Intimancer

It did not take as long as it should have for the tree to burn into a pile of ash.  Rick couldn’t figure out why.  Perhaps the tainted plant was composed of something other than wood?  It was probably filled with nothing but magic bullshit.  That was his theory and he was sticking to it.

The party was not idle while Sade’s impromptu bonfire raged.  They all took some damage in that fight, in one form or the other.

“Sit still!”

“I’m trying!  It’s just -ow!  BALLS!”  Rick squirmed in Tyr’s iron grip.  She held a small knife in one hand and was using it to dig out the literal thorns in his side.  He greatly appreciated her help, he really did.  But the process of cutting the wooden spikes away from his skin was far from a pleasant experience.

Thankfully he had taken the worst damage from the blight monster’s thorn explosion.  He had been only a meter or two away when the attack went off.  He was more than grateful to learn that Sade only had a few thorns pierce her skin deep enough to stick.  And none of those had to be dug out with a knife.  Rick would gladly jump in front of that monster’s attack a dozen times if it meant she was safe.

“Alright, I can’t stand it anymore!  What’s up with the way ya curse?”

“I am actually curious about that myself.  It is quite odd.”

And now they were double teaming him.  Rick gave an audible sigh, talking about it would certainly be a welcome distraction from Tyr’s attempt at surgery.

“Do you guys worship any gods?”  He asked.

“What’s that have ta do with it?”  Tyr huffed and dug out one more thorn.  RIck nearly bit his tongue to stop from shouting out in pain.  He cleared his head and continued.

“My family worshiped a deity that emphasized love, mercy, and self betterment.  One of the tenants was watching what you say.  Worshipers took this to include foul language of any kind.  So… instead of ‘fuck’ my dad would shout ‘balls’ when he stubbed his toe.”  This was a gross oversimplification of a highly sensitive and debated topic.  He really, really didn’t want to get into the history of religion on his world.

Or to talk about it at all if he was being completely honest.

“That is interesting.”  Sade mused.  “I am not too sure about the other races, but my people used to worship a god of the mountains in the time before they migrated here.”

She looked to Tyr, who just shrugged before getting back to work with her knife.  “We have a sacred tree.  It’s the heart of our domain.  But none of my people bow down and kiss its roots or anything.”

“So, does that mean there isn’t any religion in the kingdom?”  The idea was so strange to Rick.  For as long as humans have existed, they have always found some form of higher power to fear or worship.

“Oh I am sure there are a few small temples here and there.  Especially in Shatak, being a center of trade with other countries and all.”  Sade replied.

“Well… damn.  Does that mean there are no priests or clerics to cast healing magic?”

“Why the fuck would we go ta some church ta find someone with healing magic?”  Tyr asked like he just said the stupidest sentence in all of history.

Rick supposed that he had.  He had slipped into thinking this world ran on video game tropes.  That was a dangerous mindset to keep.  Random assumptions would only lead to misunderstandings or worse, fatal mistakes.  He needed to check himself more often.

“Sorry.  There’s… a lot of connotation between healing and the divine in my w-, uh, country.  In the country I’m from.  God of mercy and all that.”

It was true.  Most early hospitals were developed by the church as far back as the Roman empire.  Even in the far east, missionaries were the ones to set up the first houses of healing in the region.  Rick vaguely remembered having to write a report about it in school once.

The tropes of healers being priests had to start somewhere.  He mused.  Generations of people’s perception building over each other until no one even questions why something is the way it is.

Tyr looked like she was going to continue arguing but Sade put a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “We can discuss this at a later time.  First I think we should either finish exploring or find a way back to the outpost.”  She smiled softly.  “Rick’s family had faith and it shaped him.  Just as our cultures shaped us.”

Tyr gave a large sigh.  “Aye… yer right, as always.”  She turned to Rick and gave him a gentle slap on the shoulder.  “Hey, ya did good today.”

Rick smirked.  “Even though ‘ya had ta dig thorns out’a me arse?’”  He said in the best wood elf accent he could muster.  “You two were the ones to kill the monster this time.”

“You were the first to call out the threat and engage.”  Sade reminded him.  “That helped us get organized quickly.  And it was not like my ice spells were doing much at first.”

“Yea!  And me bow did fuck all in that fight.”  Tyr finished the last of the bandages and helped Rick to his feet.  “We’re a team.  Our failures and successes are all shared.”

“Thanks guys.”  Rick said softly.  He really did feel like the luckiest man in the world to have met the two women.  They all gave a quick hug then faced the smoldering pile of embers.  Rick swore he saw something through the heat haze wafting up from the tree’s remains.

“Is that a door over there?”

The trio moved closer to where Rick pointed.  They had to walk around the ash, as it was still too hot to safely walk over, and Sade was still too drained of mana to cool down a path with her spells.

“Well… It’s a door.”  Tyr said dryly.

“How helpful.”  Rick griped.  “The question is;  Do we want to explore what’s on the other side?”

“I am curious about these ruins.  Perhaps we will find something from whoever built this place.”

The others decided to go along with Sade in this instance.  The door was locked.  A problem easily solved with a swift kick from Tyr.  Sade recast her lantern spell to ward away the dark interior that greeted them, and they marched ahead to explore the rest of the ruins.

The long hallway soon opened up into a singular room.  Sade’s light brightened up to its maximum so they could perceive any threats that still remained in the inky blackness.  It wasn’t an enemy that awaited the party however.

“Are those… elves?”

Carved into the wall were depictions of lithe figures dancing around in some sort of forest.  The features of the people were worn away by time, the only distinguishing feature left were the long ears poking out from the figures heads, their ends sharpened to fine points.

“They do not appear to be wood elves.”  Sade said.  “They are too… Well, not wood elvish.”

