Escape From Litchfield Read online

  Tamara gained 2 levels in Blacksmith and now it is 59

  As she exited her workspace, she jumped on her bed to relax her body. Her mind, however, flew towards her gravity quest.

  [Tamara: I have expanded my knowledge of gravity magic, the question is, what is the next step?]

  [Bob89: So far, you haven't done anything new with your magic. Perhaps the quest requires you to learn something new, or perhaps it is something specific.]

  [Tamara: OK, let's assume that is true. What do you suggest I learn?]

  [Bob89: So. You have a few choices. Pre-cataclysm technology was able to speed up travel, create energy sources, and view the past by manipulating gravity.]

  [Tamara: I think I'll try to create an energy source. This seems to have a lot of combat potential. What do we need to do?]

  [Bob89: I have a basic plan to create a technological item called a dynamo. You will need iron and wires. You will have access to the plans in your design mode.]

  [Tamara: Now that we have a plan to move forward with my quest. Anyway we could use my powers or knowledge to tear my chains apart?]

  [Bob89: Nope. Your chains are too strong. Summoning Myst is still the best choice.]

  [Tamara: OK, I’ll concentrate on practicing mental rune manipulation. I’ve gotten a lot better. Concentrating gravity and throwing gravity balls are both training my mental rune skills.]

  [Tamara: The experimental device will help us learn how to create a working dynamo using gravity runes. Once we've figured out how to build the Arcanic Cell, will you be able to handle the miniaturization and manufacturing of the finished product?]

  [Bob89: Arcanic cell? Did you just come up with that or did it take your puny human brain awhile to name it? Let me tell you, you need to work on that some more!]

  [Bob89: And to answer your question, we have been steadily increasing the number of generic nanocells, so I should be able to handle one Bobocell every other day]

  [Tamara: Wow, Bobocell. I take back calling you a genius, sentient machine. How about calling it a Mana-Engine?]

  [Bob89: At least it's descriptive. That will do, for now. Sentience doesn't mean creative.]

  Smirking to herself, Tamara went into design mode, and the world faded away, leaving only her designs. As Bob89 promised, the dynamo was in the list of plans. It consisted of blocks of iron, coils of wire, and a battery. The battery was there to store the energy generated by the dynamo, so it was optional. Since she was able to use a gravity engine to power spells, she was certain that she could power up a core. A powered-up core did not look any different from a regular gem, but a core that was receiving too much energy gave off visible light. In the distant past, people used to use such overloaded cores to create light. However, there were a number of problems with that method. They could explode if you gave it too much energy. And also, you needed to be a mage to provide the mana. Rune powered devices that passively used the mana in the environment were far safer.

  She placed the air barrier up to dampen sound. Recalled her anvil and iron ingots. And created the dynamo the old fashioned way. Heat, muscle, and blood. She manually tested the design and found that it generated sparks. She engraved a core with a light rune then attached it to the battery slot for the dynamo. This test machine had a hand crank to help test the efficiency of the power generation. Turning it slowly, she charged up the core. Since she didn't see any changes, she sped up, stopping when the core began to glow.

  Success! One hand-cranked Mana-Engine.

  Tamara gained 5 levels in Blacksmith and now it is 64

  Chapter 6

  Waking up to another great morning, she noticed that Sol had come and gone during the night. She had hoped to catch him to plan their stay. She still needed to do her own preparations while Sol did whatever he was doing other than getting supplies. She'll catch him tomorrow!

  She had another busy day before her. She recalled a meal from storage for breakfast. She needed to see if she could summon Myst. Stock up on potions. Create some home-cooked meals. Even though it wasn't blacksmithing, she was having another day of crafting. Soon she will be playing with ingredients, mixing and matching according to her wits and senses. This was going to be fun!

  She decided to start with summoning Myst. She took a look at her storage spells.

