CHAPTER 39
The witch snarled, lightning pulsed, and Gunther shook as if he were sitting in an electric chair. It struck me how much she looked like Emperor Palpatine—all she needed was a hood.
"My needles!" Frida shrieked crazily. "They've been in my family for centuries, handed down from mother to daughter for generations. My sister is going to kill me!"
Gunther shook with more violence, and his head swung lifelessly from side to side. I felt rage pulse through my veins.
"Kill the Sith!" I roared, throwing my shield to the side and gripping my mace with two hands. I ran at the witch and sank my weapon into her head with every bit of strength I could muster.
She stopped her electrical roasting of the knight and tried to wrap her claws around my throat, spitting out one spell after another.
You are taking cold damage.
You will lose 1.3 health per second for two minutes!
You are taking grave horror damage.
You will lose 0.5 health per second for three minutes!
You are taking fire damage.
You will lose 1 health per second for three minutes!
Ignoring the stream of messages, I evaded her stranglehold and thrashed her with my mace.
"Sword of Retribution! Strength of Fire!"
"A-a-ah!" The witch lit up as my ability kicked in.
"Fire!"
My health turned red. I had no idea how much health the witch had left; I was too busy to check. I rained blow after blow down on her, though she answered with fire spouting from her fingertips, searing its way through me.
"That's it, that's i-i-it" the witch screamed at me from inches away. I looked into her eyes and saw neither pupils nor irises—nothing but liquid fire and hatred, all as real as I'd ever seen in any human. Adrenaline pounded through my body, and my hands found her throat. She mirrored my new tactic, and I felt her fingers squeezing the life out of me.
"Do-o-o-ne!" The word choked out of her and a moment later, she dissolved into a pile of ash. I looked up. A step away stood Gunther von Richter, and in his hand was the sword he'd used to land the killing blow. His armor was dented like an old teakettle; his eyes were black and blue; his helmet was still laying under the birch tree; and he was as pale as a ghost—but he was victorious.
You unlocked level 23!
Points ready to be distributed: 5
Thank God. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have earned an honorable death along with my victory thanks to all the crap the old devil threw at me. But when you level-up, you get your full quotient of health and mana, so…
"Here, eat this." I tossed Gunther a crust of bread and a piece of dried meat.
"How can you eat after a battle like that?" The knight looked at me in bewilderment.
"Just eat it. Forget the battle, eating something will help you regain your strength. And while you're doing that, I'll go see what I can find over here?"
I walked over to the pile of ash that was once Frida,—quite the powerful witch, as it turned out. And what did I find?
Witch glasses. Serve as proof that you killed the witch.
That works. In the old days, games would give you the head, but this was the era of tolerance and humanism.
So glasses it would be, torn straight from the witch.
And that was it; nothing else. Where was the gold?
Where was the book? Also, why didn't the mayor want me to bring him the glasses? It didn't really matter, glasses or a book, as long as I finished the quest.
"I'm going to check out the house," I called over to Gunther. "You look around here."
"I wouldn't go in there." The knight pursed his lips.
"You'll trigger some kind of wizardry, and that will be it."
"I have to. There's something I need to find so I can prove that the witch is dead."
"Things aren't how they used to be." The young knight shook his head. "Nobody believes the word of a warrior without material proof anymore."
"We'll talk later." He didn't know what a respawn was, but I did. The witch was quest-specific and probably wouldn't respawn, but you never knew. Plus, she mentioned something about a sister; maybe they lived together.
Inside, the house was small, neat, and even rather cozy. There was a good-sized wood stove, and cooking utensils were everywhere. It looked like the old witch had told the truth about her cannibalism.
In the corner, hidden under some kind of cloth, was a chest. I walked over, uncovered it, and lifted the lid.
Frida's Chest
In the chest belonging to the evil witch Frida, you found:
The witch's magic book, which describes spells and voodoo rituals
700 gold
Greaves
Magic ring
8 bundles of Drianod grass
Goblin-shaped chess piece made with extraordinary skill, perhaps from some incredibly rare chess set (Who knows how or why the witch came to have it?)
I emptied the chest into my bag.
You completed a quest: Kill the Forest Witch.
You killed the witch living in the forest near Fladridge.
To get your reward, bring the witch's book of magic to the city mayor as confirmation that you killed her.
I left the house and called out to Gunther, "All right, let's get out of here!"
"Maybe we should burn the house down?"
"What? Are you some kind of pyromaniac? If we burn it down, an hour from now, some forest devil or terrible ghost will crawl out of it. Witch houses are better left well enough alone. Burning them never ends well."
"What could happen?" Gunther was intrigued.
"Anything. And, really, the less you know, the better you sleep."
"I'll sleep fine," he said, laughing loudly. "I always sleep well. It takes me a while to fall asleep, but I'm fine once I do."
We talked as we walked back to the road, where we found the knight's horse grazing as it waited for him.
"Sir Leyton, if you want, you can ride Duke. I'll run alongside." Gunther's offer was kind and gracious.
"Who? His name is Duke?" I looked at the horse.
"Yep." Gunther nodded. "The Duke of Orny gave him to me after I saved his daughter from a leech lurking in their castle dungeons. He marched me right into his stable and let me pick a stallion."
"You saved his daughter, and that's all you got?"
"What are you talking about?" The knight said, incensed. "Everybody knows that the Duchy of Orny has the best horses in all of Rattermark. They're worth their weight in gold. Do you have any idea how much horses weigh?"
Worth their weight in gold? Nice. I'd heard of swords being paid for that way, but not horses…
"So that's why I named him Duke to show my appreciation. Well, up you go?"
"No, no, no. I don't like horses, and I don't know how to ride them. You go ahead, and I'll just walk."
"Duke isn't a horse; he's a stallion. But if you're going to walk, I will, too. We're brothers in arms, and we should share everything."
"By the way!" I slapped my forehead with my palm.
"Thanks for reminding me; we need to split the loot."
"Split what?"
"I found some gold and some other things in the witch's house. Half of it is yours!"
I was well aware that NPCs don't need gold or anything else you could find in the game. But I would have felt like a rat if I hadn't offered my worthy—if digital and naïve—knight his half.
"No, no, Sir Leyton. I don't need any of the witch's belongings." The knight was indignant. "You should probably forget it, too. Nothing worthwhile comes of anything—good or otherwise—that you get from a witch."
"Whatever you say. If you change your mind, your half is waiting for you."
I realised I had forgotten to take a look at the greaves and ring. The greaves turned out to be pretty nice, and the ring as well.
Ivy Greaves
Protection: 340
+9 to agility
+8% to attack precision
+6% additional damage done by Toxic Shock (if it is learned)
Durability: 230/230
Minimum level to use: 27
Now I just needed to find that Toxic Shock ability…
Woven Grass Ring
+4 to wisdom
+3 to stamina
+0.7% mana restoration speed
Durability: 110/110
Class limitation: only mages
Minimum level to use: 26
They were pretty good items, though I didn't need them in the least. It was a shame; I would have been happy to wear the ring. The extra wisdom would have been nice if it weren't for the class limitation. I didn't have any of my own, after all.
The battle with the witch exposed how weak my mana was, as the two abilities I used spent nearly half of it. The ring would have helped.
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