"Since there's no such thing as dragons in the real world, the game designers could make them nest like birds," he said. "Game designers make their own rules. Whether dragon or giant eagle, it would have to be humongous to build such a big nest."
The battle-mage started towards it. "Come on, it'll be fun to check it out."
"Listen." Rand stopped him. They froze, cocking their heads to hear better. There was a rustling sound coming from the nest. Rand continued with a whisper, "There could be baby dragons in it big enough to eat us. Let's get out of here before Momma Monster returns."
"You're afraid of dying?"
"No, but I find the prospect of being eaten alive freaky."
Killum paused to consider that. Now that he thought about it… "You're right."
So they began circling around the nest, while watching it warily. The nest fascinated Killum, but Rand was correct. He'd come too far to get killed and sent back to his Spawn Site, despite how awesome seeing baby dragons would be.
Once out of sight of the nest, Rand took the lead and picked up the pace. Killum grinned. If the dwarf had an axe and shield, he would've been the first one in that nest. Unarmed, he avoided a fight like the plague.
As they neared the river, the air grew more and more humid. Killum listened for the songs of frogs and insects, but they were strangely silent. And then he heard it.
"Stop," the battle-mage said. "Don't you hear it?"
There were angry shouts just at the edge of hearing. It sounded like a man and woman. Were a husband and wife fighting? That would really make this realm realistic. And then they heard a bellow.
"Troll!" Rand whispered, dropping to one knee. "We can turn more to the right and avoid him."
"Yes, but what if the troll is attacking one of our friends?" he said. "We should at least check it out."
Rand chewed on his mustache a second, before nodding and standing up. "I can test my new stone axe on his worthless hide."
"That's the spirit."
They moved quickly and quietly down to the river. Killum's worst concerns proved correct. A ten-foot tall troll with a roughly crafted, stone-tipped spear had Fergus and Tiana backed up again a twenty foot cliff. The troll wore an uncured pelt wrapped around his hips, with a rope belt. What looked like a two-handed claymore sword was at the monster's side.
He probably uses the sword as a knife, Killum thought as he concentrated on the troll.
Troll (Lvl 12).
The situation looked bad. The troll was rather skinny and ill-fed, so was probably driven by extreme hunger more than anything. He wouldn't abandon his prey easily, if at all. The riverbanks were very rocky at that location, but anything large enough to hurt a troll was too heavy for any of them to throw. Unless…
"Rand, go over and distract the troll, but don't pull him away from Tiana and Fergus," Killum said. He pointed to the top of the cliff. "I'm going up there and throwing the biggest rock I can find down on his head. That ought to kill him."
"Hey, why do I get the more dangerous job?"
"You have an axe."
"True. Okay."
After giving the dwarf a friendly clap on the back, Killum headed for the cliff looming over his friends. "Don't get yourself killed. It's a long walk back from our Spawn Sites."
The river's past flood waters had eaten away about half of a hill. Trees and rocks were all that held the remaining hill together. Killum found a basketball sized rock about halfway up, so struggled with its awkward weight the last half of the way.
This rock is almost as big as the troll's head. He looked over the edge of the cliff at the raging troll below. After a wave to Rand, the dwarf ran out of the woods yelling at the top of his lungs. He made enough racket to sound like a full cavalry charge. That made the troll stop and look. If this doesn't kill him, I don't know what will.
Killum threw the rock like an oversized shot put. For a second he worried he missed the troll. Then the troll turned back toward the elf and thief, and the rock smashed into the top of his head. The battle-mage's breath caught when the troll looked up at him, but then the monster's eyes crossed and he toppled over backwards.
Congratulations! You've earned enough experience points to move up one level. You are now a Level 11 Battle-mage!
"Wahoo!" Rand cried. "We did it!" He ran up to the troll and whacked it in the forehead with his stone axe, which disintegrated upon impact. "Damn. He broke my axe."
"Where did you get the axe?" Fergus asked.
"Um, I took it off a goblin."
Killum arched a brow and shook his head. That's probably why Rand didn't say anything about earning a skill when he made it.
Rand was still hugging Tiana when Killum reached them. Tiana looked a little annoyed, but still grateful for being saved. But he understood why Rand was so fixated on her. This realm's version of Tiana was stunning.
Tiana. Human thief (Lvl 10). Neutral.
Tiana's wild mane of flame red hair drew his attention first. And then he noticed the shapely body under her plain brown tunic and trousers. And her eyes were an incredible shade of blue.
"Damn, Tiana, you're going to find it hard to blend into the crowd looking like that," Killum said.
The hot redhead looked down at her body. She smoothed her tunic down, stretching the rough fabric tighter across large, high breasts and a flat, toned belly. Killum's breath caught.
Tiana frowned. "You think?"
Fergus barked a laugh. Killum shook his head and turned to check him out.
Fergus. Elven ranger (Lvl 10). Neutral.
The ranger wore a green linen shirt and brown trousers. He still had that blonde, blue-eyed, long-hair and goatee Earl Flynn look, only with tilted elven eyes and pointed ears. Fergus still carried himself with the same calm self-assurance, despite just being saved from a hungry troll.
Turning to the dead troll. "I claim that big claymore sword since I killed him."
The battle-mage walked over to the troll and pulled the sword out from under the mob's rope belt. He noticed the long, wide blade had lots of deep nicks in its edge, and was quite rusty. Still, it was better than nothing.
And then the troll sat up. Killum froze, and slowly turned to face the stunned looking mob. The monster's face twisted with rage. Killum stepped forward to thrust his new blade through the troll's throat as Tiana screamed and the other two shouted warnings.
Killum realized his mistake too late. The troll was faster than he realized, so was able to pick up his spear and thrust. The flint spearhead pierced Killum's chest, and came out his back. The point of his sword thrust through the troll's neck at the same time.
Darkness moved in from all directions as Killum silently cursed his stupidity, and watched the troll die. At least I killed him, too.
Blackness slammed in all around.