In kazar the calamitous.., p.1
In Kazar: The Calamitous Bob book two, page 1
part #2 of The Calamitous Bob Series
Alex Gilbert
The Calamitous Bob Book Two
In Kazar
Table of Content
The story so far.
Chapter 26: Landscaping
Chapter 27: Nascent Descent
Chapter 28: I CAN EXPLAIN
Chapter 29: I am starting a collection
Chapter 30: Bloody Business
Chapter 31: The Local Flavor
Chapter 32: The Twisted Ones
Chapter 33: War Magic
Chapter 34: Tribes
Chapter 35: Minutiae
Chapter 36: A Matter of Taste
Chapter 37: Field Trip
Chapter 38: Mountain People
Chapter 39: Back
Chapter 40: Unexpected
Chapter 41: Investigation
Chapter 42: Strange Allies
Chapter 43: Spring.
Chapter 44: Progress
Chapter 45: The Food Chain
Chapter 46: Expedition
Chapter 47: On the Road Again
Chapter 48: Deadlands Tourism
Chapter 49: Into relative darkness
Chapter 50: Tunneling
Chapter 51: Tales from the Dark
Chapter 52: Concepts and Principles.
Chapter 53: Clouds on the Horizon
Chapter 54: Night Riders
Chapter 55: Before the Storm
Chapter 56: Siege
Disclaimer
The Calamitous Bob is a web serial published on Royal Road and Patreon under my other pen name, Mecanimus. I like to think that serials are to traditional books what series are to movies, though I might be biased. As a result, you should expect a slower pace. The Calamitous Bob also includes light LitRPG elements, violence, and curse words.
This is a work of fiction.
Acknowledgements:
I wrote this story with the help of my patrons. It would not exist without their support, both financial and moral.
A book is also a group project. My gratitude goes to Hesketh, Yaksher, and many others for wading through the typo-filled mire of my writings. The good readers on Royal Road also contributed by looking for that one obscure inconsistency on page 137 - seriously people what do you even do all day? All remaining mistakes are mine and were probably last-minute additions anyway.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife who started it all by saying that since I spent so much time daydreaming, I might as well monetize it. So I did.
The story so far.
Due to the terrible machinations of his wife — and also because he cheated on her — The God of Luck Emeric left his native world of Nyil to seek refuge on earth where he promptly stole the mortal shell of one Viviane Saint-Lys. The young French army medic got sent in his stead into the world of magic and monsters with a new body and a little bit of the thief’s luck.
Said luck promptly dropped her into the remains of the worst magical catastrophe the world of Nyil had ever known. Poisoned and beleaguered by undead monsters, Viv managed to find her way out thanks to the unexpected help of an ancient war golem, Solfis, and a dragon baby she named Arthur before finding out it was female. Look, dragon veterinary science is hard, okay? In any case, the unlikely trio made its way to a fort at the edge of the dead lands where she could rest and recover and, more importantly, learn magic.
The fort came under attack by a necromancer soon after, which Viviane survived by rebuilding a passable body for Solfis. Her trip continued to the largest city around, Kazar, where she decided to settle for a spell. Her foray into the land of death had left her unable to wield any magic but the most destructive one, and this skewed distribution would eventually cause her end.
In order to survive, Viv discovered that she had to learn more about her condition, but to do so she needed resources and connections. She paired up with Farren, the local church leader and hired Marruk, a shieldbearer from a race of stout, crimson-skinned warriors, with the hope that she could become stronger before her ‘luck’ inevitably caught up with her.
Chapter 26: Landscaping
Viv waited, breaths slow and deep. Not a sound could be heard as she raised her weapon high, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Her prey had fallen into the ambush just as she expected. She focused on the monster’s extended limb as she prepared to slow her time perception. Soon, it would be the moment to strike.
Very soon.
There was a click.
Viv moved. She activated her acuity power and struck with enhanced strength, the roll of fabric descending upon the guilty white claw grabbing for the meat drawer.
Thwack!
“SQUEEEEEE!” the culprit yelped, running back to her lair with her tail between her legs.
“QUE JE T’Y REPRENNE, SALE BÊTE!" Viv bellowed in her native tongue.
Sheer anger could do that sometimes.
Marruk took a quick peek inside. A glance at Viv’s outraged posture told her all that she needed to know, and she resumed her vigil.
A pale snout emerged from the blanket mountain. The mighty beast of Kazar was testing the waters.
