Quest Accepted, page 14
Audyn released the breath she’d been holding, thinking about how glad she was to have people on her side.
That smile quickly faded as a familiar weight landed on her shoulder.
“What did Bert miss?” Bert said, popping something crunchy into her mouth and scanning the ongoing battle with nonchalance.
“Really, Bert? Where have you been?” Audyn asked.
“Oh, Bert saw them coming, had to warn some of Bert’s friends.”
“The elves? They already knew they were coming.”
“No, not the elves. Them,” Bert responded, waving her stubby hand out toward the direction of the sea.
Audyn watched as four hulking figures emerged from the water and onto the shore.
Audyn focused on the first one out of the water:
Vale Giant
Level 5
HP: 150/150
“Meet Bert’s friends,” the imp stated proudly. “Don’t act like you’re not impressed.”
“You never cease to amaze me,” Audyn responded, rushing back over to the tree.
Fallen vallin and elves were scattered across the ground, motionless. Audyn scanned the area in front of her, feeling a deep pang of sadness. Just the other day she had seen many of these same elves laughing and going about their business, not a care in the world.
It wasn’t fair. She wished she were more powerful.
It was as if the whole battle was moving in slow motion. A sharp pain erupted near the back of her head. It felt like someone had launched a rock at her skull, pain bringing her to her knees.
She spun to see what was happening behind her. As she turned, Ruelle reappeared.
Audyn placed her hands on the ground and pushed herself up, now face-to-face with the caster. Ruelle’s eyes were black with specks of green energy that flicked across their surface. Focusing on Audyn, a small smile appeared on Ruelle’s face. Her features shadowed by the hood were visible now. She looked too young to be the woman that had attacked the Vale all those years ago.
Audyn tried to channel her essence but failed. The dull green light emanating from Ruelle intensified. Audyn braced herself for pain and death.
Ruelle stretched out an arm toward her, a chilly smile on her lips. “At last, I’ve found you. I’ll be seeing you soon.” Audyn waited, taking a deep breath.
A loud crack rang out from behind them. The green light disappeared. Only Audyn and Bert remained. There was a surprised look on the imp’s face.
“Hot damn, that worked!” Bert said proudly.
“What was that?” Audyn asked, slowly pushing herself up from the ground.
“Bert was about to unleash the spell of ages on her ass,” the imp continued, staring at her hands. “She knew to leave before it was unleashed.”
Audyn stood, shook her head, and patted Bert gently on the head. “That’ll do, Bert. That’ll do.”
As the chaos resumed, her thoughts returned to Ruelle. Where did she go? If she was going to kill me, why didn’t she do it? What did she mean by ‘I’ll see you soon.’
It was strange, this didn’t feel like a game any longer. She felt like she belonged here, like all of this was comfortable, familiar. Even in the midst of battle.
She could taste the dust in the air and feel it burn her eyes. Battles still raged around her in all directions.
The four vale giants had reached the city, toting large downed trees in their oversized hands. The trees were about as tall as the giants and nearly four feet wide.
The giants wielded the trees like giant clubs, swinging at the vallin, and sending them flying. Picking up speed as they neared the Vale, they chased after every vallin they saw.
It was almost comical watching them weave in and out of the Vale, trying to catch an unsuspecting wolf with massive swings of their trees.
Bert was busy flying around the giants’ heads, narrowly dodging the trees as they swung them around. At first Audyn couldn’t tell what Bert was telling them, but noticed she was acting as a sort of air traffic controller.
Surprisingly, the residual damage to the structures wasn’t as bad as Audyn was expecting it to be.
A few minutes after the arrival of the giants, the tide shifted, and the battle was clearly moving in the Vale’s favor.
Audyn caught a glimpse of Wyn and Ali as they worked their way across the top of the Heart Tree, unleashing arrow after arrow as they gracefully moved between branches.
Aerin continued flashing in and out of stealth, occasionally catching a vallin off guard and instantly killing it.
Audyn unleashed her charged energy orbs at the remaining wolves as fast as her mana could regenerate.
Working her way toward Wyn and Ali, she heard someone cry out for help. She glanced up. Two vallin had managed to make it to the top of the tree.
Scrambling the rest of the way up, thankful for her levels in her climbing skill, she realized Wyn and Ali were completely out of arrows, and out on a limb, literally.
The branch creaked under their weight and that of the incoming wolves. Audyn crouched, and approached with soft steps, relying on her silent speed skill, being careful not to alert the two wolves to her presence. She hesitated, trying to figure out how to knock the wolves off without risking her friends. She knew she wouldn't be able to follow the wolves onto the branch. Even the slightest amount of weight could break it, sending the elves plunging to their deaths. Wyn and Ali were doing their best to hold off the wolves, but they were running out of room.
Glancing at her mana pool, she should have just enough. Her essence flowed throughout her body and into the dagger.
She had an idea. Slamming the dagger down into the branch, she focused as the energy essence flowed through her, the dagger, inside the branch, and toward the vallin.
