B.F.HUUPS

28. The surface

Over the next few days, Earon managed to gain another point in rune crafting and a couple in featherweight as he spent long nights studying and rewriting the rune.

Whilst zap had its uses, he had ultimately decided that featherweight was the better spell, and as such spent far more time working on it. Not only did it provide a ranged attack, which he desperately needed, but it had a lot of room for tinkering. Whereas Zap was essentially just a weak melee attack, even if there was some r...

27. Time to leave

“Orductus ebsidium; no, no, that’s not right.”

“Come on, Lexi. It's not working.” Urged an impatient young man, nervously light on his feet and looking side-to-side. “If it didn’t work the first ten times, what’s the chance it will now?”

“It’s this damned Rathian, impossible to pronounce,” Lexi shook her head, reading over the scroll she held once more.

“The guards will have us hung if we’re caught down here.”

Lexi turned; her short blonde...

26. Fane 3

Dozens of siege engines lay across the battlefield, with motes of billowing smoke drifting up from the partially rubbled city in the background.

There had been delays in building the engines, with the uncontrolled quakes causing almost as many issues for their army as they had for the enemies. But now the dwarves stood ready.

Gorhash Fourharn sat on his mobile throne, brought up from the underground by his slaves immortal – a sect bred into service of the great dwarf king.

25. Rune crafting

Over the following week, Earon had redrawn the Zap rune many times. Sometimes his changes weakened it, other times he strengthened it. But most importantly, the practice had been immensely useful, not only gaining him 2 more points in rune crafting but also greatly improving his understanding of it. Not to mention, he had increased Zap to level 3.

Training had brought up new issues, however. He didn’t seem to be able to channel his zap through weapons and was starting to believe he ne...

24. Iliana 2

The small man hobbled around the brightly lit store in his fine satins as he collected fabric samples. Iliana stood on a podium in the middle of the store watching him. It took every inch of her self-restraint not to jump from the podium and storm out. Not just because she was following along with that monster's plans, but because of how ridiculous it all seemed.

Senseless slaughter gripped the lands and an endless line of refugees trickled into the city. Yet this man fussed over what c...

23. Learning about magic

“Amazing,” Earon mumbled with wide eyes as Trudels led him through the massive library, its shelves of books taller than the streets of Caedstad.

“There’s a thousand tips and tricks for crafting runes amongst these books, perhaps you’ll find something that helps you.”

“I’m not sure where to start.”

“Neither am I,” Trudels scratched his head. “Anyhoo, I’ll bring breakfast by in an hour or so. Bacon, eggs, sausages, porridge, and beans; I hope it’ll...

22. The Golem Master

“You know what I am?”

The fuzzy-faced Trudels tilted. “Do I?”

Earon sighed and slumped his shoulders.

“Oh,” Trudels nodded, puffing his brows and tapping his nose.

“Rune crafting?” Earon’s brows sharpened to a point.

“Oh yes, rune crafting. What of it?”

“You mentioned I have a rune crafting class…”

“You do, don't you?” Trudels shook his head. “I’m sorry, but this is all terribly confusing. Perhaps I’ve spent too l...

21. Fane 2

Olat and Morhan had been a great investment. With their help, Fane had been able to haul several more loads of valuables into the city. Better yet, the dumb oafs hadn’t pried.

Fane left on his own for trips into the Clain, where he collected more treasures from the dead, then he would store the loot in chests and leave it for them to collect. And with all the chaos that had erupted across the kingdom, few others had taken to looting the battlefield.

The bounties alone made him a...

20. Way out

Two days went by before Earon could stomach the idea of trying to eat one of the fiendish bats he had killed.

But nothing else was on offer. He had found himself in a cavern filled with the little beasts and had killed a dozen or so over the passing week.

Thankfully, hydration hadn't been such a stomach-curdling experience, and he had found an underwater spring. Not only that, but the water flowing from it was as fresh and clear as he had ever tasted.

The meat, on the other ...

19. Iliana

Only a faint, flickering light crept into her cell as Iliana awoke to cold metal around her wrists. 

Where was she?

Rising from the simple, cloth-draped board, she looked around. 

Cold stone met her bare feet as she placed them down, and her chains tightened as she stepped.

Iliana tugged on her bindings but only the flesh of her wrists cut against the rough metal.

“Awake?” Asked a strange, yet familiar voice.

Iliana turned to the bars...

18. Scarworld

Entire sections of the rocky ceiling had collapsed around him, and even now, debris still rained down occasionally.

Patting himself down, Earon sighed with relief. Everything seemed in order.

Looking to his side, he noted a boulder several times his size that had fallen only a few meters from him.

“Nice to know I have at least some luck on my side.”

The passageways that had once been there had now collapsed. However, a new one had taken its place, though it was mor...

17. Fane

“Shit,” Fane groaned. Everything hurt.

Blinking, blurry shapes formed jagged edges, and the torn earth around him started to make sense.

“Great.”

Grabbing the edge of a nearby boulder, Fane eased himself to his feet, stumbling several steps as his weakened legs found their footing.

