The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1) (17 page)

 “What about the 50% bonus to
power and resistance?”

 “Each rank confers certain
bonuses. It varies depending on the skill being examined, but magical ranks
typically follow the same pattern. Novice rank conveys nothing. The following
ranks convey a certain amount of protection and power.
 
Initiate 5%, Apprentice rank 10%, Journeyman
20%, Adept 35%, and Master rank the 50% that you have received, my Lord.

 Things now much clearer,
Richter turned to Sion, “Please come here my friend,” Sion walked closer with a
confused expression. “You have stood by me through death and danger. We definitely
had a rocky start. You let me be eaten. I, well… I pretty much bitch slapped
you in front everyone you have ever known.
Haha
.”
Sion gave him a stone face at first, but then chuckled a bit. Richter
continued, “The point is you are my best friend in this whole world, and I help
my friends. I have learned Air Magic. I would like to try and teach it to you.”

 “Air Magic has never been the
province of my people,” Sion replied with a guarded expression. “The Hearth
Mother has never been able to kindle Life, Earth or Light magic in me.”

 “You never know until you try.
I have never believed that someone else could tell me what I could or could not
do. I won’t let my only friend in the world be told what he can’t do either,
even if he’s the one doing the telling.”

 Sion stared at him for a
moment, then stepped forward closing the distance between them. He looked
intently into Richter’s face as if searching for something. What Richter saw in
his friend’s face was desperate hope. Richter had a moment of grand
realization. Sion wanted magic! Hisako had apparently tried to teach him all of
the Powers associated with the Hearth Tree, but he must have lacked affinity
with all of them. It would only be natural for the son of a Master of Power to
want to become a Master himself. Was Imbue Arrow the closest the sprite had
come to using his mana?

 Richter decided it was time to
try again. Even if Air magic wouldn’t work, he wouldn’t rest until he helped
his friend feel complete. There were three other powers affiliated with his
Place of Power, if Air didn’t work. Knowing instinctually what to do, he placed
his left hand upon the sprites head and his right on his friend’s chest. The
words came unbidden to his lips, “By the Right of My Power, I Awaken Your
Power.” A warmth began in Richter’s chest. It reminded him of freedom, wild
destruction and gentle rain. It grew from his heart and down both arms to the
ends of his hands. The energy flowed into the sprite and found what could only
be described as a resonance. The Power found a home in the sprite’s mind and
soul. Sion’s eyes widened and tears cascaded down his face.

 “Not Life, nor Earth, no Light
could I learn. I saw my mother’s gift pass to others, but never did her magic
awaken anything inside of me. I tried not to envy or hate. I tried not to let
my discontent ruin the harmony of our home, but all knew,” Sion’s voice began
to quaver with repressed emotion, and so he took a moment to compose himself.
When he spoke again there was a certainty to his words, “I am with you for
life, my Lord.”

Your relationship with your Companion
Sion has improved from friendly to Ally. Sion will fight with you and for you
until death, and if he can find a way back through the veil, will fight for you
again.

 “Sion! You are my friend. I have
to put up with this ‘my Lord’ stuff from
Futen
, but
not from you! I need my friend,” Richter said almost pleadingly.

 “And that I am,” Sion replied
sticking out his arm. Richter returned the gesture, and they clasped wrists
sharing a quiet moment.

 “Well enough of all of that,
nobody likes a sissy,” Richter said gruffly. Seeing Sion’s confused look he
realized he needed to devote some time to teaching his friend slang and swear
words. They had to be at least as important as magic! “I’ll tell you later,” he
said with a chuckle. Walking up to the skeleton mage he began to search the
body.

You have found: Novice ice mage
robes. Defense + 5 (additional +7 vs magical attack). Durability 14/20. Item
class: Common. Quality: Average. Weight 3.7 kg.

You have found: 2 gold coins, 19
silver coins and 55 copper coins.

You have found: Magic staff: Attack
12-15. Durability 17/25. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight
5.1 kg.

 Looking at
Futen
,
he held up the staff. The orb took the hint and flared white. The identified
item’s information flashed into Richter’s mind.

You have found: Corrupted staff of
the Ice Wizard. Attack 12-15. Durability 17/25. Item class: Uncommon. Quality:
Above Average. Weight 5.1 kg. Traits: -10% cost of Water spells. Must have negative
alignment to use.

Sion pulled out his sword, and
approached the ghoul.

 “What are you doing,” Richter
asked.

 “The ghoul’s heart is a useful
potion component.”

 Leaving the sprite to his
gruesome task, he was about to collect the weapons from the warriors when
Futen
spoke. “Are you going to take the altar, my Lord?”

 Looking at the large black
stone, he asked, “How? That thing must weigh a couple tons? And what’s it good
for anyway?”

