Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (30 page)

Before Smoke could consume the ability tome, Perdant grabbed his hand and stopped him. "Wait! This isn't a fair deal. No offense, but you don't seem like the person who has a hundred thousand zecs to spare."
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked a puzzled Smoke. He saw Perdant give him a head to foot glance. 'He must be bothered by my ragged appearance.'
Perdant explained, "I only asked for fifty thousand zecs, but you gave me a hundred thousand zecs instead. Besides, that ability sounds useless, I couldn't find it in my conscience to accept this offer."
"Ah, I intentionally did that. While some people might consider it a junk ability, others might deem it very valuable, which is why I wanted to pay the correct price for this item."
Perdant still looked unconvinced. Smoke smiled and was touched by such a rarity that was an honest Merchant. "Alright, how about I buy all of your ingots too?" Smoke asked.
"Alright, I think that will be fair trade. Thank you for your patronage, Master Smoke." Perdant smiled and Smoke watched his Intimacy with the Merchant rise to sixty.
After that issue was resolved, Smoke brought his attention back to the ability tome and consumed it without any further delays.

A smiling DarkElf held the other two books in his hands. The one entitled "You and Your Symbiote Volume II" showed two hours on the progress bar.
Propitiously, the one entitled "The Saviors Tested by Fate: Part One" only needed fifty-nine more seconds for it to finish. He patiently stood in place and waited for the Acquired Knowledge window to pop up.

