The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1) (23 page)

“Is there anything else I can do for
you good sir,” Hafiz asked.

“Do you have any maps? Magic or
otherwise?”

“I have a few maps of the surrounding
areas and waterways, and one other item. Please give me a moment sir.” The
white clad merchant walked to the back.

He came back after a few minutes. In
his hands was a two foot long parchment that was bound with a green and yellow
striped ribbon.

“This is a Traveler’s Map, sir. Are
you familiar with their guild?”  Richter shook his head.

“They are a potpourri of different
skills and races. Some are magic users, others are fighters, some are simple
woodsmen, and the only thing they have in common is a love of travel. Either
singly or in groups they move across the land and create maps of the world.
They sell these for exorbitant fees to the rich and powerful. The price is paid
however, because this is actually an extremely versatile tool! It provides
access to whatever information the Traveler imparted to this map. You can even
do so mentally without opening the physical scroll. Finally owning the
parchment lets you add your own geographic information. As the map is bound to
you, the physical map will only show information that you wish shared!”

The item sounded amazing! As the
description grew more detailed however, Richter’s heart began to sink. This
must be an item of incredible cost! True he probably had the gems to pay for
it, but Richter was not one to squander money. He might be looking at an
eternity here, and being careless with money today could means centuries of
hard times ahead.

The reluctance on his face must have
been apparent. Hafiz moderated his excited tone, “Well as I said, normally this
is only an item for the wealthiest of patrons, but the information contained
within is only as current as when the map was made. The particular Traveler
that made the map lived at least two hundred years ago, possibly a good deal
longer ago than that. It was found in the belongings of a recently departed
nobleman. His family had fallen on hard times because of his love of the
bottle. As such, he left his children with few assets and even less regard for
him. They sold his items quickly and cheaply. So you see, with this particular
map, I have no idea about the usefulness of any of the information contained
within. The enchantments will still work either way though, sir, so it is a
valuable item nonetheless. If you are interested, I could relinquish it for
only one more small diamond.”

Richter understood what Hafiz was
saying. The information was most likely hopelessly out of date. It was a risk
to buy it. Admittedly he could make his own maps, and so the item was very
useful in and of itself. Xuetrix the imp had said The Land was bigger than the
Earth. If that was true he had seen less than 1% of 1% so far. Richter weighed
the pros and cons and decided that even if the Traveler’s information was
useless, the map itself was a good investment in his future. After all, G Maps
had been about the most used app on his phone. He did need to know one thing
though.

“How much are these diamonds worth,
Hafiz?”

“Well sir, each is high quality and
cut finely. So per carat each will be worth fifty gold coins.”

Richter’s eyes bulged again. Five
thousand dollars! He dreaded asking the next question, but couldn’t help
himself. “So how many carats were in the diamonds I have already traded you?”

“The diamonds you traded for the bag
were two carats each. I will trade the map for this last diamond that is a bit
over one carat,” the merchant replied promptly.

Richter sighed deeply. He almost wished
he didn’t know. His calculations had been off. Those two diamonds had been
worth more than his first car, a lot more! He tried to comfort himself that he
couldn’t take it with him when he died, but he realized that now he could! He
could and would take it with him! He tried to focus on the big picture, but his
mind shouted that twenty five thousand bucks worth of stones was a pretty damn
big picture!

Richter finally closed his eyes and rubbed
the spot on his ear that always relaxed him. He had followed George Takei on
facebook
, and one day it had showed a pressure point called
“Shen Men.” Apparently it translated to “heavenly gate.” He had tried rubbing
it, and actually found it was very relaxing! He closed his eyes to try to find
the same peace with the gentle massage. Surprisingly a prompt came up. It was
very strange seeing something even with his eyes closed.

Congratulations! You have learned the
subskill: Pressure Points. Certain points on bodies can harm or heal. In
unarmed combat, certain spots will draw your attention, and you will know
intuitively what they do. This is a subskill of Unarmed Combat. As you have
learned this subskill, you have also learned Unarmed Combat.

Congratulations! You have learned the
skill: Unarmed Combat. You can attack and defend yourself without the crutch of
weapons.

Thank you
Hikaru
Sulu! Richter was stacking up these skills! Taking his new skill as an omen, he
nodded to Hafiz, and pushed the diamond across the table, picking up the map.
“How do I use it?”

Again Hafiz touched the map and a
white light flared leaving a clear ownership gem in its place, “Simply break
the seal and pick up the gem,” he said.

Richter did as instructed.

You have found: Traveler’s Map. Would
you like to accept ownership? Yes or No?

As if he had paid all that dough for
nothing! He accepted “Yes,” and a small map icon appeared at the corner of his
gaze. The gem crumpled to dust after he accepted ownership. He selected the
icon, and a translucent almost opaque screen appeared to fill most of his
visual field. It was like looking down from above. The map was centered on Law,
and the city took up about half the screen. But what if I want to see more or a
different scale, Richter thought. Immediately a bar appeared vertically at the
edge of the map. Focusing he could make the slider on the bar move up and down
and the map zoomed in and out. At maximum zoom, Richter could make out
individual streets in the city. At minimal zoom the map showed Law as a small
circle. The Kingdom of Yves was a roughly circular patch of green with a dotted
line surrounding it. To the east of the kingdom was a yellow patch written as
‘Plains of Gold,’ and just north were the ‘Singing Hills’ and ‘Whisper Woods of
Grevnt
.’ Richter could see the Serrated Mountains and
north of them was the Kingdom of
Rione
, but it was
called the ‘Villages of
Rione
.’ Several other small
kingdoms dotted the map. Farther north was a large swath of greyed out area
called simply ‘the Wilds.’ The Forest of Nadria occupied the right side of the
map. Going to medium zoom many dungeons, caves, crypts and other points of
interest could be seen. It was strange, that some areas had more color on the
map and others were almost monochromatic. He soon figured out that the colored
areas followed his own path since coming to the Land. He had to guess that more
color meant more current information. This map was amazing!

