Reluctant Heroes Part 6 (Patreon)

One of the cheerleaders yawned. "I spy with my little eye, something brown."

"Is it a rock?" Rigby asked as he glanced over the flat and quite boring ground the group had been traveling through for the last couple of hours.

"Nope!" she replied with amusement, mixed with a healthy dose of boredom.

"Dirt?" one of the other cheerleaders asked sarcastically, wishing they had a mattress or something that would let them sleep in the back of the wagon or at least sprawl out or even pillows to help with the fact that this world hadn't invented shocks.

"Nope, try again," she teased as she glanced over at Dave's butt. 'At least we have some eye candy.'

"Hair," Zoe spoke up, having seen her glance at her hair.

"Your turn," she suggested, wishing she could flirt with Dave or Phil but they were on guard for goblins and other monsters and she wasn't quite bored enough to risk getting ambushed.

Zoe glanced over at where Myst was sitting on the back of the wagon conjuring clothes so that he could farm curses and tailoring patterns. "I spy something silky and pink."

Kara glanced over at the pair of silk panties Myst had just conjured and shook her head. "You're horrible at this game."

"I had a gameboy, I never bothered playing car games growing up," Zoe admitted, not really seeing a point in continuing the stupid game when they could have been doing something more interesting like figuring out how they were going to get home.

"You could always practice your skills," Rigby said then launched himself into a cartwheel.

"You're going to fall over before we stop for the night," Kara warned her brother.

"If I get tired, I'll just take a nap in the wagon, I don't take up a lot of space," Rigby argued as he ran up to the wagon that had gotten a bit ahead of the group because they'd been distracted and walking slower than they should. "Did you get anything useful?"

Myst pulled his attention away from the cursed silk shirt he'd just conjured and looked at Rigby then glanced at the wagon driver before looking back at Rigby. "Not really, I'm just working on unlocking tailoring patterns."

"Is that why no one is complaining that you're riding?" Rigby asked.

"Probably," Myst replied, fairly sure it had more to do with the fact that he'd paid for the wagon and riding in the back without any pillows was uncomfortable as hell, to the point where he was fairly sure he'd actually gotten some experience towards his Blunt Resistance skill. He used his new Salvage Enchantment skill on the shirt to identify the curse.

Itchy Shirt

Material: Silk

Enchantment: +1 Deflection

Cursed: Curse causes itching, activates when wet.

'Deflection? Nice, level three for the win,' Myst mused as he tossed the shirt into his Enchanting box and hit the button to study the enchantment. He grinned when he saw the notice that he'd learned the enchant and curse then salvaged it, creating a bolt of temporary mage silk and shard that would vanish in an hour.

"Are you going to do this all day?" Rigby asked.

"Probably," Myst replied as he conjured a bright orange parka that sent shivers down his spine because it reminded him a bit too much of Kenny. He quickly identified it, wanting to make sure it wouldn't curse him with bad luck just from existing.

Parka of Monster Attraction

Material: Fur and Synthetic Fiber

Enchantment: Warmth

Cursed: Severe Monster Attraction

"Yeah, no thanks," he muttered as he tossed the parka into his Enchanting menu to get the patterns. 'Maybe later when we've got better defenses.'

"Are you going to be able to enchant our gear?" Rigby asked hopefully.

"Eventually," Myst replied as he tossed the parka into his tailoring menu to get the pattern, wishing the kid would stop asking questions that volunteered information around people that he didn't trust.

"Even with the System it takes years to become a decent enchanter, most people that try never get anywhere," the driver spoke up without turning around.

Rigby turned to look at the wagon driver. "But enchanting is awesome!"

"It also takes a great deal of magic and expensive components," the driver replied.

'Or some tricks and a lot of magic,' Myst thought as he salvaged the parka, getting a temporary roll of orange fabric and a small bag of dust. He set the salvaged material next to him then glanced at the wagon driver, wondering what he'd done before becoming a wagon driver. 'Given his combat skills, probably a soldier.'

"Let me guess, you asked about an enchanted wagon?" Rigby asked.

The wagon driver laughed then turned around and looked at Rigby. "A long time ago. I'd just gotten back from a nasty run in the rain and I saw a noble's carriage sailing over the mud without a single issue, so yeah, I asked. Unfortunately, enchanting is expensive and size matters which means even basic enchantments are outside of my price range."

