“So, how do we deal with this?” I say, while looking out into the intense storm.
“We could camp in the cave until it gets better, but getting attacked by golems while sleeping doesn’t strike my fancy, so unless you have a ward we have to brave the storm.” James answers me.
I do find a ward in my inventory, which is basically a deployable shield for camping. It’s not that strong, but does mask our presence, but even with that, actually spending the night in a golem anthill strikes me as a bad idea.
After discussing a few methods to deal with the wind that blows perpendicular to our direction of travel, we put on our raincoats, after which I magically exchange my magical girl outfit for something warmer that’s coincidentally more general purpose with its enchantments, namely a sweater and pants combo. Also a bit weaker, but the comfort is worth it.
As we begin walking, I discover that the wind is strong enough that I actually have problems walking straight. Something James doesn’t struggle with thanks to his superior physical strength.
My first attempt at resisting the wind was a mana barrier, which in hindsight was a terrible idea since it acted as a sail, taking a significant amount of mana to stay in place, before smacking into me the moment I stopped feeding it the gratuitous amount it needed, knocking me brutally down into the mud, before shattering and the evaporating pieces getting scattered by the wind.
James laughs a bit as he helps get up from the mud, after I vented my frustration from losing the fight with the wind by punching the ground.
After cleansing myself of the proof of my meeting with the ground with magic, we continue on our way. He acts as a windbreak by walking on my left side, as opposed to the right side he did before. This makes it markedly easier as he blocks a significant portion of the wind.
I wonder if resistance to elemental magic will help me against the wind? Casting wind resistance on myself reveals that it does indeed. The wind sort of stops bothering me, I can still feel it, and it buffets my coat just as much, but it doesn’t push me around as much.
Casting the same spell on him, has him suddenly taking a step against the wind in surprise, as it suddenly stops affecting him as much. After I explain, he does thank me, but does specify that he would have liked a warning beforehand.
From then on, the journey is rather easy, as easy as it can be to wade through mud in the rain, with the occasional broken branch being thrown at us by the wind. None of the few golems we encountered on the way did anything other than hunker down, avoiding the storm.
Back at the settlement, the sturdy stone buildings stand steadfastly against the onslaught of the elements, with a warm glow shining through the windows of the barracks we are staying at. It’s hard to tell with the dense clouds, but it’s probably late afternoon by the time we arrive.
I cleanse us of the mud, while James opens the door, and the sight that greets us is not what I expected. A quick count reveals that there are five new dwarves in the common area, four of which were in a conversation with Murdock and Garth at one of the tables, with the last one joining Jo and the apprentices at a card game at the other table.
Obviously all conversation stops while we enter and get undressed. I ignore Murdock’s table, and sit down with Jo, taking out a pear to chew on, as it’s been a while since I ate.
Jo obviously asks how it went, and we start giving them a play by play of the events unfolding, omitting the divine intervention. I’m not that good at telling stories, but James does explain the events with a certain flair.
When we get to the point where we acquired the rainbow gem, I take the head sized gem out of my inventory and place it on the table. James did a good job extracting it, so the surface is smooth, letting us see it in all its rainbowy glory. The different colors form a rough spiral and combined with its translucency makes it quite a spectacular gem.
Obviously Murdock notices the gem from the other table, and comes over to touch it which I immediately stop with my mana barrier. Combine that with me staring harshly at him, and he retreats back to the other table, despite the longing I see in his eyes.
After he settles down, I hear one of the new dwarves with mana, say “Maybe try to stay on her good side, despite your prejudice against elves. I’ve met a couple arch-mages before, and she’s got distinctly more mana than any of them, so whatever she’s done in retaliation to your foul mouth so far has to have been pretty mild. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could level this whole settlement in seconds…”
He’s not wrong in that I have a lot of mana, but because of my attunement to life, I don’t think I can level the settlement in seconds. Maybe if a single well placed mana spike each can cause the buildings to collapse, then I can do it, but I think the stone buildings are sturdy enough that they won’t collapse from just that.
I just sigh and get back to telling the story with James. He tells the story like I’m some sort of force of nature, blasting apart everything in my path. He even goes into great details with my “fight” in the crystal cavern, much to the shock of the apprentices. Apparently that golem had only a little bit less stamina than James, which explains why he reacted the way he did.
