Sixteenth Chapter

TifTwo

The scent of mint.

The conveyor belt moved. All the berries that had been picked needed to be cleaned and sorted. Some had leaves and petals stuck to them, others were unripe. All this detritus needed to be removed. If TifTwo wasn't out gathering berries he was here staring at the slowly moving white cloth, purple berries and stains. The tedium was hypnotic with patterns emerging, patterns that hinted at meanings TifTwo could never understand.

There was no way to judge how long he had been at this task when the last berries moved past him and he was left looking at the worn white cloth with purple stains. The goblins lining the room started using their whips to herd TifTwo and his fellow gnomes out the door and into the next room. This room was the antechamber that led to the courtyard and into the woods. He was spacing out, watching the shirt in front him. When he was confronted by a goblin sitting behind a table. The goblin thrust a foam covered mug into his hand, “Drink up.” It growled.

What could he do? With no idea of what it was he brought the mug to his lips and drank. To his surprise it was delightful. Cold and refreshing, with a nutty flavor. He wanted more. This was not to be as the mug was wrenched from his hand and he was thrust from behind.

He was running, just like that he was running, they were all running. TifTwo felt like laughing. It started with the taste of metal in the back of his mouth. There was a rushing in his ears; then as if he stepped through an invisible membrane into a new level of awareness. The world sharpened, there were details where there had just been trees. Before it was branches, leaves and bark; Now there were vaines, patterns, breath and energy. It was beautiful; more real than life.                        

He was under a tree, crouching. Looking around the trunk he scanned the area, there was nothing that indicated there was anyone around. In his pockets he had two berries, not enough. He needed to find a berry tree. There were none here, so he needed to move.

At a full sprint he dodged a trunk, slid under a downed trunk then hopped to his feet to hurtle a stump. The speed that he ran was exhilarating, his agility and timing was a surprise and a joy. The drink gave him energy like he had never felt before. It was as if he was thinking every thought at once. When he was running he saw tree, he also saw three ways he could navigate past the tree, he saw a broken branch he should avoid, a berry tree; beyond the tree there was a berry tree. All this while running full speed. The needles of the lowest branches just brushed the ground. He went into feet first slide avoiding the low branches and popped up directly in front of the berry tree. Jackpot! The tree was rip, with eight of the purple fruits hanging on their bent stalks.

He was picking the fourth berry with the third still in his hand, when he heard foot steps. TifTwo spun to find himself facing a very large man. Well the man’s bare arms and chest were huge; the rest of him, his head, waist, and legs were quite small. His small head was mostly mouth and forehead, with beady little eyes and a little piggy nose. High atop his head was a patch of straw colored hair too small to balance out his large ears. An ugly grin split his wide mouth to show two big teeth with a large gap between them.

“Huyuk,” a laugh maybe, “a bitty gnome. You are so cute, I’m going to turn you into paste.” With that as his warning, the big man pulled a large mace off his back and brought it down on TifTwo.

But TifTwo wasn’t there. With the drink still in his system the blow had seemed to be in slow motion, making it easy to side step. When the head of the mace slammed into the ground TifTwo moved again, running behind the large man. He was trying to buy some time, his hands were full what could he do with no weapon? He kept moving as the big man was now wildly swinging his mace around, making grunting sounds with each swing.

TifTwo knew he had to figure something out soon. He could run away but he didn’t want to leave the unpicked berries. It was when he thought of the berries that he remembered something the goblins had said when first talking about the berries. The goblins had told the gathered gnomes to be careful when picking the berries. Without thinking about it further Tiftwo hurled the berry in his right hand. His opponent tried to swipe the berry, but it burst all over his hand and arm when it made contact with his palm. A heartbeat later the big man dropped his mace and started screaming. TifTwo saw that the man’s hand was smoking. Moving the last berry to his right hand, TifTwo threw it. This one hit home, striking high on his bare chest, splattering onto his face and shoulders. He dropped to his knees, screaming and grabbing for his face. TifTwo saw that the hand that had been smoking was now little more than skeletal. The big man soon stopped screaming then fell on his face. 1 kill +1 xp.

TifTwo had no idea as to what that meant. He didn’t really care, it wasn’t important the berries were. The body which was between him and the berry tree had stopped smoking. It quickly dissolved and was replaced by a small statue. The stone figure depicted the man on his knees clutching his face, he could have been praying. It was not important. He picked the remaining berries, tucked them into his pockets, then took off running back to castle.

As normal he dropped his berries into the funnel that feed the conveyor belt. He then trudged to an open seat along it. His head down he settled into boredom. A heavy claw on his shoulder tore him back to the present. There was pain in his arm as he was jerked out of his chair. He was too busy trying to keep his arm attached to his body to look at who was now pulling him past the funnel. He was pushed hard through a door. Stumbling forward TifTwo heard the door slam as his momentum carried him into the opposite wall. He pushed back from the wall to find that it wasn’t a wall at all but a large desk. Setting behind the desk was a brown goblin with bright, intelligent yellow eyes. The goblin stood up to look down on TifTwo. His eye bored in, forehead wrinkled as he considered. Suddenly his head thrust downward the eyes bright yellow eye growing large. TifTwo fell back, but he kept his balance, recovering to stand defiantly staring back into those bright yellow eyes. The skin around the eyes crinkled in good humor.The goblin started to laugh, then he spoke.