As the essence reached the branch directly under the wolves, Audyn willed the essence to move up out of the branch. The energy wove around the vallins’ legs, mere centimeters from touching their flesh.
Once the essence had coiled itself around each leg, Audyn ripped the dagger back out of the branch, causing the essence to clamp tightly around the wolves’ hind quarters. It took them completely off guard and sent them flying off the branch. She didn’t wait for the thud, but gestured at Ali and Wyn to hurry up.
“That was freaking awesome,” Ali said with a huge smile as she nimbly darted off the branch.
Wyn followed with a similar grin, slightly shaking her head and taking the slide to the bottom.
The elves regrouped with the giants, eliminating the few remaining vallin throughout the city. Carcasses of the wolves were scattered throughout the Vale, and Ruelle was nowhere to be seen.
Cheers rang out throughout the Vale as they realized their victory.
Bert flew down and perched on Audyn’s shoulder. “Not bad!” the imp said with a laugh and dove headfirst onto the slide, heading to the bottom and joining the others.
Once the commotion died down, Audyn climbed high up on the Heart Tree to survey the destruction. It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. There seemed to be little property destruction, and while there were clearly injuries and some deaths, it wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d feared. She hoped that Ruelle wouldn’t be returning with another batch of vallin any time soon.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, she reviewed her notifications.
Congratulations, you have completed a quest!
Defend the Vale
Reputation increased by 2500, reputation with the Vale now Ally.
You have earned: 2100 XP!
Title Earned: Protector of the Crimson Vale
See Elder Caelyn for Reward
A new chime sounded:
Proficiency with Piercing weapons has increased to 4th level (8% increased chance to hit)
You have earned: 525 XP!
Spell level increased:
Shocking Orb
Cost: 16 MP
Level 4
Cast time: 4-8 seconds
Cool Down: 2 seconds
Linked Damage: 12-16 HP (+2% essence bonus)
Detached Damage: 8-12 HP (+3% essence bonus (+2 Energy/+1 Air)
3% Chance on successful detached damage attack to knock down the enemy.
You have earned: 525 XP!
Imbue Weapon
Cost: 20 MP
Level: 3
Imbues equipped weapon with one charge of essence of your choosing.
Successful imbuing will increase the damage of the weapon by 77% for one hit.
Critical strike chance increased by 3%, now at 13%.
You have earned: 315 XP!
You have learned how to harness Nature essence.
You are now able to learn nature spells.
In addition, some essences may be joined to form combined spells.
You are able to utilize the power of nature surrounding you to enhance your power.
Current Nature Essence efficiency: 1%
You have earned: 105 XP!
You have learned a new spell:
Channel Essence
Cost: 20 MP
Level: 1
Cast Time: 4-8 seconds
Cool down: 30 seconds
Damage 20-30 HP (+4% essence bonus)
2% chance to stun enemy
You are now able to channel your essence through a conductor in nature.
For example, but not limited to, trees, water, and rocks.
You have earned: 520 XP!
Congratulations! You have discovered a class.
Arcane Dagger-Mage
You have begun to harness the essences of Serein to forge your path, as you continue, essences will strengthen, and new essences will be discovered.
As an Arcane Mage, Essence Efficiency is gained at a much faster rate than others.
Dagger Specialization: allows dagger to act as a conduit for arcane spells.
+5 Intelligence
You have earned: 1050 XP
Audyn was excited about discovering her class. Arcane Dagger-Mage had a nice ring to it.
I wonder how much damage I could do if I actually had a decent dagger, she thought, mentally adding it to her to-do list.
The next notification came with a familiar sound:
Congratulations, you have reached Level 4!
You have received 4 attribute points.
With all of these spells, I better just play it safe. She sunk three points into Intelligence, bringing her Mana up to 130 with the five new bonus points for her new class, and holding off on the last point for the time being. “I’ll save you for later,” she said with a little smile. She reviewed her updated character sheet.
After reviewing her new and improved stats, she climbed down and looked around for a moment. There were elves rushing down to help the wounded, and others being dragged into the remaining huts to be tended to. “Can I help?” Audyn called after a trio of elves as they carried away a wounded archer. They were too busy to respond and continued on without acknowledging her.
Audyn walked through the city alone. The bodies of the fallen vallin remained strewn throughout the Vale. She knelt next to one, its motionless mouth still clamped down in a vicious snarl.
Audyn searched the wolf, gaining a rugged pelt and a paw. She continued walking around and looted every wolf she could find until her satchels were completely full.
She’d used all of her MP and HP potions during the fight but managed to loot a couple off the wolves.
A quick review of her updated inventory showed she had the following:
Minor HP Potion x3
Major HP Potion x1
Minor MP Potion x4
Bert’s Stew
Vallin Pelt x10
Vallin eye x8
Leg bone x4
4 GP
75 SP
Audyn stepped away from a deceased vallin, catching the elderly woman’s eye, who was standing toward the top of the Heart Tree.
Soon Wyn and Ali joined the elderly woman’s side, followed by Aerin and Bert. Audyn wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but all of them were pointing at her.
“This ought to be good.”
