Hack, Slash & Burn 2: A LitRPG Fantasy, page 12
“I know that look, Cal.” Yesna placed a hand on his shoulder. “Is this just about needing to train?”
Calder shrugged off her hand. “Yes.” He turned, facing the direction the small battalion of orcs, along with the three high-level Quake Mammoths, had come from.
They hadn’t explored much in this Dark World but the forest above the quarry and the quarry valleys. The enemies in the area had gotten stronger as they had trained here, and had always been strong enough for them to make consistent progress. But since the Battle of Berring, all of their levels had gone up a considerable amount.
Besides, Calder wanted to fight more powerful enemies. He and Peter had been able to take out not only all those orcs, but the massive level 120 Quake Mammoths, and they had gained a few levels in the process.
What if he were able to find more of those Quake Mammoths? Or other Darktouched at similar levels? How fast would he be able to get to level 60? Level 70?
Level 100?
He could only imagine how much stronger he would be at those levels, and how many more spells he might have access to.
They needed to keep exploring this place. Being able to portal here was perhaps their greatest training resource right now. It wasn’t one they could afford to squander.
Calder pulled a pre-charged Portal Stone from his pouch of holding, then tossed it into the portal the others had left through. He didn’t want them to have to worry about orcs coming through, and he wasn’t about to wait around just to fight some low-level enemies.
“We’re going this way.” Calder pointed in the direction the Quake Mammoths had come from, then looked up at the top of one of the quarry walls. He couldn’t see very far from on the ground. He tapped his pouch of holding, then brought up its contents.
Inventory:
Intermediate Pouch of holding
Gold: 10,000
Silver: 1000
Copper: 500
46x Soulstone – Red (Charged)
50x Intermediate Health Potions
47x Intermediate Mana Potions
50x Intermediate Adrenaline Potions
1x Standard Breastplate
4/50 Item Slots Full
It still took his breath away every time he saw how much gold he had. They had amassed an incredible amount during the Battle of Berring. At least, they had amassed what felt like a lot to Calder.
From what Luceen had said, it wasn’t near enough to outfit them with another Spirit Construct. But hopefully that wouldn’t matter when they had Graham back. One Spirit Construct was enough to link forty people, and they had less than that many Touched in all of Berring. He would worry about gaining another construct when they had more Touched. Hopefully by then they would have access to more resources, too.
With the gold they had amassed, they had strengthened Berring’s fortifications and reequipped every single Touched with new weapons, armour and potions. They had also been able to upgrade their pouches of holding. The pouch of holding now stacked fifty of the same items, and could hold fifty different items instead of the twenty it was able to before.
Much of the gold had been distributed between the different Touched in the village, while the majority of the soulstones had been stockpiled in the mayor’s house, ready for when the needed to create more Weapon Stones.
Calder still had plenty of mana potions, and he didn’t want to travel slowly. Though he was worried about suffering from mana burn again, right now he would rather move fast than be free of pain. Maybe I can better learn what distances I’m capable of, and attain better control of Dream Step and Portal. Portal, he definitely needed better control of. For what he wished to do next, the portal would have to stay open for far longer than it had when he had created one for Peter back in Dranador.
He looked over at Yesna. The Turan priestess still had her arms crossed.
“Get out your staff and wait here.” Calder pulled his shield off his back and drew his sword. There were no enemies within range of the Proximity Scanner, but he couldn’t be sure of the same wherever their destination was.
He Dream Stepped to the top of the quarry wall. The distance was nowhere near as far as the one he had travelled back in Dranador, and it only used a small portion of his mana.
Fifty-five second cooldown, Calder thought, keeping track. When he had put ten points into his Magic attribute, it had shaved a whole five seconds from the cooldown of Dream Step.
It also shaved thirty seconds off Portal, bringing its cooldown to nine and a half minutes.
Calder used his shield to protect his eyes from the sun, gazing in the direction the Quake Mammoths had come from. The quarry stretched for a fair distance, but he could see the end of it from up here—a grassy plain that led to who-knows-where.
He narrowed his eyes, judging the distance as best he could. He wondered if this was something Graham would be able to do for him, once the Spirit Construct was back. He reached for the Portal spell, and noticed something he hadn’t before. An instinct—a small sense of how much mana the spell might use at the distance he saw.
Had this sense been with him before? Had he simply completely ignored it? He certainly didn’t remember having felt this sensation, but his mind had been swirling with thoughts when he had stood atop the battlements in Dranador—and, he had been under attack at the time.
Maybe I pushed myself too hard last time, and my body is responding… More likely he just hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
For the distance that he saw, it looked as though the spell would use roughly two thirds of his remaining mana reserve. That was a lot, but it wasn’t too much. It would still leave enough mana left over for him to Dream Step back down to where Yesna was, and they wouldn’t have to worry about the portal being unstable.
Which was a massive bonus. Ever since he had seen what happened to a being when the portal shut down while it was stepping through it… well, he would make sure he never experienced such a thing.