"That sucks," Rigby complained.

"That's life," the driver replied as he turned back to look at the road.

'Huh, I wonder if that's worth bothering with,' Myst mused as he brought up one of the skills he'd copied from the driver.

Smooth Ride: Lv 5

Effect: Passive: Reduces shocks of any [Wagon] or [Carriage] you're steering by [SkillLv]x4%.

He made a skill orb for his Scarlet's Cursed Garments skill and set it in his lap then brought both of the skills up in his Skill Manipulation menu and swapped [Clothing] and [Wagon] then hit the button. He winced slightly as the world twisted a touch before going back to normal.

Cloth Ride: Lv 5

Effect: Passive: Reduces shocks of any [Clothing] or [Carriage] you're steering by [SkillLv]x4%.

Conjure Cursed Wagon: Lv 1 [R]

Target: Conjuration

Range: [5]

Duration: [1]hour

Mana Cost: 200

Effect: Conjure [Wagon][Enchanted][Cursed][Random]

Conjures a Wagon with a random curse on it, quality improves with skill.

He frowned as he glanced at the mana cost. 'So much for being able to cast it.' He quickly used his garment orb then created another orb. He selected the 'new' Garment skill and the Cloth Ride skill and swapped [Carriage] for [Clothing] then hit the button and looked at his new conjuration skill.

Conjure Cursed Carriage: Lv 1 [R]

Target: Conjuration

Range: [5]

Duration: [1]hour

Mana Cost: 500

Effect: Conjure [Carriage][Enchanted][Cursed][Random]

Conjures a carriage with a random curse on it, quality improves with skill.

'Yeah, that's even worse,' he mused as used his Scarlet orb to get his skill back then turned the invalid skill into a skill orb and salvaged it for the dust. He created another skill orb for his conjuring spell and a copy of his Blade Mastery skill. He swapped [Swords and Knives] for [Clothing] and hit the button, causing the world to tilt and spin.

Conjure Cursed Blades: Lv 1 [R]

Target: Conjuration

Range: [5]

Duration: [1]hour

Mana Cost: 50

Effect: Conjure [Swords and Knives][Enchanted][Cursed][Random]

Conjures a blade with a random curse on it, quality improves with skill.

Cloth Mastery: Lv 1 [R]

Effect: Passive: Increase [Accuracy][[SkillLv]X20%] and [Damage][[SkillLv]X20%] with [Clothing].

Myst stared at the Cloth Mastery skill, surprised that it wasn't listed as an invalid skill. 'Huh, I'm going to have to see if punching something with my gloves counts or kicking someone with boots.' He looked at the cursed blade skill. 'Nice, I can actually cast that.' He glanced at the pile of temporary bags of enchanting dust and shards and grinned. 'On the other hand, I might as well have some fun.'

"What are you working on?" Rigby asked, curious why Myst was turning skill orbs into small black bags.

"A project," Myst replied as he brought up his Conjure Water skill.

Conjure Water: Lv 1

Target: [Container]

Range: [5][Feet]

Mana Cost: 3

Effect: Conjure [Up to Lv] gallons of [Water] in target.

He quickly created skill orbs for Conjure Water and Scarlet's Cursed Garments then brought the two skills up and swapped [Container] with [Clothes] and pushed the button. He smirked as the world spun and everything lurched.

Soak Clothes: Lv 1 [Un]

Target: [Clothes]

Range: [5][Feet]

Mana Cost: 3

Effect: Conjure [Up to Lv] gallons of [Water] in target.

Soak clothes by conjuring water.

Conjure Cursed Containers: Lv 1 [R]

Target: Conjuration

Range: [5]

Duration: [1]hour

Mana Cost: 50

Effect: Conjure [Containers][Enchanted][Cursed][Random]

Conjures a random container with a random curse on it, quality improves with skill.

'Now we're talking,' Myst thought excitedly as he used his skill orbs to get his skills back. 'That should give me all sorts of traps and magical improvements for containers, maybe even bags of holding if I'm lucky.'

"You're not going to actually answer any questions are you?" Rigby complained after he didn't say anything for a minute.

