My Musings Chapter 24: Summoners Tale 3, a Harry Potter + Naruto Crossover fanfic

Summoners Tale!

Disclaimer: If you recognize something, I don't own it.

Godric was running.

Earth Barrier: -30 hp.

No, it was more accurate to say that he was fleeing.

Earth Barrier: -30 hp.

Fleeing with his tail tucked between his legs, fleeing for his life.

Earth Barrier: -30 hp.

It had all started so well.

Earth Barrier: -30 hp.
Earth Barrier has been depleted.

He'd confidently entered the main Casak Forest in search of foxes to hunt.

Barrier: -35 hp.

The first fox had found him, as planned.

Barrier: -35 hp.

It had attacked and bounced off his barriers, as planned.

Barrier: -35 hp.
Barrier has been depleted.

Godric had used the opportunity to chant Rock Bullet and strike back, as planned.

Godric: -22 hp.

The fox had dodged with an incredible burst of speed, that was not as planned.

So here he was, trying to outrun a creature that was fast enough to continuously dodge his only attack spell and more than capable of keeping up with him in the thick underbrush of the forest, it was not going well.

Unfortunately for Godric, he'd panicked when he'd been forced to flee and run off in a random direction, which was probably why he'd ended up lost in the forest.

Godric: -22 hp.

'Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.' Godric chanted, continuing to run as fast as his low agility allowed.

He was already out of breath from low stamina so he couldn't even call up the air required to chant another barrier spell, the fox was far too fast to hit with a Rock Bullet and swinging his staff at it did such minuscule damage that it wasn't even worth the stamina required to swing the weapon.

Godric: -22 hp.

'Where the hell am I!' Godric screamed in his mind, streaking across a small clearing in an attempt to avoid the creature nipping at his heels. 'At this speed, I should have reached the village a long time ago.'

Godric: -22 hp.

Lost in a forest, hunted by a feral predator and almost out of stamina, this was his lowest point since starting Royal Road.

'Still..' Godric mused with a pained grin. 'This is pretty exciting.'

There was a strange thrill in fleeing for his life, a thrill that he'd never gotten from sports or any other video game, Royal Road was truly in a class of it's own.

Godric: -22 hp.

'Shit, this is no time to be admiring this game.' he cursed, glancing back and blanching when he noticed that two more foxes had joined the first in this mad chase and that they were taking turns attacking him. 'I'm seriously going to die at this rate.'

Godric: -22 hp.

Just as he was resolving himself for a futile last stand, something flew in from off to the side and struck the lead fox, knocking it down with a spurt of blood.

"Yah!" a brute of a man shouted, leaping from a bush with an ax in one hand and a shield in the other, the missing red dot denoting him as a player rather than an npc.

'Holy shit, I'm saved.' Godric cheered as the first player was followed by two more, a woman dressed as a priest and a male archer firing arrows as he advanced.

"Holy spirit, grant me aid and the power to save those who are hurt, Recovery." the woman chanted, her staff raised up and turned towards Godric.

Godric: +250 hp.
All negative effects have been dispelled.
Stamina has been recovered.

Fully recovered, Godric stopped gasping and turned to the fight, hoping to lend what aid he could.

It wasn't needed.

Driven back by the two males, the foxes had stopped chasing Godric and were instead targeting the first man. The warrior, on the other hand, was more than capable of handling himself. He was using his shield to knock the foxes back for the archer to shoot while his ax lashed out at quick speeds, slowly chipping away at their health and cutting them down one after the other.

One fox was already down and the last two seemed to be on their last legs, the fight was already over all things considered.

"Thanks for the rescue." Godric called out as he walked towards the priest and archer.

"No problem, what were you doing out here on your own?" the priest asked after a moment, half of her attention on the warrior in case he needed healing.

"I was trying to solo a fox but it was way too fast for me to handle." Godric replied, he supposed he should feel ashamed or something but these things happened in games so he had no problem admitting it. "I tried heading back to the village for safety but I guess I got lost."

