Chapter 22
There were various chapters on different types of runes one could implement, how to collect souls or soul shards from the beyond using Forest and Death magic, and types of wards he could erect with the right application of knowledge. Looking over his shoulder, he found that literally everyone else had fallen asleep—obviously exhausted from recent events after having traversed from one world to the next. Even Athela had fallen asleep and was—to Riven’s surprise—curled up next to Julie with the woman’s arm draped over the spider while she wore the blanket he’d given her.
Just how long had Riven’s head been in the books to not notice that one?
But this was good. It was a good thing that they got some time to relax… He was sure the small family especially needed it.
Turning back to his book, he began to read some more. Time passed like a blur as page after page flipped over in his hands, and soon the daylight hours overhead turned to night and starlight through the holes in the cave roof—leaving only the burning and crackling torches to light the pages in his hands.
He dreamed of his long-gone dog that night. She’d been a half basset hound, half terrier mix with stubby paws and floppy ears and a bark that was far too deep for a dog her size. He remembered how she’d been just a puppy and they’d taken her from a family friend of his father’s who owned a farm, and how that family friend’s dog had gotten frisky with a stray to produce the litter of puppies Riven got to pick from.
He’d known she’d be called Shadow even before he’d met her. Back then, as a kid, he’d thought the name was cool, and that’d been the sole reason for naming the dog that. Funny, because she wasn’t even a black dog…she’d been brown, a deep chestnut-brown color. But he hadn’t cared, he’d liked the name. He remembered how she’d whimper and cry at night in the kitchen while being potty trained… She wasn’t trusted to sleep on the carpet back then because she’d pee everywhere, like all puppies do. He remembered taking out the big blue mat his parents kept in the closet, dragging it out into the kitchen and hiking his legs over the little latched gate…putting that mat down next to Shadow and letting that cute little puppy snuggle up next to him late into the night before he had to get up the next morning for school.She’d lick his face to get him up at the urging of his little sister as she laughed and laughed before dragging him to the car and making him say goodbye… Then he’d get back home and do it all over again the next night.
God, how he missed those days.
But here and now…in the dream state he was in, he found himself happy again. Finally happy again, with his mom laughing off to the side as Shadow licked his face to get him up for school…
Riven snapped out of his slumber amid the laughter of the others, coming face-to-face with Athela’s two ruby eyes as the spider demon licked his face with a short, stubby tongue between those massive fangs of hers as he drooled onto the desk.
He’d fallen asleep reading that damnable totem-making book.
And now he was being licked all over his face by a dog-size spider while she made obnoxious hissing noises and rapidly tapped her feet on the desk to the amusement of the others.
Cool.
Hakim was the only one not laughing, but even he was grinning at the ridiculous display of mock affection while he leaned back against the smithing station with a bowl of water and another plate of food. Tanya and her two children, Julie and Tim, were guffawing loudly—obviously prodding the spider on with their laughter as she went in for what Riven could only guess was a kiss.
He abruptly shot up and whacked the spider atop her head, resulting in an irritated hiss from Athela when she failed to go in for the finishing insult, and he wiped away the drool on his face. “Is this my drool? Or is it yours?”
“Both!” Athela hummed musically. “I was cleaning you off!”
“Is that all you were doing?”
The spider gave him what was probably the most sheepish look a spider could ever give. “Would I lie to you?”
“Goddamn you, Athela.”
“Huzzah!” The spider cackled and raced off to jump into Julie’s arms, the young woman catching her easily and without hesitation.
Riven rubbed his forehead, wiped off his cheek, and made a gagging impression that made everyone else burst into even more laughter—this time including Hakim. He glared at them, and then to Athela, with less amusement than they had by far. “I didn’t realize you were all so chummy with her. She wasn’t playing very friendly back in the tutorial’s beginning area—didn’t think she’d like anyone other than me.”
