Come On Down!

The early morning air invigorated John as he watched a number of gnoshrooms run around the Clearing, collecting the dew from the grass.

“I wonder what they’re doing with that?” he idly mused. “Bringing it to plants that need it?”

“That sounds like it makes sense,” Vivian replied as she leaned against John, her head nestled in the crook of his neck. “I wonder if they have a proper home or just sleep under the trees?”

“Do they even sleep?”John pondered.

“They do, sort of,” Verida answered as she approached them. “But it’s more like waiting than actual sleep.”

“Guess that makes sense,” John muttered. “And morning.”

“Morning,” Vivian echoed.

“Just the three of you?” Verida asked.

‘So nice to be remembered,’ Senka remarked.

‘You said no to being summoned,’ John reminded her before saying, “Senka says hi. You got any read on Teri?”

“I believe she and the warrior K’mels are on their way,” the goddess replied.

“That’s good,” Vivian sighed. “We should probably have K’mels drink the translation potion before the Order’s people show up.”

“Hope Teri told him about it,” John said. “I really don’t want to argue with him. Having to do it with Teri translating will take forever.”

“Especially after how long it took to make,” Vivian recounted. “I think I have a lot more respect for Lynn now. Alchemy has a lot more complexity than I gave it credit for.”

“I wonder if she could have whipped it up any faster?” John wondered.

“Possibly,” Vivian muttered. “Estelle and Nephele have a lot of disciplines under their belt but that could mean that they don’t have the same level of understanding as someone like Lynn who has a singular focus.”

“The whole ‘jack of all trades’ thing,” John remarked thoughtfully. “I guess that makes sense.”

Any more talk on whether the witches or the dedicated alchemist were the better potion maker was put on hold as Teri and K’mels entered the clearing. The goblin warrior looked like he’d swallowed a lemon, his face scrunched up as he regarded them, his hand close to where a sword hung on his belt.

‘Someone doesn’t look happy,’ Senka noted.

‘Given what we know the elders planned and their distaste of us, I can imagine he’s not happy,’ John thought back. ‘Especailly if Teri’s told him about the potion he’ll have to drink.’

“Good morning!” Teri called out to them, the cheer in her voice sounding a bit ****, making John think she had already had a long and not so fruitful conversation with her chosen partner. The tight grip on the staff she carried added to John’s evidence of a trying morning.

“Morning,” John called back. “I hope today hasn’t been too hard already.”

Teri leveled a glare at John, which confirmed his suspicions. “That bad, huh?”

“My companion has reservations about the translation potion,” Teri grumbled. “Loud reservations. But the elders impressed upon him that he was to play nice. Might be the only benefit they’ve given us.”

“So he’ll drink it?” Vivian asked.

Teri turned to K’mels and said something to him in her native tongue. Occasionally, John felt as if the meaning of some of her words were on the tip of his tongue, but vanished once he tried to actively understand them.

‘Man, that’s weird,’ he privately thought. ‘It almost feels like trying to remember the Spanish from grade school. Can Kiera give someone a skill after repeated exposure?’

From what he knew of her power, she manipulated the nature of souls, copying certain aspects of one and replicating them either on herself or another person. It was effectively like downloading skills right into someone’s brain, but ones that faded quickly. But if some memory lingered, could it be used to transfer things like fighting styles? Could using both normal instruction and her power allow for rapid progression?

Angry growls from K’mels pulled John from his thoughts and the goblin warrior turned his attention to him and held out a hand. With the universal gesture given, John withdrew the translation potion from his inventory. It was primarily a light green color, with swirling currents of darker green snaking through it in a corked flask.

English Imparting Potion
Uncommon
A potion that will bestow the knowledge of the English language upon the drinker, temporarily supplanting their most used tongue.
Duration: 12 hours

The effect of the potion mirrored Kiera’s magic and further increased John’s suspicion on the maximum extent of her ability. John put those thoughts on the backburner and handed the glaring goblin the potion. He snorted derisively and undid the cork before downing it in one large swig.

“Blah,” he spat before wiping his mouth. “Tastes like shit.”

‘Oh goodie, it worked,’ Senka remarked dryly. ‘Now we get to hear his opinions.’

Ignoring Senka for the moment, John held his hand out to collect the empty flask and asked, “Are we making sense to you?”

K’mels looked at John with a sour look on his face. “Yeah, yer are. How long is this going to last?”

“Twelve hours. Then you’ll be back to normal,” John answered.

“I better,” K’mels spat. “There will be repercussions if this takes the clan’s tongue from me.”

“It’ll wear off,” Teri said in an exasperated voice. “The magic needed to completely swap someone’s language would take a lot more than just one potion.”

