Book 2: Chapter 71 (Patreon)

“If you die, I’m going to kill you.”

Orrin ignored Daniel, pulling himself up higher on the ladder. “I’ve never had a problem landing at a different height. Why wouldn’t I be able to start in the air?”

It was early morning and Orrin was climbing to the top of the Catanzano manor’s roof. Orrin’s theory involved his [Teleport] spell. In the past, he’d always started from a flat surface and used the spell to jump to something he could see or a place he’d been before, as long as it was within the spell’s range. Currently, [Teleport] let him move 50 miles in a single jump. He wanted to test an idea he’d had.

Could he [Teleport] during a fall?

Daniel had thrown two mattresses on the ground in the training courtyard. The [Hero] had essentially stolen the yard from Silas at this point, forcing all the other guards in the household to train elsewhere. Daniel wouldn’t have cared but Madi had mentioned spies and keeping his skills hidden. Lord Catazano had sent his men away.

Orrin planned to jump not from the roof but from a controlled height. Even if he landed wrong, he was reasonably sure he could heal himself. He’d finished the regen potions and handed one off to Daniel. He was going to force it down Orrin’s throat if he needed to.

“I don’t see why you can’t jump from the top of the stairs,” Daniel complained.

Orrin finished climbing and turned around. He hung from the top of the ladder, one hand holding the roof. Daniel was holding the base steady.

“I could but this is more fun,” Orrin said as he teetered on the edge. “Here goes nothing.”

He landed and bounced off the mattress stack, rolling to a stop when he hit the wall nearby.

“Orrin! Are you okay?” Daniel ran to his friend’s side.

“Damn, I was hoping that would work.”

“What in the… why?” Madi rushed into the yard and took in the sight. Orrin brushed dirt off his sleeves, tousled but unharmed. Daniel squatted nearby. Mattresses and a ladder stood by guiltily.

“Orrin wanted to test out [Teleport]. I convinced him to only jump from a ladder. He wanted me to launch him into the sky,” Daniel betrayed him immediately.

“Coward.”

“Orrin,” Madi elongated his name in the way his mom used to when he was in trouble. “You know the entire manor is warded against [Teleport].”

“…” Orrin glanced at Daniel, who was holding back a laugh.

“It’s not my spell.”

Orrin sighed and picked himself up. “Madi, do you know if [Teleport] works when a person is falling from the sky?”

“Why would you be falling from the sky?”

“I need to be able to see into the distance. If I have Daniel throw me or create a balloon, I could see farther away and [Teleport] where I want to go,” Orrin explained. “It sounds stupid but the way the horizon works—”

“I know the theory of the curvature of the world. We’ve tried to build towers high enough to see the far side of the Pass in the past. It’s not safe to go that high up.”

“I’m not talking about building a tower. If this world is even roughly the same as our home planet and I did the math right, even if I go like a hundred feet up, I can see over ten miles.”

Madi paused, began to speak, and shook her head. “You won’t distract me. We can talk about that math later. If you go too high, sometimes things attack. I don’t know of anyone with [Teleport] that would be foolish enough to do something that dumb when they could just travel for a few hours instead.”

“If I can get to five hundred feet, I can probably see thirty miles. Daniel throws me in the air a few times and we make it all the way to Odrana in an hour.”

Madi hesitated again and stomped her foot as she turned around. “I’ll have the wards turned off around the yard for ten minutes. Don’t try anything until I get back.”

“Good job,” Daniel patted him on the back. He rested his hand and slapped him a few more times making dust billow. “You took a good tumble there.”

“I didn’t even think about the wards,” Orrin grumbled, moving away from his well-meaning friend.

Daniel whistled as he picked up the top mattress that had bounced halfway off with Orrin’s descent.

“… Daniel? Did you know I wasn’t going anywhere because of the wards?”

Daniel continued to whistle as Orrin chased him around the yard.

Ten minutes later, Orrin was grinning ear to ear. [Teleport] would allow him to jump even in mid-fall. The spell stopped his velocity and set him a few inches above the ground no matter how high he jumped from or how long he fell.

The hitch in his plan was that even boosted to maximum strength and starting from the top of the Catazano manor, Daniel could only throw him fifty feet. It wasn’t straight up either but a sort of angle up and away from wherever he was.

As Orrin hurtled through the air, it was hard to make out distant places, too. He was spinning and Daniel couldn’t get a handle on how to throw him better.

“If anybody is watching this, I’m sure my father will ask me all sorts of questions tonight,” Madi said, putting her hand over her face. “You two look like imbeciles.”

“Madi, do you have hot air balloons or know anyone with the [Fly] skill?” Orrin asked, ignoring her. Despite her complaints, she’d been laughing and even jumped off the roof once with Orrin. He’d teleported them both safely back to the roof before they hit the ground.

“[Fly] is one of those spells that people guard with their life. You can’t unlock it? I thought you could do anything?” Madi’s question wasn’t made in sarcasm. Orrin narrowed his eyes at her but she genuinely seemed to believe he could simply take any spell or skill he wanted.

“My running theory is I have access to most of the base spells and skills but some things are unlocked once certain spells are leveled or maybe when combined through [Merge],” Orrin explained. “Is there anything else you can think of that might be of use? I don’t need much control, just more than Daniel’s uncoordinated ass can handle.”