"I wasn't planning on it," Myst replied with amusement and cast his new spell, conjuring a shoddy looking jewelry box. 'I'm going to have to work on that.' He used his salvage skill to identify the curse on the box.

Jewelry Box of Weight

Material: Wood and Bronze

Curse: Contents weigh twice as much.

'Fair enough,' Myst thought as he swapped over to his carpentry tab and dropped the box in. He hit the button and grinned when he got a pattern for a jewelry box and a toggle for cheap products that dropped the time and material costs at the expense of quality. 'Sounds like a good way to get started once I get a shop set up.'

He pulled the box back out and did the same with the enchanting menu for the curse then started filling the box with the temporary dust, mostly because it didn't weigh enough to matter and he needed a container.

"Why not?" Rigby asked.

"Because I'm evil," Myst said, dropping his voice lower and dragging out the words. "I'd sing a song about it but I don't care enough to make one up on the spot."

"Does that mean it's my job as a hero to defeat you?" Rigby asked with a grin.

"Probably," Myst replied with amusement as he finished stuffing the box full of bags of dust. He carefully jumped off the back of the wagon. "Let's see if we can do something a bit more entertaining than practice conjuration skills."

"Like sparring?" Rigby asked hopefully.

"Something like that," Myst replied as he gestured dramatically and used his Conjure Cursed Carriage skill, burning nine bags of temporary magical dust and most of his mana to power the spell.

Sarah stared at the faded black weather-worn, abused and rickety stagecoach that Myst had just conjured out of thin air. "You're going to need to work on that."

"That's the idea," Myst replied as he used his salvage skill to identify the curse on the carriage that would probably fall apart if he tried to use it. "Bumpy ride?" he muttered as he checked his progress towards level 2 for his new skill. 'Maybe 5% which means this could take awhile before I'm going to be getting usable enchantments.'

"How did you?" Rigby blurted.

"Magic," Myst replied as he used his salvage skill to turn it into components, getting a temporary wooden wheel, door panel and bench as well as a bag of dust.

"How much mana did that take?" Sarah asked as she walked over.

"Five hundred, I burned some dust so I could cast it," Myst replied in a whisper as he worked on cycling the various pieces through his Carpentry menu so he'd have the patterns for later.

Rigby glanced at the wagon driver that was about thirty feet in front of them and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Isn't that what you use for enchanting?"

"Yeah, you can also burn it to fuel spells," Myst explained as he broke the wheel apart for the spokes. "Duel?" he asked as he handed one of the spokes to Rigby.

"Yes!" Rigby said cheerfully as he grabbed the spoke and jumped back into a sloppy fencing stance.

"En garde," Myst said as he proceeded to 'duel' the kid.

Kara laughed. "Kick his butt."

"Don't worry, the hero always wins," Rigby promised.

Myst laughed as he danced behind Sarah. "You're not a Disney hero and I'm not a Disney Villain, I shall defeat you for the glory of villains everywhere."

Sarah laughed as she stole Myst's sword then stabbed between his chest and his arm.

"I have been betrayed," Myst mock complained as he closed his arm around the wooden 'sword'.

"And this is why you never accept an apprentice that's better looking than you," Sarah said as she pulled the 'blade' out of Myst and proceeded to duel Rigby.

"Tragic yet true," Myst replied with amusement as he glanced between the duelists and the rest of the group, glad that they were at least amused by the distraction. "I shall have my revenge," he said, hamming it up.

Sarah turned and gently hit him on the arm. "Damn villains monologuing even when they're supposed to be dead."

Rigby tapped Sarah in her stomach. "I win."

Sarah mock gasped. "Where's your honor?"

"You're a villain," Rigby replied with a grin.

"Terribly un-sporting," Sarah said before tossing the sword to Rigby's sister. "Avenge me."

"Crap," Rigby muttered as his sister grinned at him. "Parley?"

"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request," Kara replied with amusement as she danced forward and started 'dueling' with her brother.

Sarah turned to look at Myst. "Nice distraction."

"I try," Myst replied, glancing at the wagon driver who had turned around to check on the noise. He took the opportunity to copy the man's Smooth Ride skill again so he'd have it in case he needed to drive a wagon.

