by Tom Larcombe
Jern shouted to draw the other warrior's attention.
“Aye, ya look like I ought to call ya orc droppings, but that'd be an insult to the orcs, even with them being the scum that they are.”
Both of the goblin warriors were now firmly on the dwarf, the one still standing swinging wildly only to be intercepted by Jern's shield.
A scout raced at Tiana and Eddie loosed his currently drawn arrow. It took the scout in the leg, slowing him, but not dropping him. She turned towards the scout and Eddie saw a facet of the woman he was interested in that he hadn't seen before. She snarled, her face contorting as she drew her mace back.
The mace flew forward, striking the goblin scout on the head, dropping him in his tracks. Tiana turned back towards Jern who was currently tanking the other scorched warrior and a single scout. The tumbled over warrior's body was smoking and no longer moving, apparently the target of one of Dominic's flame arrows.
Eddie turned back to thinning out the scouts. Karl was waiting in stealth for the goblin caster to show up, his backstab nearly enough on its own to kill the caster according to Allie. Lucky had disappeared when Karl did and Eddie hoped she was sticking with Karl, watching his back.
The warrior Jern was currently engaged with suddenly shone with a green light that dimmed rapidly.
“Caster in play!” Tiana yelled.
Eddie scanned the area, looking for the goblin caster. He didn't see him although he did find another pair of scouts racing towards Jern. He fired arrow after arrow towards the one closer to the dwarf, managing to kill it before it reached the tank. Allie must've seen the other one since it sprouted a series of arrows also.
A flash of flame racing through the air caught Eddie's attention and when he followed it with his eyes he finally saw the goblin caster. He was small and apparently unarmored, but the fiery arrow racing towards him fizzled out a foot or so in front of the small goblin's torso.
“Magic shield, try normal arrows,” Dominic yelled.
Seeing that Jern apparently had the main combat in hand due to Tiana's heals, Eddie turned his attention to the caster. He shot, but his arrow was way off target. He drew again and this arrow found its mark, only for the caster to yank it out, make a gesture with his hands, and glow with a green light. The wound was closed when the light faded and Eddie shook his head.
Damn it, we'll need to focus on him or he'll just keep healing himself every time we hit him. At least until he runs out of mana, but I've got no idea how much he has.
Karl faded into view behind the shaman and the goblin caster's yell of pain made Eddie a bit more confident, although his worries returned when he saw Lucky going low on the caster while Karl went high.
The caster squealed in pain and started another spell. For a moment, at least, he looked a bit healthier, then Karl struck again. As the caster stumbled backwards Lucky got under his feet, tripping him up. When the goblin fell to the ground Lucky pounced. She stayed attached after her initial attack, raking the goblin's stomach with her hind claws.
Okay, caster's down, Eddie thought, and I've got to remember to be more careful when I play with Lucky. Those claws are something else.
He looked back to the center of the village where Jern was now facing two warriors that weren't showing scorch marks. He sniped the scout that was trying to creep up on Jern from behind, dropping it with two arrows.
Tiana was currently facing off with two of the scouts and Eddie discovered that she was just as good with her shield as she was with the mace. It flew from side to side to block the attacks of the scouts and Eddie realized that Allie was currently supporting her when a pair of arrows struck one of the scouts.
The arrow he targeted at the one of the remaining scouts landed in its back. The other scout dropped with another of Allie's arrows in it and Tiana turned to the final one he'd just shot. Now that she wasn't on the defensive from two of them she went from defense to offense, striking with her mace as Eddie landed another arrow in its back. The goblin dropped and Tiana slung her mace before beginning to chant.
Jern glowed a silver-white color briefly when Tiana finished chanting. Eddie's focus was back on the warriors he was facing. Unlike Tiana, Jern wasn't focusing only on defense, his hammer swung out from behind his shield, striking one of the warriors in the thigh and leaving him limping.
Jern roared and pushed his attack, demanding the attention of both of the warriors he was fighting. Eddie discovered why a moment later when Karl appeared behind one of them, his swords sinking into its back before it slumped to the ground.
Down to a single warrior, the fight was finished off quickly as Jern slammed his hammer into the side of the warrior's head. When it staggered from the strike, Jern swept the hammer down, slamming into the side of its knee. The goblin warrior dropped and one more strike from the hammer left it lying still on the ground.
Eddie took a deep breath and slowly let it out. The fight didn't seem to have been very dangerous for his group, but it had been intense. At least it had been for him, he could still hear the blood thundering in his ears.
As he caught his breath and his pulse started slowing the thundering faded. He walked in towards the middle of the village where everyone else was clustering, then noticed Lucky still worrying at the caster's corpse.
