A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands

Book 2: Chapter 39: Hard Mode

Smooth and powerful are the winds of change brought by the words of prophecy. They cut through mountains like a river and are inexorable as the tides.

- On the Prophecy of the Gods, by Gideon de Salavia 376 AC.

The rain, as always, continued to beat down against the camp in a never-ending torrent. The inside of the great ‘tent’, where we waited out the rains, was filled mostly with the blue light of the crystal Zajasite, and open fires were being limited to only essential cooking activities. The whole situation began to remind me of my time in the mines.

If I was to ascend to the next level of skill, I needed to shake things up. Though smashing someone in the face had a certain cathartic appeal, a part of me much preferred having the option to kill someone from afar.

Currently, as things stood, I could hit a stationary target nine times out of ten at fifty paces and a moving target at about half that. Having learned to lead a target, the rest was simply a guessing game when it came to aiming, much like playing a game of rock-paper-scissors. Only in this game, a bolt to the body was the price of losing.

However, Dumuzi, rather trusting of my skills at healing and the padding that he wore, made a game of it with me. If he could run between posts that we had set up without being hit, three times in a row, I would give him a whole copper piece. This incentivized the boy to be creative. As if not getting hit by a blunt bolt was not incentive enough. He dodged, jumped, rolled, stopped, and started. All in an effort to earn just a bit more coin.

There was one way to make this significantly harder, but it seemed almost silly to me. Still, it was worth a try, I thought to myself. At least this way, the boy would be able to bring some more money back to his mother.

Wrapping a strip of cloth around my eyes, I started to fire blindly at the boy. I really tried to concentrate, trying to guess his position by the noise that he made running across the grass, and thus timing my shots. Miraculously, I was able to get one glancing hit to his shoulder, but once we had finished for the day, I ended up giving him more money than I had intended, more than the brat deserved.

I needed to try something new, so the next day found me doing a variety of things. I tried switching hands, attempted to feel the boy’s position by some non-existent sixth sense, and heaven forbid, I even tried praying, to see if that worked. As expected, none of these things were effective. Dumuzi was smiling smugly, for he knew that today he would be bringing back even more coin.

Irritation had begun to show on my face, and it was, in fact, this negative emotion that ended up inspiring my next breakthrough. Who was this little rascal who thought himself better than me, I wondered, which prompted me to use Identify on him before donning my blindfold again.

Dumuzi Kalkassin - (Human lvl.7) Health: 81/81 Stamina: 21/37

Mana: 6/6

For some reason, this new information made me even more determined to hit him and wipe the smug smile from his face. I was surprised to see that the numbers that represented his Status moved across my ‘user interface’ - and where the numbers of his Status were, the boy most certainly was. That was it! Because I was blindfolded, the boy was not bothering to dodge or zig-zag, he was merely making a beeline toward his goal. Calmly, I pressed the trigger, loosing a blunted bolt that hit my target and caused him to yelp, more in surprise than in pain. The boy was now only one health point down, and I had many more bolts left in my quiver. I imagined him pausing in shock and looking in my direction, wondering if it was just luck or the divine that had guided the last bolt. Plenty more where those came from, I sniggered to myself, as I took in my new notifications.

You have learned Blind-Fighting (lvl.1)

You have learned Crossbows (lvl.4)

That was more like it. The powers-that-be deigned to recognize my efforts. Progress, at last. Perhaps, this day I could hit the boy eighty more times for some more experience to contribute toward my next level up? No, I thought better of it, that would reduce the reputation and relationship points with Catalina, which could make things more difficult from here on out. Best play it safe. On the other hand, hurting him would allow me to practice my Heal spell.

An evil grin spread across my face. I was determined to make the boy work for his dinner.