Milc/C.J. Milnes
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Chapter 29 - Not my sisters
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 18:08:50 +0000 UTCHaving two leather pouches left, as a result of Kril making necklaces for the healing fangs I had given to Jandak and Hermune, I decided to put them to good use. As we walked on from where we parted ways with our decoys I stooped to pick up small stones whenever I saw them. I still had the two lower bear canines and a dozen or so teeth left but I would need more materials in the near future.
While we trudged along in a single file I enchanted the two fangs with three charges of Heal a piece and passed them to Kril. He grinned at me toothily after I explained and attached them to crude leather thongs. He wrapped one around his own left wrist and gave the other to Hatrikilo who grunted in gratitude as he hung it around his neck.
We didn’t stop as the sun set. We kept moving until dawn before we made camp. Tents were set up and the women retired to rest. We didn’t build a fire, the warriors stretched out on the dew soaked ground and chewed contentedly on strips of dried meat as they dozed. Hermand led a single aurox off directly east.
“Where’s he going? I asked. I’d been pouring my mana into adding single use fire spells to my stones and didn’t have any available to give him a healing charm.
“He’ll take it out an hour or two then head back before we set off. He’s laying another, shorter false trail. Here.” Kril passed me four long teeth.
“Where did you get these?” I asked as I turned them over in my palm. They were smaller than the vile-bears fangs by a considerable margin but still enough to be terrifying in a jaw snapping at you.
“The vile-cat. Make some more healing amulets. We need to equip all the warriors with them. Hakubin will shit himself when our warriors knit back together after taking injuries and keep on fighting!” His old cackle was back in full force. It was good to see him recovered from the loss of Gedrik and I smiled in return.
“I made these already. I need more pouches.” I passed him what I’d made as we walked. “Each pouch contains fifteen stones with a summon fire spell enchanted into them. We should share them out.”
His eyes lit up as he ran a finger through the topmost stones. I winced, half expecting the motion to trigger the bound spells but the bag didn’t burst into fire.
“How many per day?” he asked, fixing me with an inquisitive glare. He really did have glaring and cackling down to a perfect form. It was almost professional; the way his beady eyes met mine left me with a certain sense of respect for the old villain.
“Each of these spells costs ten mana to cast or enchant. I have more expensive spells, twenty mana, but I only have two hundred total so for now I’ll only be enchanting the lower level spells.”
“How do you get more mana? More Souls?” he asked and I swear I could watch his thoughts as he began figuring out ways for me to sacrifice animals, and possibly, people, to get stronger. It was slightly frightening that he seemed even more eager than I was to grow my power. “We should lead a winter raid. Perhaps the Kindak? No, no, they’re our bait against the Ur-Vile retribution. The Haldin? They’re to the east of us and with this magic we’d take them easily!”
“I’m not starting a clan war! We’ll need their strength later on,” I said, hoping to appeal to his desire to unite the tribes and ride south against the “shit-sitters”. He nodded sagely.
“Wise, very wise, Kendyn. I will have to think about this. Can you not gain more strength now? You must have some Souls to spend from the giant and your traps?”
I had two hundred and forty two. Enough to jump to level thirty and unlock the basic versions of my tier four spells but I’d have very little left to spend on improving my spells. I explained my dilemma and the numbers to him and he shuffled himself back and forth while he thought. I did not mention unlocking the fourth tier of the Shop or discuss the new metals and materials that might become available when I did He was greedy enough to spend my Souls already.
“I-” I tried to say but he held up a finger then resumed fidgeting. I shrugged and continued to wonder about the best course of action myself. Levels and stat points or enhancing my spells? Stat points were powerful, greatly increasing my physical and mental abilities but without investing in my spells they weren’t very powerful. We sat quietly and ate strips of dried aurox meat without speaking.
“You should have done whatever upgrades you decide on before enchanting these,” he waved the bag of fire-rocks carelessly in front of my nose and I winced back slightly. “It’s-”
“-Not that much of a difference.” I interrupted, clasping a hand over the bag and lowering it to the ground between us. “These are still useful. I was already thinking of splitting the Souls between levels and upgrades but mostly spending it on levels. When my magic strength hit ten I went for healing five HP per cast to ten. I think more magic strength, more mana and if there’s anything spare then I want to get some levels in firewall. I don’t think the enchanted items will let you shape it like I can but dropping two metre squared patches of fire in front of an animal or enemy charging at you… It would be decisive.”
“I see…” I phased him out as I brought up my status screens. One hundred and eighty Souls would get me to level twenty nine. Level thirty would be a step up from the twenty Souls per level so I ruled that out. That would give me eighteen stat points to spend.
“Oi!” he snarled, snapping his fingers in front of my face. “Your eyes glazed over while I was talking!” I came back to the real world and scowled at him.
“I’m listening, I’m looking at my status while I listen,” I said. He harrumphed and settled into a grumbling diatribe about the young and their lack of respect while I zoned out once more and went back to my screens.
I didn’t want to throw them all into magic, tempting as it might be. Any idea of regretting investing in my body was immediately quashed when the memory of those three foot fingers clamping down around my chest and tightening washed through my mind. So some body points for sure but mostly magic.
I brought my physical strength to 20, nudging my body stat to D-, spent three points on more health points then three each to magical strength and focus with the remaining five on mana, boosting me up to two hundred and fifty. I had sixty two souls left.
I spent forty Souls to give myself a three metre squared firewall spell. My experience shaping it at the second encounter with the mastodons made this extremely useful for me personally. Whether it would be equally versatile when I enchanted it into an item remained to be seen. The worst case scenario was that it would simply drop a three metre square of fire on the ground where the stone landed. Still very powerful even if it wouldn’t be as flexible in the hands of my allies.