‘YOU ARE A STRANGE ONE, AREN’T YOU?’ The voice was so deep its vibrations seemed to tug on TifTwo’s lungs. ‘NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. THEIR ALL VACANT BEHIND THE EYES, BUT YOUR EYES SHOW LIFE.’ His ugly face crinkled with humor. ‘YOU ALSO KILLED SOME IDIOT, THAT’S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE. HA HA.’ A small hand stuck in the goblin’s teeth seemed to wave as he laughed. ‘I MEAN HE MUST HAVE BEEN REALLY DUMB TO LET ONE OF YOU GNOMES KILL HIM.’ TifTwo tried to listen but couldn't stop watching the grotesque little hand. The goblin noticed TifTwo’s attention. He picked at his teeth then looked at what he found, he then stuck it back in his mouth. He reconsidered TifTwo as he chewed. ‘I WONDER WHO YOU WERE. WELL, NO MATTER. BY GETTING A KILL YOU HAVE EARNED A PROMOTION.’

The goblin did something on his desk that TifTwo couldn’t see.

Then the scent of mint.

Now the room was much smaller. The ceiling was just a few inches from his head he could easily touch each wall without moving. He looked down at his arms and realized it was he who was bigger. Much bigger, and hairy. He was now covered in long hair or fur. His arms were huge with bulging muscles, they were longer too, hanging almost to the floor. TifTwo looked to the goblin, who like the room was now much smaller. He seemed to get even smaller under TifTwo’s glare, shrinking behind his desk. TifTwo briefly considered obliterating this condescending bureaucrat with one swing of his powerful arm. He decided that the satisfaction wouldn’t equal the effort, instead he squatted and with great pleasure at realizing his over sized pointer finger was the perfect fit for either nostril he began to pick.    

‘That’s nice.’ The goblin’s voice no longer carried the power it had. TifTwo pulled his finger out and looked at what he had found. “Gross. You better take that out with you when you leave. Here are your new orders. First you will accompany a goblin on a sales trip, you are the transport and protection of the package. This goblin will establish a route for you, on this route you will be distribution as well as transport and protection. Did you hear me, show me some sign this is getting through, and stop playing with that booger!”

Tiftwo looked down and made eye contact, then he grinned. He flicked the booger. It impacted on the wall just above the goblin’s head where it stuck; there it remained as all future attempts to remove it failed. The goblin looked up from where he had landed after falling out of his chair avoiding the flying projectile. He screamed when he saw his new office decoration. “Oh Gross, you gross disgusting dumb ape! Get Out! Adam come get your mule! Get this ape out of here NOW!”

The door to the office started to open but hit Tiftwo in the back. The opener tried again with the same result as it hit his shoulder. “GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT” Each scream was accompanied by a fist to the desktop. The final blow was with both fists and was more than the desk could take, it collapsed into a pile of broken boards and splinters. TifTwo looked at the mess then shrugged. When the door started to open for the third time, he caught it and pulled; hinges and most of the frame came with door. He stepped through the portal, leaving the door in a corner of the office.

A green goblin was waiting for him in the hall. “TifTwo, I’m Adam I’m the sales guy who will work with you to set up a route. Do you want know what we’re selling?” TifTwo didn’t indicate either way. If Adam was disappointed by TifTwo’s indifference it didn’t show as he continued. “It’s the juice from those berries you were picking. You had some, do you remember that drink you had? I bet you do.” He did, he nodded. “I bet you liked it too.” TifTwo nodded again. “That’s what we’re selling, we call it Grog. It’s stored in wooden kegs, we have a cart made for you to haul the barrels. Right now we don’t anticipate any problems, but as the Grog becomes popular there might be those looking to steal it. Your size should prevent any attempts at theft. If anyone tries to prevent you from completing your deliveries you are authorized to use whatever force you choose. OK, let’s go get a glass of the stuff, then we’ll get you hooked up to your cart.”                 

                       

Fifteenth Chapter

KnightChade

Annoyed.

She had stolen his kill

Annoying.

Attracted by the sounds of a fight, in the tree tops, KnightChade had come on MoMony in time to watch him finish off Barbie.  With the fight done, KnightChade figured that he could wait for the right moment to pounce. He had been wrong. With a shimmer a woman had appeared behind MoMony and without ceremony she had stabbed him in the back.

Annoying.

The best way to deal with this annoyance was to kill her, of course. She was bent over the body, looting it. He prepared for the leap onto his hapless prey, his tail twitched in anticipation.When she stood up and cursing, kicked the body he paused. Her frustration was laughable, it served her right that there was nothing of value on the body.  He prepared his leap once again. Carefully positioning and re-positioning his paws on the branch he gauged the angle. When she bent back over the body, he had to dig his claws into the branch to prevent a undignified miss and spill.

If there had been nothing of value before what was she looking for now? Curiosity got the best of him. He had to know what she was doing. Carefully KnightChade worked his way further out on the branch so he could get a closer look at what she was doing, He noted her name was HidY KillER, she was level two. She was whip thin with short spiky blond hair, with a strip of pink. And she had wings. The wings were hard to see, as they seemed to disappear into whatever was behind them. At first KnightChade thought this was because they were clear, as he watched he saw that this was incorrect. They weren't clear it was like they were mirrors reflecting what was behind them creating almost perfect camouflage. This explained how she was able to sneak up on MoMony and steal KnightChade’s kill.

Annoying.

Not just that she had stolen his kill. She had ambushed his target in much the same way he had intended to.  No question, she must die.    

When HidY KillER stood back up she was holding MoMony’s Token, staring at it in her hand like she was reading it.  When she pulled out her Token, a beam of energy shot out of it and hit the Token in her other hand.  MoMony’s Token absorbed the energy for a moment before it exploded sending blue energy crawling along the ground.  Most of this loose energy gathered on MoMony’s body. A little of the energy had broken off from the rest and now it circled HidY KillER’s neck. KnightChade was disturbed to see that the energy crawling over MoMony’s body was consuming it. In a few moments there was only energy; the body was gone. The energy now traveled back to HidY KillER and was quickly absorbed by her Token. Where the body had been there was now a small headstone. Once again KnightChade tensed his body to pounce, this time there would be no escape.

