Alex felt like he’d been riding a rollercoaster of emotions for the last twenty minutes. Dora’s story was the epitome of a tragedy for just about everyone involved. He could admit now that his insistence for the full truth had been a mistake, especially since they hadn’t actually gotten to the parts he was most concerned about yet. But when your error results in a person reliving their entire traumatic backstory to the effective melody of Chopin’s Nocturne, you shut up and wait for them to finish.
“I don’t know how much you know about bloodlines, but is it safe to assume the answer is not much?”
Reasoning this was to be followed by an explanation; Alex confirmed.
“Ok, well I’m not going to go super in-depth, but the main idea is that they pass from person to person through blood, or more accurately genetics. There are as many ways to get a bloodline as there are stars in the sky, but I’m focusing on the most natural way, being born with one. Like with other genetic traits, there are dominant and non-dominant bloodlines, with the general rule being: the more powerful a bloodline, the less likely it is to be passed to offspring.
The blood of a changeling, whilst in that of a full breed, is recognized as a race. By having a child with another race, they would be mixing their racial ability with that of different aspects, diluting it into a bloodline, though still a dominant one. Keeping up?”
Alex nodded, intrigued by the similarities to what he knew from back on Earth.
“Ok, so I have two potentially inheritable bloodlines, a dominant one from my mother, and the non-dominant one, of my father. While it’s not unheard of that a person receive two bloodlines, the likelihood of it happening is negligible, which is why it caused such an uproar when it did.
I tried to hide my eyes initially, but I couldn’t control when they were active, and only certain materials,” she raised the mask for emphasis, “work to suppress their effects. It wasn’t long before my guards found out, then eventually my father. He started paying a lot more attention to me after that. There’s only about three of us who inherited the bloodline and two, including myself, who did so fully. I suddenly had limits on my time out of the castle and was designated mandatory academic and physical training sessions. These were mainly with tutors, though a few times the honorable King deigned to grace us with his presence.” She scoffed, as if the sarcasm in her tone wasn’t enough to explain how little she saw him as such.
“That has pretty much been my life for the last few years, I planned to bide my time before I, at the very least, broke away from my family, but things have been escalating recently. The King’s always been erratic, but it’s gotten so much worse over this last year. He doesn’t hold the monopoly on strength that he once did, and he’s starting to realize there are enough powerful people to threaten his rule.
I’m sure Ralph and Janet have seen the signs; they probably know more about this whole thing than I do. Honestly, I’m lacking definitive evidence for anything other than his hand in the increased beast wave frequency, but they seem content to just twiddle their thumbs, I’m very much not. No matter what his plan is, I’m certain it won't end well for me, which is why I need to act first, and why I need help.
Not just your help, but help in general. I came to get you alone, because I’d been trying to work with Greyson’s boss. Eric is in charge of the beast imports for the arena, among other things, this place used to be one of their holding facilities; but he’s also the only person that I’ve met with contact to the beast queen. She notoriously hates my father and can’t be happy about her husband and him working together, a deal with her was my best chance to shut this collaboration down, now I’m not so sure.
If I told Janet where you were, she’d have at the very least killed them. That conversation earlier was me trying to negotiate your release, and since it failed, I came to sneak you out. Would have for sure soured the relationship some, but in the end he would have blamed them for not being able to keep you, now there’s no chance he works with me.”
Alex could see how that worked, but he wasn’t going to apologize. Honestly, he was pretty sure a late night rescue would have been worse for him all around.
“Ok, I think I’m starting to understand, but I still have a few questions. First, why you were even sent to find me? I get that your eyes make you better at finding people, but it’s almost been a week. If Janet was this big spymaster, then why couldn’t she find me herself. Then, beyond that, in what way will my help be comparable to the connections Eric had? I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not even E-Grade yet. If your goal is my death, there’s no need to be so elaborate.”
Alex had been joking with the last part, trying to lighten the dour mood some, but his questions were still valid.
