Arcane Knight: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy, page 19
“The quest updated,” Zander said, dryly.
I checked and sure enough it was marked as complete. I checked and saw that the essence had already been added to my overall total.
“That’s a wrap then,” Tom said, nodding his head to his party members. “Pay up and we’ll be on our way.”
Zander had a sour look on his face but did just that. He had a bag at his side and from it he pulled a sack of gold coins. “That includes all five shares and 90 gold per for the quest reward.”
That’s right, we were set as the ones meant to give out the quest rewards. I gave everyone that I’d brought 90 gold plus the portion meant for their hiring. Beth and Adathin were taken aback by the amount of gold, but it was only fair. And who cared at this point, I’d been given such a large amount from Regina that I would never want for anything again.
Or at least that is how it felt to get a windfall. I knew by hard learned experience that money could disappear faster than it ought to. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson with money by now, but gold held a certain hold over my actions that I hated to admit caused me to make bad decisions.
I caught Tom by the arm before they left, he turned looking pointedly at my hand until I let him go.
“Sorry, I just wanted to ask you all something,” I said.
“Let’s hear it,” Tom said.
“I have a keep not far from here, or at least I was given it and I need to check it out. It could be dangerous. Any chance you’d be willing to come?” I asked, thinking I already knew the question.
“I have a party to rebuild and a difficult conversation to have with Jimmy’s wife. Wish I could help, but I just can’t,” Tom said, patting me on the arm and turning to leave.
“I understand. Safe journeys,” I said, waving them away.
“I’m not going either,” Zander said, scowling at me.
“No one invited you,” I said, smiling back.
Zander clenched his teeth and began to chant the words to a spell. For just a moment I worried he was going to try and attack me again, but as the spell ended I saw that wasn’t the case. A white horse with golden glowing eyes appeared in a puff of golden mist. It had golden armor and massive hooves.
“Whoa. That’s cool shit,” Emory said. “That a spell or did you bind the mount to a summoning stone?”
Zander ignored him, pulling himself up into the saddle and without so much of a look, galloped into the distance.
“What an ass,” Emory said. “You know my horse, Grayson, is still stabled in Variyn. I can use this money to have him bound to a summoning stone and maybe even afford a bag of holding to store my gear.”
“I’m going to find the warmest bath and soak in it for an entire day,” Ismene said, holding her arms close as if to ward off the chill. “It was cold below ground and this sunlight isn’t doing anything to warm me up.”
“There is a useful survival perk that regulates your body temperature and gives you several percentage resistance to heat and cold,” Fred said, nodding his head knowingly.
“Perks are too valuable to waste on something like that,” I said, shaking my head. This seemed to catch everyone’s attention, but Ismene and Emory straight up face palmed.
“For someone like you I’m surprised you haven’t gotten a ton,” Emory said.
“What do you mean?” I asked, not understanding.
Ismene perked up and held up a hand before saying, “You do know you can buy additional perks, right? Once you hit level 15 you can purchase perks based off of a preset value assigned to each of them. It carries the same draw backs as attributes, but without the benefit of resetting the cost values each level.”
“You’re saying I can buy more perks with essence?” I asked, wanting to make sure I understood her right.
“It’s extremely expensive,” Adathin said. “But some perks, like the one he mentioned, come pretty cheap.”
“How cheap are we talking about?” I asked. If I could add a ton more perks it would make me that much stronger.
“Twenty thousand or so, but I don’t remember the exact value off hand,” Adathin said.
“Caldor you egghead, how do you not know this?” Ismene asked.
How did I not know this, I wondered myself. My studies had been focused around monsters and the process of Awakening, but I’d read other general books. It was just hard to find any that covered basic things that any Awoken adventurer could figure out themselves. Warrick tended to have very advanced books and only got a few basic books covering monsters when I’d asked. It wasn’t like I had the coin to buy any books myself. I had to resign myself to the fact that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.
“I guess I’m not as knowledgeable as I thought,” I said, a bit taken aback by the reality of it.
“You’ll recover,” Emory said, slapping my back hard enough to take a few points of damage off my health.
“Ouch. Careful you big brute,” I said, smacking his arm in retaliation. “You’ve passed your strength threshold and that means that shit hurts.”
“Caldor,” Adathin said, getting my attention. “I should really get going as well. I need to inform my people that Mana Shrines have begun to fall.”
I was about to respond when Beth spoke up too.
“Can I come with you?” Beth asked, turning to Adathin.
“Of course, but you are sure? I might not return for some time.” Adathin regarded Beth, who just smiled wide.
“I want to try and visit my brothers, laws or no laws I miss them,” Beth said, her face dropping.
“I’ll miss you both,” I said, sharing a warm embrace with each of them. It would be challenging losing our two strongest party members, but it couldn’t be helped.
They left shortly after, leaving in a dead sprint. I knew they had enough Stamina to run at that pace for miles and miles, so by the time we reached the keep they’d likely be long gone.
What awaited us at Blackridge Keep, I didn’t know. What I did know was that with my friends at my side, there was nothing we couldn’t overcome.
