Once Trelain’s forest was warded, and our home established, no monsters or roving gangs wandered through. That was great for a sense of peace and security, but not for the purposes of reaching Acolyte.

  And certainly not for my overarching goal of getting home to Naomi.

  With the nebulous overarching quest not yet available to us via Trelain’s word, we had to rank up. We had a few options with how we could do that. The old Apostle said he had been to a few towns for his research, recently, and had seen some fliers asking for help.

  Because Schaldry’s investigation and protective services came from the King’s Guard, and they were otherwise occupied with a rebellion in the south… the common folk had no one else to turn to. So, much like someone might tact a notice on a telephone pole back home looking for a lost cat, people turned to crowdsourcing their problems.

  There were a few places Trelain had been that shared this common theme of extremely passive cries for help: Weloran, Tithetown, and Kalawyn.

  Tre mentioned a few other places where he had heard rumors of people being snatched from their beds in the middle of the night. But that seemed more like an investigation-based sort of quest, and that was a little outside the group’s comfort zone at the moment.

  Weloran was also out, on account of the Hoarfrost Gang having just done a job there.

  And Tithetown was the furthest away from us, all the way off the coast on a small island. So, we set our eyes on Kalawyn to the North West.

  The close-knit tiny agrarian town was only a few days West of the Forest of Gene and seemed to have plenty of problems to deal with. Trelain had also been there the most recently, and was fairly confident that no one else was around picking up bounties.

  He mentioned there was another group of do-gooders in Schaldry, itself.

  But they were Acolytes, and were picking up more complicated and dangerous quests than we could handle at the moment. So, we’d most likely not run into them while serving the community of Kalawyn.

  Before we left the treehouse, Tre took me aside to give a few things.

  “My boy, I’m proud of your adventurous spirit and I appreciate your drive to get stronger. I do! And gods know I need you four for what is to come. So, I appreciate it doubly! But I also know how important ranking up is to you in regards to getting home. And back to your…”

  “My wife?” I asked, finishing for Trelain.

  “Yes. Your beloved. Now, listen. I don’t know much. Well, that’s a lie. I do know quite a bit about quite a bit. But still. I should tell you, no… I should implore you. Implore to you? Rushing things, just to get stronger is not the way. She’ll be there, just like no time has passed… when you’re stronger that is. So don’t be foolhardy, don’t get yourself killed, and don’t get them killed. Everything will be fine, I’m sure of it. But just in case you need me, or need to return to our comfortable little place in the trees— take this,” Trelain said, handing me a brass-gold chain with a small tree pendent dangling from the middle.

  “A parting gift?” I asked.

  “No… it’s much more than that,” Trelain said, “Take a look.”

  Using your inherent skill, identify, you have identified one uncommon necklace of:

  Arbor’s Refuge. [Homing Item] [Exponential Item] [Necklace] When activated, return to The Forest of Gene in your location of choice. Can only use once per week. Only goes one way. Cannot use when in danger, pursued by an enemy, in trouble with the law, or in certain planes of existence.

  Activate Arbor’s Refuge by uncoiling and wrapping the chain around you and whoever you wish to take with you.

  Would you like to set your location now?

  Yes/no

  Yes.

  I set the location to the living room of our treehouse, making sure to be in the most open space available should the others return with me. Crashing into a cabinet or appearing just past the rope bridge could be disastrous.

  I equipped the necklace, thanking Trelain for such a thoughtful gift.

  This would make the trip back to the Forest of Gene far easier, and far safer… ensuring no one could follow. Trelain was all about his secrecy, especially as he zeroed in on his life’s work. The plan was almost coming to fruition, and the old Apostle had been so generous and supportive I didn’t want to argue.

  I knew Dane would grumble a bit, seeming more like a guy that preferred being on the road.

  He also gave me a black stone, much like the texture and material the wards was made out of. Tre explained that this was a version of a common item called a speaking stone, and we could use it whenever we wanted to reach him.

  He said he’d do his best to answer when he could. This confused me at first, thinking he had given me something I knew of from Dungeons and Dragons: a sending stone. The speaking stone worked more like a magical voicemail… massively ranged, but subject to brownouts to its functionality if we were underground or on another plane of existence.