K’mels looked at Teri with a raised eyebrow. “Fuck, that’s weird. I know you ain’t using our tongue but you sure still sound like you.”

Teri shot him a challenging glare. “Glad to know you’ll recognise my tone.”

K’mels growled but seemed to hold himself back from further arguments. Instead he locked eyes with John and asked, “So, where’re these tincans?”

“The members of the Order will be here shortly,” Vivian supplied. “The agreed upon time is still fifteen minutes away.”

K’mels glanced at Vivian with thinly veiled irritation before he grunted and crossed his arms across his chest.

Knowing that trying to make inroads with the warrior goblin would be met by his iron wall of indifference, John shifted his attention to Teri.

“Nice stick,” he said in a jokey manner, knowing full well it wasn’t just a walking stick.

Teri grinned, clearly catching his intent, and responded, “It is a nice stick. Verida helped me find a good one. Should help with channeling.”

“If it can help you pull off anything like you did back when we tackled that dungeon, then we’ll have to be wary of your team,” John said.

“You haven’t seen what I can do with something I’m familiar with,” Teri shot back. “We’re not going to be easily beaten today.”

John knew Teri was playing up the competition angle more to convince K’mels she was taking things seriously and wasn’t going to hold back on account of the friendship, but there was a sincerity to her words. She was going all in, and it would be insulting if he didn’t give his all in response. They all might want the Golmerks to win, but that wasn't a reason to not give them a run for their money.

‘Plus, there’s no way of knowing if Gaia has any way to punish us if we try to sandbag ourselves,’ John thought. ‘I’d rather not risk her punishing us for something like that. Besides, can’t say I’m not curious to see what differences there’ll be if Teri and I both start tapping into Verida’s power.’

“I believe the last team has arrived,” Verida spoke a second before two people entered the Kingdom. Rowan trailed a step behind an armored figure; the tanned woman’s bright blue eyes quickly flicked to each of the assembled group.

“Welcome, honored members of the Order,” Verida greeted them.

“The Lord-Protector and the Warden extend their well wishes and the hope that today’s endeavors continue to grow the good will between us. I am Knight Ramirez,” Ramirez said before gesturing towards Rowan. “I believe some of you are familiar with Squire Donnelly.”

“Just me, really,” John clarified. “Our colleague who joined us and the Warden the other day isn’t joining us today.”

‘Beth’ll be crushed she’s been demoted to ‘colleague’.’ Senka chuckled.

‘Don’t think going with ‘girlfriend number four’ is going to fly with them,’ John shot back.

‘You may have a point there,’ Senka admitted.

“Are we all assembled?” Ramirez asked, looking at Teri and K’mels.

“Yes, this is everyone,” John answered, before introducing himself and everyone else properly. As he did, he noticed that Rowan held herself impossibly stiff, like any unneeded move would incur some harsh consequence.

“We look forward to working with you,” Ramirez said once John had finished. “Is there anything else we need to discuss before we embark?”

“Just one thing,” John answered. “For this to work effectively, I need everyone in the same party. And I’d like to use my scrying skill on everyone to gauge our relative strengths. It will reveal some, um, intimate information but mostly just a basic summary of you as you are now.”

“Ah, yes, our briefing mentioned that,” Ramirez remarked before casting a glance at Rowan. “Donnelly?”

Rowan flinched slightly, clearly not expecting to be addressed, and responded, “Yes, Ma’am?”

“Do you have any objections?”

“No, Ma’am, I don’t,” Rowan stiffly responded.

“Then we accept your terms,” Ramirez announced.

John turned his attention to K’mels, who looked as sullen as ever.

“Can’t do this thing without doing this, right?” he grunted.

“Pretty much,” John replied, not bothering too much to correct his seeming misbelief that John needed to do both for them to move on.

“Fine, do it,” the goblin spat. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ramirez’s eye twitch.

‘Guess we’re not alone in thinking K’mels is going to be a pain,’ John thought. ‘Should make cheating harder for him.’

“Okay, you’re about to get a pop up in front of you,” John announced. “Invite Ramirez, Rowan, Teri and K’mels to ‘Quest’ Party.”

While Ramirez and K’mels blinked at the displays that manifested in front of them, Teri and Rowan joined the party with little hesitation.

“Finally changed the name, huh?” Teri teased as the display before her vanished.

“Felt it was time to be a bit more professional,” John replied. Vivian let out a light snort. In truth, she had been the one to remind him that ‘Gamer Test Party’ was hardly a title that would make a good impression. That he hadn’t changed it when they had Moira as a party member went unremarked on.

The knight and goblin warrior accepted the invite, though K’mels gave Teri a suspicious glance as he did. With that done, John cast Observe on everyone aside from Verida as well as calling up his personal display.

