Mana Cost: 6 mana per 10 health drained. Maximum drained per tick is 10 health/level (max level 20). Conversion Rate: Gain 1 mana per 10 health drained. Drain occurs over 6 seconds. Physical contact allows for drain to occur twice as fast. Mana gained in excess of normal maximum is lost after 10 ticks. Range: 1 foot/level.

  Sap Stat: This is an entry-level skill. Once sufficient skills in the Converter Prestige Path have been opened, access to higher-tier skills will become available. This skill temporarily drains any stat of an unwilling target and converts a portion of that energy into a temporary stat boost for you. This skill is rather inefficient in terms of cost and conversion ratio but is only a Tier 2 skill.

  Mana Cost: 15 mana per 1 stat point drained. Maximum drained per tick is 1 stat/level (max level 20). Conversion Rate: Gain 1 stat per point drained. Drain occurs over 6 seconds. Physical contact allows for drain to occur twice as fast. Duration of stat gain is 3 ticks. Duration of stat drain is 6 ticks. Range: 1 foot/level.

  Sap Mana: This is an entry-level skill. Once sufficient skills in the Converter Prestige Path have been opened, access to higher-tier skills will become available. This skill drains the mana of a target, either willing or unwilling, and converts a portion of that energy into mana for you. This skill is rather inefficient in terms of cost and conversion ratio but is only a Tier 2 skill. Mana cost is halved and conversion rate quadrupled for willing targets.

  Mana Cost: 4 mana per 10 mana drained. Maximum drained per tick is 10 mana/level (max level 20). Conversion Rate: Gain 2 mana per 10 mana drained. Drain occurs over 6 seconds. Physical contact allows for drain to occur twice as fast. Note: Mana may not be drained for storage items using this skill. Mana gained in excess of normal maximum is lost after 10 ticks. Range: 2 feet/level.

  The skills were definitely consistent with her converter path. The problem was that, as the descriptions mentioned, they were inefficient compared to many spells. They also were not superfast unless you had physical contact. That, of course, created an entirely different set of problems.

  Obviously draining health could be lethal, so that skill seemed like an obvious choice, if only to learn more about her path. Accordingly, she put twenty points into that. The mana draining was ideal for fighting enemy mages. Again though, getting that close to them might be a problem. Still, she felt that exploring these skills was part of her method of better understanding energy, and it was key to moving into higher tiers as a meta-mage, so she applied the twenty points in Sap Mana as well.

  Sap Stat was the one she was having trouble deciding how useful it would be. If she could determine what a creature’s weakness was, then it might actually be stronger. For example, it might seem obvious to drain Strength from a powerful warrior so that their attacks become less damaging. She wondered though what might happen to a warrior with low Agility who had that drained from him. Would he become so clumsy that the Strength didn’t matter? It would certainly be easier to drain a smaller stat. This would bear some experimentation, so she dropped the twenty points into it.

  Stat and health drains required her to be exceptionally close though. This brought to mind a possible solution. Mira wondered if her whip could be used to channel these skills and thereby increase the value of her whip. She decided it was worth a chance and so dropped her final twenty-three points into Item Focus.

  Item Focus: This forges a special bond between you and most any given item. The item must be of such a size that you can carry it on your person. The benefit is that the range, duration, and effect of any spell cast through the item is increased by 1%/level. This does not apply to spells stored in another item, which will have their own base power. The downside is that any spell not cast through the focus item has its range, duration and effect reduced by 1%/level of this skill.

  Only spells of the tier of this skill or lower may be cast through the item.

  It requires 1 hour of quiet meditation per tier of this skill to form a connection with a focus item. In the event that you wish to change focus items, the old item must be destroyed and a new connection forged. If your focus item is ever destroyed, you will be stunned for between 1 to 4 ticks with no chance of resisting.

  You may freely end the connection, but it will take twice as long to create a new focus item connection.

  Well, she had managed to spend all the points. Now she needed some rest, but after that, Mira wanted to start practicing these new skills and spells. Of course, she still needed to research new spells, help with technology research, create more spatial bags, develop further enchanted items, practice her hand-to-hand with Daichi, trade spells with Dad and Tode, and begin creating her own spell tome.

  She truly appreciated her father’s continual complaints that there was never enough time, even with a time-dilation dungeon. She was going to have a busy winter. The impending invasion seemed so far away that she didn’t really think about it. The only worry that gnawed at her was to wonder how her mom’s mission was going.

  Chapter Twenty

  “The other races call us delicate and beautiful. They love our music, wine, and poetry. We will teach them to call us deadly as well.”—Eisan Mikiyo, Hogo Sha Shin Rin to the surviving moon elves, upon their arrival in Talos.

  Chenhou Forest—Emiri Nelson

  This mission had taken far longer than Emiri anticipated, but thanks to both Dave and Hannah’s ability to cast the magic Messenger Bird spell, they had stayed in touch with Eris’ Rise. She knew that Dave worried for her. It was understood. Yet this was something that she needed to do, her own rite of passage.