"Have you made any new combat spells?" she asked in a whisper once the driver had turned around again.

"No, I got distracted with crafting," he replied as he glanced over at where Dave was walking and scanning the surrounding area. "It's probably a good idea in case we have to deal with something larger than a goblin."

"I'd appreciate having something better than a firebolt even if it does more damage than it probably should," Sarah replied in a whisper.

"I'll see what I can do," Myst replied as he brought up the spell he was planning on using as a base for his go to combat spell.

Marvin's Marvelous Magic Missiles of Mayhem: Lv 1

Target: [Up to Lv][Other]

Range: [SkillLv][20 feet]

Mana Cost: [5] per target.

Effect: Shoots [Up to Lv] balls of [Force] from your hand that deal [Low Damage], [SkillLv]x3% chance to cause direct hit, half damage in [2] foot blast radius.

'Okay, the first thing to fix is the chance to hit,' Myst mused as he looked through his skills for something to swap qualities with. He paused when he saw his False Life skill.

False Life: Lv 1

Target: [Self]

Mana Cost: [SkillLv]x5

Effect: Increase [HP][[SkillLv]x5][[SkillLv][5 minutes]]

Grants bonus heath points depending on your skill for five minutes per level.

'That could work for a couple of ideas.' He made a skill orb of each of the skills and stuck them in his coat pockets. "I have a couple of ideas."

"Anything you want to share?" Sarah asked in a whisper as she watched the duel.

"Nah, I'll show you when I get done." He brought both skills up in his Skill Manipulation menu and swapped [SkillLv] for [SkillLv]x5] and hit the button. He stumbled and nearly fell as the world spun violently. He looked at the change. '[Low Damage], [SkillLv]x15% chance to cause direct hit. That's a hell of an improvement and it only changed the price to [6] mana per target.'

He reached into his pocket and used his False Life skill then made another skill orb and brought up the 'new' False Life skill and his 'improved' Mayhem spell. He swapped the [Up to Lv] quality for the [SkillLv]x5] quality and hit the button, seeing stars and bright flashing lights exploding in his vision. "Fun," he muttered as he tried to blink the stars out of his eyes.

"Problems?" Sarah asked as she watched Kara duel Alice, Rigby having surrendered the sword when he lost.

"Just skill related issues," Myst explained as he looked over the target information. 'Target: [SkillLv]x5][Other], yeah, that's not nearly as useful as I'd like considering it always shoots six balls of force now.' He brought the two skills back up and swapped [SkillLv] for [Up to Lv] and hit the button causing him to stumble slightly as the fading stars in his vision exploded.

"Do you need a break?" Sarah asked.

"Probably," Myst muttered as he read the target information, mostly by using the spots where he could still see, '[[Up to Lv]x5].' He grinned as he used his False Life skill to get it back then made a copy of his Mayhem spell to fix the other [Up to Lv] level quality.

Sarah frowned slightly as Myst twitched and stumbled a couple of times over the next minute, making her a bit concerned about his sanity or at least health. "Are you sure, you're alright?"

"Yeah, one more tweak," Myst replied as he hit the button to drop the mana cost, swapping the [50] per target back down to [5].

Sarah stared in shock as a six foot long glowing blue crack in the air appeared. "What the hell?!" she blurted then quickly pulled Myst out of the way as a glowing purple tentacle as large around as her thigh burst out of the crack in space and tried to grab him or possibly bludgeon him to death.

Myst shivered as the crack in reality snapped shut, cutting the glowing tentacle off and causing it to drop to the ground just short of his foot. "That's new," he admitted, not sure what else to say as he stared at the severed tentacle that was still glowing.

"What the hell was that?!" Sarah demanded.

"No idea," Myst admitted as he tried and failed to identify the tentacle with his skinning skill. 'Screw it, it's probably useful for something,' he mused as he grabbed his dagger and started processing it for parts.

"Seriously?" Sarah asked in disbelief when she realized he was skinning it.

"What is that?!" Zoe demanded from where she was standing, staring at the tentacle in horror.

