The lifetree, p.12
The Lifetree, page 12
The room that held his coffin was twice as large as the rest, with an arched stone ceiling and more coffins lining the walls. His was in the center, and large enough to fit a massive man such as him. He gestured toward his coffin and I approached it, then at his nod, turned the latches and raised the lid.
Inside the coffin was the sinewy skeleton of King Abram. Much of his regal clothing had rotted away, but a golden chain still gleamed around his neck. I reached out to touch the necklace and he nodded, so I lifted it off the corpse.
“Oh, wow,” I said as I examined the chain. A thin black line traced along the edge of each golden link, slightly jagged and coarse compared to the smooth gold. The necklace boosted my strength by a whopping ten points, and that black line seemed to be linked to a magical ability.
King Abram stepped closer to me. “When I learned of the corruption, I tried to pull some of it away. I stored it in my necklace, the only thing powerful enough to store it, but it clearly wasn’t enough. But, it’s there. It contains a single spell, a single curse to be more accurate. If you’re wearing that necklace, then just once you can use it to curse someone.”
I looked from King Abram to the necklace. “With the same curse that affected the dragon and the people?” I asked.
He nodded. “It is a foul thing. It killed most of the people, but as you saw it left some unable to fully die. And the dragon was strong enough to withstand it; that’s the nature of dragons. But you might find a use for it, when all else fails.”
I fastened the necklace around my neck and immediately felt my strength swell. “Thank you, King Abram,” I said, patting the necklace. I slipped it beneath my shirt so it wouldn’t move around too much or get caught on anything. With my Strength now at thirty-two, I really felt a difference. I imagined I could bench press a horse.
“Wait a minute,” I said, looking down at the skeleton of King Abram in the coffin. “You’re in here,” I began, then looked at the hulking, armored giant standing over me. I reached out to touch him and my hand passed right through him. “Holy shit. That would have gone badly, had I tried to fight you.”
He nodded. “You cannot fight a spirit, except with magic. Take that as a lesson.” He circled around me and knelt next to his coffin. “And for a second lesson: let the dead stay dead. Leave us in peace.” With that, he faded into a mist—a mist that slowly lowered itself onto the skeleton.
A notification flashed and I checked it. Apparently when I inadvertently completed his quest, he had granted me some experience. I had hit level thirteen. I decided to put my one point into Mind, since I wanted to start using magic more. That brought it to thirteen, and my mana to thirty-five.
After that, I looked around. King Abram was gone. Truly at peace—I hoped—after learning of the dragon’s demise.
Which meant I immediately checked the other rooms for gear. Mostly just mundane jewelry, although I did find a few magical daggers. Nothing powerful, but I figured I could sell them.
That done, I left the catacombs and went back to my horse. I had somehow survived both a dragon and this King Abram guy, and I was ready for my next adventure.
“Let’s go, Misty,” I said, patting her on the shoulder. “Maybe I can find a spell to make you younger.”
She looked at me and snorted.
Chapter
Fourteen
I looked around for a moment with my hand on Misty’s shoulder, pondering my next destination.
“So, where to next, girl?” I asked her. She turned her head to look at me. “Do you want to go back to Holden to sell all this stuff, or keep going toward Easthaven?” She didn’t answer. “Easthaven it is. Let’s go.”
She just flicked her tail.
I pulled myself into the saddle and turned her away from the catacombs, noticing that once again, she had eaten everything bare around her.
“Are you eating your feelings, Misty?” I asked. She ignored me.
We set off back toward the road, which near the castle was actually a road. It didn’t take us too long to get there, and once on the road we enjoyed a day of boring travel.
We passed a total of three people on the road that day. I wasn’t sure why things were so, well, empty around here. Perhaps with a larger city ahead of us, people didn’t feel the need to travel down to Holden. Especially when a dragon blocked the path. Okay, so that made perfect sense. I wouldn’t travel there either.
