The soft vibrations of the alarm on his phone woke Lance a little before 3:00 in the morning. He gingerly extricated himself from the head on his shoulder and the arm and leg flopped haphazardly across him. Stepping outside, he headed into the trees to relieve himself. Returning to the truck, he grabbed the full can of diesel and duplicated the whole thing and poured it into the truck’s tank. He would find someplace to store the extra can later. With his higher Endurance, Constitution, and Vitality allowing him to need less sleep, he set a timer for an hour, then set about performing moves and stretches using a mix of Tai-Chi, Hapkido, and Kravmaga. While doing so, he focused on his heartbeat and respirations, maintaining a steady breathing rhythm while allowing his mind to wander. After about 45 minutes of this, he heard and felt the notification. “DING”
Skill ‘MARTIAL ARTS’ has been obtained. Proficiency
displayed. Skill advanced to Level 10
Skill ‘ACTIVE MEDITATION has been obtained. Proficiency
displayed. Skill advanced to Level 5
Slowing to a stop, Lance sat on the ground and gently stretched out his now warmed up muscles. Throwing a quick ‘Analyze’ at his Active Meditation skill, he received:
Active Meditation - Despite its name, this mostly passive skill
promotes balance, peace, and harmony, while also doubling the
the normal rate of resource regeneration.
While not world shattering in its impact, Lance could see this skill being quite useful, and vowed to try and keep it “active” as much as he possibly could while doing other things.
Having almost reached the one hour mark, Lance quietly slipped back into the camper and grabbed Lydia’s now spare assault pack. Slipping back outside, he duplicated it, grabbed his rifle and shotgun from the truck along with a cleaning kit, then carried everything over to stone benches by the fire pit. He laid his weapons down on one of the benches, set the packs on the ground beside them, and tossed a couple of logs on the almost guttered fire. As the fire rekindled and started shedding some light around the circle, Lance pulled his headlamp out of his cargo pocket, settled into a meditative state, and started field stripping his weapons. As he reassembled his newly cleaned AR-15, he gained a level in Active Meditation. By the time he finished cleaning and reassembling his shotgun and his pistol, he had gained another.
Grabbing the assault packs, he emptied everything from one of them into the other. They were close enough, and Lydia was practical enough, he knew she wouldn’t be bothered with him doing so. A spare set of underclothes, sweatpants and a t-shirt, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash all went in the other bag. Lydia being the senior non-commissioned officer in the unit, along with being the medic, she had packages of feminine hygiene products to share with any of the younger ladies who forgot to pack them. Also in the pack were two one pound packages of beef jerky, a package of chocolate bars, and a package of oatmeal fatty cakes. With everything stuffed into the single bag, Lance ‘Duplicated’ it.
Carrying everything back to the camper, he climbed in and slipped into the small bathroom to wipe off the little bit of salt and sweat he’d accumulated while “working out”. He got dressed in his uniform again, and exited to see Lydia propped up in bed staring down at him. He gave her a quick rundown of his new skills, and told her what he had done with the assault pack. Discussing the supplies in her pack, they decided that he would duplicate the almost busting at the seams pack twice more, and then they would separated the items by category into the different packs. As Lance grabbed some eggs out of the fridge to fry up for breakfast, Lydia suggested that the next thing he should duplicate, should be another box of foodstuffs, specifically eggs, bacon, sausage, and bread, butter and jelly.
After finishing their simple breakfast, and while Lydia was cleaning up and dressing, Lance grabbed a duffel bag he kept for hauling ammo, and started packing it with his egg cartons, two pounds each of bacon and sausage, an almost whole loaf of bread, a full jar of jelly, and a pound of butter. Then to fill up the extra space in the bag, he grabbed a bottle of Major Marvin’s Select Reserve Rum and one of Joe Blows Kentucky Bourbon. Scrounging around in the back of one of the cabinets, he found an unopened can of pipe tobacco and his old pipe from the days when he used to smoke, along with a fresh box of Dominican Cigars that he had picked up to pass around at the senior leaders’ meeting. Knocking out a quick duplicate on the duffel, he stowed the food back in the fridge and freezer, and set all the alcohol and tobacco products on the table in a single duffel.
