Enigmatic Crusade

“What…the…hell,” Valen said through chattering teeth. He looked through his notifications, but he didn’t receive any from the fight. His mind sluggish he pulled out the bodies of the kobolds he had and began ripping off their loin clothes. Trying to stack as much clothing on his body as possible he continued to shiver and shake. 

“So…sick,” he said through chattering teeth. The words slowly meant something to him. Casting Heal on himself, Valen didn’t have a whole lot of essence, but he did feel slightly better. As he looked over his body for the culprit that was causing this he found that one of the wounds from the kobold bites wasn’t healed all the way. Visible bite marks still sunk into his body he had a guess as to what was causing him to feel that way. 

Either the kobolds had a poison, were venomous, or the one that bit him was full of diseases. Since he highly doubted the mammal kobolds were venomous, and he didn’t have any wounds from knives so he wasn’t poisoned, he guessed that he was inflicted with some type of disease. He had seen a few during his time at the Healing House. They ranged from symptoms of not allowing essence gathering or afflicting stats so Valen brought up his Status Screen. 

 

Name	Valen	Class	Priest
Level	8	Level	8
Race	Human (Low Tier)	Faculties	Holy, Shadow
Law:	Solitude I
Blessing:	Death
Stats:		Stats:
Strength	11	Vitality	10 (-5)
Endurance	8 (-2)	Defense	12
Agility	8	Charisma	6
Dexterity	8	Comprehension	10
Intelligence	11	Empathy	10
Wisdom	8 (-5)	Psyche	8 (-2)
Fate	6	Anima	16
Free Points	0	Free Points	0
Skill	Identify	Skill	Heal
	Sense		Retribution
			Leech Life
Aurous	19 chips 1 scrap		Euphoria
			Empower

 

“Fuck,” he said. He knew there were skills for identifying the types of diseases and losses, but he didn’t have one. Either way this was pretty bad, luckily for him he was a priest. He pulled up his Holy Faculty screen. 

 

Faculty Screen - Holy		Available Pts: 2
Purify (0/3)	Greater Heal (0/5)	Retribution (0/2)
Cleanse poisons and other minor ailments.	Increase the Healing amount done.	Increase the damage done by Retribution

 

High Priest Julian originally stated that Purify was the staple for any Priest. The skill would level up as he put more points in it. Currently it would heal poisons if he put his skill into it, and each point in Purify would give a new bonus. Putting both points into purify it gave him a poison and venom cure.

Casting the skill on himself a white light washed over him, and he felt a little better, but the stat ailments were still there. He brought up the screen. 

 

Faculty Screen - Holy		Available Pts: 0
Purify (2/3)	Greater Heal (0/5)	Retribution (0/2)
Cleanse poisons, venoms, diseases, and other minor ailments.	Increase the Healing amount done.	Increase the damage done by Retribution

 

“Fuck!” He said as he shook. He had to put 1 more point into the skill to get the disease cure. Valen desperately needed to level one more time. 

His body still freezing, his mind sluggish, he forced himself to sit down. Taking in calming breaths it took some time to try to ignore the pain. Using Sense he could feel the essence around him, and slowly it began to enter into him, refilling his core. His body shaking, mind fuzzy, he cursed his own negligence with his skills. 

Though he used Retribution most of the time, he had tried to focus his skills on Shadow, just because it was a change from the holy power that every priest had. Valen was lucky he had a chance of curing the disease at all. Either his own immune system would fight against it, the disease would worsen over time, or he could level and cure it. In the end it didn’t matter, he had to smarten up.

Most groups and cities had pools of people to pull from. Allowing you to optimize your skills and the abilities available. Valen was on his own. He had to be his party's tank, healer, and damage dealer all in one. He would potentially have to spread his faculty points to his different faculties to make certain he had maximum survivability, or else all his effort will have been for not. 

As he regained essence he began to feel a little stronger. Pushing back his pain over and over as he recovered he slowly put a plan in place to recover fully. It would take a lot of hard work, but Valen needed to level, despite his condition. It had taken days of fighting to gain this one level. If he kept running into lower level monsters it would take even longer.