The land began to change with every hour. The grasslands—filled with wildflowers and butterflies—gave way to dry red earth, sometimes with scrub brush trying to hang on to its last semblance of life. Tree branches clawed at the sky like skeletal fingers, their bark dark gray as if burned in a fire. Only a few plants retained any of their leaves, and those were usually in shades of deep red. The temperature rose a few degrees, as well.
“Rather ominous, don’t you think?” I asked my horse. “I need to stop talking to you. You’re a horse. Maybe I should find some friends out here.” I looked over to my right, where some creature that looked like an overgrown hyena wandered around. It spotted me, and watched me from a distance. Probably not friend material.
When the sun was twice its height above the horizon, I decided to look for a place to camp. I still didn’t like camping off the road—it seemed the road was much safer than the lands on either side—but I didn’t have much choice. No point in setting up a tent only to have a wagon ride through it.
To my left a large boulder jutted up from the ground, so I turned Misty that way. It wasn’t a perfect campsite, but it was better than being out in the open.
When we arrived there I untacked my horse and brushed her down, then set up my camp. The magical camp always amazed me at how quickly it arranged itself. Even the small fire, which lit itself and crackled merrily.
I didn’t have much to eat, so I snacked on some bread that Marla had given me and reminded myself to get more food in Easthaven. My stomach growled, reminding me that I needed to take better care of myself, especially with all the physical work I was doing.
After a long day that included almost dying, I didn’t stay up late. As soon as I washed down my meager dinner with lukewarm water, I went over to my bedroll. I briefly thought of stripping down, but removing all my magical gear would also remove the stat bonuses. When I slept in a bed, I could do that. Out here in this crazy world, I needed to stay alert. Still, I pulled my boots off before lying down.
The moment I closed my eyes, I drifted off to sleep. Once again, my dreams were filled with fire. Fire and screaming.
The screaming in one of my dreams turned into a horse’s screams, and my eyes snapped open. I stamped my feet into my boots and pushed my tent flap open.
Misty was pulling against her lengthy reins, trying to escape. I pulled Abram’s sword from my inventory and into my hand—really, I was getting good at using that as a sort of quick-draw move—and looked around us.
Being in the campsite, I was hidden from sight. But my horse wasn’t. One of those big hyena things was stalking closer, its orange glowing eyes focused on Misty. One look at the beast and it was clear it intended to eat my horse.
“Not today, pal,” I said, raising my sword in both hands.
I stopped myself before attacking, though. Abraxis had told me the campsite hid me from sight, and if that was true then the hyena couldn’t see me. It certainly acted like it couldn’t see me; its eyes focused on Misty and it continued walking closer as if nothing else existed.
Fire Hyena. Level 15
Okay, so that wasn’t good news, but also not bad news. Especially if the element of surprise was on my side. I held my sword in both hands and waited for the hyena to walk near my campsite. Poor Misty was losing her mind, and trying her best to tear free from her reins.
As soon as the hyena got close enough, I rushed forward with my sword overhead. I brought it down in a powerful arc, hacking deeply into the hyena’s torso and severing its spine. My increased Strength stat was really showing its value.
The hyena howled in pain as its back half went limp, but immediately turned and dragged itself toward me with only its front paws. A faint orange light glowed deep in the creature’s open mouth.
“Jesus christ, you’re disgusting,” I said, bringing my sword up again. My next attack connected with the hyena’s neck, severing it and sending the head to the ground. A thin stream of molten…something, spilled out of the hyena’s neck and onto the ground, where it caused the dry ground to smolder.
As if regular hyenas weren’t bad enough, we now had ones with burning vomit. Great.
I hurried over to my horse to try to calm her. The hyena being dead certainly helped, but she still rolled her eyes and kicked her feet as if to warn any other hyenas that she was a formidable opponent.
At a second scream from Misty, I turned and pulled my sword into my hand again. A second hyena was approaching us, stalking us like a three-hundred-pound cat that didn’t care if it was seen. This one was level fourteen.