Spending the last of my Souls to increase the intensity of my summon fire spell and I boosted the detonation of the projectile version to one and half metres cubed. I liked the idea of bigger fireballs.
Level 29
Primary Stats: Body: E+ Mind: E+ Soul: V
Available Souls: 72
Secondary Stats
Physical strength: 20 Reflexes: 13 Health: 150
Magic strength: 13 Focus: 13 Mana: 250
Affinity: Fire
Summon fire: Range- 5 metres, Intensity- +16%,
Fire Resistance- +2%
Projectile: Speed- +3%, Detonation- 1.5 metres cubed +0%.
Fire Wall: Area- 3 metres squared.
Affinity: Life
Heal (self): 10HP and 40% increased recovery rate for one hour. Seals moderate wounds.
Enhancement (self): 2%, lasts 5 seconds
Resistance (all): 1%
Projectile: Speed- +3%, (heal other)
Rapid Growth: Area- 1 metre squared.
Affinity: Space
Size: range- Touch, Intensity- 14%
Mass: range- Touch, Intensity- 14%
Area: 1m cubed (optional)
Resistance: 2%
I explained my decisions to Kril and he complained about not spending more on the fire affinity. He was determined to become the biggest customer for my fire spells and began offering me cattle in exchange for promises to keep him supplied with certain numbers of spells each day.
“I can’t do that, Kril. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re the wizard you always wanted to be. You’re my most trusted advisor,” I offered to try and steer the conversation away from me becoming a manufacturing line for exploding rocks.
“And don’t you forget it!” he said sternly but then he grinned at me. “Well, get on with it! You’ve got a lot of fire-stones to make while we walk!” I sighed and got on with it.
When Hermand returned as the sun was climbing towards its zenith we picked up and began trudging on, not giving the tired looking warrior a chance to stop. I had been given another pair of pouches by Kril before we set off and I steadily filled one as we walked. In between picking up more stones, I enchanted the rocks I had with summon fire and transferred them to the other pouch. As soon as I had a full pouch of enchanted rocks I passed it to Kril who shuffled up the line to share them with the warriors.
There was a buzz in the air, an atmosphere of anticipation that was tinged with anger. I didn’t fully understand it but the Herm and Hatrik families whose warriors were present all seemed to feel that replacing the Haku family was something long deserved and the violence it would entail was to be embraced now they had this new advantage.
Having tied myself to the fates of these sub-tribes I could only hope I’d done the right thing. I stared wistfully at the empty grasslands but trudged along behind them and fought down my urge to break for freedom. I needed them. I repeated it over and over again as I plodded along. I didn't like Kril’s mad scheme to crown me the warlord of the plains and lead the tribes south but whatever I was capable of; my competitors would no doubt match. I’d need people at my back.
We stopped at nightfall, not far from one of the small hilltop woods that dotted the plains and Hatrikos set off with an aurox to lay another false trail and come back to us during the night.
“I’m going to set some traps,” I told Hatrikilo and waved a hand towards the small woodland and the fluffy things I could catch for Souls in the night. He grimaced at me.
“Perhaps not, Kendyn. We should be ready to move on first thing. Hakubin will not linger long in the north. The winds are already cool and he’ll move south early.” the big man said thoughtfully.
“I’ll gather them first thing. I need it to become stronger,” I replied.
“Let him do it. He needs it,” added Kril in a tone that brooked no argument. Hatrikilo turned angry eyes on the wizened old man but then grunted and nodded. He turned away to organise the warriors, seemingly dismissing me from his thoughts.
I trotted away from the camp and began hunting through the bushes for suitable locations to lay my traps. I found a hazel tree in the centre in the copse after I had put down a dozen snares in likely spots. It was picture perfect, long straight branches arching out from the trunk that was composed of many strands, woven together by the wind and the sun. I broke off the straightest branch I could see and headed back to camp with it.
When I returned I was greeted with a bowl of dried meat and fruit. Fayala had seen me coming and walked out to meet me just outside the hearing of the others with the food.
“I want you to do something for me,” she said in a husky voice. I glanced back at the others. “No, idiot.” she snapped. “I want one of those magic teeth, or will you only equip the menfolk?”
I sat down and picked at the bowl as I pulled out the hazel branch and broke it into three sections across my knee.
“I will not be denied. You need me for Kril’s plan to work,” she said coldly, staring down at me. I glanced up but her face was lost in shadows from the moons behind her. I could feel the hazel eyes burning at me though. I wasn’t sure how I needed her exactly but I was willing to assume the old bastard Kril had plans to marry me into the tribe at some point. As much as she appealed to me I had no desire to force a political marriage on the poor woman.
“There is an alternative,” I said. “Sit, please.” She harrumphed but lowered herself gracefully to the ground opposite me. I pulled a flint knife out and trimmed the ends of the sticks I’d made to round them off. It was crude work but when I was done I was confident there wouldn’t be any chance of splinters. I stripped the bark off the wands, all bar a short length to use as a grip.
I enchanted each stick with three casts of Heal Other for sixty mana a piece and passed them over to her one after the other, explaining what I’d done.
“You can keep yourself and your sisters safe,” I said with a tentative smile.
“They are not my sisters, but I thank you, Kendyn. Will these work on anyone?” she asked, looking up from her prizes to meet my eyes. I nodded. She leaned forward and rested a hand on my knee for a moment then hurriedly rose to her feet and rushed back to her tent with the hazel rods, calling for Haylin and Grabel to join her. As she’d turned, the moon had caught her cheeks in silver light and they had been blushing bright red. I smiled contentedly as I finished my food sitting alone in the shadows.