  With our destination chosen and our provisions packed, we headed out that afternoon for a spot of true adventure. I had never been beyond the forest and was excited to see what Schaldry and the world was like when not surrounded by trees. Dane said I would be woefully disappointed, but Benji just shook his head and smiled.

  “He really likes the road, never seen him happier than when going from place to place. Don’t know what you’re on about, Dane,” Maleena said.

  “Don’t mind him, he’s just pissy we’re not going to Tithetown,” Benji said.

  “I’ve just always wanted to go out to sea. The fresh air, the coastline, the fishing. Aw, I could really go for some fishing,” Dane said.

  “I’m sure we’ll get to it, yeah? I’m not expecting to just have ten new skills after this. Should take time,” I said.

  The three murmured in agreement as we wove through the trees, approaching the border. We were relatively close to the second ward that we had repaired… the one that sent us back in a shockwave and started the whole race against time experience.

  “Speaking of… I know now that ya’ll don’t see the titles of the skill books. Even with the Party Perks. But I’ve been calling them skill books this whole time, this whole time. Considering they’re passives, skills, spells, and all… that seems inaccurate. Benji, what do you call them?” I asked.

  “Skill book is fine,” Benji said.

  “I haven’t seen enough to really think about it,” Dane said.

  “Until recently…” Maleena added.

  “Right. Thing is, most people out here aren’t Initiates. Even less are Acolytes, and seeing an Adherent is like seeing a wolf. It doesn’t happen often. At least not around here,” Dane said.

  “Hey, speaking of, did ya’ll finish the books Trelain gave you?” I asked.

  “With what time?” Dane shot back.

  “Not yet, but I’m working on it,” Benji added.

  “I barely got through a half an hour before I passed out. Reading these things isn’t exactly quick. Well, not unless we’re you. Any chance you can share that gift through the Party Perk?” Maleena asked.

  “I don’t think so. But I’ll keep looking for a way,” I said, apologetically.

  We pushed our way out of the trees and came to a sweeping expanse of blue-green grasslands, far as the eye could see. The landscape was simple, but startlingly beautiful. The way the sun played off the blades of grass had a slight twinkling effect, making it look like the hills were flowing like waves.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  There was a slight breeze, and the air smelled vaguely sweet like something familiar. But I couldn’t place the scent.

  “And Apostle?” Dane was continuing his tirade, “Well that’s like meeting a fucking king. And you just landed here, met one, got basically adopted, and now we’re here. Honestly Greg… your luck…”

  “…Is comically bad, back home. Trust me. I guess I’ll always be biased, having Trelain be my first contact with a magic user. But I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”

  “You will,” Maleena said, and then added, “I call them skill books too. But other people just call it for what it is…. power.”

  “Rowena was always talking about that. How her power was unmatched and how if we wanted to survive like her, we had to seize power. Shit like that,” Dane said.

  “Annoying harpy,” Maleena added.

  “Seriously twisted woman,” Benji said under his breath.

  Now well onto our second hill of grasslands, we could see a few rocky outcroppings in the distance. They weren’t mountains, but they weren’t hills either. Closer by, a herd of what looked like across between buffalo and big horned sheep grazed.

  There were about ten or fifteen of them, all having a delightful midday munch. To our South, and beyond the trees, were the cliffs we had fought with our backs to at the end of the Ward repair quest.

  “Dane, I don’t care what you say. It’s absolutely beautiful out here. I’d love a good seafaring adventure but this…” I looked around at the picturesque landscape and gestured, “This is wild, gorgeous land.”

  Instead of responding to my revelry, Dane stopped in his tracks and crouched low. Brandishing his shield, The Informant, he gestured with a hand for us to stop.

  “Something is here, I just can’t see it,” Dane said, voice low.

  Just when he said that, Benji shouted, “DANE!” from behind the group.

  We had all been facing West, but last I had checked, Benji was staring at the cliffs in the South. I had thought nothing of it, chalking it up to him remembering our fight there a day ago. But with his scream, we all turned to see the slight man dangling in the air… made to float by a swarm of small purple-black, fuzzy, flying creatures.

  “Get them off! Get them off! Get them off!” Benji yelled.

  There were six, maybe seven, of the little beasts. Each of them had sunken teeth into Benji’s flesh. Two for each arm, and a few on his head; Benji was swatting at them like annoying houseflies.

  “It fucking burns!” Benji yelled.

