Chapter 76
The Fort
“I don’t know, is there anything interesting to find out here? I am always interested in seeing new things.”
That is probably the dumbest thing anyone could say. I almost regret the words as they come out of my mouth, as that is exactly what witnesses would say the soon to be abducted child would have said just before they disappeared forever. Granted, I am not in my normal form, choosing instead to instead go as one of my of age personalities, Sabrina Spiritlight, but still, this is not a good look. Fortunately, this is an NPC and not a Regressor meaning, they likely won’t want to shove me in the back of a van and make me disappear, not that vans exist out here. Maybe stick me in a steam powered vehicle?
“Sorry to say, there isn’t much to do out here. If you are the adventuring sort, then there are quite a few quests you could pull up from the guild hall.”
“There is a guild hall here?” I ask, realizing it has been forever since I set foot into an Adventurers Guild Hall. Almost as an unconscious gesture, I reach up and touch the Adventurer’s Necklace around my neck and hope that I am still in good standings with the guild. I might have to pay a huge fee if I am behind or delinquent in my payments. That should still be handled by Hector and Golum, but they have been busy dealing with the war efforts with the Legrand Empire. Thinking back, I wonder if that little heist had any impact on the war whatsoever, I doubt it. While ten million is a lot, it is probably a drop in the bucket for a large country like Legrand. Still, it would be nice to know I had some impact on the surroundings.
“Yes, I can take you there if you like?” He says as he points off in the distance. As he points, I can just make out what I think are buildings at the edge of my three-kilometer viewing range.
“Oh, thank you, I think I can take it from here.” I say, not wanting to walk and talk to someone for three kilometers. Especially not on something that appears to be a travel quest, which means we would likely be attacked by multiple waves of monsters, before we got to the final destination. While I have no doubt in my ability to run from any danger that should come my way, the same cannot be said for this man, nor his bird.
“Wait, if you are an instructor, please tell me what it is you are looking for in a student.”
“For Void Healer?” I ask, making sure I have gauged his interest correctly.
“Yes, that seems perfect for out here, as it seems to focus directly on healing spirits no?” He asks.
At that I paused for a second, I honestly hadn’t given my criteria for getting an apprentice that much thought. Mainly because I doubted, I would get to level fifty any time soon. Yet here I am less than six months into being able to get a class and not only do I have two unique classes, but they are now both over the level 50 benchmark making me officially powerful enough to be considered a Sage in both of my classes. I can think of my first criteria almost right off the bat.
“Have you ever killed people, monsters, or entities? And do you intend to do so, in order to keep leveling?”
“Yes, I have killed many great beasts. I will prove that I am more than capable of becoming your disciple.”
I slice a hand through the air, cutting him off. “Sorry, this is not a warrior’s path. I will only accept a true pacifist, someone dedicated to healing and only healing while holding this class.”
There are of course multiple reasons for this, the first and foremost reason is that I don’t want someone out leveling me, so if they have the same moral handcuffs that I do, then they should be easy to keep behind me and allow me to keep my lead in my class. I know that I must allow people to take my class, that is part of my job as a trainer. I will likely also get multiple rewards if my trainee reaches certain benchmarks in their own progression, which is why lots of masters will take on multiple students all at once, as they will gain experience from all their students’ efforts and that will help them level independently and continue to rise ahead of the competition. I could do that, have hundreds of little trainees under me, but I think that would diminish the value of my class, or at least make it so people are able to prepare for and deal with my advantages. Right now, I am mostly a wild card, which is why I can get away with so much. If others find out about what I can do, then they can attempt to counter me, which is why it is in my best interest to keep both of my classes a closely guarded secret for as long as possible. Also, I think that my Void Healer class would be nearly useless without my ability to create spells as needed to fix any situation that I might find myself in.
“I think I might know a few who fit this, they are healers. Or people who are dedicated to becoming Healers, they too are at the outpost.” The insistent adventurer states.
Of course, it wouldn’t be as easy as here is an impossible standard.
“The other criteria might also seem rude, but it is necessary. I will need the apprentice to have at least the ability to cast Tier V spirit spells.” I add. Now there are reasons for this, first magic is rare, Spirit magic users doubly so. Secondly, I can always use my bloodline curse to increase the power rating of anyone I seem to be truly worthy of my class.
“Tier V Spirit? Well, that is a bit tougher but not unmanageable. Also, I am fairly certain that you will find that most people who are here are Spirit Magic users.” He noted.
“Right.” I said, not even considering the fact that most people in the spirit realm will be Spirit magic users. This would be the same thing as being in the mortal realm and being shocked to find elemental or nature magic users. Shaking my head, I nod in understanding, then before things can get too awkward, I gesture for him to “lead on. Though know I am a Healer, at the first sight of trouble, I will run and leave you to fend for yourself.”
I state this last part not to be mean, but to make sure I don’t have an escort quest show up.