A quick glance around at Vivian’s, Teri’s and Rowan’s sheets showed little change from what he recalled, aside from their relationship scores all being higher than he remembered. Focusing on their collective levels, John could see that he, Rowan and Teri rounded out the bottom of the group, which on paper made the teams balanced, a low level member and a high level partner.

In reality, the Order team was far likely the best in terms of combat. He had no way of knowing how long Ramirez had been a part of the Order, but he had a feeling she was someone who was a long time member. Surely, he reasoned, they don’t just hand out the rank of Knight to anyone without them putting in the hours.

‘Of course, level doesn’t mean everything,’ John thought. ‘Mine doesn’t give away Senka and she might just be a good fighter. The high mana rank and having ‘Lightning’ in her title is pointing to that not being the case, but it’s best to not count anyone out before we even begin.’

“You certainly have a detailed scrying spell,” Ramirez remarked, a genuine note of impression in her voice. “The Lord-Protector and the Warden didn’t do it justice in the briefing. Is there anything else needed before we engage this ‘quest’?”

“Not unless anyone has any questions about it,” John answered, looking between her and K’mels.

The goblin let out a grunt as he shook his head. “Let’s get this over with.”

John dismissed the Observes and gestured towards the Pathway. “We’ll have to walk past the entrance a small bit before I open the quest barrier.”

There were no sudden objections to that and John led everyone out, Verida wishing them luck as they left. He hadn’t exaggerated the small bit remark as only a few feet away from where the Pathway was situated John opened Instant Barrier’s menu and found the quest barrier option.

Necessities Shopping

Time to start getting those goblins back on their feet. No reason that can’t be a more exciting endeavor. How about an all-expenses-paid trip to a grand shopping center where all your needs can be met? Well, come on down, but don’t expect an easy time. Got to work for your loot. How about we add a bit of a team competition? Three teams of two, one from the Order, one from the Golmerks and one from Pruzonia. Winner gets a secret bonus.

Create Barrier?

Yes / No

“Ready?” John asked, his finger hovering over the ‘Yes’ option. When no one signaled otherwise, John created the barrier.

In an instant, the woods vanished and the group found themselves in the middle of a wide rotunda. Above them, a dome of glass let in abundant natural light, which didn’t seem to reach beyond the first few feet of the four passageways that extended from the rotunda, leaving what lay beyond obscured.

A series of chimes blared over an unseen sound system before any of them could comment on their surroundings and K’mels was quick to draw his sword.

“Relax,” John bade him, gesturing with one hand to put his weapon down. “It’s just a communication system. Probably to give us instructions.”

“Right you are, Gamer!” a voice like a gameshow host boomed around them. “And welcome, representatives of Pruzonia, Clan Golmerk and the Order of the Golden Rose, to Shopping Spree!”

A jaunty upbeat jazz tune drowned out the last of the announcer’s voice as the center of the chamber was suddenly filled by a large floating disk divided into four sections, each a different color, green, white, black and red. Confetti rained down upon them while the sound of a cheering audience echoed around them.

“I hope this isn’t indicative of what we’re going to experience all day,” Ramirez remarked sourly as she brushed the bits of colored paper out of her hair.

“Where’s your sense of fun, Miss Knight?” the announcer asked, still unseen. “Today won’t be as exciting if you aren’t having fun!”

“We’re not here for ‘fun’,” K’mels snarled.

“Lighten up, Mean Green,” the voice said in a jeering tone. “Anyway, no point in dragging our feet. Let’s get the games going! Here’s the deal, players: We have four departments all loaded with everything a growing settlement needs. We have Evergreen Grocer, for all your produce needs; Adventurer Outfitters, attire for all you may encounter; Understone Crafters, houses and everything to make them homes; and Mercenary’s Chest, arms and armor for all occasions.”

“Each department will contain a themed challenge for our three teams to tackle, gathering loot along the way. And don’t worry about placing last; every prize will be added to the pool regardless of team. What you’re really competing for is this grand prize!”

There was a flash of golden light above them and everyone craned their necks up to watch as a potion flask floated down. A second later, John realized the light wasn’t coming through the skylight, but was emanating from the flask itself, the golden potion within it glowing like a lamp.

With no further remarks coming from the announcer during the potion’s descent, John cast Observe to get to the chase.

Gold Experience Potion
Legendary
Made of only the finest ingredients and blessed by Gaia herself, this potion greatly bolsters the experienced gain by the drinker and fortifies their ability to remain active. But perhaps its greatest effect is its ability to refill itself.

Attributes: BLOCKED

John and everyone else were silent as they read the display, even as the announcer read out the potion’s description word for word before adding, “Now we need to see where round one will take place, so it’s time to. Spin! The! Wheel!”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.