Valen needed to push through this disease. Get past it and kill monsters faster than ever before. “Also, not get bit again,” he said, as he opened his eyes. The dim light of the candles hurting his eyes he coughed more blood up and got up with a groan. He had work to do to get out of there alive, but he planned on making it happen.

 

Leaving the alcove Valen lost his balance and hit the sidewall of the tunnel. Sweating profusely he righted himself and kept on in the direction the last kobolds had attacked from. His mace gripped in one hand he was ready to cast Retribution, but after only a few paces he had to cast a Heal on himself again. 

White light enveloping his body the holy energy gave him some energy. Wiping the sweat from his brow he began again only to find a T-Intersection. This one had tracks coming from both sides. The ailments from the disease already coming back Valen gritted his teeth and went left. His mind only focused on finding more monsters; he almost ran right into another squad. 

 

The small feline kobolds stopped as their dim candles hovered in the air, suspended by their tails. Valen hesitated then as they began to hiss he hit the first one with a Leech Life. Dark essence linked them and one of the kobolds jumped up to the top of the tunnel. Scrambling toward him he threw a Retribution at it as the lifeforce moving into him began to make him feel a little better. 

Focused once more he killed the feline as the one afflicted with Leech Life began to run away. Two of it’s buddies ran toward him, but Valen killed both with a swing of his mace. Cursing and sweating he followed the kobold running away by the shadow link between them. When he caught up to it the beast tried to squeeze into a small crack in the rock, but he yanked it back. 

The kobold scratched and hissed at him, but Valen already had a new plan. Using the mace he cracked the elbows, wrists, then the ankles and knees of the weaker kobold. It screeched with each blow but he ignored it. Then grabbing it by the neck Valen began to drag it with him down the tunnel. The beast yowled in anger, drawing more kobolds to him, and as the Leech Life ended on the beast he just cast another. Giving him some of it’s life force to stave off the effects of the disease, and help him practice his Leech Life. It was a win-win. 

 

—

 

Valen came to slowly. His mind reeling his body hurt all over. Still shivering from the cold he looked down to his body to see himself covered in thick red blood. His mind a haze he noticed a kobold trying to crawl away. It’s legs underneath it were cripple and mishapen. As if on instinct he cast Leech Life on the beast. 

It screeched in fear and anger but lifeforce began to pour into him again. Snippets of the last few hours played through his mind as he scanned through his notifications and it was there. 

 

Congratulations!

Your Class is now level 9

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +3

1+ Faculty Point

Congratulations!

Your Body is now level 9

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +2

 

With a rush of relief he pulled up his Holy faculty and put the last point into Purify. 

 

Faculty Screen - Holy		Available Pts: 0
Purify (3/3)	Greater Heal (0/5)	Retribution (0/2)
Cleanse poisons, venoms, diseases, and other minor ailments.	Increase the Healing amount done.	Increase the damage done by Retribution
			Holy Charge (0/5)	Aura (0/3)	Empowered (0/5)
Focus all of your essence into a single attack or heal.	Heal others around you for a small amount.	Increase the base Essence gain of those affected by Empower.

 

As a sigh of relief left his lips he cast the skill and white light washed all of his pains away. His mind became more clear almost instantly, and the tremors from his body trying to stay warm subsided. As he began to relax he noticed that his stats were back to normal. 

 

“Holy shit,” he grumbled as he tried to look around. The last few hours had felt like some blood filled fever dream. Traveling through dark tunnels. Stumbling upon kobolds. Continuously taking one hostage only to use it as a reserve of life force as he fought against whatever disease was afflicting him. 

 

As he sorted through the memories he looked around to see that he was in a large cavern. Instead of the water filled one like before, this one was lit up with candles on the side walls. Tents put up all around him there were dozens of kobold bodies strewn on the cavern floor. Most had faces and body parts smashed in by his mace, others appeared to have been killed by his Retribution or Leech Life. 

The kobold he was stealing lifeforce from rasped out a sigh as it exhaled it’s last breath. Looking to the monster he didn’t feel too bad about using them like that. The kobolds had no qualms about killing him, that was for sure. Not fully healed yet, Valen cast a Heal on himself as he looked around. 

