Benvari Mountains (Emerilia Book 2) Read online

  Want a bigger map of Emerilia and the continents? Check out http://theeternalwriter.deviantart.com/

  Character Sheet is located in the back of the book for reference.

  Emerilia

  Benvari Mountains

  Prologue

  Bob appeared in a cave. Wind howled with a cold that would make any mortal person freeze to death within just minutes.

  As Bob walked, his gnomish body changed, growing and expanding until he became Lo’kal and then passed through what looked to be a solid wall and looked upon a massive cavern.

  Unlike the previous room, this was actually warm. The room’s light was provided by skylights above. A metal walkway extended from the wall Lo’kal had entered through, between the large black boxes extending to either side of the cavern, and toward a silver pod.

  Lo’kal took an excited yet scared breath—guilt and warmth of what he knew to be love passed through him. He completely ignored the entire cavern, including the humming black boxes he was walking past, as he zeroed in on the silver pod.

  The silver outside of the pod became translucent, showing a woman in her thirties. She had an athletic build to her body; her face was beautiful but serious. Her tanned skin was framed with silver hair that complemented her features.

  Lo’kal tenderly touched the outside of the pod. It hurt him every time to see her like this.

  “It’s time to wake up, Anna.” Lo’kal’s voice was soft as the black boxes started to pick up their pace.

  Emerilia Administrator Command Panel

  Do you wish to wake Emerilia Administrator AI 24681 (Anna)?

  Y/N

  “Yeah.” Lo’kal’s voice caught with emotion.

  The black boxes made more and more noise; lights blinked on the side of the standing pod. They first shifted from yellow to red and then green over several days. During this entire process, Lo’kal didn’t move. Days meant little to him as he used his remotes to view Emerilia.

  Finally, the pod doors opened.

  For a few moments, Lo’kal just looked at the woman lying inside, scared that the procedure hadn’t worked.

  Her eyes opened, looking around the cavern and falling on Lo’kal. He held his breath as his eyes watered. He’d spent so much time around the Humans that his own reactions had become similar to theirs.

  “Anna.” His voice was filled with relief and nervous excitement.

  “Hi, Dad.” Her serious face split into a smile that made Lo’kal’s heart jump. She pushed herself out of the pod and wrapped her hands around him.

  “Oh, my girl, I’ve missed you so much.” Lo’kal put his hands around her, not wanting to let go.

  “I see that from all the records of you sneaking in here to watch over me.” Her voice was soft and filled with emotion.

  Lo’kal laughed. They pulled apart slightly, and Anna looked down at him. He only came to her shoulder height.

  “Something big must’ve happened for you to wake me,” Anna said.

  “I found one. I found a bleeder.” Lo’kal smiled.

  Anna tilted her head, blinking rapidly. “Wow, that does change things.”

  “And I have had my administrator rights revoked for looking over the other Affinities. It’s as you predicted and feared. The empire cares little about actually suppressing the other aggressive species. Now, they just want to use Emerilia as a massive life-or-death coliseum. Blood and death to appeal to the masses. They’ve lost sight of Emerilia.” Lo’kal sighed. He was weary and his creation had been turned into a bloody form of entertainment. “They’re allowing the Affinities the ability to have magical creatures and champions, as long as they use their own power.”

  Anna’s hands balled her hands into fists with intense anger.

  This anger was the reason Lo’kal had needed to put her to sleep as it had built and was directed aimed toward those who used her people. Unlike the callous Affinities, she didn’t just watch the Humans. She’d lived among them for millennia, watching the actions of the Jukal Empire as they introduced the gods, added in more portals, and stopped killing off races that were bent on killing and destroying everything in their path.

  She’d countered it, dropping pieces of information and aiding the People of Emerilia and the Players’ growth of skills and knowledge.

  Every time the empire added in new things, they ordered Lo’kal to change the rules to make Emerilia more “interesting.”

  She’d finally come to him, asking him to put her to sleep. If she stayed in Emerilia, then she would stop just aiding the Players and People of Emerilia. She would start leading them against those who wished to use them.

  Lo’kal was the closest thing she had to a father and family. She trusted him completely and he had abided by her wishes, even if it had left him alone for centuries.

  He’d left her systems hooked up to Emerilia so her mind could continue to browse through the information, even while her physical body had been sealed away.

  She’d seen the strain it had put on Lo’kal, sealing his daughter away for three hundred lonely years. Anna’s analytical functions had been shifted to a quantum computer to assist him to balance Emerilia’s forces. Her father was a great man, but he was also an emotional creature and she loved him for it all.

  “So, the time has come.” Anna looked at her father.

  “It has.” Lo’kal nodded.

  Anna nodded slowly. The cavern felt as if it chilled a few more degrees. She smiled after a while as her data banks caught up with relevant information. “It has been a long time, Father.”