Tanya fished out a wet rag from God knows where and walked over to Riven’s face, wiping it down in a very motherly fashion and smiling down at the younger man. “Your demon is very, very nice. I have no idea how anyone could ever not get along with her!”
Riven let the woman finish cleaning him off and gave her a polite smile of thanks, then raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at the purring sounds Athela was giving Julie while she was being petted. “You did see her rip through…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, not wanting to bring up yesterday’s memories when they appeared to be doing so much better than they had been the last time he’d been awake. Whatever Athela was doing, she was doing it well…in terms of getting their spirits up, anyways.
Instead, he just smiled and yawned, then noticed the plate of food and water next to him on the table.
“That’s for you!” Julie said while brushing her hair out with a comb that she’d gotten…from where, exactly?
Riven looked around. Then, knocking his head with the side of his fist twice, he realized that they were all semiclothed, too. He recognized pieces of his cloak stitched with pieces of the blanket he’d given them, sewn into various other articles of clothing that’d likely been taken from the clothes-making station not far off. It was all very crude, but it covered up all their private parts rather well and made moving about pretty easy.
“I was a seamstress once upon a time,” Tanya stated proudly with a grin, placing her hands on her hips. “A bad one, but nevertheless I had training. I figured I’d get everyone properly modest while we’re here together. It was awkward…walking around naked in here with men we don’t know. I’d make you something, too—if you want it, but you already had clothes…so…”
She trailed off, and Riven gave her a thumbs-up of understanding.
She nodded. “Thanks for the blanket and cloak. I appreciate it.”
“We appreciate it!” Julie said with a small wave Riven’s way. “For the blanket and cloak, but also for yesterday, too. I’ve got a question, though; did you really find a giant undead wolf that breathed fire like a dragon?”
All eyes were focused on him now, and Riven’s slightly ajar jaw hung loose as he looked from one to the other. “Huh?”
“Athela said you ran away screaming like a little girl while she had to defend you from a thirty-foot wolf zombie that breathed fire,” Tim stated, matter-of-fact, with a concerned frown, softly stroking Athela’s head as the spider continued to purr curled up in his sister’s lap. “Don’t feel bad about us knowing, though, I would have likely screamed, too—right before dying. I’m just glad you made it out alive!”
“She said you pissed yourself,” Hakim said with a loud chuckle, not being able to retain his grin. “She said she was carrying the team on her back.”
Riven’s jaw dropped even farther. “She really said all those things?! Athela, you little ingrate! That wolf wasn’t thirty feet tall, it never breathed fire, and I sure as shit didn’t piss myself!”
The room burst into laughter again and then went into an uproar as Athela wiggled a spider foot dismissively his way, stuck out her stubby tongue, and went back to being pet by Julie and Tim with a dramatic, feminine humph.
He felt their mother, Tanya, nudge him from the side, and looked up from his sitting position in the chair. He saw the older woman lean down to whisper in his ear. “I can’t believe Athela is a demon. She seems so nice…are you sure she’s really a demon?”
Riven shot Athela a glare. “Based on my limited interactions with her, I’d say definitely yes.”
Tanya nodded thoughtfully and straightened back up again, watching the dog-size spider with renewed admiration. “That’s so neat. This whole situation is so…just so bizarre. The tutorial messages talked about ‘earthlings’ and ‘incorporation into the multiverse.’ What does that even mean?”
Bizarre was one word for it. However, neither he nor anyone else here had any real answers for Tanya. No one truly knew if this was just a group of them or if the entire planet was somehow involved in this event…but if he took things at face value based on notification pop-ups, he could only believe it really was a worldwide event. More than that, even, with mentions of other planets being merged with Earth. Also seeing people from all sorts of cultures back in the tutorial wasn’t very promising for this being a limited and secluded event.
He was curious as to how merging with other worlds would end up after he got out of this tutorial.
