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A Soldier's Life - 163 - Gnolls, Bunnies, and Bears, Oh My!
🕑 Added 2024-03-16 22:34:29 +0000 UTCChapter 163: Gnolls, Bunnies, and Bears, Oh My!
Raelia tentatively picked up the large sapphire necklace, “No, I don’t know what any of these items do. But they are all clearly artifacts.” She turned the sapphire necklace in her hand, studying the fairies and birds on the chain, shaking her head in disbelief. “This jewel is perfect. It must be worth…” She didn’t voice her opinion and put it down to pick up the large pink stone ring.
She studied the large pink stone ring artwork and muttered, “It is beautiful.” She stepped away, clearly tempted. “Do you have any other artifacts?” I cocked my eyebrow to let her know I was not going to share my secrets.
“No, we have just picked them up in the rooms we have cleared.” I picked up the sapphire necklace and the pink stone ring.
“From my experience, dungeons don’t work that way. Even old dungeons. Maybe one in five rooms will have an artifact, and one in three creatures will yield an essence.” Her tone was accusatory, as if I was keeping a secret from her. “Every gnoll gave you a major essence.” She stated flatly. I already told her the dungeon had not been delved into for centuries as an explanation, and I wasn’t going to tell her my collector was special.
I shrugged, ignoring her plea for me to explain. “If you don’t know what they do, I will put them away.” Both items vanished, just leaving the rings. Raelia looked longingly at my empty hands. I guess all women, no matter their race, liked jewelry. “Can you get the thermal stone?”
I had let her carry it in her backpack. I placed both rings on the stone and channeled aether into the stone. As the rock became red, tiny spells formed on the inside of the rings. I had no chance of reading them, but I hoped my trick was going to work. I focused on one ring at a time, turning the stone with a knife three hundred and sixty degrees while I focused.
Seeing me work, Raelia asked in astonishment, “You can see that and understand the runes!” She distracted me, and I turned the stone again, studying each ring again before answering her.
“No. I was just looking.” I knocked the rings off the stone to cool. Raelia picked both of them up immediately before I could stop her.
She said haughtily, “Enchanted rings do not get hot in fire. They are extremely difficult to destroy. You would need to toss them in a volcano at a ley line nexus to melt them down. Or perhaps have an ancient dragon melt them with its fire breath.” She was too smug with her knowledge. I held out my hand, and she huffed and dropped the rings into it.
“Maveith, can you keep an eye on me while I sleep for a bit?” I asked the goliath, who was setting up his bed.
Raelia scoffed, “We are in a safe room. Nothing can attack you in here.” Her voice trailed off toward the end, realizing I wanted to be protected from her.
Maveith moderated, “I understand Eryk. We will work on preparing a meal for when you wake.” I then brought out all the ingredients that he wanted, and he set up with Raelia on the far side of the room. I produced the weasel pelt and my griffon down pillow to get comfortable. I laid down with the dreamscape amulet in my hand, hidden from Raelia’s sight.
Entering the dreamscape, I spent a good amount of time playing a game of therapeutic fetch with Oscar. I had to ignore Konstantin and the others as I focused on creating the rings: one silver and one gold.
I started with the silver ring from the frost salamander, enlarging it to be ten feet across so I could stand in the middle of it. It didn’t even need to heat the ring for the spell forms to pop on the ring in glowing blue script. I couldn’t believe it had actually worked. My subconscious had been able to read the details in the real world and replicate them here.
The dreamscape amulet was much more powerful than I thought. I had gotten the idea as it seemed to recreate books from Earth in perfect detail, which I had read a long time ago. Now, it was just the problem of figuring out what the rings did from the books Castile left behind. Three hours later, I was still working on the silver ring.
As best I could decipher from some of the spell forms that matched in the ring from Castile’s books, the ring gave the wearer a resistance to cold. How much resistance I couldn’t figure out. Maybe the ring was a reward for defeating the blizzard lizard so you would be immune to its breath of cold the next time you fought it. It would be useful, especially if we had to leave the dungeon and traverse the ruins in the snow. Should we risk trying to get another one?
I repeated the process with the gold ring next. I found this ring near the abandoned merchant wagons when we took the old trade road after the heavy rains had taken the barge transport away. The runes here were much more complex.
