Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  Twenty more seconds of dancing around the croc and almost a minute had passed, yet the thing was still moving if sluggishly. The cold and loss of blood should have done it in by now but still, it was moving and Dave’s Enlarge spell was almost over. It would be hard to recast it reliably while melee fighting. Then Mira cast another spell a dull bluish light flashed all over the beast, and it stopped moving entirely. Its sudden stop almost made Dave trip over his own feet as he was so surprised.

  “Dad, it’s dazed. It won’t do anything until you attack it again for the next few seconds, but you can get a free shot on it.”

  Hearing Mira’s words, Dave took the three seconds to cast Sure Strike and then plunged his blade down into the beast’s head. This thrust triggered a critical strike and dealt (104) damage even with the tank status affecting his damage. His sword went straight through the top of the head, through the brain and then through the mouth and into the ground underneath.

  You have defeated: Dire Crocodile Level 19. XP: 114 x .6 numerical penalty + Tier Bonus of 30% x 2 (killing blow) divided by 5 party members =35 + racial bonus 50%= 53 XP

  You have 2 new character points. You have 40 unused character points.

  Interestingly enough, it seemed that the tier effect on the XP was calculated using the average tier of the party rather than the highest tier like it had when they were not in a party. After confirming with everyone that they had gotten the appropriate amount of XP, the party rested to restore mana to full and then Dave went and started another pull of creatures. He continued bringing monsters to them or letting the numerous corpses of the slain attract the beasts to them for a solid ten hours. By the time they finished, the second sun was setting, and everyone was long past exhausted, but it seemed that the more of the creatures that they slew the more that came out of the forest.

  In the beginning, Dave would have to look for over half an hour before he could find even one creature, but at the end, the monsters were practically throwing themselves at the party in groups of three and four at a time. Dave had to repeatedly use his Taunt ability to keep the beasts focused on him, and the tank modifiers which he had been so dismissive of earlier on came in very handy to allow him to withstand being beaten or chewed of sliced by multiple opponents at the same time. Along with Emily’s healing, he never really got close to death. She would strive to keep him over half of full life at all times.

  The enemies coming at them increased in number and level of organization. Only once did they get attacked by a group led by an immature treant. That group was more organized than any of the others and made for the toughest of fights but unsurprisingly, Mira’s Flame Fan spell was devastating to the beasts made of wood. As tired as they were, none of them wanted to stop once they got into a rhythm because they were gaining XP at a great rate. Even Emily without any racial bonus was gaining large amounts of XP and Mira made great strides to catch up with her mom such that they were both level 11 before their last fight of the evening. As for Talvenicus and Aloysia, they thought the Nelsons were a bit crazy going after the brutes they fought, especially Dave, but they had never imagined that they would gain levels like they did. The mayor hit level 9 and his daughter reached level 8. Even Dave gained enough to reach level 15.

  What convinced them to call it a night and consolidate their gains was the last fight. Other than the treant, they had not fought any tier two creatures since the first crocodile of the day. Then in that last fight, they encountered three at one time and a new beast that they hadn’t fought yet. Three enormous bears had come out of the woods charging after Dave as he fled back to the party, each of them a level 16 monster. If it weren’t for the extra levels gained and more importantly, the ten hours of practice using their skills, that last fight would have ended very differently. The biggest key to their victory was the fact that earlier in the day Dave had decided to spend 10 character points buying the Quicken Spell skill. It turned out to be critical in that it allowed him to cast his Minor Enlarge spell during combat. The other factor was that he learned his Minor Binding spell was good for more than climbing trees.

  It turned out that it had a one second cast time, and he had learned that he could cast it on the foot of a beast, binding that foot to the ground twelve seconds. That was more than enough to allow him to gain a mobility advantage. It didn’t seem to matter how strong the beast was, once the binding magic took hold, it was as if the foot and the ground were one and the same. Metaphysically, they stopped being two separate surfaces and merged into one for at least those twelve seconds. Even with that advantage though, the three bears were almost too much for them. Aloysia had to jump in at one point to distract one of the beasts while Emily’s heal was on cooldown and Jackson had almost rushed forward to try to help his dad, only catching himself at the last second as Sara hung on his arm in fear.

  While it had been close, they did manage to win. The fight was close enough, though, to prompt them to call it a day. So, as the moon started to rise, a very weary wagon full made its way back into town. Each of the fighters spoke very little as they scanned through notifications and planned how to spend their new stat and character points.

  Nearly two days ago, about five miles from the Seinna River in what had been a small gulley caused by rain washing down a sparsely covered hillside, the remaining horned drey hounds of the Merkwood gathered. They didn’t know what drew them there, only that they had felt compelled to flee from their blood enemy, the vile human who grew in size and killed too many of their packmates with his steel fang. What their animal minds could never have told them was that they were pulled there by a unique type of intelligence. It was a type of intelligence that was not born of flesh but rather of a dense collection of mana which had pooled in gulley. As the rain had fallen it had exposed a thick vein of magicyte, a type of crystal that is uniquely good at absorbing and holding mana. When a zone such as the Merkwood is created, the mana level is never entirely consistent throughout the zone. There are always places of greater or lesser concentration.