"Hah, I'll say." a deep voice chuckled, the warrior had already finished the battle and was walking towards them. "The village is in the other direction man, you're lucky we found you, this is almost in wolf territory."

"Oh dang, I'm definitely lost then, thanks for the help." Godric replied, they had literally saved his life. "You guys are hunting wolves?"

"Yup, I'm level 15 so we can handle a few wolves with Selena's blessings and heals." the warrior replied, looking him up and down. "Want to join? We could use a mage along."

"You sure Blaine?" the archer asked, glancing at Godric in appraisal. "He looks like a noob."

"Be nice Carver, you were a noob once upon a time, a week ago if I'm not mistaken." Selena countered before turning to Godric with a smile. "Sorry about him."

"It's fine." Godric replied, he did in fact look like a noob with his low level gear so there was no reason getting mad. "I'm only level 5 so I'm still a bit of a noob."

"It's cool, every little bit helps and you can help Carver draw aggro." the warrior, Blaine apparently, commented. "What sort of mage are you by the way?."

"I'm Earth," Godric replied. "But I've got Healing Hand and Barrier, plus I can cook and apply minor enchantments."

"See, there you go." Blaine grinned, clapping a hand on Godrics shoulder. "This guy knows what he's doing, even picked up the supplemental spells already."

"I guess he's not much of a noob." Carver sighed, turning away. "Just don't get get in the way.."

"Oh! I'm Godric, nice to meet you all." Godric greeted at the other mans pause, he hadn't introduced himself to them yet.

"Nice, I'm Blaine, he's Carver and she's Selena." Blaine replied, following after Carver. "Come on, let's kill some wolves."

"Don't worry, they're pretty strong and I'll watch your back." Selena added as she followed the other two.

You have been invited to join a party.

Accept?
Yes | No

Godric nodded as he accepted the invite and followed along, this was a pretty lucky break for him, he could get some good levels by tagging along with a good group.

Several hours later, Godric couldn't how lucky he'd gotten, the three players he had met were good at their roles and effectively covered one another, they were quite the effective hunting party.

Blaine the warrior was the parties tank, leaping headfirst into battle with his shield and ax as the other two covered his back, he was good at drawing attention and holding off enemies. Blaine was a bulky human warrior who had chosen to start in the forest village, his avatar was quite tall and muscular with reddish-brown hair and a trimmed beard.

Carver served as the parties ranged support, he drew aggro on far off enemies with his bow and quickly dealt damage to them as they approached before allowing Blaine to take over. Carver's avatar was a wood elf with long, black hair and tanned skin, he was fully focused on his speed-archer build and didn't much care for learning craft skills or magic.

Selena was the healer for the party, she was a Priestess of Freya who focused on healing and blessing over the few offensive combat skills of the profession. Selena was also a human that had chosen to start in the forest village, her avatar was a pale skinned, young woman with blonde hair and green eyes.

Godric tried hard to slot into the party, there wasn't much he could do but he found a way, learning to work well with others was a skill he would need in the future.

Before each battle, Godric would join Selena in layering buffs on the party, he could only apply his barriers to one person at a time but putting them on Blaine allowed the warrior to handle more wolves at a time. Once the battle began, he would switch to firing Rock Bullets at the wolves, dealing a small bit of damage in contribution but being careful not to draw aggro off of the tank.

Working like that, the team had spent many hours hunting wolves, resting and splitting loot in between fights before continuing on. They even found themselves fighting through the night, Godrics assistance allowing them to handle the wolves that were 50% stronger at night, they couldn't fight many at a time but they were able to kill a few wolves.

"Ah, this is pretty fun." Blaine announced during one of their breaks. "I haven't tried hunting at night before, it's pretty exciting."

"Yeah, I guess the noob is pretty helpful, there's no way Selena could heal all the damage fast enough." Carver added, nodding to Godric in respect. "Those barriers and Healing Hand are quite useful."

''For sure, I can't cast Recovery all that fast yet." Selena spoke. "The extra help is really appreciated."

