Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 10
No sooner had Tailyn taken a few steps, however, than new messages started to pop up:
Valanil Revolt invited Valia Levor to join your group.
Group renamed. New name: We’ll talk by changing the name. Change it and make me the leader. Not Tailyn.
New group leader: Valia Levor.
Group renamed…
Valia: Got it. I’m okay, no shield, though. Clothes destroyed. Tailyn, hi!
Valanil: They took mine, too. For Tailyn: the red lixes have us. Planning on running. I’m taking the girl with me.
Valia: Got it. The fences mentioned that Halas is on his way here.
Valanil: He’s the last thing we need. Escaping tomorrow night. Tailyn, keep doing what you’re doing. We get the bonuses, too.
Valia: Valanil, can you get out of your ropes? I have an idea.
Limit reached for times the group can be renamed per day. The next time it can be renamed will be in 24 hours.
Tailyn felt warm inside — it was great to know that Valia was alive and well. Also, Valanil had thought to include her in the group. If Tailyn correctly remembered from the book how groups worked, as long as they had five or fewer members, everyone got bonuses even if they weren’t directly involved in the action. Not all the snakes the boy had killed gave the herbalist experience, with some of them just at level twenty, but she definitely got at least one attribute boost. And that way, Valia was going to keep advancing, too, so long as the guard didn’t eat Tailyn. A smile crept across his face as he imagined how Valanil must have cursed when she saw they couldn’t change the group name anymore. They couldn’t just make a new group, either, since you could only invite people within your line of sight. But the boy was sure the pair would think of something.
The only thing he had to worry about was the terminal. Taking a few steps forward, Tailyn placed a hand on it and…
Access to remote terminal confirmed.
Verifying credentials and clearance…
Store functionality available to players through level 100.
***
Correcting…
Store functionality activated.
Tailyn crashed to the ground. Everything in front of him blurred, almost as though Motar had smacked him a few times upside the head, something that had happened during their training sessions. Only that time, the concussion, which was what the head guard called it, lasted just a couple seconds before ending as suddenly as it began. But it didn’t disappear without a trace — in its wake, Tailyn found a new flashing icon with your average trader’s stand. And it was a good thing he was lying down. As soon as he hit the button, an enormous panel opened up to show display cases loaded with goods. It was exactly the same as in the terminal. Swallowing hard in shock at having gotten such a rich gift, Tailyn closed the panel and then opened it back up again. The store was still there. Finding a mana flask, Tailyn checked the price — a hundred coins for a +100 potion. Exactly the same as in the regular store.
The boy was stunned. Leaping to his feet, he jumped for joy and shouted at the top of his lungs, not sure how else to cut loose the wave of emotions. He had his own personal store. Still, he wasn’t allowed to enjoy himself for too long, as a crash in the next room over made him pause. The guard had broken into the first room, breaking down the wall, and that meant it had some tentacles in the room where Tailyn killed the first snake and others in the room where Sloan’s body was lying. Immediately noticing the snake corpses, the guard swept them into the bottomless pit it called a mouth with a happy grunt. The creature was enjoying its feast.
Suddenly, it hit Tailyn that his loot was about to disappear. Sloan, who was lying by the wall, was going to be the insatiable monster’s next trophy, and everything the ranger had on him was going to be lost forever. Tripping over himself, Tailyn ran over to the terminal. The store was great, but it didn’t let him unlock attributes or skills, and it didn’t come with a workshop, either. Perhaps, when the boy got to the thousandth level…but not right then.
You spent 5000 gold to unlock attributes and skills.
***
Skill received: Mining – Crystal Miner (1).
Attributes received: Cartographer (1), Resilience (1), Integration (1), Marauder (1).
***
Mining – Crystal Miner. Description: a skill that lets you more effectively mine crystal veins. For each 5 skill levels, the number of crystals you can mine increases by 1. Does not integrate with Enhancement.
***
Cartographer. Description: an attribute that automatically updates your map. Integrates with Perception and Enhancement. Map update radius: [10 * (Cartographer + Enhancement)] meters.
***
Resilience. Description: an attribute that determines your ability to resist damage not of an energy or physical nature. Integrates with Enhancement.
***
Integration. Description: an attribute that lets you redistribute your consciousness to interact with additional devices and companions. For each 50 attribute levels, the number of devices you can connect increases by 1. Companion levels cannot be higher than your Integration level. Integrates with Enhancement.
