Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn Read online

  "What are those?" he asked pointing to the humongous weapons perched on the walls.

  "Breathtaking Ballistae," promptly answered Colere. "Personally, I would prefer a regular ballistae, but those weapons use magic. I'm not really sure how they work, but I think they suck in air, and attack using air bolts. Hence, the name."

  'Are ballistae a go to weapon for OrkElves?' he secretly wondered to himself.

  "Are they automatic?" questioned Smoke, refocusing his attention on the magical weapons.

  "Not really, the Prime Wizard of Vona controls them from his tower," answered the brutish OrkElf while dragging his filled-up cart.

  "Oh, did you need help with that?" offered Smoke as he noticed how heavy it must have been.

  "No, no. I got it," grunted Colere. "But how are you at close combat? There might be a need to defend ourselves when we reach the plains of Geparden."

  "Is that the start of the sand cheetahs' territory?" asked Smoke.

  "Yes, but don't worry. I can defend you myself now," answered Esper, flexing her muscles. "We may have worthless fathers, but they did give us sturdy bodies.... If only I was stronger back then. Maybe, Souer would still be alive today."

  Smoke caught Colere give Esper a sorrowful look, but quickly tried to change the subject.

  "We, OrkElves are still significantly weak when we're still below ten years old, but beyond that age... Well, let's just say that we're survivors," explained the burly Colere.

  "Hm. I don't think I'm really good at close combat," said Smoke somberly as he recalled how Sharur and Laernea died in front of him when he fought against Ultimo.

  "But I plan to change that soon," he said strongly with conviction.

  Suddenly, he saw the source of the sweet fragrance of the land. A forest filled with pomegranate trees greeted them as soon as they stepped outside the city gates.

  As they entered the trees, Smoke got interested in the several low level monsters feeding on its fruits. There were a few stone deer munching on the fallen pomegranates, these monsters were well known to him as they gave delicious meat.

  However, there were a few that he had never seen before.

  He spotted a very large squirrel, about the size of a small house-cat, which was suddenly attacked by a large black raven. The raven's claws grabbed the squirrel's bushy tail and carried it off its branch, revealing the squirrel's name and life bar, spittle squirrel (3,500/4,000 HP).

  Smoke thought the spittle squirrel was a goner until it used its saliva as a projectile, and attacked the bird's eye. Thus, revealing the bird's details, rancid raven (6,200/7,000 HP). The spittle squirrel spat out four more times, and the rancid raven was forced to let go of its tail.

  "That little guy looks really tough," pointed out Smoke as he directed their attention to the escaping spittle squirrel.

  "Yeah, you better not mess with them, Faux," warned Colere. "They usually have families of up to ten, and their spit attacks have a bit of poison in them."

  Smoke was not deterred by the poison. He salivated as he wondered what their meat would taste like, but he could not hunt them now. His disguise as an Earth Elementalist greatly limited his abilities.

  They passed by the pomegranate forest unhindered by these low level beasts. Smoke surmised that he could probably kill them with one shot if they did try to make a move on them, but none of the spittle squirrels ever did.

  After two hours of trekking passed, they exited the forest of pomegranates and reached the plains of Geparden. Smoke's Cunning of the Dire Fox instantly sensed four larger monsters approaching them fast.

  Melding Igniz's mana from within his symbiote's concealed chamber, Smoke used his Telefax Vision to see the fast approaching sand cheetahs.

  Smoke quickly took out his Digger's Wand and created a wide trench in front of them, of about eight meters wide and fifteen meters deep. Due to his extensive Earth Manipulation training, the effects of his wand had greatly improve as well.

  However, the sand cheetahs only picked up their pace. The agile monsters were unperturbed by his actions, and careened towards them even faster.

  With one strong pounce, the sand cheetahs leapt across Smoke's trench.

  Quickly judging the monsters' distance, Smoke knew they could cross the gap. He pointed his left palm on the edge of the trench near him, and a wall suddenly sprang out from the ground.

  THUD THUD THUD THUD

  All of the sand cheetahs fell inside his freshly made trap. He lowered the earth wall, revealing the bewildered monsters inside.

  They were desperately jumping to escape his trap, but only their heads could come out. The sand cheetahs even resorted to climbing on top of each other, but these monsters were not great at balancing, and toppled on top of one another.

  The monsters life bars appeared. All of them had 80,000 HP.

  With the monsters captured, he turned to face his OrkElf guides. "They're tougher than they look."

  "Not really, once you attack their necks, they will fall like flies," explained Colere.

  "Is that so?" asked Smoke, intrigued. "Let me try —" but he was not able to finish, as a coalition of twenty sand cheetahs were picked up by his Cunning of the Dire Fox.

  "I thought you said they only traveled in a small coalition?" he questioned his OrkElf guides.

