Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  Passive Effect 1: Staff may store up to three hundred mana for use by its wielder.

  Passive Effect 2: +4 Necrotic Damage.

  Wow! Mira was still thinking through all the things that she could do with this staff. The extra mana storage would allow her to have more freedom while she waited for her mana to refill. The extra stored spells would also allow her options for combat. That was to say nothing of the shield. She was going to have to experiment with this and couldn’t wait to talk to her dad about the applications for the staff.

  The next morning, Dave awoke. He marveled at where he found himself. He seemed to be on the table of the town hall. He was almost naked and laying upon his back was a female figure. Judging by her distinctive form, he assumed it was Emily even before he opened his eyes. He looked back and saw that she was, in fact, laying upon his back. The last thing he remembered was moving to shield Mira from the exploding corpse of the drake hound he had slain. He had vague memories of being hurt, of intense mind-searing pain, and of fading in and out of consciousness. For sure though, he had no recollection of how he had ended up here. He knew something bad must have happened for him to be sleeping here and Emily must have been very worried for her to have fallen asleep draped across his back. He also could feel a lingering hangover. He must have been given some kind of medicine because he knew he hadn’t been drinking.

  Once he had his bearings, he tried to move to gently disengage Emily, but she sleepily tightened her arms around him without ever waking up. It must have been really bad, whatever it was. So he decided to open his notifications and see if he could figure out what had happened. Well, the first one was pleasant. It seems that he hit level 16 when he killed that drake hound. Apparently though, it had actually exploded afterward and covered his body in some sort of acid. The acid burst had done almost 200 damage to him. If he hadn’t been healed up to full health when he leveled up moments before the explosion, it would have instantly killed him. Then he saw competing notifications for damage over time that he was taking from the acid. It caused him 10 damage every 6 seconds and seemed to be balanced by a healing spell that Mira had cast on him.

  The later notifications showed that he had been healed repeatedly over and over by Emily. Healed for far more health than he had total. He must have been wounded in some special way that made it so simply restoring his health points wasn’t enough. Well, he felt perfectly fine and rested now. He would just have to wait until he could get out from underneath of Emily to find out what had happened.

  For now, he took some time and explored his options for the 3 stat points and 10 character points that he had gained. He first decided to assign the stat points to Strength. He was very dissatisfied with the amount of damage he had been able to produce without Enlarge. It was inevitable that he would have to go back into the dungeon, next time with proper preparation. Not only was the dungeon clearly targeted at him, but it was also the only dungeon he had yet to encounter in Eloria, and the gamer in him had to know what all it held. He just wouldn’t repeat his mistakes from earlier. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to save the character points. It wasn’t enough to do anything that would have changed the fight in the dungeon and so better to save them.

  After about an hour of slowly inching away, he was finally able to untangle himself from Emily without waking her. He got up and looked around for clothing which he thankfully found laid out for him. It was his spare pair, so he wasn’t sure what had happened to his main set. After dressing, he looked around a bit more and found the answer to that question. On the floor what remained of his scale mail armor and clothing lay in ruins. It looked like it had been burnt or eaten up. Even the parts that were not completely destroyed showed little holes or pockmarks and discoloration on the surface. Reason led him to figure out he must have been sprayed by some very corrosive acid, which matched with the notifications he had received while unconscious. Looking at his stuff told him a little bit about just how bad it must have been. His remaining belt knife, sword, armor, and clothing had all been destroyed. In the one bit of good luck, he had at least had the forethought to take his pack off before entering the dungeon so at least the gear and more importantly the coins in there were safe. Money wasn’t everything, but this money was going to pave the way to a new home for his family. He really was going to need to come up with a better way to store it.

  He could have more clothing made and the armor was of questionable value. Maybe he would be able to learn that magic armor spell that Mira knew. The biggest loss was his sword. Sure, it had been his starter gear and it was far past needing to be upgraded, but it had been the only sword he had. Conrad had said that he wasn’t a weaponsmith and wouldn’t be able to make any type of high-quality weapon larger than an ax head or a dagger. Dave honestly, felt naked all over again with the realization that his sword had been destroyed. Sure, it was still there, but it was riddled with holes and there was no way it would be safe to wield in battle. He would just have to hope that the man Gunter, from the general store, had sent with his order would be returning soon and that more importantly, he would have been able to find a sword.

  After making sure that Emily was covered up as best he could, Dave decided to go check on the children. Once outside of the town hall, he started to run into villagers who one and all wished him well and told him how happy they were to see that he had recovered. Going on and on about his amazing wife and how blessed by Shanelle she was. The constant greetings delayed him a bit, but it still only took a few minutes to reach the mayor’s home. Eris’ Rise wasn’t exactly a sprawling metropolis after all.

  Upon walking in the door, he was greeted by Sara leaping into his arms. All of the children, including Mira, seemed very glad to see him up and about, and many hugs were exchanged. Finally setting Sara down, he pulled Mira to the side and thanked her. “I don’t know the details and to be honest, we can talk about that another time. I just want to thank you and tell you how proud I am of the woman you have become to have managed that all on your own.”