Viv cursed herself. She was so taken in with catching and scaring Arthur that she had forgotten the good habits that her mom had taught her when handling pets. Positive reinforcements and all of that. Her mom had been the one to keep the house together no matter how stressful things got with elections and exams, even if her own way of coping was… less than ideal. Among other things, she had raised their pets until the dogs and cats she had had throughout her life were as well-behaved as most humans.
Her mom would not have raised her voice. She would have calmly told Arthur to get back to her spot, then rewarded her for obeying.
Arthur was super smart, and she would probably get smarter, so Viv should do her best to educate her well.
Viv sighed and retreated to the meat drawer. It was enchanted to be colder, which she had to recharge on occasion. Explaining that she could only use black mana had left Marruk perplexed at first, but the big woman had taken it in stride as one of Viv’s many quirks. The Kark woman could use a bit of wind and a bit of earth. That helped with the chores, which they had shared so far.
Viv took one long stripe of dried meat. It was a dark piece of jerky from some wood creature with a very strong musk. It tasted like ass to Viv, but Arthur liked the stuff.
“Come here.”
The dragonling slunk forward with her head low and they had a moment, interrupted by Solfis.
//It is time, Your Grace.
//We only have three days to train properly.
“Ok.”
Enough fucking around. A message had come in the morning with a request from Farren. He wanted her to clean a cave two days away from Kazar with the purpose of turning it into a safe haven. The other mercenaries had all declined, citing high risks. Or so Farren said. She had said yes on account of wanting her soul fixed. She had three days to practice her magic.
Marruk took Solfis and started dragging the sled casually, with only one hand. Viv went to walk by her side, with Arthur tailing them, sniffing things as she went. The area directly south of the city was rather deserted, except for the estates reserved for guests. The official road through the forest started east of there. This meant that things were calm, which Solfis had relied upon. They came to a stop next to a random boulder at the edge of the tree line.
//I will now assist you in acquiring the last of the basic mana skills.
//Manipulation focuses on using mana for your own use.
//Sense focuses on identifying, locating, and understanding mana.
//The last skill is absorption.
//Absorption allows you to take mana from the environment and draw it into your core regardless of the mana’s original color.
//Now, you can quickly and easily recharge your core and conduits with ambient mana that you are attuned with.
//This is due to the fact that turning mana you are attuned with into your own is a natural process.
Viv thought about it. Her yoink spell relied on making an undead’s black mana into her mana, and it felt instinctive.
//Normally, mages will always manage to draw some amount of mana that they can use immediately.
//In your case, the ability to turn foreign mana into your own is paramount.
//This is is due to the fact that most environments have a very limited amount of black mana.
“So I am super strong in the deadlands but weaker everywhere else?”
//The power of your spell is the same.
//Your ability to cast continuously, however, will be hampered.
//You already experienced this during your stay in Fort Stone.
“When I had to get poisoned to recharge?”
//Yes.
//Your key spell, yoink, is also geared towards killing undead.
//It will not work on anything else.
“So I need to update my repertoire.”
//Indeed.
//We will focus on both over the next three days.
//First, you can use your ‘bzzt’ spell with the pierce rune to overload the conduits of an enemy.
//This will kill them in a horribly painful fashion.
//It is a relatively mana-intensive spell.
//Try it now.
Marruk sat on the sled to watch while Arthur rolled around happily in the grass. Viv pointed at the boulder and summoned the twisted arrow of the spear rune in her mind. It was the first rune she had properly learned, and also the only one used in the yoink spell. She was intimately familiar with its working now, and it came to her with perfect ease.
“Bzzt.”
A slightly frayed bolt as dark as the void jumped from her chest to the stone. She didn’t need to point at stuff, though it helped. Casting spells from different parts of her body worked just as well and didn’t warn anyone of her intent, so she did it whenever she could.
The bolt smashed against the boulder without effect.
//Aim for a tree, your grace.
//Boulders have no conduits to flood.
“We’re not going to anger some forest spirit or creature or something?”
//No, Your Grace.
//There would not be one so close to the city.
//I assure you that this forest can afford to lose a tree or a hundred.
Save a tree, eat a witch? Probably not today.
“Bzzt.”
She immediately felt the difference when her power easily wiped out her target’s tiny conduits. The sickly leafy thing she had chosen withered in an instant as if blasted by a toxic bomb. They heard creaks, then the small trunk collapsed forward on the ground. It exploded into dust and ossified fragments.
//Better.
//You will consume more mana the more complex your target’s conduits are.
//This will serve you well against lightly armored opponents.
//Now, I would like you to try the basic spell used by war mages everywhere.
//It consists of the basic… bzzt spell, infused with a destructive aspect.