  “Hold on!!” Maleena yelled, and cast a few Icicles at the them.

  Ice Lance [Active] [Conjuration/Elemental Spell] [Domain: Frost] Conjure and shoot a hunk of ice, shaped to your will, at a target. Piercing, Frost damage. Ignores invulnerability (Mana cost: low).

  Maleena’s shots went wide, as she was seemingly trying her best not to hit Benji in the process. I had been practicing with my hammer every since I got the power, so I cast Summon Sledgehammer and threw at the creature biting Benji’s neck.

  Summon Sledgehammer: [Active] [Conjuration] [Domain: Metallurgy] Conjure a 3 lbs high-carbon steel hammer that swings like a war hammer. (Mana cost: low).

  My throw hit true, and the first monster exploded in a mist of blood. There wasn’t much weight to the little things, and a hammer to the face was apparently all it took. At my hit, my HUD informed me of the creature’s names.

  You have hit a Common Bloodthirsty Flittermouse with Sledgehammer.

  You have killed a Common Bloodthirsty Flittermouse.

  “More are coming! Hold on Benji!” Dane yelled.

  A flock of some thirty-odd Bloodthirsty Flittermouse came careening out from the direction of the rocky outcropping I had seen earlier.

  The closer they got, the more they blotted out the sun.

  Maleena gave up on precise finessing shots on the ones holding Benji and turned to the swarm. When they got about a dozen feet away, she cast Windsheer.

  Windsheer: [Active] [Elemental Spell] [Domain: Frost] Emit a freezing gust of wind, Knock back and cold damage (Mana cost: low).

  The swarm flew backwards, tumbling in the air. The Bloodthirsty Flittermouse in front too most of the frost damage and fell to the ground. Their frozen bodies couldn’t take the fall from that height, and I saw notifications ding as our Party Perk HUD informed me that ten were officially down.

  I conjured my hammer again and threw it at the two holding up Benji’s right arm. My hammer arched and smacked one just as a crossbow bolt slammed into another. I looked to my right to see Dane winding a hand crank for a blood red crossbow.

  He put another bolt in and took aim.

  I was a bit perplexed why he wasn’t using Ice Lance like Maleena but given his strength and tactical prowess I suppose a martial weapon made more sense.

  Benji, still held aloft by a group of the bloodsucking little things, continued to scream. But now with a hand free, he twisted his body in the air to try to get a hand on one. He made contact with the Flittermouse on his collar bone and sent a lightning bolt into it point blank.

  Lightning Bolt: [Active] [Elemental/Destruction Spell] [Domain: Shock] Hurl a bolt of lightning at a target. Shock damage. Increased damage to targets that are wet or wearing Armor (Mana cost: Low).

  That immediately exploded the beast, causing Benji to twirl in the air. His assailants lack of counterbalance, and nominal combined strength, Benji crashed to the ground. The few that still clung to his left arm were quickly dispatched by a combination of another one of my hammer tosses and Dane’s crossbow.

  “Thanks,” Benji said, brushing himself off and downing a quick health potion.

  “Thank us when they’re all dead!” Dane roared, and turned to cast Shield Wall just as a barrage of twenty swarmed. They splattered against it, turning into a bloody spray of viscera.

  Shield Wall [Active] [Defense Spell] [Domain: Tactician] Cast a large, indomitable shield blocking slashing, piercing, and blunt damage. Minor resistance to elemental spells. Deals blunt damage on hit if you have a physical shield equipped (Mana cost: low).

  “Or that,” Benji said.

  “I was... Not expecting that to work,” Dane said.

  “Okay, so maybe not so picturesque,” I said, looking at the pile of bloody monster corpses at Dane’s feet.

  “No, still pretty. Just pretty and exciting,” Maleena said, and then turned to Benji, “You okay, Benji? Thought they were gonna carry you off for a moment, there.”

  “Yeah,” Benji said, rubbing his neck, “I’m alright. Just a wounded pride. I should have been a lot harder to pick up for just seven.”

  “Don’t worry about it. They get stronger when they feed,” Dane said

  “Well that’s disconcerting, because I’m pretty sure we’re heading towards a big nest of theirs,” I said, pointing out the rocky outcropping in the distance.

  “Let’s loot these fuckers and go destroy it,” Benji growled.

  “Oh man, you are pissed,” Dane said, smirking.