***
Marauder. Description: an attribute that makes it easier for you to loot defeated enemies. Beyond their belongings, you can also update your map, get recipes, read personal letters, and pull their contacts. Does not integrate with Enhancement.
It had been a long time since Tailyn had invested that heavily in his personal development, but that was one of those occasions where hanging on to the extra gold didn’t matter as much. If luck was on his side, he would be able to boost his resilience and finally be able to use Matilda. And while Tailyn loved checking his status table, he didn’t have the time right then. All he could do was quickly check to make sure his new attributes and skills were all in place and dash over into the next room.
But he wasn’t in time. It was so close, but one of the guard’s tentacles had just gotten to Sloan’s body, and another happy gurgle broke out. The creature apparently had a particular preference for human meat. Although, where could it get it there? The ranger’s body was squeezed into a tight ball and dragged off, the boy being treated to the unpleasant sound of crunching bones.
Tailyn wasn’t going to throw up his hands, however. He had just a couple seconds, and he was intent on maximizing them. Bending over, he touched one of the burnt snakes, the loot principle telling him he could get all loot belonging to him within a certain radius provided the different conditions were met. That had worked the first time, it had worked after he’d taken out more than fifty of the vipers, and it was presumably going to work again.
Would you like to activate Marauder by default and receive loot from Sloan Tur?
Indeed, he did want to. And preferably before the guard swallowed the ranger whole.
Active protection against marauders detected.
Your attribute level: 1. Active protection level: 20.
Activating security protocol…
Something above Tailyn detonated with such force that he was hurled all the way over to the other end of the room. The roof, or whatever was standing in for it, was swept off into oblivion, and enormous rocks and chunks of flesh began raining down. And when his regeneration timer popped up, the boy was all too annoyed to see the six hours it began ticking off. With that said, it did make sense — Tailyn couldn’t feel his body even though he could see that his legs were still there. One way or another, when a couple boulders dropped down and squashed his feet into a pulp, he didn’t feel the pain. And the timer just added another thirty minutes.
But none of that kept the boy from being able to think or read the messages that were popping up. After the first, his eyes widened as he realized what would have happened if he'd gotten to Sloan’s body first. He wouldn’t have been there to tell the story.
Security protocol activated: local armageddon covering a radius of 10 meters, damage radius of 100 meters.
Even to the end, the ran
ger had done his best to complete his mission by taking out the enemy. Realizing that he wasn’t going to survive long enough to carry out Berad’s orders himself, he first distracted the boy so he wouldn’t notice the snakes, and then he even mentioned marauder. He was an animal. Making up his mind to no longer trust anyone, Tailyn was only willing to except Valanil, Valia, and perhaps Forian. But that was all.
The messages that popped up next very nearly made Tailyn change his mind, however. What if Sloan had wanted everything to happen the way it did? It was perfect.
Valanil, can you get out of your ropes? I have an idea destroyed guard Mean Truk, an ancient monster left to guard the city who was unsuccessful and went wild over the subsequent 2350 years. You earned a generous reward by freeing up significant resources.
***
Matilda level +1 (2).
Because you cannot receive +3 levels or Enhancement, you were compensated: 3 crystals, 1 for each level you did not receive.
***
You destroyed a creature at least 200 levels above you.
Your attributes and skills were all increased by 1.
Status change: battle complete.
Despite the bad shape he was in, Tailyn was overcome by euphoria. He’d unlocked the new attributes and skills just in time. And the way the god had found to get around his limitation was especially exciting — he was going to get to pick for himself which of his attributes or skills he wanted to improve, and he didn’t wait long to do exactly that. He knew where he needed to grow. The good thing was that he didn’t have to be holding the crystals to activate them since he still couldn’t feel his hands.
Resilience +3 (5).
The boy’s body, which was already fighting for its life, turned out to be unprepared for his parameters to jump so quickly, and that change was the last straw. Realizing that its master was getting to be too much, Tailyn’s brain decided to take a break and shut off.
He woke up twelve hours later, his consciousness having decided to make up for the lack of sleep he’d been getting at the same time. His body was completely restored if still pinned under the boulders, and it took some doing to pry himself loose. And with the sun already high up in the sky, there was the sound of something gnawing nearby — the steppe creatures weren’t about to let free meat go to waste. Tailyn looked around and noticed that the terminal was gone. An enormous slab had come crashing down on it, and that meant there wasn’t going to be any time spent in the workshop. Fighting and squeals broke out as somebody began fighting over choice cuts. Worried that he might seem tasty, as well, Tailyn replenished his cards and pulled out Matilda. Finally, he was going to be able to use his staff.
