Chapter 8: A day in the life.

  Cam decided to head to the guild first before heading out. No one was there yet, so he decided to leave town for a while and get some more ingredients. The guards were the same as the day before, Maze passed him a note on his way out. Cam didn’t bother reading it until he was out of sight. He figured it was private, the way Maze slipped it into his hand with a simple shake of the hand. Cam pulled up his mini map. As he walked the map shifted, always staying centered on him. He tried to play with the settings a bit. He wanted it to look out for monsters and ingredients. He didn’t want to be ambushed while picking weeds, so to speak.

  It was still pretty early in the morning, so there was a soft frost sitting on the ground. The road was smooth as always, but stepping off the path got a bit slippery. The sun was peaking out from behind a cloud, causing a mist to steam up slowly. The air was crisp and heavy, with his map active, Cam walked confidently ahead. He Got far enough away from the town that he was comfortable picking up anything that look worth picking. After he got twenty creeping vines he paused to read the letter. It was a hand written note from Maze.

  “About an hour before sunrise we heard shouting and sword fighting in the distance. It was pretty far off, so the Captain wouldn’t let us go. It sounded like the adventuring group that hasn’t returned. If you get a chance, keep an eye out for them. They sounded like they were to the right of the road. Bring them back safe, if you can.”

  “Is that a quest?”

  Ba Da: New Quest: Find those who are missing 0/10

  a quest marker appeared on his mini map pointing down the path.

  “Damn it Maze! I knew you were an NPC! I swear, if I find out I am logged into a VR simulator, trapped in someones basement I will burn their house down!!!”

  Cam tried to collect his thoughts. The last time he blew up like this he bumped into a god… “Whatever.” Cam began to walk. “Fine, I will do the quest! Not because it is a quest I got from an NPC, but because it’s for the guild. It has absolutely nothing to do with the freckled plum princess.”

  Cam marched on changing the settings on his mini map. He zoomed way out. Thankfully it was visible along the road all the way to the other town. The range went out from there. Not far enough to see the location, but enough to give him an idea of the area. Cam vaguely remembered seeing a hill in that direction with an odd structure nearby. It was pretty far out. Cam picked up his pace.

  ---

  Penelope held her breath as she hid behind the bolder. Thankfully her leg had stopped bleeding with the makeshift tourniquet she managed to fumble together. She could hear it walking. Thankfully it was content staying near it’s cave. It was still injured and agitated from the fight it had earlier. But, thankfully it was stupid, and currently alone. When Key saw she was injured, he took the group further away and the rest of the monsters gave chase. She guessed, this one wasn’t that stupid after all. It was staying outside of the cave, but circling the entrance. Probably to make sure no one got in. She couldn’t do much. She had two arrows left for her bow, and her dagger was currently holing her leg together with her belt. Her sword, as best as she could guess, was still in the last monster she stabbed. It gave chase with the rest. Penelope sighed. ‘This day couldn’t get any worse.’

  She looked back down the road towards home. It was too far to walk in her condition, she knew. But it didn’t mean she couldn’t hope for… ‘Is that a man? What is he doing out here? Just walking the road, without a care in the world.’ He waved at her. She caught herself waving back. He veered in her direction. ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ He walked up with his hands in his pockets and a silly smile on his face.

  “Hey, Names Cam. You alright?”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Penelope, and no. My leg is busted and my team is scattered.”

  “Is that a rock troll? I read they don’t usually live this far north.”

  “Yeah, there was a whole pack of them. My party and I tried taking them down, but it didn’t go so well.”

  “Are there anymore in the cave?”

  “No, they ran after the others. That’s the last one.”

  “Are you any good with that bow?”

  “…” Penelope stared daggers into him.

  “Good, just give me a minute. I will set up a shot for you, just aim for it’s eye.” Cam began to walk around the bolder. “Just listen out for a whistle.”

  ‘who the hell is this guy’

  ---

  Cam walked up to the rock troll. It was easily twice his size. It had a limp, and seem to be talking to itself in a series of vulgar cuss words in troll. Cam focused on it. “Level 11 Rock Troll” Under it’s name was a health bar. It had a little more than half it’s health still available. Under the life bar was a symbol. Cam focused on it. “Cursed”

  Cursed: A curse prevents natural regeneration of health, and mana. While cursed experience gained is halved.

