As I came into view I saw a tall thin man in a servant’s clothes standing at the counter. Martha noticed me and pointed to me and said “you’re in luck there he is.” The man turned to me and smiled
“Ah, Mr. Smithson? My name is Regalt. I work for the Elfwoods. I understand we all owe you a debt for saving our beloved Lady Flare and Lady Windy Elfwood.” He said and ended with a bow.
“Please stand up. I was happy to help. How are Flare and Windy doing?”
“They are very well sir” he said raising back up. The Lady Flare Elfwood and has requested your presence at an art event tomorrow evening. She regrets that she hasn’t been able to invite you to a formal dinner in your honor, but her schedule has been set from before she arrived and this is the first opportunity she had to invite you to a social gathering.”
Martha was standing there gaping at us so I said “Thank you Martha for helping Regalt and I connect.” Regalt also turned to her and bowed slightly. She took that as her queue and walked back into the kitchen, though I was pretty sure she was going to be listening in.
“I would be happy to attend. I have to admit though that these are the nicest clothes I have with me. Could you possibly refer me to a tailor who can prepare suitable clothes for me by then? Also, I don’t know the customs of this land. Are there any social niceties I should be aware of? Bringing gifts or wine were common in my homeland.”
Regalt looked me up and down and said “Yes I think a tailor is in order. I know just the man. It is on my way back to the Elfwood manor if you would accompany me, I can introduce you as it is referral only. As for gifts they are not necessary. You are a guest of honor in Lady Elfwoods’ eyes and any gifts will be supplied by her. Not to worry.”
The first part of what he said had me a bit worried as I was now aware of how much more costly things were in the inner city so I asked “I may need to procure extra funds. How much will a suit of clothes at the tailor cost me?”
Regalt nodded at that and said “I believe 2-3 gold should be sufficient for the clothes, but you should probably also procure a few accessories. Jewelry of power would make sense as you are Adventurer. Do you have such things?”
I tried not to show my shock. I did some quick math $5000-$7500 for a set of clothes. I knew that there were places on Earth that charged that much for a suit, but I never thought I would be buying one. “I have these.” I said bringing out the ring and necklace. “Will they do?”
“My, my, those are quite nice. If I’m not mistaken, they are made by the Long Merchant company. They have a secret Artificer that makes these. They are exquisite. We will make sure your clothes compliment them.
“Alright.” I said. “I have that much money on me so let’s go head and go then.”
Thank goodness for the Bandit gold and thank goodness for Sara! I would have to tease her about being a secret Artificer when I saw her next. Regalt stayed with me at the Tailor until I had made my decision on style of clothing and all my questions were answered. After that it was just measurements and so he excused himself with my thanks. I would have been lost without his help.
Done with that I decided to head back to my room and read. I had dinner and then headed up. I read for a couple hours, but because I didn’t want to be tired by the time I got to the event tomorrow night I decided not to speed up time for sleep.
I woke up at 6 am feeling rested and after my normal routine and breakfast at the Café I headed to the Guild. I got there at about 8am and it was pretty busy. Electra was busy with a customer so I headed straight for the quest board. After looking for a bit I found an easy job taking care of a few mid Iron rank animals that were destroying crops. This was in the opposite direction from the other jobs I had recently done. It would take me a little longer to get there as I couldn’t use Instratravel to jump, but I could fill in more of my local map that way. Pretty soon I would have safe locations to jump to all over the region. I had taken to setting up locations with unique formations that were in out of the way spots so no one would spot me coming in. I jumped in Camouflage and Time Stop anyway so unless I was right next to an animal when I came out of jump I would be fine.
Taking the new job and my two cores from yesterday I completed my report on the Orc and took on the new job. Since my last job had included recognizance, I got paid more for it. Both together with the core came out to a Gold even. No word yet on my request for a teacher so with a smile to Electra I headed out for my new job.
My job was fairly easy. The monsters were something I hadn’t come across yet called a Chitral. They were large dogs, balance between speed and strength. My guild book said they were fairly common and lived in the woods, but these had gotten too close to a farmer’s settlement. They were all around level 20 so it took longer to find them than kill them. I got nearly no Exp for them, but my skill points were starting to get up there again. The Pelur had given me 6. The highest from a monster yet. I would need to look at getting the other types of Magic now. Maybe I should talk with Sara about it.
I wanted to fill in my map some more so instead of heading right back I started wandering around. I was walking through a peaceful part of the woods thinking I needed to either buy a hammock… or invent one if they didn’t have it. I was getting tired and since I could see for miles in every direction and nothing was on my map I thought I would lay down and just relax. Kattie had been pretty adamant that I take time for me and I realized I hadn’t done that in a bit. The travel here and then working since I arrived had all been fun… but busy and hectic. Not to mention stressful when I came to dealing with Bandits and the Orc Warrior.
