“And you were late too!” Katie said with a frown, “I don’t know why I was worried, you have a way of coming out of impossible things intact. I feel like we should start calling you Ethan Hunt.”
Sarah smiled at the two, “Well, I’m glad to be awake, Katie told me a few things that happened while I was out. Thank you both for saving me.”
“Of course, can’t let a shipmate down,” Drew said, and Katie nodded in agreement as all three of them thought about Mitch, Juan, Rob, and the others that hadn’t made it out of the dungeon alive. Sarah saw his bloodied hands and frowned, “What happened to your hands?” she asked, grabbing them and looking at the split skin.
“Nothing really, just…hit a wall,” Drew responded, as Sarah sat up enough to cast her spell, managing to target it far enough away that it hit everyone in the room.
“I haven’t told Katie yet, but there are some more survivors down at Bolling; they were captured by trolls. I managed to kill a bunch who were sacrificing humans, and then rescued twenty people from another dozen trolls. But there are still a few hundred more people stuck in the DIA building over there. Bill and Jholie came to help me get you two, and then we’re gonna try and rescue all of them. JP said he and Robbi would help.”
Sarah reached down to take the splints off her legs, “Well, I’ve been laying around long enough. It sounds like we have work to do.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven — Setting Off
It took another hour for them to get ready. They raided the exchange of everything of value, mostly the water and protein snacks. Drew also changed into a new set of ODU’s after Katie asked him how he always showed up at her door looking like a zombie. Upon reflection, he realized he had collected an amazing array of blue, red, and green blood stains, as well as rips and tears. The leather armor he’d taken from the Go’rai had managed to hold up surprisingly well, which was even more reason for them to start putting Daryl’s necro alchemy xatherite and Mi Sun’s seamstress xatherite to work. If they could get troll armor for everyone, they would be much better off.
Hopefully, no one would be upset by wearing the skin of a sentient being into battle. That had always been a sticking point in his Pathfinder games. It was okay to wear dragon scale and devil skin, but not other sentient races like trolls or giants. He had never really understood the distinction though. If it was better, it was better. Pragmatism beat out any moral issues he had with it currently.
After he was re-attired and restocked, he decided he should check on his notifications.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Cone of Frost xatherite has reached level 4. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Fireball xatherite has reached level 4. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Storm xatherite has reached level 4. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Dancing Blade xatherite has reached level 5. Duration has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Energize xatherite has reached level 3. Charge requirement has reduced.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Lightning Bolt xatherite has reached level 3. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Mana Shield xatherite has reached level 3. Damage absorbed has increased.
Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Major Acid Dart xatherite has reached level 5. Damage has increased.
You have acquired a wild xatherite!
Primitive grade Minor Heat acquired.
Xatherite Crystal Name: Minor Heat
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Primitive
Xatherite Rarity: Widespread
Type: Magic
Effect: Targeting any object within 10m will raise its temperature by 5 % for 1 minute.
Mana recharge time: 14 seconds.
Looking at the list, he realized he must have ignored his notifications after the second troll fight without realizing it. There was no way the mosquitos gave him that many levels. Also, acid dart was likely to upgrade to common any minute now. Still no progress on the rare and higher xatherite, which meant there was a significant growth curve in place.
Minor heat sounded like it could become a very useful spell, it reminded him of the Heat Metal spell from his pen and paper games. You could increase an object’s temperature by 20 % over a minute. Honestly, it was terrible in its current state, but it was only a primitive grade xatherite. He had gotten his primitive grade xatherite to almost common in a week and judging by the power increase of mana shield and lightning bolt, it was bound to become far more useful at that point.
Drew glanced over his map. He could put the red in a couple of spots, and maybe it would create a version of dancing blade that was made up of burning swords. But frankly, he didn’t use dancing blade much as it was, as it required letting things get far closer to him then he preferred them being. He could also put it over on the left side and open that constellation.
Or he could give it to Katie; she didn’t have any offensive spells as it was, and if it linked with telekinesis, maybe she would get pyrokinesis? It would eat up one of her only three red slots though. Sarah also only had three red slots; could she link it with mind sense? Maybe create a skill that superheated someone’s brain? Would that be a buff or an attack? He pictured someone boiling his brain from the inside and shuddered; that didn’t seem like a nice attack. Still, as a healer, she was better off not trying to get more aggro than she already received.
Did aggro exist in this world? He had successfully kited Chakri away from the group, but that was by being a red mage…and they might target Sarah if they thought she was a red mage too. He brushed away thoughts of Juan being targeted because he was a red mage.
Sarah might be able to use it better, but he didn’t like the idea of Katie not having something she could use for offense; and if he was being honest with himself, he was more interested in keeping Katie safe. He sent the xatherite her way and watched as she read the notification, then looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. Drew smiled back at her and she shook her head, accepted the trade, and inserted it into her map. He walked over and cast minor energize on her to help her deal with the headache.
After everyone was ready, he gathered them together and cast minor refreshing rain, which was much appreciated by the two cops, who clearly hadn’t slept much the last few days.
They set off down the hill, Drew leading the group with Katie and Sarah, while Jholie and Bill took up the second row, and JP and Robbi had rearguard. It was an uneventful walk for the most part. The three coasties talked quietly about what had happened since Sarah went unconscious. They stopped again at the halfway point to rest, where Drew cast refreshing rain again and everyone took a few minutes to eat something. Drew wandered over to where JP and Robbi stood, “Katie and I were talking, and we were hoping to know what xatherite y’all have so we can plan the rescue a little better.”
Robbi snorted and JP frowned, “What sort of stuff do you want to know?”
“Well, the trolls seem to be pretty resistant to normal weapon damage; the base tried to fight them off with guns but didn’t have a whole lot of success,” Drew said, pointing to the numerous guns festooning JP’s body. “I used spells; fire, in particular, seems very useful against them.”
“Fair. Well, I have a blue that fills magazines, and some reds that allow me to change the damage type of my personal guns to be fire, cold, or sonic damage,” JP answered, then glanced at Robbi, “Robbi has some indigo and yellow spells that make him mostly invulnerable in close combat, but he’s vulnerable to ranged damage.” This was, of course, part of the reason why Robbi didn’t like Drew after being hit by one of his lightning bolts.