Chapter 4 Beyond Analand

You wake up after a long 8 hour nap, feeling refreshed and a lot more energized than you were yesterday. Your body has gotten a little more used to the polluted air of the Shamutanti hills overnight. Your maximum stamina increases by 1. You have 12/12 stamina now.

You quickly put your clothes and gear back on, grab your bag, leave your room and go down to the first floor. You return the room key to the innkeeper woman and thank her for the pleasant stay. It's finally time to leave Cantopani, therefore, leaving the jurisdiction of Analand.

The first thing you see after you leave the inn is a bustling street full of people going to work. Some are heading to the wheat field, some are heading to the potato field, some are going to their shops and some are arming their caravan to begin a journey.

You turn left from the inn's entrance and walk towards the edge of Cantopani. You notice a small item stall standing near a food shop. The name of the stall is "Magical goods for the gifted!" You can either go and look at the so called magical goods or ignore the showy headline and continue on your way.

You decided to check out the stall and see what these "magical goods" are. You walk up to the vender and ask "What magical goods have you got for sale, merchant?" The short and weak looking merchant smiles at you and says "Ah, a sorcerer I see. I have quite a bit of goods that can be used for magic! Your pick."

You look at his items and see an axe handle, a sharp looking sword, some bags, a single pearl and a flute. The flute looks to be made out of bamboo and the bag look to be full of teeth. "Why are you selling teeth and weapons as magical goods?" The merchant frowns and says "How can a great sorcerer such as yourself not know about the use of teeth? Sorcerers can cast a certain spell to turn these teeth into members of their respected races. Only the molars can be used though. I have 4 goblin molars for 4 gold, 3 monkey molars for 3 gold and 3 wolf molars for 4 gold. I can give them all to you if you pay me 10 gold."

You look at the three different animal molars and wonder to yourself "Is there really a spell for summoning living creatures with molars? My master has never mentioned such a spell or anything similar to it." You have a deep desire to study all existing magic and you don't wish to pass on this opportunity.

At least you remember your master telling you about a certain magic that also uses a flute to charm other people. Your master never learned that spell and you don't know the constellation for the spell, but you are determined study both of these new magical spells and resolve yourself to buying them. You ask the merchant "How about the other things here? How much is the flute and the sword?"

The merchant smiles a wicked smile and says "The flute is only 8 gold coins, the sword is 30 gold coins, the pearl is 4 gold coins and the axe handle is 7 gold coins." You look at the merchant and say "I'll take the flute, the pearl, the axe handle and the teeth if you bring the total cost down to 28 gold coins instead of 29. I only have 28 on me after my night at the inn."

The merchant sighs as if he is making a loss and says "As you wish!" You hand him 28 gold coins and take all of the items. +4 goblin, +3 monkey, +3 wolf molars; +1 pearl; +1 bamboo flute, +1 great quality axe Handle, -28 gold coins. You have 2 gold coins left.

The merchant laughs quietly and says "I finally managed to sell those damned teeth to some fool! I netted a loss of 3 gold coins from that transaction, but I finally got rid of them! They were a gross thing to carry around and I was considering throwing them away. Making 8 gold coins of of them is good enough."

You continue walking towards the edge of Cantopani and don't hear what the merchant is babbling about. When you approach the edge, you see a familiar face standing there.

The teenager, Vini, is standing near the edge of Cantopani with a sour expression on his face. You look at him confused and say "You want to challenge me again?". Vini looks at you and throws two small pouches at you full of unknown substances. You open the pouches and see one is full of red chilly powder and the other is full of yellow sulfur powder. They are just enough to cast 1 NIP and 1 PEP spell. +1 red chilly powder pouch, +1 yellow sulfur powder pouch.

You look at Vini, confused, and ask "I thought we were enemies? Why are you giving such precious items to me?" Vini looks at you with a saddened expression and sighs. He shakes his head and says "They are all valuable to me, but you helped me understand my mistakes and helped me return to reality. The way of a warrior isn't being so strong no one can outlast you in an endurance fight. The way of a warrior is fighting with skillful maneuvers, cunning deceit and a good head on your shoulders.

I suddenly received a a lot of strength from an unknown source when I was a kid and ate Chilly powder accidentally. I learned later that I could eat chilly powder and grant myself a temporary stamina boost. With the stamina boost I could overpower most people and trained my body to be stronger than most.

