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  You have found: Immature fruit of the Quickening.

  Richter cast Far Light to better see the canopy above. The sight was as beautiful as it was before. He smiled, just enjoying the peaceful aura of the Quickening. He turned back to thank the sprites for their diligence, but they had already activated their concealment ability again. He didn’t know where they could have hidden, but it didn’t change the fact that they were nowhere to be found. He said out loud, “Keep up the good work,” then walked out from beneath the canopy.

  Against the northern cliff face was an oiled tarp draped over a wooden frame. Richter peeked underneath before dropping the cover back down. He nodded in appreciation to Randolphus, and said, “Good work. Now let’s check the pastures and farmland.”

  Richter and Randolphus walked back down the hill to the village. They moved to the gate in the wall and then walked across the log drawbridge. The land allocated for farming was outside of the village walls. It was obviously less secure, but the amount of land needed made farming inside of the village less than feasible. Armed villagers patrolled the boundaries of the farmland and the grassy areas allocated for pastures.

  Everything looked like it was going well. To be sure, he spoke with all of the farmers. Outside of a request for more Mist Workers, they seemed satisfied that everything was as it should be. That task completed, he started walking back into the village proper. He sent a mental call to Futen and before long, the remnant floated up to him. He told Futen to have the mist workers dig a trench around the farmland and pastures. He also decided to have the trees cleared back for several hundred yards around both. His villagers simply didn’t have enough protection at present. He wouldn’t forgive himself if a quick monster attack cost the life of one of his villagers. The remnant agreed with his customary deadpan tone of voice.

  Richter had spoken to everyone that he needed to. His responsibilities as leader of the village were completed for the moment, and now it was time for him to attend to something he had been putting off for a while. This seemed like as good a time as any. Richter turned to walk through the village and back to the catacombs. It was time to find out what was down that stairway.

  Before he had gone more than a step or two however, Randolphus cleared his throat loudly. When Richter looked at him, the chamberlain tapped his nose then looked first at Richter, then the nearby river.

  Richter thanked him for the reminder. Once upon a time, he had been the stinky kid in school. It had been a hard year for him. He would NOT become the stinky Master in the village!

  CHAPTER 4

  One cool thing that he discovered while bathing were aquatic herbs. Richter hadn’t really thought to search the water for plants before. Two specifically caught his interest.

  You have found: Green Waterthread. You are getting a very strong feeling that this plant has healing properties. It also can be used to make waterproof clothing and flavor a tasty stew!

  You have found: Muckweed. This a component of a sticky solution, it can make a Water magic based poison, and can be used as a fire repellent.

  Both of the plants were extremely plentiful. Richter gathered his fill of each, placing them in his Bag. He withheld one waterthread. Knowing it was a bit creepy, but needing to know about the effectiveness of this new herb, he steeled himself and drew his new short sword against his bare arm. He didn’t cut too deeply, but with the bleeding status he achieved, he lost a small amount of health over time. He started chewing the waterthread.

  You have eaten: Green Waterthread. You will recover 65.1 health over 30 seconds.

  Richter did some quick math and figured that outside of the bonus he got for his Herb Lore, the base healing would have been 30 health over 30 seconds. That was three times as strong as the previous healing herbs he had been using. Hopefully, it would make a proportionally stronger potion as well.

  As he worked, Alma happily snacked on a fish she had caught while Richter bathed. He personally thought she was a bit of a cheat. Rather than try and grab her prey, she had simply directed a Psi Blast towards the water. It was basically the equivalent of dropping a stick of dynamite in a pond, Crocodile Dundee style. It was definitely efficient, but kind of a douche move in his opinion. When he tried to explain this to his familiar though, she just rolled her eyes at him and kept snacking.

  Shaking his head and chuckling at his soul familiar, he finished bathing. Happy with his new discovery of the water herbs, and satisfied that he no longer smelled like goblin taint, he got out of the water. He pulled a fresh set of clothes from his bag, and rolled his old clothes up into a ball. Now that he was clean the garments seemed absolutely filthy to him.