After hours of studying and comparing, the best I could figure out was that the ring allowed the wearer to influence another person’s disposition positively. How powerful it was, I didn’t know. It made sense that a trader would be wearing such a ring. I exited the dreamscape and was welcomed by the smell of roasted meat. I had gotten lost in the work and hadn’t tracked how long I had slept. “Maveith, how long was I asleep?”
Maveith looked over, and I could see the two had been playing checkers, “Six hours, maybe a little more.”
Raelia huffed and announced loudly, “Maveith, can you watch me while I sleep and make sure I am not molested.” She went into the stone alcove across from mine and made to get some sleep.
I ignored the upset elf and went to get some food. It was a beef stew with potatoes, onions, and bear meat. It was really good, but after a large bowl, I found myself full. Raelia was on her side with her back to us, and I assumed she was sleeping. “Maveith, this ring will keep you warm in the cold.” Raelia twitched, and I assumed she was not actually sleeping. “See if it will resize to your finger.”
Maveith took the ring and was amazed, “It is working! The ring is getting larger.” Raelia pretended to stretch and rolled over, but her eyes appeared to be closed. It took Maveith nearly ten minutes to slide the ring up his finger. It thinned out a little, conserving mass, but eventually, he said, “I can feel it working. The air around me feels slightly warmer.”
After being trapped in the freezing city for so long, I hadn’t noticed, but the dungeon corridors and room were on the cooler side. Raelia’s eyes opened slowly, and with some accusation in her voice, she spoke, “I thought you said you couldn’t read the tiny spell forms on the ring.”
“And I thought you were sleeping?” We stared at each other for a bit before the elf rolled over, putting her back to us again, and tried to sleep.
“Maveith, I am going to scout the next room. Will you be safe waiting here with the elf?” I asked half-seriously. The elf pulled her bedroll tight around herself but didn’t respond to my jest.
Maveith was fingering the silver ring, and looked up at me and then the elf. “I think I will be fine. Can I have the rest of the stew?” I nodded, and he eagerly grabbed the pot to finish it off.
I walked the corridor cautiously and came to a T intersection. I went right, and the corridor curved right for a good long while. I finally arrived at another room. The room was not large, maybe sixty feet across. A hilly range of dark gray and black stone made up the floor, and the room had a twilight feel to it, with less light than normal coming from the ceiling. I remained vigilant but didn’t see any movement in the room. I left the room without risking entry.
It was a long walk back to the intersection and the other corridor. I hoped that we could find Castile soon as I wanted to avoid spending eternity in the Shimmering Labyrinth. The other corridor was much shorter, coming to a room with a hilly meadow covered in grass and small flowers, maybe seventy feet across. A fat rabbit stared at me as I approached the room. As I got closer, the rabbit darted into a burrow, and a massive bear appeared from over the mound. It furiously dug in the soil, spewing earth everywhere, trying to reach the rabbit.
The dark gray coat of the bear shifted with muscle as it dug, but it was not as large as the fire bear’s. Taking a chance that it was the only creature in the room, I stepped in and removed its chest cavity while its back was turned to me. I paused just inside the room, listening for other creatures. The fat rabbit popped up on the hill to see what was happening. It ears at attention; it studied me. It abruptly ducked into another burrow.
I moved farther into the room and spotted the stone chest, causing me to relax. I was about to step toward it and paused. Would the dungeon ever trick me with a reward chest to make me lower my guard? I proceeded cautiously into the room and saw no less than three rabbits poking their heads up. I shattered the stone and took the eight silver coins, a potion of greater healing, and a potion of stamina.
So far, every bear I had killed had rewarded a greater healing potion in this dungeon. Was this a coincidence, or would it continue? A dungeon greater healing potion was valuable. An alchemist’s major healing potion was worth fifty gold but had a shelf-life. Dungeon potions had no such limitation from what I had been told. I was thinking that maybe it was time to try farming for this healing potion since the safe room was just a ten-minute walk away.
I think this was a stone bear. The bear’s hide was coarse and difficult to cut. I harvested some meat with an elven dagger, which I claimed was from the armory. It was not Raelia’s, as I told her I wouldn’t use it. I was waiting for enough aether to retrieve the collector, stacking up the best cuts as I went.
I was not surprised when I harvested an apex strength essence. I was slightly disappointed, though, as the apex essence probably meant no one from the company had reached this room yet. The rabbits watched me from a safe distance the entire time, their instincts telling them I was the new apex predator.