The spell of speed I used came to me in a dream when I inhaled some yellow silver powder during sleep. I don't know where these powers came from or how you managed to deactivate them, but I want to find out. I will also be going on a journey and will try to traverse to Khare in hopes of learning a little about myself and bettering my skills."

You look at the teenager with a warm smile and say "I wish to apologize for the way I treated you and your father as well. Yesterday I had to fight s tiring battle and then fell down a cliff. It cost me 3 hours and I had to make it up by running or walking fast, so I was extremely tired and didn't consider my actions well.

Now, I want to say I'm proud of you! People are too prideful, especially those who are referred as champions and don't take any criticism and try to ignore their shortcomings and lost battles. I wish to take back everything I said about you yesterday, you are indeed an honorable warrior worthy of this."

You stretch your arm towards your hips and untie the belt holding a sword inside of its scabbard. The belt comes undone and you hand the scabbard to the young man in front of you. The young man takes out the sword you took from him and looks over it.

The teen stares at you with a look of gratitude and says "Thank you for your kindness, but this sword belongs to you. You won it fair and I don't wish to take another man's sword." You smile at the teen and say "You have shown me your honor and determination. You have earned the right to wield that sword.

The sword isn't much stronger than my own sword and I am not used to wielding this one. I prefer my old trusted blade and I think so do you. Use that sword and make sure you don't lose it in another battle, same for your head as well."

The teen laughs at your comment and thanks you once again. You look towards the distant road and say "I must get going now. May we meet in the future if our paths cross and fate allows us to meet. Goodbye, Vini." Vini waves his hand and you leave the small town named Cantopani

With this final encounter, you leave the border of Cantopani, henceforth, the jurisdiction of Analand. Your journey away from home has finally begun! "The Archmage better be looking out for himself, because I will be coming for his head and the Staff Of Kings!"

After 30 minutes of walking, you are suddenly stopped by a group of 2 bandits. The first bandit looks like an overweight and tall goblin rather than a human and the second bandit looks like he hasn't eaten for a while. He is extremely skinny, but his body looks mobile and agile.

The bandits look at you with wicked smiles plastered on their faces and say "Well, well, well... What do we have here?" Bandit 2 laughs a little bit and says says "A fat sheep is what I see!" Bandit 1 nods with his head and chuckles along with bandit 2. "Hand over your bag and all of your coin, or we won't go easy on you, pal!"

You laugh at the bandits provocation and take out your sword. You have fought battles against welL trained sightmasters almost weekly in Analand. A couple of untrained rouges are nothing more than a joke.

The bandits think they can win with the small number advantage and laugh and before they unsheathe their swords as well.

Combat engaged.

Bandit 1 has 10/11 stamina and 8/8 power. Bandit 2 has 9/9 stamina and 10/10 power. You have 12/12 stamina and 13/13 power. Bandit 1 is the first to engage.

Bandit 1 rushes at you. You decided to play it safe and use an 8.1 power strong attack to get a good gauge of his strength. Bandit 1 used a 7.8 power skillful attack and tried to push his sword into your neck. Your strong attack overpowers his skillful attack and you manage to bat his sword to the left and and cut his left arm off using the rebound force from the collision of your swords.

Bandit 1 screams in pain and takes 4 damage. His lost left arm decreases his maximum power by 1. Bandit 1 has 6/11 stamina and 3.1/7 power left. You have 12/12 stamina and 9.9/13 power left. Bandit 2 looks angrily at you and charges towards you.

You go all out and attack with a 9.9 power strong attack. Bandit 2 also uses a 9.9 power strong attack. You both clash against each other and trade two might blows. The sword make a ringing sound as both of you take 1 damage from the impact and are forced back by each other. Bandit 2 has 8/9 stamina and 5/10 power left. You have 11/12 stamina and 4.9/13 power left. Bandit 1 approaches you.

Bandit 1 had regained 1 power from skipping a turn? You decide to not take a gamble and use a 4 power Jab. Bandit 1 decides to not attack and blocks your jab with his sword. You manage to cut hit slightly and deal 1 damage. You jump back and get ready for Bandit 2's attack. Bandit 1 has 5/11 stamina and 7/7 power left. You have 11/12 stamina and 4/13 power left.