I held my sword in front of me to keep the creature at bay—well, to try. It completely ignored my sword and lunged fearlessly. I twisted my wrists and slapped the hyena down with the edge of my blade, opening up a thick gash on its head.
It made a coughing noise and tossed its head, sending a splatter of molten puke in my direction. Some got on my forearm, but I managed to dodge the rest. I yelped in shock as the small spot on my arm almost immediately charred black and my hitpoints went down by four. My horse screamed behind me, telling me that some had gotten on her as well. I felt oddly weaker from the attack.
I jabbed with Abram’s Sword, using the length of the blade to keep the hyena away from me. I landed several stabs on its face, one of them ruining its eye. Its attacks didn’t slow, and the bastard was faster than me. Only a bit of luck kept my sword between us. I managed to twist my blade at the right moment and the hyena impaled itself.
Once the battle was done I stood there, leaning forward with my hands on my knees to catch my breath. My arm hurt like fucking hell, even though it was just a small spot, maybe an inch in diameter. I checked my stats and saw that I had a negative two to my strength.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. I had to keep that in mind when fighting those assholes.
I turned and checked on my horse. She had a few burned spots on her flanks, but nothing large or concerning. I cast Light Healing on her and watched the wounds fade away. I also noticed I had regained some of my mana while I slept, but not all. I still had to figure out how that worked.
“Let’s get some more sleep, girl,” I said, patting Misty on the shoulder.
She flinched, but eventually went back to eating. Nothing seemed to bother her too much, although her chowing down on grass gave me an idea.
“We’re going to find some better food tomorrow, okay?” I said. She ignored me. I turned and looked at the hyena, but that was the last thing I wanted to eat. I felt sick just thinking about it.
I woke the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed, especially considering I had fought off two hyenas in the middle of the night. I figured that was the magical campsite at work.
My stomach growled at me, and I decided against eating more of Marla’s bread. First off, bread made for a shitty breakfast; second, I wanted to use my hunger as motivation.
Once I broke camp I saddled my horse and rubbed her neck for a few minutes, just making sure she was a happy beast. She seemed fine, so I pulled myself into the saddle and turned us back south. Well, I thought it was south—back toward the castle.
I didn’t want to take longer to get to Easthaven, but the truth was I needed some food badly. And up here on this dry, cracked ground, I hadn’t seen anything that looked edible yet. As if to punctuate my thought, a sudden blast of fire erupted from the ground off to my right, sending flame twenty feet in the sky.
I booted Misty into a slow canter, which she surprisingly held for an hour without issue. That got us back to a place where grass still covered the ground, so I turned off the road and started wandering.
“And here I am, without a bow and arrow,” I muttered to myself. I really needed to get better at planning this shit.
It took me another hour of wandering, but I finally found a flock of something that looked like sheep, grazing on the dry grass. The notification said they were sheep and level two, but their wool was the wrong color. Some were ashen gray, some were dark red.
I pulled my sword into my right hand and leaned down to my horse.
“Alright, Misty. I need you to chase one of them down, okay?” She didn’t respond so I just patted her on the neck.
We moved closer, keeping to a slow pace so we didn’t scare them. They were sheep, so they were pretty timid, though we got rather close before any of them bothered moving away.
I selected a particularly large one nearby and turned Misty toward him. After a deep breath, I booted her into a run.
The sheep immediately bolted, but it ran in a straight line. Misty easily caught up with it and ran beside, almost seeing it as a race or a game. I brought my sword down, cleaving the sheep’s head in two.
“Woah, girl,” I said, pulling on the reins and slowing my horse.
I turned her back around and we went to the corpse. After dismounting, I switched from my massive sword to one of my daggers. Never before had I skinned and cleaned an animal, but it didn’t seem too hard: discard the guts, pull away the skin, carve off the good pieces.