  Every fifteen-year-old girl needs to hear kind words from their father and all the better when the words were well deserved. She smiled at her father and responded, “You know, you can’t keep us Nelsons down.”

  After that they had a brief discussion about what had happened, Mira gaining a level and most importantly in her mind, about the new staff she had acquired. Dave laughed that she had managed to steal the staff from the alpha and was suitably wowed when she described its attributes.

  “Well, that seals it then.”

  “Seals what?” Mira asked.

  “It seals the fact that we have to go back to the dungeon.” Dave held up his hand to stop her when she started to interrupt. “Not today, maybe not even soon, but we do have to go back. If it drops that kinda loot, then we need to farm the crap out of it.” He had to explain what he meant by farming the dungeon but afterward, Mira found herself agreeing. The new and more confident Mira was hoping to find more items like this staff and wasn’t afraid to take a bit of risk. Both she and her father marveled to themselves about how far she had come in just over a week in Eloria.

  After having breakfast with the kids, Dave went back to check on Emily. He brought her a bowl of porridge and even some bacon that Aloysia had cooked up for him. When he got back to the town hall, she was still sound asleep, and while he didn’t really want to disturb her, knowing his wife, she would be mortified if someone other than him had to wake her when she was sleeping in such a public spot. Upon waking, she insisted on hugging and kissing Dave’s face. He took it all in stride while apologizing for taking such risks and for scaring her like that. From there, things only got better. Emily ate and they chatted, not about the dungeon, levels, or the many challenges of Eloria. They talked more like a normal couple might, about the town that was to be their home, the house they were building, their children and how they would fit in. Issues like education and opportunities to find a place in this world for their children came up.
Ironically, it was the type of conversation that used to annoy Dave so much, but perhaps after living under the constant threat of death, he was better able to appreciate the simple things of life, for he never once complained even to himself or tried to hurry the conversation along.

  Eventually, they walked through the town, stopping at the construction site of their home and then at the planned location for the church. Everywhere they went they were greeted by smiles and cheery greetings. Little children who Emily had previously blessed came running up to give her hugs only to be shewed away by embarrassed mothers. She just took it all in stride, enjoying every hug, smile, and step, walking hand in hand with her husband.

  They spent hours doing this only breaking to eat some bread and cheese for lunch. Sometimes Jackson and Sara walked along with them, but both the children were quickly drawn away to play with friends. Emily cautioning them to not interfere with any chores that their friends might have to do. Just because the Nelson children didn’t have any work to do didn’t mean that the other children of the village didn’t. In Eris’ Rise, no one seemed idle for long, and if they were going to fit in, truly fit in, not just as an esteemed priestess, they would need to match their lifestyle to that of the village.

  It was late in the afternoon when a boy ran up to them with a message that a shipment had arrived for them at Gunter’s shop. They casually walked over to find that one of the beds ordered had come in, various materials, and most importantly, some weapons that Gunter wanted to know if they would like to inspect. Dave, of course, jumped at it, but Emily insisted that they first look at the materials for their house as well as the bed. Not wanting to argue, he went along with her all the while wondering if the merchant had managed to find anything decent.

  Emily was thrilled that the bed they had brought back was large enough to be more than a full-sized bed and was clearly going to be the bed that she and Dave would share. Her new body didn’t have much of a problem sleeping on the floor, but who would turn away a bed? It was also exhilarating to her to see the door hinges and other things that would go into making their home, but after a while, she knew that Dave really wanted to look at the weapons. They had discussed how worried he was about his ability to protect them without a sword. So strange to think of it like that. She had never wanted him to have a gun in the house for protection, and now, here they were talking about a sword, three feet of sharpened steel, like it was a normal thing.

  Once he was let off his leash, Dave rushed over to see what Gunter had found. It turned out that there was a merchant at the closest village to Eris’ Rise in the duchy of Holstein. He had been getting ready to leave after finding that he couldn’t sell most of his wares. The local sheriff had not had any need of weapons and none of the serfs knew how to use them. Gunter’s man had tried to talk him into traveling to Eris’ Rise, but the merchant had said he was tired of being out in the middle of nowhere amongst the uncivilized.

  Gunter was very nervous that his man might have overspent Dave’s money but still pulled back the cloth to reveal a longsword and matching shortsword along with two matching daggers. All seemed to be of great quality. Gunter told them that his man said the merchant swore up and down that they were masterwork items and had insisted on being paid four gold for the lot. Since Gunter had stressed the importance of finding weapons for Dave, his man had been more afraid to miss out on the opportunity than to overpay and so had parted with the gold. It was a veritable fortune in Eris’ Rise but as soon as Dave cast Identify on the longsword he didn’t complain at all.

  Masterwork Long Sword

  Quality: Excellent

  Base Dmg: 15. Attack Speed: 6.

  Weight: 3.0.

  Masterwork Short Sword

  Quality: Excellent

  Base Dmg: 10. Attack Speed: 5.

  Weight: 2.0.

  Masterwork Dagger

  Quality: Excellent

  Base Dmg: 5. Attack Speed: 3.

