Enigmatic Crusade

The kobolds weren’t what Valen expected. For some reason the fantasy creatures had always been similar to lizards in his mind. These were more like cats and dogs. Bipedal, they had two arms and walked on two legs. Fur covered their bodies. They walked hunched over, wearing gear slightly better than the goblins he had seen so far. Mainly scraps of leather, but also some metal mixed in for buckles and clips. 

 

Having run into a squad of them randomly, Valen followed behind slowly. The kobolds were mostly canine, but there was a feline leader. It’s long tail holding onto a lantern in the evening light. As he followed them North, Valen was surprised to see that the terrain began to change. No more massive trees and grass everywhere, he started to see large boulders strewn across the invisible path the kobolds followed. 

Eventually they came to a side of a rocky hill. The kobolds barked and garbled at one another, then entered into some secret passage. Disappearing into the rocky hill. 

 

“What to do,” he mumbled to himself as he chewed on some worg meat. Thankful for all the cooking lessons Aunt Fiona forced on him, Valen had been able to save some money by smoking the meat of the canines. He hadn’t been comfortable eating goblins, but the worgs were a good treat. More meat than he knew what to do with he had plenty in his Spacial Bag. 

 

Valen still hadn’t found the maximum capacity of the bag. He knew that it was somehow enchanted by the system to hold far more than was possible. But thus far his needs for breaks and sleep back in town had allowed him to keep it from filling all the way. The pack hardly weighing anything he thanked the dead adventurer for their gift once more. 

“What…to…do,” he repeated. The sun was disappearing in the West but he did have some light. No real curfew or anyone to piss off, he decided to at least check the cave out. 

 

For all he knew it was an outpost of the kobolds and he would have to follow another group to get to the main stronghold. Organized monsters like the goblins and kobolds always had leaders. He still had the quest to kill the Goblin Chief, but hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the monster. He hoped running into the kobolds would lead him to their chief and subsequently a quest would pop up. Granted he had no idea how strong these bosses were…and he was alone…but he was a city lord. That had to mean something. 

 

When he felt like the kobolds weren’t going to head back out he slowly moved toward the hole in the hillside. The treeline abruptly ended as the environment changed from grass to rock. The hill itself was rather large. A few more hills on either side of this one he wondered what made this one so special that the kobolds would live there. 

 

Back when New Rapids was smaller there had been such groupings of monsters near town. He distinctly remembered raids conducted by massive goblins, serpent monsters, and other monsters that lived in the area. Towns all over the world were parked next to similar issues. Raging had completely destroyed the threat of such attacks over the years, but Valen couldn’t help but think that was the problem with the larger city. 

He was encroaching on the ecosystem of these monsters. His town, if he could get it to grow, would maybe span all the way there. Granted he knew he had to kill the kobolds, but he didn’t want to completely eradicate the monsters. They were doing wonders for his levels. If he was going to run a town he wanted to do it right, and not make the same mistakes the current City Lords did. 

 

Killing them was his immediate goal, but he hoped there was a way to push them further away from town. Potentially establishing a replenishing monster farm of kobolds for him and his future citizens. 

“Look at you,” he mumbled to himself. “The ever considerate lord of…your hovel,” he said with a sigh. His Domain had actually risen to level 2 thanks to the quests he had been completing. But for the time being he couldn’t feel the stat gains and he needed a lot more money to get what he wanted for the town. 

 

“Let’s go,” he said and stepped away from the trees. His new leather boots, bought from his General Store, made loud crunching sounds on the jagged black gravel he walked on. The noise felt like it echoed all around him. Holding his mace in hand and ready to cast Retribution instantly he made his way to the small darkening of the hill. 

 

As he got closer he noticed that the small entrance the kobolds used was between two large boulders set into the hill. At least a little hopeful that there might be another dungeon entrance he walked toward the butt crack of the hill with as much stealth as he could muster. 

 

A cool wind blew from the thin cave, smelling of sulfur. Valen ignored it and stepped inside. No candles or anything to light the way he reached into his pack and pulled out a store bought torch. Constructed by the System, he struck the tip of the torch against the wall and it lit. It had cost him a whole 2 scrap, but it was worth it since he didn’t have to mess with a flint again. 

 

The red glow of the fire on the torch illuminated the cave. It appeared to drop down into darkness. “At least there aren’t any spiders….I hope,” He mumbled as he ventured inside. His high strength stat made him feel a lot better as he gripped rocks and slowly descended into the cave. 

 

Winding down slowly, the tunnel leveled off again just below him. The smell of almost rotten eggs was rather powerful, but easy to deal with. He grew up in a neighborhood where indoor plumbing was rare. Outhouses had been his only form of relief all his life so bad smells weren’t new to him. Continuing on he found footprints of the kobolds. All jumbled together they followed the only path available to them. 