CHAPTER 22
BLACKRIDGE KEEP
Being an adventurer brought with it many small wonders. Not the least of which was how the body dealt with being tired. All five of us—myself, Emory, Ismene, Fred, and Fran—had been awake for over 24 hours, and yet when the topic of resting came up, not a single one of us felt the need.
Our Stamina would tell us when we needed to rest, the regeneration would begin to drag but even then the natural feeling of being tired—drooping eyes and fatigue—wouldn’t set in for some time after. So as fresh as if we’d woke only hours before, we marched into the trees leaving behind the abandoned town and moving toward Blackridge Keep.
According to the map it was set atop of a wide ridge, a few miles away. My map went so far as to show squares of farmland at the base of the ridge, but only on the western side, the side away from House Attra. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the keep was longer than it was wide, built right into the topmost edge of the ridge.
The elevation slowly rose up as we walked, and I had to pop my ears several times to get them to adjust. It wasn’t until we broke from a particularly dense grouping of trees that the keep came into view. Zander had been very wrong.
The keep was very much intact, or at least it looked to be from this distance. It was harder to make out than a normal keep might have been due to the black stone it was cut from, matching the black stone of the mountain ridge it sat atop. A wide path curved up the side of the mountain and ended just outside of a walled off entrance way.
Details were hard to make out from this distance, but the walls were definitely manned by something or someone. I counted six spires in total and though it didn’t match the majesty of Keep Variyn, it was ten times the size that I’d imagined it would be. As I studied it, I did notice one of the towers ended in a jagged top, meaning that perhaps there was some work that needed to be done.
Ismene pulled up beside me and spoke softly. “I can see goblin’s, orcs, and a dwarf up there. I’ve seen pictures of each, but they are more intimidating in person.”
“You can see that far,” I asked, turning to regard Ismene. Her sharp purple eyes narrowed in the direction of the keep and she nodded.
“An ability I picked up,” she whispered. “There is at least a dozen, if not more. We should be careful, there is no telling if they will have scouts.”
I understood why she spoke so softly now, she was making it a habit to think things through much faster than I did, a useful skill to have in a friend. I set my hand on her shoulder and nodded. Stepping back into the dense trees, I signaled for everyone to follow, and they did so.
“You own that thing,” Emory said, pointing toward the keep with wide eyes. He spoke a bit louder than I would have liked, but Ismene didn’t react and her skills as a scout would likely inform us if someone was nearby. At least I hoped that would be the case, we were all still pretty low leveled.
“Seems so,” I said, smirking.
“What are we going to do about those unwanted guests?” Fran asked, she’d been close enough to Ismene and me to overhear.
“Were you able to use Inspect from this distance?” I asked Ismene, she shook her head.
“I didn’t try but give me a minute and I’ll see what I can do,” Ismene said, turning and moving back to the edge of the forest. We didn’t follow, but I shifted enough that I could see her through the trees. She returned a minute later with a smirk of her own.
“What’d you see?” I asked.
“The highest level I saw was 14,” she said, then raised a finger and added. “That doesn’t mean they don’t have stronger out of view.”
“If they have a good number on the wall,” Fran said, looking skeptical. “How many do they have within the keep? I don’t see how we’ll liberate this place.”
“What are the chances I can just walk up the road and ask nicely?” I asked, chuckling. But then the idea lingered in my head, and I wondered if I’d be able to do just that. My friends must have noticed the shift in my facial expression because they each tried to speak at once. Emory was the loudest and won out.
“You can’t be that dense,” he bellowed, his loud words shifting into a boisterous laugh. “There is no way you survive such a stupid idea.”
Then Fred surprised us all by saying, “It might.” Then going silent as he pulled a backpack from his dimensional storage and pulling out all sorts of books and scrolls. Finally, he found what it was he was looking for and held up a tightly rolled scroll with golden sparkling ink sealing it closed.
“What do you mean?” I asked, taking the scroll from him but not having the slightest clue what it might do.
“That is a rare spell scroll my mother gave me for emergencies,” Fred said, and I loosened my grip on it, as to not crinkle the stiff paper. “It contains the spell Astral Projection. It only has a three in four chance of working, but it also has a one in a hundred chance to teach you the spell, so I was saving it when it would be most useful to use. I think now is that time.”
“Are you sure?” Fran asked, eying the scroll critically. “Scrolls are incredibly rare, and mother gave you that as a birthday gift.”
“I’ll repay its value,” I said, a plan forming in my head.
My knowledge in all things Awoken might not be what I once thought, but I knew of the spell Astral Projection. I’d be able to send out an illusion of myself with my mind attached. I’d read about all sorts of scouting uses the spell had and how with practice you could project the mind without the illusion to guide it forward, making it an extremely useful spell for spying.
“Agreed,” Fred said, nodding his head once.
I also knew enough to activate the scroll, but I wanted to make sure we were ready first.
“Let’s scout the area a bit and find someplace with decent cover. Then and only then we will give this a try. Who knows if they have scouts or when they see me if they will send out troops to look for me. Better to be safe than sorry,” I said. No one disagreed and we were off looking for a good place to set up.