 “The Magic Core of the altar
has many uses. The skeletal mage was using it to focus his power. That is why
he was able to resist your strikes for as long as he did, it was acting like a
mana fount that he could tap into.”

 “Well I still don’t know how to
take it. It’s huge! ”

 “Again, it is only the core you
need, my Lord. You have taken control of dungeon by slaying its boss. Simply
place you hand on the altar, and you will gain access to the interface.”

 Putting his hand on the black
altar he suddenly he was able to access the information.

Dark Altar. Lvl 1. Provides 100 mana
per day.

 The interface had only a few
basic prompts, unlike the many options for the Mist Village. Two that caught
his interest were, “Access mana” and “Remove Core.”

 Richter’s eyes narrowed for a
moment. ‘Access mana?’ “Oh
Futen
? Is there a way for
me to personally use the mana that the Mist Village makes? Say to power my
Imbue Arrow? You know, so I don’t run out of mana and almost die because of
it?!”

 “Yes, my Lord.”

 Praying for patience he asked,
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

 “Oh,” the remnant paused. “I
thought that was obvious.”

 He didn’t fight it this time.

 “
Gaaaahhhhhhh
!!!!!!!!”

It turned out the magical core was a
clockwork sphere. Through the gaps in mechanism, red and white light shone
through, and the feeling of a strong electric field was palpable when held. It
wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, more like feeling static in the air. The
description of the item was written in gold lettering upon the prompt. It was
the first time he had seen this. The common items he had found were white,
uncommon blue, and rare was written in red. It appeared that golden items were
epic! Fingers crossed he could figure out the color of legendary and artifact
items soon.

You have found: Magic Core.
Durability 15,000/15,000. Item class: Epic. Quality: Masterwork. Weight: 12.7
kg. Magical Cores can be used to power any number of devices.

 A few more questions to
Futen
revealed that he could access the mana generated by
the Place of Power anywhere within the boundaries of his domain, an area of
roughly eighty square miles. The benefits of increasing the level of his
village were becoming clearer. The higher the level, the greater the reach of
his magic, and the more mana he could personally access. Even with the village
at level 1, the 1000 mana available was the equivalent of investing one hundred
points into Intelligence!

 Excited about the
possibilities, Richter loaded the ponies with the loot from their battle, and
made their way back to the village. During the journey he invested his new
skill points and examined both his and Sion’s current status. He placed two
points in Intelligence, two points into Constitution, and two more into
Dexterity.

 His friend had increased several
of his skills. That was expected, but what was interesting to Richter were his
affinities. If Richter remembered correctly, Sion’s affinities had been a bit
higher last time he had checked his status page. If the sprite was any
indication, then it appeared that for most people and creatures, as they
leveled up their affinity decreased. It meant there was a theoretical ceiling
for everyone in how far they could progress that would vary from person to
person and skill to skill. If his ability to teach Air Magic was any
indication, a skill could not even be learned if a person’s affinity was less
than 50%. Richter was finally starting to truly appreciate his ability. The
potential for Limitless was, well, limitless!

 The trip back to village was
uneventful, but they were thankfully able to find several more healing herbs.
Arriving back, Richter placed the magic core in the vault. He was sure that it
was worth a fortune, but he equally sure it could greatly increase the power of
his village down the road. An item of that was epic class and masterwork
quality had to come in handy!

 The staff seemed like it could
be powerful in the right hands, but the corruption severely limited its
usefulness. Richter really didn’t understand the importance of alignment yet. It
was easy to think that negative was bad and positive was good, but he had a
feeling it was more nuanced. Sion was positive alignment, but his people had
shoot on sight orders for anyone in their territory. Not exactly a cute and
cuddly policy. Despite being unsure of what it all meant, he still wasn’t in a
rush to equip a creature of negative alignment. Maybe he could purify it
though.

“
Futen
, can
the corruption on this staff be removed?”

“Yes my Lord, either Light or Life
magic can be used to remove corruption. One of the few
magics
available at Level 1 of the village is curse removal. The cost is 200 mana.
Would you like to use it?”

“Yes, do it. No wait! I will do it
myself.”

“Very well, my Lord. The spell will
have a higher likelihood of success if you cast it in the room with the Great
Seal.”

“Why,” Richter asked.

“Just as the village is the physical
manifestation of your Place of Power, the Great Seal is the physical
representation. That is why it has the strength to keep monsters of the
catacombs at bay. Though your domain extends beyond this village as we
discussed, your powers will always be greatest at the core.”

Richter nodded, then climbed the
small hill that led to the Great Seal. When he got there he was somewhat
surprised. The mosaic had changed. At least part of it had. The clear spiral
that was set in the floor had changed from tiles to a solid piece of crystal.
It was now shining a faint light. The other three arms remained the same. It
appeared that when Richter had claimed his power it had awakened part of the
design. He felt a faint thrum in the room that had not been there previously.
He walked to the center of the Great Seal. A quick check showed that most of
the mana from casting Confusing Mist was restored.  He then found the proper
spell under the village interface and cast it.