“With Bessy flying overwatch, and your unnaturally high level, I see no problems.” The man said, while first pointing to his bird, when speaking of Bessy. “Oh, I am Pierre St. Cloud by the way.”
“Oh, well hello Pierre, I am Ca… called Sabrina.” I say, almost slipping up, but managing the save expertly, if I do say so myself.
“So are you ready to head out?” He asks.
I nod, still not liking this, but figured this might be one of those lore quests people talk about. One where the NPC talks and gives me the lay of the land, a few creatures to worry about.
Of course, there is an issue almost immediately, as Pierre seems to all but send out pheromones to the local creatures of the lands that all but scream, attack me I’m weak.
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This is noticed within the first few seconds of our trip, as a pack of large feral cats suddenly spawned from one of the zone tunnels that lined our path. This was just as I had feared, as I did not want to do an escort quest, especially not where I had to fight off hordes and hordes of feral creatures. Seeing the monsters, I decide to go forward, and greet them. They are all much lower level than me, but not lower level than Pierre.
Seeing me, the pack slowly backs away.
“Come on, I won’t bite.” I say, as I reach out a hand for the giant cats to sniff.
“Miss, I don’t think you should.”
“Oh calm down. If I need to, I can heal myself, but I have a feeling about these cats.” I say, as I begin shooting out calming strands of healing magic at the feral creatures.
Tss.
One of the cats drools a bit, and in that second I see the saliva actually burn away at the hard stone below us. Either this will be a very teachable moment for me, or I might make a pack of new guard cats.
My magic connects with the lead cats who instantly back up from the interaction, unaware of why random strings of magic would be contacting them. Honestly, I can’t blame them. I would be suspicious too in their case, but I can safely say that for now everything is above board.
“What should I do?” Pierre asks as he walks forward.
Hiss.
At his movement the feral cats all hiss out angrily.
“I’d suggest you just stay there.” I say.
I am trying something, my last name Spiritlight is supposed to make it so I am at the very least neutral with all spirits, and seeing as these creatures before me are all spirit beasts, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I just went up and tried to initiate calm contact with the wild creatures of the spirit world, would they avoid me, or would they be able to eventually be pacified. I had my doubts, especially with the way Bessy originally acted with me, but I know now that her reaction was likely due to Pierre’s commands more than anything. At least, that is what I and by extension my hand is now hoping as I dangle the hand that is generating waves of healing energy outward.
“Rawar!” An alpha snarls, as he lunges forward from the pack that has seemingly gone stock still in my sight.
“Hi there little guy. How are you?” I say, I my sweetest voice I can muster.
At the charge, I can see Pierre double back and nearly trip over himself as he tries to back up a few more paces.
The monster is locked in on me, I am prepared to defend myself in needed, mostly this will require using Telekinesis to either unlatch the beast’s jaws from my skin, or to push it away if it does anything overtly aggressive. I could almost see the way it quivered in fear as it approached me. I was confused by this at first, but then realized I was drastically over leveled for this area. At least that is what I felt, as I didn’t really think that anything in here was too dangerous. Maybe this was just me being naïve. I mean here I was surrounded by a dozen or so menacing spirit beasts, but oddly I felt I sort of belonged here.
Seeing the creature, I decide to see if I can make a friend, or at least get us safe passage through the zone.
“Let’s try this.” I say, as I slightly modify the same spell that I have already created and modified once. This time, I intend to see if I can cast the same spell, but over an entire pack of creatures all at once and see if I can link them that way.
The spell is of course, Modified Spiritual Awakening [Tier IX] (C). This time, not only do I want to modify it so it can link a dozen spirits together, I wish to do so, so that it works on creatures as well. Basically, taking a known spell, taking it from dual or single use, and making it a targeted AOE, or area of effect, spell.
The logistics of the spell come alive in my mind rather easily, then before I could really even get the consent of the creatures, I was sort of bonding with a pack aggression spell that improved their ability to hunt and grow, the spell was done.
New Spell Created: Modified Animal Pack Spiritual Awakening [Tier IX] (C): This spell created by Sabrina Spiritlight can temporarily awaken the senses of a targeted animal group, leading to an increased growth in Skills, Attributes, and other means of Learning. Current rate 15% increase for 24 hours.
*Warning: May cause unusual emotional side effects.
That was surprisingly easy to perform. Granted it was my third time creating the same spell, and most of the work had been hammered out the first two times casting, but this seemed to be completely odd.
To my surprise, the cats first glowed with a slightly golden hue, before the spell fully took effect and seemed to coat their bodies completely.
The alpha’s eyes glowed menacingly for a moment, but then came forward and rubbed its whole body up against me, hard. I know this is the way cats and other animals mark you with their scent, but this large beast caused me to lose balance slightly. I made sure to pet the beast as it went around, getting a happy head tilt as I scratched it behind its ears. Then after the alpha was done, all of the other animals of the pack also came forward to mark me.