Bandit 2 has regained 1 power from skipping a turn and charges at you. You have less power than him and decide to block his attack rather than take a risk. Bandit 2 predicted you blocking his next attack and used a 0.1 power jab. You got a slight cut on your right shoulder from the attack and took 1 damage. Bandit 2 has 8/9 stamina and 7.9/10 power left. You have 10/12 stamina and 8/13 power left.

Bandit 1 regained 1 power from skipping a turn. Bandit 1 is keen on playing defensive. He is too weak to attack. You notice this and rush towards him with a 0,1 power jab. Bandit 1 got stabbed by the tip of your blade in his left hand. This opened up his wound a bit more. He took 1 damage from your attack and 1 damage from his wounded right hand bleeding. Bandit 1 has 3/11 stamina and 7/7 power left. You have 10/12 stamina and 9.9/13 power left.

Bandit 2 regained 1.1 power from skipping a turn. Bandit 2 rushes at you with an 8.2 power Strong attack. You noticed his intentions easily on and rush at him with an 8.5 power strong attack. The bandit looks at your neck and is slightly distracted. You use that distraction to perfectly sidestep his blade and cut his chest with your sword.

A huge sword wound appeared on bandit 2's chest and he jumps back in fear. Bandit 2 has 4/9 stamina and 4.8/10 power left. You have 10/12 stamina and 5.6/13 power left.

Bandit 1 thinks he has the edge in terms of power on and goes all out. He is using a 7 power skillful attack. You don't have nearly enough power to combat him and try to dodge his attack. Bandit 1 swings for your torso, but you jump backwards and managed to get away with the sword only leaving a tiny cut mark on your body. Bandit 1 has 3/11 stamina and 3.5/7 power left. You have 9/12 stamina and 9.6/13 power left.

Bandit 2 has regained 1.4 power from skipping a turn. Bandit two comes towards you at fast speed and is ready to attack. You are confident you can counter him and use a 7 power skillful attack. Bandit 2 went all out with a 6.2 power skillful attack, but you manage to best him in swordplay and cut his chest. Bandit 2 took 3 damage from your skillful attack. Bandit 2 has 1/9 stamina and 3.1/19 power left. You have 9/12 stamina and 6.1/13 power left.

Bandit 1 has regained 1.7 power from skipping a turn and is on defense. You take advantage of that and rush at him with a 0.1 power jab. Bandit 1 took 1 damage from being cut by your sword and 1 damage from the gaping wound on his right forearm. Bandit 1's vision becomes blurry from the excessive blood loss, causing him to be less focused and lose 1 maximum power, Bandit 1 has 1/11 stamina and 6/6 power.

Bandit 2 and 1 realize they are both at death's door and they can't defeat you and decide to surrender. You have defeated both of the Bandits. 3 stamina lost, amazing fight.

You walk up to Bandit 2 and Bandit 1 and say "Now, hand over all that you have on you and get lost, or I will kill both of you!" The bandits freaks out and bandit 1 takes a small pouch from his pocket and throws it at you. You open the pouch and see 3 gold coins. You take the gold and throw the pouch back at the bandits

Bandit 2 gets scared and runs away for dear life. Bandit 1 has lost too much blood and will likely not survive, so Bandit 2 decided to abandon him and ran away by himself. Bandit 1's legs quickly give out and he fall down, unconscious, but alive. You don't care enough about these scummy bandits to save them.

The sword in Bandit 1's sheathe looks decent, so you decide to take it and see if you can sell it to a merchant and make a few gold coins. You stash the 3 gold coins and the sword you took into your bag. +1 3 power sword, +3 gold coins. You now have 5 gold coins.

With no one blocking you way anymore, you continue onwards with your journey.

After a few hours of walking, you find yourself near a fork in the road. You can either choose to go to the left or to the right. The left side follows a flowing river while the right side goes into the forest. From what the oldest man in Cantopani told you, the right way takes you to the goblin mine.

Goblins aren't the nicest people, so you don't wish to interact with them as of yet. The way to the left takes you through the elven town and elven Forest. Elven are well known and hated tricksters and childish creatures. You don't want to have to deal with them as well. You are stuck between a rock and a hard place and decide to think a little more about which creatures you don't want to deal with more, the goblins or the elven.