I pulled my sleeping pad out of my Inventory for the first time since I arrived at the capital and laid down. I set the alarm for an hour and drifted off. A large explosion awoke me. It wasn’t near me, but close enough I could tell some higher magic was being used. I groggily pulled up my map and saw a bright unidentified creature on my map and 6 humans zipping around it. Must be a party fighting a monster and they fought their way near me. I looked at the clock and I had been out for just about an hour. I was about to pack up and head off leaving them too it when I realized it wasn’t a monster I recognized. I could add it to my knowledge base if I could Analyze it. Then it would show up on my map if I needed to hunt one in the future. ‘I better get there quick if I’m going to Analyze it before they kill it’ I thought and headed towards them at a run, with Time Slow on.
I arrived at a clearing and stayed deep enough in the forest that I wouldn’t be seen and set Camouflage on turning Time Slow off so my mana could recoup. What was I looking at? At first I thought it was a huge lion. The head was where I had looked first. Then I noticed its body which was a weird amalgam of other animals. The body looked almost like a goat’s and there was a tail with barbs on it. The barbs seemed to be dripping something as well. It stood 9 feet at the shoulder and was still quick. Especially it’s tail whipped around trying to catch people. Slightly disgusted I hit it with Analyze.
Race: Chimera
Level: 35
Age: 10
Attitude towards you: Indifferent
Main Categories and sub categories displayed
Wisdom 8 (Mana 3, Mana Control 1, Knowledge 3, Mana Regen 1/10min)
Intellect 8 (memorization 1, recall 2, Speed of thought 5)
Strength 18 (Attack 5, speed 9, endurance 4)
Constitution 21 (Resist Poinsons 3, Vitality 2, Protection 16)
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Agility 9 (control of movement 4, balance 3, learning new skills 2)
Will 11 (Discipline 2, Ability to overcome adversity 2, desire to win 3, resistance to charm or intimidate 4)
Charisma 9 (Good Looks 2, Luck 2, Communication 1, negotiations 1, leadership 3)
Skills: Slash 4, Poison 3, Fire Ball 1
Woah. Young, but what is that Protection number? what would that even do? I had been wondering what a high number there meant so I settled in to watch the fight. I didn’t want to jump in. That seemed rude and didn’t want to show off my skills anyway. I’m sure they had it… I thought for about 20 seconds. They were a team of fast humans 3 guys and 2 girls. All at the mid 30s level, but even though they were level wise matched with the nightmare of a beast they were struggling. Their communication with each other was even more worrying.
“What are we going to do. This things to tough for our attacks to do any damage. This thing needs a silver rank Beastman team!”
“I know and now Erin’s trump card is used up. That fire didn’t even singe it!”
“We need to run, but it will cut us down if we turn our backs. What now?”
“I don’t know, but we better figure out something soon or we’re dead!”
“Well I can’t hit it with another Fire Ball for at least 10 minutes now… can we last that long? I can hit it and we can run while the flash distracts it again.”
“I don’t think I’ll last that long. I’m already barely staying ahead of it!”
It looked like I was going to have to get involved and soon or feel bad about this. Maybe I could just hit it with my Instant Shot arrow and then run before they could see me. I decided to do that and aimed for it’s head. It hit and knocked the beast down, but then it stood up and looked in my direction as if to say ‘YOU DARE?’ I was dumb founded, but that didn’t change the situation.
“You guys run! I’ll keep distracting it. Send a Silver Party this way as soon as you can!” I yelled and hit it with another Instant Shot. I only had two more of those as I had used 1 mana for camouflage and that hadn’t regenerated yet.
“”“Thank you!””” They shouted and ran towards the capital.
That left me with a problem. First thing I did was Time Stop and ran over to it and tried to cut it’s head off with my axe. I couldn’t even cut it. What was going on here. I couldn’t just stay in Time Stop though. It would only last a few minutes and then even my Instant Shot was going to be useless. There had to be a strategy here. It was fast, but I was still faster. I could try to lead it around until someone came. Would my endurance hold out that long? I doubted it. Not like that party could jump to the capital like I could. I could jump away, but then what would happen to nearby farms. They would be left without protection. I had several levels I could use to put Exp somewhere, but where? Endurance? Mana? If I raised Attack would that help me get passed it’s Protection finally? Time was ticking by. I had to make a call. Endurance seemed like a fools errand with no idea how long until help arrived. Mana wouldn’t do any good if I couldn’t hurt it. Then I remembered what they had said about needing a beastman team… Why beastmen? I decided on the Attack Stat. That was a beastman’s forte. If that didn’t work I could try to lead it around by the nose, but when I ran out of endurance I would have to jump so I would need to leave one mana left for that. I pulled up my status page and selected yes for level up.
