Elsewhere

An hour and countless TELEPORTATIONS later, Duke found himself kilometers away from the tower and starting to see signs of monster activity. There was one spot nearby where several trees had been uprooted and otherwise destroyed. Duke, naturally, decided to check out the area and see if he could find some trouble.

He carefully wound his way through the intervening trees trying to be as stealthy as possible. His Skill was only at Initiate rank, but it still afforded him some benefit. His steps were muffled, and he found it easier to find shadows to step between. In fact, the closer he got to the area, the deeper the shadows were becoming. Unnaturally so.

As he approached the clearing, he was crouched in deep shadows that were covering the entire area nearly blocking out the sunshine. Duke decided to try his SENSE MAGIC Ability since the shadows around him felt so strange, almost alive. His eyes glowed momentarily, and he could now see the striations and patterns of magic around him. He was surrounded by dark blues and purples, all glowing with magic. It seemed that even the very air around him was suffused with this magic. It made the Ability’s use almost pointless until he turned to the center of the destroyed area and saw a swirling mass of dark Mana coalesce into 10 figures of varying sizes and shapes.

Most of the figures were short humanoids, comparable to the goblins he fought so many days ago. Of them, most looked to be some sort of warrior type with leathery armor and short glowing swords but there were two humanoids that appeared different. One carried a bow and seemed less armored and the other was not armored at all but carried a staff topped with a gem glowing with dark purple Mana. There were also two wolflike creatures standing as tall as the humanoid’s shoulders. Finally, there was a massive bear-shaped creature.

Duke used his IDENTIFY Ability and quickly discovered that he was facing Umbral Goblins, a pair of Umbral wolves, and an Umbral Bear. He had no idea what that meant but he was absolutely sure that ten to one were not great odds even if he felt he could outclass all of them. A bit of strategy was needed here so he decided to rely on what Baslin had told him to do – use TELEPORT as much as he could in combat.

While the Umbral Goblins and their “pets” still seemed disoriented from their sudden arrival, Duke TELEPORTED high up into the nearest still-standing tree. He then sighted in on the Umbral Bear and attempted to TELEPORT it close to him to drop down on the group. He felt his Ability strain to do as he asked and with a spike of pain in his brain, failed to activate. Ouch! OK, I can’t grab living things off the ground and TELEPORT them. Got it.

Duke tried the next-best thing – he tried to TELEPORT a broken tree trunk above the group. With a similar, but lesser spike of pain, the Ability failed. OK, maybe over the weight limit? Duke decided on one more experiment before jumping into direct combat, especially since the group below was seeming to get itself organized, the Umbral Goblin with the staff issuing orders to “Start the hunt!” Duke wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he was sure it was not a good thing.

Duke TELEPORTED the Umbral Goblin’s staff right out of its hands as it was pointing the direction it wanted the group to go. The confused look on its face was gold in Duke’s eyes as he quickly IDENTIFIED the staff before moving on to the next phase of his Plan C.

*** Umbral Staff of Darkness

This staff was created to house an Umbral Gem and allow the wielder to channel Dark mana with greater efficiency and effect for spellcasting. Do not use this staff with Light mana!

+ 5% Dark Mana spell effects

-5% Dark Mana required for spellcasting

-95% Light Mana spell effects

+95% Light Mana required for spellcasting

***

Duke noted the effects and immediately changed his plans into a “this is going to be awesome or suck horribly” direction. He began to channel Light Mana into the gem as fast as he could. Quickly, the gem glowed with a bright purple light that rapidly brightened and lightened as he poured more Mana into it. In moments it was so bright that the Umbral Goblins took notice and spotted him up in the trees. The gem started to shudder in his hand and throw off sparks. Duke sensed it was time to let go and he TELEPORTED the staff with its glowing gem back into the pack of Umbral Goblins.

The Goblin shaman shrieked and dove for cover. The rest just stared at the gem as it exploded from the overload of conflicting Mana types. Shards of the gem and crackling energy launched all over the clearing, striking all the Umbral Goblins to some degree. As the goblins tried to get back to their feet, Duke TELEPORTED down to the shaman and punched it with a LIGHTNING-charged fist as it pushed up from the ground. LIGHTNING exploded outwards, slamming the goblin back down to the ground unmoving.

The rest of the goblins and their beasts charged him and Duke simply TELPORTED behind the last one, blasting it with a LIGHT BOLT. The LIGHT BOLT struck hard and staggered the goblin, but it didn’t go down. The rest skidded to various stops and turned back, but the bear had moved more sideways than forward in the charge and was upon Duke before he could act further. The bear charged into Duke with a slash of its massive left paw. Duke realized just how big the thing was as the paw struck his entire torso, sending him spinning through the air and into an already splintered tree.

Duke didn’t try to extricate himself from the splinters, he immediately TELEPORTED back up to his perch. He glanced at his Health and saw that the bear had taken more than 15% of it in one swipe. He suddenly decided to take this fight a whole lot more seriously. And then an arrow struck him. He flexed his will and his magic and the goblin’s bow was now in his hands. “Fuck you shorty!” He had no arrows to use, but at least the goblin couldn’t plunk him again.

His reprieve was short as the tree shook from an enormous impact. Duke looked to see the bear alternately slamming its shoulder into the tree and tearing into it with its enormous claws. He was sure the tree would not last long. His REGENERATION had kicked in and the bleeding from the wounds given by the bear’s claws were starting to close so he tried to take as long as he could to recover but he knew his time was short. With the shaking of the tree, he couldn’t get a bead on what the rest of the goblins were doing but the two wolves were barking and howling at the base of the tree waiting for their morsel to come down.