While contemplating your choice, you hear a cry from the tree. "Help! help!" You look up and see and old man sitting at the top of the tree. The old man looks like he is knocking of death's door. His body is so thin and frail even a gust of wind hitting him from the wrong direction might knock him off his feet and send him tumbling.

You wonder to yourself "What is that frail looking old man doing up there and how did he manage to climb up there?" You shout up to the old man "Don't worry, elder, I'll get you down from there!"

You look up into the stars and see the constellation for FAL. You weave the stellar energy into the spell FAL and cast it on the old man. You lose 1 stamina. You have 8/12 stamina left. You shout up to the old man "Jump! I have casted a spell on you! You won't fall down and will gently float to the ground!"

The old man feels his body become lighter, which he never thought would be possible with how thin and malnourished his body already is. The old man trusts you and jumps. To his amazement, he doesn't fall. He slowly floats down and you catch him in your arms. You gently set the old man down and he sits down on the ground, tired. You look at the old man and ask "Elder, why and how did you go up there?"

The old man frowns and says "Who you calling elder! I might look like this, but I am only 22 years old!" You are stunned. Your jaw unhinged and you look at the man with absolute confusion. You yourself are only 21 years old. How is such an old looking man only 1 year older than you? The old looking man notices your confusion and says "I was cursed by an evil witch for stealing one of her spells." You now realize exactly what happened.

Stealing spells from a sorcerer's spellbook is the same as taking away a part of their soul. Once you learn a new spell, it becomes integrated deeply into your soul. Someone ripping out a page from a sorcerer's spellbook might even damage them physically and will 100% of the time damage their soul and brain.

You look at the old man angrily and say "Serves you right! Stealing from a sorceress is the dumbest thing you can do and you even stole from their spellbook. You aren't even blessed by the stars. Why would you need a spell page?"

The old looking man looks at you with guilt in his eyes and says "I wanted to sell it for a profit." You look at the man with an even angrier expression and he quickly raises his hands up and says "That was from a long time ago. I was young and foolish back then! I have grown much and have become a lot wiser since then!"

You cough and almost choked not your saliva when you hear the old looking man's way of wording that sentence. "I truly regret my decision. Look at me now! I can barely walk! I truly curse the older me, who was young and foolish enough to steal from a sorceress." You look at the old looking man and say "Trust me, umm... Brother? The sorceress, you and me all would like to curse both the young and old foolish you!"

The old looking man says "The young ones these days have no respect for their elders!" Your forehead has a stretched vein on it and you feel like you are about to burst a blood vessel. "I was going to propose you allow me to find that sorceress for you and deliver the spell page to her, but I think elder can do that on his own!"

The old man stiffens and says "No, no! This elder requires your help! Please bring to her and ask for her to lift the curse from me!" The old looking man gives you the spell page and you stare at the old man as if he were the biggest idiot on the planet.

The sorceress had cursed the spell page rather than the old looking man. If he had thrown it away, he wouldn't have ever even known about the curse. You wonder to yourself if you are doing the right thing helping this man out.

You sigh and just accept you fate of helping the old looking man. You remove the stellar energy used to create the curse on the spell page and store it in your bag. You decide to find the sorceress and return the spell page to her and study it a little bit as well. Maybe you will learn a new spell. "By the way, what were you doing on the tree?"

The old looking man sighs and says "Back when I was still young, I felt hungry and saw a beehive up there and decided to take some honey from them. I climbed the tree and years of my lifespan ticked away with every branch I climbed . It felt like fifty years passed before I got up halfway and my arms gave out. I fell on the branch and couldn't continue moving."

You are amazed and wonder how the old looking man could tell his misfortune in such an eccentric way. You tell the old looking man. "I am also kinda hungry. I haven't eaten today and wouldn't mind some food. How about this, I will climb up and get the honey from the bees. As thanks for telling me this, I'll give you a share?"

The old looking man's eyes light up and he nods. You begin climbing the tree. You got up 3/4 up and are near the beehive. Suddenly, a swarm of bees rush out and start flying towards you.

You might be stung by the bees, which will cause a lot of pain and might even decrease your combat potential. You look up into the stars and look for a spell that can save you. You can cast DOZ, FLM and DOP. You weave the stellar energy into the spell DOZ and cast it on the bees.

Bees rely on the speed of their wings flapping to fly, so when you take away the only thing allowing them to fly, they fall down to the ground and don't move even an inch.. They hit each other and the branches as they fell, but the small weight behind the impact made sure they weren't even slightly harmed.