Walking the smaller chamber, I only saw grass, clovers, and small wildflowers for the rabbit’s diet. I considered exploring further but had already been gone for almost four hours by my estimation, so I stored everything in my dimensional space and returned to the safe room. Maveith looked up as I returned and told Raelia, “Told you he was okay. Eryk can take care of himself.”
Raelia replied quickly, “I wasn’t worried. I was just asking if we should go and check on you.”
I ignored the exchange and told them what I found, “The corridor forked. There is a simple meadow room with a stone bear.” I produced fifty pounds of bear meat next to Raelia’s bed. “There are some quick rabbits in the room, but I could not catch any of them. Maybe we can get some with a bow. I didn’t enter the room at the end of the other fork. It had uneven rock terrain, but I saw nothing moving.”
“You killed a stone bear by yourself?” Raelia said, astonished, but then added, “Of course you did.” Like it was not a big deal, then irritated, she moved her bedding to make sure the blood coming from the meat didn’t reach it.
Maveith looked disappointed, “This was all you harvested?” I added the kidneys and liver to the pile, and he cheered up. Not that I would be eating either.
Next, I handed Maveith the apex strength essence, “It is a strength essence, Maveith. Take it next. We are going to clear the gnoll room again after the dungeon restocks it.”
Raelia’s eyes jealously watched the essence as it went from my hand to Maveith’s and then directly into his mouth. “Why are we fighting the gnolls again?” Her tone was challenging.
“Because I said so,” I sat down and relaxed near my bed. Maveith gave me a look to be nicer, so I added, “Partly for the essences but mostly because of the potatoes and the water from the stream.” That explanation seemed to placate the griffin rider. “Maveith, I got two potions as well. A greater healing and stamina. Keep them accessible, and you can give the elf one of the lesser healing potions.”
“Maveith already gave me back one of my healing potions. A greater dungeon healing potion?” Raelia said, suddenly highly interested and moving closer.
I frowned at Maveith, but I suppose it was his right to give the lesser healing potion to the elf. I just wished he had told me. “Yes. So far, the reward chests in this dungeon for bears seem to give a greater healing potion every time. I thought for a minute; that was the fifth time I had killed a dungeon bear, and the reward chest had a greater healing potion each time.”
“You have five greater dungeon healing potions! They are worth five hundred each!” Raelia exclaimed.
“No. That is the only one left. Maveith got one, Konstantin got one, and you got two,” I said, doing the math.
“You gave me two greater healing potions?!” She exclaimed in shock.
“Yeah, you looked like a dragon’s chew toy, and I only wanted to give you one, but Maveith insisted you needed another to survive,” I replied. If Maveith was interested in the elf, the least I could do was make him look good.
Raelia was quiet for a moment before she whispered, “Thank you.” But I don’t know if she was directing it at me or the goliath.
We returned to the gnoll chamber a half day later to find the eight gnolls restored. Raelia was able to get six in a single fireball, which made the room extremely easy. It was time to start farming the bears and gnolls.
Comments
cnjsd dsjncsdk
Is it just me or is maveith starting to get annoying
Deadmoo53
That subtle LOTR reference :D
Unwired Rob
I harvested some meat with an elven dagger, which I claimed was from the armory. -> which I HAD claimed from the armory
J S
Grind that XP!
BrycenBeans
lowkey would've kept the apex strength Maveith is already strong af
Wiggles1
100 convergence is 1024 times as much benefit, compared to someone without convergence affinity.
1536539
I see, defenetly makes sense
Blorcyn
I get what you’re saying, in the sense of 100% of an essence makes sense if essence is a resource that you consume. But the nature of affinities changing relationships in a proportional, multiplicative and logarithmic fashion, it implies to me something more like a catalyst? We know the Emperor by sheer wealth and power is exceeding the typical human limits of 100, so I feel like we may be thinking about it wrongly to think of it as a quart of oil. It’s more like a bandwidth, limited by human form other forms. Something more like a sigmoid curve / oxygen dissociation as a graph. Maybe there’s a relatively linear part of the improvement, but ultimately it may be that (despite the staggering waste) you can never reach the (1). ARAO seems to be a bit of a maths guy (far more than me) so I think he might have thought in terms of exponentials and curves when he constructed this. It particularly suits an Emperor with an imperial monopoly - narrative wise too. A world logic that supports a story setting’s society is always a welcome touch and I feel based on nothing but vibes that’s what ARAO has done? Idk. Edit: thinking about it a bit more I’m starting to think about it as maybe a more internal alchemy/cultivator style magic system. But one where the ‘pills’ are transforming you, and where the scale for almost all attributes operate on a pH scale where the higher the number the more the order of magnitude of [parts per million of non-magicalness] in the way acid is H+ concentration and the more alkaline you get the flatter the curve and the more ridiculous the standard format number difference to go from 14 to 15 etc. The one that then interest me, convergence, as you say first. If it’s something that flattens the curve? How does the interact. If it was truly game breaking wouldn’t the Emperor with his long lifespan/previous Roman otherworlder’s have realised? That by getting to above 100 convergence there is a far easier curve to all the rest (if you have the right spell form, not one of the others I guess). It’s a strong mark against everything I’m saying here, of course. So I’m pretty probably completely wrong.