  This little gulley with its magicyte deposit became one of those areas of greater concentration and as the expression goes, power calls to power. It wasn’t long before one of the more powerful beasts of the Merkwood, a young forest drake, felt the pull of the accumulated mana and took up residence in this gulley. Over the period of a few years, its very nature had changed, and it developed a bond with the magicyte and a dependence upon the mana. It grew stronger but could no longer roam the forest. Instead, it developed the ability to summon its food to come to it rather than having to hunt. As its mind expanded and its connection with the magicyte increased, the gulley soon began to be reshaped. The vein of magicyte expanded and slowly a cave mouth formed followed by a tunnel leading into the side of the hill. Over the next thirty years, the tunnel grew and formed rooms and shapes all powered by the filaments of magicyte which had spread out at the mental commands of the altered drake.

  Now that its home had been formed, the newly created dungeon drake felt the need for minions. Its mind searched on the currents of mana and found the defeated pack of horned drey hounds and sent forth its call. Without an alpha to hold the pack together, the hounds answered the call of the powerful monster mind and now stood outside the entrance of the still-growing dungeon. In the dungeon drake, they found a new leader and a new purpose.

  Now after only two days, the horned drey hounds had been bound to the newly formed dungeon. They were altered by the magic and would continue to be altered. No longer independent creatures, they were now extensions of the will of the dungeon, the will of the dungeon boss. Altracia, the forest drake, now knew herself as a dungeon drake, the boss and controller of this dungeon. She was self-aware at a level she never had been before. More than just self-aware though, her awareness now spread with the veins and then into the tiniest filaments of magicyte to cover the entirety of the dungeon. She was bound to this place but was equally more than she ever had been before. And still the dungeon continued to evolve and c
hange.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “For an entire species to be hunted into oblivion on one continent and yet spring up within days on another is a phenomenon which must be studied.” —Excerpt from a speech given by Alono Bartun, researcher at the Imperial Academy

  After four days, the last of the six human captives finally fell. Healing magic from the shaman was no longer able to keep her alive as it had for the past four days through all the indignities and unspeakable tortures that had carried out upon her person. At first, when there were six to pass around the goblins had been rougher but with the death of each subsequent prisoner, they had begun to take more care. Not out of any kindness, but simply so as to extend their enjoyment for as long as possible. In the end, though, goblins are creatures of little self-control, prone to excesses. It is their very nature and as natural to them as it is for a bird to fly or a fish to swim.

  Draznei’kai had meditated in the open at the center of the town square for those four days. He had not been bothered by the screams or pleas for help. In fact, the first moment that he opened his eyes, as much as such as he can do, was when he no longer heard the sounds of tormented humans in the background. Recent experience had taught him that the goblins could not stay still for very long without something to entertain them. He was so convinced of this that he had even opted to stay in the fallen village rather than returning to his sanctum. His meditation had been far less productive here. In four days, he had only been able to absorb a little less than he had previously done in two days at his sanctum. The disparity in levels of ambient mana was too great, but he had to suffice himself with this. He had still pushed his total stores of mana up to a little over two thousand points. It was only a fraction of what he had planned to have for the next stage of the plan, but he would have to make due. This was just another reason that he would so enjoy slaughtering the goblins when the time came.

  With a sigh of frustration, the death knight stood up from his meditation and began to search for the goblin shaman. It would be better to get ahead of any problems and make sure that the vermin still understood that he was in charge as well that they would not be allowed to leave the village yet. He had already rushed the attack on this village and was fortunate that it had gone as smoothly as it had, but as things got closer to phase two, it was more important than ever to stay on schedule. Otherwise his counterpart, Seimion, might act at the wrong time. They were both operating on a schedule and needed to make sure that things went off as planned.

  The night before, upon returning from their day of hunting, Dave and family along with the mayor and his daughter had immediately gone back to the mayor’s home. Thankfully, they were not stopped by anyone in the streets wanting to ask questions or get some boon either from the mayor or even the new sheriff. Emily had even commented about how nice it was to see the quiet streets and that people were in their homes after dark. This had elicited a groan complete with an eye roll from Mira as she commented about how her mother was only glad about that because it meant that nothing fun was happening. Surprisingly, before Emily could even respond, Aloysia had offered to hang out with Mira and tell her about the few events that the town would have after the suns set. Emily almost bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed as she struggled to swallow the fiery retort on the tip of her tongue. Angry as she was though, Emily was still happy to see Mira and Aloysia talking, as from what she could tell the mayor’s daughter was the only unmarried woman in town who was close to Mira’s age and therefore, the only reasonable friend.

