Warning you are suffering from Poisoned II!

I spat over the side of the saddle. My saliva was thick, greenish and carried an odd stench. My allies were hacking out a lung or sneezing horribly. Our pace had slowed to a crawl as our druid ally Vensa mixed a tincture into a bottle of pure rum, and gave each of us a shot. When the drink finally came to me I could barely smell it past my plugged nose and downed it in one go. I squeezed my eyes shut and wheezed out air that could have been hot enough to ignite the grass, and at once my sinuses cleared.

Poisoned status cured!

Yara took a shot and smacked her lips. “That’s good stuff.”

My horse let out a whine of displeasure and gave me a side eye look.

“Why the long face?” I asked the horse.

The horse did not like my jest, and it bucked, launching me from the saddle and landing me in a pile of snow. With the warmer temperatures the softer snow had melted away leaving hard packed piles. Needless to say, the landing wasn’t soft.

Toughness talent has reduced a broken bone to a minor injury!

I groaned and touched my ribs. It was definitely sore, and at least it wasn’t my head. The horse trotted alongside the wagon for Tim, his original rider to reclaim him. The ranger stepped off the moving wagon and sunk into the saddle without issue.

Yara returned to fetch me, and pulled me up with one arm, settling me behind her. “It’s a good thing you chose to be a wizard type. You would be a terrible druid.”

I frowned and leered at the offending horse ahead of us. The beast dug its hooves into the gravel and kicked stones back in our direction. “Now I know why people turn horses into glue.”

I heard a few snickers come from the wagon. Ben seemed to be cheerfully pointing out the nimble light blue furred creatures standing out in the flat fields outside the fortified city. The critters were similar to deer, with tiny little hooves at the end of their long legs and they pranced away from our presence. The farm houses outside the city seemed overbuilt, with bars covering their windows and dark stone foundations. The little stone wall keeping the murder rocks out seemed freshly repaired here, as if the villagers took the threat seriously. They had even built new ones to split off and reclaim more earth to build farmland on. The absence of dense forest made the area colder as stiff winds from the mountains dropped the temperature.

On the mountain side of the road I could see one or two distant pillars of rock from the dead god safely held back by the low stone wall. The tall pillars hopped around the perimeter looking for any weakness to enter.

And there was one, a break in the wall with a young beast-kin boy with rabbit ears taunting them.

I snapped my fingers towards him. “Yara there’s-”

Yara cracked the reins and kicked the horse into a gallop. The beast seemed almost pleased to run as fast as it could, and I held onto Yara for dear life lest I be thrown from the saddle again. I flexed my hand, wondering what I could even do against rock. My fire spells could probably do little, and I had yet to restore the wight captain’s sword to its full enchanted glory. I had few options, but we had to get that reckless kid out of there.

The beast-kin boy hopped around, leading them to an opening in the stone fence. He held a bracelet with a gem on it high towards the sky, and his voice came out in a thunderous boom. “Come on you stupid rocks, you can’t kill me and I’m level one! I’m Toromere, the fastest boy on legs!"

As we got closer I could see red marks dotting his sun-kissed face. He wasn’t a child, he was a teenager. That was worse, he was being reckless to prove some stupid point. I shouted at him, but the wind over the open fields stole away my words of warning. Yara was snarling curses, and kicked the horse to run faster.

We were still hundreds of feet away, and the rocks floated up before surging towards the boy to crush him. The terrible sight of death was thwarted when he flexed his arm and vanished with a thunderous crack damaging the rocks. He reappeared past the broken wall, clicked his heels together and waved. The rocks rose to slam down where he stood again.

The boy wasn’t lying, he took off, faster than our horse. His shoes glimmered with magic and an entry appeared in my vision telling me they were some variation of ‘boots of speed’ which massively enchanted the ability of the person wearing them to run or jump. Toromere put them to use, weaving between piles of rock wall leading the floating pillars down a path.

Yara pulled the reins to stop the horse, and it blew out an annoyed sigh. The demoness held up a hand to her brow and hisses. “That has to be a trap. Do you have anything Josh?”

I held onto Yara’s sides as I peered past her. On top of the piles of rock walls were rune stones on sticks. I couldn’t make out most of them, but the few I could were phrases of ‘shaping ground’ or ‘shocking blast’, and my knowledge talent kicked in. The rune stones were typically for traps, and these ones were proximity based.