  Store Item: Store an item on another plane for later use. Caution ****do not use to store food or live animals!! Any attempt to store such items will be severely poisoned on return***

  Recall Item: Recall item from Store Item spell from another plane for immediate use. Simply call out the item's name, then chant the spell. ***### USE ONLY WITH Store Item SPELL, DOES NOT WORK WITH OTHER STORAGE SPELLS ###*** Caution ****do not use to store food or live animals!! Any attempt to store such items will be severely poisoned on return***

  Store Object: An object living or dead may be stored in a pocket dimension. Plants will deteriorate slowly, while animals will die within 1 hour if not retrieved

  Recall Object: Recall an object stored in a pocket dimension by store object spell

  Tamara called out, "Myst," then casted the recall item spell. Nothing happened.

  She then called out. "Myst," then casted the recall object spell. Nothing happened.

  [Bob89: Tamara. Since Myst has been using your stored metals to gain mass. I think he would be stored in the Store Item plane.]

  [Tamara: I tried that spell. It didn't work.]

  [Bob89: I am not sure how spell casting works, but only Myst's excess nanocells would be stored there. His real body is probably back at Hopetown.]

  Tamara sat down on her bed, folding her legs under her and meditated. She brought up her mental space and called up all her feelings of Myst. How he would jump up and turn into a cat scarf. How he would fight and protect her. Holding that feeling, she called out. "Myst Nanocells," then cast the Recall Item spell. She opened her eyes, and a gray mist hung in front of her. As she watched, a small metallic ball formed, and it began growing and absorbing the rest of the mist, slowly becoming cat-like. Minutes later, Myst scampered up Tamara's arm to become a purring cat scarf.

  "Myst, I've missed you so much," she said as she snuggled him.

  [Tamara: It seems like nothing is different. Wouldn't he forget me, since this is not his main body?]

  [Bob89: If he was made from the original nanobots, I believe he would not have been able to grow his mass. Neither would he remember you. But since he used my nanocells as his base, each member of the collective will retain a portion of his memory. I would guess that it took a few minutes for him to reform because he needed to collect and reconstruct the data.]

  Tamara pulled up Myst's upgrade options. Communication and attributes were listed as before, but another option had become available. "Animal Form". The upgrade form informed her that once Myst had reached level 20, he would gain five unassigned points per level to upgrade his abilities. He was level 33, so she had 65 points to pick for him.

  Mentally clicking on the Animal Form icon brought up a menu with the option to add a custom form, myth, and animal. Choosing the Animal menu brought up a massive list of animals, presumably every known animal. She paused as she saw "Tyrannosaurus Rex" as an option. Interesting but probably not much better than cat form. As it was, Myst's two forms, cat and dragon, were both offensive in nature. Perhaps she needed a tank or support type.

  She backed out the menu to choose the Myth option. Familiar, imp, demon, and unicorn were some notable forms. The familiar in particular looked like a great support class. Familiars were creatures that would enhance a caster's powers. They usually have a combination of enhancements that boost spell power, mana, and longevity. Sometimes they added extra effects to spells as well.

  Choosing a new form cost 10 points while adding extra attributes was 1 point. Adding to a skill cost 2 points.

  She was sure she wanted the non-verbal communication, so she chose that for 5 points. Next, she chose familiar form for 10 points. Added 10 points to both constitution
and intelligence, leaving her with thirty points in reserve.

  Myst meowed in approval and climbed up her limbs to his favorite spot.

  As she stroked Myst, she recalled the alchemist set to take inventory. She had 10 potion bottles, over ten small cores, and ingredients for dozens of potions. Her party was made up of a bard and mage, so they really only needed mana and health potions and she had a recipe for both. But she needed to check in town for more supplies and potentially some recipe or skill books.

  Now that she had taken inventory, she needed to stock up on food supplies. Sol was probably buying bulk ration packs to complement the packs of fresh food packs near her bed. She wanted to prepare weeks worth of homemade meals. With the ability to preserve food perfectly, she could cook it in large batches in a kitchen rather than over a small campfire on the road. The other great benefits to homemade meals were the bonuses her cooking skill applied. Rations, on the other hand, only satisfied hunger.

  She left a note on Sol's bed telling him she was going to look for a kitchen to prepare some meals for the road. She made up some spice packets that were necessary for the food bonuses. The spices and magical ingredients created the base effects. It was her skill at cooking that increased the buffs from 5% extra exp to 50%. It was about cooking the meals synergistically. Timing, measuring, and even cooking temperatures affect the final product. Thankfully, Tamara had long ago internalized the skills needed to bring out the best flavor and buff results.

