Chương 57: Chapter 58: Lava Lords

I shoot a Fire Bolt at the lava lord, and get informed that it does zero damage. I suppose that makes sense that it would be immune to fire. So all I have is Magical Dart, which only does 27 damage. That hardly seems helpful. I can cast it maybe thirty times before I run out of MP. That's not even a thousand points of damage. Still, it makes me feel like I'm helping. Like I'm doing something other than just letting my spell do some damage.

So I fire off the Magical Darts every few seconds, just to have something to do. And to help me count. After Thrax breathes his acid on the lava lord, I start firing off darts every thirty seconds, counting the time between sprays of acid. I'm pretty sure it's a matter of minutes, and I want to keep track. Sure enough, it's about ten minutes later that he unleashes another burst of acid breath. And that Mab's Rage finally dies down. It seems to have done its job, though.

The second and third lava lords who have come to join the fight are both below half health, standing there and taking the damage as it wears them slowly down. My damage did practically nothing, but the ice spears seem to be doing about 500 damage every time they hit, and the dragon is casting them every five seconds. So that's like six thousand damage a minute. That's why the original lava lord goes down after another hit, and why I'm starting to wonder if Thrax can actually do this.

Can he kill them fast enough for us to actually defeat them? Will I be able to go down into the caldera and see the spawn point?

"My magic is starting to run dry," Thrax says to me as he takes out the second lava lord. A fourth has come up and joined the battle. Or rather, joined the time where we keep slaughtering them until we run out of resources.

"And I tire of hovering here."

"I've got nothing that can hurt them," I say.

"My spell has a two hour cool down."

"As does mine," he says.

"Should we go down and fight the wounded one?"

"You've already killed two of them," I say.

"If you can safely kill another, then go for it."

"Hold tight," he says. He probably should've warned me that fighting against a lava lord tends to incur a lot of collateral damage. As he claws at it, he rips chunks of it away. Some of those chunks go flying. Some of them come flying and hit him. And one of them even comes and hits me. The lava lands on my leg, and I frantically brush it off. It doesn't hurt, because it doesn't have time to get through Shell. But I have no doubt that it would have, given time.

The lava, while it's on my leg, deals 100 points of damage per second. The fact that I got it off in about three seconds doesn't make me feel any better about the battle. Still, I wonder how much damage Thrax is taking. I have the mana to cast Healing Touch on him again if it gets bad. I watch his health bar as he fights. It declines pretty steadily, dropping down to maybe sixty percent before I cast Healing Touch, bringing him back up to full.

He's down to almost half again by the time he kills the lava lord, throwing its corpse at the other two who have arrived and are already attacking him. He then leaps away, unfurls his wings, and flies off, landing in the water just off the edge of the island to put out the lava still on his body. The water hisses and steams. You have defeated lava lord x3. You receive (300, 000/2) 150, 000 experience. That puts me at level 29. Almost level 30. Nine thousand experience away from level thirty.

Nine thousand experience away from another talent. Which is definitely going to be toughness. And now, I have eighteen points to spend on my stats. I decide to put six of them into charisma, six of them into manipulation, and six of them into strength. I want my strength to still be high, and I want the chance to convince Thrax not to kill me to be that much higher. Sixty is a lot of charisma. Thirty five might not be a lot of manipulation, but it's better than what I had before.

"I'm so close to level thirty," I say.

"How close?" Thrax asks.

"Close enough that convincing you not to kill me would certainly get me there," I say.

"But killing you is part of the plan, Caleb." He turns to look at me, confusion on his reptilian face.

"We are trying to get the maximum out of your death. Will another battle put you at level 30?"

"Yes. Why?"

"We do not know where the threshold is to make your death penalty worse. You lost more points the second time you died than you did the first, correct?"

"Yeah," I say.

"I only lost five from each attribute the first time, but I lost ten the second."

"And you were level ten the first time, and in the twenties the second?" Shit. I think I see what he's getting at. I slide off Thrax's back and into the water. Then I move up on shore. I don't know where I'm trying to go. There's nowhere I can run. What am I going to do, go back and fight the lava lords instead? They're a common monster on this island. Who knows what else is here? This island will kill me, just as sure as Thrax will.

"Where are you going?" he asks, following me up onto the shore.

"I- I don't know," I say.

"I just know that I don't want to die again." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"You have to," Thrax says.

"It is for the best."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to die."

"We should kill you before you reach level thirty," he says.

"It is fortuitous that you did not go over that level. We would have had to wait until you hit level thirty nine. And that might take some time."

"We could still do that," I say.

"That would get me two more talents, and those carry over too."

"Put your equipment in your item bag." I really don't want to die. But I don't want to lose my equipment, either. I'd rather go down fighting, but this isn't going to be a fight, not even with my equipment. I might as well put it in the bag. Maybe he'll have trouble killing something unarmed and unable to protect itself. Maybe we've become friends.

"Thrax, please think about this," I say. I put my sword into my bag, then unstring my bow and put it in as well.

"You don't have to kill me at all. We can keep doing this, and we can level up to the point that I'll be able to take on the god slayer myself. And if I can't, then we can level me back up so that I can take him on again. And again, if need be." Thrax thinks for a moment. I can feel hope starting to rise in my chest.