Duke channeled LIGHTNING again and aimed for the bear this time. It might have been at the limit of his range, but he hoped the extra Mana channeled into the spell would make up for it. The bear slammed into the tree one last time as the crack of the LIGHTNING was matched with the crack of the tree’s trunk. Duke felt the tree begin to fall and attempted to TELEPORT back to the ground away from where the tree was falling.

He managed to land somewhat unsteadily on his feet and the wolves were on him almost instantly. He could also see the glowing swords of the rest of the goblins close behind. Panic washed over him for a brief moment as one of the wolves chomped down on his wrist, but years of air combat training had taught him to act in the moment and assess later. He knew that he had used up over 200 points of Mana so far in the fight, but that wasn’t even half of what he possessed so he decided to push things to the limit. He was not a simple victim of this goblin band. He was Duke, and Duke didn’t get taken down by fricking goblins!

With a scream of rage, he pushed his Abilities to their upper limits, chaining TELEPORTS and LIGHTNING as he danced between, around and through the Umbra Goblins and the two Umber Wolves. A bit over 400 Mana later, he stood, panting in the destroyed forest clearing surrounded by charred bodies. He could feel his left wrist starting to heal from where the Umbra Wolf had savaged it. He had channeled his first LIGHTING directly through the beast causing it to explode with gore.

He used his two new favorite new Abilities, CLEANSE and REPAIR to put himself back to rights and was startled as he heard Baslin’s voice. “That was spectacular, Duke! You have taken your gesture lag advantage to heart and blitzed your enemies. That was something to watch – it happened so fast; I couldn’t keep up. Now, collect everything with the ring and I’ll walk you through how to close that gate.”

“Are you sure we want to close it? I’m sure that I’ll get great experience from these kills. They seemed to be able to take more punishment than most things I have fought so it should be pretty solid. Maybe even two levels worth if I am truly lucky. Why not just wait here for the next group to come through and take them out as well.”

“While there is some merit to that thought, I think you will get more experience from closing the portal. This is a gate to the Umbra, a realm of darkness and madness. It’s truly a blight upon this world and disturbing that I hadn’t noticed its existence. If the gate stays open too long, something well beyond your ability may find it and squeeze through. Then you would be well and truly screwed. Better to close it and figure out how it came to be in the first place. I’m certain we will find more things for you to kill.”

“OK, you’ve sold me. I’m missing so many pieces of knowledge of this world it is somewhat intimidating. Let’s get this gate closed.”

Baslin walked Duke through the process to close the gate, which turned out to be rather simple – destroy the anchor which was located at the base of the gate. It took Duke one solid blow with a large hammer that just happened to be in the Ring of Rooms. The portal winked out and the clearing came back to light and life. Duke had not realized that the sounds of the forest had ceased until he heard them start up again. He made a mental note to pay better attention to his surroundings in the future.

Putting the bodies into the ring of rooms was easy enough. All he had to do was touch each body and will it into the ring. They all disappeared one by one into the storage space. In minutes, he had cleared the area of the bodies and all their remaining gear. He then turned to examining the site of the gate.

The shattered gate anchor was made of some sort of ebon stone that crumbled to dust at his touch. The rest of the gate had apparently been made of energy and had dissipated when the anchor was broken. Duke shrugged and prepared to move on. There were undoubtedly more creatures out there to kill and level up from. It was then that he noticed a notification flashing in the corner of his eye. He shrugged and opened it up.

***Congratulations! You have completed a quest!

Quest Name: Seek and Destroy

Well done! You not only identified the source of the evil in the forest, but you destroyed it going beyond what you were asked to do. For exceeding the tenets of this quest, you will receive additional rewards.

Experience Earned: 5,000 + 1,500 (6,500 total)

Your reputation with the Druidic Council has increased

You have been granted a minor loot box

Continue to complete quests for additional rewards.

***

Well, that seems awfully convenient. Is somebody playing with me out there? I just happened to stumble on the thing I need to complete the first quest from when I arrived on this world. Yeah, somebody’s got a firm hold of my chain and is pulling me along. The real question is whether I go along with it or not. It seems to be rewarding me so far and this one wasn’t really that hard. Maybe for now.

Duke turned to head out for more exploration but nearly tripped over something that wasn’t there before. A softly glowing, iron-banded wooden chest the size of his head was resting at his feet. Duke kneeled down next to the chest and opened it. He was greeted with the glowing sight of magic and wealth. He quickly used his IDENTIFY and SENSE MAGIC Abilities on the contents and was greeted with some delightful results.

***You have found an Elven Dagger of Sharpness. This intricately carved blade resembles an elongated, serrated leaf with a diagonally stylized hilt and cross guard in the style of a branch. The metal is unknown to you at this time but you are able to discern that it is enchanted to always remain sharp and will repair itself of minor damage. ***

***You have found 23 gemstones of varying types and sizes. They are completely mundane but may prove valuable. Perhaps if you had any skill in appraisal, you would have a better idea. ***

***You have found a bag of coins. There are 176 gold coins within this bag. ***

Duke quickly added the chest to his ring, separating the contents into different areas by instinct. With a new bounce in his step, he continued his patrol into the forest, TELEPORTING his way along, looking for anything else to fight. His Mana and Health regeneration quickly brought him back up to full in a matter of minutes. He felt invincible. The universe, of course, felt otherwise.