Momentum is a powerful force, and terrible.

Painful...Embarrassing.

Annoying.

KnightChade peaked from under the tree he had come to rest under. How had she known, how had she escaped. One moment she had been there, then she wasn't and he had gone tumbling, crashing into the tree. He was impressed, that was annoying. The next time he saw her he vowed she would die painfully. He looked around the clearing, making sure he was alone. Once confident he was unobserved, he dragged himself from under the tree. He walked to the small headstone, with his back straight as if he hadn’t just fallen on his face. Nobody saw it. It didn’t happen.

His curiosity was piqued when he read the headstone.

RIP

MoMony

It seemed so final. What did it mean? What was that energy? What did Tokens have to do with it? There were so many questions. He realized the only way he was going to get answers was if he went out and took someone’s, anyone’s, Token. That wasn't going to be too hard, all he need to do was find someone to kill. With that he took to the tree tops again, swiftly heading towards town where the hunting would be easy. Full of stupid noobes just waiting to be killed. He moved quickly and quietly keeping an ear open for the tell tale sounds of another moving through the forest, hoping to ambush someone before reaching town.

It was not to be.  Soon he could hear the steady din, that was many people all talking at once, long before he could see the town. He felt his hackles rising, people were annoying, lots of people was very annoying. Plus town was much too public for what he was trying to do. Still he sprinted across the the open space between the forest and town. Once in the shadow of a building he put his back to the wall and scanned the area, looking for any eyes or other signs of unwanted attention. Convinced that he was hidden, KnightChade scaled the wall, lying flat on the roof he paused to make sure he was still unseen.

Keeping to the rooftops, he move to the edge of town that was the furthest from the main road. This part of town was still mostly unused, dark in the shadow of the forest. It was here he hoped he could find the perfect combination of privacy and someone foolish enough to be alone. It seemed that it was not to be. The problem being to much privacy, also a distinct lack of fools. He sat on a roof below the peak, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. He wanted to take a moment to think through his next move. There was nothing to be gained by going into town and interacting with others. He wanted to kill them not make friends. That left the passive option of waiting here and hoping some fool came by, Or the active, going into the forest hunting,

The answer was clear, waiting was annoying.

Thankfully he didn’t have to. There was buzz of a voice, moving towards him.

“Did you hear what she said?”

“What?...”

Two voices.

“...you mean about the Tokens?”

Wait! What?!

“Yeah.”

Damn! The word was out. Even though he had watched it happen, he really didn’t know what it all meant. Annoying.

“I’m not going to worry about it, and neither should you. It doesn’t even matter if we don’t have them.”

KnightChade crouched lower on the roof. He had forgotten that the Token came when he reached level two. Annoying. This meant he needed to kill a level two, not that hard if he ambushed them. He would find a level two.

“Come on, where are you going now?”

The idiots were still here.

“You said you heard what else she said.”

“Yeah, Tokens and whatever.”

“Treasure! You idiot! There’s hidden treasure  all over the place. There was a sign.”

“Yeah, I didn’t read it, just tell me what it said, come on.”

“You’re ridiculous, there’s treasure, like millions of dollars. It’s hidden, and I’m going over there to find some.”

KnightChade hoped ‘over there’ was near him. These idiots must die. He still couldn’t see them but he could hear them.

“Why do we have to go over there? I wanna go into the woods.”

“We don’t have to. I’m going there to find treasure, you can do whatever you want.”

Well one out of two is better than none.

“There’s no treasure there, people will have already found them if there were.”

“you don’t know that! I’m going.”

Finally.

“Fine, but you’re going to waste all our time. When we find nothing, you better say I’m right.”

“Whatever, let’s go.”

Excellent. KnightChade moved to the edge of the roof, and waited. Waiting was annoying. He paced in place, anticipating his leap. Fortunately he didn’t have to wait long. Two dwarves turned the corner, still bickering.

“If you don’t look you’re never going to find anything.”

“Shut. Up. I am looking.”

“Really?! You think they are just going to leave treasure out in the open. You really are an idiot. Get down on your belly and look under that building. God this is so boring.”

KnightChade was done listening to these fools. He looked over the edge of the roof. He could only see the two stubby legs of a dwarf. the legs were laying down, The other voice was hidden by the eves, more than likely leaning against the building. The memory of his lost kills raised KnightChade’s heckles and reminded him that he should move fast, no more thinking. So drawing his machete, he rolled off the roof.

Landing lightly on his paws, KnightChade saw his assumption had been correct. Leaning against the wall was a second dwarf. KnightChade had started to swung his machete as he landed. Unfortunately the swing was at the height of a human, not a dwarf. He tried to make the height adjustment that was needed to not completely miss his target, but was unable to change his swing enough for the decapitation he was going for. Instead his blade struck the dwarf in the forehead, directly below his helmet. The blade thunked into the wall behind the dwarf before he could finish dropping his jaw in surprise. 1 kill +1 xp.

The body was still standing. A look of stupid surprise on its face, a red line across his forehead the only sign of anything amiss. KnightChade jerked his machete free, only then did the body collapse at the knees. The helmet, with the top of the head still inside, hit the ground and rolled around on its edge almost making a complete circle before falling brain side down.