His spacial bag thrown to the side behind him he went over to it and began throwing corpses in. After two, they stopped going in. Annoyed, Valen had finally found the maximum capacity of the storage item. Pulling corpses out of it he decided to take the bounty quest tails, and the few scraps of metal they wore. Moving through the corpses all around him he actually found some nice daggers and other weapons. 

 

Switching out his own chipped dagger, he did a cursory sweep the valuables. Taking candles, more firewood, some flint, and what looked like needle and thread he noticed a cooking pot in the center of the room. Having apparently interrupted the beasts before they ate, the pot appeared to be some kind of fish stew. After pouring himself a bowl he ate the stale bread of the kobolds and tried to figure out what to do next. 

He vaguely remembered coming into the cavern from an entrance behind him. The kobolds had attacked but most were only around level 5. Valen guessed it was a good 6 hours since he was inflicted with the disease, but it had been touch and go for a while there. His consciousness going in and out he shook his head, surprised that he came out alive. 

Standing up, Valen was going to move to the water barrel at the side of the large room to cool off, but stopped as a small arrow embedded in his thigh. “Fuck!” He said on instinct. Dropping to the ground as another volley of arrows flew at him. Valen turned to see that there was a line of archers facing his way. 

 

The cat ones were busy attaching more arrows as two taller more muscular canine guards barked at them. Feeling better with every second, Valen scanned the room and retreated as fast as he could. By the time he made it to the entrance he had come from the kobolds loosed another set of arrows, but none hit him.

 

Breathing in and out heavily, Valen cursed but pulled out the arrow in his thigh. Casting Heal on himself he felt that he was close to full health. Hiding in the tunnel just outside the cavern he plopped down on the hard rock at his feet and began to meditate. Essence all around him he replenished his stores of power as he felt the power move into him. Long seconds his core refilled and his ears continued to listen for the kobolds. 

The small monsters made scratching sounds as their clawed feet slowly drew toward him. Valen ignored them the best he could. His mind a blank as he continued to draw essence in, the seconds turned into minutes. He needed at least 30 minutes to refill his store of power all the way though. 

As the minutes ticked away, the sound inside the cavern became quieter. Concerned, Valen looked up and down the tunnel. Feeling the air condense slightly he used a blast of Retribution. The white light streaked down the tunnel and hit one of the guard kobolds. The canine growled and dropped to all fours, charging toward him. Valen picked his mace up, twisting it in the air he kept his eye out for the other kobold. Of course they had other tunnels to ambush him, he would have to watch out for more sneak attacks. 

As the larger level 6 kobold came into his reach, Valen struck it in the face with his mace. It yelped and he attached a Leech Life to it. Hitting it’s limbs he grabbed the beast hard and moved it in front of him back into the cavern. The other guard was there, waiting with the feline archers. It barked something and they loosed the attack. This time Valen used the guard he was holding as a shield and ran at them.

They got only one arrow out at him. By the time they had the second notched he was among them casting Retribution and striking with his mace. All of them much smaller, more physically weak, and mostly unarmored, it took one strike to handle the monsters. By the end of the fight the guard he held was mostly dead from the Leech Life and he ended it as well. 

Looking up a small kobold yelped from the opposite entrance they had come from. Dropping to all fours it ran away and Valen gave chase. He didn’t want some long drawn out battle. For the time being he wanted to recover his essence and attack the kobolds in force, later. But that didn’t appear to be in the cards for that day. 

As he caught up to the scout he ran into a much larger grouping of kobolds. All of them level 5, the tunnel was wide enough where they could walk three abreast. Cursing, Valen cast a powerful Retribution. Instead of focusing it to a small point, the white light was spread out in a wave, knocking the front three kobolds down. 

It wasn’t enough to kill them, but it was enough to throw them off a little. As they tumbled back they knocked the kobolds behind themselves down. By the time they were back on their feet, Valen was within arm’s reach. His mace cracking bones, skulls, and knocking away weapons he became a flurry of attacks as they died all around him. 

The scout scampering away again, Valen used Leech Life on it. A thin black string linking them, Valen felt power flow into him again as he finished off this group. When the last one was dead he ran full sprint at the scout. It was slowing down as it’s life force was stolen by him. But just before he grabbed the kobold, a line of archers shot a volley at him. 