  The common room of the tavern was still bustling this afternoon, which probably meant the town was still working on a daytime schedule, despite the overwhelming number of prisoners that never left the dungeon. The bartender was chatting up a young attractive elven woman, so Tamara made sure to get the man's attention by clanking up to the barstool. She still wore her cloak, but she could easily emphasize the clink of metal on wood.

  The man walked over and said, "What's your poison? Beer, spirits, or something else?"

  Tamara smiled in appreciation. "I have a few requirements. Give me a mug of your best beer. I'd also like to know if I'd be able to cook some homemade meals for my travels in your kitchen."

  He eyed her up and down, then said, "You gonna put poison on anything? We don't want any trouble."

  "I assure you, I am not an assassin. I just want to make a few good meals. I pay good credits, and I don't mind if you watch me cook." She spoke confidently and frankly, hoping that her dark elf disguise wouldn't bias the man too much. dark elves tended to either be warriors, assassins, or mages. And every one of them used poison of some sort.

  He eyed her again, indecisive, then left to get her beer. "I'll get your beer real quick." He didn't walk particularly fast or slow getting the beer, but when he came back, it looked like he had made a decision. "I'm afraid that I can't help you. Do you want any other help?"

  She asked, "Do you know anywhere that will be able to help me?" As she took a sip of her beer. The beer was warm, but it was crisp, hoppy, and had a mild floral aftertaste. It was excellent, but she imagined that it would be even more refreshing as a chilled drink.

  "No. I'm afraid not. Perhaps you should camp outside of town and make your meal over a fire." He looked anxious to get back to his girl and looked over his shoulder a few times.

  Tamara could tell she was about to lose her opportunity. Looking around, she spied the kegs of beer. He had a lot of it, and she didn't see any magic being used. She said, "Say. I love this beer, and I would love to buy a few kegs of it. This would be amazing chilled. What's the name of the brew?"

  The man did a double-take. "A few kegs? We would LOVE to sell you a few kegs!" Apparently the young lady forgotten in the midst of a deal. "This beer is one of the finest and best kept secret! It's called the Tulip Stout. Funny you should mention it, but it is much better tasting when chilled. It even provides a slight +2 constitution boost if you could find a mage to chill it for you. We have twenty kegs in the basement. Each one costs 500 credits."

  Five hundred credits was a lot of credits. More than enough to buy a decent set of ordinary armor or maybe one or two enchanted items. "I'll gladly take 5 kegs, and I'd like the use of your kitchen."

  Greed flared up in the bartender's eyes, but his face darkened at the request to use his kitchen. Politely, but firmly, he said, "I'm sorry. The safety of my guests come first. I can't let someone use our kitchen in good consciousness."

  Taking stock of the man, Tamara nodded her head, thinking. "I respect that. A man who cares about his customers. I'll tell you what. I can enchant five kegs with a chill rune. You'll be able to charge double for your Tulip Stout."

  Rocking back and forth, the man furiously considered the deal. Finally, he said, "It's a deal. I will watch you perform the enchantment and cook your meals. However, if you try to cheat me, I'm keeping the credits and kicking you out of here." They shook hands on the deal, and he became 2,500 credits richer. He shouted to his customers, "Bar's closed for the evening for a special event. Please finish your meals and exit." Raising his hand in the air to stop them from complaining, he said, "Anyone who leaves right now will be compensated with five free beers." The entire room cleared, apparently no one would turn down free beer from him. He closed the door and put up a closed sign, then motioned Tamara to come over behind the bar.

  Tamara gained 4 levels in Trade and now it is 5

  He indicated the top row of kegs. Please enchant these kegs, then we can head over to the kitchen. He stepped back to watch.

  Tamara nodded agreeably. The chill rune was actually a modified cold rune designed to chill rather than freeze its target. If a normal rune worker carved the chill rune into the keg, it would still freeze the beer because the runes ran on the ambient mana levels. In a dungeon with highly saturated mana levels, it would give the rune an extra oomph that would ruin the beer. The bartender was trying to scam her, but she was a runemaster, so she could modify the rune to take into account the mana difference. Before she started her work, she said, "To be honest, my rune is specially made for use in a dungeon, so it won't work as effectively if you take the kegs outside the dungeon."