KnightChade heard muffled screaming. He turned from the helmet to see that the body had fallen across the legs of his buddy, and now the dwarf who was laying down was completely stuck. KnightChade thought for a moment about drawing out this kill, then he remembered he was on a mission; these level one noobs weren’t going to do it. So he brought his machete down, once, twice, three times. 1 kill +1 xp. After he checked their wallets, found 5ng on each of them. He looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched. Convinced he was alone, he disappeared into the woods.

KnightChade wasn't sure where he was heading and soon he found himself back at the clearing where MoMony had been tokened. This time the clearing was empty. Annoying. Or maybe not. The quiet and still surrounded him. He breathed deep, a breath full of the sharp scent of pine. As he let the breath out slowly, the sounds of the forest came alive. There were so many layers of sound. First was the sound of two birds, in duet, the song a call and response. The duet was matched by the staccato beat of a hidden woodpecker. The next layer, under the feathery trio, came the sound of wind. More exactly it was the sound of the branches moving. It was a sound that could come only from the whole forest swaying in unison.

He took another breath and new layers of sound emerged. The constant buzz of insects. Beneath all these sounds, almost beyond KnightChade’s hearing, was that of the forest growing. He taken by this new sense of the forest, this closeness of nature, it was something he had no experience to compare it with. He felt something inside himself unlock. The muscles in his face relaxed; if anyone had seen under his mask they might have thought he was smiling. But, of course that wasn’t possible.

Fortunately the moment was quickly ruined, bringing his perpetual scowl back. The moment was ruined by voices. Normally he would have been incised, but in the peaceful sway of the tree he only felt anticipation. This ended quickly as he realized it was the two idiots he had just killed back in town. Annoying. He watched as they walked into the clearing still arguing.

“How about this place? Come on, It must be far enough, I’m tired of walking. COME ON.” Whined the dwarf with the annoying name of SuperBest. Now that she was no longer under a building KnightChade saw that she was a she.

“Shut up. It’s my choice, remember. You wasted all that time looking for the damn treasure. And what did we accomplish? Nothing. No we’re doing what I say. I say we level up.” This speaker’s name was BestSuper. Annoying.

“See, we wouldn’t have a plan if we hadn’t gone looking for treasure.”

“What are you talking about? All we did was get killed.”

“True. But one of the killers told us to kill each other to level up before he killed us.”

“I hate you, I really do.”

KnightChade’s patience was running out. He was willing to wait to accomplish his goal, but he wasn’t sure that he could take any more of their yammering.  Luckily they were getting to it, each pulling an ax from their backs they began circling each other. And circling, neither willing to make the first move.

“Bring it, you toad!” BestSuper shouted.

With a shout of anger SuperBest lept forward with a mighty overhead swing. BestSuper saw the blow coming so was able to step to his left avoiding the chop. SuperBest’s momentum brought her past BestSuper, With an inside out swing BestSuper took off his opponent's right leg above the knee. This brought SuperBest to an abrupt halt. With a small yelp she collapsed, sliding face first for a few feet. BestSuper was on her quickly. With a quick chop of his ax, it was over.

KnightChade watched from the tree hoping that BestSuper had what he need to level up. But as the kill-statue appeared and BestSuper bent to loot his friends body, he knew it was not to be. Once again KnightChade wrestled with the doubt that he was doing the right thing waiting for these two idiots to kill each other enough time for one of them to level up. However SuperBest reappeared while KnightChade was weighing his options.

“I have another idea.” SuperBest said.

BestSuper hefted his ax then replied, “fine, let’s hear your idea.”

“OK, so I think we should stop fighting. I think it will be faster if we alternate killing each other, no more fighting.” She held out her ax as if pleading.

“That is a terrible idea.” BestSuper said with a voice heavy with disdain. “You need to practice, How are you ever going to not suck?”

KnightChade knew there was more to this statement. BestSuper most likely enjoyed killing his friend. This assumption was given more credence when SuperBest was quickly killed with an ax to the head; it was proven when he laughed after. He then knelt to loot his friends body. In doing this he missed what KnightChade saw. The kill-statue didn’t show the battle, it was a replica of BestSuper holding out the level up scroll! KnightChade was elated, all this waiting and patience was about to pay off. His excitement was great, but he knew he had to wait for BestSuper to get his Token.

It didn’t take long. BestSuper quickly scanned the scroll then replaced it. KnightChade’s excitement boiled over when he saw BestSuper pick the Token up from the pedestal. It had felt as if BestSuper was moving in slow motion, but as soon as the Token was removed time seemed to snap into fast forward. KnightChade was out of the tree before he had thought to move. He hit the ground and drew his machete at the same time. Two quick steps and he was on BestSuper before BestSuper had time to turn around. Whether he even knew he was under attack became a moot point; he was hacked in half, from shoulder to hip. 1 kill +1 xp. KnightChade watched the two halves slide apart, then pounced on the lower half as it hit the ground is a slight puff of dust.      

When KnightChade reached into BestSuper’s wallet it was easy to pick out the Token as it was easily twice as thick and bigger than the other coins. When he tried to gather the coins and the Token it became clear that he could take Ngs or the Token but not both. He wanted the money but his curiosity over the Token won out. He straightened up with the Token in his hand. As he did he felt a movement on his hip, in his wallet. Reaching inside he found his Token was twitching, with a deep breath he pulled it out. Once out of the wallet it began to vibrate faster, becoming almost hard to hold on to. KnightChade felt like his Token was shaking in anticipation. a clear light shot out of his token and hit the other one. When he looked at this light he saw there were words scrolling through the light.

To absorb power move Tokens closer: WARNING this is permanent

Whatever that meant KnightChade didn’t really care; he had decided to do, what? As he stood there he realized he had no idea what he was going to unleash. Absorb power sounded good, also HidY KillER hadn’t seemed to suffer when she did it. KnightChade had waited long enough there was no way he was not doing it, whatever it was.