Before exiting the camper, Lance opened up the gun safe and pulled out the extra pistol and holster rigs that he kept in there for Lydia. He handed her the AR in 5.56, and grabbed the .450 Bushmaster for himself, along with the shotgun. Lydia grabbed her “in-use” assault pack, and tossed a half dozen magazines for each weapon in it. Walking up to the cab of the truck, Lance put his long-guns in the overhead rack, and Lydia racked hers in a jury-rigged rack using the door pocket and a window ledge phone holder. They then made their way over to the fire pit in the center of the clearing where Lance was able to cabbage onto a couple of cups of Kav, the tea/coffee analog he had been introduced to the day before.
Bj?rn approached them and asked Lance if he was still willing to accompany the caravan and pull the wagon of recovered goods from the bandit camp at the mine. Lance assured him that as long as Bj?rn would have him, they would accompany the caravan, and he hoped to be able to participate in some of the trade. Bj?rn directed the two young apprentice traders to get the wagon of looted goods moved up behind Lance’s vehicle, so Lance went to assist them while Lydia visited with Grimble. By the time the sun had fully cleared the horizon, everyone was packed up and hitched up, and Bj?rn had caused all of his stone constructs to crumble into particles and melt back into the ground.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Lance followed Grimble driving the last wagon out onto the road and stopped. Grimble walked past him and caused the trees and other vegetation to flow through the ground back into a normal looking wood. Between Bj?rn’s earlier display of earth magic, and now Grimble’s powerful show of nature magic, Lydia just sat there staring slack-jawed. Lance chuckled seeing her trying to cope with what he had been through yesterday. Grimble walked back past to his wagon, and it was only a few moments before they were moving down the roadway. Bj?rn had shown Lance a simple map of the continent earlier. He could now see a rough representation of it, and his position near the middle of the continent, on his mental map. They should be arriving in a smaller city the day after tomorrow.
Lance kept practicing ‘Active Meditation’ as they drove. Whenever the reset on Lance’s ‘Duplicate’ cool-down rolled around, Lydia would hand him an assault pack to copy. With, now, four stuffed assault packs, she spent time transferring items between them until she had one with only her clothing, one packed with hygiene items, one with jerky and chocolate, and one with fatty cakes and a couple of cans each of cola and dew. By the time they reached a low-water crossing over the river in the early afternoon, they had a total of 8 extra assault packs, two each of the different categories. During the day’s travel, Lance’s skill grinding had netted him two more levels in Active Meditation, and his class skill cool-down had just dropped to a mere 30 minutes.
Everyone crossed the river, and the caravan pulled over onto a widened shoulder on the left side of the roadway. Grimble began backing his wagon down a little spur road on the upstream side of the crossing. Skyti, Viggr, and a Svartálfar, whose name he couldn’t remember, came back and escorted him down the trail. Lance and Lydia got out and followed along. When they got to the river’s edge. Grimble hopped into the back of the wagon and pulled the tops off of the water barrels. The Svartálfar, whose name was V?in? Thorstr?mm, had a water manipulation skill, and quickly had two streams of water flowing through the air into the barrels. While that was going on, Viggr and Skyti were keeping a nervous watch on the river and its banks. Lance asked Grimble why they seemed so jumpy. He replied that this area of the river often hosted herds of a large semi-aquatic land animal that could behave very territorially.
As V?in? finished with barrels, the two apprentices arrived each carrying a small keg about 6 gallons or so in size. They stood next to Grimble’s wagon and he removed the bung from them. V?in? reduced his water to one smaller stream, and managed to direct it into one of the kegs. After it was full, the apprentice carried it back up to the caravan while the second was being filled. By the time it was full, the first apprentice had returned with another keg. This continued until they had filled 14 of them. As the last keg was being carried back up to the caravan and Grimble was driving the wagon back up, Viggr suddenly turned from upstream and started shooing them away. As he and Skyti reached them, Lance saw the first animal come into view from up river. Identifying it, he learned that it was called a Rhionox, and it looked like a hippo with a horn and the toughened plates of a rhino.