  ‘That explains the lack of healing trolls are notorious for.’ Cam Pulled out one of his many creeping vines and tossed it at the monsters feet. It finally looked up and noticed him. Cam raised his hand and shot a fireball at the creeping vine.

  -Field note-

  Creeping vine: In colder climates this vine monster remains docile, at extreme temperatures they get very aggressive. If picked as an ingredient for potions please grab in the cold mornings. In the mid day sun they will try to eat you. Be cautious. -End-

  The vines sprang up around the rock troll, spikes and vines growing rapidly in every direction until it made contact. The rock troll became it’s only focus, wrapping and squeezing and pulling at each limb. The rock troll screamed in pain, fighting back with all it’s might. But the vines kept getting bigger and the thorns began to pierce the outer rock scales covering the trolls body. The green vines turn red with the blood of rock troll. Cam could see it’s health bar dropping, it too went from green to red. The troll looked at Cam, silently asking for help. Cam took a step to the side and whistled. In a blink of an eye feathers were poking out of the trolls eye.

  Ba Da: Ability unlocked: Creative magician.

  Creative magician: Gain extra experience for using magic creatively in combat. At higher levels you can unlock “trial dungeon”

  Ba Da: Title “Mage?” Reaches level 2.

  +2 Power, +2 Defense, +2 Speed, +2 Perception, +2 Luck

  Ba Da: New Quest: Find those who are missing 1/10

  Cam heard movement from behind the bolder. It was Penelope, her body glowed for a second and she stood up straight and walked over to Cam. “I finally leveled up, great, I was worried you would have to carry me back.” Penelope locked her bow in the harness behind her waist and began to stretch. “Are you ready to get out of here?” She began picking up arrows her party shot around the area to refill her quiver.

  She noticed Cam was looking up at something she couldn’t see. He was scanning the area too. “Actually I want to check out this cave, who knows what we will find. After that we can track down your party members.”

  “Fine by me, how do you want to do this?”

  “I will take point, but you keep that bow ready, I will call out anything I see.”

  “You have a perception power?”

  “Not really, I have a task menu and a mini map, it helps me see enemies in our area, but it’s probably not fool proof. I haven’t had it long, but I need to test it out. How about you?” Cam stepped in the cave and lit a small fire in his hand for light.

  Penelope readied her bow and followed a few paces behind and to the side. “I have a zoom feature for shooting far and a mild time delay while aiming. It took a while to gauge targets in motion when I first got it, but I have a handle on it now.”

  They both heard a noise and froze. Cam put a finger to his lips and held his flame out in front. It slowly floated away from his hand and split into six fireballs. Each moved slowly in a different direction until they lit up the entire cavern below. His jaw dropped. In the back of, what should have been a small cave, were carved stairs that went down in a circle around a pillar that went into the top of the hillside. Beyond that was an opening looking down into what lay below. Tents and cages lined the sides of the open space. Some of the cages were empty, some had humans inside. Bound and gagged, some were asleep, some were whimpering to themselves. In the back one was strapped to a table. Standing over him was the crazy lab coat wearing mad scientist type. He was too busy taking notes to notice the room got brighter.

  “there is always one.” Cam sighed.

  Penelope caught up and looked over, “The empty cages, they match with the amount of Rock trolls we faced earlier.”

  “Oh shit! Do you know what this means?”

  “Not a clue, how about you explain, before the Rock trolls come back.” She snapped.

  “Penelope, what color is a Rock trolls blood?”

  “Blue, why do you ask?”

  “And what color was the blood of the Rock troll we just killed?”

  “What does that… Oh shit!”

  Cam began touching something mid-air moving his hands frantically, sighing as he went. “Okay, hear it is.”

  A scroll unfolded in front of Penelope in a shimmering magic veil.

  “Cam: the traveler would like to share a quest with you. Do you except? Y/N” a pen appeared in front of the scroll. She took it and circled ‘Y.’ The page vanished and another appeared.

  “Quest: Find those who are missing 1/10”

  She tapped it and it dissipated. “I don’t get it?”

  Cam moved entirely too close to her face and began to whisper, “I got this quest before meeting you, in fact, it sent me to you, or so I thought. You see, the message updated from zero to one only after we killed the troll. I thought it represented you, but if that was the case why didn’t I get that notification when I found you? No it was only after…” He took a deep breath. Cam couldn’t finish that train of thought

  Penelope finished for him

  “That son of a bitch is turning those people into monsters and somehow controlling them!”

  Cam nodded.