  “You would be too. They gave me rabies!” Benji protested.

  “Did you drink a health potion?” Dane asked.

  “Yeah…”

  “Problem solved. Now let’s go kill these things before it gets dark. They come out in droves at night,” Dane said.

  “Droves?” Benji mouthed, looking at me.

  “Droves!” Dane shouted, as he hefted his shield and started marching West with murder in mind.

  I just shrugged, and threw an arm around him, walking us towards the nest. We still had, what looked like, a mile or so until we got there. Benji, not used to being slapped around by monsters so tiny needed some distraction.

  So, I told him about what vampire bats were like in my world.

  He was not impressed.

  A little later, after I lit the entire nest on fire with Furnace (and aided by some choice lightning bolt hits), we sat around the smoldering remains of the nest. Benji spent the better part of an hour, walking around and touching each corpse to loot it. He was calming down, but it wasn’t until he sat for a rest and explained that he had a massive bat phobia and his brother had tortured him as a kid with a bat costume.

  It was a little funny, until it became sad when he thought about what was surely going on at home now that the Hoarfrost Gang didn’t have their recently indentured Benji to pay back his family’s debts.

  We kept marching West, with more than a half a day left to go of daylight. Dane thought we would easily make the outskirts of Kalawyn by nightfall. But Benji, and I, really didn’t want to be caught anywhere near a horde of the Bloodthirsty Flittermice if we could help it. So when we found a reasonably large cave near a waterfall, we stopped for the night.

  The cave wasn’t deep, and we made sure to check it fully for any sign of monster or man. There we set a guard and a rotating shift and tried to sleep. It was a fitful night, Benji shouting in his sleep. After realizing just how affected he had been, Dane apologized by taking a second shift of watch and letting the poor guy sleep.

  The next morning, after a hasty breakfast of hand pies, we headed for Kalawyn. Judging from the mini map, we had a few miles until we’d be hitting the corn and barley fields. The people of Schaldry apparently called this part of the Kingdom, the grain bowl for its rolling hills and fields of food. I didn’t much care for barley back home, not even for beer.

  But the fields were gorgeous.

  Golden stalks waving in the distance with that slight pleasant breeze had me changing my tune— at least visually. Yesterday’s events behind us, we made our way closer and closer to town with hope in our hearts. Benji, now fully shaken off his brush with a long-held phobia, was in better spirits. Dane, for his part, had stopped his teasing. Maleena, however, looked a bit frustrated.

  “What’s up Leens?” I asked, trying her nickname.

  “I need some damned finesse,” she said, and then added, “I couldn’t even hit one holding poor Benji.”

  “Well, that’s why we’re here, right? Get you some more power?” I asked.

  “You mean skill books?” She corrected.

  “Right.”

  “Still working on the one’s Trelain gave you?”

  Everyone just nodded.

  “Sorry. Wish I could give you my… quick skill ability.” I said.

  “We know,” Dane droned.

  “Sure, would be nice,” Maleena muttered, “I’ve got hours to go…”

  Benji didn’t say anything.

  “Next drops, I’m sure,” I said.

  “If we’re lucky,” Dane said.

  “Yeah, GZelle, they’re really not that common of drops…” Maleena said.

  “Well, maybe now that you don’t have weird, pervy overseer gang leaders stealing all your shit… it’ll be different. We’re out of the forest anyway. Should be better out here,” I said, trying to steer the group in a positive mindset.

  Benji, who had been relatively quiet this morning, spoke up for the first time, “That reminds me. I looted the nest.”

  “Anything good?” I asked, as we crested the next field of barley.

  We still hadn’t seen a single soul tending the crops, which seemed odd. Something at the back of my mind tingled. But, chalking it up to being excited, I paid it no mind.

  “Eh, I donno. Some Alchemical ingredients, but nothing wildly valuable. There are a few potions in here. Greg, do you mind identifying? Oh! Never mind,” Benji said as the items identified as he perused them in his inventory.

  “So? What are they?”

  “I don’t understand…” Benji said, turning to me with confusion on his face… “These are empty vials.”

  “Here, pop em over into my inventory. Let me see,” I said.

  But before I could take a look, there was a tremendous, reverberating, teeth chattering bang.

  Okay, quite a bit in here. What do we think about skill/power text in combat?