by Edward Brody
At least he’s going to fix that bug, I thought as I fell into a much-needed sleep.
Chapter Fifteen
2/19/0001
I set 5,000 gold down on the desk in front of Darion. “It’s all there.”
Darion grinned and started picking up the coins. “Excellent. Very slow, but I knew that you could be trusted.” He looked me up and down as he counted. “I see you’ve leveled to 30 and can buy another scroll. Did you bring money for your next spell?”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t afford that right now, unless you want to lend me money again.”
“Pssht! Maybe next time… I don’t want to have to start charging you interest.”
“You seem kind of greedy,” I commented. “I’m sure you have a lot of gold stashed away.”
Darion nodded. “You don’t come to have a large gold stash by handing it all out.” He tilted his head to the side a bit. “You’ll be sticking around for study today, correct?”
I shook my head. “Not today. I’m heading to Barbarosia to finish up a quest.”
He sighed. “What about afterwards?”
“Maybe if I have time.”
“Do you have a rune to there?”
“No, I’ll be riding.”
Darion made a snapping noise with his lips. “It’s quite dangerous out there now, but if you must go, try to stick to the roads. Highcastle soldiers are patrolling them as they try to restore order to the region.”
“I’m aware, and I’ll try,” I said. “I’m traveling in a small group, so hopefully we won’t attract much attention.”
Darion nodded. “A smart choice but also quite disappointing that you’re choosing this over your studies again.”
“I know, but I need the gold, and I’ve got to get going. I have a guildmate waiting for me.”
“Very well,” Darion said with a frown. “But please, return for your studies quickly. There’s much for you to learn, and magic resist training is time intensive. Each day you miss is a wasted gain.”
“I understand and I’ll try,” I said. I thought about telling him of the High Elves’ plans to slay ancient beasts but worried it may cause our conversation to last longer. If I was going to ride to Barbarosia as planned and make it back in a reasonable time, I needed to leave as soon as possible.
“Take care of yourself, Gunnar.”
“Thank you, Master Darion,” I said as I closed my eyes and focused on my Recall Home spell.
After a few seconds, I was gone.
When I reappeared at the Edgewood mines, I immediately dropped to one knee and slammed my hand on the ground. “Sora!”
The patter of her footsteps could be heard nearby almost immediately, and I turned as she rushed my way.
Sora turned her head from side to side as she approached. I see no more goblins. Is everything okay now? she projected into my mind.
The attacks have slowed, so Edgewood is doing okay for now, but the Scourge have set up camps all across the Freelands.
Good news and bad news, it seems.
And I’ll need you to carry me and Trynzen to Barbarosia.
So, if I understand you correctly, you want me to carry you through the Scourge-ridden Freelands, to the place where I was captured and tortured, with a Barbaros who’s lost his mind on my back? Sora lowered herself in front of me and let out a low growl.
Yeah. It doesn’t sound great on paper, but... I groaned as I pulled myself onto her.
You’ve had worse ideas.
Sora sprinted towards our village and didn’t say much more the rest of the way. Ever since the death of Tsarra, she had been much less talkative. She was slowly getting better, and I knew one day she would be herself again, but until then, I’d give her time. I could understand her dispirited mood.
When we arrived at our village, Sung had already saddled up our one remaining horse, and Trynzen was scurrying around beside him.
“Trynzen go hunt?” Trynzen questioned. “Food for eat?!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Sung answered, adjusting the saddle of the silver-maned horse. “Just a little trip.”
“Trynzen hunt. Cook animal. Food for eat.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sung said, showing little interest in his random senseless banter.
“Are you both ready?” I asked as I pulled up beside them.
Sung turned and smiled. “Yeah, we’re ready.”
