The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4) (35 page)

So he continued to look at Nexus trying to stall for time.  He knew from experience that the giant wouldn’t wait long for an answer though, so he started inching his hand towards his Bag.  Nexus’s ever present smug smile deepened, and his eyes widened slightly in anticipation.  Richter’s hand went into the Bag.  When he withdrew it, he slowly turned his arm until his fist was upright… with his middle finger extended. 

Nexus looked at him in disbelief and Richter laughed, or sobbed, he wasn’t sure.  “This is what I’m willing to offer.  A big handful of ‘fuck you.’  So you better just fucking kill me because I won’t stop!  That’s not who I am!”

Nexus’s expression became cruel and angry.  The giant wove one hand in a series of gestures, and black and red light surrounded his body.  Harsh guttural words of Power spewed from his lips and then he drove his hand into Richter’s chest.  Pain worse than anything he had ever felt spread through Richter as his very soul was scorched.  Nexus bellowed unintelligently into his face.  Spittle landed on his cheek as the giant grabbed the back of Richter’s neck with his other hand and screamed, “Who the fuck do you think you are, you little shit?”

“My name is Enchanter!” Richter shouted.  The answer had come without thought or guile.  As soon as it was spoken, he felt the truth of what he had said.  A loud bell rang three times and the giant took his hand away.  The red and black fire died out, and Richter cried out in relief. 

Nexus looked up into the darkness above and cocked his head, listening to something that Richter couldn’t hear.  When Nexus looked down at him again, there was a smile on his face, but for the first time it wasn’t mocking.  Instead, it seemed like a different person was looking at Richter from behind the chiseled black features.

Nexus began a casting and gold light surrounded his arms.  When he was done, another light surrounded Richter’s body, and all of the pain left him.  Muscle reknit and his bones bound together.  Richter’s lacerated organs healed and his nerve damage was repaired.  The many icons indicating the disabilities he had gained during his torture disappeared one by one until he was left whole.  Nexus cast another spell, and a wave of green light restored his weapons and armor to perfect condition.  With a final wave of his hand, Nexus released Richter from the bands that held him and released Alma from the cage that had kept her in an unnatural sleep for days on end. 

Richter stared at the giant, thinking this must be the start to some new sick torment.  Then he realized that whether it was or not, he had to help Alma.  He circled around Nexus, never taking his eyes off the giant, then ran over to where his familiar lay on the ground.  He picked her up and was relieved to feel her small chest rise and fall.  Richter was relieved to see that she didn’t have any obvious injuries.  She stirred and then opened her eyes.  She looked at him, licked his face, and then asked, *
Did we win, Master?
*

He smiled down at her. *
Yes, my love.  We won.
*  He didn’t have the heart to tell her that these might be their final moments together. 

She closed her eyes again and purred.  Richter placed her atop his shoulders and she settled in comfortably.  When she wrapped her tail around his arm for balance and fell back asleep, Richter turned his attention to Nexus.

The black giant still stood in the same place.  His hands were at his side and he calmly regarded Richter. “Do you remember what you said?”

Richter licked his lips.  “I said…”  Nexus nodded encouragingly.  “I said, ‘I am Enchanter.’”

“So you are, Tim,” Nexus said with a bow of his head.  “It has been my honor to help you uncover this truth.”

“Uncover what?” Richter screamed at the giant.  His arms and legs shook uncontrollably, though he couldn’t honestly say which emotion he was feeling at that moment.  Anger, fear, sadness, joy… his nerves were scraped raw and all of his feelings felt like a live wire searing his brain.  “That I wanted to become an Enchanter?  I could have told you that!  You didn’t have to torture me!  It felt like days, you sadistic fuck!”

Nexus weathered Richter’s verbal assault without reaction.  When he was done shouting, the giant replied, “You did not become an Enchanter.  You have learned that you have always been one.  A Profession is not a choice.  It is not
who
you are, it is
what
you are.  I stripped away the surface layers, the ‘who’ of how you define yourself, so that you could see the truth of ‘what’ you really are.  You are an Enchanter.  In time, you may find other truths about yourself.”