“You mean like what I did with my blight spell?”
//Precisely.
//Giving a destructive meaning to your mana and sending it away is the mainstay of battle mages everywhere.
//Such a spell takes relatively little mana, but requires a higher understanding of magic itself, as well as mental fortitude.
//Try it now, on the boulder.
Viv turned to the blasted piece of rock. It had ignored her previous attack.
The bitch.
Her laughable attempt at getting angry did not work, and yet the barest amount of resentment reminded her of her mindset when she had used the blight spell. The black mana had been charged with its most basic concept: annihilation.
Black mana was the end of things.
Viv latched onto that truth and charged a spell with it, the mana coalescing in her hand. She would use it to remove from this world the things that she did not like. They would be… gone.
“Purge.”
The attack was silent except for the groan of shattering stone. The boulder now sported a deep groove two handspans in depth from which gravelly, grey sand spilt like blood from a wound.
//You do not seem to have any difficulty casting those.
//Reassessing current priorities.
//We shall practice later to improve your speed and range.
//However, I would like to work on the mana absorption skill for now.
//In order to facilitate its acquisition, you need to empty your conduits of most of its mana.
//You could use this opportunity to cast blight again.
//I would also like to watch its effects in person so that I can assess it, and its possible applications.
Viv considered and realized that she was probably good for another dozen bzzt mana-wise. Purge spells were mentally draining so she would definitely falter before that. Blight would drain her mana reserves in one go while her mind would only be mildly affected.
“Sounds good.”
This time, the wind up was slower and harder because she was not in the right mindset, and also because destroying the part of the forest she was now facing didn’t excite her. It took her a good ten seconds to wind up the spell, adding the destruction meaning to the black mana and the spread rune on top. She felt like she had spent half an hour studying vocabulary lists.
“Blight.”
The cloud expanded at the pace of a walking man, unaffected by the wind. The horrible hiss of the vaporous mana touching matter upset the ear like cold water sizzling a very hot pan.
The cloud kept expanding, impenetrable. A second later, she could see what it had left behind.
The earth below her was stripped of all life, and it looked rather vitrified, with solid veins of dark mana spreading over it like a fallen spiderweb. Blight kept going. It left nothing behind. Not a single stump or even a piece of root survived the onslaught.
When the spell finally abated after ten meters, it left behind an apocalyptic field of death. Where the trees used to be, now there were holes in the ground like the impact of mortar shells. An eerie silence replaced the terrifying scream.
Viv turned to the sled, where Solfis was resting. Her reserves were very low, and she could feel the onset of a small headache.
On the sled, Marruk was staring in horror, mouth hanging open to reveal her big flat teeth. Her yellow eyes darted from Viv to the scene of deforestation the woman had left behind.
//Excellent.
//Although slow, this spell has great potential in destroying packed formations in enclosed spaces.
//I foresee a great future purifying caves and breaking sieges.
//Now, let us focus on mana absorption.
//I will guide you through the steps.
Solfis had Viv sit in a lotus position with both hands forming a cup just above her navel, below the core. She was supposed to open herself up or something, and focus on the sensation of her core recharging. It did not work very well.
“Would it not be better to try that in the deadlands?”
//Perhaps.
//It might also be that you may not experience the feeling of non-compatible mana being kept out.
//Several experts argue that it is an important aspect of the acquisition of this skill.
“Never mind, then.”
Viv tried her best to calm and dominate, but her mind would not focus easily. It wandered to the noise of the forest next to her, the wind blowing through the tall grass, the feeling of black mana in her spiritual self. There were so many sensations to experience and focusing on one so subtle as mana coming back was as arduous as finding a needle in a haystack. More than that, meditation annoyed her. She felt vulnerable. Her nascent trust in Marruk had nothing to do with it; she could no more fight it than one could fight stress before an exam. It was a visceral response. To what, she was not sure.
They tried for only twenty minutes, and already, the attempt pissed her off. Solfis addressed her as she was adjusting her position for a new attempt.
//Let us try something else.
//I shall demonstrate a series of postures.
//I would like you to repeat them.
“Will it not drain your batteries?”
//I will refrain from activating my defensive and offensive systems.
//The drain will be minimal.
“Ok.”
Marruk yelped as Solfis unfolded, his shape as disturbing as ever. The tall golem stalked forward leisurely and adopted a position with an open hand near his chest, and another facing forward. What followed was weirdly reminiscent of a qigong routine, and Viv had to watch the rather basic sequence twice despite her enhanced mental abilities. Solfis could distract the most dedicated of students with his demonic appearance.