He brought his hands together.

Starting at his Token, the energy connecting the two Tokens began to change. Red and Black tentacles quickly advanced across the bridge the energy had created between the Tokens. When they reached BestSuper’s Token there was a flash and then energy and tentacles shot in many direction. BestSuper’s body and the kill statue were consumed. As they finished the red and black were all that remained, these moved along the ground then up KnightChade’s feet. most returned and were reabsorbed into his Token. A few crawled up his back them moved no more. Tokened -1

Where the body had been there now stood a little headstone. Assuming it read RIP Bestsuper, KnightChade didn’t read it. Instead, like HidY KillER, he looked at his Token. It looked normal. A movement on its face drew his eye. It was the dial that showed his skills, it was slowly spinning; instead of showing two skills like it should there were now three. This was interesting. Then a sobering thought dawned on KnightChade. The skill that he had just gained most likely came from other Token. The guy whose Token it was was dumb, really dumb. What were the chances that he had created a skill that would be of any use.

Pacing around the clearing he waited till the new skill rotated into view. Strong Block 2, maybe KnightChade owed BestSuper an apology. A skill called strong block could be quite helpful. “Hey!Who are you?”

It was SuperBest. KnightChade had taken too long, and she had re-spawned. Annoying. “What’s that on your back?” Her voice grated KnightChade’s nerves. “Gross! Is that hair?”

KnightChade had no idea what she was talking about. It didn’t matter. She was going to die. He slowly turned to face her. When she saw his mask her eyes got wide. “Oh.” She said in a small voice.  

Fourteenth Chapter

MoMony

MoMony took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.  He gave himself a few moments to enjoy the fresh scent of the trees and the solitude.  Maybe it was the solitude he enjoyed the most.  But after a few more deep breaths he was ready to continue his treasure hunt. He was not clear as to where he was going, as long as it was away from town.  Away from the crush of people, and away from the violence.  The plan he  concocted was to simply follow his nose.

He was about put the plan into effect when a dirty gnome, it’s pointy cap askew a big burn on one side.  the gnome paused and looked MoMony up and down.  Apparently finding him no threat, the gnome stuck his tongue out, and made a rude gesture with his hands.  MoMony felt he should be more insulted, but confusion was his primary reaction.  None the less he checked under the tree under which the gnome had disappeared.  Finding that tree without anything of value. He then checked under the tree from which the gnome had emerged, just to be thorough. Unfortunately MoMony came away from this tree as empty handed as he had from the last. “You have only looked under three trees, you can not get discouraged.”  He said out loud trying to energize himself. He stretched his back and took one more deep breath then walked to the next tree.

After three hours of trees MoMoney had only found two chest.  Neither held much of value, some ore and a fur cap. Checking under each tree  was far too slow.  He was spacing out, thinking of ways to speed up the process, when a man and a woman stepped in front of him. Fortunately both were level one.  They were both in generic guard armor, gray surcoats and pointy helmets each carried a sword.  Their names were fittingly generic, Ken and Barbie.   MoMony’s hope that he could leave without any violence quickly came to an end when Betty yelled and pointed her sword at him. At the sound MoMony’s heart started to pound and jumped into his throat.

Ken attacked first his sword in one hand in an overhead chop.   MoMony panicked and forgot to draw his dagger.  Frantically he grabbed Ken’s upraised sword arm with both hands.  This stopped the chop, but Ken with a snarl started to use his superior height to force the sword towards MoMony’s neck.  MoMony was at a loss, Ken was beating him and so far had only used one arm to do so. A gauntleted fist to the his ribs marked the end of that. The punch knocked MoMony off his feet. He managed to hang on to Ken’s arm, now using it to hold himself up.  MoMony frantically tried to find his feet, and get his wind back when the fist struck again. Almost as if by reflex against the pain MoMony fired off his power, igniting two small fireballs in Ken’s sword arm.  Ken screamed as his arm bent awkwardly, the bones and flesh being eaten away by fire.

MoMony had been barely maintaining his balance by holding onto Ken’s arm,  this was no longer possible, as the arm was losing its structure.  He flailed his arms as he started to fall backwards, somehow he managed to grab the handle of Ken’s sword. Even more surprising was that the sword came away from Ken’s now useless hand.  MoMony stabbed the sword into the ground, using it to prevent falling on his bottom.

This was fortuitous for MoMony because it was then that Barbie, seeing that Ken was out of the fight, began her attack. She pointed her sword like a spear and charged.  MoMony, balance recovered, was able to pull the sword from the path and sidestep Barbie’s charge. MoMony desperately wanted to defeat Barbie before she could turn to face him again.  He knew that he didn't have the time or strength for a good swing at her neck, so he settled for hacking frantically at the backs of her legs.  Her momentum carried her just a step or two before she collapsed into a pile.

With both of his attackers disabled, MoMony could breath again.  He took a deep shuddering breath then turned his attention to Ken, who was on his knees cradling his wounded arm and sobbing.  MoMony found the sight pitiful, and put an end to it with a single brutal thrust to the throat.   1 kill +1 xp.  Turning towards Barbie he found that she had almost dragged herself to the tall grass on the side of the path.  She must of sensed his attention because her movements became more frantic.  The increased effort afforded her no extra time,  by the time MoMony had knelled next to her she had only managed to grasp two fistfulls of grass from the edge of the path.  MoMony looked at her for a moment, then pulled her helmet off.  When her face and head were uncovered, she turned her head to MoMony and snarled at him.  Ignoring her, he placed a hand on the back of her head above a sweaty ponytail and released a fireball.  Barbie gasped and arched her back then exhaled smoke from her nose while her eyes went opaque.   1 kill +1 xp.   