Would you like to integrate Matilda into your OGM-III?
The offer was equal parts unexpected and welcome. Agreeing, Tailyn felt his outfit come to life, something forming on his back.
Mount for Matilda complete.
Automatic holstering system ready.
For a little while, Tailyn couldn’t figure out what had changed. Something had appeared on his back, but he couldn’t look to see what it was. It was only when he dropped Matilda to pull his armor off that something unusual happened: instead of hitting the ground, Matilda leaped over to his back as if pulled by a magnet. The best part was that it shrank and didn’t keep him from bending over or walking, and the boy’s status table still showed he was holding it. Spinning around, Tailyn tried to grab his weapon, but he wasn’t able to. Finally, he relaxed, held a hand out to the side, and gave the mental command for Matilda to return to it, and that was when the staff went back to its normal size and followed his instructions. Tailyn’s jaw dropped. For a little while, he played with the mechanism, throwing Matilda onto his back and pulling it back out. It was so unusual that he completely forgot where he was. Eventually, another fight broke out, the defeated monster whined piteously, and that woke Tailyn up. He wasn’t in Culmart. He was alone in the middle of the terrifying Gray Lands surrounded by monsters.
Before making his next move, the boy couldn’t help pulling up his status table. He first changed the display settings to separate the main information from his skills, and the result elicited a self-satisfied grin. He was far stronger than any of his friends back in town.
Status table
General character information
Tailyn Vlashich, betrothed to Valia Levor
Alchemist
Level
1
Age
11
Yearly tax (crystals)
1 (beginning at age 16)
Coins
917
Gold
2610
Main parameters
Shield level
1067 (3691)
Mana level
1277 (6261)
Physical attack
275
Magic attack
675
Attributes
Enhancement
15
Mysticism
10
Intellect
9
Armor
7
Wisdom
7
Perception
6
Regeneration
6
Agility
5
Strength
5
Concealment
5
Cartographer
2
Integration
2
Resilience
5
Marauder
2
Skills
Shield Restoration Potion
10
Mana Restoration Potion
7
Magic Enhancement Elixir
6
Alchemical Fire
4
Cold Explosion
4
Acid
4
Lesser Regeneration Potion
*
Card Saturation
7
Alchemy
Points invested:
43
Amilio
6
Ordinary Loach
7
Ordinary Daisy
6
Ordinary Lavender
6
Herbalism
Points invested:
25
Lix Language
*
Linguist
Points invested:
1
Crystal Miner
2
Mining
Points invested:
2
Closing the table, Tailyn bent over a chunk of the guard. Nothing happened — either the creature didn’t have any loot to offer, or you could only get it from the main body. That could have been why there was such a fight going on overhead.
But Tailyn couldn’t suppress an astounded cry when he checked the walls for a way out. His new perception was putting itself to good use, showing exactly which rocks and footholds made for the best path given the boy’s height and strength. It was fantastic. Needless to say, Tailyn was only too happy to follow instructions.
The guard’s hulk, or what was left of it, was not far away, and strange creatures Tailyn had never seen before were circling it.
Scavenger (animal). No class. Age 2. Level 2.
They were small and mangy, something like dogs, only with punier legs. And when they saw the human, the pack of two or three dozen sprinted away from the corpse they’d nearly polished off. Tailyn’s creatures journal updated yet again, though it was still useless to him.
Nonetheless, he wasn’t able to turn down a gift like that. For him, the creatures were of no interest, too low to give him an attribute boost. But Tailyn knew exactly who needed to put some work in.
Would you like to activate your companion?
He certainly did. The bracelet on his arm woke up, the miniature dragon flying off into the air. And with that, a new panel appeared in front of the boy to show the world through Li-Ho-Dun’s ey
es. It had a few buttons next to it: attack, defend, and support, not to mention a field where Tailyn could decide if he wanted the creature working on its own or following his directions. It was independent by default, and that worked for the boy. He needed an ally, not a marionette.
Once he’d figured out how the controls worked, Tailyn focused on the fleeing scavengers. They weren’t trying to get too far away. Having realized that the human wasn’t chasing them, they stopped, looking back hungrily at the remains of the guard. Stuffed as they were, they wanted more.
Attack, Tailyn thought to himself, and Li-Ho-Dun shot forward. An old level two creature was closest, having worked up the nerve to start making its way back to the feast. That was a mistake.