Then they did something I didn’t expect, though in hindsight, maybe I should have?
As one, the animals that had all shown their appreciation for me turned in near perfect unison and then began breaking off into tiny three and four cat hunting packs.
I was confused at first, before I realized that the cats were going out and killing everything and anything that got in their way.
Pierre watched in muted horror, as the cats ran away, and slowly relaxed only once they were apparently out of his sight range. Of course, I still had two or more kilometers of viewing space myself that could cover these ferocious beasts. Tracking them, I could see the way they tore into and through any creatures that got in their way.
“So, I think we should be good to go for now.” I said to Pierre.
Pierre just nodded his head, looking off in the direction that the wild beasts had gone and then back to me. Then nodding he began walking again.
After that we made great time. Every once in a while, I could see how the pack of killer cats would circle back to us, to make sure we were safe. Then after making sure with visual confirmation that everything was fine, one group would roar out to the other packs. Then turn around and continue hunting any creatures that spawned along our path.
Honestly, had I known that was all that it would take to do one of these travel quests, I would have done so a long time ago. Just take the first batch of creatures that come your way, super charge them and set them loose in the area.
“You sure you are a Healer?” The man asked.
“What? Me? Yeah. Though I think I can heal almost anything, humans creatures, monsters, would be really limiting to only be able to heal humans or humanoid creatures.” I state.
At that Pierre just nods, “right.”
And that was that conversation. No lore, no history of the wild lands around us. Just silence.
I think part of the silence clearly had to do with the amount of carnage and dead animals we saw along our way. At about the halfway point our first injury appeared.
Limping.
One of the animals had apparently been severely injured during their wild killing romp. Seeing the poor little guy, I cooed, “oh, poor thing.”
Then I did what any Healer should do, I healed the heavily muscular killing machine and let it go on its merry killing way. At this, the beast once again nuzzled me, covering me in its scent that even I could smell at this time. Then began frolicking away as it seemed to pounce towards its companions with extra vigor in its pounce.
“You, you just healed that beast?” Pierre finally spoke, but only after the cat was out of his eyesight again.
“Why wouldn’t I, I am a not a killer, nor am I someone who would willingly watch another innocent creature suffer.”
“You do realize that those innocent creatures are Acid Cats, some of the most dangerous creatures in these parts?”
“Oh, I guess that explains why their drool can burn through stone.” I admitted, “good to know.”
I should also take a moment to explain something here. I've done the math, I've seen the way this world spits out monsters at a nearly never ending cycle. If people and animals didn't kill one another, then we would be overcrowded within seconds. I get all that, but I personally cannot stand the idea of killing monsters, or people for that matter. Now If given the chance I will heal monsters that go out and kill people. Just as I would go out and heal people like Mallory who have been killing since this game world began. I just purposefully choose not to be apart of said killing, if and when it occurs. That said, I am not above healing cute little cats that are not only nice to me, but do me the favor of cleaning the path around me from any potential future problems.
Pierre opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then just closed his mouth again and continued walking. I might have looked a little too excited by these cute little guys, and the idea that I wouldn't have to deal with any crazy animal attacks in the future.
I also think he began walking faster at this point. Not quite certain if this was a matter of being frightened of me, or of the fact that he was not getting splash experience for all the kills that were happening around us.
The cats were nice, even going so far as to bring us the choice kills. Leaving them along our path to the local fort that we had been heading too. The path that was easily noticeable and seemed to wind around the entire zone for some odd reason. Though this was simple game mechanics and something that I was fully expecting. What I was not expecting however was just how effective my little cats were at cleaning up the area around me.
Also, the one I healed must have somehow told the others, as invariably after that we were met by other cats who all got injured. When they came, I healed them before they marked me once more, then left. I did notice the way that the cats started to almost growl at Pierre, but since they didn’t do anything to actually hurt Pierre, I mainly stopped them with a vigorous head pat.
“Hey, stop that.” I’d say, then the cats would look cowed and wait till I pet them once more, before going off to rejoin their little death pack.
It was fun, honestly. Like watching three little dots charge headfirst into a pack of twelve dots, then watch as all twelve of the little dots disappeared within seconds.
Soon before I knew it, we were right outside the gates of the local fort for the area.
“Who goes there?”
“It is I, Pierre St. Cloud, and a healer?” He said, though he sounded more questioning than anything when he said the word healer.
“Oh Pierre, about time you got back, well come on in. And a Healer you say? Well, always glad to have more help.” The guard said.
Clink, clink, clink.
Just like that, the sealed gates to the fort began to mechanically give way, and I could see the entire fort complex for what it was, a massive, pocketed zone within the tower meant for extra missions, and additional exploration. Seeing this area, I was certain new adventures awaited.
“Why hello there.” I said, to no one in particular, as I let a smile of excitement and exploration come to my face. This should be fun.