Godric almost blushed at all the praise, almost.

"It's not just me, we're a pretty decent team." Godric replied, nodding to each in turn. "There's no way I could do this on my own, I'm just glad we work so well together."

He was quite glad to have joined this party, the group hunting had been far better than he could have done on his own. Not only had he managed to hit level eleven in just a few hours, he'd also gained a new spell and a ton of loot, mostly crafting materials but useful loot all the same.

Not to mention his silly new hat which he could now equip.

"Yeah definitely, we need to do this again when we're next on." Blaine nodded, apparently he and Carver were roommates in real life and both had work in a few hours so they had to log off.

"We should try Kobolds or Goblins during the day, they're about as strong as wolves are at night." Carver added, nodding along with his friend. "Godric can put his new spell to good use with them, they work in groups."

"Yeah, I'll have to grind some levels on the skill before we meetup." Godric agreed, the new skill was an AoE but it was quite weak at level one. "I'm free for another day in game so I'll be all set when we meet."

"Awesome, see you then man." Blaine cheered, logging off in a flash of light.

"Yeah, see ya." Carver nodded, vanishing along with his friend.

"Are you off too?" Godric asked, turning his attention to Selena.

The woman paused for a moment in thought before nodding.

"I might as well, I don't have anything to do but I'm pretty tired." She replied, standing from the stump she was using as a seat. "Can you find your way back to town?"

"I'll be fine," Godric answered with a nod, he knew the correct direction to head and they were on the edge of the wolves territory so he didn't have to worry about them.

"Alright, see you later Godric."

With that, Selena disappeared in a flash of light, leaving him alone seated next to a dying campfire as the sun steadily rose.

'Well, that was quite worthwhile, I wonder how much I improved.' Godric mused, bringing up his stats and skills.

Character Name: Godric
Race: High Elf
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 11
Profession: Earth Mage.
Title: None
Fame: 0

Health: 830
Mana: 2400
Stamina: 380

Strength: 38
Agility: 44 (10)
Vitality: 58 (25)
Wisdom: 165 (25)
Intellect: 210 (30)
Luck: 0
Elemental Affinity: 45
Spiritual Presence: 33

Attack: 14 -19
Magic Attack: 70 - 73
Defense: 14
Magic Resistance: 0

'Not bad.' Godric nodded, reviewing his stats.

His higher intellect had greatly improved his damage to the point that he could now one-shot a rabbit, the increased mana and health was also good as well.

As for his skills...

Quagmire (Beginner Level 3 | 33%)
Creates a bog to slow and entrap enemies.
-Mana Cost: 300 mp.

His new spell was quite useful in battle, with it he could now solo foxes and if he aimed well, he could trap multiple enemies at once and pick them off with his Rock Bullet. Other than that, his battle spells had all leveled from constant use but his other skills hadn't improved at all, he'd have to sit down and grind them with all the mats in his inventory soon.

Satisfied, Godric closed the two menus and stood from his stump.

"A quick stop in town to clean up my inventory then some solo hunting,'' Godric muttered to himself as he set off into the forest. "I should try and buy some mana potions while I'm at it, that should speed up my fights."

Seated outside the village gates once more, Godric grumbled in annoyance as he dug through his inventory bag. He'd made it back to the village with no trouble and had visited an npc merchant, which allowed him to sell off his junk items and badly crafted staves, netting him a total of 5 silver coins. Considering the fact that the gems alone had cost him more than that, he'd actually lost money on this hunt.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he'd spent 50 gold buying ten mana potions and another 3 gold on more gems and miscellaneous supplies. He was practically bleeding gold and he wasn't even past noob levels yet, he really needed to slow down with his purchases. It was for this reason that he'd decided to not buy a new set of equipment, it would be a big waste to buy new equipment when he would just out level it in a matter of days. He'd much rather waste time crafting to create new equipment, the bunny hat had proven that he could create some useful wares if he put his mind to it.

