Better Than One - Chapter 4 Whats In The Box?

Energized after our afternoon nap, we found a nice hefty branch in the forest to do pull ups. Have you ever seen a fat Ogre do a pull up? Me neither, because we didn’t manage to do a single one. She quickly abandoned that for some jumping jacks, push ups, and burpees.

Calisthenics, was what we were doing. It was not what she called it, but I knew it soon as we started. It was a gravity fighting regime, and there was a whole 270 pounds worth of gravity for us to fight. It went about as well as I expected. She might have been fully in control of both arms and legs, but I felt every bit of pain and misery of her unrelenting drive. I had to commend her for her determination, I had no idea that she had it in her. I would have quit much sooner. After what felt like two hours (it was more like thirty minutes) we threw in the towel. Gravity had decidedly won after beating us to a sweaty, pulpy mess.

We spent the time after boot camp roaming around to cool down and pick up winterbells and other herbs that she could identify. As it turned out, she was a herbalist and an alchemist to boot. She managed to find a few Bluethorns and a single Redcap, a red mushroom with white spots that looked exactly what a cover for Poisonous Mushrooms guide book would have, or so I was convinced. She insisted it was editable if properly prepared, and that she’d brew us a small healing potion with it. I would have suggested that she try it first herself, but under the circumstances, the point was moot.

Suddenly, a cracked branch alerted us to company. To my side, a distance away, three brutes emerged. We froze and Estra stopped talking. We followed their every move as they steadily progressed past us at a leisurely walk, somehow not noticing us. Our heart was in my throat the entire time.

They were about as tall as us and were built purely out of muscle. Their blueish white skin was overlaid with leather garments, and they were wielding bloodied spears, axes and shields. One was dragging some sort of a dead creature by its hind leg, probably dinner. Their faces were vicious looking, like a mix between a human and bulldog, with large protruding teeth.

I was in a panic. They haven’t noticed us, so maybe we should ambush them? Or maybe run back to the kobolds for help? Probably not, we couldn’t outrun an elderly senior, and those kobolds would just hide. I was certain that my club and Estra’s [Fireballs] wouldn’t be enough against all three. I tightened my grip around the club and waited. Moments ticked by like hours. And just when I thought they noticed us, the problem resolved itself. One of them gave us a bored wave, while the other two kept walking without a bother.

“Those were Orcs, they would have killed me if I was human.” Estra said once they were well past us.

“Well, huh… Welcome to the dark side, right?” I said, and gave a nervous laugh. “We should probably find out from Zeeld what else is out here before we start roaming around any further out.” I was feeling light headed from the heavy breathing.

“Should the Orcs be this close to the capital? How’s nobody patrolling and killing them out here? Aren’t we kind of close?” I asked.

“Capital? No, Belspring is a hundred miles from here. We ran from Fort Sumner.” She said, and I noticed it was the first time she used ‘we’ and it made me happy. We were making progress. We sat on our tired ass to catch our breath, and then trudged back home; it was getting late and we were getting hungry.

Back at the cave we found Zeeld in his chief’s room, bedridden. He wasn’t doing well and it wasn’t anything that [Heal] could help, Estra tried. His labored breathing and frequent hacking brought back my memories of Grandpa, who was a pack a day and a handle of whiskey type.

“Is there a cure disease spell, or a potion?” I asked, and Estra shook her head.

“It’s just old age, it can’t be cured.” She said. Though, myself I suspected that the air quality in this place had a lot to do with his condition. This smoke filled cave, with a smithy and a constant cooking fire should be addressed. Proper ventilation needs to be installed, my inspection voice kicked in and my hands itched for my clipboard.

We took a bowl of food to our room – a thick white soup with meaty bits that were chewy like a squid. While I was gulping that down, Estra was doing Alchemy. She borrowed a crude mortar and pestle and was grinding Bluethorns into a paste. The Redcap needed to be dried first, so it was hung on the rack with other spices and mushrooms the Kobolds were drying by the fire. I was certain that they’d freak out at the sight of a highly poisonous mushroom, but just like Estra they were not alarmed.

There was a commotion in the central communal area, so we went to investigate. I took my soup bowl along. Zeeld and his bed were just outside the tunnel to the chief’s room. There were many Kobolds gathered. It was impossible to read their expressions, but the mood felt dire. There was muttering in the room, but nobody was saying anything loudly for me to figure out what was going on. We went over to look at Zeeld, but he was still alive, though barely. His breathing was coming with a wheeze and his skin tone was a shade lighter.

Estra recognized Zeek, his oldest son, the one she healed before. “What’s wrong?” She asked. He seemed unsettled, visibly shaking. In his hands was his father’s ivory cane, but in two pieces, the top handle was pulled out to reveal a thin round blade attached to the handle. The cane had an ice pick built into it. The mood felt heavier and heavier by the minute.