Calder reached out toward the destination he wished to create the portal in—the far-off, grassy plain. Then he focused on a spot a few feet away from Yesna.
He waited a few more seconds until he felt the Dream Step spell reach the end of its cooldown. When it did, he activated Portal.
A blue portal materialised far-off in the distance, another, twin portal doing the same down on the quarry floor.
Yesna had her staff out. She glanced up at him, a question in her eyes. Calder Dream Stepped back down to her.
After casting Dream Step twice and using the Portal spell, his mana reserves were quite low. But he wasn’t worried about that—he still had plenty of mana potions in his pouch of holding, and he could let his reserve regenerate a little as they travelled.
He appeared beside Yesna. The woman didn’t even flinch at his sudden appearance.
“Come on.” He motioned toward the portal, then stepped in first.
When he stepped out, he was standing on the grassy plain. It took him a few seconds to gain his bearings. He was sure he would get used to the sensation of teleporting everywhere eventually. Dream Step seemed to be less disorientating for him than stepping through portals, however. Perhaps that was a benefit of the spell, considering it was very combat-orientated.
It wouldn’t be very useful if it made him lose his focus every time he cast it.
World Step, on the other hand, had been very disorientating, though he couldn’t imagine using that in combat anyway—perhaps he might use it to escape combat.
The moment his boots had met the grass he heard a series of dings sound from his Proximity Scanner—he had made sure to unmute the alerts when he had returned to the Dark World.
The plain was bordered by rolling hills too tall for him to see over. He narrowed his eyes, gazing around the area, spotting a few beasts mulling around—beasts they had never encountered before.
“Are those… cows?” Yesna had a hand up, shielding her eyes from the sun, looking over at a clump of the beasts.
Calder glanced down at his Proximity Scanner. Sure enough, there were six blinking red dots right where those beasts were standing. “They look like bulls.”
Yesna raised an eyebrow. “Bulls? That doesn’t sound very dark to me.”
Calder couldn’t help but agree. the Dark Wolves had been ferocious and terrifying, at least until he had come to match and then exceed their level. He had trouble imagining bulls as… well, evil.
They weren’t close enough to scan the beasts. The scanning ability was affected by the Perception attribute. Peter probably would have been able to scan them from this distance, but Calder certainly couldn’t.
“Let’s get closer.” Calder sprinted toward the enemies, closing the gap quickly enough. He could hear Yesna’s soft steps behind him. Though he didn’t expect to gain any Agility from the exercise, it seemed like a good opportunity.
The majority of Calder’s spells used adrenaline instead of mana. Unless he used too many of his Mage enchantments on his sword or cast Dream Step, he was hoping his mana pool would have a chance to regenerate during the fight.
It already appeared to be regenerating faster than usual, thanks to the 10 attribute points he had thrown into the Magic attribute on his last level up.
Considering he wanted to increase the usability of his Temporal spells, he planned on inflating Magic even more.
Yesna did not protest to the running. The priestess had long become used to such things by now.
When they got closer, Calder scanned the bulls.
Rockhide Bull
Level 30
Classification: Beast Elemental
Attributes
Strength: 55
Agility: 20
Magic: 30
Stamina: 40
Perception: 10
Calder sighed. Level 30. Though the Darktouched beasts were higher level than the usual orcs and Iron Arachnids down in the quarry, it wasn’t near high enough level to be a challenge. He considered just running right past them, but he didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to fight.
Though he did find one thing about the beasts to be interesting. Just like the Quake Mammoths, they were classified as Beast Elementals. Even the strongest Dark Wolf and Iron Arachnid he had faced had simply had “undefined” as their classification. That made Calder wonder if beasts got their classes—or whatever their equivalent was—at, or somewhere close to, level 30.
And so far, at least, his suspicions were correct—the farther in this direction they travelled, the stronger the monsters became. Calder wanted to say they were heading south, but as the twin suns rose from different sides of the sky, such distinctions as north, south, east and west only confused matters.
There has to be an orc town somewhere down here. Perhaps a city… The orcs clearly had civilisations. That had been evident from day one. He didn’t worry about what a town’s defences might be. He wouldn’t have to break through a wall to get inside when he could use Dream Step and Portal. Though he did wonder how Yesna would fair in such a situation.
And if they came across a city? Then he would bring in the rest of his squad, and other ones as well.
It would be the perfect opportunity for them to practice executing a siege, something Calder hadn’t been a part of since he had been a Lorilan soldier.
They would need to practice if they were ultimately going to attack Dranador and cleanse it of the Darktouched that had taken over.
As he ran, Calder noticed something he should have before. A large swath of the ankle-high grass they were sprinting over had been flattened down. In some parts, it had been dug straight out of the ground, as though by…
Massive hooves.
The orc battalion and the Quake Mammoths passed through here. Calder smiled. They were heading in the right direction.
It didn’t take them long to reach the Rockhide Bulls. Calder ran straight at them. He activated Tough Skin—more out of habit than legitimate concern. He activated Berserk and Charge as well, figuring the faster he dealt with these beasts the better. At least they would have some soulstones to loot. Six enemies at level 30 would give them a total of nine whole soulstones. Once upon a time—a time not that long ago, in the grand scheme—Calder would have found that to be an amazing haul.