Obviously he has to balance my greatness with me falling in the mud, which does cause a bit of laughter. In retaliation, I describe how he valiantly fought against the wind on my behalf. The overly flattering language does make him a bit flustered, but I do get a bit of laughter from the others.
Once we are done with what we did during the day, we have the others explain what they did. Jo and the apprentices decided to just stay indoors for the day, playing games and just relaxing, and around noon, shortly after the wind picked up, the new group of dwarves arrived. They are a group of adventurers, ranging from B to C rank, that were heading towards Aeshraton when they decided to take shelter from the storm in the mining settlement.
The rest of the evening is spent exchanging stories with the adventurers. Their group specializes in hunting monsters, and sometimes deal with bandits. As per usual, James and I tell stories from when it was a game, and there is a calm merriment going on in the room as the storm rages outside.
I’m the first one to retreat to bed, and as I lay in the slightly uncomfortable bed contemplating the events of the day. We entered the anthill, got the gem and existed without dying. It was much closer than I would have expected, but it was also the first time I really flexed my magical muscles when I smashed the crystal golem. By using that one as a reference, I would have easily been able to defeat the guardian golems, though I would have had to drink some potions to refill my mana between them.
We also got a concrete answer from David about returning home. That it’s not currently possible didn’t surprise me, but that it might be in the future is a bit surprising though. If I was offered a one way ticket to return to being George on earth, would I take it? I don’t actually know… I do actually like being Zena, the only reason to go back would be friends and family, which to be fair is a good reason. I will have to give it some serious though if I get the option.
While I lay there thinking of my family, I fall asleep to the rumbling of the wind.
Kamba
I'm back, did you miss me?
It's been almost two months since last time, so hopefully you didn't forget about me.
I've also written around 10k words on a different series, that may or may not get published here (haven't decided yet, will see how I feel about it)
Like usual I won't promise to upload more often, but the series isn't dead until the story is done (I've said it before, but I do know the general outline)
Anyways, I'll see you again in hopefully less than a week.
“So, how do we deal with this?” I say, while looking out into the intense storm.
“We could camp in the cave until it gets better, but getting attacked by golems while sleeping doesn’t strike my fancy, so unless you have a ward we have to brave the storm.” James answers me.
I do find a ward in my inventory, which is basically a deployable shield for camping. It’s not that strong, but does mask our presence, but even with that, actually spending the night in a golem anthill strikes me as a bad idea.
After discussing a few methods to deal with the wind that blows perpendicular to our direction of travel, we put on our raincoats, after which I magically exchange my magical girl outfit for something warmer that’s coincidentally more general purpose with its enchantments, namely a sweater and pants combo. Also a bit weaker, but the comfort is worth it.
As we begin walking, I discover that the wind is strong enough that I actually have problems walking straight. Something James doesn’t struggle with thanks to his superior physical strength.
My first attempt at resisting the wind was a mana barrier, which in hindsight was a terrible idea since it acted as a sail, taking a significant amount of mana to stay in place, before smacking into me the moment I stopped feeding it the gratuitous amount it needed, knocking me brutally down into the mud, before shattering and the evaporating pieces getting scattered by the wind.
James laughs a bit as he helps get up from the mud, after I vented my frustration from losing the fight with the wind by punching the ground.
After cleansing myself of the proof of my meeting with the ground with magic, we continue on our way. He acts as a windbreak by walking on my left side, as opposed to the right side he did before. This makes it markedly easier as he blocks a significant portion of the wind.
I wonder if resistance to elemental magic will help me against the wind? Casting wind resistance on myself reveals that it does indeed. The wind sort of stops bothering me, I can still feel it, and it buffets my coat just as much, but it doesn’t push me around as much.
Casting the same spell on him, has him suddenly taking a step against the wind in surprise, as it suddenly stops affecting him as much. After I explain, he does thank me, but does specify that he would have liked a warning beforehand.
From then on, the journey is rather easy, as easy as it can be to wade through mud in the rain, with the occasional broken branch being thrown at us by the wind. None of the few golems we encountered on the way did anything other than hunker down, avoiding the storm.