  Lo’kal’s smile was as happy as it was sad.

  “Too long, Anna—too long. Though there are many interesting people I must introduce you to.”

  Chapter 1: Brightest Day

  Due to his damage, it had taken three days for Malsour to regenerate all of his Health. Induca had stayed nearby, looking after her own injuries and keeping a lookout.

  Malsour shook his mass and moved his wings. They were now fully healed and stronger than ever before. Both of them had increased in levels from fighting at Boran-al’s Citadel.

  “Are you sure?” Malsour asked.

  “I am.” Induca’s red eyes found his black ones. Induca might be younger and have spent most of her time away from Emerilia in hibernation, but Malsour had always felt close to his little sister. It was why he volunteered to watch over her as she wanted to look for the Lady of Fire’s child.

  “Very well.” A smile filled Malsour’s face as he walked to the edge of the cave that they had cut out of the Mithsia Mountains, high enough and far enough away to stay hidden from the Dwarves as they tended to their wounds.

  The mountains ranged for miles, so there was plenty of room.

  “You almost seem like you want to go and see them again.” Induca’s voice soured.

  “I do. That power Dave was wielding was nearly as much power as our mother.” Malsour hid his face as he thought of those who had been lost.

  He didn’t like getting attached to the short-lived People of Emerilia but without his understanding it, he had become friends with them. He’d come to care for them and he needed to know what had happened to them.

  “Well, at least one of us can admit that they just want to make sure that they’re okay.” Induca saw through his bluff. Moving her body past his and leaping from the cave’s entrance, she used fire under her wings to shoot herself up.

  Malsour jumped off, diving for the ground before his wings snapped open and he curved back up into the sky. He beat his wings, hurling himself upward as they rose into the clouds and headed toward Cliff-Hill.

  ***

  Dave looked over what was left of the citadel.

>   The bodies had been cleaned away, leaving just the battleground behind.

  Deia squeezed his hand.

  He looked to her, a sad smile on his face.

  Both of their eyes were red from tears and the inner pain they felt.

  Dave hugged Deia as the tears she’d been holding back broke through. Dave let out tears of his own.

  Deia had been with Lox’s warband for ten years. They were as close as family, even closer in some ways. They’d faced death together, drank together, and lived through one another.

  While Dave had only known them for just over half a year but he, too, had become attached to them. He’d seen Joko, Tounk, and Max’s bodies.

  Joko and Tounk had been killed by black lightning and then risen again as undead puppets. Max had been killed by the metal-sheathed tentacles as he lived through his worst fears.

  Dave and Deia pulled apart as their tears slowed.

  “Fuck the gods, fuck the fucking Affinities Pantheon. What gives them the right to do this? To kill all of these people just to try to get more fuckin’ power.” Deia’s red eyes seemed to glow a bit more with her words.

  Dave put his arm around her side as they leaned against each other for support. Dave’s mind reeled with pain and tried to understand why the lords of Dark and Earth would bring this down on the people who served them.

  It would have been kinder if his mind didn’t come up with probable answers.

  Death magic was in part a melding of Dark and Earth magic, binding the natural and the unnatural together to raise the dead and pull the life from others. It was a twisted abomination of the two Affinities and took a large amount of power to do it.

  The cultists by themselves were tossing around enough energy for a dozen Dwarven warclans and their mages.

  If they had been able to kill us all and then use our bodies to start their undead army, then the power would have been immense. Every person the cultists killed and brought back would be turned into their minions. Which, in turn, would make them minions of the lords of Dark and Earth. If the lords who gave them this power asked for a larger devotion of power toward them, they wouldn’t have hesitated. With the power of their undead, they would’ve had nations’ worth of power that they didn’t need.

  Dave shook his head. On Earth, money had been the currency of power; on Emerilia, power came from your abilities. Materials could augment it but pure, unrefined Mana was the currency of the Affinities.

  Dave shook his head sadly.

  A group of mages were around the pillars that made up the portals.

  He wanted to get away from this all; he wanted to just go and explore Emerilia and have his house in Cliff-Hill.

  But you know that this is only the beginning. You remember what Bob said about the Pantheon. They’re not the type of people to take this and shrug it off.

  If I want my friends to survive, then I’m going to have to learn more. I’m going to have to become stronger. My friends gave their lives so that we could bring down this citadel, to protect their people. I might want to just hide in the seeder and play with inventions, to let the world burn itself, but that would just sully their names and their sacrifice.

  Dave walked toward the pillars, Deia holding his hand.

  “Excuse me, but I was wondering if you could hold off destroying the portal for just a moment,” Dave said.

  “Boy, this thing is coming down,” one of the Elven mages said.

  “It will only take a moment and it will make sure that even if they put these spikes together they won’t function.” Dave looked at the Elven Earth mage.

  They looked as though they wanted to argue but they were too tired to do so.