Especially for a single fight.
The moment the bulls noticed him, he gained their aggression instantly. They pawed the ground and bounded toward him, trampling the grass on their way. A dim glow surrounded each of the beasts. The glow was grey, and Calder wasn’t sure if he had seen its like before.
A Fireball crashed into the first of the Rockhide bulls, one sent by Yesna. Her secondary class was that of a Mage, after all.
The attack did nothing.
Calder blinked. Though Yesna wasn’t a full Mage, her Magic attribute was plenty high—higher than Calder’s, that’s for sure—yet it didn’t seem to have damaged the beast at all.
It should have killed it in one hit.
How could that be possible? Though, something did happen. The grey glow around it disappeared.
That’s when Calder noticed the stream of text that had run across his vision a moment before. As Berserk had been active, and his full attention had been on the enemy bulls, the text had blurred into the background—as it often did when under the influence of that spell.
They were six identical notifications.
Rockhide Bull has activated Armour of the Earth.
Armour of the Earth makes the user invulnerable from attack for either thirty seconds, or until enough damage has impacted the defensive barrier that would have normally killed the user.
Calder frowned. He read over the information twice to ensure he understood it correctly.
For thirty seconds, these beasts could become completely invulnerable to attacks. If, for those thirty seconds, the damage they took wouldn’t have otherwise killed it, the glowing barrier would hold for the full duration. If the damage would have killed it, the barrier came down instantly, but they would take no damage until after that.
Against opponents at this level, the spell would be a momentary nuisance. Against something stronger, however… Calder could see how that might become a problem. For a higher-level user, that spell would last for far more than thirty seconds.
Fortunately, he wasn’t facing anything at a higher level. Yesna cast a follow up spell—a Lightning Bolt—which instantly killed the Rockhide Bull.
Calder grinned. Only five remaining.
He made quick work of them. He only had to strike the beasts twice to take them down, and he didn’t even need to use any of his combat spells to do it—simple slashes, thrusts and swings from his sword did the trick. The first strike destroyed their glowing Armour of the Earth barrier, and the second strike dealt a killing blow.
His shield blocked their strikes well enough, even with five of them having charged straight into him he had only been pushed back a few steps, his boots cutting shallow ruts in the ground.
When the battle was done—and calling it a battle was a bit of a stretch—Calder got down to the looting.
He hadn’t even taken any damage.
Perhaps he should have felt good about the fight having been easy, but Calder was finding that he appreciated a challenge. Besides, the amount of Proficiency that had entered him as they slayed the Beast Elementals was incredibly paltry.
Not near enough to help either of them gain a level.
After all the Rockhide Bulls were looted and he deposited nine whole soulstones into his inventory, Calder looked over to the nearest crest. There were more Rockhide Bulls in the area, but he ignored them.
They didn’t pose a challenge.
He checked in on his mana reserve. The battle had been so short it hadn’t even gotten a chance to fully regenerate—it was only three quarters full. Still, it would be enough to help them portal to the crest of the hill, in the direction the orc battalion had clearly come from.
The bodies of the Rockhide Bulls disappeared, leaving behind a few items for them to loot. Calder snatched them up, then tapped his pouch of holding thoughtfully.
“We’ll fight until we run out of mana potions,” he told Yesna. “Then we’ll head back to Berring.”
Yesna frowned. “What if we don’t run out? That fight wasn’t exactly hard.”
Calder smiled. “Oh, I trust we’ll find much stronger enemies than those.” Without another word, he created a portal beside them, and one at the crest of the hill. When they reached it, they found themselves staring down at exactly what he had hoped to find.
A small orc settlement.
We’ll clear this world of Darktouched and gain as many levels as we can, taking down one enemy at a time. He couldn’t help but wonder where the next Dark Nexus might be. He knew this Dark World wasn’t his focus, Berring and Halanor were, but if he were to be a force for good—a force for Light—in the universe, it made sense to gain as much ground on the enemy as possible.
And since he needed to gain plenty of levels, this Dark World seemed like a good enough place to start.
Chapter 13
The settlement wasn’t exactly what Calder would call an impenetrable fortress.
It had stone walls, and as far as he could tell those walls were enchanted, but the settlement wasn’t even the size of Berring.
Two guard towers flanked what appeared to be the main gate, an orc archer standing in each of them. From atop the hill, the enemies were too far away for him to scan, but they didn’t look that dangerous. Considering how many orcs he had faced, all of varying levels, he had gotten a feel for how powerful they were just by looking at them.
From this vantage point, they could also see over the walls and inside of the settlement.
None of these orcs looked to be much higher than level 30.
At first, he had lamented that fact, but as they neared the settlement, he found there to be a lot of orcs inside of the place. He had also gotten close enough to scan the walls.
Minor Enchanted Stone
+250 Physical Defence
+250 Elemental Defence
Defenders within one mile of this wall receive:
