Chapter 6 The cannibals and Elven of Shamutanti

Your body is extremely tired from all the fighting and you are currently in a lot of pain. You look up at the sky and see the sun is shining on you with rays of powerful light. After some calculating, you deduce it should be around 2pm. You still have 7 hours to find a town and get a room at an inn. You already gave up coming close to the goblin mines and decide to go the other direction.

When you entered the forest, you saw a human skull on a stake and went to its right. There was also a left path, but you wanted to meet the goblins and trade with them. Now that that idea backfired extremely, you have no choice but to go to the left path and follow the Simsosa river until you find a village, preferably a human one.

You take the left path now and walk for around an hour. You see a small berry bush. It has a lot of blue berries that have blur olé spots on them. You can pick them and eat them, or store them in one of your pouches and put it in your bag, or ignore the berry bush, as the berries look poisonous. You decided to pick the barriers and eat a handful and store the rest.

If the berries are bad a handful won't do to much harm. If you are okey, then you can eat the rest at a later time. You picked the bush and and fill one of you punches with as many berries as you can and eat around 15 of them. You put the pouch of berries into your bag and continue walking,

You walk for a half hour before you can see a small and broken down bridge. The bridge looks fragile and weak, but you feel like it might hold out. You can either walk across it or find a different path.

You decide to go across it. Something is telling you this bridge is reliable and will hold out while you cross the Simsosa river. You cross the bridge with extreme caution. Except the creaking and squeaking, there is nothing wrong with the bridge. You walk across it and arrive on the other side without an accident or an injury.

You continue walking on the pathway and find a small patch of flowers. "Why do I sense stellar energy here". You look around and can feel a trace of stellar energy coming off of the flowers next to you. You examine the flowers more closely.

One of the flowers sticks out like a sore thumb. It isn't that much different from the others. The only feature on it that is different from the other flowers are the small thorns on its stem. But the thorns aren't what make it stick out. You can feel it has a lot of stellar energy inside of it.

You walk up to the flower. The flower looks like a red daisy with small spikes on its stem, almost like it is a combination of a daisy and a red rose and a daisy. The flower seems to have a strong connection to the PEP constellation, but you know for a fact it isn't a red chilly powder and the PEP constellation hasn't aligned anywhere near this flower. You have also never heard of such a flower being use to make red chilly powder, but you feel like this flower can be used to cast a PEP spell and decide to take it along.

"What a strange flower. It has the energy of PEP, but it shouldn't be used to cast PEP. I'll save it now and study its effect later when I get to safety." You put the flower into your backpack and continue on your way. +1 unidentified red flower

You finish your observation of the flower and, as soon as you turn around, you feel something pierce your neck and your body becomes drowsy. Your body wobbles and your legs suddenly give out, you fall to the ground unconscious. You are suddenly awoken by a loud noise.

Your eyes bolt open as you hear a loud BANG sound. You look around, confused, and notice four things. You are currently in a cage, you have your arms tied to your back with chains, your bag is on the ground next to your cage and, even though your hands are tied, you can still cast a spell with your fingers.

You look up and notice four constellations. You see the HOW, DOP, FLM and ZIP constellations are above you. You don't have the green metal ring required to cast ZIP. You don't have enough stamina to cast FLM. DOP will be optimal for escaping, but you decide to explore some options before casting it. You already know how to escape, so casting HOW is pointless.

Before casting DOP, you look around you and study the situation. Your eyes open wide as you see a human-sized pot a couple of meters away from you. You realize this is a cannibal village. The humans here are trying to cook you alive and then eat you as if you were a wild animal they caught. "I can undo my shackles with the DOP spell, but this cage doesn't have a door. It is as if they built the cage around me rather than put me inside a cage."

You inspect the cage and realize you are correct. This cage was made by the aboriginal humans, so it is extremely flimsy. The only thing keeping you away from lifting the cage up are the rocks placed on top of the cage to make it heavier.

"The wooden bars should break if I kick them with enough force." With a plan now formulated within your head, you move your fingers and weave the stellar energy into the spell DOP and the chain binding you opens up. Your hands are free and the cannibal guard patrolling around you hasn't noticed.

You walk back a little and run towards the cage's bars with a lot of momentum and kick it with your right leg as if you were an angry horse. The bars make a breaking sound, but they are still somewhat intact. You repeat your kick and you watch some of the wood snap as your foot lands on the bars, but so does the cannibal guard. The cannibal guard begins running towards you with a wooden club in his hands.

You quickly run at the cage one more time and ram it with your right shoulder. Your should come into contact with the cage and it completely gives out. The bars of the wooden cage give out and break in half. You quickly stop your momentum and grab your sword. It was throne next to your bag, so you easily manage to reach it and the sheathe falls of naturally as you draw the sword.

Combat mode engaged. Cannibal guard has 9/10 stamina and 12/12 power. You have 3/13 stamina and 14/14 power.

You go for a 12.2 power strong attack with a sideswipe slash and the cannibal guard uses a 9 power strong attack and tries to smash his club onto your head. The difference of 3.2 overpowers the cannibal guard. You manage to punch the cannibal guards club away and then slash his left arm when his guard was down.

Cannibal guard takes 5 damage. You manage to slash off the cannibal guard's left arm completely and crippled him Cannibal guard has lost 6 maximum power. Cannibal guard has 4/10 stamina and 1.5/6 power left. You have 3/13 stamina and 7.9/14 power left.

The cannibal guard screeches in pain and roles on the ground. He is too crazed to even acknowledge your existence or defend. You swing your sword and use an 8 power strong attack and slash your sword across the cannibal guard's neck. The cannibal guard didn't realize you were still attacking and role right into your sword's trajectory. You dealt 4 damage to the cannibal guard and cut his head off. You have won. You have lost 0 stamina, perfect fight.

You sheathe your sword and grab your bag as quickly as possible. You start running as fast as you can and keep a watch on the stars in case you can cast a spell to help you escape like HOP or NIP. The cannibals in the village all heard the cannibal guard's terrified scream and are running here to investigate. You need to get away as fast as possible.

Some cannibals are armed with bows and they begins shooting at you. A couple missed, but two came extremely close to hitting you. You barely dodged the first and blocked the second with your sword. With a last ditch effort, you dash towards the human-sized cauldron where you were supposed to be cooked.

You avoid the arrows shot at you and hide behind the cauldron. The cannibals are on your tail and running towards you. You feel the heat of the fire and an idea comes to you mind. You jump upwards and kick the top of the human-sized cauldron. The could ruin tips over from the impact and its contents spill out completely.

More than 70% of all the village's cannibals chasing you got covered in boiling water and received several burn marks on their bodies. The entire village occupied by the injuries you have caused, there is no one to give chase to you and you decide to take the opportunity and run away fro them

You run like your life depends on it and stop after the cannibal village disappears from your view. You walk for two more hours and stumble upon a river.

You only know of 2 rivers that flow through the Shamutanti hills. These are rivers Simsosa and Jabasi. You don't know of any bridges going over Jabasi, so you assume the bridge you are about to walk over leads across Simsosa. "I believe I am currently backtracking and wasting a lot of precious time!"

You realize you are going back towards the direction you came from, but you would rather waste a couple of hours than risk the cannibals coming after you. You decide to cross it rather than stay on the side the cannibals are on. You walk across the bridge and go onto a new path.

It is currently 4 pm, according to the sun. You should find proper shelter before 9 pm or the sun will go down and you won't be able to find any logging. You follow the pathway near the river and notice a school of fish swimming in the water.

You look up and notice you can cast DOZ. You weave the stellar energy into the DOZ spell and cast it on the fish. The fish slow down enough for you to catch them with your broken spear. You use the broken spear to fish and manage to catch 4 of the fish before the effects of DOZ wore off. .

Four fish might not be a lot, but it is still enough to make a single provision out of just them. All you need now is a kitchen and some knifes to cut the meat off of the fish and fix it up into a provision.

You tuck the fish away into your bag after you wrap them up in a piece of red cloth and begin walking upstream. The Simsosa River flows into the Kakhabad sea, so going downstream will lead you closer to Analand.

A couple of hours later, you see a village in front of you. It is around 6 pm right now and you can spare some time to check it out. Maybe they will have some logging you can use of and process your fish, but you can't stay here. You will waste a good 4 hours you can make use of by staying here.

You enter the village and feel it is quite eerie here. Most houses are tents rather than houses and only some of the houses here are made out of materials like wood. No house here has a single stone and it only gets weirder from here.

It takes you only a few second to notice it is completely empty. You don't see, hear or feel a single living soul anywhere near you. The only indicator of people actually living here is the campfire, that was out out recently, in the middle of the village.

You are extremely cautious. After your encounter with the cannibals you realized there a hundreds of unforeseen dangers in this world and you do not wish to take any risks. You look around and there are truly no people here. You go around to check out the houses and hope you find someone. The first house you see is a red tent that looks big enough to house 3-4 people at a time. You approach it and feel like something bad is going to happen to you.

You have a sudden urge to check the stars and your eyes widen at what you see. You look up and see your guardian constellation looking distressed. You are extremely surprised by this. "What awaits me in this tent? Can it be so powerful even my guardian constellation is worried about me?"

You decide to look up into the stars and form a protective spell. You see the MAG constellation and rejoice. MAG is a special protective magical barrier. It can't protect you from physical harm, but it can nullify any stellar energy that tries to approach you, no matter what kind of stellar energy it is. You weave the stellar energy into the MAG spell and cast it upon yourself. You have lost 1 stamina. You have 2/13 stamina now.

You enter the red tent. As soon as you enter, you notice that the tent is much bigger on the inside than how it look on the outside. You step forward and see two small chests placed on the table in front of you. The right chest is a dark wood chest with a golden luck on it. The one on the left is a pure iron chest with an iron key next to it.

You decide to check them out. You swing your sword and cut off the golden lock. It was a lot easier than you originally expected. You pick up the dark wood chest and open it. A sudden feeling of dread fills your body and you feel like death itself is looking at you with praying eyes.

A domineering black shroud surrounds the item placed inside the small chest. Your body stiffens up and you accidentally drop the chest onto the floor. You quickly arm yourself and get ready for anything this chest can throw at you.

The black fog suddenly springs up and takes a humanoid shape. The human made of fog has no discerning facial features and only has a huge mouth full of sharp, shark-like teeth.

You instinctively step back and look at the shadow a bit more cautiously. The shadow smiles and you notice a golden key in its right hand and 5 gold coins in its left hand. The fog opens its mouth and its voice terrifies you more than the dread it spreads. "You can take one, or none, or both. It is up to you to decide, but I am not a charity." In a voice so deep and hoarse you can barely make out what it said.

You look at the strange fog. You know it can't physically harm you, as it is most likely made out of magic and you are guarded against all magic. Your confidence returns to you and you pick up the golden key and the five gold coins. +1 golden key, +5 gold coins.

The fog creature begins laughing maniacally and says "Your greed exceeds Apollo's. You shall be punished for your choices." The dark laughing ends and the fog rushes toward you. The next second, you hear a horrified screech and the fog disappears. You are confused on what just happened, but know you made the right call casting MAG on yourself.

Just as you are about to celebrate, you hear another voice say to you "I wish to be reset!". You feel your mind crack from the pain and your eyes go blank. You see an image of an young gentleman dressed in dark clothes with white gloves on, smiling at you.

You quickly shake the feeling off and regain your focus. You inspect your body and find there is nothing wrong with you. "What was that? It should have been a mental attack type spell. I truly made the right call when I cast MAG upon myself."

You sigh in relief and decide to forget about that weird fog. The next thing to check out is the small iron chest. You look over the golden key and realize it must be the key that opens the iron chest. Why would a normal person put the key to a safe right next to the safe? The iron key must be a trap.

You put in the gold key and the small chest opens. You think to yourself "I am correct. It's a good thing I tried the second chest before this one." You open the small iron chest and check inside. It is full of golden coins. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of gold coins in there.

You quickly scoop up the the gold coins and shove them into your pockets. +438 gold coins. You walk out pleased and feel a little light. You look into your bag and notice the gold coins you scooped up are gone. You go back into the red hut and notice all the gold coins in the iron chest are gone.

You walk up to the chest and notice the iron chest has some carvings inside of it. Your inspect the carvings and notice it is similar to the carvings used to make a grimalkin. You look up at the stars and try to decipher exactly what constellation it is. After a few minutes, you find it is the DUD constellation. You don't know how to cast it or use it.

You mimic the gestures and movements shown on the carvings and nothing happens. "Does this spell require a certain item? From what I can see, it can create something out of thin air. I'll try it out when I get another chance. You look into your spellbook, but no page has been added. You sigh to yourself "I need to fully understand it before I can cast it."

You decide to keep the iron and gold keys on yourself. Never know when something will come in handy. +1 golden key, +1 iron key. There is nothing left in the red hut for you to see.

You exit the red hut and move on to the next tend. The next house you find that isn't locked is a green tent. You enter it and hear a soothing song play. The song is very pleasant to the ears and you are enjoying it. You come in and sit down with your legs crossed and pleasant memories wash over your mind. You decide to take out your own flute and play along.

You spent quite a bit of time playing and the soothing music helps you recover both spiritually and physically. +3 stamina. You have 5/13 stamina now. You get up when the music stops and you realize the thing playing was a small music box. You open it and see a doll holding a flute, as if it was the one playing the music. You decide to take it with you. +1 wind up music box.

Your body feels extremely refreshed after going through that. You look around for a bit and leave the tent when you can't find another living person. You look up and see quite a lot of time has passed. You must have been in there for a good 40-50 minutes.

The last open house you find is on of the few wooden huts. You open the hut and go in. You see it is a cozy house with a fireplace, a kitchen, some furniture and a wolf rug laid out on the floor. "This place has all the tools I need to process the fish meat and make a provision! I should fix my food situation before continuing my investigation."

You go to the kitchen and begin processing the fish meat. You gut the fish, then skin it and separate the good meat from the bones and take out the organs. You suddenly hear a creaking sound and snap your head towards the fur rug on the floor. "Is it my imagination or did that fur rug move?" You stare at it carefully and sigh to yourself

"I must have tired myself out from this journey. I better finish cooking and continue on my way before nightfall. A fur rug moving. I must be more tired than I thoughtt."

You ignore that weird fur rug and continue cooking. You suddenly hear another creaking sound and look over at the fur rug once again "Either I'm going crazy, or that rug is indeed moving. I should check it and then decide which statement is correct."

You take out your sword and stand ready for anything that might come at you. You approach the fur rug and notice it is a bit more thick than a normal fur rug. You suddenly see its face and the rug blinks. "That is no rug! That's a wolfbeast!" You swing your sword at the wolfbeast and it jumps clear of your sword.

Combat mode engaged. Wolfbeast has 9/9 stamina and 10/10 power. You have 5/13 stamina and 14/14 power.

The wolfbeast growls and looks at you threateningly. You can tell he is angry. You ready your sword and charge at the beast with a 6 power skillful attack.

To your surprise, the wolfbeast doesn't jump at you. The wolfbeast jumps away and dodges your attack. You only managed to wound is left leg with a small flesh wound. The wolfbeast took 1 damage. Wolfbeast has 8/9 stamina and 10/10 power. You have 5/13 stamina and 11/14 power.

You look at the wolfbeast, confused. The creature is glaring at you and looks angry. It is also growling like a rabid dog, but it dodged the moment you got closer. You go in with a small attack to probe the wolfbeast's action. You thrust your sword's tip at it with 0.1 power jab. The wolfbeast howls and jumps away again. You managed to cut its tail a little bit and it took 1 damage. Wolfbeast has 7/9 stamina and 10/10 power left. You have 5/13 stamina and 12.9/14 power left.

The wolfbeast continues to growl and looking dangerous and aggressive. "Is this beast a coward that can only jump about and defend? Is it too scared by me to attack? Why is it so cowardly?"