“Ya got that right.”  Tyr scoffed. “Too skinny.”  She walked forward to get a closer look at the carved mural.  “They are rutting in public though.  Can’t imagine a high elf doing that.”

She wasn’t wrong in her assessment.  The other two were able to clearly see some of the elves depicted in various sexual positions.  The whole scene felt surreal to Rick.  Just what was this place?  Why of all the things to leave behind, did the artist decide to pick this scene?

He raised his hand and conjured his own flame to get a better look at the rest of the room.  More carved murals adorned the walls.  He tried to make sense of what the pictures were trying to tell him.  There was a story here, he just had to put the pieces in place.

“This one over here seems to show the other elves and wood elves living together.  See how these people over here are larger than the first group?”

Sade moved over to where Rick was standing then moved on to the last mural in the room.  “It looks like the first group is walking away from the larger figures.  Was there some sort of disagreement?”

“Hard ta say.  My people don’t build with stone.  And I’ve never heard of any other elves living here alongside us.  Let alone leaving in a huff.”  Tyr looked genuinely puzzled at the implications depicted.

“How far back do your records go, Tyr?”  Rick asked.

“We don’t really write a lot of books.  I could ask me gran if she knows something.”

“How would asking your grandmother help?”

Tyr gave Rick a stern look.  One that screamed he just asked something stupid once again.  “Gran was there when the current rulers led their people over the mountains.  She also was there when the previous two empires rose and fell.”

Rick mentally kicked himself.  Elves existed on a completely different timescale than his own.  “Right… sorry.  I guess that’s as good a start as any.”

“I will also pose a few questions to my professors.”  Sade said from her position by the middle carving.  “For now, I think we should look into what is inside this.”

She pointed down by her feet at a large rectangular chest.  Rick had no idea how he missed it on his first pass through the small room.  He really needed to avoid tunnel vision the next time they went exploring.  Tyr walked over to the chest and examined the lock on the front.  It was a simple iron padlock rather than an internal mechanism.  She drew one of her hand axes and brought it down hard on the surprisingly intact metal.

The poor ancient iron didn’t stand a chance.

All three eagerly peeked inside when the lid was slowly lifted out of the way.  Inside were several thick pouches and a few dusty leather tomes.  Rick tentatively reached for one of the sacks and tried to remove it from the chest.  It was so heavy that Rick had to use both hands just to lift the thing.  Each movement of his hands caused audible clinks to resound from within.

Rick had to bite back a curse when he opened the bag and saw the bright yellow metal gleam in the enchanted firelight.  “Are these all… gold?”  He breathed.

Tyr hefted another bag and upended its contents into her palm.  More coins spilled out, every one of them shone golden.  “We’re fuck’n rich!”  She shouted and wrapped Rick in a hug that threatened to snap a few ribs.

“Not just rich.  I think some of these are spellbooks.”  Sade said while gently leafing through one of the tomes.  She pointed to a diagram.  “Do you see this?  I believe this is a spell formula.  I have never seen anything like this though.  It is not the most complex spell I have seen, but something about it feels off.”

She closed the book and looked to Rick.  “It seems your luck has done us a favor once again.”

Rick scoffed.  “Oh come on!  My luck may be higher than normal, but finding an actual treasure chest filled with gold and spellbooks?  That just sounds crazy.”  Just for the hell of it he looked through his stats.

 

“What the fuck!?”

The two women jumped up and reached for their weapons as soon as he shouted.  “What is it?”  Sade asked, hand resting on her mace.

“Crap, sorry!  I was just surprised when I summoned my stats.”  Rick felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment.  He knew better than to shout randomly when they had no idea where the next danger lurked.

“Well, what happened then?”  Tyr asked.  She was already back down to her knees and shoving the bags of gold into her pack.  If anyone could handle the extra weight from the dense metal, it would be her.

Rick struggled to find the proper words.  His stats had improved quite well with all the training Tyr put him through.  His strength, dexterity, and endurance all went up by one.  And in a cruel twist of fate, his wisdom also improved after Sade smacked some sense into him back at their first visit to the beach.  But there were still a couple surprises he had not expected in the least.

“I’m level four now.  And… my luck just increased too.”

“Yer luck?”  Tyr paused for a moment while she looked through her own status.  “Hey, mine too!  I also hit level five.”

“It seems we all gained some luck.”  Sade confirmed.  “I am also at four now.”

“So we can train luck by being lucky?”  Rick asked.  The others shrugged.  It was common knowledge that luck was good to have, but too nebulous to count on.  No one knew how to successfully train it with any consistency.

“We should go.”  Sade said after stowing away the books in her pack.  “We can discuss our levels and skills once we are safe at the outpost.”

Rick agreed with Sade’s plan.  They all had a lot to consider after this wildly successful hunt.  They took their weapons in hand and slowly made their way back the way they came.

It was slow going.  While the source of the blight was gone, the blightlings were still around.  They were severely weakened, many moving sluggishly or just outright frozen in place.  Many others were just as alive and dangerous as before.

They all would collapse and die eventually, their primary source of mana was gone, so it was only a matter of time.  But until then, the group moved slowly, picking off targets when they could and avoiding the rest.

They eventually found a pair of doors that led outside of the building, a rusty iron bar preventing them from opening.  A swift kick from Tyr and the obstacle was no longer an issue.  Once they oriented themselves properly, the trip back to the outpost was swift.

Rick noticed that the further they traveled from the stone ruin, the more the underbrush looked brown and dying.  It seemed the forest would recover far quicker than he thought.  It was comforting to know that he and his friends did a good deed.  He couldn’t remember the last time he felt like his actions mattered.

Filled with anticipation, Rick eagerly awaited their next hunting assignment.