1536539
Logically speaking, the benefits from convergence have to hit a ceiling at some point, you can’t extract more than 100% off what the essence has to offer, so the real question becomes how much does each size essence contain to begin with.
Blorcyn
Seconded.
Blorcyn
Oh wow, so he needs to get as many convergence essences as he can if it follows the formula as above. 100 convergence is 512, or more for above 100. I imagine they’re rare but it pays for itself. I can’t imagine it would be fun eating a new magic essence and opening it up with a 512* yield from one. Might need some resistance before that.
Wiggles1
I vote: I don't care how many days, but the next chapter should focus on after they leave.
Eddie
Well there is some urgency to find others. For all Eryk knows the others could be in big trouble/starving/etc. So any sort of farming feels a little inconsiderate. They could always come back to this safe room later to farm. 2 days max imo
Silver Beard
She's barely seen any of his power yet honestly. Trial by blood or a showing at the table will fix that quick.
Silver Beard
Thanks for posting all chapters this week (the ones I was looking for at least). Thank you for sharing your story and putting up with our comments
Erick Thiemke
And that is why he gets indigestion 🤯
Eddie
formula: 2^x divide the stat by 10 and put it in for x 2^7.4 = 168
Silver Beard
size of essences and synergy play a part save the first (elemental)
Erick Thiemke
And yes due to this he can get attributes over 100, I answered that before
Erick Thiemke
So he has a huge advantage but he gets diminishing returns over time
Erick Thiemke
Doubles every ten. So 74 would be around 160 times more effective than a normal person
Erick Thiemke
Maybe it is because I grew up with three sisters but I don’t see the MC being mean at all. Just teasing a little and letting the elf know he is in charge and is powerful
1536539
Thank you for your hard work, can we get a reminder on the multipliers of affinity?, i want to calculate how much benefit his high convergence gives him when eating an essence compared to someone with 0 convergence
Silver Beard
How does that old saying go. Screw me once- shame on you, screw me twice- shame on me, but the 3rd time.: (this will be Eryk v Raelia 3rd time)
Silver Beard
I think he's doing quite well considering the circumstances. Yes, he could do better but he's not wrong to be cautious. I said it earlier... but her first charge- her griffin died by his hand and then the Summoner's apprentice she was set to guard... again died by Eryk's hand (though she doesn't know it him personally that did the deed). Expected her to be a lot more emotional or vindictive toward the Human that has caused her so much pain.
Silver Beard
First time she was part of an army assaulting a city he had to defend. 2nd time he was pursuing a summoner that needed to be killed. Chasing her is likely the nicest way to put it. In truth he wanted her dead...and he only stashed her away the 2nd time was for her essence. Remember- he thought he was stashing a corpse. So, there's that.
Lemes
If he continues with this behavior it will be difficult to create mutual trust. Anyone who saw this could imagine that the elf was some great sworn enemy of the MC. They had only met twice before, and both times he was the one chasing her, not the other way around. There is no logical reason for his aggressive behavior towards the elf. He should treat her more intelligently if he wants to have a chance at real cooperation. Other than that, this dungeon arc is very good. Thanks for the chapter.
Silver Beard
He should offer an Apex Fire Essence to the Elf as a peace offering. He's got at an Apex and Major in his stash. Wanting to build trust- exotic gifts work well.
Silver Beard
Hopefully by then, their stamina will be fully recovered from abstinence of starving before entering the Dungeon.
Silver Beard
3 days...and then push on or if the essence becomes lesser/minor.
Eriach
Nice.
Erick Thiemke
how many days should they spend farming the two rooms?
Erick Thiemke
wasnt planning to finish this chapter today but there are just too many Seraphim patrons not to. I am going to post the World Sphere later tonight