  She watched as the barkeeper's face shifted guiltily, caught in his trick.

  Tamara gained 2 levels in Trade and now it is 7

  He said, "That's fine. I admit that I've purchased many kegs in the past for chilling the beer, but they ended up freezing the beer solid, every single time, and I never figured out why."

  Tamara recalled an engraver from her storage space. A normal cold rune would keep taking away heat continuously, but it was limited by the ambient mana levels. A cold rune modified to chill rather than freeze made alterations on how often the rune ran. She could easily modify the rune to take extra long breaks between activation. Instead, she made a series of runes, a runescript, to create a cold effect that used a specific amount of mana. This would make the script independent of the ambient mana levels. It should work anywhere with sufficient mana perfectly.

  Normally she would obscure her work by covering up the rune, but in this case, she had a limited time, an observer, and the cask was still in use. She was limited in her options. She started in a nice wine-soaked spot and carved out her modified rune in as tiny a script as she could manage. After she inspected her work, a runescript the size of a fingertip, she could see the telltale cold magic immediately working to chill the keg. Next, she created a normal sized runescript on top of the real rune. It was modified to be slightly crooked, so it didn't actually activate. It was there to throw off anyone trying to copy her work. She added a number of embellishments that didn't do anything except make the fake rune look cool. She repeated her work on the next four kegs.

  As Tamara finished enchanting the last keg, the bartender walked up with two good-sized mugs. He went ahead and poured two cups, and he handed one over to Tamara. They both drank chilled beer. It was delicious!

  Tamara gained 5 levels in Rune Magic and now it is 29

  Tamara gained 10 level in Runemaster and now it is 15<
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  Beckoning Tamara with his free hand, he said, "You kept up your end of the bargain, let me show you my kitchen."

  The kitchen was well stocked with fresh chicken, beef, pork, and common vegetables and herbs. An open flame hearth with a chimney was roaring in the corner. A large pot of some stew was merrily simmering.

  The bartender turned to face Tamara and gestured proudly at the kitchen. "This kitchen is small, but it's world-class. Even a world-renown Chef wouldn't find the quality wanting." After checking that she was appropriately impressed, he said. "I appreciate your service, so please feel free to use any ingredients in the kitchen. I'll stay to observe, so if I don't say anything, use it!"

  Tamara unpacked the food Sol had purchased the night before. She cut up the chicken, herbs, and vegetables. The secret for her favorite herbal chicken recipe was in the chicken. The spices and herbs mixed together to create a mouthwatering aroma. She marinated the chicken while she adjusted the temperature of the hearth. Her cooking skills amplified the effects of the experience bonus, increasing the potency and the length of the buff. The right amount of heat, herbs, and resting created an incredibly powerful combination that was greater than either alchemy or cooking could create by themselves.

  Tamara's specialty was her herbal chicken which could be combined with any dish to produce the buffing effect. However, adding other ingredients had the potential to add even more effects.

  By the time she had finished making the chicken, Sol poked his head into the kitchen and saw her and the bartender.

  "Where have you been all this time? I've barely seen you since we got here, " Tamara looked up and asked Sol.

  Sol replied, "I've been getting supplies and information. The food was pretty easy, and I saw you took most of our food and was looking for a kitchen, so I checked here first."

  "What did you find out?"

  Moving closer to check out the food, Sol said, "I found out that most of the information brokers agree that completing the dungeon would be a way out. It is typical for the last dungeon level to provide a portal to the portal circle outside of the dungeon. But they also agree that there are a lot of levels and that the loot doesn't improve as you go down. Additionally, there's no reason to believe that the goblins wouldn't have a trap that stops people from finishing the dungeon. On the other hand, the first ten levels are farmed without any problems. And they are on hourly spawn timers. The mobs start at level 30 and go up to level 40 by level 10, so it appears that each level grows in difficulty. We will be hard-pressed to go past level five. Are you sure we want to go this route?" At the last question, he peered hard at Tamara, looking for any sign of doubt.