Moving back up to the roadway, the caravaneers were all taking some time to stretch and eat a lunch snack. Lance asked if the rhionox were going to be a problem for the caravan, and Viggr said that since they finished refilling their water stores there wouldn’t be an issue. The creatures didn’t stray far from the river unless threatened. As the group arrived back at the caravan, they saw an elegant carriage stopped on the other side of the road. What appeared to be two guards and two servants were down at the riverside filling a couple of kegs with water. They didn’t appear to have the assistance of a water manipulator.
As the rhionox came into sight of the ford, the group wisely decided they had enough water and hurried away from the river. Just then, they heard the shrill voice of a woman, “Steffan! Steffan, where are you?”
As they heard her shouting, Lance was busily grabbing his rifle and an artillery simulator out of the truck.
The woman’s yells were followed by the loud commanding voice of a man calling out, “Steffan, lad! You need to stop playing about and come back to the carriage now!”
The continued shouts had agitated the herd of rhionox, and as a young boy of about four or five came out of the reeds along the river hacking at them with a toy sword, the herd panicked. Lance saw the young rhionox being herded into the center of a circle by the older and larger ones. Two of these stood out, appearing to be the matriarch and bull of the herd. The bull rhionox released a loud challenging bellow, and started running toward the boy, who was now frozen in fear. It moved through the chest deep water almost as effortlessly as Lance walked on land. Lance began sprinting toward the boy, knowing almost assuredly that he was going to be too late to reach him. Lydia was sprinting right beside him.
The bull rhionox reached the boy in moments. Somehow breaking free of the fear induced paralysis, he managed to throw himself to the side, taking only a glancing blow. The boy went down in a tumble, arms and legs flailing. The bull thundered past about 15 meters and kicked up dirt and vegetation with its feet as it came to a halt. Turning about with the agility of a ballet dancer, it was snorting and preparing to make another run at the boy as Lance and Lydia arrived.
Lydia went straight into triage mode, stabilizing the boy’s head and neck while checking him over. He was bordering on unconsciousness, whimpering and moaning. Activating her minor heal, she felt the magical energy leave her body and wash over the boy. His eyes lost some of their dazed and cloudy visage and the contusions on his face and arms faded away. Still not sure if he was out of danger, or if he had head or neck injuries that minor heal hadn’t fixed, Lydia was preparing to cast it again as the rhionox charged their position.
As they arrived at the boy, Lance took a kneeling firing position and shoulder his rifle. He didn’t know if the 250 grain bullet would have enough impact to stop this behemoth. He also was aware that he was preparing to end this creature’s life for the only “sin” of being scared and protective of its herd. Settling his mind, and releasing a pent up breath, he acquired his target as it started its second charge. Its head was down, leading with its prominent intimidating horn. Lance opened fire, his first round bouncing off its skull almost like shooting bb’s at a steel plate. Shifting aim to a point between the neck and shoulder, Lance fired off two more rounds as quickly as he could pull the trigger. Both rounds found their mark, and he saw the creature stumble in its charge, but it was too close. Bracing, prepared to try and impact the beast at an angle to shift it away from Lydia and the boy, Lance was surprised when its body slammed into an invisible barrier and fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Hearing another massive bellow from the river, Lance turned to see the matriarch of the herd with her head to the sky. The other rhionox in the herd all let out bellows and screams as they churned the river with their stomping and shifting. As the matriarch started to charge toward them, she was temporarily halted by a stone wall rising up in her path. She made short work of it with her horn. She was slowed some by the aquatic vegetation wrapping and tangling around her feet. This gave Lance enough time to pull the fuse on the artillery simulator he had grabbed, and chuck it toward the rivers’ edge between them and the rhionox. The device hit right at the edge of the river, and then bounced into the water. Lance had never tried to use one of them submerged, and hoped that it was watertight enough to function.
As the matriarch tore her legs free of the entangling water grass, the explosive went off. Luckily it hadn’t been in very deep water, and the roar of the explosion along with the gravel and water thrown about by it interrupted her charge. It was at that point that she was struck in the side by a flying ball of water about the size of a washing machine. Knocked off her feet, with her herd in retreat and her mate no longer in the fight, she gave up her charge and turned and thundered downstream after the rest of the herd.