  Weight: 1.0.

  For Dave, it was as if the clouds had pulled back and the sun was shining again. He couldn’t have been happier if he had tried. He thanked Gunter and started to leave with his new toys, err… weapons in tow, but the man stopped him and said there was one more thing. Apparently, Emily had spoken to the shopkeep about trying to find some spices for cooking. He apologized that he hadn’t found much. He had however gotten small quantities of chili powder, cumin, oregano, paprika, black pepper, and powdered garlic. Again, it had cost a fortune because of the rarity of such items but Gunter assured them that he had never seen some of these spices in his life.

  After walking out of the shop, Emily was every bit as happy with the spices as Dave was with his weapons and told she would cook a special meal tonight if he would give her a couple of hours. Dave readily agreed because he wanted to go try out his new sword anyway. So while Dave practiced his new sword in the space behind the mayor’s home with Jackson and some of the other adolescent boys watching, Emily started to cook inside. She recruited Aloysia, Mira, and even Sara to help and asked Talvenicus to invite all of the city council over for dinner. He was very hesitant about allowing Emily to cook for them, but she assured him it was a special dish from her homeland.

  The cooking took a bit longer than expected as they had had to improvise for some of the ingredients. Still, she was very pleased with the outcome when she called for Dave to come in to eat. While she knew that some of her friends would have thought that it was so strange that she liked to cook with her daughters for her husband, it was clearly the way of things here in Eris’ Rise, so why fight it. Besides, it was making her happy at the moment.

  So, it was that in a tiny frontier logging village crowded around the dining table of the town mayor, that for the first time in the history of Eloria, Nana Gonzalez’s homemade enchiladas were served. Her family dug in, eating the food like they had been starving and making all the noise of a wounded animal. The mayor, his daughter, and their guests were a bit more reserved but after being shown how to eat them, they all ended up diving in. The tastes were strong for people who normally ate very bland food, but most of them liked it, and this night would go down as one that the Nelsons would never forget.

  Max had come to a difficult decision. No squad of his had ever failed to complete a mission. Even before the Purple and Gold, he had a great deal of experience with hard missions that made other men fearful. Sure, he got afraid just like any other man, but he had never really felt that he belonged. If you don’t belong, you have less to lose. If you don’t have much to lose, then risks come easier. He had already endured more loss than a man should have to.

  Now though, after over three years in the Purple and Gold, he cared again. Cared about these people. They depended upon him. Looked to him for guidance. Those graves they had left behind were symbols of his failure, and he couldn’t forget it. He knew that haste was of great importance in this mission, even if he didn’t understand all of the reasons, but he still called a halt early today. They were past all the villages and so there was no longer the same need for stealth. He let the squad make camp openly alongside the only road they saw in the area. That is, if one could call a poorly marked dirt trail barely wide enough for a wagon, a road. He told the squad that they had earned a rest and that they would not break camp pre-dawn but that they would be allowed to wake and have a leisurely day. Tomorrow was 7th Day, after all, and it wasn’t out of reason to allow the squad a break.

  They knew that they were close to the village of Eris’ Rise. Probably about three miles away in fact. Leyna, the squad’s spy, had traveled separately from the rest of the squad earlier in the day. She had run into a wagon that was headed into the small logging village laden down with a variety of supplies. The wagon’s driver had offered her a ride, which was certainly the Albian way to treat a lone woman on the road even if she was dressed more like a soldier than a woman, at least as the driver saw it. Once riding next to him, she got more than an earful about Eris’ Rise. She learned that Duke Holstein hadn
’t provided any guards for the village. That they had almost been overwhelmed by beasts of the forest, and if the driver was to be believed, more than half the men in the village had been wounded in some way or another. Even more, interestingly, he spoke about an elven priestess who was healing all the injured in the name of Shanelle. The stories about her and what sounded like her family were rather jumbled. Despite her years of training as an infiltrator, Leyna wasn’t sure exactly how much to believe the man or if he was making up grand stories to impress a young woman.

  Max had taken Leyna’s report into consideration before deciding to stop early and take a day of rest. It didn’t sound like there was too much urgency in the village itself, and he weighed out the need to report back to the king or rather his steward against the need for his squad to be functioning at an optimal level. The strain of this mission was obviously wearing on all of them.

  Max sat inside his tent now, carving at a piece of wood, forming symbols that his men had seen him carving many times before. The captain would never explain the significance of the symbols to his squad and they had finally stopped asking.

  Altracia’s head swayed side to side as she stared down at the alpha of the drake hound pack. Her rage was boiling up inside, almost more than she could contain. “So let me understand. You and four of your pack fought the human, our most hated enemy. You wounded him, had him crippled on the ground, and then when the vengeance that is set into the very walls of our home was to be fulfilled, you let a mere girl take him from you.” The drake’s voice was barely more than a sibilant whisper, but the kneeling alpha had no trouble hearing.

  “Mistress, I beg your forgiveness. Know that I and my pack want nothing more in this life or any other than to kill David Nelson.”