"The armor as well," he says. My hope dashes. I kick off my boots and put them into the bag, then undo my bracers and add them.

"You said you were going to give me items worth keeping," I say.

"You said that you would help me."

"I did say that," he says, as I take off my armor and add that to my bag. There's another pause, and I get more notifications. Maybe the higher charisma is actually helping.

"But it is too great of a risk. If I go to get you your treasure, you will level up again."

"No I won't," I say.

"I'm not that close. I'll just survive here. I'll avoid fighting anything. Even if I do fight something, I'm pretty sure it would kill me." Another pause. Are these charisma checks? Am I doing well?

"But what if you do manage to kill something on this island and level up while I am away?" he says.

"Then we will have to wait nine more levels before you are ready to be killed."

"So what? That took us all of one day to get me from level twenty two to level twenty nine. It won't take long to get almost to forty, will it?"

"We will have to fight more beings like the lava lords," he says.

"It will be difficult."

"But think of the experience you'll be getting," I say.

"How often do you fight except to hunt? Probably not all that often. You need an excuse to actually fight. And this is a good one, right? It'll get you more experience, which means getting you more levels, which means getting you closer to becoming a minor god. Right?" He pauses. The pause stretches, and for a second, I really do think he's considering it.

"And I'll be able to help more too," I say.

"With me being a higher level, that means I can help out when we fight things, do some more damage, make it easier on you. If I die, I'll have to reset everything, and then I won't be much help at all." Come on, Thrax. Give me this. Just don't kill me. Let me get to level thirty.

"I will consider your arguments," he says, and I let out a sigh of a relief.

"First, we must establish your spawning point."

"I respawn in Elmspire," I say.

"Yes. That is the problem."

"Why is that a problem?"

"Think how much easier this would be if you respawned on this island and we could immediately fight the lava lords." Shit. If he does this, if I let him get away with this, he's going to start killing me on the regular. On the other hand, he'll get me up in level rapidly before he kills me. We'll get this whole thing over in a matter of weeks instead of a year. And then I'll be strong enough to kill a god. But that will only be good for the stats. That won't help with skills.

"I don't know how to change where I respawn," I say.

"Hm," he says.

"That is a question that you should ask, then."

"Ask who?"

"The priest who resurrects you." He says.

"I will find you soon." I'm about to argue, about to make another point in my favor, ready to give another reason why he shouldn't kill me. And then I see his claw flashing. Notification: You are dead. Respawning. You have been reset to level 1. You have lost 10 points from each of your attributes. You have gained Negotiation up to level 6. You have gained Spellcraft up to 26. Your Magical Dart spell has increased in level. Respawning in Elmspire. Selecting equipment: none available.

I'm back on the table when I open my eyes, and there's that same elf girl sitting next to me. Same sad smile in her her eyes.

"Welcome back," she says.

"Do you know where you are?"

"I'm in Elmspire," I say, sitting up.

"And my name is Caleb Strong. Last time you held up three fingers. This time you're holding up two."

"You've revived intact," she says. She gets up.

"The shop is open to you to buy new equipment, should you have any money."

"Wait," I say.

"Before you go. How do I change where my respawn point is?"

"Your interface has an option to change your spawn point. You can set the point somewhere new once per day. But it is recommended that you not change the spawn point unless you're sure it is a safe location. Resurrection leaves you very vulnerable."

"I'll keep that in mind," I say.

"Thank you." She smiles at me, then walks off, leaving me to my own devices. I go into my spatial bag and pull out all of my equipment, rearming myself. I don't have the hit points to stand up in a fight, but my stats aren't bad. Also, I have some quests to turn in. First, though, I need to buy more arrows and maybe a new weapon, if I can find something more effective than what I have. I go into the shop nearby, and the man behind the counter smiles widely as I enter in.

"Welcome back," he says. He looks me up and down.

"I can see you had backup equipment in your spatial bag. That is wonderful."

"Yeah, I still need some supplies, though."

"Of course you do," he says.

"Step right up, let me show you our wares."

"Do you have any high quality bows?" I ask. I set the bone bow on the counter.

"Anything better than this?" He picks up the bow and inspects it for a while, then gives me a smile.

"I do, in fact, have something better. But it will be expensive. Do you have money or other items to trade in?" I show him my ranger's blade and the color of my money, to the tune of 32 gold and 120 silver. I also pull out the ten gems that I took from a jewelry store back in Minneapolis. He seems interested in those, at least mildly.

"Anything else?" he asks. I take out snake meat, giant snake fangs, and rhinoblade horns. He seems shocked at the rhinoblade horns.

"These are hard to come by," he says. He looks at what is spread out on the table between us. I only put out five of the snake fangs and three of the rhinoblade horns. I want to check to see if there's a quest that the remaining five that I kept can be turned in for some quick experience. Still, he looks at everything that I presented and then goes back into his stockroom to get something.

"I'll trade you everything you've put forward for this," he says when he comes back. Stellar wood recurve bow. Very rare weapon 19/30. Base damage: 125-135. +4 Agility.

"How about all the items and the gems, but I keep the gold and silver?" He rubs his chin, then shakes his head.

"I'll give you back ten of the gold," he says.

"And the silver," I say, holding out my hand. He takes my hand. I get a level of haggling, and I get an awesome new bow.