  They had achieved their goal for the most part, but she still wanted to make sure they weren’t missing anything. The entire purpose of the mission had been to scout out the goblin army. Emiri hoped that with a better idea of what they were up against, they could prepare. The army was camped just north of the Murkwood. In order to reach Eris’ Rise, they would have to travel through fifty miles of dense forest. From what she had seen, it would take a good two weeks to get the entire enemy army to their gates once it started moving.

  Of course, part of that was because it was far more of an army than she had anticipated. After the earlier attack by the goblins, she had expected there to be maybe a couple of thousand unruly goblins and a handful of larger monsters. The unruly part was correct, at least.

  The goblins shat where they ate and humped out in the open like animals. They bickered and fought over everything. At first Emiri wasn’t sure why they didn’t just tear themselves apart. Closer observation over time revealed that it was a matter of fear. Fear of the warlord, fear of the hobgoblin shamans, and fear of the miscellaneous monsters in their midst.

  Not that the other monsters were better. The ogres and trolls were prone to eating goblins that they caught alone. The true giants were massive, towering over thirty feet. Deoca called them mountain giants. Fortunately, there were only six of them with the army.

  The ogres were massive brutes, usually between eight and ten feet tall and a good four feet wide. They seemed even more stupid than the goblins, but definitely more dangerous. The trolls were almost the exact opposite. They were all a good ten to twelve feet tall and emaciated. Their leathery green skin was covered in pustules and moles and just generally deformed but still clung to them, showing the bones inside. From what she saw, it didn’t seem to matter how much they ate, they always looked like starving children from Africa, complete with the distended bellies.

  The mountain giants were much closer to humans in their overall proportions, just on a much larger scale. They actually seemed much more intelligent than the other monstrous creatures, and not for the first time, Emiri found herself wondering what they were doing with the goblins. Even the intimidating warlord didn’t seem strong enough to threaten the giants on his own. Then again, if Seimion had something to do with this, that might explain it all.

  Today, Emiri’s Kirun Sisuta had gotten closer to the enemy camp than ever before. They had finally managed to complete a full circuit around the enemy army. Deoca was very good at estimating a head count, and Balayria wrote the numbers down. The estimate now sat at roughly 43,000 goblins, 1200 hobgoblins, 210 ogres, 155 trolls, and 6 mountain giants.

  Beyond that, some other creatures they observed certainly suggested that the dark mage was involved. Today they were trying to see the monsters specifically around the command tent. The first monstrosity that they saw was a gray, twisted type of creature. They crawled around the camp on twisted limbs and had a long tongue, which looked more like a barbed whip than a frog’s tongue. Despite the fact that their arms and legs had the appearance of being broken and then mis-set, they moved shockingly fast.

  Balayria was the only one of the group who was able to identify them. She said they were known as ghouls and fed upon carrion mostly, but that their favorite food was living prey. Their tongues apparently had some paralytic power that immobilized muscles but didn’t block sensory nerves. The ghouls liked to capture a victim and then slowly ate it alive while it was helpless to move but still had to endure the pain of every bite. It was a truly demented creature, and Emiri couldn’t imagine what kind of dark mind would have created such a monstrosity, especially after her half-orc friend told her that their saliva also had a blood-clotting factor so that the victims wouldn’t bleed to death from the bites taken out of them.

  Hannah shivered and made the holy sign of Shanelle. “I thought that ghouls were a myth or story made to scare children.”

  “Sadly, while stories of them were used to scare me as a child, they are not a myth,” Balayria answered.

  Deoca made a signal for them to speak more softly, and both women blushed. Emiri whispered, “I thought that ghouls were supposed to be undead?”

  “Again, no. They are very much alive, but just as evil or more so than any zombie or skeleton. They are as malicious as vampires, or at least according to the stories. I am still alive, so I have never met either.” This time the half-orc spoke very softly.

  “Lady Emiri has fought undead. She saved Eris’ Rise from them when we were attacked a few months ago,” Hannah said. She was one of the original founders of Eris’ Rise, and while her husband had been slain in the most recent attacks, she’d stayed in town and was grateful for the support of the Nelsons. Now she had transitioned from farmer’s wife to warrior with a proclivity for any kind of magic that was earth based, specifically Shaping and Conjuration.

  “We have all heard the story. From what some original villagers say, if this entire army were undead, Emiri could walk down there and slay them all by herself without breaking a sweat,” Deoca replied. It had taken some time for the human and elven members of the Kirun Sisuta to get along. But now the sarcastic response was clearly made with a smile and not as a taunt.

  “Hannah, how many times do I have to ask you to call me just Emiri when we are out in the field? We are a sisterhood in the Kirun Sisuta. I could never have accomplished this mission on my own. Just a little longer and we can return home.”

  “Oh, what is that?” Hannah asked and pointed at a creature flying low just over the tents.

  It was a vaguely bat-shaped creature that appeared to be made more out of shadow than actual flesh.

  Deoca replied this time. “My people call them shadow fliers. I know it isn’t a very creative name, but I’m not the one who came up with it.”

  Emiri had noticed that Deoca always seemed to need the approval of others. It was a trait that she hoped to help the woman outgrow. “What can you tell us about them?”