Without a word, Zeek dropped the cane and ran. Gasps spread through the crowd, but nobody moved to stop him, and nobody left. A few minutes later and nothing had changed. I didn’t understand what we were waiting for. Finally, we got the story. I was shocked, but Estra saw it otherwise.

She picked up the fancy ice pick and looked around the room. Nobody said anything or tried to stop her, surrounded as we were. With a finished bowl of soup in one hand and an ice pick in the other, we approached his bed. Zeeld managed to roll his head upwards to look up at the ceiling. She lined up the ice pick to his forehead and looked around the room. We took a deep breath and she pushed it all the way down to its ivory handle that showed decades of wear by its many previous owners. His body convulsed, and then stopped.

Essence gained: +1,150 [Current: 1,955. Total: 26,613]

The logic was simple, but ruthless. Old people died, and it would be a waste to lose their essence when a small portion of it could be passed on, like an inheritance. Along with the chief’s cane, Estra also got his jewellery that she coveted. Zeeld’s remains would be burned at high noon the following day. We moved in to chief’s room and I examined the skulls on the shelves. There were thirteen of them, and all of them with a small hole. Ten were Kobold, but the other three were bigger and not reptilian.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, worried that she might be traumatized by killing Zeeld.

“Oh, I used to hunt kobolds back in the Academy.” She told me with a chuckle. “This brought back some memories.” She had surprised me once again, and I wondered what sort of a monster I was attached to. I wouldn’t have had it in me to do it. This world, however, was different, more cruel. I had better start adjusting accordingly, because I may not have the leisure to always act morally.

The chest in the chief’s room wasn’t locked. Inside were a number of iron made weapons such as spearheads, short daggers, axe heads and a couple of short swords. It was most likely the production output of the smithy that this clan operated, and was probably used for trade.

Importantly, there was also a single spell tome. It was the size of a standard paperback novel, one inch thick. The cover was made of thick leather, dyed blue, finely embossed with intricate patterns. Tooled and painted into the leather, was the title, “Kinetic Spike” and subtitled, “Tier 1.”

Estra told me that it was an offense spell. Nothing too fancy, it wasn’t as powerful as the [Fireball] spell, but it would be potent once upgraded with Essence. Seeing how I had no spells, this would allow me to utilize my mana pool. I was itching with excitement. Magic, here I come!

As far as learning the spell, it proved far more simple than I had imagined. I opened the book to the first page and it was blank. A simple prompt came up, [Do you wish to learn Kinetic Spike?] [Yes] [No.] I mentally selected [Yes], the prompt closed and the book simply vanished. That was it.

I feared that I did something wrong. There was no magical light show, no heavenly chorus, no bells or whistles. And my mind wasn’t flooded with arcane knowledge of hidden truths of the universe. It was as if nothing happened.

I looked over to her, confused, and asked, “W-what now?”

She sighed, and said, “where are you from again?” Her voice came out irritated. I had gone over it with her once before, but either she didn’t care or simply ignored what I had said. This time she paid attention. Judging from her expression, she didn’t realize what I had told her. I wasn’t from this world, I was from Earth. She had assumed I was some unlucky commoner.

“And there’s no magic there!? On Earth?” She asked.

“Right, it’s a completely different world. There’s no Kobolds there, Orcs or Ogres, either. Just lots and lots of humans.”

After a bit of back and forth describing the basics of living on Earth we got back to casting spells. I left a lot of details, especially concerning nukes, cars and other technology. She was rather disappointed with Earth, and I would have been too if I knew that magic was possible.

To cast the spell, I just needed to will it mentally. I lifted my arm, pointed a finger at the wall and thought about casting [Kinetic Spike.] And that’s when the magic happened. Over two seconds a spike the size of a crossbow bolt formed just past my finger tips. Once fully opaque the rocky projectile sped up and hit the wall, splintering it into many pieces. The pieces stopped moving and all remains of the spike simply vanished. I was hoping to say it was impressive, even incredible, but honestly, it felt a bit underwhelming, especially compared to Estra [Fireballs.] I guess I just need to wait and see once it’s upgraded.

At 120 mana per cast, I’d be able to shoot just nine, before I mostly run out. I selected the spell in my status screen.

Spell: [Kinetic spike]

Tier: 1

Mana: 120

Cast time: 2 seconds

Materialize and shoot a small stone spike. Projectile speed and size depends on [Intelligence.]

[Kinetic spike] Upgrades:

[t1] Faster cast speed (-10%) 100 Essence

[t1] Lower mana cost (-10%) 100 Essence

[t1] Harder material (+10%) 100 Essence

[t1] Extra projectile (+1) 300 Essence

I understood why my spike was so short and thin – at 89, my [Intelligence] was less than the starting average. I left the upgrading for the next day. Figured I’d sleep on it.