Book 2: Chapter 39 (Patreon)

The day passed slowly, with Daniel sulking. Orrin wasn’t much help, spending his time trying to come up with new ways to use [Merge]. He also used his new spell [Decrease Dexterity] on Daniel until he tripped. He had to quickly cast a few dexterity buffs so his friend wouldn’t notice.

Madi tried to engage with both of them but gave up in a huff when Daniel told her to leave him alone.

The long day turned into a long night, with still little conversation. Madi took the first watch. When she woke him for the middle shift, Orrin watched his countdown and at the exact moment he could use [Merge] again, he created his second spell: [Decrease Strength]. He had considered getting one of the magical stats first but Leanthun had told them they had three days of walking before he would lead them off the beaten path. He figured he would be able to get will or intelligence tomorrow night. He was so focused on his own planning that he didn’t notice Daniel was still awake. When his friend sat down next to him, he started.

“Not doing a good job as lookout if I can sneak up on you.” Daniel pushed Orrin in the arm. “What are you thinking about?”

Orrin glanced at Madi on the other side of the heater box. Leanthun was further away, still as the night air. “I got that new skill we talked about. I’ve been looking at new combos.”

Orrin pulled up his [Decrease Dexterity] spell in a blue box and added [Merge] as well before flipping it to Daniel. His eyebrows went up as he read them both.

“You used it to make spells you already have?”

Orrin shushed him and nodded his head at the sleeping forms near them. “Cheaper mana costs. There’s a cooldown for using it, too. Do you think they’re asleep?”

Daniel peered over his shoulder and shrugged. “I don’t know if elves have super hearing but Madi’s probably too far away to hear us. What’s up? Are you going to try and convince me that it’s ok to kill innocent people too?”

Orin waved his hand. “That’s a problem for tomorrow. We haven’t had a chance to talk since the dungeon and I need to tell you something.”

Orrin paused, trying to gather his thoughts. Daniel didn’t always respond well to his new powers. He also had the ability to trust Madi a lot more than Orrin. He trusted her but not like he trusted his best friend and Tony had acted like an Administrator was a god. He didn’t want to freak out their only remaining party member.

Where did Brandt go, anyways?

“When I absorbed the dungeon core—”

“Destroyed it,” Daniel corrected.

Orrin shook his head. “No, D. I got a weird notification that I could absorb it for Administrator Points. I’ve got a whole list of weird powers I can unlock now.”

Orrin pulled up the list of unlockable powers and tried to turn them toward Daniel, the same way he had shared various blue boxes in the past. Only this time, the display shook and refused to turn.

“Damn it. It won’t let me show you.”

“Show me what?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s like a spell or skill list for Administrators only. I can do things like unlock spells or edit stats but I have to unlock the ability first. I’ve only earned ten points from absorbing the dungeon core and I don’t even know if I have to spend more to use the skills.”

Daniel sat silently, staring at his friend. “You… fucking cheat. I’m so lucky you got hit by the truck, too.” A huge grin plastered across his face. “Tell me what you can do. Can you unlock dimensional travel or something?”

Orrin groaned. “Thanks, I guess? I can change or assign classes, assign Quests, edit rewards, unlock spells or skills, and edit stats. There are a few other things too, but there isn’t a description of what they do.”

“Like?”

Orrin sighed and pulled the purchase list back up. Some of the abilities had strange names and he hadn’t been able to figure out what they were. “[Imbue] is one. [Scry] is another but I think that’s got to be like [Identify] or [Analyze]. I didn’t even mention that the edit stats have something about sanctioned and unsanctioned. Sanctioned by who or what? The System?”

Orrin scrolled a bit more. “Some of these are just weird. [Change Race]? That seems like a recipe for disaster. [Create Relic]? Isn’t that what Madi called super powerful old magic items?”

Daniel ran his fingers over the thickening stubble around his chin, deep in thought. “How many of these things can you unlock?”

“One. Maybe two, if I just do the assign and reset class ones.”

“I don’t think those are as important to us. Assigning more Quests would be helpful, especially if you can edit the rewards.”

“That’s two separate abilities.”

Daniel ran his hand through his hair. “I guess we’ll need to destroy… absorb more dungeon cores in the future.”

“I was leaning toward the [Unlock Skill] or [Edit Stats] abilities. If I could use it on you or Madi, it would open up more versatility in your abilities. Imagine if I could just unlock [Teleport] for you or [Spear Proficiency] at a higher level for Madi? Bypass all the training and get the results.” Orrin picked up a broken twig in front of him and started picking at the bark. “[Edit Stats] might let me get you guys up to max without even having to cast spells. You could be stronger and quicker than Leanthun permanently.”

“What if it isn’t permanent or you can only give a few points?” Daniel countered. “Quests would let us do the same thing. We get you through another dungeon and you’ll have the points to edit the rewards, too.”

“Good point.” Orrin pulled the last of the stick apart. The white flesh of the wood underneath shone in the moonlight. “I’ve been going crazy keeping this to myself. I’m glad you didn’t think I was a weirdo. Stupid Orrin, complicating things all over again.”

Daniel put his hand on Orrin’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll figure out what’s going on with you. After we deal with this little war problem, we can go back to Dey and talk with Tony. You said he knew something about Administrators. We’ll track down someone who knows more and figure out your powers. Maybe Madi –”

“Let’s not involve her,” Orrin cut him off. “The way Tony acted when he found out… I almost regret telling him in the first place. If it scared him that much…”

“You know you’ll have to trust her at some point. That’s what friends do.”