The old looking man sitting at the bottom the tree began screaming when he living bees began pouring down on him like rain drops You lost 1 stamina. You have 7/12 stamina left.

You climb up and use your sword to cut open the beehive. You take out 2 pieces of beeswax and 3 pieces of honeycombs. You jump down and land near the old looking man. You hand him 1 honeycomb as per your deal and put the other two inside a jar and decide to save it for later rather than eat it now. You wrap the beeswax in some cloth and store the jar of honey and the beeswax in your bag. +2 beeswax, +2 honeycombs.

You say goodbye to the old looking man and go to the right path. It is a lot easier to deal with goblins than with the damned elves, as goblins are money lovers and you can do business with them if you come across them.

You walk into the forest and see a human skull on a stick. You think to yourself "This is a bad sign." You have already walked for an hour. Going back would means having wasted 2 hours and you stick with this road.

Any danger that may come will be overcome by you. You have faith in your skills from so many high intensity fights. You look up and see the confident tiger guardian constellation radiating its stellar energy towards you.

After walking in a bit deeper you hear a sound "Что вы болваны тут делаете?" You recognize this language as the language of the Goblins. Those dreadful and greedy creatures speak in a weird language which more than half of the entire world doesn't understand. You try to walk past them and hear the one that looks like he is barking orders say "Враг! Уберите эту глупую муху ребята!"

You don't understand what the goblin said, but from what you see you can deduct it was not something good. A hoard of 13 goblins armed with pickaxes, spears and daggers run towards you. Goblin may be weak, but even you can't fight 13 at the same time. You look up into the stars and search for a spell.

You can cast HOP, GRW and DOZ. You rejoice as an idea comes to your mind. You cast DOZ on the 14 goblins and they slow down a lot. You lost 1 stamina. You have 6/12 stamina left.

You activate your brand new spell, HOP. The distance between you and a location behind the 14 goblins becomes much shorter and it looks like some goblins are squished up against one another. You hold your sword in front of you and jump when the most opportune moment arrives.

When you arrive at your chosen location behind the 14th goblin, you have already skewered 5 of them on your sword. Your sword pierces through the goblins as you were leaping towards your destination. your attack managed to kill 4 of the goblins, but one of them is still alive.

You quickly take out the 3 power sword in your bag and stab it straight into the arm of the last goblin. The goblin managed to block your attack out of instinct and barely avoided death.

The goblins take a total of 4 damage from the rush and last one took 1 damage from the sword in his left arm. The first four goblin had low stamina and died. The last one managed to hang onto his life and has 1/6 stamina and 4/4 power left. You lost 2 stamina. You used a 9 power strong attack and then a 5 power skillful attack. You have 4/12 stamina and 6/13 power left.

Combat engaged.

The goblin is extremely injured and defends himself out of fear. Your 0,1 power jab easily breaks through his weak defense and you deal 1 damage to the goblin. Your sword stabs through his skull and he dies. You have 4/12 stamina and 7,9/13 power left. You have lost 0 stamina, perfect fight.

With 3 moves, you managed to kill 5 goblins. The other 9 look at you in horror. They are just about ready to run away when the leader yelled "Блять! Что эта за монстр такой! Он смог убит пят из нас за три удара! Убейте его быстрее, или он нас тоже прикончит! Тот кто его убьют получит повышение. Если вы убежите, я сам вас прикончу!" The head goblin's scream revitalized the hoard of goblins and they begin running towards you.

Author's thought

The power system has been changed from the, as it was a lot if images fighting in the original and just numbers. It is changed to fit a real-world-like setting and might seem confusing, but it is simple. It is how much strength you can use at the moment. It depends on how advantageous of a situation you are in.

Moving around(attacking) changes the power(advantage) you have compared your opponent. Defending gives you the most advantage, as you create a hole in your opponents defense that way. Jab is a way to do damage and get closer to your opponent without losing power(advantage). Skillful attack is forgoing a little bit of your power(advantage) in exchange for more damage. And a strong attack is not considering any power(advantage) you might save and going for maximum damage. The more power(advantage) you give up, the more damage you can do. It think of it as giving up defense in order to do more damage. I didn't have enough characters to put this in author's thoughts, so it is here now.