15
THE DARKNESS
Evan reentered Serein, respawning outside the inn and quickly running back toward the fight. He was thankful he had not lost Vitality this time around. Glancing to the sky he noticed that night had fully descended on Windchill.
Checking his notifications, he saw he had gained 650 XP from the fight before he died.
Approaching the front gate, he noticed the fighting had stopped. Vallin lay dead, spread across the front of the village. Ruelle was nowhere to be seen. Evan wanted to take a swing at Ruelle so badly, that he almost set off looking for her.
Creswell. Evan ran over to where he last saw him.
A crowd of gnomes had gathered in the area, some tossing rocks to the side, some staring at the gaping hole in the wall where Evan’s body had broken through.
The ground was littered with arrows and deep scorch marks. Eggz was off to the side, looking a little worse for the wear. A few fireflies gathered on its large head.
Evan walked over to the bird. Eggz lowered its head. The fireflies scattered, one landing in Evan’s beard.
He gently patted the bird’s back and turned to walk back to the gathered crowd.
“Oh no, what happened! Is everyone ok?” Cami asked as she joined the others staring at the large hole in the wall.
Evan walked over to her and explained what happened. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save him,” he said as guilt washed over him. “I tried, but before I could reach him, he was hit with her spell, and he just…faded away.”
“Wait, faded away?” Cami confirmed.
“Yes, he just sort of disappeared.”
“Everyone stop!” Cami urged to the crowd.
Evan looked at her curiously as she started searching the ground, her hazel eyes glowing with intensity. She wove through the villagers who stood motionless.
She stopped and faced Evan. “You said you two were down in the fields collecting ingredients? Did anything strange happen before you were attacked?”
“No, not really. Other than about 10,000 fireflies circling above our heads.”
“Ah. I was wondering why they kept gathering over on Eggz. I think they’re trying to tell us something.”
Cami renewed her search, coming within a few inches of Evan’s face. Evan held his breath, not wanting to hit her with what he was sure to be some rancid breath. He did a quick breath check in his hand, and decided he was probably okay.
“There!” Cami shouted as she tiptoed to get a better view of Evan’s bushy beard. She reached out and grabbed a handful of beard, pulling Evan closer for inspection.
Evan blushed as she raised her beautiful eyes to meet his for a brief moment. A small smile crept across her face. With her free hand she reached down and plucked something from his beard. It was the firefly that had taken shelter earlier.
“Hi Creswell,” Cami said with a slight giggle in her voice. “Look what you managed to get yourself into now. Your books aren’t going to help you get out of this one.”
“That…is Creswell?” Evan inquired, squinting to get a closer look.
“I’m sure of it,” she continued. “We are going to have to figure out how to turn him back. I know it can be done, but it’s too advanced for what I can do. Although, there is someone who may be able to help. His name is Robere, and he lives alone to the south outside of the great city of Helmere at Cambria Keep.”
She looked back to Evan expectantly. He threw up his hands halfheartedly. “I already agreed to go south, why not to Cambria Keep?” He shrugged his broad shoulders and received a new notification:
New Quest: To Cambria Keep!
Take Creswell to Cambria Keep outside of Helmere to talk to the mage, Robere.
Do you accept this quest?
Reward: Unknown
Difficulty: Unknown
Experience: Unknown
He mentally accepted and quickly took a moment to prioritize his quests:
Main: To Cambria Keep!
Main: Travel south, help the Archive defeat the darkness.
Side: Honor Umeric’s Last Request
● Learn more about Vitality
● Stop by The Looking Glass and speak to Flip
The quests were starting to pile up. He hoped that he didn’t get any sort of penalty for not finishing them quickly enough.
Evan hoped he could take care of all of them along the way, but it would probably take him forever.
As the thought crossed his mind, the firefly, formerly known as Creswell the gnome, landed on his nose. Evan looked down at him cross-eyed.
Creswell jumped off and lit up brightly in front of him. Evan knew he was trying to tell him something. He flew away, blinking rapidly.
Evan cut a path between the villagers, following closely behind the bug, stumbling over some of the rubble.
Creswell landed on top of the brightly glowing (now blue) flamingo mount. Evan lifted his head to the sky and mentally chastised Karl. A flamingo mount. Could’ve been a dragon, bear, something fierce, but no, a flamingo.
He looked back to Eggz as Creswell crawled onto the bird’s head. After a few moments, the mount turned its head stiffly toward Evan.
“Ok Eggz, are we gonna do this?” Evan asked with a slight cock of his head.
The mount hesitated and then lowered to allow Evan to climb on him. Once he was on, Evan looked toward Cami. “Well, you coming?”
“I’m not letting you have all the fun!” She whistled for Ember, who immediately came sprinting from inside the village.
Cami ran toward her mount and, with a swift spring off the ground, landed gracefully on the back of the mechanical lion.
Cami guided Ember next to Eggz. Evan looked over and she gave him a quick smile.
“This is your last chance to get whatever you may need before we head out,” she said. “I’m not always going to be able to bail you out, and honestly I don’t need you bailing me out, so just bring along what you think you’ll use. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