To his left, a canyon disappeared into darkness, to his right the cliff-face climbed a hundred meters or so. Ahead, the ledge he had found himself stranded atop snaked preca...

16. The last of the tribe

His black furs stained red, Kalgarag turned from the battle and cut a man in two who accidentally blocked his way. His dark eyes glared up at the hulking cyclops one last time as he sneered and disappeared through the human ranks.

Lunging into the chaotic battle, Dordan disregarded safety as he swung wildly, crushing or killing any redcap silly enough to get in his way.

He had gotten stronger and faster than ever before, and he knew without even checking his status that he had lev...

15. Shamans

Even without the glow of red from his mana sense ability, Earon couldn’t have missed it, not with the tunnel of black clouds pinpointed to the top of the Scar.

Luckily, the flank they had been attacking had been further back, and the rock beside them was fairly navigable, with plenty of footholes to get himself up. Once he was up, the rocky terrain that led towards the ledge of stone above the scar was fairly level.

The main army was out of reach now, but dozens of adventurers h...

14. And so it begins

The sun hung low, teetering on the horizon as an army of adventurers marched toward the Scarlet Stone - a craggy, red rock towering several meters from the ground; beneath it, was the scar, an opening a dozen meters across and twice as tall, burying into the earth.

Banners and bones scattered the mouth of the opening, with dozens of redcap tribes already gathered above ground - whilst dozens more marched out from beneath the surface. It appeared that an entire army was marching out from...

13. Ready for a fight

The unnatural way in which the dark clouds swirled above was a disconcerting sight, seemingly driven to a single point by an unseen force. It also didn’t help that they were walking in that exact same direction and that it appeared the clouds were swirling toward the Scarlet Stone – one of the many scars across the Clain.

“I don’t like the look of this,” Fane whined as they marched across the red, barren landscape.

The scars themselves were entrances to what was generall...

12. World event

Everyone took time to recover after that battle, but it was Earon who chugged through most of their potion supply - not that anyone was too bothered by it. Without him, they likely would've either died or had to retreat anyway.

Greedily eyeing his gruesome sack, Fane made no attempt at hiding his satisfaction. They had already gathered thirteen ears, which was worth more than the group's combined earnings over the last few months, and more than enough to pay for the drunken potions.

11. Hellhounds

Marching through the sweltering heat across the dry, red land quickly grew tiring.

Groaning, Earon patted his tongue against his mouth. He was meant to be conserving water, but with every step sweated, evidenced by his soaked tunic, and his robe long since discarded to his pack atop Dotty.

Gripping his waterskin, Earon gauged its remnants. it was becoming increasingly difficult to not just finish it.

This was hardly how he imagined the barrens. Earon had expected hordes of m...

10. Let the hunt begin

As the hour of the hunt approached, hundreds became thousands as they gathered at the foot of the gate, filling the cobbled square with a crowd that stood shoulder-to-shoulder.

Only a narrow arch of stone separated the gate from the wallwalk above. The gate itself must have stood at least fifty feet, with giant lattice portcullises on both sides and meter-thick doors clad in metal – leading one to believe an engineering miracle must take place within the wall to open the thing.

...

9. Final preparations

Earon was never going to have enough time to train everything he needed to, but there were certain areas he needed to gain more experience in than others.

The most obvious of these was his lack of combat tactics and skills. Obviously, lack of spells, not even understanding how he was meant to cast them, and overall lacking ability when it came to the arcane, was a major detriment, but that didn't seem likely to change.

There were no doubt parties that would be interested in Earon,...

8. Training

Perhaps it might have been better to start in a more controlled setting, but the band, being as broke as they were, could hardly afford that. And without delay, sent Earon off to complete easy contracts.

He was given a few pointers, the basics of how to handle a spear, timing, and general distance control, but the reality was none of them had skills in polearms and weren't about to hire a trainer for Earon.

Then it was time to head off. First was clearing a section of sewer from o...

7. Back to Caedstad

Earon made sure to take in the sights and smells of the Rye as he rode through it, unsure when he might be back.

He had been scared but determined when he made his way back through the Spruce Gale, but now he marched into it with confidence.

By the time he reached the Yarges, he had unlocked the skill riding and gained another point in both it and navigator. Earon knew his gains wouldn’t continue to be as easy as he leveled but was grateful for anything that got him clo...

6. Homecoming

Within hours of his march across the Yarges, Earon’s feet already ached, but he forced himself on. Thankfully, he had managed to trade the rusty chain shirt for a waterskin, otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have been able to make the journey.

Hours passed, and Earon was forced to take shelter within a cleft not far off the road. His muscles ached and his eyes grew weary. However, sleep wouldn't come easily as howling woke him several times in the night, reflexively gripping his spear...

5. Party of adventurers

“Do you want us to take chase?” Mumbled a trembling young man as he applied a green paste to a shallow wound.

“Take chase to what?” Sneered Master Rudis as he lounged in the soothing medicinal bath prepared for him.

“That boy, the warlock.”

“Warlock? That peasant is no more a warlock than I am a farmer. But he could be useful for my experiments.” The master’s hand whipped upward, tightly gripping the apprentice’s wrist and directing it to another wound. �...