“Lucky, stop that. Don't eat that!” he called. “I've got a bunny you can have over here.”
He pulled out one of the bunnies Lucky had caught on the way to the forest this morning and held it out towards her. She gladly stopped what she was doing and came over, gently taking the bunny from his hand.
Lucky laid down in the middle of the corpses of the warriors and scouts and started chewing on her rabbit. She didn't seem to care in the slightest that she was surrounded by corpses.
Although with the way she's been acting lately, she might well think they're intended as cat toys, Eddie thought.
He reached down to pet her, but stopped mid-stroke.
“Hey Karl, does Lucky look bigger to you?” he asked.
Karl stopped looking through the loot he'd just taken from a corpse and stared at the bobcat.
“Yeah, actually she does, noticeably so. I mean I think she's bigger than she was when we left this morning,” Karl said.
Eddie stared at Lucky.
Evaluate, he thought.
She turned to stare at him as her information panel opened in front of him.
Lucky
Type: Animal(pet)
Young Bobcat (female)
Level: 4
Armor: 38
Health 43/43
Attack: 27 (3)
Dmg: 2-8/2-8/3-9
Status: Pet
“Holy shit,” Eddie said, “She leveled up.”
“Awesome,” Karl replied, then he turned to the bobcat.
“Gratz Lucky,” he said.
She turned away from Eddie to look at Karl and her tongue swept out to clean up a few spots of blood from her mouth. Karl took a step back before looking up again.
“I will too if we get that thousand experience bonus for clearing the village. How do we get that? Do we have to have a quest for it or something?”
“Oh no,” Allie said. “We just have to destroy the buildings. That'll keep this particular village from respawning until tomorrow and we'll get the experience.”
“I'll get on that as soon as I loot the caster,” Dominic said. “These things are dry as tinder, I can normally light them up with no effort. Five minutes later it's 'Ding', one thousand exp.”
He bent over the caster's corpse.
“Oh hey, Lucky wasn't trying to eat the corpse,” he said. “It looks like she was tugging on this, at least I hope that's why it's all wet.”
He held up a braided necklace with a pendant that he'd taken off the corpse.
“Let me check it out real quick,” Dominic said.
His eyes unfocused for a moment.
“Not as good as my neck slot. It's got a +5 to unarmed attack. Anyone want it?”<
br />
The group shook their head almost simultaneously.
“Hey,” Eddie said. “Does anyone know if a pet's natural attacks count as unarmed?”
“You're the only one with a pet around here,” Allie said. “You tell us.”
“I don't know, but if no-one else wants it I'll give it to Lucky as a collar. Unless you want to sell it.”
“To Old Jeffries?” Dominic said. “Not likely.”
“Or to another adventurer. We could put a board up in the place I'm renting out, or near my food stall. List items for sale and stuff like that.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Too much of a pain. I say we see if Lucky can use it for a collar. She was trying to grab it before, right?”
Eddie took the braided necklace in hand, then knelt down in front of Lucky.
“You want this as a collar girl?” he asked.
She stretched her neck out, giving him easy access to put it on her. Once he had she immediately pulled her neck back in and took a quick look around.
“Don't worry, it looks great,” Eddie said.
Lucky rocked her head from side to side a bit, causing the pendant to sway.
“Let me see you girl,” Eddie said.
Evaluate.
Lucky
Type: Animal(pet)
Young Bobcat (female)
Level: 4
Armor: 38
Health 43/43
Attack: 27 (3)
Dmg: 2-8/2-8/3-9
+5 attack (necklace)
Status: Pet
“Hot damn, it works,” Eddie said. “The bonus shows up when I evaluate her.”
“Good, then she should keep it,” Tiana said. “What about the armor from the warriors, is it the poor quality stuff or the common?”
“We've got two common pieces and the rest poor,” Allie said.
She'd done the looting since Jern hadn't seen anything on the goblins that he'd like for himself.
Karl looked at her hopefully.
“Both common pieces are bracers, so I guess that's one set for you Karl and the other for Eddie since they aren't an improvement for me.”
She tossed each of them a pair of bracers. Eddie quickly checked his out.
Evaluate, he thought, staring at them.
Bracers, Leather
Armor (forearm)
Armor: 4
Hardened Leather
Quality: Common
These bracers are made of hardened leather and offer decent protection for the forearm. They are also a necessity for archers who would prefer not to suffer from string burn.
Well, it's one more point of armor at least, I'll take it, he thought.
He quickly swapped them out for the pair he'd been using before looking up at a whooshing sound.
Dominic had walked over to the nearest building and lit it up.
“Wait,” he said. “Allie said there might be arrows?”
“Not in this village, there weren't any archers defending, were there?” he answered.
“Oh.”