  While eating a quickly thrown together meal consisting of a stew, which had been left to slow cook on coals all day, and some day-old bread, the family and their hosts all agreed to sleep on it before assigning their new character and stat points. As the meal finished, they had split up, Emily going first to check on her two remaining patients. She hoped that they had made it through the day and that the hunt would have increased her power to the point that she could now aid them rather than simply keeping them alive. The younger two children went to bed with only minimal supervision from Dave while Mira and Aloysia went to go and talk in the latter’s bedroom. The mayor had asked Dave to accompany him to his study, and he was happy to oblige as soon as the two children were laying down. When Dave arrived in the study, Talvenicus opened a small cask of ale that he had sitting there on top of a small bookcase. Both men sat and slowly sipped an ale and discussed the day briefly before turning to broader discussions of life and family as tired men with an ale in hand are wont to do.

  Talvenicus asked about Dave’s intentions with Mira and if he would allow men to court her. Then he listened as Dave explained that it was not their custom to allow girls her age to marry and that he was also unwilling for her to be “courting” men more than a year or two older than her. The older man had trouble understanding these foreign customs but listened and tried not to correct. It was clear that neither fully understood the other’s customs or viewpoint on the issue but that both loved their daughters very much. For Talvenicus, the idea of having a daughter who wanted to be courted was a dream as he fretted that Aloysia would never be willing to settle down, and for Dave, the idea of arranged marriages made at the behest of a father reeked of child abuse or rape. Finally, they both came to the conclusion that this was not a topic that they should discuss anymore and so ended up with a moment of awkwardness before Dave brought up the topic of hiring workers to build their home. Glad for the change in subject, Talvenicus jumped fully into that discussion and forty-five minutes later shook hands and both men went to the area they were sleeping in.

  The next morning, Dave had again woken up before the first sun was fully up in the sky. His increased Endurance was again working to make him need less sleep. It was probably a good thing, but he couldn’t help but be a little jealous of Emily curled up in a blanket on the rug sound asleep. Still though, he didn’t feel tired at all and knew that if he laid back down, he would only end up disturbing her with his restless movement.

  Not wanting to push his luck though, Dave decided against going out hunting this morning as he had the day before. He had agreed to wait to discuss point allocation with Emily and Mira in the morning and so he would be a man of his word. He walked back down the hall to Talvenicus’ study and sat down to try and read one of the books. The pale first light of the day did not make for great reading light, but Dave didn’t know of any other light source in the home besides candles and didn’t have anything with which to light them.

  Initially worried that he wouldn’t be able to read it, Dave relaxed a lot more once he saw that his language skill appeared to cover not just the spoken language but also the written. The first book he picked up initially read as a magical textbook, teaching the basics of Evocation magic. Since Dave hadn’t chosen that school yet, he put the book back but made a mental reminder to come back and study it at some point in the future. The second book was a bit more promising as it appeared to be an allegedly accurate historical portrayal of a famous adventurer, Sigmore Alston.

  Dave quickly became sucked into the tale as it was very fast-moving and seemed to focus more upon the swordsman’s exploits than on his background. This Sigmore was unique amongst his opponents in the book as he was neither focused on sword fighting or on magic but seemed to fully integrate the two together. The tale was becoming more and more interesting and was peaking Dave’s excitement at the prospect of being able to use magic as a sword wielder.

  As exciting as the book was, perhaps an hour after he had awoken, Dave smelled one of his three favorite scents in the world, cooking bacon. Emily had always been dedicated to having her coffee first thing in the morning. (A lack which she regularly pointed out to him in Eloria.) Dave, on the other hand, loved a plate of bacon and eggs in the morning. So far other than the flame charred pieces of boar that they had cooked, the only hot food that he had eaten since arriving here had been the oatmeal they had been served each morning and a primarily vegetable stew with some chunks of what seemed to
be a bit of gamey meat each evening. Bacon, though, had its own unique smell in any world and that wafting scent beckoned to Dave as he remembered scents pulling in Jerry the mouse in the cartoons of his youth.

  As he reached the kitchen, Dave discovered that he wasn’t the only one who got drawn in by the smell of bacon. Only Mira was still sleeping, but the rest of his family was in the kitchen along with Talvenicus. Emily had somehow already found an apron and jumped in to help Aloysia with the cooking. Sexist or not, Dave had been learning that Albia had very tightly prescribed roles for men and women. It seemed that women did all the cooking and men did all of the work outside of the home. Not to say that women didn’t work, but that their work was all done inside the home or on the family farm. Eris’ Rise was only one little town, but it was the Nelsons’ only picture of what life in Albia is like. He had chuckled when thinking about how he liked cooking and wondering how the villagers would take it if their new neighbors saw him exercising his culinary skills.