The Mountain Valley War Read online

  World Tree Online

  The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes

  M.A. Carlson

  World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes © 2019 by M.A. Carlson. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by B Rose Disignz

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  M.A. Carlson

  Visit my website at https://macarlsonauthor.wordpress.com/

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: May 2019

  M.A. Carlson

  ISBN- 978-1-7923-0945-8

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13 – Olaf

  Chapter 14 – Heath

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20 - Gras

  Chapter 21 – Gras

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28 – Micaela

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31 – Rose

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36 – Olaf

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Epilogue

  STATS, EQUIPMENT, SKILLS, AND SPELLS

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Prologue

  There is a place hidden in the World Tree that none may reach except by the will of the owner of said place. This was a place of power. A source of Chaos. Here, bathed in darkness and shadows sat a ‘young being’, ‘Its’ short legs kicking about over the edge of the seat of a throne that was much too big for ‘Its’ small body, though do not let ‘Its’ youth trick you into any semblance of ease or safety. This ‘young being’ was anything but safe. He . . . she . . . It was something more, for now ‘It’ was how ‘It’ chose to be.

  ‘It’ sat back in ‘It’s throne surrounded by digital screens and displays, each one following one of ‘It’s . . . enemies wasn’t the right word . . . adversaries . . . yes, adversaries was the right word. These adventurers from a world beyond his reach, these . . . humans. Beings wrapped in a different skin, hiding who they truly were . . . ones who continued to face what ‘It’ unleashed, succeeding or failing in equal measure. These clever ones were worth watching . . . worth challenging. Yet ‘It’ knew, there was one being ‘It’ ignored. One ‘It’ refused to watch. One that ‘It’ hated and loved in equal measure. One that continued to surprise ‘It’ time and again.

  “They have begun to arrive, sir,” said a very formal voice, what one would expect of a butler or in this case a prissy underling. Capable to be sure, but still stuck up.

  “Is he among them?” ‘It’ asked the only other occupant of the room, ‘It’s eyes still fixed on the screens hovering in the air in front of ‘It’.

  “He is, sir,” answered the underling.

  “The plan is in place?” ‘It’ demanded.

  “Yes, master, I have made absolutely certain your plans will be carried out,” said the underling.

  “And the contingency?” ‘It’ asked, turning slightly from the screen to eye ‘It’s servant.

  The underling gasped and began to shake as the eyes stared through him, into him, and laid bare all that was. “Rea-Rea-Read- Ready, si-si-si-sir,” he stuttered, barely able to get the words out.

  Turning ‘Its’ eye away from the underling and back to ‘Its’ screens. The ‘It’ ignored ‘Its’ servant’s rapid retreat from the room.

  “Soon,” ‘It’ whispered softly to ‘Itself’, a new screen appearing in the air in front of ‘It’. The one ‘It’ would not watch was there with his companions. Soon, he would know ‘Its’ pain. Soon, Byron Jacobs would face a puzzle even he could not solve.

  The mad cackle of Chaos incarnate was soon echoing through the empty void.

  Chapter 1

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, my friend,” came the voice of my recently Minotaurized friend, Olaf Crushhammer. The large bullman stood looming just in front of me as I blinked back to awareness. That’s right, I died to a band of player killers. That would explain why I was waking up in the graveyard with my friend Olaf waiting for me. Just behind him, I could see his wife Micaela, another Minotaur, standing guard with her two axes in hand and her head moving left to right, and back again, as she scanned the surrounding area.

  We were surrounded by rocks, tall pine trees, and grave markers. The pines were rather sparse looking but there were enough of them that I couldn’t see beyond a hundred yards, if that. The ground was mostly barren aside from the rocks and a few plants I couldn’t recognize.

  I knew that we would be under threat when we arrived in the Hammer and Anvil Mountain Valley province. I knew because just before our departure from Root City, I found a flyer offering money and easy experience to players willing to fight for Anvilton, the rival city of Hammerton. Hammerton being the city the Duchess Mardi called home. The very same Duchess my friends and I promised to protect until her conflict with Anvilton was resolved. Admittedly, we were not off to the best start. Hopefully, my own contribution to hire players to fight on behalf of Hammerton would pay off.

  Remembering what was at stake, my vision was drawn to the status of the rest of my party. Thankfully, Rose, our tank, and Baby, our healer, were in perfect health, hopefully on their way to the safety of Hammerton. Heath’s health seemed to dip and raise back up regularly, but given his past as a player killer himself, there was a good chance he was having the time of his life right now. I never thought I would be so happy to have such a friend, and despite how . . . shady Heath could be, he really was a good friend and surprisingly reliable . . . in his own way. It also didn’t look like he was actually going to die any time soon.