MoMony slowly straightened, his heart still pounded and adrenaline coursed through his body, now it was from excitement to have survived the battle.  He was even more excited when he saw that the statue, which rose from where Barbie fell, held a scroll indicating that he had finally reached level two.  He took his time in creating a new skill.  At first he thought of offensive skills like magic arrows he could shoot from his hands.  He then thought that he would be better off with a defensive skill, a force field of some sort.  He was almost ready to lock in a shield like barrier which he would be able to summon.  He paused for a moment, to make sure this was really the skill he wanted, as it was he already had one skill he wasn't thrilled about. Looking at the statue that rose where Ken’s body had fallen. This statue had captured the moment after he had cooked Ken’s forearm.  With this evidence MoMony had to concede that the handheld fireball was more effective than he was giving it credit for.  Shaking off this useless train of thought, he tried to figure out what skill would do him the most immediate good.

For inspiration he looked around him a saw; trees. At first this seemed entirely unhelpful; then the trees triggered a memory of how he had spent his hours leading up to his battle, namely bent over fruitlessly searching under trees for treasure chests. With that thought he knew what his new skill had to be.  However when he went to pen to paper he realized that he only had a concept, not a skill.  Erasing the scribbles that constituted his earlier work, MoMony started from scratch.

He knew that he wanted some way to help him locate the hidden chests, he just wasn't sure the most efficient way to do that.  His first thought was simply an arrow which pointed him to the nearest chest.  He started to sketch out the arrow, he wanted to added a color scheme to indicate how close he was to the chest, essentially a red to blue, hot to cold indicator.  However small neat writing informed him that to add any enhancements would require higher levels.  MoMony was feeling a little let down as he placed the skill scroll back in its place.  

MoMony’s mood quickly improved as he activated his new skill and a gray arrow flashed into existence.  The arrow was three dimensional, maybe two inches thick, and a half a foot long.  It was currently pointing to MoMony’s right.  There was a sudden tightness in his chest which he wrote off as excitement.  With the beginnings of a whistle on his lips he turned towards the arrow. At least he tried to turn, something held him.  The whistle died when MoMony looked down and saw a sword jutting from his chest. When did that happen, he thought as he fell to his knees.

“If it wasn't for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” MoMony said out loud.

The forest floor reached up and cradled his view.  The world went black.  

Thirteenth Chapter

Ragnar

            There were as short fifteen minutes before his shift at the bank.  He was looking for a quick fight.   Ragnar entered the level four “Every man for himself Battle” for the first time. Excited for the frantic chaos that waited for him.  The level three battle had been where the skills started to really shine and the fighting had been brutal and challenging.  Truly thrilling.

            “RAGNAR!!!”  He bellowed as he ran into the sun dappled arena, his axe held over his head.  The battle cry was answered by perfect silence.  He stood alone in the middle of a large grass field surround by a thick forest, feeling a little foolish. If someone made a fool of themselves and no one saw, was his still a fool? It felt like yes.  Ragnar turned a full circle to make sure no one was sneaking up on him.  But as far as he could see, he was completely alone.  Maybe he was the first to reach level four.  Or more likely everyone else who had reached level four was spending all their time in the main world.  Which is what he turned to do, heading back the way he’d come.

            Walking into the town Ragnar was greeted with a noise, a buzz, the sound of massed people all talking at once.  Turning before he entered the bank to start his shift, he looked out onto the main street.  The street was packed, for the most part full of people milling about in small groups.  There were two places where bodies had formed rings around fights, cheering on the combatants.  It was of little surprise to Ragnar that both fights were taking place in front of the two buildings that had opened as bars or gathering houses.  Other than the bank these buildings that had any sign of activity. 

            It was then that Ragnar noticed that the building across from the bank had its door open.   A sign now hung off the awning, Workshop, Ragnar read with a thrill, was this an indication of a system of crafting? He started to cross the street to check it out.  It was at this inopportune moment that the alarm that signified the start of his shift went off.  Sadly he turned his back to the alluring newness of the workshop and headed into the bank. 

As he approached the bank he was confronted with a massive line.  When he had left his last shift, there had been a constant line but that had never exceeded four people waiting.   This was a wholly different kind of line.  A Black Friday line.  He had been so focused looking at the town, avoiding thinking about the bank, he had completely over looked the line that extending out the bank door and around the corner of the building.  Inside the bank the line snaked back and forth across the empty room.  AsLionsMain, standing behind the desk looked up as Ragnar approached.  AsLionsMain was tall and mostly naked, with only a tan leather loin cloth and a massive head of blond hair.  He was well muscled and tan, a black paw print was tattooed on his chest above his heart.   The hair was teased out to resemble a lion’s mane and hung on to his back and over his shoulders on to his chest.  A golden beard without a mustache completed the effect of surrounding his face with hair.

 “Great you’re here. It has been like this since I got here. Totally insane” He said using his head to gesture toward the line.  Then pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at very thin small girl with pink hair and butterfly wings. “This is PoorChoices. Because of the uptick in business we are going to have two people working all shifts.” 

PoorChoices was helping a stone gargoyle, so she only nodded to Ragnar, he nodded back as he walked behind the desk.

 “I can’t wait to get out there.  Check out that flyer when, if, you get a moment, it a game changer.”  With that AsLionsMain walked out of the bank leaving Ragnar and PoorChoices with the endless line.  There is a benefit of working with a long line, the shift goes by fast.  The variety in the line was impressive, though after an hour or so, every interaction began to blur together.  

