Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2018 10:05:50 -0400 From: CreepingDawn Subject: Land of Heroes Chapter 12 Warning: This story is unsuitable for minors and contains explicit descriptions of sexual activity considered taboo (and illegal) in most (if not all) jurisdictions. If such activity offends you, DO NOT read any further. I do not condone any illegal activity and stress that this work is fiction, fantasy, and in no way meant to reflect reality. Sexual abuse of minors is a very serious issue and I encourage anyone tempted to engage in such behavior to seek immediate help. This story is a work in progress. I am tinkering with it off and on and cannot give an idea as to how often it will get updated. Last Updated: 7/16/18 Story Title: Land of Heroes Please take a moment to donate to Nifty! Without these good folks, we wouldn't have a place to share our tales! Dear Reader: Thank you for taking the time to read my work. If you wish to drop me a line, please feel free to email me at CreepingDawn@protonmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Without further ado... Chapter 12 The wooden doorway was closed, exotic carvings of arcane mysteries drawing my eye but barely peaking my interest. What lay beyond was my true concern and I was eager for the door to open. After parting ways with Tyler, I had gone directly to Stoneshaper Joja who, to my surprise, had escorted me to a small magical circle carved into the stone floor of his study and told me to stand in the middle of it. I did as I was instructed and Stoneshaper Joja began to chant. I tried to follow the spell but it was too long and too fast. Before I even knew he was near the end, the dwarf stopped and my body blinked out of existence, appearing a heartbeat later in an airy tower filled with glass windows. I gasped, surprised by the transportation spell. After collecting my wits, I looked up to discover a young man, perhaps a year or so younger than me, waiting patiently. He bowed, welcomed me to the Runic Tower, and asked me to follow him. I did so, impressed at the tower's fine furnishings and intricate architecture. He delivered me to the door in front of which I now stood and told me to wait for Thorlius Spellweaver to invite me in. Closing my eyes, I used my Ring of Linking to check in on Tyler. The boy had a huge grin on his face, I noted, as he and Mochak gripped Stinky's coat while the bear practically flew through the forests below Molg Elharn. The bear was running with incredible speed, probably covering thirty or thirty-five miles an hour, and both boy and orc seemed to be enjoying the frantic pace. The door before me creaked open and a voice told me to "Come in!" so I let the Ring of Linking's power fade and I stepped through the entrance. The room was well apportioned, with artwork on the walls, sculptures scattered throughout the workspace, and a warm little fire surrounded by comfortable couches. The windows looked out into a beautiful mountain vista, a river running below the snowcapped cliffs. "Hello," said the old man sitting in a high-backed chair. Probably in his late seventies, the man wore long silver robes that matched the thin wisps of hair that circled his otherwise bald head. He directed me to a seat and I took it, studying the man as he studied me. "You are Ian?" he asked. "I am. You are Master Spellweaver?" I asked cautiously. The man chuckled. "Journeyman Spellweaver, if you please. Haven't attained the rank of master and, if I was to be truthful, probably won't." I nodded. Looking at me with a critical eye, the man raised an eyebrow. "Do you know why I am a journeyman and not a master?" I shook my head. "It is because I am level thirty. I'd have to be much higher than my current level to be called a master." It was my turn to raise my eyebrow. "Really?" I asked. "You are relatively new to adventuring, yes?" "Yes." "That happens. That happens. Well, young man, you are here now. As Arcane Caller for the region, I regularly meet young men like yourselves who are about to leave the rank of Novice and be raised to the rank of Initiate. I know that you generally have lots of questions." "Some..." I said, though I couldn't think of any specifically. "Let me start from the beginning, then. When a wizard becomes level one, they gain the rank of Novice. The Novice rank stays with them until level ten. With me so far?" The man took a sip from a steaming teacup I hadn't noticed before. "I think so." "Good. At level ten, an Arcane Caller like myself will contact you. Have you done anything since turning level ten that you would expect to give you experience points?" "Umm..." I pondered the question. "Not that I can think of, I guess." "Then you didn't have the opportunity to notice that you can't gain any experience right now. You could go out and kill a dragon and you wouldn't gain even one experience point. Capped at level ten, you are, until you meet with me and go through training. Your training, of course, will be here at the Runic Tower. Once you go through the training, you will immediately level up to eleven and gain the title of initiate." "I'm capped at level ten, right now?" I asked