Myst smiled when he got a bolt of unknown leather and a bolt of unknown leather that was glowing purple as well as a large package of unknown tentacle beast meat that he was fairly sure wasn't safe to eat. "It's probably better than anything we can find locally," he pointed out as he put the bolts of leather in his pack and the meat in his belt pouch, figuring he might get a decent amount of cooking experience for using it before safely destroying it.

"Where did it come from?!" one of the cheerleaders demanded, wanting nothing to do with tentacle monsters or anyone that summoned them for that matter.

"One of my skills has issues if I push it, I'll try to be more careful," Myst offered as he stood up, not sure what else to tell them.

"Can you summon another one?" one of the other cheerleaders asked, thinking about some of the anime she'd seen.

Myst turned to look at the blonde and blue eyed cheerleader that had a special skill that let her temporarily turn into a succubus and shook his head. "I'm pretty sure that would be a bad idea and not in the fun way."

"Unfortunately," Vivian admitted after a couple of seconds.

Myst looked at his new skill, curious if modifying it further would summon another tentacle beast but unwilling to tempt fate when the spell was more than good enough, at least until he leveled it up a bit and got some practice with it. He set his teaching skill up and offered the new skill to Sarah. "Here."

Variable Missiles of Destruction: Lv 1 [VR]

Target: [[Up to Lv]x5][Other]

Range: [[SkillLv]x5][100 feet]

Mana Cost: [5] per target.

Effect: Shoots [[Up to Lv]x5] balls of [Force] from your hand that deal [High Damage], [SkillLv]x15% chance to cause direct hit, half damage in [[Up to Lv]x5] foot blast radius.

Sarah stared at the description on the popup for several seconds in shock then quickly hit the yes button. "You're forgiven," she whispered as the group started walking again, wanting to catch up with the wagon that hadn't stopped. "You should probably wait a few minutes before you try modifying anything else."

"Probably," Myst agreed as he pulled up his skill list to look over the various qualities he could use to modify his skills. "I need to wait until I find a river or a secure location to modify my Stench Squire skill anyway."

"Stench Squire?" Sarah asked with raised eyebrows.

"The shopkeeper mentioned a squire getting his skill cursed by a witch…" Myst trailed off as he realized he had the [Skill Orb] quality.

"What?" Sarah asked, having noticed the look on his face.

"I just realized that the same setup that lets me conjure cursed things might let me conjure cursed skill orbs with random skills," Myst said thoughtfully.

Sarah shook her head. "That sounds like a good way to get one of the gods to notice and hit you with a lightning bolt or get devoured by a tentacle monster."

"Fair point," Myst admitted, figuring he'd wait until they had better gear to open that particular box of trouble.

"Do you have any other great and terrible ideas?" Sarah asked as she looked through her bag for a snack.

Myst glanced over at where Phil was keeping watch on the edge of the group. "I can probably tweak the False Life spell to temporarily boost my mana pool so I could just spam the conjure wagon spell every couple of seconds but there isn't really a point right now and no reason to advertise the extent of my mana regeneration."

"Yeah, that sounds like something to work on later. What does the squire skill do other than make you stink?" Sarah asked.

"It lets you identify the quality of armor, gives people armor proficiency, makes it easier to use armor and makes it weigh less. Unfortunately it's also cursed which means it gives you a rotting stench that is horrible enough that the shopkeeper still remembered it ten years later," Myst explained as he conjured a waterskin five inches away from his hand, letting it drop and hit the ground.

"You realize that's cheating, right?" Sarah asked with amusement, thinking about all of the patterns they were going to get with his collection of conjuration skills.

"No such thing outside of a game," Myst replied as he identified the waterskin.

Waterskin

Material: Leather and brass.

Enchantment: Double capacity.

Curse: foul taste.

"Could be worse." Myst picked the waterskin up and tossed it into his leatherworking box and hit the button.

"What do I have to bribe you with to get a copy of your crafting skill?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing," Myst replied as he shared his crafting skill with her. "I mean, you're free to bribe me about things that don't matter but I'm not actually an ass and crafting is useful."

Sarah looked over the skill then hit yes. "Since you're feeling generous, can I talk you out of a copy of your teaching skill? I'll give you a copy of my special skill," she offered.

"Deal," Myst replied, not willing to pass up the chance to get a skill he couldn't copy.