“Kid is running through a minefield,” I said, shaking my head.

“Then we go around and when he's safe, drag him to his mother,” Yara snarled. “Faster horse!”

The horse was all too happy to show his ability to her. We sped around the network of rock walls, finding a smooth dirt track to speed across. The constant thumbing of the pillars striking the ground made me clench my teeth, each time expecting the kid to scream.

We rounded a few stacks of logs and stone piles, finding a group of people sitting down for lunch outside a few tents. They threw themselves out of the way as we rode past them at a breakneck place. We cleared the small break area to find Toromere running towards a closed circle of wall. At the last moment the end rock was moved, letting him pass, and was replaced in a blink of an eye.

The pillars of rock hovered in the air, and the aura of danger was replaced with confusion. Behind us there was a flare of magic and multiple voices. “Move stone!’

The rock walls shifted and closed in, blocking off the stone pillars. They fell to the ground, sinking several inches into mud. There was motion all around us as men and women surged past us, surrounding the pillars with wands in hand. Two elves in fur caps and capes followed by a burly dwarf carrying a barrel got dangerously close to the wall. Water sloshed from the barrel and the elves used their wands while shouting with authority. “Shape water!”

Globs of water rose out of the barrel and the two elves pointed at each other. The water slammed together, forming a wide disc and it began to spin blindly fast. They moved their arms out, reaching over the wall with their spinning water disc. When the pillars tried to rise the various people shouted at the mud, and it held the pillars in place.

The spinning water disc sliced into the body of the pillars, and the dwarf threw a fist forward. He opened his palm, and I saw on his wrist was a bracer with a blue gemstone inside. “Frost wave!”

A short range blast of wind and ice covered the pillars to freeze the water and mud. The spinning discs stopped, now solid ice stuck in the pillar’s body. They used the water in the barrel to repeat the steps a few times, with the elves switching out wands as they got discharged. In a minute they had sliced into each pillar six times and the menacing aura around the pillars faded.

Several burly men hopped the wall and started pulling out the heavy slabs of stone, carrying them towards a fleet of waiting hand carts.

“What. The. Hell.” I whispered, still stunned. “They’re taking that thing apart. There won’t even be pebbles left.”

“Hang on,” Yara said, guiding the horse out of the way of the working men. “Ready a spell Josh. Hey kid!”

Toromere was high fiving several workers and smiled towards us. When he didn’t recognize us he clicked his heels together and turned to run.

I flicked one of the threads in my bandolier towards him, losing another valuable mana point. “Rope of binding!”

The teen made it two leaps before the rope grabbed him and stuck him against one of the waiting carts. The various workers glared at us, and Yara rose up to her full height in the saddle. Her tail grabbed her halberd out of her bag, and she clutched it tightly, hissing at the people in the way.

The workers ahead of us froze, and it didn’t take much to figure out why. A list of names appeared over their shoulders, the information shared to me by Yara. Not a single person was over level two.

“Magic enforcer, get out of my way or you will find yourself on the receiving end of Ishaka’s wraith,” Yara said sternly, the words leaving her clenched teeth.

An ally’s intimidation check was a critical success!

Yara leapt from the saddle and I hopped down too. The horse followed Yara as we approached the stuck beast-kin bunny boy. Yara loomed over him and the boy quivered in terror. The demoness priestess snapped a finger towards his boots. “Why do you have those?”

There were murmurs around us, and just out of reach were a few more beast-kin. They looked around the same age as the bunny boy, and if I was hard pressed to place their age I would have assumed they would be in high school. Old enough to want to be independent, young enough to be foolish and take too many risks.

Something in the teen gave him courage to square his shoulders and face Yara. “So I don’t die! If you haven’t noticed, those rocks move pretty fast.”

Yara grabbed him by the collar of his coat and hauled him up, with one wheel of the cart following. Her tip of her tail shot towards the pillars with all the authority of a judge’s gavel. “Why are you trying to die to those rocks then?”

Toromere wiggled in her grip and sighed. “Can you let me go wizard man? I need to fill my cart if I want to get my full pay.”

“Yeah we need to finish our shift with Toromere!” The voice came from the beast-kin teens behind me, who tried to appear more intimidating. But two slim cat boys, a wolf girl who was trying to hide in her jacket and a fox boy with a rusted iron sword had the opposite effect.