“Hey! I’m trying.”

“Trying to kill me,” Orrin muttered.

Madi sat down on the edge of the roof and dangled her legs over the side. Daniel sat down next to her.

After a minute, she snapped her fingers. “There was this fighter from Veskar a few years ago. He made shields in the air. He could make a few in a row and run up them like steps to attack from above…” she trailed off. “I think he broke both his legs when he jumped from too high once. I don’t know what happened to him after that.”

Orrin searched his Store. “There’s something called [Quick Step] that lets me kind of double jump, I guess? I’m not sure it’s worth it. Nothing else really stands out.”

Daniel patted the ledge between him and Madi. “At least enjoy the view. We don’t stop and take this all in enough.”

Orrin settled in and watched the city come to life. People filled the streets, going about their business and the three of them stewed in their own thoughts.

“I’m not sure we have the time to build a hot-air balloon,” Orrin started but Daniel popped him on the head.

“You don’t know how to build one of those and even if you did, it would be too suspicious. We can find high points and move as fast as we can. I don’t think going to the elves is a good plan. We should head out and do the Guild quest. Today. You can increase our dexterity and we can run for it.”

Orrin absentmindedly rubbed the spot Daniel had hit. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s grab some breakfast and go. I can [Teleport] us pretty far out. I think I can do about thirty miles east if I remember the place right.”

Madi shook her head. “Orrin has been using too much mana today already to [Teleport] us too many times. We shouldn’t rely too much on Orrin boosting our speed. We can take some horses and move out. We don’t need to tip our hand on what we’re up to. There are a few villages we can drop the horses off at tomorrow if we feel that we should make a few jumps instead.”

“I’ve got a regen potion and I still have three full cycles of my mana left. That’s before I fully boost myself up.”

“She’s right, O,” Daniel said, eyeing what was left of one of the mattresses on the ground. “We need you at full strength at all times. Getting Brandt back to Dey as fast as possible is our priority. We are not trying to get back at Sanerris.”

Orrin raised an eyebrow at that. “You don’t want revenge?”

“Madi may have made a good point that killing the leader of Odrana right before the Demon Lord gets here might be bad timing.”

Madi reached over Orrin and rubbed Daniel’s head, fluffing his curls. “He’s learning to listen. Isn’t it adorable?”

Orrin rolled his eyes. “I guess we still have to get down.”

“The ladder is right there,” Madi pointed, confused at what Orrin was getting at.

Orrin linked his arms around both his friends and laughed. Then with a quick boost of strength, threw all three of them off the ledge.

The rest of the day was traveling. Madi had taken care of the logistics and Silas either hadn’t been made aware yet or didn’t care that they were taking on a Guild quest. Orrin’s money was that Madi had kept it from him somehow.

“I hate horseback riding,” Daniel complained as the Walls of Dey faded behind them.

“Is this the same road we first met you on?” Orrin glanced around. Most of the traveling they’d done in the past was a bit more north and this road was maintained much better than the roads to small villages and farms.

“It is. It’s the main route to Odrana, with a town or two along the way. Hopefully, we can avoid those and find a barn to stable the horses until we get back.”

Orrin tried to find any sign of that first fight but the push of people coming and going from Dey moved them along even once out of sight of the city. “Why are there so many people on the road?”

“Word has begun to get out that something dangerous is coming,” Madi said with a sigh. “Some people leave for the country when a Horde is coming and others go into the city thinking they can get some easy experience or even a bit of thieving.”

Orrin watched a mother with three small children push past them. She was wearing rags and the oldest of her children carried the youngest on his back. Orrin waved her over and handed her a few gold pieces. She cried and thanked him but the mass of others began to push in, asking for help.

“Back away,” Madi’s voice rang over the sudden mob. “In the name of Lord Catazano, back away.”

The people dispersed. Orrin couldn’t find the family anymore.

“What are you doing? Do you not understand we are trying to be a little sneaky here?” Madi berated him.

“She had kids.” Orrin didn’t try to argue anymore and tried to pick up speed with his horse.

Once the sun began to set, people started disappearing off the road making camp and they were able to put a few more miles behind them before Daniel pointed.

“That barn is as good a place as any.”

The farmer wasn’t keen on feeding and looking after three horses until Daniel stacked up three gold pieces. The horses were taken and phase two of the plan began.

“You guys sure? I still haven’t tested out [Purify]. It might not work.”

Madi pulled her backpack higher up and cinched the straps. “Keep the dexterity just over the limit tonight. We can rest for a few hours tomorrow if it doesn’t work for me.”

This was the part of the plan that Orrin didn’t like. Daniel had told Madi about his initial run through the forest and suggested Orrin use [Increase Dexterity] to let them run. With nobody on the roads at night, they could cover a lot of ground. At full speed and less than 30 dexterity, Daniel had run the length of the forest and to Dey in less than 24 hours. How much faster would they run at 50 dexterity?

Orrin had a few bags of coffee ready for them when they got tired, but Madi assured them both that if this didn’t work, they could always [Teleport] back and use the horses. What was the worst that could happen?