  "Yeah, this is a small coalition," replied Esper as she prepared her fists. "We don't consider anything to be many unless they reach at least a thousand. Don't worry you'll understand after you see what a real horde is like."

  Pretending to be scared, Smoke nodded nervously. "So, you two can handle these monsters, right?" he said in an uncertain voice.

  The coalition of sand cheetahs blindly charged at them. Smoke readied himself to save his guides at the last moment, by preparing to dig a tunnel under them and seal them there.

  For now, Smoke created a small pillar and stood on top of it. "Alright, I'll stay here and attack some of them with my earth magic."

  However, he had no real intention of this as he only wanted to see the two of them in action.

  Esper and Colere guarded opposite directions below Smoke's pillar, and faced the sand cheetahs with their bare hands.

  The brutish OrkElf grabbed the two nearest monsters by their necks and quickly squeezed the lives out of them.

  Whereas, Esper delivered an accurate blow to a sand cheetah's lower jaw, sending it upward. With its neck exposed, she sent several swift blows to the monster's jugulars and killed it instantly.

  Yet, while she eliminated one of them, two more sunk their jaws into her calves.

  Smoke was about to help Esper out, but she did not look bothered by their attacks. Her life bar was revealed, indicating (238,000/250,000 HP).

  Esper casually struck the back of their necks, sending them to the ground. Once she downed them, she proceeded to stomp on their necks, snuffing out the last of their hit points.

  Smoke then turned to check on Colere's side, and found a total of four dead sand cheetahs beside him.

  Soon after, the remaining sand cheetahs retreated with even faster speed than from when they were charging to attack.

  "We should go after them," said Smoke, lowering his earth pillar.

  "No, don't bother," replied Colere. "Once a sand cheetah decides to run, it is extremely difficult to catch up to it."

  "Yeah, even with a child in its mouth," sullenly added Esper. She then peered over the trapped sand cheetahs in Smoke's trench. "What are you going to do with them? Their pelts do sell for at least five zecs, but they make better roofs though."

  Smoke then notice both of the OrkElves gather the loot and stow them into Colere's cart, clearly with no intention of giving any of it to Smoke.

  "I think, I'll let you have these four pelts as well," he replied.

  "You want us to go down and kill them?" asked Colere.

  "No, it's alright. They're already dead," answered Smoke. With his Earth Manipulation, he raised the dead bodies of the sand cheetahs before they faded
out of existence. He had pierced them with pin-point earth spikes aimed at their necks while the two were collecting their loot.

  "How did you?" ask a dumbfounded Esper. "Wait! If you could have killed them that easily, then were you just testing us all along?"

  The female OrkElf huffed loudly and was about to storm off. Colere hurriedly went to his cart and prepared to go after her.

  "Esper, you can have all of these pelts as well," called out Smoke.

  Instantly, Esper stopped. She turned around and hurriedly collected Smoke's loot. "Why didn't you say it sooner."

  After she gathered the pelts, she turned to face Smoke. "So, you ready to go?" she asked politely.

  "Lead the way," replied Smoke.

  "The sand cheetahs usually don't attack again after another twenty-four hours," explained Colere as they began walking again. "We're not really sure why they do this, but I think it's because their pride are so hurt that it takes them that long to recover."

  The three of them continued on their trek of the plains for another hour. The noon sun was confirmed by the grumbling of the two OrkElves' stomachs.

  "We have arrived," said Esper, and she pointed over to a smaller group of pomegranates trees in the middle of nowhere.

  As soon as they entered the pomegranate trees, a notification window popped up.

  + Entered Natur Spring

  This spring in the plains of Geparden has been made into a temporary home by several OrkElves

  'So, even the game does not recognize this place as a village,' he observed.

  With only a few meters in, they were greeted by several OrkElf children. Smoke counted at least fifty of them.

  They had lighter skin tones and pointier ears than the older OrkElves, and looked more like WoodElves or HighElves. The only defining OrkElf features were their brownish skin and strong chin. Smoke surmised that the OrkElf appearance must become clearer when they grow older.

  Smoke was flocked by the children as it was their first time seeing an outsider come to their make-shift village.

  "Hey, Mister, what are you doing in OrkElf Haven?" asked a boy from one of the younger OrkElves.

  "OrkElf Haven?" asked Smoke.

  "Our village," explained the boy. "We call it OrkElf Haven. Although, I did hear one of the newcomers say that there was another OrkElf village by that name and I know that there's even an OrkElf Heaven, but we are the real OrkElf Haven."

  Smoke nodded seriously, trying hard to assure the young OrkElf of his claim. "I see."

  "Come, Faux, this way," said Esper. "Faux, Faux. Oi, Faux!" she yelled out when Smoke did not respond.

  "Yeah?" said Smoke suddenly turning around. It had been more than two weeks, but he still was getting used to the alias he picked out for himself.