  “As far as I know, they are not entirely natural creatures. They are summoned and controlled by orc shamans, and obviously by hobgoblin shamans. In battle, they are easy to take down and don’t fight well in the light. However, at dusk or later, they are almost impossible to see and so can latch on. They try to smother their target, and more than one elf has been stabbed by an inexperienced comrade trying to get the creature off their friend,” the forest warden responded.

  “That is very useful information, exactly the sort of thing that makes this mission worthwhile. Now what about that one by the warlord?”

  They all stared down at a nine-foot-tall creature that was only seen in the company of the goblin warlord. It moved across the ground on a mess of tentacles, and instead of a head upon its shoulders, there were three stalks ending in eyes the size of softballs. The rest of its body was covered in burgundy robes. Emiri got a cold feeling in her stomach just staring at it while an almost irrational hatred surged in her heart.

  “I can’t be sure, but I think it is some type of fiend. The fact that it serves the warlord is terrifying to me,” Balayria answered.

  “Well, I think we have learned as much as we can. It’s time to get back to Eris’ Rise. I know I for one will welcome a warm bed.”

  A stick cracked behind them, and they all heard a wicked laugh as they spun in unison to face whatever had snuck up on them. Deoca’s bow was nocked with an arrow; Hannah’s hammer hefted from the ground to her shoulder; Balayria had the words of a spell on her lips even as she drew the short sword that Hiroto had enchanted for her at Emiri’s request. Emiri moved the least, only gliding her hands across her body in a distracting manner, which allowed her to palm shurikens in each hand.

  A hobgoblin shaman complete with skull necklace, feathered headpiece, and staff in hand stood there in his loincloth, cackling at them. Behind him were a dozen goblins with spears at the ready and an imposing ogre with a club the size of a thick tree branch. “No, no. It won’t do for you to leave. Not so soon. No, it won’t do at all. The warlord will want to meet you. Such tasty treats. Tasty in so many ways.”

  Six months ago Emily might have fallen to her knees, begging to understand what the creature wanted. Two months ago she might have tried to reason with it, or at best tried to talk her way out of it. One month ago, she likely would have threatened, hoping to drive it off but quite willing to fight it. No more, though. Now she was Emiri. She would not seek violence nor revel in causing harm to even a monster, but she was the leader of her people, and having seen this enemy, she would do everything she could to keep it from the town she had come to love so much.

  This new woman wasn’t going to waste any banter with a mortal enemy. She was the hunter, and her prey had just walked up to her. It was now that the intensive training that Daichi had forced them to perform paid off. That training had pushed them to work together, but the two weeks traveling and then scouting together behind enemy lines had them ready for this.

  Emiri called out in English, “Lights out.” It was a code for the attack plan that she was calling out. Immediately she performed a series of attacks. Activating Gather Shadows, the area around them immediately became as dark as a moonless midnight. The goblins possessed an uncanny night sight, but it was worse than useless against these magical shadows. Worse, because they were unaccustomed to being blinded by darkness.

  An instant later she released two of her normal shurikens while spending two bravery points to activate crippling strikes on both of them. The discs whistled through the air and caught two of the spear wielders across the throat. She had forgotten that the attacks were automatically considered surprise attacks while within her shadows. The crippling strikes were completely unnecessary, as the spinning blades opened both necks wide to the point that the scrawny goblin heads were barely attached. Blood burst forth, and brief gurgled screams were all that marked the passing of two more goblins.

  The shaman triggered a personal shield and then began casting a spell to call flames to consume his enemies. It was too little, too late. Emiri glided forward through the shadow and stabbed Mage Slayer into the hobgoblin’s throat. He was dead almost instantly from a staggering amount of damage. The hobgoblin’s thirty-five Intelligence was staggering amongst his kind, but for Mage Slayer that was only fuel to the fire.

  Emiri had never gotten to truly see what Mage Slayer was meant to do. It performed its task beyond any expectations she might have had, and had she seen the horror it could inflict when she was still the softer, kinder Emily Nelson, she would have likely thrown it away. Now she only watched briefly before moving on to her next target as, with the combination of sneak attack and her other skills, the blade delivered thousands of points of health damage to the unlucky hobgoblin.

  The magical power of the blade didn’t simply cut the creature’s head off. Instead the magical energy was diffused through his body, shredding flesh from bones, grinding them down into powder, and leaving less than a pile of goop.

  Six of the spear-wielding goblins rushed forward blindly, seeking to pierce the large woman, Hannah. She was ready, though. She chanted a few quick words of magic, and the rocky soil at her feet came to life, sliding up her body and forming a second skin around her. The earthen form coated her in an armor of rock and enhanced her already prodigious strength.

  Even as the armor was still flowing over her, she swung her heavy war hammer sideways in a cleaving strike, which crushed the heads of the closest three goblins while their spears shattered on her armor. Hannah moved forward with a thunderous step, and she shouted another spell, which thrust an ogre-sized fist of stone up from the ground to crush the skull of another goblin. The next step brought her hammer down upon the fifth goblin and forced his head down so that the spine was shattered and the top of the creature’s head was now even with the shoulders rather than sitting upon those same shoulders.