Eddie followed the rest of the group out to the edge of the clearing as Dominic ignited the rest of the buildings.
He pulled up his notifications while he waited, noting that he'd gotten decent experience from the fight here as well as a little more earlier on. He was still looking at them when Dominic walked over and joined them.
“Just about.... now,” Dominic said.
A notification added itself at the bottom of Eddie's panel.
Hidden Quest (repeatable):
Three little, two little, one little goblins
Numerous goblin villages are located in the Forest of Fools. Destroy one to help hold back the goblins.
Reward: 1000xp
The prompt right after the quest notification made him happy.
Success:
You have completed the quest: Three little, two little, one little goblins
Experience awarded: 1000 (+100 well-rested, +250 blessing)
The next prompt made him even happier.
Success:
You have obtained enough experience to advance to Level 4
Do you wish to advance?
(Y/N)
Yes, Eddie thought.
You have advanced to Level 4.
You have 3 stat points to distribute.
Your Health has increased.
Your Mana has increased.
Your Stamina has increased.
He'd already put some thought into where to put his stats this level, so the addition was quick and easy.
Add one point to charisma, he thought, one point to heartiness, and one point to agility.
He knew he should be adding more points to agility to keep himself higher than everyone else at his level but he also thought that charisma would help as an innkeeper and more hit points were good too if he didn't want to get taken down easily.
Character sheet, he thought.
Edward Hunter
Human Male
Level: 4
Class:Warrior (Ranger)
Strength:10
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 21
Wisdom: 13
Heartiness: 13
Charisma: 11
Willpower: 12
Health: 69
Endurance: 12
Mana: 65
Luck: 14 (15)
Stamina:155 (165)
Experience:
9074/12,000
Base Attack: 10
Base Armor: 10 (50)
+1 attack melee (strength)
+35 armor (studded leather, helm, boots, bracers, greaves)
+5 attack ranged (agility)
+5 armor (agility)
Skills:
General:
Animal Friendship: 1
Animal Handling: 1
Animal Husbandry: 1
Bowyer/Fletcher: 2 (+2 to checks)
Carpentry: 5
Cooking: 8
Evaluate: 4
Farming: 2
Fire Building: 1
Herbalism: 2
Hunting: 3
Tracking: 3
Weather Sense: 1
Weaving: 3
Improvisation: 1
Rope Use: 1
Climbing: 1
Combat:
Bows: 4
Staves: 1
Small Blades: 1
Short Swords: 2
Magical:
N/A
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty-five
Aaron glanced at the memo in his hands, the actual paper memo.
When will the higher ups in this company get with the times? he wondered. Cynthia isn't too bad, but it looks like she signed off on this also.
He sighed heavily as he read it.
Aaron Opman:
Report to the office of Mr. Greenshaw at your earliest convenience.
The memo was signed by Greenshaw himself and had obviously gone through Cynthia's office since she'd initialed it as well.
Since 'earliest convenience' was company speak for 'get your ass there now' all he did was drop his gear on his desk, holler over to Tom to let him know what was up, and get a noncommittal grunt for a reply.
Aaron knocked on Mr. Greenshaw's office door. When the man called out for him to enter, he stepped into the office.
Everything looked normal, except for the one item that was out of place. A black box, a mini-computer with a satellite uplink from the looks of it, was sitting on Greenshaw's desk. The box looked somewhat the worse for wear, the black of the casing chipped and scratched in places.
Mr. Greenshaw looked up.
“There's your server, you said you needed that?” he said.
“Not so much need it as need to stop it from transmitting the data it was collecting. This is what was controlling the pods that gave us so much trouble.”
“Well, it's yours. Take it away.”
Aaron blinked.
“You recovered it this quickly?” he ask
ed.
Greenshaw grinned, a predator's grin if Aaron had ever seen one.
“I took it as a bit of a challenge, someone committing industrial espionage against us. Especially when it affected my department so much.”
He laced his fingers together, then flipped his hands over, cracking his knuckles.
“Thanks for finding the city he was in. It was a lot quicker to track him down after that. He won't be bothering us any more, nor does he have a need for that thing,” he said, pointing at the mini-computer, “so it's all yours.”
Greenshaw gave another grin and eyed Aaron as though trying to get a rise out of him.
“Panning won't need it where he is now, doubt he could even connect from that far underwater, even if he was in any shape to try.”
Aaron gulped as his mind filled in the blanks of what Mr. Greenshaw had said. He scooped up the mini-computer and backed towards the door.
“Thank you, this will let us determine if there was anything else they were doing that we hadn't found yet.”
“Let me know if you discover anything else that needs to have action taken,” Mr. Greenshaw said. “I haven't had that much fun with my job in years.”