  “Do we wait to see if Heath joins us?” Micaela asked, still scanning the surroundings for any potential threat. Micaela was a Shaman by class. It meant she was a kind of spirit warrior. She had numerous totems that were inhabited by various animal spirits that were capable of various effects. Her two axes for example were totems. They were a pair of wolf spirits she named Butch and Sundance, where Butch had a physical enhancement and Sundance had a fire enhancement. She also had armor pieces that were totems. Apparently, her totems also talked a lot, each one possessing its own Artificial Intelligence (AI). She was also by far, the most excitable of the group.

  “He’s probably having the time of his life, babe. He’ll come join us when he’s ready,” offered Olaf, his words mirroring my thoughts from only moments ago. He pulled one of the two hand-cannons from the holsters at his waist and checked it to make sure it was loaded and ready, then doing the same with the other. Olaf was a Minotaur Artillery by class. Eventually, he would be able to get an actual cannon and an artillery crew to man it,
which I was kind of excited to see.

  Satisfied with the state of his hand-cannons, Olaf continued, “We should get a move on, it’s not wise to remain exposed like this. Seeing as we haven’t seen any others respawn here, I think it is safe to assume this graveyard is dedicated to those who represent Hammerton.”

  “I agree with Olaf,” I said, taking a moment to check my status page.

  Level:

  10

  Experience:

  22.03%

  HP (Health Points):

  2,220/2,220

  MP (Mana Points):

  2,000/2,000

  SP (Stamina Points):

  1,300/1,300

  Strength:

  103

  - Melee Damage Modifier

  +103

  Dexterity:

  120

  - Melee Critical Strike Chance

  12.00%

  - Hit Chance

  66.00%

  - Dodge Chance

  12.00%

  Endurance:

  222

  Stamina:

  130

  Intellect:

  200

  - Spell Critical Strike Chance

  20.00%

  Wisdom:

  120

  Charisma:

  112

  Health Regeneration per 10-seconds:

  121

  Mana Regeneration per 10-seconds:

  70

  Stamina Regeneration per 10-seconds:

  65

  Holy Spell Damage Bonus:

  235

  Holy Spell Healing Bonus:

  190

  Carrying Capacity in Lbs.:

  515

  Thankfully, my death didn’t cost me all the experience points I had accumulated after reaching level 10. If he had been within 10 levels of me, all the experience I earned between level 10 to level 11, and 5% of my money would have been stolen by the killer. I did a quick check of my system messages, they showed a lot of stat gains, closing each message one by one until I got to my death message.

  Zero Chilly Lvl 29 does 127-damage to you with a glancing blow from an ‘Ice Shard’ spell.

  Zero Chilly Lvl 29 has murdered you. You will be automatically transported and revived at the nearest graveyard.

  Because there were 19 levels difference, that meant he got none of the experience or gold, though at level 29 it wouldn’t be much for him if he had gotten the experience with the way the experience requirements increased with each level gained. I think I was happier about not losing the gold than I was the experience.

  Clearing away all the remaining message windows, I was finally ready to act. I took a moment to rebuff my friends. First, I cast ‘Lesser Combat Blessing’.

  Lesser Combat Blessing

  Level: 58

  Experience: 16.41%

  Spell Duration: 10 minutes

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Spell Mana Cost: 50

  Spell Effect (Active): Increase Stamina +15, Increase Strength +15, Increase Dexterity +14, increase Endurance +14.

  Then I added ‘Lesser Mental Fortification’.

  Lesser Mental Fortification

  Level: 58

  Experience: 93.41%

  Spell Duration: 10 minutes

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Spell Mana Cost: 50

  Spell Effect (Active): Increase Intellect +15, Increase Wisdom +15, Increase Resistance to Fear 14%, Increases Resistance to Mind Control 14%.

  And finally, I blessed each of our weapons with ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ to add some extra damage if we ran into anyone or anything unsavory lurking in the area.

  Lesser Holy Imbuement

  Level: 59

  Experience: 57.25%

  Spell Duration: 10 minutes

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Spell Mana Cost: 50

  Spell Effect (Active): Imbued Weapon now deals holy damage causing an additional 30-31 damage per hit.

  Spell Effect (Active): Imbued Shield now deals holy damage causing 31-32 damage per block.

  My attention was drawn to the rustling of the underbrush. I was worried for a moment we were going to be attacked again, but those worries were quickly silenced when the familiar form of Vision emerged.