  “Go for it.” He waved at the pillars and then signaled to the other mages to wait.

  “Are you sure about this?” Deia let go of his hand.

  “We need to know more about the portals and this is one of the best ways,” Dave said.

  “Okay.” She smiled.

  Dave gave her a small smile back and walked up to the four spikes that rested in the center of the black rock square.

  A bloody altar rested in the center of the four spikes. Red runes covered the altar, creating a circle around it and then spreading up the four pillars.

  Dave pressed his hand to the closest spike.

  The ebony that the citadel was made from was filled with magical potential.

  Magical Circuits

  You have found a complex series of Magical Circuits. Are you interested in trying to learn from them? The Circuits will be destroyed in the process.

  Cost: 100,000 Mana (Due to your Affinities, cost is reduced to 78,924)

  Reward: Unknown

  Y/N

  Dave checked the reserves in his armor.

  Abscondita Armor

  Forged by Dave Grahslagg, this armor is more than meets the eye.

  Quality: B

  Defense: 523 (Magical shield with enough power)

  Abilities: Magical Shield.

  Automated Mana Siphon.

  Automated Soul Siphon.

  Automated Self-Heal.

  Increased Agility and Strength (base 10%).

  Grows in strength with user.

  Manipulation possible (Associated values liable to change due to creator’s changes and level of charge).

  Armor Link (Users of this armor can share their power and link capabilities. If one armor is fully charged, then it will feed power to the other to charge it).

  Charge: 4,537/2,000,000 (Linked Armor 5,888/4,000,000)

  Durability: 97/259

  4,537 charge points was worth 45,370 Mana.

  Dave opened his character sheet with a thought. He had dismissed his notification bar that had been blinking wildly for the last few days. He hadn’t wanted to look at the rewards he’d gained while others had died.

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  3

  Class:

  -

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Chaotic Neutral

  Unspent points-195

  Health:

  1,900

  Regen:

  1.56/s

  Mana:

  910

  Regen:

  3.70/s

  Stamina:

  620

  Regen:

  2.45/s

  Vitality:

  19

  Endurance:

  78

  Intelligence:

  91

  Willpower:

  74

  Strength:

  62

  Agility:

  49

  Dave sighed and looked up to the corner of his HUD. His notifications came into view and he clicked on them.

  Passive Skill: Dodge

  Level: Expert Level 4

  Effect: 71% chance to evade objects.

  Passive Skill: Perception

  Level: Journeyman Level 9

  Effect: 61% chance to find hidden details

  Active Skill: Surveyor

  Level: Expert Level 5

  Effect: 73% chance to see resources within your range sight.

  Range: 1,100m

  Cost: 5 Stamina/s

  Active Skill: Sprint

  Level: Expert Level 3

  Effect: 69% increased speed

  Cost: 5 Stamina/s

  Active Skill: Stealth

  Level: Journeyman Level 2

  Effect: 47% chance to remain undetected (reduced in direct light).

  Cost: 5 Stamina/s

  Passive Skill: Night Vision

  Level: Master Level 2

  Effect: 87% increased night vision. 20% increased vision in magical darkness

  Racial bonus: Dwarves, even half-Dwarves, are at home in the darkness of mines and their empires dug underneath mountains. +25% increased night vision (+5% in magical darkness).

&nbs
p; You have unlocked a Master Level Skill

  Master Level skills are different from the other level of skills. Gaining one level as a master is more difficult than any other level. With each Master Level you gain, you will also gain an additional enhancement. Once passing through the Master Level of Night Vision, you will gain increased skills to see through not only natural darkness but magical darkness. Other Master Level skills will gain you different additional bonuses.

  Dave read it and continued on to his other notifications.

  Active Skill: Magical Circuits

  Level: Master Level 3

  Effect: 89% chance of creating better Magical Circuits and understanding them. 15% Reduction to cost.

  Cost: Dependent

  Active Skill: Mining

  Level: Expert Level 2

  Effect: You cut through rock easily, finding ores and gems beneath. 67% chance to get higher yield of materials from ore vein. 67% faster at mining.

  Cost: 10 Stamina/s.

  Racial Bonus: Dwarves are the mining powerhouses of Emerilia; +15% Chance to get higher yield of Materials

  Active Skill: Lumberjack

  Level: Journeyman Level 7

  Effect: 57% increased speed and damage to cut down trees and shape wood.

  Cost: 10 Stamina/s

  Active Skill: Maintainer

  Level: Expert Level 2

  Effect: 67% chance to restore durability, at higher levels possible to increase durability, quality and gain 4% Sharpen bonus to items that have been cared for.

  Require: Dependent on gear; sharpening stone, hammer, anvil. Better maintainer’s tool leads to higher chance of increasing stats.

  Active Skill: Builder

  Level: Journeyman Level 9

  Effect: 61% speed and efficiency.