Many questions popped into Smoke's mind after he read the book, and of course, he wondered how the story ends. He was about to continue acquiring the knowledge of the other book when Sot came running from the direction of the village gate.
"Crucibelle's here! Crucibelle's here!" Sot shouted in a trembling voice.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Smoke asked quickly while hiding the book in his backpack and sprinted to Sot.
"I thought you said we still had two days left?" Sot asked in despair as Smoke joined him at the village's iron gate.
Two dust clouds were rapidly approaching Banal village.
"That's not Crucibelle." said Smoke with a grin, "Those are our reinforcements."
In less than five minutes, two stag-moose pulling heavily-armored carriages slowed down in front of Banal's iron gate. A tigress Lioumerean and a lioness Lioumerean were sitting in the driver's seats. Smoke, Igniz, Espion, Sot, Ledur and twenty Tikbalangs were all there to greet them.
Smoke and Espion waved to the two Lioumerean drivers. As soon as the armored carriages came to a full stop, the lioness Lioumerean leapt from her seat and dove straight for the DarkElf.
He tried to sidestep Laernea's hug, but Espion held Smoke in place. Laernea hugged Smoke tightly with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist.
"Okay, Laernea. You can let go now." said Smoke as he gave Espion an agitated look. The young Spy only raised his hands and acted all innocent.
"Sorry about that. It's just that I've missed you so much, Smoke." Laernea explained as she was pried off by Gandiva.
"I've missed you as well, Smoke." said Gandiva as she gave him a gentle hug. "Same here, Gandiva."
One by one, Smoke's other private army members jumped down from the two armored carriages. Adder stepped forward first and stood in front of Smoke. He clenched his fist, brought it in front of his heart and bowed down before Smoke. "Finally, I'll be directly in your service once more."
"It has been a long time, my friend." said Smoke as he pulled Adder in for a hug. Adder hugged back, but accidentally squeezed Smoke too hard with his regrown left arm.
"Ouch!" Smoke yelped in pain.
Adder apologized, "Sorry about that. I guess I still don't know my own strength. I've been practising every day, but I guess it isn't enough."
"It's okay, don't worry about it." Smoke turned to face other private army members when he saw three massive Maneators charging towards him.
An orange Maneator arrived first. Rasant was the fastest and shortest Maneator at a height of two and half meters, but he easily stood on par with any of the Tikbalangs.
Rasant spoke faster than a radio announcer. "Finally. I've been asking everyone how you were. Adder and Thyrsus told me stories about your adventures in the Simiavulg village and what about that new ability, huh? I'd like to see it one day, you know, if you're not too busy. Adder and Thyrsus have been doing a great job running everything in Verbrannt, but it's mostly Thyrsus because Adder is really focused on training his Condortlian Warriors. Anyway, I've also learned new attacks with the whip you gave me. Wanna see?" the orange Maneator said rapidly, in a single breath.
"Good to see you too, Rasant." Smoke hugged him awkwardly as his hands could not reach all around the Maneator's back.
Next, a red Maneator knelt down in front of Smoke.
"Stark give.. owner to you... new King of Maneators!" said Stark with beaming confidence as his nostrils flared with hot air.
A gray Maneator quickly corrected his brother, "Stark, it's
honor
, not
owner
." explained Weise.
Smoke smiled and patted Stark on the shoulders. "The owner's mine, Stark." The red Maneator showed the widest grin Smoke had seen and gave way for Weise to greet their master.
"Mitleid's legacy is well placed in your hands, King Smoke." said Weise as he bowed down before Smoke.
"Weise, I told you to drop that 'King' stuff already." Weise smiled, bowed down again and stepped aside.
The next one to greet Smoke was the beautiful brunette WoodElf, Vijaya. Six falcons perched on a special staff that her twin sister made for her.
She greeted Smoke with a sullen face, "Hello, Smoke. This is a good thing we're doing here...defending a helpless village. You've reconfirmed that it wasn't wrong of Thyrsus and I to choose you as our master."
"Thank you, Vijaya. I hope to always keep that in mind then." said Smoke awkwardly as he didn't understand what was going on with her.
As soon as Vijaya stepped aside, Ichaival walked over to him. "Sorry about that, Smoke. It appears that the lovey-dovey season started. She's just sulking because Thyrsus couldn't come. They've been going at it for almost a month now."
"What? Thyrsus and Vijaya are a couple now? When did this happen?" asked Smoke.
"Nah, you wouldn't want to hear the details. So, how have you been, boss?" asked Ichaival.
"I'm feeling more confident now that you guys are here." said Smoke after he gave Ichaival a hug. "So, if Thyrsus and Vijaya are going out, does that mean that you and Sharanga are an item now too?"
"Ha ha. Add salt to my wounds, why don't you?" Ichaival shook his head after laughing sarcastically. "The love bug didn't bite her. I don't know how Thyrsus did it, but I'm still happy for him."
Ichaival gave way for the last member of Smoke's private army who arrived on Laernea and Gandiva's carriages to greet him.
Jinggu, the forest-green OrkElf, bowed down before Smoke. "Get up, Jinggu. You know you don't have to do that." Smoke pulled him in for a hug, which Jinggu reciprocated for only a second.
"I heard you did a great job fortifying Verbrannt alongside the Maneators. Thank you for that." said Smoke with a smile.
Jinggu only gave a small nod and smiled back.
"Still not much for words, huh?" said Smoke and patted Jinggu's back.
After the OrkElf, Adder walked closer to Smoke and said, "Now that you've greeted all the primary members, I'd like to present to you the improved Condortlian Warriors."
Thirty Condortlian Warriors stepped down from the two armored carriages. Each of the Warriors was equipped with a shiny bastard sword, an ornate round shield and a skull helm.
Like the well-trained Warriors they were, they fell into formation and formed a single platoon. Smoke wished he could have brought more men from Verbrannt, but Laernea and Gandiva were the only ones capable of covering great distances within a day, and their carriages could only carry this many.
Despite their low numbers, Smoke felt confident that these thirty Condortlian Warriors would be very useful against Crucibelle and her Gobble Goblins.
"Wheeew!" Smoke whistled loudly, "All of them have defeated the boss in the mausoleum?"
"Well, we basically lived inside the mausoleum for almost two weeks." calmly replied Adder. "The one with the lowest level among them right now is at 96." he said as he pointed at a young Condortlian Warrior.
"And where did you get these swords and shields? They look expensive." asked Smoke.
"I forged them myself. I used the saved-up allowance you gave me and the zecs Gandiva and Laernea won for placing high in the Mounted Race to buy the required materials." said Adder as he gave a small nod to the Lioumereans.
"This is really impressive. Great job, Adder. And good work on increasing their levels." Smoke clapped and the rest of the private army members clapped with him.
"Alright, let's all grab a meal. Espion, Ledur and I have prepared a feast for you guys. But we still have a lot to do and little time to do it." said a determined Smoke as he led the way to the emergency shelter.
On the way there, Laernea forcefully walked close to him. Smoke called the tigress Lioumerean, "Gandiva, come here. I have to tell you something."
Gandiva walked closer as well. "Listen, I have a very difficult mission for you two. Do you think you're up to it?" asked Smoke.
"Sure, we're ready for anything." enthusiastically replied Laernea.
"Bring it on, Smoke. You know we can do it." bravely answered Gandiva.
"Good. Alright, I want you to eat really fast and then head back to Verbrannt. Do you think you could do that?"
"What?! This might be our hardest mission yet." Gandiva groaned as she ran towards the shelter.
As Smoke and his private army members walked towards the shelter, he remembered the book he read recently.
"Hey, guys, have any of you heard of the story called 'The Saviors Tested by Fate'?" asked Smoke.
Vijaya heard this and quickly replied, "That's my favorite story! I remember wanting to be one of those princesses in the Magietrois."
"Magietrois? What's that?" asked Smoke.
"Its what that group of princesses was called." answered Vijaya.
"Oh, alright. Anyway, I was wondering how the story ends?"
"I don't know the exact story that's written in the books. I just heard it from a passing Bard who sang it to us when we were kids. According to him, the Magietrois obtained immortality and will appear once more to assemble their fearsome armies and protect the world against the Reptilian race." answered Vijaya.
"Hmm. Maybe we could meet those princesses and have them become our allies?" Smoke said out loud.
Ichaival walked closer to others and added, "With those legendary princesses as allies...I wonder if one of them would fall for my charms."
Gandiva, Laernea and Vijaya all smacked Ichaival on the head. "Quit dreaming, Ichaival. Besides, I thought you only had eyes for my sister?" Vijaya said sternly.
Deep in thought, Smoke continued to walk in silence. 'Where could I find this Magietrois group? I should search for the book containing the next part of the story.'