It was a chubby sheep, which benefitted me. The fat would be extra calories and help me go longer. I wound up pulling a dozen cuts of raw meat into my inventory, including an entire leg and the ribs. If things could survive a fire in the inventory system, I figured meat wouldn’t go bad. At least, I hoped, or else I’d be in for a rather unpleasant surprise.
I used my water skin to wash my hands, then went back to Misty. After a brief moment of consideration, I pulled out my magical camp there and set it up.
Thirty minutes later I was chewing on a medium-rare slab of meat and washing it down with bread and water. Still a bit bland, but at least I felt like I wouldn’t starve any time soon. Hell, I could even make a sandwich if I wanted to.
Once I was done, I mounted my horse and we went back to the road. It took us a while to get back to where we had camped the night before. I just accepted that today had been a wash and it added an extra day to my travels. That was fine, at least I had food. Now I just needed a beer.
I was more careful selecting my campsite that night. I knew the lands around me were dangerous, so I found a small rock outcropping and set up our camp in the shadow of the boulders. It would have to work.
Once I had my horse relaxing and the camp erected, I spent a few minutes circling the campsite, looking for tracks or any signs of danger. No Fire Hyenas, which was good. Nothing else either, just dry, red ground.
I angled a rack of ribs above my small fire and went back to searching the area while they cooked. After being woken up by two of those creatures, I wanted to put in the extra effort to feel safe. There was nothing around me but desolate ground as far as I could see.
After a surprisingly decent dinner, I curled up and went to sleep. Fortunately, I had no nightmares involving fire that night. In fact, I had no dreams at all. Just blissful sleep.
“Alright girl, we should arrive in Easthaven today,” I said to Misty the next morning as I patted her on the neck. We got onto the road and set off at a fast walk. The exercise seemed to be doing her some good; she was more full of energy than the first day I had ridden her.
I ate my lunch in the saddle, although I did slow my horse down and let her graze a bit. No need to push her too hard. Once we were done, we got back on the road and kept moving. I wanted to make good time.
Some time after lunch, I saw buildings silhouetted along the horizon. A smile spread across my face and I booted Misty into a canter for a moment so we could arrive more quickly.
“Almost there,” I said to myself. It felt like quite an accomplishment—starting in that cave only a handful of days ago at level one, and now being level thirteen with good gear and a horse. I felt like I was going to make it.
And I felt that way until I entered Easthaven.
Chapter
Fifteen
At first glance, everything seemed fine. It was just another pseudo-medieval walled town. The walls were an obvious requirement considering all the crazy shit running around out here, and while they had clearly seen better days, they still remained upright around the town.
From the distance I could see a few soldiers patrolling atop the battlements. It looked like two were flanking the gate, checking on the people entering and exiting the town. And there were plenty more people here than in Holden, which was nice to see—a steady throng passed through the gates, some even passing me on the road.
When I got closer, I began to pick up on something being a bit…off, about Easthaven. The guards flanking the gate wore shining breastplates over mail skirts, but had red cloaks covering much of that. No, not cloaks. Robes. And something about the color of them tugged at my memory.
I pulled the Fire Magus robe from my inventory into my hands for a brief second. It was the same exact shade of red. In fact, it looked like the same exact robe. I hurriedly put it away.
At least the guards didn’t have charred eye sockets, like the Fire Magi did. They looked to be normal humans. One nodded at me when I passed him and entered the town, the other ignored me completely.
Easthaven was notably larger than Holden, which made me glad. A larger town meant more opportunity. I tried to think of what else I might be able to see here as I slowly rode Misty down the cobblestone street. The clop-clop of her hooves was loud compared to the people walking around me. A few people gave me annoyed glances—the one guy riding a horse while everyone else walked.
I decided that first, I needed a bed and some food. Fortunately, inns weren’t too hard to find, as they were usually a good bit larger than the other buildings. I cast my eyes around until I saw a three-story building made of stone and brick with a steep roof, then steered Misty toward it.