My smirk was hard to hide as was the fit of laughter building up inside me.

The fox boy held onto the shaking sword with two hands. “I mean it mister, let our friend go.”

It was almost ironic. The last time a teen held a weapon at me it was life or death. I was scared, unarmed, and dazed. Now here I was, a spell slinging mage with magic weapons and armour. I had faced decaying skeletons with better quality weapons, and I had just escaped an entire valley trying to kill me. Death had become a guest who was overstaying his welcome.

“Kid, just put away the sword. I know you can’t hurt me, but it will make my wife upset,” I whispered, pointing my thumb over my shoulder to Yara. I snapped my fingers and spoke back to her. “Don’t hurt him Yara.”

The spell dropped and Yara held onto the kid’s coat before he took off. The fox boy wasn’t satisfied, and with a dozen people watching us he glared at me and widened his stance. “I challenge you-”

A seed of annoyance grew, and on a better day I would have talked it out. But I had just escaped a burning valley of death. Before his blade moved another inch towards me I had my sword in hand and slapped his weapon away. His rusted sword was sent out of his grip, sticking into the mud out of reach. The fox boy looked at his hands in pure confusion. I tried to get a read on him and several skills popped up.

Toff, Fox beast-kin, Level 1 commoner

…

Blade 1

Dodge 1

…

I returned my weapon to its home and shook my head when I saw his eyes move towards his sword. “Don’t.”

“Hold! Hold on a minute! I run this operation!” Shouldering past the group of onlookers was a silver bearded human in thick fur clothing with a face contorted into suppressed rage. His fur cap had a thumb sized gem to flaunt his wealth and the myriad of enchanted rings around his fingers shone with inner light. “Who do you people think you are?”

Yara reached into her coat and displayed a necklace. “Black judicator of Ishaka, magical enforcer. Mind telling me why you're employing children with magical goods outside in a workplace?”

Scholar Livy

Ishaka being the priestess of magic has laid out a lot of guidelines in recent centuries. She’s trying to appeal to more worshippers around the world, making magic appear more organized and safe.

I hope you like stale numbers and random bits of jargon your priestess is about to throw at this man. I didn’t take Yara for one of the hardliners.

I didn’t either, and I felt like Yara was just playing ‘to the book’ when it suited her. The rich man’s mood however immediately changed. He clapped his hands and was now all smiles.

“Everyone, please head to the mess tent. Today’s meal is free of charge as I discuss with his lovely lady everything is perfectly fine here.” the man’s composure cracked as the onlookers had yet to move. “Desert too, plus a bit of extra pay for privacy.”

That cleared the crowd as the various wand wielding workers and men hauling slabs or rock raced towards the rest site. Toromere awkwardly stood behind the man, unsure where to be.

“Go on lad, lunch is waiting,” the man said, patting him on the shoulder.

Perception : Success!

+1 XP gained.

The man slipped a folded note with several coins to Toromere's breast pocket. The teen’s eyes grew and he took off to group up with his friends. The man waved a hand towards the ground, mouthing off several spells. His rings flared up and rising from the mud were several chairs that hardened into clay. From his coat he produced a few pillows and tossed them into the seats.

Yara sat down, and I followed her lead. The horse walked up behind us, his head between us as if he was part of the meeting. In the distance I could see more horses approaching and spied my friends making their way towards us with a concerned Lin hanging over the side of the wagon.

The man took off his rings and presented his bare hands. “Swap?”

Septimus von Crassune, Human, Level 11 River Sword Lord

Yara tensed up, her back straightened and her posture became perfect. “I’m sure you are aware of the rules about employing children in dangerous work with magical items that have limited charges.”

Septimus nodded along with her statement. “Only with written permission from a guardian or enforcer can you bypass that law. We do have a shrine to your goddess here and we cleared it with the family. Toromere is one of our best runners, able to bring two, sometimes three pillars in at once. As such the profits have exploded and our workers enjoy better pay, with clerical issuance and dental work fully covered.”

That made me sit up. “You guys have dental?”

It made working for near minimum wage back on earth sting even more. Septimus pulled out a pamphlet on rough paper and gave it to us. It had several jobs listed for people based on magic talents, their strength stat and more. I didn’t have a ton of framing for wages here, but it seemed decent enough that someone could afford to buy the kinds of wares we were sending to Rodney in Wyrmbreath. At bottom was the promise of health services, vacation days and a healthy amount of maternity leave.