  When he had walked back into the village proper, he found one of the older children helping with washing. The boy accepted the bundle of soiled clothing with an obviously forced smile. Richter didn’t blame the kid for not wanting any part of that stinky pile, so he tossed the boy a copper, which seemed to help the lad’s mood.

  He didn’t waste any more time getting to the room of the Great Seal. Walking into the room, the downward staircase seemed to draw him forward, beckoning him to adventure. Before going down the stairs though, he decided to check out the boxes that Krom had mentioned. Richter had set Randolphus loose before he bathed, and sent Futen to monitor the village, so now his only company was the sated dragonling. He opened the door to the armory and walked in. Making his way to the back of the room, he did see three stacked metal boxes that he had previously overlooked.

  One box was about four feet long and a foot wide, a second was half that length and the third was a simple box. Good things come in small packages, he thought. He raised his left wrist to align with the clear circle on the box. It read his Mark of the Mist Village like a bar code and, with an audible click, the lid popped open. Looking inside, he saw a metal collar. It looked like it was made of quicksilver links, each about an inch long.

  You have found: Quicksilver Collar of Submission. Durability 300/300. Item class: Rare. Quality: Superb. Weight: 0.5 kg. If you manage to collar a monster with this item, they will become your slave. The monster will be unable to harm you and will strictly follow your commands. Can only be used once.

  Why did it always come down to dominance, Richter thought. Academically, he didn’t like the idea of controlling anything against its will, but he also knew himself. If he were able to find a high level monster with some awesome abilities… well let’s just say, he would 50 shades of grey the hell out of it!

  Richter moved on to the medium sized box. After holding his wrist to the glass circle, he looked inside and smiled.

  You have found: Heavy Cobalt Arrows. Quantity 80. Durability 15/15. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Accuracy – 2. Damage +5. Chance to cause Knock Back.

  You have found: Weapon Schematic: Heavy Arrows. This design of arrow requires a skilled bowman. The extra weight makes precise shots more difficult, but most find the extra damage and possibility to knock down their enemies to be more than a fair trade off. This type of arrow inflicts blunt damage unlike most piercing arrows.

  These arrows could definitely come in handy! The arrow heads were strange in their design, almost looking like a round weight with a slight point at one end. Funny looking or not, the extra stopping power was welcome. The biggest danger for an archer was for his target to get within melee range. These arrows could definitely help with that!

  After seeing the pure awesomeness in the first two boxes, he couldn’t wait to see what was in the big one. He quickly held his wrist to the magic lock and threw the lid back. A prompt appeared with purple writing appeared, and Richter’s eyes widened in shock.

  You have found: Ranock Din. Damage 58-72. Durability 900/1000. Item class: Legendary. Quality: Masterwork. Weight 28.3 kg. Requirement: Dwarven or Duergar race. Strength 50. This axe was forged of the finest thorium. It has long been the royal weapon of the Dwarven Kingdom of Stone. Traits: When fighting underground, can activate ‘Weight of the Earth.’ For one blow, The L
and itself pulls the axe downward. This massively increases the damage that it can cause. The strain on the weapon will also cause a 100-point drop in durability each time Weight of the Earth is invoked. The unique properties of this weapon will maintain its base damage no matter how low the durability drops, but it will be destroyed if durability drops to 0. +30% Earth Resistance. +20% Dark Resistance.

  A named weapon! And it was Legendary! This was amazing… and thoroughly irritating! Richter had finally found a legendary item, of course, it would have to have two crazy requirements. One that he was nowhere near fulfilling and a second that he could never fulfill. He couldn’t deny that the weapon was beautiful though.

  The axe was double bladed and the metal was dark grey. A wicked spike extended up from the center of the weapon about six inches past the height of the half-moon blades. It was clearly dangerous not just as a slashing weapon, but as a piercing weapon as well. The haft was composed of a heavy wood and was just over three feet long. Part of the way down its length was another piece of metal that must be present to aid in balancing the heavy weapon. The bottom of the haft was wrapped in a knobbed hide that was midnight black.

