Resolute
Honorable II
Implacable
Skills:
…
Marks:
Master of the Mist Village
Blood Oath of Vengeance
Forge of Heavens
Dragonkin I
Resistances:
Air 50%
Earth 20%
Fire 10%
Life 50%
Mental 55%
Spiritual 5%
Race: Human (Chaos Seed)
Reputation: Lvl 4 “You are a man worthy of respect.”
Alignment: Neutral
Languages: All
Richter glanced through his page, but it was just an indulgence. The main reason was that he had wanted to see his new level. He already knew where his points were going to go. The chaos seed invested five points into Intelligence, and keeping with his esoteric personality, one point went into Luck. As always, he wondered if he had actually gotten smarter after investing in Intelligence. The stat wasn’t the same thing as intellect, but increasing his Intelligence was supposed to have a marginal effect on his brainpower as well as deepening his mana well. Of course, he couldn’t tell.
He invested the 25% skill bonus into Enchanting without a second thought. Gone were the days of his playing fast and loose with the perk. When all of his skills were low level, it hadn’t really made a difference which he invested in. It had seemed like he leveled a different skill every day. Now that he was advancing higher, though, skill progression was harder to come by, even with his Limitless ability. The bonus finally got him a specific prompt for the first time in a month.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 47 in Enchanting. All enchantments 1% more effective and increased chance of enchantments taking hold.
Receiving the notification was more than satisfying. After closing his status screen, part of him did want to open his Profession page up, but by then, he could see firelight dancing against the tunnel wall. They had gotten to the bend. The trolls had said that was where the bodies of the goblins were. Once they turned the corner, the sight of three mutilated bodies greeted them.
Terrod cursed. The trolls had not been kind. One body had black smears on the ground, showing where the scout had tried to crawl away. The trolls had not taken long, but they had extracted as much pain as they could in the time allotted. Richter just looked at the scene dispassionately, taking it for what it was. A message… and maybe an advertisement.
They were standing in a small cave, the ceiling only ten feet high. The tunnel continued at a downward angle on the other side of the cavern. Richter took point. He had a small magical light floating near his head, but it couldn’t penetrate the shadowed depths of the tunnel. The chaos seed cast Far Light and a ball of white light shot away from his fingers. It stuck to the floor of the tunnel where it leveled out again. He didn’t see anything but more tunnel. Nodding to his Companions, he started walking.
All three of them had their weapons out the shale adder slid along the ground beside them. Richter kept his eye out for traps, but nothing lit up red. Soon they were at the bottom of the ramp. They kept following the tunnel. The walls were rough-hewn grey rock, and pebbles were scattered across the ground. Not everything he saw was benign though. Along one stretch of the cave wall was a smear of dried blood. An awful scent had started to build as well, worsening the deeper they went.
Soon the tunnel opened into another cavern, this one much larger. It stretched forty feet high and countless thin stalactites hung from the ceiling. The shape of this part of the cave system was more like a hallway, with the sides sloped almost straight up. The cavern was about twenty yards across, but very deep. The far end was lost in shadow. Richter cast Far Light several times. What he saw made his heart seize in his chest.
Figures lay on the ground like forgotten trash. As he cast the spell again and again, he saw more bodies in various stages of decomposition. The Companions now knew where the horrible stench was coming from. Some had wounds, some broken bones and more than a few had their heads stove-in. Richter’s blood pressure began to rise. The trolls were definitely lucky they were no longer near him.
More balls of light flew from his hands, showing more than a hundred bodies, until the spheres stuck to the bars of a cage. Hundreds of eyes weakly reflected the faint light. Men, women and children were pressing themselves against the far side of their cage. Terror was etched onto all of their faces as they wondered what new horrors their goblin captors would inflict. Richter kept casting Far Light and five more cages were revealed. The bodies of both the living and the dead were inside them.
Richter ran up to one cage, and the people began wailing in fear. He skidded to a halt, “Good people! My name is Lord Richter, and I am here to free you. All of the goblins have been killed. I will get you out!”
The wailing did not abate for some reason. Then Richter realized that he had run at all of them with his blade out. To make matters worse, he was splattered with blood, mud and small specks of flesh. He might as well be a monster as far as the abused slaves were concerned. Luckily, Sion came to the rescue.
“Lord Richter speaks the truth! I am a sprite of the Nadrian forest. You know I would not be standing here if your oppressors had not been slain.” Sion’s voice was pained, and he still favored his shoulder. His tone was also calm, though. “I cannot even imagine what you have had to endure, but Lord Richter has killed the goblins that have been tormenting you. I am sure you are scared, but we do not have much time. More goblins are coming. We are going to open the cages. Those of you with strength, please help those who are too weak to walk. Lord Richter will see you to safety, but we must move quickly.”
As the sprite was speaking, the cries of fear fell silent. The slaves just stared now, but it was still a marked improvement. Luckily, the padlocks were only simple iron. Richter could have picked them, but smashing them with the pommel of his short sword was easier. The chaos seed wrenched each door open. He retrieved every remaining health and stamina potion from his Bag and handed them to his Companions. Then Richter moved on to the next lock. Sion and Terrod ushered the prisoners out, distributing the potions as needed. It wasn’t until the last cage was opened that one of the prisoners spoke to him.