involuntarily, speaking more to myself than to the wizard before me. "Yes. But don't you worry; the training is rather simple. There are few wizards who fail and are stuck at level ten. Most succeed, allowing them to reach level eleven without too much difficulty. Now, the rank of Initiate starts at eleven and ends at level twenty. Twenty-one to thirty is Journeyman. Thirty-one to Forty is Adept. Forty-one to Forty-nine is Master. And level fifty makes one a Grandmaster. As you may or may not know, it is impossible to gain any levels after fifty." I nodded, taking in the information. "Now, let me tell you about the next few days and the way this works..." ......... I stood on the top ramparts of Molg Elharn, the wind whipping my hair as I surveyed the broken landscape before me. I was level eleven, having completed my week of training with Thorlius Spellweaver and having been transported back to the dwarven fortress only an hour before. It was a unique week, with each day addressing a new topic for me to master. The first day, the Arcane Caller brought me to the Runic Tower's supplier. An old man with a friendly smile, the supplier replaced all my gear with what Spellweaver called "proper Initiate equipment." It reminded me of when Land of Heroes released an expansion, with the new gear being introduced far exceeding the best gear from the previous instalment of the game. A new staff. New rings. New clothes. By the time we were finished, my stats had jumped through the roof. That took all day. The second day saw me in the small forest outside the tower, wandering around aimlessly without any indication of the purpose of my trek. Spellweaver had told me that I would know the purpose of my nature walk eventually but, as the hours progressed, I started to think I may have been put out of the tower as a practical joke. Then, just as dusk began to fall, a large colorful parrot flew down from a tree and, to my great amazement, settled on my shoulder. When it did, I felt a burst of powerful magic sweep through my body and I knew, without a doubt, that this beautiful creature was my new familiar. The Arcane Caller confirmed said feelings with me when I returned to the tower, congratulating me on being picked by the gorgeous bird. Day three saw me in the forest again, paired with a young woman named Magina who had introduced herself as the tower's expert naturalist. Over the course of the day, the soft spoken academic taught me about collecting plants, herbs, minerals, and wildlife in order to fuel alchemical processes. I didn't see the sun on day four, finding myself in a windowless room with Journeyman Tillnack the alchemist. Over the course of the day, he taught me the basics of crafting potions which could be used for a variety of powerful effects. While I would have laughed if someone would have suggested that I could "learn" the Naturalist and Alchemical professions in one day, I discovered, to my delight, that I woke up on the morning of day four and day five with immense practical knowledge on those particular subjects. Journeyman Spellweaver told me, when I asked, that I was now proficient in both Alchemy and Naturalism and could collected a wide range of ingredient to make a wide range of powerful concoctions. I learned, and then practiced, almost fourteen offensive spells on day five. Day six saw me tackling eighteen defensive spells. Day seven, interestingly enough, provided me with twenty-two utility spells which, while not offensive or defensive, could make adventuring considerably easier. As my parrot, whom I had named Shasta, glided along the winds, I paced the ramparts and watched for Tyler. The boy had been busy throughout the week as well, with me checking in regularly to see that he was safe. He had been, the small human boy apparently getting along well with the orc tribe under whom he was apprenticing. In fact, as I lay in bed on the evening of the fourth night, I had used the Ring of Linking, which I had been allowed to keep (because I didn't mention to anyone that I had it in my possession), to look in on the boy only to discover he and about eight orcish youths were having a free-for-all orgy. Immediately hard, I had jacked off eagerly as I watched the hot action. Tyler fucked, sucked, and rimmed with the best of them, giving as good as he got while eight green and one pale cock erupted repeatedly over the next hour. I knew this morning that Tyler was on his way back, my Ring of Linking showing he and Mochak riding through the forest towards the Kaylor mountains. To my surprise, though, Mochak rode back on Stinky while Tyler rode back on another bear, the beast smaller than Stinky but no less imposing. Looking at the position of the sun and deciding to check in on the boy, for it was nearly noon, I groaned as I discovered that he and his orc mentor had stopped for a brief bit of play. Finding a secluded bench, I sat in the shade and slipped my hand into my pants as I watched Tyler take much of Mochak's massive cock into his mouth while the huge warrior's snakelike tongue drilled the boy's puffy pink asshole. I came shortly thereafter. ......... "Ian!" Tyler yelled as he crashed