The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (8 page)

“Do you know Count Stonuk,” Richter asked.

A look of distaste crossed Randolphus’s
face, “Yes I do. One of the new
king
’s inner circle. A distasteful man that would not have been tolerated at court in the days of his father.”

“Well, I was able to… procure, these papers from his private safe. They were well hidden so I’m assuming they are important. I’ve only glanced at them, but there are references that I don’t understand. It seems to be in code as well. Do you think you could make sense of them?”

“I had many duties under the old King, my Lord. Part of that was to monitor the correspondence of less desirable types in court. Count
Stonuk
never struck me as overly bright. I have an ability called Code Breaking. I am sure that I can decipher these papers given time.”

“Code Breaking,” Richter asked incedulously
. Just who
was
Randolphus? All Mama had told him
was that Randolphus had been a chamberlain. Richter wasn’t 100% up on his Ye Olde English terms, but he was pretty sure a chamberlain was kind of like a supped up butler. Now he was finding out that the man was 007! Analyze didn’t reveal much, however. Like Terrod, his level was a bit higher than other humans, but it was nothing to write home about. Richter didn’t know why he hadn’t analyzed the man before.

Name: Randolphus. Human Level 9. Health 170. Mana 120. Stamina 140. Disposition: Friendly.
Humans are one of the shortest lived, but most prolific breeders in the Land. Humans have a broader affinity for skills than other races. No special bonuses to race. Humans get four points to distribute per level.

“Yes, my Lord,” Randolphus answered.

“Just ‘yes’?”

“Yes, my Lord,” he said with just a touch more force.
      

Richter was silent for a moment. Who would be born with an ability in Code Breaking. How often could that come up? It seemed very coincidental that the former King of Yves’ chamberlain had such a useful and appropriate ability. Then again, Richter thought, maybe that was one of the reasons that Randolphus had risen to power.

“Well,
no rush. I truly appreciate you help.” Every man was entitled to his own secrets, Richter thought. It didn’t seem like he was getting the whole story though, and so he resolved to pay a little closer attention to his chamberlain in the future.

“It is my pleasure to serve, my Lord.”

Richter left the room with Futen floating along behind him. He stopped at the Great Seal. When he had searched his inventory for the count’s paper, he had seen two other items that required his attention. The first was also from the count’s safe. It was a
blue
wand tipped with a white jewel. Richter had no Lore to speak of yet, despite finding snippets of time to read Leandra’s book, and had no identification spells. When he looked at
it,
the prompt simply said, “Magic wand.” Luckily, Futen had an ability to identify items.

He held the wand up, “Futen if you would be so kind.”

A white light flared from the center of the glowing remnant.

You have found: Wand of Magic Illumination. Durability 30/30. Item class: Common. Quality: Above Average. Weight 0.3 kg. Sends out a beam of blue light that illuminates the darkness. Magic seen in this light will glow white. Twelve hours of illumination per day.

Well,
that could be useful, Richter thought. He resolved to play with this latest toy as soon as possible.

The second item he had retrieved from a thief. To be more specific, he had stolen it from a den of thieves right before burning their house down. Richter wasn’t one to dwell on details, though. He held the book out and Futen pulsed again. The light in the remnant built for several seconds before subsiding this time. That’s strange, Richter thought, it had never taken more than a split second for the remnant to identify an object before.

“You have found an item of exceptional power, my Lord.”

You have found: Tome of Soul’s Familiar. Durability 500/500. Item Class: Epic. Quality: Masterwork. Weight 0.5 kg. Let’s you cast: Summon Soul Familiar.
Tome
destroyed upon casting. Requirements: Master of a school of magic. Intelligence 20. Cost: 1200 mana. Do you wish to use the Tome? Yes or No?

Twelve hundred mana?! That was more expensive than any other spell Richter had even seen! The most costly spell he had cast was
Confusing Mist, and
that was an enchantment that protected the entire village! It had only cost eight hundred! Why was this spell so expensive? Despite the prohibitive cost, that was probably the reason that he was holding the Tome at all, he realized. The thieves probably didn’t know what to do with it. Also, Masters of magic didn’t exactly grow on trees. The book was almost priceless, so finding a buyer would have been difficult, but for the same reason they certainly couldn’t just give it away. So it had sat collecting
dust until Richter had come along and ‘freed
’ it. None of that
mattered, though
because Richter came to a profound realization. He wanted a familiar!

In games and old stories, familiars always lent their masters awesome powers! He could get a mouse that gave a bonus to
lock picking checks
or a falcon that would let him see through its eyes. Maybe a cat that he could have pithy banter with. No matter what, it would be awesome. Most gamers would sell a kidney to get an item like what he had here!

There were, he realized practical things to consider,
though. The village generated a thousand mana per day. That clearly wasn’t enough.

“Futen, can I combine my mana with the village mana to cast this spell?”

“Yes, my Lord. At the time of casting, simply focus
upon
how you wish to allocate the mana expenditure. The spell will use it accordingly.”

Okay, one problem solved. So if he combined the village and his personal capacity, it would give him the grand total of thirteen hundred to use. That didn’t take into account the mana upkeep for
Confusing Mist
,
though. The spell required a hefty four hundred mana smackeroos each day or the mists would fade away.

“Futen, what time is the upkeep for
Confusing Mist
paid?”

“At midnight, my Lord.”

“What happens if the village doesn’t have enough mana to pay the upkeep,” Richter asked.

“The spell would dissipate at midnight, my Lord. It would have to be cast again at the full cost of 800 mana.”