  "I said this way," grumbled Esper. "You wanted to stay in our house, right?"

  "Yes, yes, I'll be right there," answered Smoke. He quickly faced the children, and gave them small chocolate pieces that he bought from the city. "I'll be back to give you some more."

  The children curiously looked at the chocolate pieces and stared at it blankly. This was their first time seeing it.

  Smoke took another piece from his bag and ate it.

  The OrkElf children followed his lead. Their eyes widened with delight as soon as the sweet chocolate melted inside their mouths.

  Smoke quickly followed after Esper and Colere. Before he could walk farther away, he heard the children screaming with delight and chattering at their first chocolate experience.

  Shortly after, in the middle of the pomegranates, he found a medium-sized spring. Some trees had a few sand cheetah pelts thrown in their branches, while other trees had even more. Yet, there was one tree who had the most sand cheetah pelts. It was then that Smoke understood that these were their houses. The monster pelts served as their roof and walls at the same time.

  Then, Colere stopped his cart in front of the pomegranate tree with the most cheetah pelts, and Esper sat under it. "Well, this is it. Home sweet home," she said with a smirk.

  'I expected far worse than this. At least they know not to make the water contaminated with their filth,' thought Smoke to himself.

  "This is very quaint," he said to Esper. "Your house seems to be the biggest one in this village."

  "Well, Colere has killed the most sand cheetahs," she answered passively. "But it is still nothing to brag about."

  "Why don't the two of you gather all of the other OrkElves here, and I'll whip something up for you," said Smoke suddenly.

  "Huh?" Esper said, confused.

  "Just go and call everyone here," repeated a smiling Smoke.

  After Esper and Colere left, he quickly went to work. He raised a large pot from the ground, and placed in all of the ingredients for an ancient bison stew. He thought a good broth should liven up the OrkElves.

  In less than twenty minutes, all of the OrkElves were gathered in front of the spring. Several clay bowls filled with ancient bison stew awaited all of them.

  The OrkElves did not wait for any invitation, and immediately began consuming the broth.

  Smoke smiled at the sight of the OrkElves. He knew that doing this was delaying him from finding a lead on the Magietrois, but he knew that it was what Sharur and Laernea would have wanted him to do.

  "Feel free to get some more," he said to the feeding OrkElves, and pointed to the over-sized clay pot filled with stew.

  "And while you're eating, allow me to entertain you with a little magic," said Smoke to them.

  Several earth pillars rose from the ground behind the eating crowd. As they had formed a circle, he also created a circular path of pillars.

  It had taken him thirty minutes to finish the pillars, and by then all of his stew was consumed. Yet, the OrkElves stayed in their place and watched in awe of his Earth Manipulation.

  Next, he closed the gaps between the pillars by raising up earth walls, which rose taller than the pillars themselves. He then bent them downward, creating a roof-like covering.

  Another hour passed when he finished this. Some of the OrkElves had gotten up to get a drink from the spring. Others grabbed some pomegranates and chewed on them. Yet, none of them stopped watching the earth magic before them.

  A total of two hours into his magic show, Smoke had a created a large doughnut-like structure with the cold flowing spring water at its center. He then made several small windows on the wall of the circular edifice, allowing air to freely pass through it. He also made two large entrances on opposite directions, which had matching curved sliding earth gates.

  "I'm sorry it's very basic. I'm still mastering my Earth Manipulation," explained Smoke after he finished the large earth structure.

  "This is already great as it is," said Colere in amazement.

  "I'm not sure how many of you would be needed to move the sliding gates. Maybe we should try it now?" suggested Smoke.

  At once, four OrkElves tried to move the curved sliding gate but it would not budge. It was not until six of them that it began to move.

  Seeing the slow motion of closing the gate, proved ineffective to Smoke. He made the earth sliding gates thinner, making them slightly lighter.

  This time, with six of the OrkElves pushing and pulling, it took less than ten seconds for them to close the curved sliding gate.

  After finishing the gates, a notification window popped up.

  + Established a new Settlement

  After creating a habitable environment for the residents of this area, you have created a new settlement.

  > Please name this place.

  > Please name a settlement leader.

  Note:

  You can name yourself as the leader or appoint it to somebody else.

  Unsure of what to name it, he walked over to Colere and Esper. "What do you think of the name OrkElf Haven for this place? Do the two of you like it?"

  "That's just what some of the children are calling it," explained Esper. "But it's too childish in my opinion.
Not even Souer would call this place that."

  After hearing Esper, Smoke knew what to name the settlement. He maximized the window and entered Souer Settlement. As for the settlement leader he appointed it to Colere and Esper.

  + Established Souer Settlement

  You have created a great place for 300 OrkElves to start their lives. All of them now have high regards toward you.