You go in for another 0.1 power jab. This time, however, the wolfbeast tricked you and rushes towards you with a 2.3 power charge(jab). The difference of 2.2 overpowers you and you take 3 damage. You fall back and crash into the wall. "What in the blue blazes?!" Wolfbeast has 7/9 stamina and 10/10 power left. You have 2/13 stamina and 14/14 power left.

A wild wolfbeast managed to outsmart you. Good thing your master wasn't here to see it, or you would die of embarrassment. You are now a little more cautious. You stare at the wolfbeast and try to read its movements. Its outlook hasn't changed the entire time. You think to yourself "What is going on? How can a beast look so ferocious and always defend, then suddenly attack? Its almost like it is being controlled."

A sudden idea come to your mind and you look up. You look thought the constellations and see the spell LAW can be casted. You look at the wolfbeast and see it has a golden collar on it. You can feel that the collar has a connection to the LAW constellation. "I've never heard of such a weird grimalkin. To use a grimalkin as a way of exerting absolute control. This beast is the ultimate fighter. It is impossible to read its next move, as it completely controls itself and doesn't show any intent. Its action can change in seconds and I can't respond to it. Good thing it's only a beast. A decent human warrior wearing such a thing will end in a huge catastrophe."

You realize the secret behind the beast's unreadable expression and weird behavior. Even if a beast can fully control its emotions and actions, its intelligence is still at the level of a beast. You can predict it based on its logic and instinct rather than the small signals it gives off during combat.

You ready your sword and charge at the beast with a 0.1 power jab. The beast defended without showing any emotion. The wolfbeast took 1 damage from a small wound you caused on its arm. Wolfbeast has 6/9 stamina and 10/10 power left. You have 2/13 stamina and 14/14 power.

You jump back after the jab and watch the beast. Its expression hasn't changed the slightest bit. It is almost like it is permanently frozen with that ferocious expression. "What would be the logical thing to do after my attack? It was hoping for me to use a strong attack and then defend so I would waste power. It then would use a strong attack and bring me to 1 stamina. That would be my end. Now its plan is different."

You think hard on what the beast will do next and you come up with an idea. "It will try to go all out and counter me. That strategy is the most likely one to kill me, so it will go with that."

Just as you expected, the wolfbeast lunges at you with his claws drawn and uses a 9.6 power strong attack. You use a 12.1 power strong attack. The difference of 2.5 overpowers the wolfbeast. You slide under the wolfbeast and cut across its stomach while sliding. You cut open his entire stomach area and deal 5 damage. With another full power swing, you cut the wolfbeast a head off while it tried to defend itself. Wolfbeast has died. You have lost 3 stamina, decent fight.

You walk up to the wolfbeast and take off its collar. You examine it and notice it has some constellations inscribed on it and the special finger movements needed to cast the LAW spell. "I am indeed correct. The spell this wolfbeast was under was the LAW spell, the spell that completely controls any non sentient being. It will have almost no effect on humans, but maybe I can use it in the future if I manage to get a pet."

You store the LAW grimalkin collar into your backpack. Who knows, maybe you will have a companion beast later. This collar will come quite in handy if you can find a loyal pet. +1 control collar.

You throw the wolfbeast outside and get back to making your provision. Wolfbeast and wild monster meat is extremely hard to process. It is better to throw it into the forest later than try to salvage it. You finish processing and cooking the fish and store it in your bag. +1 provision.

You walk out of the wooden house and pick the wolfbeast up. There is a forest to the west of this village and you decide to dump the body there, wouldn't want to attract more beasts to this village.

After walking a few minutes, you feel something pierce your neck. You take one damage and take out a small dart from the spot you were hit in. The last thing you think is "Why am I always getting knocked out by these darts?!"

You don't know how much time has passed, but you are awoken by some sounds around you. You pretend to still be knocked out and try to listen to the voices around you. You hear some squeaky voices saying "What should we do with this human? He has a lot of valuables on him and he is quite the quality goods. Maybe we should sell him to some slavers?"