As I expected, Ismene found it, her abilities as a scout giving her an edge in searching out safe places. After a bit of extra work to hide our passage in the forest, we hunkered down together.
Beginning the process was easy, all I had to do was break the wax seal and the knowledge would be released into my mind. But knowing what to expect and actually experiencing it were two different things. As my fingers cracked the seal and released the spell I felt a sudden rush in my head.
Suddenly I knew how to cast the spell and my lips uttered phrases and my hands moved to cast. Then just as it took hold, I lost it. How to cast it or what was required lingered just out of reach of my recall. At first, I’d thought the spell had failed and I’d lost my chance to learn it but looking around I saw myself. I saw that I was sitting cross-legged with my eyes closed in concentration.
It slowly ticked away at my mana, and I realized that if this was going to work I’d need to get moving.
“No time to waste,” I said and had a moment of dizziness as I heard my voice from my body and my astral form.
I pushed free of the brush and was surprised when I passed right through it. Testing how far my ability to move through things actually was, I walked straight through a tree with no problem. A bit confused at what was keeping me from falling straight through the ground, I changed my train of thought and pushed onward as fast as I could go.
I hit the edge of the forest and onto the flat land at the base of the ridge. If it had been farmland before, it was ages ago, as brush and weeds had taken hold of the area. The soil did seem darker here, which I knew could be the sign of good dirt. But my abilities as an orchard farmer didn’t go so far as to knowing which soil was best. I’d trusted the advice of those I trusted when doing such work.
The road wasn’t much more than a dirt path carved into the side of the ridge. It snaked back and forth, only angling upward a small bit at a time. Running as I was, it made for an easy trip, it also helped that I wasn’t feeling any physical strain. There was a measure of mental exertion and my mana ticked slightly faster the further I traveled from my body.
By the time I made it to the gate, a massive creation of black porous stone and thick gray iron bands, I was losing mana at a rate of 1 per second. I had maybe ten minutes, probably less. A general call of alarm had gone up around the time I hit the halfway point, but so far no one had made an appearance.
Just as I was about to start shouting at the gate, it groaned and opened ever so slightly. At the same time a dozen or more heads poked over the wall with crossbows drawn. I didn’t fear death, as I was just an astral representation of myself, but it was hard not to squirm under the eyes of so many.
A dwarf wearing sturdy armor and what looked like an armored skirt of some kind, walked out with three green goblins and two blunt-faced orcs—their green skin a deeper color than the goblins and accented by colorful furs. In all, the force of six looked intimidating enough that if I had come in person I’d be worried right now.
I tried to use Inspect, but it wouldn’t work. Likely a result of the spell and not a sign of Chaos corruption.
“This here keep is under the control of Clan Grantane of the High Peak and Tribe Ugular of the Moglartak swamps. I am second voice of Gunter Grantane, my name is Cron. State your business,” Cron said.
Before I could speak, one of the orcs, the one with twice as many furs as the other, spat on the ground and spoke in a guttural language I didn’t understand.
“Jrok says you aren’t here, and he won’t listen to spirits,” Cron said, a smirk on his face. He turned to the two goblins and pushed one forward roughly. “Go search the woods together and bring back whatever you find.”
The two goblins shambled past me and ran, surprisingly fast, towards the bottom of the ridge. I decided I best speak and make it quick.
“Sending two goblins to find me won’t work,” I said, hoping my voice came out from both ends like it had at the start. My team deserved at least a warning. “I am Caldor Miles, Knight of House Variyn and rightful Lord of Blackridge Keep. You are in my home, and you will leave.”
My words held more power than I thought I would be able to project, and I saw the dwarf consider, his hand scratching at his wild beard. The two orcs didn’t seem able to understand common and the dwarf made no attempt to translate.
The dwarf had beady dark eyes and skin as rough as tree bark, but considerably paler. His hair was a mild brown, but against his lighter skin it seemed dark. I couldn’t guess at his age, but he had lines running down the edges of his eyes that spoke of decades old instead of years. I knew from study that dwarves had long robust lives like the stone they preferred to live in. I also read a passage that suggested that dwarves would hibernate for decades at a time, but others suggested that their long absences were due to them tunneling deeper and deeper into the mountains’ cores. Whichever was true I didn’t know.
“If you are what you say, what of it?” Cron said, raising a single eyebrow. “You going to push us out, let our young and women go cold in the coming winter? You better have brought several dozen stout warriors because we’ll fight to the last suckling child for our freedom.”
It was my turn to be confused. I’d been led to believe that nearly all dwarven clans lived in High Peak, a monstrous mountain range that bisected the continent. Why would they even want to live this far from their ancestral homes?
“You are far from home, why here? And with orcs and goblins?” I asked, my time slowly ticking away.
“As if you don’t know, human nobles are all the same. No matter where we go you lot refuse to give us refuge. That scheming noble said we’d be safe here, that no one had claim!” Cron was practically shouting now, and he pulled a hammer from his belt.
I was running out of time and needed to figure something out quick. “What if you could stay here?” I asked, the beginnings of an idea forming. “There are benefits to being in a keep and area when the proxy levels and perks are active. You can’t access any of that, can you?”