Orrin threw the piece of wood into the distance. “I trust her but you don’t have to tell your friends every one of your secrets.”

Daniel grinned. “I know all your secrets.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Last year, you wrote my sister a love letter.”

Orrin felt fire on his cheeks. “No, I didn’t.”

Daniel poked him in the ribs. “I found it on your computer when I was printing out that essay about Catcher in the Rye. What was the line… ‘You make my heart sing when you walk into the room.’” It was very well-written.”

Orrin increased his strength and caught Daniel’s hand. Daniel tried to stand and pull his hand out of his grip, but Orrin ducked under the arm, pushed up, and launched Daniel into the air. His ‘friend’ landed twenty feet away in a crash of dust.

“That hurt, you dick.” Daniel stood up and brushed himself off.

“What is going on? Are we under attack?” Madi’s butterflies rose into the night, illuminating the area.

“Daniel just volunteered to take the rest of my watch. Sorry we woke you Madi.” Orrin glared across the camp at Daniel.

The [Hero] laughed and raised his hand in surrender. “Sure, sure. Get your beauty sleep.”

Orrin stomped off to his makeshift bed. It was a long time before his ears stopped burning.

I never even sent that stupid thing.

The next day passed without incident. Orrin gave Daniel the cold shoulder for a few hours but eventually cooled off. Leanthun kept monsters away from the party and nothing attacked them outright. Toward the end of the day, they saw smoke to the northeast.

“Is that a village?” Daniel asked, pointing to the plumes of smoke.

“That’s too much smoke for a bonfire. The villages up here are never that big.” Madi noticed Daniel’s raised eyebrow. “Villages this far from Dey aren’t as well-regulated as those closer to the city. They pay their taxes but it’s always too little to matter and nobody keeps a map of where they are. If a village grows large enough to be called a town, Dey will assign someone to oversee them. I know all the towns but villages come and go from generation to generation and we don’t keep records of them all.”

She pointed at Orrin, “Like his village. I couldn’t find where he came from and doubt I could unless we traveled there.”

Leanthun walked out of the grass and put his hand on Daniel’s elbow. “We should turn west. We can enter the forest tomorrow night if we keep a brisk pace.”

Daniel shrugged the elf’s hand off his arm. “What is going on over there? We can see the smoke.”

Leanthun didn’t turn away from Daniel’s intense gaze. “Odrana soldiers. There is nothing you can do. Leave them and come with me.”

Daniel reached over his shoulder and drew Gertrude. “How many soldiers?”

The elf sighed. “Too many. It matters not anyway.”

“I’m not leaving people to die.” He was ramping up, almost to the point of shouting.

“We can just do a rescue,” Orrin suggested. “Get the people out. If you could help us distract them, I’m sure we could—”

“A distraction will not help. That village supplies us with trade on occasion.” Leanthun turned and watched the clouds of smoke curling into the sky. “If I had been there yesterday, I might have…”

He trailed off, fists clenched to his side. Two deep breaths and the elf turned back to the group. Orrin was surprised to see tears on his stoic face.

“The village was already destroyed. The elderly and sickly were slaughtered.  The rest are gone, likely with slave collars on and headed back to Odrana to be sold. The soldiers still there are setting fire to the houses, trying to draw anyone nearby in.” His teeth clenched. “They have scouts in the area. We should leave the road now.”

Daniel still wanted to go after the soldiers, but Madi convinced him this was not the time. They might be strong and a few adventurers could make the difference in a large fight, but if the village was already gone, there was little point in risking it.

“We’ll get revenge for them. That is technically Dey’s lands and Odrana will pay dearly for taking our people.”

Orrin watched the smoke rising behind them as they walked away.

The following afternoon, Daniel announced he could see the forest in the distance.

“[Eagle Eyes]?” Leanthun tilted his head in question.

“Something like that,” Daniel responded.

Orrin was glad to see Daniel keeping his secrets. The skill had upgraded to [Telescope] with his promotion to Space Hero, but the exact nature of his skills didn’t need to be bragged about.

“It’s actually [Telescope],” Daniel continued. “It upgraded when I chose my moniker.”

Orrin groaned and rubbed his eyes in frustration.

The trees were still too far away to make the distance by nightfall, and they set camp by an old and crumbling well. Madi thought the land might have been a farm at some point and searched for any hints of an old house or barn. Leanthun arrived back from his daily roaming and quickly pointed out the flagstones for where a small house had stood only twenty feet from where they were.

“The family was always pleasant,” he said, looking at the broken stones with his hands resting on his weapons. Perfectly relaxed and yet ready to strike at a moment’s notice. “The youngest caught sick and they brought her north to us as the human city was too far for them to travel. She married a farmer further south. After the parents passed, the older child left for another town, I never found where.”

“How long ago was that?” Orrin asked, setting the heater box up. The nights were still cool.

“Two hundred years and thirty-one winters. Two hundred and forty-nine from when we cured the child.”

Orrin tried to imagine being that old, watching families come and go from the lands around. “Do you keep tabs on every family around the forest?”

Leanthun cast a glance at Orrin. “We know of every village and family nearby. We keep to ourselves, yet keep the pledge of a good neighbor. We trade freely, offer what we can, and aid those who would seek our help.”

Madi finished rolling her mat out. “Maybe you knew Orrin’s village, Leanthun? Orrin, you did say you were from around here, right?”

Shit.