“Well the first one is easy; they already knew she was helping you. Janet had spent those first few days searching alone before Anise sought me out. This place has extra precautions specifically to restrict her, but my abilities are very different. Eric might not be one of the city’s true elites in terms of power, but there’s a reason he’s one of the arena bosses.
The second part’s a bit more convoluted, but I’ll try to explain. Back in that alley, after you and Anise left, I spotted something strange, there were remnants of magics or concepts maybe so complex I grew dizzy just looking at them. I hadn’t been sure you were the cause then, but now I am, there’s something about you, like the world seems to shift slightly in direct reaction to your presence. That’s something I’ve only seen around my father.
That’s why I’m telling you all this. I don’t know for certain what Ralph and Janet want, but I need you on my side entirely. In return, I’ll help you with your goals.”
“But you don’t even know what they are, and honestly I can’t trust you enough to tell you.”
“That’s fine, I’m still giving my word that I will help you, presuming they don’t purposefully end with my death. Besides, I’mm pretty sure they’ll line up rather well.”
Alex leaned back in his seat and let out a sigh, this was potentially perfect for him, though it was too early to be certain. Her story had sounded so real, her emotion as if she really did live through it. Perhaps his earlier assessment of the tutorial had been incorrect. He sat up and stared directly into Dora’s eyes, the possibility of being charmed making him want to flinch away, but he resisted.
“I’m open to a tentative agreement, but just surviving thus far has been dangerous enough for me, I don't need a k… leader and two other high-leveled people trying to kill me as well.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“That’s fine, like I said, I’m pretty sure you’ll want to work with me. I know you don’t trust me now, but I’m putting trust in the fact that you won’t run to the others for no reason other than to sell me out.”
If it was all true, which Alex wasn’t sure he wanted to believe, this was one hell of an olive branch. For now he’d take some time to think about it.
“So where does that leave us in the present. I’ve thought about it and I can’t just go straight back to the city, I need to level, especially if you want me to be of any help.”
He had a solid stockpile of potions and had proven to himself that he could survive against those more powerful than him. Going back to the city now would just get him drawn into more drama, he needed to take this chance to level and scout out for his main quest if he could.
“No, that’s fine as long as you don’t die. In the meantime, I’ll try to run interference with Eric. Killing most people who come after you shouldn’t be a problem, as long as he doesn’t know who did it, however, I won’t risk him finding out I’m involved, so be on the lookout. Any clue when you’ll be back?”
That was pretty much what he needed, though he reminded her to tell Janet and Anise he was fine.
“I’m hoping for about three weeks tops. I don’t have much of the supplies I planned to when entering the forest, but I should have enough to keep me alive for that long.”
She nodded, surprisingly more onboard with his solo mission than he’d thought she would be after emphasizing his importance to her plans. “Ok, one more thing. You have Greyson’s storage, right?”
“Yea,” Alex agreed wearily.
“Well there’s something in there, a bottle about yay big and filled with a chalky purple powder. I need it”
It took a bit of searching, but Alex eventually found the stuff in the same belt storage it had originated from. He’d spotted it earlier whilst going through the man’s stuff the first time, but with no prior knowledge of the substance and the powder lacking an energy signature, he’d written it off as useless. Apparently, that had been incorrect.
Holding the powder up to the light, her eyes flashed golden as she examined it, none of the earlier attraction affecting him.
“This is a drug, I had Eric get the sample for me, but with that bridge broken, it looks like this is all I’ll get of it. Oh, don’t look at me like that. It’s labeled as a drug, but I’d personally describe it as a poison. The stuff is supposed to put you in this zen state like nothing I’ve seen before, but the hangover is terrible. Makes you temporarily weaker, more susceptible to constant mood swings, gives you the worst headache in the universe, stuff like that. I planned to give a shit-ton of this to big old dad, but now we’ll have to see. Wasn’t even sure it would work on him anyway.”
She shrugged, and Alex thought for anything else to ask.
