thank the four I arrived to the fight late. I think we would have been devastated if we lost a lover. Nicole is a dick only kind of girl,” Mysti said repeating what Zoey had mentioned earlier. I stifled a slight chuckle. Elvath were so forward and open when it came to sex, lust, and love. “Which one of us is the prettiest?”
“I do like your hazel eyes better than your diamond ones. Hey not dodging the question did you remove…” I started to ask and she held out an orb. That meant she removed it. “I am excited to get Nicole patched up and return my virginity tag I acquired during my prison session with a five headed hydra.”
“Interested to meet this Kor. Not as excited as I am to ride your giant cock, but I can understand waiting. Been a long time for all of us,” Zoey said with a slight snicker and Mysti pumped her eyebrows into the air while unlacing her top by a few strings. Cleavage spilled out and I grew distracted. A bag of orbs was placed over my rising desire and I sighed. “Look those over while Mysti fixes those laces that suddenly became unraveled.”
“The pair you two make. That was well played and I will get mine later,” I said while ensuring both ladies saw me eyeing them greedily. I dug into the bag with far less orbs in it. “The manager of this universe said the orbs had a way to tell their rarity. Why are these stuffed in this bag?”
“Unlike Barry, we did go out and do stuff. So we know a little bit. See this tiny dot here on the orb. There is only a smidge of flat surface. I have seen only three colors here. Grey for trash, but the merchant called it common. White for special which this bag is, and green is unique. This is only the fourth green I have seen.” Mysti said while holding up the pet wolf orb. “Can I have this one?”
“I wonder if there is a penalty when swapping out orbs?” I muttered thinking about if Nicole may want to have the wolf when she is better.
“Yeah, it restarts the level. At least that was what the vendor tried to explain to us when we wanted to sell stuff. He bought our other two greens. One was a pet fox but it was larger. He called it an alpha fox. Gave up ten silver for it and that is when he asked if we had burned levels to sell it.”
I grabbed a pen and wrote a question. Ask about swapping skills/spells/summons without exchanging. Do they still lose levels? I wrote quickly and my writing was a mess from the poor lighting and bouncing wagon. Nicole gave a soft moan that was gibberish. Her calf was swelling now as was her gut.
“Is there another green orb in this bag and how much further Zoey?”
“An hour, sun should be up in three or four. Healer Varusa is going to be pissed when we wake her up,” Zoey said while I saw Mysti digging through the bag.
“We sold two of those foxes. He was impressed we got a second one. There was this, it dropped off the dwarves we killed. Nicole refused to sell it because she thought it was too cute. Elvath and nature, right?” She handed me an orb and I inspected it by moonlight. There was a plant creature inside. The being was all green with a single eye and no mouth. In the orb, it went into the lock and shimmied around. A few moments later the clasp of the lock was free and the little critter was dancing on the picked lock. “Neat and cute at the same time.”
“Absolutely. Mysti gets the pet wolf since she is an archer and can use it as a tanking or distraction pet…” I paused and wrote a new line. Ask if a summoned creature dies what happens? “You get this guy stealthy babe.”
Zoey reached back, clasped the orb in her hand, and then sucked it into her chest. A few moments later the little green cyclops plant was dancing. A wolf the size of a large dog spawned on top of the wagon and fell off. It whimpered with an injured leg as we rolled away from the wounded animal.
“Shit, how do I bring it back,” Mysti said as we got further away.
“Stop the wagon…” We rolled to a stop and the rhino was panting and clearly tired.
“Go run to it and keep trying to suck your summon back in. Think of it like this. That is the orb. Not a wolf. If you try to suck the wolf in you never will. Think of pulling the wolf’s core in. Good job.” I said in congratulating her. With the wolf tucked away she ran back and rushed to sit across from me again. “Is he limping in your orb?”
“Yeah, he is.”
“Good now we get to see if he can heal over time or needs magic to be used to correct the issue. Note to all of us. Summoning a creature in a moving wagon is a no go.” I said with a chuckle that the little plant guy mimicked. I watched it poof into thin air. “Oh neat. That answers that question. When the person summoning the creature runs out of core mana they return. We need to test if we go too far will the orb spill out. We can do that now. Summon a bunny in your lap.”
Mysti reached into the bag and Zoey hesitated on getting us moving again. “I want to try as well. Toss me a butterfly.”
I saw Mysti absorb a bunny orb and Zoey a butterfly orb before we started moving. They summoned a creature each and then the reins were snapped. We were racing down the dirt road when a bunny tumbled out the back and a butterfly flew into the woods. I watched the bunny as the butterfly quickly became lost in the night sky. The bunny faded in the distance as we got further away.
“Ouch!” Zoey clamored first and was swiftly followed by a cry of pain from Mysti. I never saw the orbs leave them but they certainly felt something.
“Yeah, the orb is gone. I bet it i
s in the spot we last saw the bunny. That is good to know. Especially if you have some awesome monster.” Mysti said and I nodded in agreement. “I think we should buy specific things. None of these orbs are as useful as the ones we saw for sale. Also, the vendor did mention something. There is a castle city north of here called Vredin. Said there would be more market for the trash orbs. I bet they would have an even better selection being a city and all.”
“I agree. First thing first, we heal Nicole.” I said while pointing my finger in the air to emphasize my point.
“Well let me tell you about myself and then Zoey can go next,” Mysti said and I grinned.
“I can think of no better way to pass the time than to have two beautiful women give me some back story.”
“I grew up on a spaceship. I was born in outer space on a colony vessel that ran out of room. There were strict no breeding policies in place and somehow life still found a way. There was a problem though. We simply refused to go to inhabitable planets and instead were working on expanding in the depths of space. I grew up thin, frail, and always with lungs half full of fresh air. Fifty years into my existence an asteroid project finished. We lost five elvath from air poisoning the day I transferred. I had never been so happy in my life,” Mysti said while sniffing in a giant lungful of night air. “We were so happy. I remember an orgy that lasted seven days. Ah, those were the times, you would have loved it being so handsome and bulky. I lived there in bliss for the next two hundred years. An enemy fleet found us. No idea the how or the why, and I would never learn. I became a slave and fucking wanted to kill myself. I lived under a cyclops who thankfully only forced me to wait in isolation. Yeah, that lady cyclops never got the male she was seeking and sent me to Entria in a sale. Actually, I never stepped foot on Entria as it was Gravin that bought me and I spent the next three hundred thousand years helping Perception build up their Empire while rescuing others. I matured a lot in that time. Our fleet was filled with elvath and she even had males. She could build faster than we could breed. If only she had been there all those years before. My sanity recovered and I became a focused individual. I heard endless rumors of your foretelling. Scenarios in scenarios within subset options. Perception was not Sara back then. A voice of infinite possibilities and likely outcomes that spoke out of the speakers of the ship. Such different times. We followed every little detail we could of you. Last I heard you were turning the tide on Earth and victory was assured. When she put us under before our final voyage it was different for all of us. I think she did that on purpose, not sure though.”
Gryff Boxset Page 123