Richter looked at Nexus, still seething, but the giant’s words held the same feeling of immutable truth that he had felt when he had named himself “Enchanter.”  He stared and asked the only question that seemed pertinent, “So what now?”

“Now you return home.  From the viewpoint of your villagers, you will have been gone for one week.  As I said, though, time moves differently here.  Though you have experienced several weeks of pain, your body has only aged a fraction of that time.  Before you go, however, I was asked to give you a message—‘Hurry.’”

Richter looked at Nexus for a long moment. “Is there any more to it?  If not, you might as well tell me not to go chasing waterfalls!  And given a message by who?”  He could finally identify what he was feeling.  Perhaps the oldest emotion.  Anger.  A distant and reasonable part of his mind posited that speaking harshly to a powerful being that had just tortured him with impunity might be a bad idea.  Another part of him told that part to fuck off though.  If Nexus were going to attack him again, it probably wouldn’t be for being snarky. 

Nexus smiled slightly, again with real humor, completely different from the cruel grin Richter had grown used to seeing.  “I was told that you had something to do before you were brought here.  Specifically, that you had seven hours and fourteen minutes before your leveling decisions were taken out of your hands.  When you arrive back into your village, your personal time will have advanced by seven hours and twelve minutes.  Hence, the message ‘Hurry.’”

“Let me get this straight,” Richter said slowly and with intense irritation.  “You have been torturing me for a month, but only a week has passed in The Land, AND I’ve only aged seven hours?  That makes no damn sense.”

Nexus smiled wider. “He told me that you would say that.  Then he said I should tell you Time is not linear.  It’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff.”

Richter had been about to tell Nexus to wipe the stupid smile off his face, but then he stopped.  He knew that he had heard that before, he just couldn’t place where.  “Who gave you the message?”

Nexus cast a spell, silently bringing a black disc into existence behind Richter.  He ignored Richter’s question and said, “It’s actually kind of lucky that you started your Trial when you did.  If you had finished spending your level points before you came here, you would have been treated as if you were level twenty-eight rather than level twenty-one.  Those extra Talent points you might have wasted will probably come in handy.  It’s almost like you have someone looking out for you.”  Nexus’s expression seemed to indicate that Richter should be picking up on something.

“Wait!  What do you mean?  Give me a straight answer god damn y—”

Nexus rushed forward and pushed Richter backwards into the disc.  The last thing he saw was the smiling giant winking at him, then everything was black.

CHAPTER 22
 

“He has returned!  Lord Richter has returned!”

Richter raised his head up from the grass.  Looking around he realized he was in the feast area, and judging by the smells, it was mealtime.  He didn’t really remember how he got here, but he must have hit with some speed because his face had been driven into the ground.  He had to spit a bit of turf out of his mouth as his people rushed up.  It wasn’t exactly the dignified homecoming he would have hoped for, but at least he was home.  Alma flew in front of him and licked his face while Richter groggily looked around.  His mind was having trouble processing. 

As the villagers surged around him, babbling, Richter tried to make sense of what was in his head, but his memories felt… compressed.  He quickly replayed the events of the last few days, shuddering sometimes as he relived a particularly bad moment.  It took only seconds, but then he remembered the message Nexus had relayed at the end and his heart began to pound.  He quickly checked his status page and saw that he did indeed still have points to distribute.  If Nexus was right, though, he only had two minutes to do it after coming back, and he had already wasted at least one of them!

More and more of his villagers were coming up to him.  The fact that he hadn’t gotten up from where he was lying on the grass filled some of them with fear that he had been mortally injured or was afflicted with some malignant spell.  It didn’t help at all that Richter had accessed his personal interface so it looked like he was randomly staring off into space and mumbling to himself.  The villagers’ voices grew louder as they started shouting to him.  Richter absently noticed that apparently in every world, people believed that if they only spoke louder, then other people would finally understand them.  With an irritated start, Richter realized he was wasting even more time and just pulled up his status page. 