“A realwalker from another world slew a dragon harassing our merchants and gave us these suggestions. At first it was hard to get used to it all, but after a few years it paid off quite nicely. Our little trade post village grew into quite the city, no?” Septimus asked. He looked at my hand and his brow raised. “Do you prefer Lord Josh?”

“Just Josh is fine,” I said.

Septimus dipped his head. “Very well, just Josh. May I ask about your presence in our fair little city?”

Yara slapped the pamphlet against her leg, stepping in before I could correct him. “We helped a few groups of guild members leave Dastow. Fighter guild, ranger guild and crafting guild people will be showing up soon.”

Septimus smiled and rubbed his hands together. “Most wonderful. I’m sure we can aid these esteemed members join our township to boost our profits or sell them passage on our trade ships once the canal workers open the rivers out to sea. Thank you for bringing bountiful news.”

“What about the site harvesting roshvin wood?” I asked.

Septimus glared at the smoke in the distance. “Too many scouts vanished when the site went dark. I was ousted in the vote against sending professionals in. I take it you found the problem?”

“If you mean the problem as some kind of fungus mutating people into monsters and gnomes being around then yes,” I said. I leaned ahead in the clay seat, and dug my feet into the mud. “It’s been dealt with.”

Septimus reached into his fur coat and tossed me a bag of coins. “I can smell the roshvin resin on you, and I have faith in your word. I’ll have my personal scout investigate. Now if you excuse me I have men looking to get a solid day of work in. Is that acceptable, judicator?”

“Yup, don’t get any kids killed or I’ll have some stern words for you,” Yara swiftly stood up and guided the horse back to our friends. When we were out of ear shot she let out the tension in her back. “Thank the goddess he didn’t ask for details. I can barely remember any of the law passages.”

I saw they had redistributed the riders and I hopped up in the wagon with Lin. “Should we head back to the caravan?”

The wagon owner patted me on the shoulder and flashed his smile with his brass capped tooth. “Don’t worry my boy, Sheila and I can wait outside the gates and check on everyone. Go get a hot meal. Just drinking can make you sick, and the sooner I can get your cat girl away from my stock the more I’ll have left.”

Maran was half asleep on the bottom of the wagon, holding a cold bottle to her head. “Yeah no kidding. We can chat with the caravan, you three can relax. You did right by us, you don’t need to wait around.”

The wagon owner brought us to the gates of the city. I tossed him a few silvers for all the drinks and the ride. We said our goodbyes for now, and Lin, Yara and I stood outside the city.

The white chalk covered walls made them appear bright in the sunlight, beacons to call the attention of anyone outside to come to them for safety. Towers dotted along the walls were staffed by guards, some with a ballista, others with a catapult, all of them aimed out against any dangers that could approach.

Through the gate there were stalls lining the streets, each one offering a different type of good for sale. The smell of freshly baked bread mixed with the tang of spices and the scent of salt from the nearby harbour, coming from the cook smoke rising from the city. People of all kinds of races, from rugged sailors to elegant noblewomen, haggled and bartered with the merchants for the best prices.

My pocket felt heavy with the money I carried, and my mind wandered to the possibilities. The river passing my town eventually fed into this lake. If what Septimus said was true and this lake eventually reached the sea then there was a world of cash to make. I could make some trade deals here with my minion’s wares, boost my economy to fill our needs for defense and even level the crystal.

There was danger coming, and I needed to be ready.

“Let’s drop by the shrine. I have some words I want to share with the local priestess,” Yara said, balling her hands into fists. Her voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “Putting kids in danger. My ass that’s allowed.”

Lin swaggered beside me, using my arm as a guide. “Sure thing! Hey Yara, can they cure a future hangover?”

Yara cracked her knuckles. “Oh, I’m sure some healing magic will be in order.”

The guards at the entrance waved people coming or going out of the city. They had a huge dog beside them with a slate grey coat and his own set of armour. As we approached the armoured dog sniffed at us and pawed the air at us as if to wave. The guards gave us a half wave and jotted something down into a clip board.

As we passed the entrance one of the guards at the other side grabbed the brim of his steel helmet and gave us a half bow. “Welcome to Swordhaven, enjoy your stay folks.”