[Water Essence] has been added to your inventory.
10 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason raised his eyebrows at the loot message. From his adventuring companions Jason had gotten the impression that essences were fairly rare, in spite of his own experiences. He took the essence out of his inventory, a shimmering blue cube reminiscent of the aperture. He held it out to Hiram.
“Is that what I think it is?” Hiram asked.
“Water essence,” Jason confirmed.
“I can’t take that,” Hiram said. “Do you know what they’re worth?”
Jason looked at Hiram, then down at the shab. He pointed towards the mountain.
“The monster came from over there,” Jason said.
He pointed in the opposite direction.
“The village is over there.”
He pointed at the ground.
“You stood here, right in between them.”
He shoved the cube into Hiram’s chest.
As Hiram stared disbelievingly at the cube in his hands, Jason took out another object he looted from the shab. It was a monster core, which he had seen before, but this one was iron rank, compared to the lesser ranked ones already in his possession. It was teardrop-shaped, like a lesser core, but slightly larger and a more vibrant red.
Item: [Monster Core (Iron)] (iron rank, common)
The magic core of an iron rank monster (crafting material, magic core).
Effect: Common component for ritual magic and magic item creation. Can be absorbed directly to advance essence abilities.
You are able to absorb [Monster Core (Iron)]
Absorb Y/N?
Jason’s eyes went wide when he saw it could advance his essence abilities. He was tempted to try it immediately, but decided to ask Rufus and Farrah first. He didn’t want to wind up with any strange side effects.
Hiram and Jason sat down on the grass for a well-earned rest. Hiram’s eyes didn’t shift from the essence in his hands.
“I can probably help you out with an essence ritual for that,” Jason said. Essence rituals were one of the most fundamental magical practices and the knowledge Jason got from the skill book was more than sufficient to perform one.
“No thanks,” Hiram said. “I’m saving this for when my granddaughter is old enough. An essence makes you an important person in a village, which is why I’m in charge of watching over the aperture.”
“How old do you have to be to use an essence?” Jason asked.
That earned him a strange look from Hiram.
“I’m from a very isolated area,” Jason said. “We don’t really know anything about magic there. I’m just starting to learn this stuff for myself.”
“Must be pretty damn isolated,” Hiram said. “If you try and absorb an essence too young, there are problems. Never seen it myself, but I’ve heard it’s bad. There’s a simple test to see if your body’s ready. It’s usually at around sixteen or seventeen, but it can go a year or two either way.”
“Thanks,” Jason said. “I still have a lot to learn.”
“Well, I owe you,” Hiram said, getting to his feet. “So does the village. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if four of those things got in there.”
Jason likewise stood up.
“I’m sure it would have been fine,” he said. “If they made it to the village my adventurer friends would have seen it and stepped in. That’s what adventurers do, right?”
“That’s right,” Hiram said, putting a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “That’s what adventurers do.”
30
Closing the Door Too Hard
In the garden courtyard of the inn, Jason sat comfortably in the late afternoon shade, looking down at a single leech on the ground.
“So you’ve got it, right?” he asked. “Left for yes, right for no. That’s my left and right, so your right and left. You have that?”
The leech moved to the left.
“Okay, that’s a yes. Unless you don’t have it right and you were trying to say no.”
The leech wobbled side to side.
“Yeah, I’m confused too. I can’t seem to help overcomplicating things. Alright, let’s just assume you’ve got it. That fine by you?”
The leech moved left.
“Great. So, do you have a name?”
The leech moved right.
“No name, okay. Would you like me to give you one?”
The leech moved left.
“That’s good,” Jason said. “I don’t want to keep calling you Leechy. That’d be like Gary calling me Humany. Or Outworldery, I guess. Not being human anymore is bit of a blow.”
“Who are you talking to?” Gary asked, walking into the courtyard.
“I’m trying to come up with a name for my familiar,” Jason said.
“How do you know it doesn’t have one already?” Farrah said, following Gary into the courtyard.
“I asked,” Jason said.
“And it answered?” Gary asked.
“We have a system,” Jason said. “Where have you all been? There was some excitement here.”
“We found out the guy had a cabin in the desert,” Farrah said. “There’s a cave where he’d go searching for earth quintessence. We thought that might be where he’d holed up.”
Jason heard a door slam open inside the inn. He got up and went into the common room to look, and saw Martha the landlady doing the same. What they saw was a fuming Rufus stomp loudly up the stairs, followed by the sound of another slamming door.
“How did he get that reed door to slam so loud?” Jason wondered aloud. “They’re really light.”
“A heady combination of finesse and rage,” Farrah said.
“I take it the guy wasn’t in his cabin, then,” Jason said.
“Oh, he was there,” Farrah said. “Anisa killed him before he could get a word out.”
Jason winced.
“I guess she was serious about the guy being her church’s to deal with,” Jason said. “Why was Rufus so set on talking to the guy anyway?”
“We can sit down for that,” Gary said, “but I could really use a drink first.”
“Just use a spirit coin,” Farrah said.
“We can do better than that,” Jason said. “Martha, could we get some of that fruit punch?”
“Anything for you, sweetie.”
“What is it with you and the people in this village?” Farrah asked as they walked back into the courtyard and sat down at a picnic table. “I could swear I heard people talking about you when we came back into town.”
“It’s the dashing good looks,” Jason said.
Farrah and Gary shared a look.
“Hey…” Jason said sadly. He knelt down and held his hand out for the leech to crawl onto, then lifted it up to rest on his shoulder.
“Are you sure you want to put that there?” Gary asked. “I don’t think I’d want those teeth that close to my ear.”
“He won’t hurt me,” Jason said. “He’s my little guy. I think he’s a guy; I think I read that leeches can switch it around.”
“You are a strange man,” Farrah said.
Martha came in with a huge jug filled with juice and large chunks of ice. Her nephew, Harold, followed with a trio of glasses, getting a swat from Martha when he goggled at the leech on Jason’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Martha,” Jason said, filling each of the glasses. One was even a Gary-sized mug with a big handle.
After the landlady and her nephew left, Jason asked again about Rufus.
“The area we come from,” Farrah said, “has a higher density of magic than this region, so the monsters there are stronger, on average. In this region, iron-rank monsters are the norm, with a good smattering of bronze-rank. Silvers can show up, but only very occasionally.”
“But where we come from,” Gary added, “you get more silver rank monsters than anything. You see as many golds as you do bronze, and sometimes even diamond rank monsters. And if iron ranks do appear, there’s always about forty of the pricks.”
He chugged half of his giant glass at a go, topping it off from the jug.