 

The tunnels much taller now, the arrows were still knocked away by the ceiling. The archers were too far away for the weapons to be useful. Valen looked up to them to see another larger group. His eyes scanning them he wasn’t too scared about their levels until he noticed the one at the center. 

 

Kobold Chief

Level 10

 

The Chief was immediately obvious. A crown of teeth was overtop it’s head. The teeth each were about six inches long, implying they came from a big monster. The chief was also taller than the other kobolds. At least five feet tall it towered over the rest of the kobolds that surrounded him by at least a foot. 

“Finally,” Valen said. He didn’t receive any notifications about a quest, but he wouldn’t pass up this opportunity. After so long hoping to happen upon the goblin chief, he was glad at least this kobold one came to him. It grunted a few guttural words to those around him. The kobolds at his side spread out, the felines in front preparing their bows. 

Valen sped up, kicking away the scout he cast another Leech Life on it as it yelped. Moving past the beast the archers moved aside to let the bigger canine kobolds through. Valen used Identify on the first one. 

 

Kobold Guard

Level 8

 

The levels of the monsters around his own, he would have to give his all. Closing his eyes for a split second he felt his core. After so long practicing with it, the core felt as if it was about 20% full. Hoping that was enough, Valen met the weapon of the first guard. It was a flail with a spiky metal ball at the end. His mace striking the chain the weapon wrapped around it and he slapped the guard with a holy infused open palm. 

 

Using the white light of retribution on his hand it added some power as the guard was knocked off it’s feet. Stealing the flail as the guard dropped he ripped the mace from it and swung both weapons at the other two guards. 

Danger flared in his mind and he ducked. An arrow streaking over his head Valen groaned as a knife appeared in his back. Lost for a moment he turned to see another feline striking him over and over with a blade. “Fucking rogue!” He roared, pissed at the beast and himself for forgetting rogues were a thing. 

His mace swung back but the kobold dodged, lithe as a snake. The two guards in front of him recovered from his blow and grabbed onto him. Valen cursed as three arrows were shot at him. All three struck his chest, pounding into him. His vision blurred as pain coursed through his chest. The short bows of the kobolds were not overly powerful, but each arrow caused serious pain which was adding up. 

 

The felines drew more arrows, but they stopped as the chief barked at them. All kobolds coming to attention the chief stepped through the archers. The monsters, obviously scared of the stronger chief, bowed slightly. Valen looked up at it annoyed. It hefted it’s larger head mace over it’s shoulder like a sledgehammer and walked over to him. 

A part of Valen felt like he had seen this before. Instantly he remembered the Hoffstetter kid stealing his and Peter’s kill. Coming through in the last second to reap all the essence. Annoyed, Valen felt his rage boil over. As the kobold walked confidently toward him he used a burst of strength to stand up. 

 

Ripping his hands from the guard’s grip he poured the last of his essence into his palms. His white glowing hands blinding everyone around them he latched onto the chief and with a roar, his hands seared the flesh of the beast. Fur burning instantly the kobold chief swung the mace at him, but Valen wasn’t done. Pulling an arrow out of his chest he stabbed it into the eye of the chief. 

A loud whimper let out by the chief only lent him more power as Valen pulled the other two arrows out and stabbed again. The chief swung the mace blindly but Valen’s vision swirled as he lost balance, narrowly allowing him to duck under the heavy metal head of the weapon. Falling forward he grunted as the pain all over his body kept him conscious. Rolling to the side the large mace of the chief cratered the rock floor where he had been. 

 

Grabbing at the dagger at his waist Valen stabbed the chief in the side as the guard and rogue kobolds stabbed at him. Determined to not let himself die without all he had he continued to stab at the chief over and over. 

 

The chief dropped and with a yell Valen stabbed it right in the eye. The arrow sunk in deep causing the chief to shiver once and lay still. 

 

Trying his best to ignore the pain in him Valen turned to see that the rogue and guards were backing away from him. Getting up on unsteady feet he picked up the mace of the chief as he stumbled but stayed up. Locking eyes with the remaining kobolds they looked to one another and without warning ran away. 

 

They barked and yipped in fear. Stunning him as he tried to understand why they didn’t push him. As they disappeared in the dark tunnel though he let out a sigh. Hands wrapped around the wood handle of the mace he rested his head on the cool metal head and it all went dark.