When he got to T-intersection he followed their tracks. Ducking down to make it through tight spaces he began to crawl and crouch his way through. Annoyed at how small the kobolds could become he cursed as the torch flared up randomly. 

 

“That’s odd,” he mumbled. He had seen candles on the kobolds, so he assumed fire was safe in the confines of the cave. Unsure what exactly to do he considered turning around and coming back during the day, but in the end he pressed on. The tunnel widened and he was able to walk more freely. Which was most likely why he missed the trap. 

 

It was rather simple. Just a string, lever and the once steady ground underneath his feet gave way. Rocks from above fell with him into the pit below where he had been crawling. A couple stray chunks of stone stuck him in the head. There was no time to react as he landed hard on a large boulder. The wind knocked out of him he coughed allowing dirt into his mouth as the ground gave way again. 

 

For some reason Valen didn’t think the trap was supposed to do that. But he was falling once more. This time with the sidewalls coming down with him. The roar of rocks and dirt in his ears it sounded like a stampede all around him until the boulder underneath him struck a new level and this time he fell into a wide cavern. 

 

Falling through the air for a long time he turned in the air to see the boulder strike a massive pond of water. Cursing, he put his hands in front of his face to protect him as he dove into the cold water, right on top of the boulder. Dark water cascading all around him Valen forced himself to not take a lungful of water into his lungs out of surprise. 

Going under the water more rocks fell from above, but the water softened them. Still reeling from his pain he cast Heal on himself. White light engulfed him and energy filled his body as his pain disappeared. 

 

When the sound of falling rubble subsided he swam a little away and surfaced. Looking around the torch light had disappeared as it struck the water after him. “Fuck,” he cursed as his voice echoed over the somehow already calm pond. The noise also echoed upward in the wide cavern overtop him. 

“What is with me and caves?” Valen asked. Whenever he had troubles it was usually underground as of late. Trying his best to ignore it, Valen cast Retribution straight up. White light shot out from his hand. During the quick second of light he looked up to see where he had come from. A large gaping hole in the roof was a good 50 feet up. He knew he wasn’t going to reach that easily. He shot another Retribution outward. This time he found a large rock sitting just above the water. 

Swimming over to it blindly he eventually got to the platform of a rock and was able to climb up to it. The damp stone was cool to the touch as he moved from handhold to handhold by touch alone. When he was on a mostly flat part of the boulder he laid down on his back to catch his breath. Staring up at the darkness he let out an annoyed sigh. 

Once he was breathing normally he didn’t see any reason to rest more since he was fully healed thanks to his spell. Sitting up he reached into his spacial bag. Thinking of firewood, some he stored inside the other day came to his hand, then some wood shavings for kindling, and finally a flint. After feeling around to make sure the area was mostly dry he found a good spot to make a fire and began to get it going. 

It took about 10 minutes, which was a far cry from the hour-long battle it took him the first time last week. After that he pulled out some fish from the bag. He had caught plenty due to all the streams in the area. There was a reason goblins and worgs lived there, fresh game was plentiful. Curious if there were fish or perhaps monsters in the pond he tried to use Identify in random spots, but no screen came up. 

Finally with some firelight available, Valen looked around the cavern as the fish cooked. The expansive underground pool was a dome shape, the water was a good 100 yards across. The ceiling where he had been dropped from was about 50 feet up, and there were no apparent exits. Some random underground pond before him, the sulfur smell was practically non-existent. No more torches available, Valen had enough wood for some makeshift ones, but he didn’t want to do that. 

 

“I need to learn my abilities,” he said. Helen of Destroy had shown him how important learning to use your skills was. Usually when the experienced adventurer talked to him she played with her essence. Somehow calling fire to her palm she would twist it around her fingers, controlling the skill better than anyone he had seen. 

“There has to be a way to do that,” he said. Valen had been thinking about it for a while. No, he couldn’t control fire, at least not yet. But he did have the Holy faculty. Every time he used his ability white light shot out of him. He needed to be able to control that light. The Skills had been too new to him before, but lately he could almost grasp where that power came from. Where he drew the essence from to make the skill happen. 

“I need to learn my skills,” he said more firmly. So caught up in making sure his home was safe he had killed a lot of monsters near Valiance. If they did attack his home he would get a notification of it, and could rush to get back there. Until then Valen wanted to know if he could control the holy essence he channeled for his skills. Make his own light so he didn’t have to keep buying torches. 

 

With plenty of food on him. Apparently safe from monsters for the time being. He had no real distractions in this dark secluded place. Maybe if he hadn’t been holding the torch he could have grabbed onto the wall to save himself. For now he needed to do his best to learn his abilities before trying to take on anything too strong. He had been lucky so far, and it was time to learn what his true capabilities were. 