You are disturbed by this. Being sold to a slaver is one of the worst things that can happen to you. You will become the laughingstock of everyone and will bring forever lasting shame to Analand and your master. The strongest warrior of Analand reduced to a simple slave. You do not wish for such a thing to happen. You have a mission to complete and becoming a slave isn't good for that mission.

You continue listening. A deeper, but still a high-pitched voice answers "We probably should. He is quite a clever beast. He managed to clear all 3 traps without being defeated or subdued. He would sell for quite the price just based on his physique."

You suddenly realize this situation is the worst possible scenario. You have 1/13 stamina and can't use a spell without completely tiring yourself out. Once you reach 0/13 stamina, you will become too vulnerable. Just a scratch at that point will kill you. You look up and notice your guardian constellation is shining upon you. You rejoice and pray to it for some energy. The black rhinoceros hears your plea and grants you 4 stamina. You have 5/13 stamina now.

With your new found vigor, you stand up and open your eyes. You look at the creatures around you and see they are all Elven. They are a species whose females are incomparably beautiful, but incomparably childish as well. The overall durability of Elven is quite low and their stamina stat is the fourth lowest of every sentient creature in Shamutanti, with the goblins, gnomes and fairies coming after it.

Your sudden awakening has surprised the elven and they are all paying attention to you. You look at them and say "You can't sell me. I am the hero of Analand. I am on a quest to stop the Archmage. If you stop me, the Archmage will be able to gain control of the Staff Of Kings and take over the entire kingdom."

The Elven laugh and look at you as if you are an idiot. They say "What Archmage? Are you trying to trick us with that myth? Analand has a protective shield around it. The Archmage could never have gotten through and taken the Staff Of Kings. Shut up and go back to sleep. You will wake up in a better place than this."

The Elven begin approaching you with rocks and clubs, ready to knock you out once more. You quickly scream at them and hope your plan works "I am a sorcerer. My master was a great sorceress and she taught me a way to turn clay into gold. If you spare me and allow me to use the spell, I will turn all the clay you bring into golden coins!"

The Elven gasp and say "You can turn clay into gold? Brothers, bring the man some clay! We need him to cast that spell and make us infinite gold!" The elven ran everywhere around the underground place and gather as much clay as they could. It is amazing how fast they gathered it and how much of it they gathered.

You look at them and they look back at you expectantly. The leader elf says "Well? Get to it!" You look at him and gesture at the shackles on your chest by shaking your bound arms and say "I am a sorcerer, not a magician. I can't cast spells without weaving stellar energy and for that I need both of my hands to be free."

The leader elf growls but still calls for the other elven to unlock your chains and the chains drop to the ground. You are free and stretch your hands towards the constellation DUD. You weave the stellar energy into the DUD spell and imagine the clay turning into a lot of gold coins and the clay that was held be the elven a moment ago turned into thousands of gold coins.

The greedy eyes of the elven light up and they start fighting each other in attempts to get more gold coins than others. You quickly grab your bag, your sword, the chains and some gold coins flying everywhere and book it out. You run out of a trapdoor and exit out from one of the wooden huts, that were previously locked

You push a heavy bookshelf onto the trapdoor and then dump some couches and tabled on top of the bookshelf. "That will keep them in there for a while." You notice a small drink lying on the side and grab it. It looks like cherry flavored juice. You gulp it down and run away at your top speed.

You have used 1 stamina while casting DUD. You have 4/13 stamina left. You have gained +1 chain.

While running, the DUD spell runs out and you realize the coins you grabbed were actually pieces of clay. But you notice three of them were actual gold coins and rejoice. +3 gold coins.

You run away from the elven village and run east. You soon reach the Simsosa river and follow it westwards. You see a bridge upfront after running a few more minutes and rejoice once again. You stop running and slowly approach the bridge. You feel a bit tired, but your stamina is still 4/13. You managed to survive the wretched elven and even gained quite a bit of items and a decent sum of money for your troubles.

A.T. This took HOURS to write and edit. 5.5K+ words in this and holy shit did it take a lot of time to edit it and fix it up. It isn't even completely fixed. The last part hasn't been double checked and I will fix it up tomorrow. I am too tired to be a grammar natsi and need sleep. It has been done.