The next few hours went by, and everyone got to work. Tanya went with Tim to start showing him how to sew and fit people with clothes, Julie and Hakim worked together to figure out the basics of smithing and hoped to craft some crude weapons for themselves before the dungeon opened, making the place echo with their hammering, and Riven worked to figure out more on totem making.
The time spent crafting kept their minds off the upcoming dungeon crawl, and the others were all rather uplifted by the fact that Riven and Athela were there with them. This was supposed to be a tutorial dungeon, and Riven was already a level 4 warlock with a level 3 demonic minion.
Thinking back on it, Athela had likely done just as much as he’d done in that last fight against the men they’d killed…but she’d told him that he likely got more experience for taking the final blows using his hatchet on a lot of the ones that she’d incapacitated and tied up on the ground. He apologized to her for it, but Athela had actually insisted that this was a good thing, as keeping him alive was a priority over herself. Simply put, she could respawn and he couldn’t. She also told him that he needed to put some points into Sturdiness from time to time as well, despite the talk about the majority of his points needing to specialize in growing his Intelligence and Willpower.
“The reasoning behind this is simple. You don’t want to die, and Sturdiness will help you stay alive by enabling you to take a harder hit,” Athela said as he took a break from reading the lore on the most basic runes and the shapes of various totem figurines concerning different lock-and-key mechanisms the gods used for ritualistic summonings. “Every time you level up, you acquire more health, mana, and stamina. Depending on what Elysium deems you needing most and your fighting style, you get different amounts of each. It isn’t always exact, either. Unlike many of the other stats, health, mana and stamina are all hidden stats concerning how much you have. So we won’t ever know what your exact health Points, or HP are…but we know they’re there. Putting an occasional point into Sturdiness will help you stay alive and increase the amount of damage you can take for every point of HP you have. Each point in Sturdiness will decrease the amount of HP you lose from attacks and decrease the amount of Stamina you lose from physical activities, such as running away. Many mages like you fall into the pathway of becoming glass cannons, then they get one-hit killed by an assassin who slips in past their minions and that’s it—poof, gone. Don’t be one of them. Oh! Almost forgot, since you’ve been given a class title of Novice Warlock already…you may have other demons approach you from the nether realms over time. This generally happens for one of two reasons: to form a minion contract if you have available slots and enough Willpower to contract them, or to make deals with you for one reason or another—as demons can’t usually contact ordinary mortals under normal circumstances. It probably won’t happen until you’re out of the tutorial, though, with stipulations and all that.”
Riven took the message concerning Sturdiness to heart with a nod, knowing full well he could die just as easily as all those people at the pyramid with Chalgathi’s starter quest. However, he was still early in the workup of his power schemes, and he wanted to concentrate more on his other stats first before applying any to make himself tankier. The best defense was a good offense! He’d grown two levels since assigning stat points, and he got five points per level for his race. He’d also gotten one Willpower, two Intelligence, and two free stat points for every level gained thanks to his class title. That meant a total of fourteen free points, two Willpower, and four Intelligence for the two levels he got. After assigning nine of his free stat points to Intelligence, one into Sturdiness, and the other four into Willpower, Riven came out like this:
[Riven Thane’s Status Page:
• Level 4
• Pillar Orientations: Unholy Foundation, Blood
• Traits: Race: Human, Class: Novice Warlock, Breath of Malignancy (???), Adrenaline Junkie (Blood) (+15% to Agility)
• Abilities: Blessing of the Crow (Unholy), Wretched Snare (Unholy), Bloody Razors (Blood)
• Stats: 8 Strength, 9 Sturdiness, 39 Intelligence, 10 Agility, 1 Luck, -4 Charisma, 3 Perception, 25 Willpower, 9 Faith
• Minions: Athela, Level 3 Blood Weaver [14 Willpower Requirement]
• Equipped Items: Crude Cultist’s Robes (1 def), Basic Casting Staff (4 dmg, 12% mana regen, +3 magic dmg), Chalgathi Cultist Amulet (???), Leather Boots (1 def), Backpack of Supplies]