“Gunnar go hunt with Trynzen, yes?” Trynzen questioned. “Trip for hunt for eat?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “We’re not going to hunt, Trynzen. We’re just taking a trip.” I had no issue with Trynzen believing we were going wherever to do whatever he wanted to believe, but I knew him a little better than Sung did. I didn’t want him jumping off the horse while we were riding, because he saw something to ‘hunt’ if it could be avoided.
“Taking trip?” Trynzen rattled his head. “No hunt? Go where? Trynzen not understand!”
“We’re going to take you home, buddy,” I said.
“Home?” Trynzen looked down. “Take Trynzen home?” He shifted slowly from side to side. “Here is home.” He pointed a claw down to the ground and looked up to me with wide eyes. “Trynzen have home now, here with friend!”
I grinned and shook my head. “No, this is Edgewood, Tryn. Barbarosia is your home. Trynzen is a Barbaros, remember?”
Trynzen stood tall on his hind legs, and his face turned serious as he slammed a paw into his chest. “Trynzen Barbaros! Barbaros strong!” No sooner had he said that than he’d shrunk back down into his hunched posture, grabbed the healing necklace around his neck, and his face softened. “Barbarosia… go cannot. Brothers want steal Trynzen’s trinket. Barbarosia not good for Trynzen.”
I gritted my teeth a bit as I eyed the necklace around his neck. It was a pretty powerful item, and I’d long had plans of taking it from Trynzen, but never found the right time. And now that we were taking him back to Barbarosia to collect some gold, I would’ve felt terrible to take the only valuable thing in his possession. I figured it was better to let him keep it and just hope no one else would try to steal it from him. “Jenzyn is waiting for you,” I said.
His eyes perked up. “Jenzyn?”
“You remember Jenzyn, right? She’ll take care of you.”
“Jenzyn…” Trynzen whimpered. “Jenzyn give medicine for drink. Hurt just little… but Trynzen strong! Jenzyn love Trynzen. Fix hurt!”
“Medicine?” I asked, curious as to what he was talking about.
Trynzen looked up to me. “Jenzyn try for fix hurt Trynzen!”
I shrugged. It seemed like maybe he was referring to a health potion. Perhaps Jenyzn had given him a potion to cure a wound? It didn’t matter either way, and there was little sense in trying to decipher his gibberish. “Okay, well Jenzyn is in Barbarosia and wants you to return.”
Trynzen shook his head and banged the side of his temples with his claw tips a few times. “No… No, can… Can… No, cannot. Trynzen scared! Trynzen have to try! Yes! No, no, no! Here home! Home with friend!”
“Trynzen!” Keysia called out as she crossed the clearing, walking side by side with Rina.
Trynzen snapped out of his craze, turned to her, and immediately perked up.
As the girls approached, Keysia held a wooden tray with what looked like an upside-down cooked mushroom with leaves and berries atop it. Whatever it was, it smelled delightful.
“Keysia made you a little parting gift,” Rina said.
“We made you a gift,” Keysia corrected, tossing a wide smile to Rina.
“No, you did it all,” Rina countered. “I just helped collect the ingredients.”
“For Trynzen?!” the Barbaros questioned. “Friend give food for eat?!”
“Yes,” Keysia said with a grin. “I hope you like it.”
Behind Trynzen, I was shaking my head and doing my best to make eye contact with Keysia. She didn’t seem to notice me right away, but Rina saw my efforts.
Rina bumped Keysia on
the shoulder to key her in on my silent signaling, and when Keysia glanced over to me, she stood up straight, and quickly looked away.
Trynzen rushed up to Keysia and tried to swipe the mushroom from the tray, but Keysia pulled back and away.
“Wait a minute, Trynzen,” Keysia ordered.
“Trynzen want eat! No! No trick me!”
I cleared my throat. “Keysia made you food, but if you want it, you have to agree to come with us to Barbarosia and behave the whole trip.”
Trynzen turned to me. “Barbarosia… Trip Barbarosia?”
“We’re going to meet Jenzyn,” I reminded him. “You can have your gift, but you have to come with us.”