  He stared at the weapon for a while, just admiring it. After a few moments, he came to a decision. He needed to keep the axe a secret. He would make a discreet inquiry with Randolphus, but this weapon sounded like the type of thing that nations went to war over. If it was as important to a royal family as the prompt said, there were probably many people that would grind his village to dust to get it. The Mist Village just wasn’t ready to fight in that weight class. Growing the Quickening and creating the Forge of Heavens were already enough to make the Mist Village a tempting treat for raiders or other malevolent forces. No, he thought, this needed to remain hidden. He closed and locked the lid again.

  He picked up all three boxes. The weight wasn’t a problem, but the shapes made it a somewhat unwieldy task. Despite that he carried them with minimal difficulty to the treasury. He placed all of the boxes inside, but withdrew the chain, arrows and schematic. Almost all of it went into his Bag of Holding, but he placed ten of the heavy arrows into his quiver.

  After walking over to the Great Seal, he donned his old set of sprite armor. Though it wasn’t as impressive as the enhanced sprite armor, it was still nothing to sneeze at. Wearing the entire matched set gave a 25% defense bonus to each individual piece. Also the gauntlets increased his accuracy by 25% which should more than make up for the drop in accuracy from the heavy arrows.

  He pulled up the hood of his dark green cloak and stood facing the stairway down to the next level of the catacombs. Taking a Potion of Clarity out of his Bag, he gave it his familiar. Then, bow in one hand and Alma draped across his shoulders, he prepared to take his first steps down into the dungeon.

  CHAPTER 5

  Before he could put his foot on the first step, his body froze and a prompt appeared.

  Welcome Master of the Mist Village. Currently you have access to: Level 1 of the catacombs. Would you like to start the journey to: Level 1 of the catacombs? Yes or No?

  Richter chose ‘Yes’ and his foot fell to the step. He felt a small tingle pass over his body. It reminded him of when he left his hidden glen that had the Pool of Clarity. He paused for a moment, but nothing else happened so he just kept walking. The stairway seemed to be a natural tunnel that had been augmented in the past. The entire thing was formed of grey stone. The roof of the stairwell was a natural formation of rock, but on the walls were too regular to be a natural formation. He didn’t see any sign of chisel or hammer marks, but then time would have worn those irregularities smooth. Indeed, the steps were only half the length of his foot and had smooth edges, making his descent somewhat precarious. Richter just thanked his lucky stars that the stairway was dry and non-slippery.

  As he journeyed, he thought about his game plan. Richter didn’t really plan to do anything other than scout around this first trip. Despite his recent successes, he wasn’t cocky enough to think he was a one-man army or anything like that. Even though there was potential danger, Richter just couldn’t stay ignorant as to what was right beneath his feet. Worst case scenario, he would be killed and lose some skill points if he ran into some horrible, high level monster. He could live with that, but couldn’t live with having others die to satisfy his curiosity. That was why he needed to go alone. Richter had asked Alma to stay behind as well, but the stubborn little dragonling was having none of it. When he had pushed the issue she had hissed at him, so he resolved to just keep her as safe as possible.

  The stairway continued down at a steady forty-five-degree angle, without change, for the first twenty minutes. According to his map, he was moving both down and North, completely contrary to City Slickers logic. He wasn’t exactly claustrophobic, but he also didn’t really enjoy the idea of millions of tons of rock being just above his head. What was it with dungeons in The Land always needing to be so damn deep, Richter thought with irritation. Hadn’t anyone on this planet every heard of a basement?

  The only break in the monotony of his travel was a short hallway that led directly forward. The floor of the hallway was a different color stone than the walls, more brown than grey. Richter assumed that the only reason for the break in the stairs was that the rock under his feet was too hard to tunnel through. After the short hallway, the stairs led down again for at least another 30 minutes.