“Oh yea, two more things. In the spirit of trust, there’s a safe behind here I wasn’t able to get into. From what I could tell, there’s just a single book, but if they go through all this trouble to keep it locked up here, maybe it’s something important.”
Theodora rose to walk around Alex, and he moved his chair over so she had enough room. The process took a few minutes, and he found himself deriving a small amount of pleasure from her struggle, but she eventually got it open.
“Yea, definitely useful.” Dora muttered as she flipped through the pages. Alex got up and to look it over, though to him the text just looked like a bunch of nonsensical alphanumeric codes. Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. “It’s a few years old, doubt anyone even knew it was here, but it’s definitely a ledger, and not one for coins. If my guess is right, someone was taking inventory; book should be full of items and locations. I’ll see what I can do with this while you’re away. What was the other thing?”
“I need some information about the forest.”
The pair separated a while later, Dora putting her mask on and leaving, while Alex remained in the office. She had assured him no one would be arriving anytime soon, so he shifted his plans to a dawn departure. The hope was that it would allow him another hour or two of sleep, but Alex knew he couldn’t just yet. He’d been so focused on their conversation, he hadn’t even registered them as they popped up, but he had a few more notifications to go over.
***
Your skill [Advanced Analyze] has advanced to Level Eleven.
Your skill [Advanced Analyze] has advanced to Level Twelve.
….
Your skill [Advanced Analyze] has advanced to Level Fifteen.
Quest
Quest Complete: Tutorial Quest - Unique Challenge - Subquest 1: An Intellectual Pursuit
Rewards:
10 Platinum
Class Level x1
Achievement Unlock Token x1
Scroll of Copy Skill (Rare) x1
Quest Complete: Tutorial Quest - Main - Subquest 1: A Journey of A Thousand Li
Rewards:
+5 to single skill of choice
Wayfarer’s Totem x3
Ocelot’s Mat of Regeneration
Congratulations, you have advanced to Level Twenty-Five
Attribute Points Granted. Allocate Free (1) Point(s)
Classes [Assassin, Planestrider, (Tertiary), (Quaternary), (Quinary)] have reached the peak of your Grade, F, advance your race level to the next Grade to further advance your classes. No further class experience may be gained until race Grade is upgraded.
***
“Holy Shit,” Alex muttered. He’d finally done it. Well almost, no one had mentioned this race advancement thing, though he did remember seeing an F next to his race on the general information tab. Obviously influenced by his thoughts, another prompt popped up.
***
Would you like to upgrade race (Human, F) to (Human, E)
(Y/N)
***
He took a millisecond to acknowledge the fact that this was changing him and taking himself further away from his natural humanity, before realizing he didn’t care. All the struggling aside, getting more powerful was fun, he accepted.
***
Warning: No advancement materials found.
Due to the current density of Ambient Mana, advancement materials will not be required to advance your race.
Proceed (Y/N)
***
Accepting once more, he read over the new set of prompts.
***
Multiple classes detected. Would you like to combine classes Assassin and Planestrider upon race advancement? All skills will remain, your current minimum attributes per level may experience changes beyond normal class grade advancement interactions. Once combined, these classes may never be reverted. If denied now, the option to combine classes will remain for future combination.
Combine (Y/N)
***
While he did spend a minute thinking on it, Alex ultimately decided against combining the classes. They were good enough alone and while he assumed combining them would improve them in some aspects, his lack of knowledge made him want to avoid the risk, especially since the option would remain available. This next notification, however, wasn’t as easy to ignore.
***
Error: Class slots beyond maximum allotted detected, upgrading your race will remove class slot: (Quinary)
***
That put a rapid halt on his excitement. Alex knew he’d been given more than the normal two classes, but they had been a reward from the system, now that same system was telling him it was an error. He looked for a way to cancel the advancement, but couldn’t find one, time instead seeming to slow as he was pulled deeper and deeper into a meditative state before eventually it all went dark.