He zoomed out to maximum and the
colored part of the map became a small island in a sea of black. He zoomed back
in. Off to the bottom right there was a small glowing arrow. Richter changed
his focus and the map slid in that direction, no longer focused on the Kingdom.
It moved past the Forest, over
open ocean
and then
settled over a series of islands. The map named them ‘Isles of
Lonyu
.’ On the second biggest was a glowing marker. When he
zoomed in he saw was a small dilapidated castle. Another prompt filled the
screen.

You have discovered the Lost Citadel
of the Mage
Poquatil
.

You have been offered a Quest: Right
an Ancient Wrong I. The Traveler that made this map accepted a quest that
remains undone.  As he is now dead, and no previous owners of this map
have completed it, the task now falls to you.  You must travel to the Lost
Citadel and find the remains of the mage
Poquatil
. 
Unlock the mystery of the Lost Citadel. Reward: Unknown. Yes or No?

A lost castle on a hidden island
discovered on a treasure map? Uhhh, yes please! It seemed like the kind of
quest that gave legendary of even artifact gear! It also seemed like the kind
of quest that had monsters that would use his balls for
ju
ju
bees at his current level.  Looking closely
at the map he saw that the citadel was considered a timeworn dungeon. 
That meant it was at least a thousand years old, and possibly up ten thousand
years old!  He couldn’t tackle it at his current low level, but that
wouldn’t always be a problem now would it? No, it would not, Richter thought
with a smile. Then he thought, it’s kind of creepy to be talking to yourself in
the third person. I need to stop this. He dismissed the map.

A second prompt had been hidden
behind the map.

Congratulations! You have learned the
skill: Map Making. Through careful observation of the world around you can map
everywhere you have been. Finding additional maps will add to your personal
map.

Hafiz had been looking at him as he
worked with the maps functions. “Are you satisfied with your purchase, sir?”

“Oh yes,” Richter replied with a
smile.

“
Hazaah
!
Most happy to have been of service then,” Hafiz replied with a smile of his
own. “I will add these other standard maps as part of the price with the
diamond. Now is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Not right now, but I may need a
varied amount of items later. I will need them brought to Leaf’s Crossing,
could you arrange that?”

“I am ever you humble servant, good
sir,” Hafiz said bowing his head. Hafiz handed him a bundle of arrow shafts to
affix the arrowheads too. Richter had said he was going to use his sprite
arrows, but Sion had told him mixing magic was never wise. Even imbuing an
arrow that was already enchanted could be dangerous. Deciding to follow his
friend’s advice, Richter thanked Hafiz and accepted the shafts. He then
equipped his rings and belt. He felt a perceptible change in his body as it
filled out slightly reflecting his increased stats. Shaking hands with the
merchant one last time, Richter and Sion left the shop. Two bells tolled as
they walked outside letting them know there wasn’t much time left before they
had to meet back at the inn.

They followed
Terrod’s
instructions to reach
Aldimah’s
Focus. The store
front looked much as
Terrod
had explained it. The
panes of purple glass were varied in color. As they walked into the door they heard
a chime. A tall man came to the front. Not wasting any time, Richter said, “
Terrod
sent us.”

“What does he need,” the man replied.
There was none of the obsequiousness that Hafiz had displayed.

“It’s actually myself and my friend
that are looking to trade,” Sion said.

“Then what do
You
need,” he asked gruffly.

“I’m looking for spells, my companion
specifically for Air Magic, but I’m interested in anything useful.”

“By the laws of the King, magic can
only be taught to and by members of licensed guilds.”

The merchant stared at them both, no
one speaking.

Richter placed a small jewel on the
counter.

He looked at what Richter had dropped
and then looked back up.

“But laws don’t put food on the table,
right? Come to the back. Ryun! Come watch the front!”

A teen aged boy walked up from the
back to stand behind the counter. Richter and Sion followed the man, walking
through a back door into another room. He sat a circular table and offered for
them to join him.

“Are you
Aldimah
,”
Richter asked.

“No,
Aldimah
is right behind you,” pointing behind Richter and to the left.

A hand gripped his shoulder just as
the man pointed, “Holy
sh
-!” Richter thought only the
three of them were in the room! Scrabbling to turn quickly, he knocked over a
chair. A golden skinned elf stood before him. She had silver hair, not with
age, but as if someone had spun silver coins. She wore blue robes with arcane
sigils in silver thread embroidered along the hem. She looked like she was
Richter’s age, but he realized you couldn’t really tell in such a long lived
race. A wry smile was on her face as she said, “I’m sorry. I get so bored
cooped up in here.”

“Which doesn’t make it right,” the
merchant said in admonishment.

“I’m sorry,” she said contritely
letting her head hang slightly. “
Hmph
,” the man just
grunted in reply, but he seem mollified.

“Please don’t give it another
thought,” Richter replied with a faint smile. She really was remarkably
beautiful. “Are you
Aldimah
?”

She gave a small laugh, her voice
resounding with the purest tones. If the Wood Sprites were woodwinds when they
spoke, she sounded like a violin. “
Aldimah
is my
grandfather’s name. He founded this shop. He and the rest of my family left Law
several years ago. I have been running the shop with our good friend
Killik
,” indicating the merchant. “You may call me
Leandra.”