Trynzen rattled his head and snorted as if his muddled thoughts were causing some sort of physical discomfort. He looked up to me, to the mushroom, and then back to me several times.
“Okay?” I questioned. “You want the food, don’t you?”
“One and then two?” Trynzen asked.
“No,” I said. “There’s only one…”
Trynzen scurried around for a second then stood up and crossed his arms. “One and then two!”
I sighed. “Fine… One and then two. You get Keysia’s gift now, and Jenzyn will have more food for you when we arrive,” I lied. It didn’t matter to me if Jenzyn had food or not. I’m sure she would have something… a stale food ration at the very least. And even if she didn’t, Trynzen would be out of my hands once I completed my quest.
“Deal!” Trynzen yelled and rushed over the Keysia, jumping and almost knocking her over as he snatched the mushroom off the tray.
Rina hopped back and squealed at the sudden act.
“Hey, come on!” I scolded him. “Relax a little.”
Trynzen ignored me as he took huge bites of the mushroom concoction and chewed on it furiously.
I slowly navigated closer to Keysia as Trynzen ate. “Are you okay?”
Keysia brushed herself off, looked up to me, and gave me an annoyingly fake smile. “I’m fine, thank you.”
I wasn’t sure where the source of her annoyance was—she had several possible reasons to be displeased—but I felt it was likely because I had turned her little going away ‘gift’ into more of a bribe. It had killed the warm vibe that they’d set up, but with Trynzen acting as erratic as he was, I had to jump at the opportunity.
Sorry, I mouthed without voicing.
Keysia just smirked.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There was so much I wanted to say to Keysia, but I just needed to just hold it in and let things simmer down for a while. Last thing I needed was to dig myself an even deeper grave.
While I waited for Trynzen to eat and spend his last few moments with the guild, I pulled up my stats to make sure I hadn’t forgotten to assign any unused points before we headed out. The ability points from my last few levels had all gone towards raising my wisdom, intelligence, and dexterity, and I had gained a few points in my abilities naturally while fighting the Scourge.
All of my level points went towards boosting my Mentalism skill. I was still holding on to an Illusion scroll which had been given to me by Satorin which required 20 Arcane Magic and 20 Mentalism. While my Arcane had been leveling up at a pretty good speed on its own, my one, rarely used Mentalism spell—Clumsy—made it hard for me to make progress naturally on that front. If I were ever to gain access to using Illusion, I had to give it a bit of a nudge.
I noticed that there were no longer any “+” marks near any of my stats, since I had either lost or worn out all my magic items that provided direct stat increases. After my naked corpse run at Dragon’s Crest, I realized that as a mage, I got by okay with just a robe, shoes, a staff. In fact, carrying so little weight in terms of armor allowed me to move a little faster and use my dodge skill more effectively.
The robe I was wearing was a basic, cream-colored low-level robe that Rina had stashed away. She noticed my old one was on its last leg, so she gave me that one in the morning so I wouldn’t find myself naked during my outing, and the shoes I was wearing were a pair of light brown leather boots. Neither of them were magic.
I had picked up the best staff we had in our collection of items in our guild shop.
Stable Rock Staff. 17-21 Attack Damage. Requires 12 Strength. Requires 22 Intelligence. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 1.2. On Cast: Rock Toss: 49 Charges Left.
Its straight brown body ended with a slight point at the bottom end, and the top side had a bit of a curve where the on-cast effect was channeled. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it had enough charges to last me a while.
After Trynzen was finished eating, Keysia and Rina both gave him hugs goodbye, and I was surprised at how sad they seemed to be watching him go. Jeremy and Ozzy even stopped by and gave Trynzen pats on the back before he sloppily hopped on the back of Sora, right behind me.
“Take care, homie,” Jeremy said.
“I’ll look around for you if I ever find myself in Barbarosia,” Ozzy said, waving to Trynzen.
“Be safe, you guys,” Rina said.
I nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll be okay.” I turned to Keysia and swallowed. “You all stay safe too… Watch out for any more Scourge.”
“Oh, we will,” Rina assured me.
“Goodbye Trynzen,” Keysia said, not acknowledging me at all—yet another sign that something had changed.
Sung mounted the horse and moved his butt around in the saddle to get proper balance.
“You ready?” I asked him.
“Ready as I can be…” he replied.
I turned Sora to face the direction we were headed but paused as soon as I was about to move forward. “Wait. We should try to scrounge up some healing supplies before leaving. The shop is out but maybe one of the—”
“No worries,” Sung interrupted. “I’ve got you.” He reached into his bag and pulled out two bandages and a health potion. He wrapped the bandages around the top of the potion bottle and threw the package to me.
It was a bad throw, but I smiled when I managed to lean over and catch it with one hand.
You’ve received: 2 Small Bandages. Durability: 5/5. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Useful for healing light wounds.
You’ve received: Minor Healing Potion. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Drink to recover 50 HP over 5 seconds.
“The shop is out, but I had a few stashed away,” Sung explained.
“You’re always prepared,” I said. “Thanks.”
“No worries. You remind me a lot of Gustov, actually. When he managed Crylight, he had so many things going on that little things like stocking potions before an outing were lost to him. A good guild mate will always be there to try to tidy up the loose ends.”
“Hey!” Jeremy cried when he overheard our conversation. “Go on and get to ridin’, Sung. You’re making the rest of us look bad.”
Sung and I both chuckled.
“Let’s go!” I said and urged Sora forward into a hasty pace, yet slow enough that Sung’s horse could keep up.
Chapter Sixteen
2/19/0001
The sun was beating down brightly onto the open terrain of the Freelands when we crossed the boundary of Edgewood. It was the first time I was getting a good look at the area outside our forest from ground level since the fighting with the Scourge had started.
The soil below was heavily worn and trodden. Patches that were once dark green were now kicked up, and flakes of burned grass and broken arrows littered the ground. I noticed at least two dead goblins lying nearby, and one of them stunk of decomposition.
In the far distance, there were several smoke plums, and to the south, a small abandoned shed that I had passed by many times but never explored was completely torched to ash. Several hundreds of meters away I saw various large, leather tents erected and difficult-to-make-out figures moving around them.
I urged Sora north slowly, followin
g the small, trodden path we had created to Highcastle until we reached the main road. A broken wagon wheel and tipped over basket laid at the cross-section, along with several small shards of splintered wood. Flies buzzed around rotten fruit that had spilled from the basket, and a pool of blood was congealing beside it.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” I said as we passed the unsettling scene.
Sung nodded.
Trynzen seemed glued to the rotten fruit but thankfully didn’t stir or jump off.
As we followed the road east towards the Wastelands, a pair of Highcastle soldiers rode by on finely groomed horses, wearing full plate armor with the lion’s insignia of Highcastle on their breastplates. As they passed us, they said nothing at first, but once behind us, one of them yelled out, “You three there!”
Sung and I stopped and turned around.
The soldiers rode closer and focused their eyes on Trynzen.
“You look rather suspicious,” one of them said.
“He’s a Barbaros,” I claimed.
“Not like any Barbaros I’ve seen.”
The second soldier leaned over on his horse and squinted at Trynzen. “No, but he’s clearly a Barbaros. He’s ugly as hell but I can tell that’s Barbarosian fur.”
“Hmph,” the first soldier grunted. “And where are you three headed?”
“Barbarosia,” I explained.
The soldiers turned their horses back in the direction they were headed. “Be careful as you head down this road, and don’t stray too far from it. We’re still working on sending these Scourge bastards back to where they came from. Watch for arrows as you ride too. The damned goblins are trying to pick people off as they ride.”
I nodded. “Thanks for the heads up.”
The soldiers trotted off, and we continued on our way.