Finally finding the items he sought, Godric pulled out two stacks of wolf and rabbit pelts from his bag, these could be turned into leather with the proper skill but as a tailor, he could only turn them into thin cloth to sew. Among his items was also a stack of wolf bones which he could use to craft a new staff once his wood working skill was high enough, intermediate woodworking would allow him to carve bone but that was still someways away, for now he would just use the many teeth and small bones as buttons and decorations.

Sighing in annoyance, Godric tapped the pile of pelts to turn it into cloth before getting his needle and thread, this was going to be another boring three hours.

You've created Rabbit Cloth Robe.
You've created Rabbit Cloth Robe.
You've created Rabbit Cloth Pants.
You've created Rabbit Cloth Pants.
You've created Wolf Cloth Robe.
You've created Wolf Cloth Gloves...

Several hours later, Godric finally finished with all of his crafting, he'd spent time in-between sewing to carve some gems and cook some food, varying his tasks so he didn't grow too bored and annoyed.

He'd used up all of his crafting materials but he'd managed to craft himself some decent equipment, not much compared to most equips but far better than his current clothes. Some additional work with colored thread improved the equipment to a greater degree, embroidery was a useful sub-skill he'd unlocked after a few dozen items.

The crafted equipment consisted of a full set of grey, cloth armor with the buttons formed from wolf teeth, all items were also decorated with a blue trim as he wasn't quite skilled enough to embroider images, the trim was good enough to add minor effects to the armor. There was no set bonus on the crafted set but he had a robe, pants, gloves and shoes to replace his newbie set. In addition to that, he'd also crafted a mantle which was technically an accessory but counted as cloth armor.

Embroidered Wolf Robe.
A stylish robe tailored from wolf hide.
Durability: 32/32
Defense: 13
Equip: +20 Agility, +5 Wisdom, +15 Intellect.
Limits: Level 10.

Embroidered Wolf Pants.
Stylish pants tailored from wolf hide.
Durability: 35/35
Defense: 12
Equip: +20 Agility, +5 Wisdom, +15 Intellect.
Limits: Level 10.

Embroidered Wolf Gloves.
A stylish pair of gloves tailored from wolf hide.
Durability: 28/28.
Defense: 8.
Equip: +20 Agility, +15 Intellect.
Limits: Level 10.

Embroidered Wolf Sandals.
A comfortable set of shoes tailored from thick wolf hide.
Durability: 25/25.
Defense: 10.
Equip: +20 Agility, +15 Wisdom.
Limits: Level 10.

Embroidered Wolf Mantle.
A stylish mantle tailored from wolf hide.
Durability: 33/33.
Defense: 11.
Equip: +15 Wisdom, +15 Intellect.
Limits: Level 10.

There was a small drop in his vitality but the massive boost to his agility and intellect more than made up for it, both his damage and mana were much higher and he was far faster now, able to easily dodge rabbits now and keep pace with foxes. Following that, he'd also carved some wooden staves and wands to raise his skill, then faceted them all with gems to boost the stats. Each was then enchanted to boost his skill before he enchanted the best of the lot with an intellect boost, creating a new staff that was far better than the newbie one he'd bought at level 1.

Flawed Oak Staff of Earth.
A finely carved oak staff that has been embedded with a flawed quartz gem, has a good affinity with earth magic.
Durability: 48/48.
Damage: 14 - 25.
Magic Damage: 22 - 28.
Equip: +26 Intellect, +20 Vitality,
Spell Cost of Earth magic is reduced by 3%,
Damage of Earth magic is increased by 1%.
Limits: Intellect 100+. Level 10.

With all of his equipment upgraded and his supplies packed, Godric was ready to get back to his hunting. Grinding his crafting had taken up four hours but he still had another two days of in-game time, not counting breaks to sleep, before he needed to log off and go to work, plenty of time to grind some monsters. All things considered, he was actually glad to have wasted so much time crafting. Almost all of his craft skills were at beginner level 5 and higher, which was quite good as mage classes could only level their crafting skills to intermediate 1 so he was close to maxing out a good number of his skills.