  He had initially cast Night Vision when he started down the stairs, but as he went deeper, there wasn’t enough ambient light for the spell to be able to work. After that he had cast Simple Light. Richter hadn’t been wild about advertising his position, but he also didn’t want to start falling down a mountainside worth of stairs. He had to cast and renew his Light spell several times during the trip.

  His Traveler’s Map clearly showed his progression, but unfortunately wasn’t quite like google. He had no way to accurately measure how far he had come. His best guess was that he was a quarter to a third of a mile down. He just really hoped that he didn’t have to make a speedy retreat. The narrowness of the stairway should keep him from being surrounded, but it would still be a harrowing fight having to climb the short steps backwards.

  Finally, the stairs came to an end at an open archway. Not knowing what dangers lay ahead, Richter dismissed Simple Light before reaching the bottom and activated his Stealth ability. He didn’t know if he would be able to cloak himself in shadow with Alma on his shoulders, but thankfully it wasn’t a problem. Richter was concerned that he would be plunged into complete blackness again, but as his eyes adjusted, he could see the faintest of blue lights coming from the archway. He cast Night Vision, and thankfully his vision lit up in shades of green.

  Looking through the doorway, Richter didn’t see anything but an empty courtyard. He listened intently for a full minute, but heard nothing. Richter tried to cross into the room, but another prompt came up and again his body froze.

  You are about to cross into: Level 1 of the catacombs. Do you wish to proceed, Yes or No?

  Choosing ‘Yes’ he crossed into the dungeon. Looking around, he saw a faint blue illumination coming from some moss on the walls. He examined it more thoroughly.

  You have found: Creeping Blue Lichen. This plant will provide illumination for a short while even after being picked. It makes a vivid blue dye and will also provide hearty, if unappetizing, nutrition.

  Well at least he wouldn’t starve as long as he could find more of this, and it certainly seemed abundant in this first room. Richter took a look at the rest of his surroundings.

  The large room he was standing in looked like nothing so much as a dilapidated cathedral. Large open windows were evenly spaced on the walls high above his head, though only a few shards of clear glass still stuck out from the frames at odd angles. Richter couldn’t see anything through them except pools of darkness.

  Lining the room were rows of stone that looked perfect to serve as pews. The entire room had a sense of gravity and heaviness. Richter felt
like he was intruding somewhere that he was not welcome. Since there wasn’t any other direction to go however, he started walking forward. Alma picked up on the serious feeling of the place as well and stayed huddled on his shoulders.

  At the front of the room was a ruined statue. All that was still standing was a pair of feet. Strewn on the floor around it, were the broken pieces. The head still seemed intact, but when Richter picked it up he saw that the face had been smashed in. His initial assumption seemed correct. This must be a forgotten temple of some type. More important than the stone fragments, were the doors leading off from this first room. Two doors led to opposite sides of the room perpendicular to the central aisle and a third led straight on.

  Richter checked the side doorways first, curious what the windows were looking out at. Both just showed ruined courtyards and one had a dry and lichen covered fountain in its center. This building must be insanely old, he realized. It couldn’t have been built underground. It just didn’t make any sense. Why would anyone build windows that looked out at nothing? Some earthquake must have swallowed the building whole. He supposed that the passage of time could account for what he was seeing as well. It had happened on Earth that one generation built over the structures of previous generations. Whole buildings could be found deep underground, just like this.

  He realized it was a moot point though and that he was wasting time. He wouldn’t find any more information just standing around in this room. He took the last doorway and walked forward out of the ruined temple.

  The next room was a natural cavern with multiple tunnels leading out of it. The most interesting thing was that the tunnels were of varying sizes. The smallest was only two feet in diameter. The largest was wide enough to drive a wagon through. Having no desire to be stuck in a small space, he decided to go with the flow. He walked down the largest tunnel. There were rocks randomly strewn along the floor. As he walked his footsteps sounded muffled and faint even to him, proof that the magic of the sprite shoes was at work. Even so, he moved slowly so as to not break his Stealth.