Tilly was in the medical tent, with Eric using Minor Heal each time he had enough mana. He was pretty sure in another 2-3 castings she would be at full. When Colonel Melendez entered, the medic stood up and snapped to attention before the Colonel could say “at ease.” Then he moved to where Eric was, “How are you doing?”
Tilly shrugged, “Fine, magical healing will eventually heal any combat damage.” The medic continued to stare at Eric, the man had been distracted since he had bandaged Tilly and let Eric and Tilly borrow two of his cots.
The Colonel turned serious, “I'm here to ask a favor, a big one. I want to stress, I'm not asking this on behalf of Thompson. I'm asking on behalf of the US Army. What Thompson did was wrong, but most people don't know about it. I'd like to announce that he fought that Wyvern with you and died fighting it, which, well, isn't entirely false. It would make him a hero, rather than a criminal. We, the Army, need heroes right now.”
He frowned, “Especially if we are going to get permission to get people classes, get my men through the rift. I know about a tenth of the troops guarding the rift have already slipped through, but it is all unofficial, and they are almost all level 1 because they aren't doing quests. Other nations have troops in the double digits. So, will the two of you allow it?”
“I don't see how I'd be able to stop it, two random civilians, one of whom is an orc, verses the US Army PR team?” Eric said.
“Yes, but I believe we owe you, I won't tell this lie if I don't have your OK. I'm not asking you to like it, just to say you are OK with it.”
Eric thought, his instinct was to just agree, as annoying as the man had been, he was dead now, and Eric really didn't care about grudges with dead men. But favors were a big thing in the government, sometimes informal, sometimes formal. “Colonel, if you told your bosses I'd be OK with supporting the Army's story, but only if I could sometimes 'borrow' Captain King and Sergeant Guidry, would they go along with it?”
The Colonel couldn't help grinning. “I think I could sell that-but only if it doesn't conflict with their duties.”
After the two men shook hands Eric admitted, “I would have said it was OK even without this deal. Please don't tell your bosses.” Melendez just chuckled.
Once Tilly was OK, she, Eric, and Kendra went through the Orc Rift to see her father. Mostly to report everything that had happened.
Kendra also checked in with Law-Chief Mok about humans who had entered Ba'ruq. There had been a few human merchants going through the rift, Frob and a few other orcish merchants had set up on their side of the rift, making transportation of goods their problem made importing lumber and foodstuffs much easier. So far everyone had been so happy with the trades that no one had wanted to make waves.
Mok did bring up one concern. “It looks like there is a town forming on our side of the rift, and Goblins like to raid our settlements. What would your government's response be to an attack on human merchants?”
Kendra said “Legally, it would fall under your rules. But it could lead to tension back home.”
Eric said, “This could be an opportunity, Law-Chief, if our leaders allowed it, would it be OK to have a small number of human warriors on this side of the rift? Officially they would be guarding human merchants, but obviously not from orcs, as you have jurisdiction. So really, they would only help orcish warriors defend the area from, say, Goblins?”
Tok laughed, “I would need to speak to the chief, then the war-chief, then probably the Eyes, but I think all would happily support this.”
Eric cautioned, “Don't ask it as if it is a done deal, I don't speak for the US government. But I wanted to see if it might work before I ask on my side.”
“OK, I will probably wait on the Eyes until your government officially asks, but I will give the War-chief a head's up.”
Finally, they got back home, and Eric looked at his trashed house. He hadn't been home since Cletus kicked in his back door, and a Raccoon hissed at him until it reluctantly left. Eric propped his table against his door, holding it shut, then began to take in the weather and animal damage. He wasn't sure if his insurance coverage would cover it given that he had just abandoned the property for...had it only been three days?
Kendra was still with him. “Well, this sucks, I'm sorry.”
Eric shrugged, “yeah, it sucks, but it isn't that bad. I just have to pick things up and throw out what it damaged. But I should take pictures first in case insurance will cover anything.”
“Too bad you don't have any skills for this, huh?”
“Yeah, all my skills are low level anyway.” Eric admitted.
Kendra was surprised, “Wait, aren't you like fifth level?”
“Sixth,” Eric admitted.
“You had like, 24 free points, what all did you spend them on?”
Eric thought, “I think I spent two on staff, got aimed spell, enchant, and merchant? Maybe something else.”
“OK, let me rephrase that, open up your status, how many free points do you have?”
Eric pulled up his status:
Eric Brown, Traveler 6, 11400/13500 XP to next level
HP 41>48, MP 51>60
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 15>16, special restriction ends
Skills Diplomacy 3, Insight 1, Perception 2, Wilderness Survival 4, Mapping 1, Pathfinding 3, staff 1, aim spell 2>3, enchant 0, merchant 0.
Abilities Escape, Bypass, Wind Slash (1), long-stride (group of up to 7), sun bolt (1), find ally, lesser heal, locate animal, enchant, identify enchant, Water Blast, Shelter
Unused skill points 14>18, unused Ability points 2>4
“18 skill points and 4 ability points unused,” he admitted warily.
“You are going to spend those skill points, but what skills do you have at zero?” Kendra had learned about the skill 0 issue, from Eric ironically.
“Enchant and merchant.” Eric answered.
“We are going to the flea market!”
Kendra took him through the stalls of the market, “What are we looking for?” Eric asked.
“Something for you to enchant, and to haggle over.” She saw a jewelry booth, “Wait here, and come over when I wave you over.” She said, then went to talk to the booth owner.
A minute later she gestured, and he approached, The booth owner was an older lady, tanned, skinny and wrinkled with grey-white hair down to her waist. “Your friend tells me you want to haggle,” she said with a scowl.