That would be unfortunate when he wanted to craft higher level equips but for now it was a good thing, maxing out his skills would keep him set until level 200 or so. After that he would need to find someone with advance or master level in the relevant skills, there were very few such players around so he would probably have to join a guild with one to take advantage of their services.

Still, that was all for later, much, much later.

'Time to hunt some foxes.' Godric grinned, heading off into the forest.

"Harrah!"

"Hya!"

"Grahaha!"

'The fuck..' Godric sighed, incredulously staring at the two men in the clearing ahead.

Both men were elven npcs and seemed to be sparring with one another as they traded blows with wooden weapons. The strange thing about the situation was that despite being elves, the two men were extremely bulky and muscular, and they both sported a large, scruffy beard.

"Ha, take that swine!" The first man shouted, this one had a dark head of hair and an equally dark beard, he was bare-chested with only a pair of shorts and thick boots on.

"As if I would fall for that old trick!" The second man shouted in reply, he was dressed the same as his counterpart but had blond hair rather than the dark brown of his opponent.

Staring at the two men, Godric could only shake his head in disbelief before turning away.

'I don't care if it's for a quest, this is too crazy to handle.'

Deciding to ignore the clearing and forget the sight, he made his way deeper into the forest, searching for more foxes to hunt.

Shrouded within his two barriers, Godric stalked through the forest, his eyes darting about and his demeanor alert. A rustle in the bushes drew his attention and he was quick to act, hunting wolves at night had shown that hesitation could prove deadly.

"Power of mountain, might of earth, Rock Bullet."

The spell was quick form and even quicker to launch into the thick underbrush. A loud, pained yip rang out, proof that he had hit his target, and the hidden creature began to growl.

The bush was soon parted to reveal a snarling fox bearing down on him, its mouth frothing and is eyes burning with rage.

"Grounds beneath, dissolve and entomb, Quagmire." Godric chanted, touching said ground with the tip of his staff.

From the point of contact, stretching out 30 feet in a wide cone, the ground transformed into a muddy swamp. The fox yipped as it fell in, the thick waters entrapping it and dragging it down, it was able to swim but it's movements were incredibly slowed.

The spell wouldn't last for too long so Godric decided to strike.

"Power of mountain, might of earth, Rock Bullet."

Critical Hit!

The second bullet slammed into the foxes bobbing head, causing it to yip again and sink into the water, activating the second bonus of the spell. As long as a creature was submerged in the swamp, it would take small amounts of drowning damage, which would only increase the longer they were underwater.

Quagmire was a very useful spell but it was the weakest of the DoT spells in the Earth tree, there were spells like Quicksand and Poison Marsh that could slaughter most monsters in a matter of seconds with their DoT damage.

Tsss!

A hissing mist rose from the ground as the swamp evaporated, the spell had run its course but that was fine, the battle was pretty much over. With a third and final Rock Bullet, Godric ended the battle, leaving nothing but a pile of loot where the creature once was.

Along with that, a row of game windows appeared, informing him of some exciting news he'd been expecting.

Rock Bullet has reached Intermediate Level 1, Spell effects has been improved.

Rock Bullet (Intermediate Level 1 | 0%)
Consecutively fire two stones at high speeds.
-3x Magic Attack.
-Mana Cost: 500 mp.

Intellect has increased by 1.

Wisdom has increased by 1.

Level has increased by 1.

Grinning wide, Godric placed his 5 points in Agility and Intellect before opening his spell menu, his Rock Bullet had greatly improved and the spell chant had been shortened by a whole three words. With the improved spell, a single cast would fire a Rock Bullet one after the other, each dealing twice the damage of the beginner level of the spell.

'Nice, that took hours.' Godric sighed, he'd been grinding his spells for quite sometime and was glad to finally be done with it. Earth Barrier and Healing touch were both at beginner level 8, Barrier was at beginner 7 where as Quagmire was up to beginner 5.

All in all it was a good day's work, just in time too as he had to log off soon, he'd need plenty of sleep before heading to work.