 Motes of light began to fill
the chamber they were standing in. They coalesced around the staff, and when
they disappeared, the black stains that had been present at the end were gone.
It was also the clear blue of artic ice now, rather than the opaque blue it had
been before. Examining it again he found it had increased in strength.

Staff of the Ice Wizard. Attack
14-18. Durability 30/30. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight
5.1 kg. Traits: -10% Cost to Water spells.

He checked his status page again, and
saw that his progression in Life Magic had progressed from 11% to 49% just by
casting one high level spell. Just another little perk of being a Master he
supposed.
Gotta
love it when you can power level!

 Sure that the staff would come
in handy, Richter packed it on the ponies. He also loaded them with the better
weapons they had found so far. Counting the coins from the chest that had been in
the treasury, he found 55 gold coins, 215 silver, and 174 copper. Unfortunately
he had no idea if he was a wealthy man or a pauper. Even though in the game a
copper had equaled one dollar, Richter couldn’t trust that the conversion held
true. A loaf of bread could be worth a gold coin for all he knew. Sion was no
help in this. The wood sprites had a clearly xenophobic attitude, and didn’t
mingle with the humans of the neighboring kingdom. Richter would just have to
figure it out on the way.

 One thing was clear, it was
time to grow his village, and that meant getting help. Even though he was
chomping at the bit to unlock more of his Powers, the next quest required that
he be at least two levels higher. Presumably the subsequent quests would have
level requirements as well. Waiting around just wasn’t he style! He needed to
travel into the Kingdom of Yves to find people that would settle in his
village.

 Richter instructed
Futen
to continue collecting resources for when he
returned.
Futen
surprisingly took some initiative,
and told Richter about a nearby quarry that had provided the stone for the
village in the past. There were several tasks Richter wanted
Futen
to attend to: quarrying the stone, harvesting iron
from the mine, widening and deepening the trench surrounding the village and
clearing trees for two hundred yards around the borders of the
village.   Warning the remnant to always leave enough mana to pay the
Confusing Mist upkeep, he and Sion turned to leave.
Futen
gave his customary, “Yes, my Lord,” and that was that.

 The next day, Richter and Sion
started on their journey through the forest. The basic plan was to follow
Hisako’s directions and head west until they reached the edge of the forest.
Using Tommy Lee Jones’ math, a fugitive could move over uneven terrain at four
mph. That fugitive was obviously not going through mountainous terrain and
virgin forest! Even though they walked a solid twelve to fourteen hours a day,
there was no way they traveled more than twenty five to thirty five miles before
they rested for the night. Of course that didn’t factor in having to backtrack
around obstructions, their slowed pace with the ponies, or the most important
issue. That was neither Richter nor Sion was as badass as the man that played
Indiana Jones and Han Solo!

 Sion didn’t understand
Richter’s obsession with distances or hurrying. For the first few days it
frustrated Richter to no end. The laissez faire attitude of the Wood Sprite was
so… un-American. After that ridiculous thought, Richter realized made he was
being a bit silly, and with a small laugh at himself, relaxed and decided to
enjoy the journey.

 They moved beyond the borders
of the mist during the first day, and had no issues until the second night. A
pack of wolves was seen that evening. They made camp early and built the fire
high. The wolves started approaching, but lost interest after a sizeable
portion of the lead wolf was turned into bloody chunks by Sion’s Imbued arrow.
While not able to salvage the pelt, that night Richter discovered that wolf
meat was quite tasty, despite being gamier than what he was used to. They were
able to kill several rabbits, foxes and one small brown bear during their trip.
They only hunted at the end of each day though, when they had time to skin the
animals and dry the pelts over a low fire.

 The first days they traveled
along the small river that flowed by the village. It rejoined the larger river
that Richter had followed upon arriving to The Land, and they continued west.
In addition to hunting, they practiced their Haste spell as often as they could
hoping to advance their skill. They both increased their Air magic by one
level, Richter slightly ahead of Sion. The Herb Lore skill also increased for
both of them gradually as they picked useful plants along their journey.

About a week into the journey, Sion
suddenly motioned for him to lower himself to the ground. Tying up the ponies,
they moved at a slow crawl to look over a drop off in front of them. Only
fifteen feet away from the lip of the small cliff, there was a ten foot tall
green humanoid eating a
stag.
It didn’t show any
squeamishness as it reached into the animal’s body. Its oversized hands were
tipped with thick claws and pulled meat and viscera indiscriminately into its
maw. The jaw must have been able to dislocate like a snakes because it shoved
almost a whole leg into its mouth before chewing loudly, the sound of snapping
bones clear. Richter used Analyze on it.