“Er, yes,” Eric looked at the jewelry, seeing a necklace that looked a bit like a shield with a blue stone, he asked, “How much for that necklace?”
“Four hundred,” she answered immediately.
“Ouch,” Eric said, pulling out his wallet.
Kendra grabbed his wrist, “haggle, remember?”
“Oh yeah, um, I'll give you two-hundred.”
“Three-Fifty.” “Two-twenty-five.” “Three-twenty-five.” “Two-fifty.” “Three Hundred even.” “Two-seventy-five.” “Three Hundred and I'll throw in this silver ring.”
“Sold,” Eric said, elated. Then saw a message:
Merchant Skill increased from 0>2
“Two whole points!” Eric crowed.
“Yeah, which is good because I told her to double her asking price so you could practice haggling.” Eric groaned as he paid $300 for a $200 necklace. Still, he knew the skill points were worth it.
Getting home, he put both the necklace and the ring on the counter. The necklace had reminded him of Kendra's shield ability. He grabbed a knife and began to scratch the surface, instinct telling him where to scratch. “I should talk to a jeweler about a tool to do this.”
“Yeah, you should, get level 0 Jeweler too.”
Eric did so, then finished his work, it was ugly, but he knew the runes were drawn correctly. “Try to cast your shield spell into this.”
“I don't think it works that way, but,” Kendra used her Shield, and it went into the ring. “Wait, what the hell?”
Eric grinned, “It stores one use of your ability, you can use it yourself to save mana, or let someone else hold it so they can use the shield.” Eric then got to work on the ring, having an idea. Going all the way around the ring, he finally finished it. “OK, quiet.”
Kendra didn't speak for a while, waiting for Eric to explain what the ring did. Finally she gave up, intending to ask 'OK, what does it do?' But no noise came out of her mouth.
Eric mouthed 'noisy,' and then said “It works! A ring of quiet, it makes all noise from near the ring get canceled, er somehow. I don't think it is white noise but with magic who knows. Next time we try to sneak though...”
Kendra gave his arm a light punch, “Next time tell me, I felt like a dumbass.”
“I wasn't sure if knowing what it did would affect it. The activation word is so it is easy to remember and would be used anyway.” Eric checked his status and saw that he not only got two levels of enchant for the two items, but his jeweler skill had gone up by one. The first level really was easy! But his stats were super low!
Kendra saw his expression, “What is wrong?”
“All my stats went down 9 points! I think, well, either that is what went into the enchantments, or it is some sort of debuff to keep people from just enchanting willy-nilly. I feel really weak.”
“Nine! OK, you need to stop, any more might kill you or something. Look, max out your aim spell skill, and we can worry about your other skills later.”
“OK, I think...I'm going to take a nap right afterwards.” Eric spent the 3 points to get aim spell to 6, skills couldn't be purchased above your level, only built up by learning and training after that. Then he took a nap.
The next day he felt, well, better. He checked his stats and they were now only 7 points down. He also realized he had way overslept and was very late to work. Under the circumstances, he sent out an e-mail saying he was sick. He got up, ate a bowl of cereal, and went back to bed. Doing nothing but resting and sleeping let him regain three more points by Tuesday morning, so he went into work.
Folks could still tell he wasn't at his best, but he did paperwork and arranged for some of his employees to be transferred temporarily to use their talents. He felt guilty that he hadn't sent the water mage to the wildfires sooner, but the local firefighters were still very happy when he got to the scene and started a small rainstorm on the worst area.
Then he sent out a memo, CC'ing his boss, asking all his people to try to come up with ways their talents could help with environmental problems, using the water mage for the wildfires as an example. He made it clear he would find transfer funds to get people where they could do some good. If it meant fewer site visits or conferences, so be it.
The next day Kendra came over, he had only recovered one more point, but they agreed he was ready to spend his points.
Eric Brown, Traveler 6, 11700/13500 XP to next level
HP 48, MP 60
Str 12 (9), Dex 14(11), Con 12(9), Int 16(13), Wis 12(9), Cha 16(13)
Skills Diplomacy 3, Insight 1, Perception 2, Wilderness Survival 4, Mapping 1, Pathfinding 3, staff 1, aim spell 6, enchant 2, merchant 2, jeweler 1.
Abilities Escape, Bypass, Wind Slash (1), long-stride (group of up to 7), sun bolt (1), find ally, lesser heal, locate animal, enchant, identify enchant, Water Blast, Shelter
Unused skill points 14, unused Ability points 4
“Max out your Diplomacy, Insight, and Perception,” Kendra immediately said, after Eric shared his stats.
“Wait, why?”
“Your class is social, you should always have a bunch of people around you who can fight. Being able to talk your way out of fights is important. Perception will keep you from getting surprised. May as well up merchant too, I suspect you will need it.”
Eric was smart enough, even with his abilities drained, to see that she was right. He made the changes, spending all his free points.
“Now your abilities, you have too many, so what do you want to improve?”
Eric thought, could Escape move multiple people if he leveled it?
Escape improved to Escape (1), can bring up to 4 people with user.
Escape (1) improved to Escape (2), can bring up to 7 people with user, user has a mental idea where the gate would be and can choose to go through the second nearest gate.
“Wow, that is useful,” Eric exclaimed, “Not only can I now bring up to seven people with me when I escape, I get to choose which of the two closest gates!”
“Great, now pick another.” Kendra prodded him.
“Should I boost a combat ability? You said I would have people who can fight with me. Wait, I know.”
Lesser Heal improved to Lesser Heal (1) healing repairs more damage and can affect two targets if needed.
“One left,” Eric said.
“Eh, save it, I saved one of mine. You never know when you suddenly need something new.” Kendra advised him.