  “Vision, do you see Rose and Baby yet?” Micaela asked, focusing on her small blue spirit wolf cub . . . well, small compared to her. Even with changing from an Ogre to a Minotaur, Micaela was still a head taller than I was. The hot pink hair on top of her head looked even more out of place now than it had on her Ogre form.

  “I see them boss,” the wolf cub replied. “They are that way,” he added, his snout pointing to Micaela’s left.

  “Anyone after them?” I asked, walking closer.

  “A few, but they will not get to them before they reach the patrol of short ones like Mardi,” Vision answered.

  “Good boy, Vision,” I praised the wolf cub, leaning down and scratching him briefly behind the ears.

  “Awe, why did you stop?” the pup asked, pouting.

  “More later buddy, we need to get moving,” I replied, my own spear out and ready. My spear, ‘Spear of Gungnir I’, was powerful and would only get more powerful as I continued to upgrade it until it became a legendary weapon.

  “Lead the way, Vision,” said Micaela, sounding much more serious than she usually did.

  Vision led us through the rocky terrain of the valley with much more ease than we were able to. The ground was rough and littered with rocks and stone formations that we were forced to go around or carefully climb over, which slowed us down significantly. It was while climbing over one of the rock outcroppings that I got another look at the valley. Based on the positions of the two Dwarven strongholds, we were definitely on the Hammerton side of the valley, somewhere between the portal and the city of Hammerton itself. It gave me hope that we would catch up with Rose and Baby.

  “Uh oh,” said Vision.

  “What?” I asked, not liking the sound of that ‘uh oh’.

  “Um, Rose and Baby are with the other short ones now . . . but . . . there are more adventurers chasing after them,” said Vision, then he added, “a lot more.”

  “We need to run,” I said.

  “Love to, mate, but this terrain isn’t exactly friendly to such a notion,” said Olaf, his foot tapping against one of the larger rocks.

  “It’s okay, Vision, guide Bye-bye then come back for us. Bye-bye, your acrobatics skill should allow you to move over this terrain easier than us, right? So, use it and save our friends. We’ll catch up as soon as we can,” said Micaela.

  “You got it, boss,” said Vision, picking up speed suddenly.

  I would have argued against splitting the party, but it seemed we didn’t have much of a choice right now. I leaped, spending SP liberally to catch up to the spirit wolf.

  Micaela was right, once I started applying my ‘Acrobatics’ skill to move over the rough terrain, it was easy enough to navigate without having to slow down.

  Acrobatics

  Level: 93

  Experience: 16.14%

  Combat Movement

  Dodge Chance: +46.50%

  Skill Stamina Cost: 5 per second

  “Bear ahead, it will probably chase us,” warned Vision.

  “Doesn’t matter, just keep going,” I ordered. My mind was occupied with the fact that more players had shown up to chase after the Duchess. Either they had a second wave, or they respawned and gave chase just that quickly, my bet was on the second wave. If their terrain was as rough as ours was, then they wouldn’t even be halfway clear of their graveyard. On the other hand, maybe someone on the other side decided it would be a good idea to improve the path from the graveyard.

  The bear looked like any other bear I had ever seen in an image file on the web. Though I will admit, it was more imposing than I thought it would be. The was clawing at a large tree when it noticed us running toward it. Vision ghosted when he got close only to reappear
on the other side of it and keep running. That left the bear staring at me like I was a T-Bone. The bear charged at me and I simply flipped over him and kept going. I could hear the bear behind me skidding on the rough ground, disturbing rocks as he turned around.

  I kept going, ignoring the bear, figuring eventually it would give up. Then I felt an impact to my behind and saw my HP dip a little.

  “Stupid, bear, leave me alone, I don’t have time to kill you right now!” I yelled over my shoulder, but it didn’t deter the beast.

  Ahead of me was a large rock I would normally have pommel horsed over, instead I flipped, using the brief moment I was in the air to hit the bear with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, stunning it and giving me some time to gain space on it.

  Lesser Holy Shock

  Level: 41

  Experience: 87.24%

  Spell Damage: 51-56

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant Cooldown: 30 seconds

  Spell Mana Cost: 182

  Spell Effect (Active): A shock of holy energy attacks the nervous system of your target stunning it and increasing physical damage received by 41 for 5 seconds.

  I kept running, even with the bear roaring behind me, seeming to not give up. My stun serving only to anger the beast.

  “Just ahead,” said Vision, ghosting next to me and vanishing from sight.

  “Go back and show Micaela and Olaf the way,” I ordered the unseen wolf.

  “Okay, be safe,” Vision’s voice carried on the wind, but the source couldn’t be seen.

  I kept going, rushing up from the rear of the group, slowing down only when I saw one of them. I was hoping to blend in just long enough to make it to the center of the group of players.