First, he dumped the 200% of skill points into Enchanting.  That done, he quickly looked at the rest of his status page. 

There wasn’t any one area that he was particularly lacking in, but Richter knew he didn’t have time to waste.  He checked and saw that he had thirty points to distribute and quickly dumped ten points into Constitution.  He could always use more health.  He also put five points into both Endurance and Intelligence.  His eyes scanned the rest of his stats and in a near panic he placed another three into both Wisdom and Charisma and finished by placing the final four into Luck.  He pushed accept on all of his choices and breathed out in relief.  He had made it!  Richter immediately promised himself that he would never leave his leveling to the last minute again. 

Richter looked around to see a truly large crowd surrounding him.  He reached out his hand and one of the guards helped him to his feet.  The villagers bombarded him with questions which Richter answered as best he could.  “Yes, I am fine.”  “No we aren’t under attack.”  “Yes, I’d be happy to talk to your… ‘cheating whore of a husband.’”

Terrod saved him just as his patience was running out.  He showed up with a contingent of guards who shooed everyone away. 

“Welcome back, my lord,” he said once Richter had some breathing room.

“That’s it?” Richter asked.  “No, where have you been?  Or what’s going on?  Why aren’t you panicking like everyone else was?”

Terrod smiled. “I may not have ever reached such heights personally, but I have met Professionals before.  The portal to their Trial is always a black disc.  The hand that Sion and Beyan described was something new, but the Trials are said to last a week, so I expected you back sometime today.  If you hadn’t returned, then I would have started to worry.”

Always dependable Terrod, Richter thought with a smile.  It was good to be home.  It was a bit strange to hear confirmation that he had actually been gone for a whole week, but the village was still standing and Terrod didn’t seem panicked so Richter decided to take a beat for himself.  He took another look at Terrod and saw that the captain’s gloves, boots, and chainmail pants were now a creamy white color.

“New threads?” Richter asked, examining the moonstone armor.  The quality was all superb. 

Terrod smiled appreciatively. “Krom is to thank.  The mist workers have been working daily to bring in more ore.  We did have a problem where one day they did not return.  The next morning, I led a squad to the ore vein and found signs of a fight and harvested ore strewn about on the ground.  I’m not sure what destroyed the workers, but it was clear why they didn’t return.  I assigned two five-man squads to oversee the retrieval of the metal and safeguard the workers as they return to the village.  Since then, we haven’t had any other major issues, though the strike teams have had to kill a few animal predators.”

Richter congratulated the captain on a job well done.  Then he told Terrod to gather Randolphus and other important people and to bring them to the high table.  While he was at it, Richter sent out a mental summons to Futen. 

Terrod nodded and said, “Very well, my lord.  What are you about to do?”

“Have lunch, man.  I’m starving!” 

Terrod chuckled.  As he walked away, the captain said offhandedly that he had dealt with the issue in the mines and that a squad would be patrolling them from now on.  Richter thanked him, confused as to what he was talking about, but too hungry to press the issue.  He went to the food table and made himself a heaping plate of cold meat and hot vegetables.  He sat down and tucked into the meal.  After washing it down with a cup of ale, he felt one thousand percent better.  As he waited for everyone to come fill him in, he checked his notifications.  As soon as he opened the first prompt, the sound of trumpets filled the air.  Richter looked around in surprise, but didn’t see anyone else reacting to the music.  He quickly realized the music was only in his head. 

Baaa-baba-baba-ba-baaaah!

Congratulations!  You have discovered your Profession!  You are an
Enchanter
!  Your efforts will bring magic and wonder to The Land.  A ring is no longer a simple band to you, it is a pathway to power.  A sword is not only for a soldier’s hand, it can also grant the power of flight.  Scoff at those who put their faith in the fleeting might of muscles or the taxing strength of spells.  Your enchanted creations will last until the Universe grinds all stars to dust and their power shall rival the gods!