"Well look who it is." a voice spoke from behind Alex, startling him.

Turning from his shelf, Alex sighed as he took in the three grinning faces standing mere feet away.

"Ugh, what are you guys doing here?" Alex groaned, a smirk tugging at his lips despite his efforts to stop it.

Standing before him were his three best friends, Tristan, Paul and Steven. This wasn't the first time they'd dropped by his workplace, usually it was a small stop as they made their way towards one of the only game shops in town.

"Why wouldn't we stop by man?" Paul replied, grabbing an item off the shelf and pretending to look at it, they knew he would get in trouble if it looked like he was just socializing. "We haven't seen you in weeks."

"Yeah," Alex sighed, scratching his head sheepishly. "I've been playing a lot of Royal Road."

"That's what I told them." Tristan nodded, smirking smugly. "I remember when I got the game, you guys didn't see me for a whole month."

"Yeah, we remember." Steven chuckled before turning to Alex. "You almost done?"

Alex nodded as he glanced at the clock, it was 4:15 in the afternoon.

"I've got 15 minutes left, was gonna head home and play more royal Road but if you guys wanna hang, it's cool." Alex replied, returning his attention to the shelf as Roy passed by.

"Alright, we'll be out front." Paul nodded, turning away.

"Cool, see you in a few." Alex nodded.

Knowing the three, they would probably spend a few hours looking through the game store before getting food and hitting up the movie theater, it would be a good way to kill a few hours.

As he appeared in the shaded clearing he'd logged out from, Godric immediately opened his friends list and checked through the small list of names. Paul was online, still working his way through the outer region of Kur Kingdom, the other two would probably be on soon to do the same.

As for his three new friends and hunting partners, all three were online and in the nearby town, he would be able to join them soon. With that, he picked a name from the list and sent a private message.

"Hey Selena, you guys planning to do any hunting today?" Godric messaged, deploying his shields in case of nearby monsters, this area was too close to wolf territory to be safe.

Luckily, his message was quickly answered.

-Selena: Hey Godric, good to hear from you again, we were gonna hit up some wolves but Blaine and Carver think we can handle some kobolds and goblins if you join.

"I'm up for that." Godric replied, standing and making his way towards the town. "I'm in the forest now but I'll meet you guys at the west gate."

-Selena: Alright, see you there in a few minutes.

Closing the menu, Godric delved into forest, his staff ready and a spell on his lips.

"Gah!" Blaine grunted, his armor rattling as he was forced back from a blow to the chest.

The kobold warrior -a five foot tall, anthropomorphic canine in raged cloth and metal armor- took a step forward, it's crude club raised to come down on the human's head. The blow was stopped short as three arrows, rapidly fired one after the other, slammed into the raised hand.

"Graaa!" the kobold roared in pain, its raised weapon falling from the disabled hand as it was forced back from its target.

"Holy spirit, grant me aid and the power to save those who are hurt, Recovery." Selena chanted, her hands shifting from a prayer stance and turning towards Blaine.

With his health and stamina recovered, Blaine charged forward and swung his ax in a powerful blow, slicing the creature from shoulder to hip and draining the last of its health.

Godric watched all of this from several meters away, his staff pointed at the ground as his quagmire spell entrapped the remaining three kobolds of the mob. As his quagmire spell was level 5, Godric was able to sink the kobolds in a thick, knee-deep bog, it wasn't enough to drown them with but it served to slow them immensely. Continuously maintaining the spell was quite the drain on his mana but the kobolds were way too powerful for them to handle in a group, it was better to pick them off one by one.

Speaking of which, Blaine was already charging over while Carver fired arrows at one of the entrapped monsters. As they were currently partied together, the thick, gooey bog took on the consistency of water wherever the warrior stepped, he was slowed but not as much as the monsters.

"Yah Ha!" Blaine crowed, leading with his shield and swinging for the closest of the three monsters.

Godric simply chuckled at the warriors exuberance and continued maintaining his spell, Blaine was one of those that put his all into each and every fight.