Back at the settlement, the sturdy stone buildings stand steadfastly against the onslaught of the elements, with a warm glow shining through the windows of the barracks we are staying at. It’s hard to tell with the dense clouds, but it’s probably late afternoon by the time we arrive.
I cleanse us of the mud, while James opens the door, and the sight that greets us is not what I expected. A quick count reveals that there are five new dwarves in the common area, four of which were in a conversation with Murdock and Garth at one of the tables, with the last one joining Jo and the apprentices at a card game at the other table.
Obviously all conversation stops while we enter and get undressed. I ignore Murdock’s table, and sit down with Jo, taking out a pear to chew on, as it’s been a while since I ate.
Jo obviously asks how it went, and we start giving them a play by play of the events unfolding, omitting the divine intervention. I’m not that good at telling stories, but James does explain the events with a certain flair.
When we get to the point where we acquired the rainbow gem, I take the head sized gem out of my inventory and place it on the table. James did a good job extracting it, so the surface is smooth, letting us see it in all its rainbowy glory. The different colors form a rough spiral and combined with its translucency makes it quite a spectacular gem.
Obviously Murdock notices the gem from the other table, and comes over to touch it which I immediately stop with my mana barrier. Combine that with me staring harshly at him, and he retreats back to the other table, despite the longing I see in his eyes.
After he settles down, I hear one of the new dwarves with mana, say “Maybe try to stay on her good side, despite your prejudice against elves. I’ve met a couple arch-mages before, and she’s got distinctly more mana than any of them, so whatever she’s done in retaliation to your foul mouth so far has to have been pretty mild. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could level this whole settlement in seconds…”
He’s not wrong in that I have a lot of mana, but because of my attunement to life, I don’t think I can level the settlement in seconds. Maybe if a single well placed mana spike each can cause the buildings to collapse, then I can do it, but I think the stone buildings are sturdy enough that they won’t collapse from just that.
I just sigh and get back to telling the story with James. He tells the story like I’m some sort of force of nature, blasting apart everything in my path. He even goes into great details with my “fight” in the crystal cavern, much to the shock of the apprentices. Apparently that golem had only a little bit less stamina than James, which explains why he reacted the way he did.
Obviously he has to balance my greatness with me falling in the mud, which does cause a bit of laughter. In retaliation, I describe how he valiantly fought against the wind on my behalf. The overly flattering language does make him a bit flustered, but I do get a bit of laughter from the others.
Once we are done with what we did during the day, we have the others explain what they did. Jo and the apprentices decided to just stay indoors for the day, playing games and just relaxing, and around noon, shortly after the wind picked up, the new group of dwarves arrived. They are a group of adventurers, ranging from B to C rank, that were heading towards Aeshraton when they decided to take shelter from the storm in the mining settlement.
The rest of the evening is spent exchanging stories with the adventurers. Their group specializes in hunting monsters, and sometimes deal with bandits. As per usual, James and I tell stories from when it was a game, and there is a calm merriment going on in the room as the storm rages outside.
I’m the first one to retreat to bed, and as I lay in the slightly uncomfortable bed contemplating the events of the day. We entered the anthill, got the gem and existed without dying. It was much closer than I would have expected, but it was also the first time I really flexed my magical muscles when I smashed the crystal golem. By using that one as a reference, I would have easily been able to defeat the guardian golems, though I would have had to drink some potions to refill my mana between them.
We also got a concrete answer from David about returning home. That it’s not currently possible didn’t surprise me, but that it might be in the future is a bit surprising though. If I was offered a one way ticket to return to being George on earth, would I take it? I don’t actually know… I do actually like being Zena, the only reason to go back would be friends and family, which to be fair is a good reason. I will have to give it some serious though if I get the option.
While I lay there thinking of my family, I fall asleep to the rumbling of the wind.
Kamba
I'm back, did you miss me?
It's been almost two months since last time, so hopefully you didn't forget about me.
I've also written around 10k words on a different series, that may or may not get published here (haven't decided yet, will see how I feel about it)
Like usual I won't promise to upload more often, but the series isn't dead until the story is done (I've said it before, but I do know the general outline)
Anyways, I'll see you again in hopefully less than a week.