 

At first he decided to focus on Holy. He could only cast Leech Life on targets, and he didn’t have enough experience to discern the subtle differences between the two faculties. That was another task he wanted to complete. So he cast Retribution. But instead of a quick blast of holy white light, Valen tried to see how much he could do. He had cast a really strong attack to kill the Black Ooze. He wanted to be able to do that at will. 

 

So with as much focus as he could muster Valen cast Retribution over the pond. The white light shot out and abruptly ended before he wanted it to. “Fucker,” he mumbled at his hand then did it again. This time the skill ended before he willed it, again. 

“This is going to take a while,” he mused as he did it again and again. 

 

It wasn’t long until he was out of essence. “Another thing I need to know,” Valen said. He had to learn how to gauge how often he could cast skills. The adventurers were adamant that skills was powered by essence. How did Valen get the essence though? How often did he have to wait between casts? Did skills have different essence requirements? There were so many answers he needed to find out, so he got to work. 

 

—

 

The first thing Valen found out was that he could cast a Retribution after about 10 minutes. He had heard Wisdom affected essence replenishment, so he did need to have that. But as he continued to focus on just using his skills he found that he could speed his essence gathering along a little. Not overly much, but if he relaxed, focused on breathing in and out, he could cast a Retribution after about 8 minutes. He didn’t have a clock, but his internal clock was pretty experienced since Aunt Fiona was adamant about being on time. Thanks to that he was confident in his estimations. 

After understanding the rate of essence replenishment, he made himself wait until his essence was topped off. Valen really didn’t know how to tell when his essence was full. Instead he switched gears to continuously use all of his Essence. It took hours but he eventually started to understand when he was empty. 

It wasn’t exactly empty of course. He still had energy to move around, prompting him to do pushups and other minor tasks to wear his body out. But he did feel something inside of him cease to be there. After nearly a dozen times waiting for his essence to rebuild enough for one Retribution he used the skill and felt a power leave him from his chest. 

 

A source of power was right behind his sternum. As he isolated where it was over and over, he started to be able to feel the power shoot from his chest, through his arm and out of his palm. Allowing him to identify the source of where his essence was stored.  

It took time but he started to picture this source like a core. Just like the one he found left by the Black Ooze. Pulling out the black Shadow Core he got from the Ooze, the marble sized sphere was what made the ooze different from most monsters. Valen had looked in goblins and worgs sporadically, but he never found a core like the ooze’s. He had always heard that only higher level monsters and essence focused ones had them. So he was starting to believe that everyone that could use skills/essence, had a core. That core collected and stored essence to be used by him with his skills. 

 

It was plausible. He had never heard this before, but maybe there were cores in everyone that had skills. Or at least mages. If that was true, he wouldn’t be too surprised to learn people dug them out of adventurers for the money. Maybe that was why it was a well kept secret.

“Do I have a shadow and holy core?” He wondered. Since he was alone in the underground cavern, Valen was still unable to cast Leech Life. He planned to find out for sure. But there was a lot more to learn until then. Having found the core, or more accurately his idea of where his power came from, he went to sleep. 

After awakening and noticing he was still alone, he went to work again. This time trying to gauge how much power he used, Valen focused on making weak Retribution blasts. As he practiced more and more he was starting to feel the essence move through his body more easily, and eventually he succeeded in holding back the power so Retribution was weaker than normal. 

He couldn’t celebrate yet though. Constantly using his skills, meditating to replenish his essence, and searching around the cavern, he stayed busy and content. He was learning more about how the System had changed him and it was paying off. There was no money being made, but Valen felt that this foundation was important. 

On the second full day in the bottom of the cavern, Valen could actually cause his hand to glow. He could keep the clean white energy pouring out of his hand for almost an hour. Allowing him to search every nook and cranny in the place, eventually leading him to an underwater exit. The exit was a small tunnel that led to another air pocket and passage. 

 

Instead of escaping though, Valen kept at it. Satisfied with holding the power back, he focused on trying to control the power more. Making the blast from Retribution smaller, like a laser, or a wave to perhaps attack more foes at once. It was slow going since he had to wait for his essence to fully come back, but he did have a nice gain. 

 

Congratulations:

Your conviction has allowed you to push past previous limits.

1+ Wisdom

 

His gathering of essence raising again, Valen went to his practice with increased fervor. Over the coming days he learned to gauge how much essence he used, feel the essence used, and raised his wisdom by 2. By the end he could recoup his essence enough for a blast in 6 minutes. And regain all of his essence in an hour of meditation. This was a huge boon for him and made him more confident with his chances out there. 

So long in the dark Valen was even starting to think he could feel the essence around him as he gathered it. But happy with his gains he decided to venture out into the wider caves again. Try his chances at finding and defeating some kobolds.