You have earned new Talent Points!  As a Chaos Seed, you earn 15 points per level as opposed to the usual 10!  For having a 100% affinity in your chosen talent you receive an additional +5 Talent points for each level this holds true!  For affinities of 95-99% you will receive +3 per level and then +1 of an affinity of 85-94%.  As a human, you have no bonuses or penalties to choosing the Enchanter Profession.  Choose your path well, it will affect the progression of your life and most likely determine the nature of your death.  Revere your craft, take your power, LIVE!

You have:
160 Talent Points
.  Do you wish to expend them?

He selected “Yes,” and then his eyes widened in amazement.  The next prompt was unlike any that Richter had ever seen before.  It was nearly opaque.  What was more impressive though was that the background wasn’t the standard monochromatic black, grey, or white.  Instead, Richter felt like he was gazing into a nebula of shining stars surrounded by gases of various colors.  Rich reds, blues, and greens contrasted with patches of black space, and sprinkled throughout were the shining jewels of stars.  Floating above it all was a series of pale blue glass spheres connected by filaments of light.  The central sphere was the largest and it glowed with a soft light.  A single word was emblazoned across its surface: “Enchanter.”

Six glowing filaments extended from the central sphere, roughly following the x, y and z axes.  Each of the filaments ended with another sphere attached to the opposite end.  More filaments extended out from those spheres, but these threads were dark and the entire picture grew hazy and distorted past the initial six globes.  Richter could faintly see more spheres through the haze but couldn’t make out any wording.  The six attached to the central sphere were easy to make out, however.  Each sphere had words written on it.  Richter found that he could change the orientation of what he was looking at with a simple thought.  He examined each in turn. 

Increase Enchantment Potential I
: Increase the number of enchantment slots on the object you wish to enchant.  Increases enchantment slots by 10%.  Cost:
5 Talent Points.

Deconstruct Items I
: Gain the ability to deconstruct an enchanted item.  Increase this Talent to improve chance for successful deconstruction and to increase chance of obtaining better items after item is destroyed.  Cost:
5 Talent Points.

Increase Enchantment Success I
: Increase this Talent to improve the odds of an enchantment taking hold.  Cost:
5 Talent Points.

Macroenchantment I
: Increase this Talent to have your enchantment affect larger items.  This is extremely helpful for creating enchanted buildings, ships, engines of war, and other large projects.  Cost:
5 Talent Points.

Increase Number of Charges I
: Increase the number of charges on items with finite uses.  Will increase number of charges by +10 or by 10%, whichever gives greater yield.  Cost:
5 Talent Points.

Increase Enchantment Strength I
: Increase strength of enchantments by 5%.  Talent Cost:
5 Talent Points.

He frowned.  Buying Talents was not exactly cheap.  True, he had one hundred and sixty points to play with, but if he had understood correctly those points were from increasing his personal level eight times.  Once those points were gone, he couldn’t expect a large windfall again.  

Without his bonus as a chaos seed and his boost from having 100% affinity, buying just one of these would constitute half of his spending for a level.  He had to imagine that the cost would only go up the farther he got into the upgrade tree.  He also had no idea what Talents were covered by the haze on the prompt.  If he went down one line of improvements, he might miss something truly spectacular on another branch.

Richter shook his head.  He clearly had to learn more about this.  He resolved to speak to Randolphus and Gloran to see if either could shed light on the situation.  As he waited for everyone to show up, though, he couldn’t resist spending just a few of his points. 

He mentally clicked on the sphere for “Increase Enchantment Strength I” and bought it for five points.  Richter figured no matter what, having stronger enchantments could come in useful.  Both the globe and the filament leading to it started to glow like the central sphere and the name changed to “Increase Enchantment Strength II.”  Examining it, he saw that the cost had doubled to ten points to gain another 5% bonus.