Hmmm, Richter thought. He needed 1200 mana to cast the spell. The village reserves were full now so he had access to the 1000 maximum. If he used his personal
mana
and took the rest from reserves, it would leave 100. The village recharge rate was determined by the total mana the village could have divided by hours in the day. Put another way 1000/24 gave 41.67 mana regen per hour. So he just needed to know…

“Futen, how many hours until the upkeep is due?”

“Four hours and thirty-seven minutes, my Lord.”

Richter stared at the remnant in surprise for a moment, not having expected such a specific answer. It was useful
information,
though. It meant that if he cast the spell now, the village would only regenerate 192 mana by the time the upkeep was due. It would leave him more than a hundred mana short of the upkeep!

He stood in silence for a while. He understood the importance of the defenses around the village. The
Confusing Mist
enchantment was definitely important. On the other hand, the hunters had not seen anything dangerous coming too near the village. They also had the trench and the sprite warriors if something randomly made its way close. He did a few more quick calculations.

The cost to recast the enchantment was 800 mana. His own mana would refill at about 12 points a minute so his 300 would be full well before the village’s had replenished. Counting his own 300, only 500 more mana would be needed. That would take… just 12 hours. He made his decision, the risk was negligible. It was time to get a familiar! He chose ‘Yes’ on the prompt hovering in his vision.

Suddenly, there was a complete absence of sound. Richter blinked, then snapped his fingers, but still heard nothing. The Great Seal changed. The spiral of black became a hole devoid of all light. The edges of the hole distorted space, causing the floor to ripple and bend. The spiral of gold tile was replaced by an arched doorway standing ten feet tall. A gentle radiance spilled into the room and a shining gold tree could be seen through the portal, waving in an otherworldly wind. The blue spiral was replaced by a swirling pool of water. The spiral of Air became an actual ten foot tall swirling maelstrom, lightning crackling across it. Each transformation was
independent
and silent. In the center of it all stood Richter. He was amazed at the power around him. He could not have left the Great Seal if he wanted to. The boundary of each transformation touched the next, leaving free only the
grey
diamond in the center of Great Seal.

The silence was sundered by a horrific tearing sound. A small black rent appeared in
the space
above Richter’s head. It started small, no larger than his forearm, but quickly widened to the height of a man. The sound intensified proportionally to the size of the tear. It kept growing until it reached all the way to the top of the vaulted
chamber
and stretched from one wall to the other, bisecting the room. On one side was Richter and the transformed Great Seal. On the other side was a white sky. Black clouds were lit with orange bolts of lightning. Beneath that alien sky, was canyon formed
of
midnight blue rock. The surface of the rocks was multifaceted like the inside of a geode, and each streak of lightning lit the canyon with reflection. At the end of
the crevasse
were massive trees festooned with thick vines. As Richter watched, a monstrous reptilian head poked through a break in the grove. It looked about with copper colored eyes, scanning for the source of the noise that had drawn its attention. Two
large slits
were at the end of the snout and as Richter watched, a forked tongue sampled the air.

Instinct took over, and Richter froze in place hoping that the wormhole, or whatever he was standing in front of, acted like a one-way
mirror. He did not want this THING to see him! That hoped faded as the
bus-sized
head oriented on him and the jaw dropped open. The monster stared at him with a sadistic leer. The steel colored fangs were each the size of
short
swords and it rolled its beet colored tongue around in its horrific mouth. With a graceful step that shouldn’t have been possible in such a monstrosity, it moved more of its large body into the rocky dell. A clawed hand attached to an arm the size of an ancient oak shook the ground with an impact tremor. It brought its other arm forward, and continued making its way towards him. The head moved closer and closer. Richter looked around, but there was no escape! The four Powers still hemmed him. He drew his high steel sword, but knew it would be like attacking a bull with a toothpick!
Either way,
he would go down fighting! He just REALLY did NOT want to be eaten again!

The monster’s mouth was only a dozen yards away from the tear in space now. Richter could see rotting flesh in between its fangs, and the nauseating smell of decomposing flesh washed over him with its exhale. Richter held his sword up, preparing for his pointless last stand, but all of a sudden there was a resounding boom! The portal slammed shut, and a wave of force emanated from the rapidly closed rift. It blew Richter down off of his feet. He struck his head on the ground and was momentarily dazed. When he picked his head up a few moments later, the Great Seal had returned to its previous appearance. Silence once again
reigned in the chamber, but it was a natural silence, filled with tiny, almost imperceptible sounds.

Richter’s heart was pounding wildly in his chest. As the monster had approached the portal, he had been playing out various scenarios. In the rosiest one, the dragon thing had swallowed him whole and killed him in the process. The next scenario was decided less pleasant, and it taking a big enough bite that arms or legs were left behind. He would still be
alive
when he was eaten, but blood loss should make his death relatively quick. The worst case is he was swallowed whole and screamed all the way down the
beasts gullet just before he was digested for one thousand years in the equivalent of the pit of Sarlaac
… None of those options were very attractive, but the last would most definitely not be on
fleep
, or whatever that stupid phrase the kids were saying these days!

His mood wasn’t great, to say the least. He had used a massive amount of
mana
and almost been eaten for his trouble. And there was still no familiar! His temper was not helped by the bachelor party sized headache that was triggered by the depletion of his mana. If he wasn’t already on the floor, he would have fallen. His head felt like it was full of cotton. This was probably a good thing since it also felt like someone was hammering on the outside of his skull!

“Futen!”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“What the hell?”

“My Lord, are you all right,” a voice shouted. Randolphus was standing just inside of the doorway of the room he had been working in.

“I’m fine Randy. The danger has passed. I’m sorry, I should have warned you I was going to cast a spell. Please go back to work.” The man stared at Richter for a few seconds before turning around. He was shaking his head as he walked back to his desk.