into me, the boy finding my arms easily as I whirled him up and around. "It's so good to see you," I said, choked up slightly. The boy and his bear had come through the gate only a few moments ago, Mochak apparently deciding not to escort the boy all the way into the dwarven fortress. The sun was setting, an orange glow covering the stone that surrounded us. "Did you have a good time?" I asked, putting the boy down and looking into his eyes. "Yeah! I learned a ton!" He responded, taking a step back to rest his arm on the bear that stood next to him. "This is Bob, my bear!" "Bob?" I asked, laughing. "Bob." He said, nodding with a grin. As we turned toward the inn where we would be staying, Tyler gave be a very brief overview of his week. He, too, had been given totally new gear and the new look flattered him. A small loin-cloth similar to the one he had started off with, the only other clothing the boy wore was a pair of leather hide boots and a grey cloak made out of some animal's pelt. He looked dashing and I couldn't help but anticipate getting him back into our room. Instead of a large axe, the boy had two small hand axes hanging from his belt and, when I enquired, he told me that he would be duel-wielding those wicked sharp blades from now on. He also told me that he had learned several powers inherent to barbarians, including Natural Knowledge, Beast Sense, Aspect of the Bear, and Aspect of the Eagle. Before I could ask him what those did, the excited boy informed me that he had also been taught how to skin an animal and that his cloak was the result of passing his first skinning test. I was impressed, telling him the cloak looked wonderful. "I'll make you one," he said, "once we find an appropriate pelt." "Sounds good," I said, my heart filling with joy as we walked. Before I knew it, the boy had slipped his hand into mine. "I really missed you," he said, looking at me from the corner of his eye. "I missed you too," I responded. We smiled at each other and entered the inn. The innkeeper was gracious and allowed Bob to sleep in the barn. We ate a hearty meal, cleaned ourselves in the bathing room, and went upstairs to get ready for bed. Then we fucked like rabbits, me blowing two loads into the boy and him cumming three times over the course of the following two hours. The next morning, we left the inn in high spirits and with wanderlust in our hearts. We were both level eleven and there was still so much to do. Our hands found each other as we exited the gate of the dwarven fortress, the world before us filled with quests for able bodied heroes. "So, you ready to continue our adventure?" I asked, looking down at the boy. He grinned at me and squeezed me hand. "Absolutely." ......... Dear Reader: Thank you for taking the time to read Land of Heroes. I have received a great deal of praise over the course of writing this work and I want to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote to me. As an author, I live and breathe the feedback from those reading my work and I am truly touched that so many of you chose to write to me. In total, the story is nearly 60k words - making it a shortish novel all by itself. Wow! This story has been a great deal of fun to write and I have enjoyed exercising my creative capacity. However, I am choosing to end the story here. There are two reasons why I am leaving the land of Aurora. First, I have found that my free time has been greatly diminished over the past couple of months and simply haven't had the opportunity to write as much as I would like. [For those of you who are astute observers, you may see this as a contradiction as I have been releasing a chapter roughly every two weeks. The truth is that I finished Land of Heroes almost three months ago - it was almost entirely written over the course of three weeks - but I have been parceling it out as I have found brief bouts of time to revise and finalize each chapter.] The second reason I am ending the story is that I have found my interests drifting to new tales and would like a chance to work on other projects in my very fleeting spare time. Now, there is a possibility that I may come back to Aurora at some point in the future. If I find myself with a lot more free-time and without any projects that speak to me, I could easily see myself continuing the story by adding another part to it. Perhaps levels 11-20? I actually have the entire rest of the story outlined (taking our characters all the way to level 50) and have had several productive conversations with people about where to take the narrative so I do know what I would want to do should I choose to do it. That said, I don't want to make any guarantees. As such, I decided that this point would be an excellent stopping point, with the story ending on a high and hopeful note in a matter that could satisfy as a complete end should I never touch the story again (or, God forbid, get hit by a bus tomorrow). On a side note, should any adventurer endeavor to write their own story, know that the land of Aurora is a playground that I have no problem sharing. If anyone wants to use this setting for their own work, do so with my blessing. Cheers.