Three and a half hours into the shift after PoorChoices came back from her brake, Ragnar took his break.  He placed a sign on the desk and turning his back to the line, staring at the wall.  There was one sign on the wall, the flyer that AsLionsMain indicated as he left.

Treasure!!

DocZed Inc. has donated 2,000,000ngs

The Money has been placed in many chest

Then scattered throughout the land

Happy Hunting!

Ragnar felt a thrill start in his stomach, then spread to his head.  AsLionsMain was right this was a game changer.   It would empty out the cities and spread people out over the whole world.  It would also put money in a lot of peoples’ pockets.  Once back to work the time really slowed down.  PoorChoices left and was replaced, Ragnar never got the name of her replacement he was too excited for the end of his shift.  Suddenly his replacement arrived, marking the end of his shift.

Ragnar walked out of the bank into the hustle and noise of the town.   He tried to judge if the street had more or less people then before his shift.  It looked about the same, including the fighting pits outside of the bars. He steeled himself to cross the street through the throng.  Before he had step into the street a flash of sliver in the alley caught his eye.  A shadow dropped off the Workshops roof on to a tall willowy Elvin figure.  The flash of sliver had to be a blade as the shadow stabbed the elf.  Ragnar tried to peer into the shadow, as if sensing Ragnar’s attention the shadow looked up from its victim.  Ragnar found himself quite uncomfortable as he was confronted with to black eye holes in a gray mask.  He looked away for just a moment.

When Ragnar looked back, the shadow was gone.  He thought of going into the alley and trying to find the shadow, but instead headed across the street and entered the workshop.   The single room was full of workbenches shadows danced on the walls. The only light came from a candle in each corner of the room. 

“Hi, hello, hey there, are you here to be my bodyguard?”  A bent old elf stood next to one of the benches, dressed in the habit of a monk his white hair was pulled up in to a topknot. 

MoMony

Level 1

Wallet-0ng

Taking Ragnar’s silence as acceptance MoMony continued talking, his voice high and reedy.  “I can’t pay you right away.  But, but, but once I get my business up and running I will be able to.”

“Why do you need a bodyguard?” Ragnar asked.

“See this machine?  It takes what you find in the world and converts it into materials that you can use in all the other machines.”  MoMony gestured to the machine closest to Ragnar.  “That machine makes armor.   That one makes hand weapons, this one makes potions, and this one makes ranged weapons.  I plan to sell what I make here, I will open a shop in one of these empty buildings.”

“That sounds great, but why do you need a bodyguard?”

“Because to do this I need to collect supplies out in the wilds.  Every time I leave this building I get attacked.  I am just level one, and I have no interest in fighting, so I make an easy target.  With you, a level four, around they should think twice.  I mean you can obviously handle yourself, you’re the first level four I have seen.”

            “I see,” Ragnar replied, “you said that you couldn’t pay me.  Why should I spend my time helping you? Not to be a jerk or anything, but I just got off a shift at the bank and helping you sounds like work.”

            “It’s a good question, to be honest I’m not sure that I have an answer that will convince you.  But think of it this way.  It’s like going for walk, if we get attacked you will fight them off.  Any supplies that you find you can keep.  So instead of money from me you will gain experience and supplies that you can use to craft your own weapons and armor.  If that is not enough, if you help me now I will give you a lifetime twenty percent discount at any of my shops.  Are you in? Come on, it’s a great deal.  It will be a chance to explore out of town, have you done that yet?”  MoMony was out of breath and twisting his hands together by the time he was done talking.

            “I’m not sure that I would be a great bodyguard.  I have never had to protect someone else before.  But if you want me I guess I’m in.”

            “Yahooo! Yess!  My business starts now.  Yippy-Yah!”  MoMony grabbed Ragnar’s hand and started to pull him out the door.

            “Hey, wait.” Ragnar laughed as he pulled his hand free.  “Before we leave I wanted to check what I need to craft a new axe.”

            “Is that all.” MoMony was obviously anxious to get out of the building.  So anxious that Ragnar started to wonder how long he had been hiding in the workshop. 

            “You know what I would need?”

            “Of course, no let’s move, I will tell you as we walk.”

            “Sure.”

            “Huzzah.  Basic weapons are pretty easy.  They all require some amount of wood and a metal or an alloy.  Some require a little leather.”

            “Hey we shouldn’t go through the alley.  I saw someone ambushed in one earlier.”

            “See your already proving to be a good bodyguard.”

“Thanks, so what exactly would I need to make a battle axe?”

“Oh right, ok, for a battle axe you will need two wooden staves they will make up your handle.  You will also need three strips of leather, to make the grip I assume.   The amount of metal you need depends on what type of ax you want.   If you want a single blade you just need one brick, if want a spike or two blades like you have now you will need two bricks.”

“I got to ask, how much time did you spend in that workshop?  I mean to memorize”

“Ha, way too much.  Every time I tried to leave, I got attacked, so soon I stopped leaving.  I waited for someone like you to come in.”

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“Oh I tried.  I guess I am really bad.  I picked a bad power, and I only carry a small dagger.  Like I said I only came here to start a business.  I am a little older then you are, I think.  I have a family to support.”

“I see.”  Ragnar thought for a moment. “So what is your power?”

MoMony laughed.  Then he held up his palm, a small fireball hovered about three inches above it.  “I called the handheld fireball.  But as cool as it to be able to create this little fireball it is useless as a weapon.  I can think of very few good ways to use it to cause damage.”

“I have an idea, if you put your palm agents your enemies body or head then activated the fireball I bet that would do a bunch of damage.”

“That’s a pretty good idea, I will try it the next time I fight.  The real issue is that I just don’t like violence, so I’m not any good at fighting, even if it’s to defend myself.  Which is why I need you around.”

            “Ok.  I am happy to help.  But now that we are out of town help me keep an eye out for ambushes.  I am particularly worried about the trees, make sure your looking for people waiting to drop down on us.”

            The landscape out of town was breath taking.  The trees surrounding them had many branches, the whole tree was covered in branches forming and upside down cone.   Each branch had many smaller branches covered in uncountable millions of tiny green leaves.  Ragnar brushed his hand along one of these, and was surprised that each of these small leaves were hard and sharp. 

            “I bet you have never seen pine tree before.”

            Ragnar just shook his head.

            “They used to cover large parts of the world, before the cities grew to cover everything.”

            “Wow, you really must be old to remember that.”

            “Yeah I am not that old, all the pine trees were in private parks by the time I was born.  But my grandfather remembers a time when there were still a few wild forests.  He used to show me pictures that he had taken.  That’s where I saw pine trees, the pictures looked just like this.  My grandfather said that you could actually sleep under one and the branches would keep you covered from the elements like rain or snow.  That’s not a bad place to look for supplies.  You can use pine wood for your axe I’m going to look under this tree, you should check under another.”

            With that MoMony picked up one of the big branches and stuck his head under.  “Hey yeah, look at all this wood.  This is great, I will grab you some.  Go look under another see what you find.”

            Lifting up a branch Ragnar found the space underneath to be quite and dark.  It was also surprisingly spacy.  In the darkest area, near the trunk of the tree Ragnar saw a twinkle.  Pushing the branch up higher Ragnar crouched down and moved further under the boughs.  With more light Ragnar could see a small box on the ground where the twinkle had originated.  He duck walked to the box, the branch dropping behind him, cloaking him in darkness.  He re found the box with his hands and flipped back the lid.  Light pored up out of box, illuminating the inside of tree.

“Whoa, what is that?”  Ragnar heard MoMoney exclaim from outside of the canopy. 

Looking into the light was a little painful as his eyes had to adjust from the dark.   What he found in the box made up for it.  First Ragnar pulled out a bunch of strips of leather, once removed they reviled a small cloth bag and three lumps of metal.  There was stitching on the bag but it was too dark to read it, but when opened, Ragnar saw the bag contained a large jewel.  He closed the bag and picked up the metal lumps, which were heavier than they looked.  He then backed out of the tree.

“What happened?”  MoMoney was partially bouncing up and down in his excitement.  “The tree just lit up, what did you find?  Look at all this wood I found, here is yours.”

“Great thanks,” Ragnar took the wood and stuck it in the wallet on his hip.  “I found a box, the light you saw came out of the box.  I think it was one of the treasure boxes that I read about on the flier in the bank.”

“A treasure box.  Cool.  What was inside?”

“A bunch of leather, a few lumps of metal, and this.”  Ragnar held up the bag.  “There is some writing on this and inside is a really big jewel.   Now let’s see what this bag says.   ‘The stone within, can be used to enhance weapons and armor with the power of Zeus.”

“That is amazing, what an incredible treasure.”

“I think so too, I think I want it.”

This was spoken by someone behind both Ragnar and MoMony.  Spinning to confront the new comers, Ragnar saw that the one who spoke was not alone. Three figures had entered the little clearing, two of them were level twos one was a level one.

“I think it would be better for you, to turn around and leave, go find your own treasure.”  Ragnar spoke while putting the supplies away and readying his axe off his back.

“Level wise we equal you and your treasure is just too good to pass up on.”

            “Then come at me.”

            The level two who had not spoken was the first to move.  He was a tall brawny man, holding a two handed sword in one hand.  He attacked with a lunge.  If the two other assailants had attacked at the same time, they may have had a chance.  As it was the other two were slow to attack, giving Ragnar to focus on the man with the sword.  He side stepped the lunge and with a short swing his axe took off the man’s leg.  The man crumpled with a scream. 

            Ragnar spun towards the level two who had spoken.  This man was armed with a bow, and he had just brought an arrow to the string when Ragnar was upon him.  The battle axe cut right though the bow and into its wielders chest.  He dropped without a sound.  1 kill +1 xp.    Ragnar stepped over the body, looking up to find the last assailant.  All he saw was the back of a shirt as the Level 1 ran away.  Ragnar then turned to finish off the tall man with a sword.  MoMony had beaten him to it.  He was crouched over the body with his hand on its chest.  Thin wisps of smoke trailed from the body’s nose and open mouth. 

            MoMony looked up.  “You were right the handheld fireball works very well when created inside of the body.”  He said sadly.  “That was an incredible display.  You took them apart.  I really appreciate you helping me.  I think between the wood I gave you and what you found in the treasure box you should have what you need to make an axe, right?”

            “I think so, if what you remember is correct.”

            “Right then, I think you should head back to town to craft yourself a new axe.”

            “Are you sure?  I thought you wanted a bodyguard?”
            “I did.  I really just needed help to get out of the workshop.  Now that you killed those thugs, I’m sure that there is no one around.  I feel safe enough.  Also if I die it will be with all the stuff I found under that tree, if I stay out here a little longer, I bet I will find all sorts of cool supplies.”

            “It would be no problem for me to stay with you till you are done looking.” Ragnar said this hoping that MoMony would say no.

            “Don’t worry about it, I’ll see you back in town.”  MoMony really wanted Ragnar to leave so that he wouldn’t be competition.  Secretly he was pissed that Ragnar had found the chest.

            “Ok see ya.”  Ragnar said over his shoulder, as he turned and started to walk back to town.