I didn’t even try to enjoy the leveling up feeling. I just dumped my points into Attack. Right about then I realized my Time Stop ran out. I must have miscounted something. The Chimera jumped surprised at my close proximity and swiped me with it’s tail. I was just slightly fast than it with my regular speed, but I still got a scratch from one of it’s tail barbs on my right arm.
YOU HAVE BEEN POISONED. POISEN IS TWO LEVELS HIGHER THAN YOUR RESISTANCE. MOVEMENTS WELL BE SLOWER UNTIL YOU CLEAR THE POINSON. CHANCE OF DEATH FROM POISON 10% AS YOU ARE WITHIN TWO LEVELS OF POISON LEVEL RESISTANCE.
I waved it away. If I was out of mana then I couldn’t open my Inventory to get my poison potion out. Suddenly I realized I relied a little too much on my inventory for some things. No time to think about that though. Had to take this guy out or I was in serious trouble and now I had to do it with my skills. Since it had already given me a little space I backed up as well and we eyed each other. I had an Axe out. So I decided why not and dumped 13 skill points into Axe Mastery.
YOU HAVE LEVELED UP AXE MASTERY!
Increased comfort and movement with an Axe
…
YOU REACHED APPRENTICE RANK WITH AXE MASTERY
You are new to the path, but find that movements are started to feel natural.
…
YOU HAVE REACHED JOURNEYMAN RANK WITH AXE MASTERY
Well down the path you are starting to feel like the axe is a part of you. It is harder to disarm you now.
Suddenly everything about holding my axe felt natural. A second after I dumped my skill points the Chimera decided I was nothing to worry about and came at me wiping its tail again. This time I blocked it with a deflecting blow using the blade of the axe sideways like a small shield. My movement had felt natural if a little slow due to the poison. This felt great! I charged into towards the body of the beast and it tried to dance around me, but it’s tail couldn’t get to me anymore so it swiped at me with its paw. I slipped under it and swung up from underneath. Not only did it knock the paw away, but left a large gash in it. I could cut it! Attack power for the win! The Chimera tried to hop away, but I didn’t let it get distance. I didn’t know what this poison was going to do to me and I needed to finish this quickly. I sliced at its other paw and caught a tendon. That made it stumble and drop. It’s neck was finally in reach so I jumped and swung at it’s neck, but it pulled its head away and I only got a glancing blow on it’s head. That was enough to distract it though while I went for it’s legs again. This time I got it’s Achilles and it couldn’t use the paw to swipe at me anymore and I was able to get in and take it’s head off.
I sat down and started to cycle mana. I wasn’t sure what would happen with the poison, but it was all I could think to do. I also opened my status to check on my mana and was shocked. It was full. What had happened? Did leveling up refill my mana? If so why did Time Stop stop when I leveled up if it refilled my mana? Maybe it kicked me out of skills when it leveled me? Whatever the case, I used Inventory and pulled out a poison potion and downed it quickly. I cast Injury Evaluation on myself and saw the poison status quickly go down and then disappear. I resolved to add to my mana and poison resistance soon. I certainly shouldn’t need more attack power anytime soon. I also went ahead and pulled a healing potion and another poison potion out and put them in my pack. I needed to come up with a belt or chest rig to hold this stuff. I wasn’t relying on my Inventory to hold everything anymore.
I looked at the Chimera. My guild book hadn’t listed it because it was obviously Silver rank. That unfortunately meant I didn’t know what parts if any were worth taking. I didn’t want to stick around and find out from a Silver rank party. That would out me for sure. I also didn’t want to take the whole thing into my inventory. That was possible now, but then the Silver rank team would be searching for a monster that they could never find and that could cause panic. I used my axe to get its core out. I found it almost as easy to use my axe now as my skinning knife I had such dexterity with it.
I was about to jump to my room when I realized something. If I tried to go back to the guild and get paid for the Chitral they would take a look at my card and see the Chimera on there. “Now what do I do?” I said to no one… because I knew what I had to do. I had to run around the forest until I found more Chitrals. Then I had to jump back and run to the guild and act all innocent hoping they didn’t spot the Chimera on the card and all before I had to get ready for my date… I mean event tonight. Great. I should have put something into endurance. I started cycling mana and took off deeper into the woods.
Later
Iron rank team Forest Ranger ran into the guild and breathless reported in to the Assistant Guild Master.
“There is a Silver Rank Chimera West of the capital near Cosum village. A Silver rank bowman is battling it alone. You must send a team!” The leader told Jorgen.
Jorgen got up and scanned the crowd. He spotted who he was looking for and called out “Harald! Bring your team over here now.”
Harald, a Beastman of the wolf variety got up and headed over quickly. “What’s up boss?” he asked. Beastman were often looked at by humans with some trepidation due to their looks and strength, but Jorgen had always treated them fairly so being called over so abruptly was a sign something was wrong.
“We have a Silver rank Chimera to the West. Is your team able to head out now? I just sent off the only other Beastman team on a job. No human will even be able to scratch this thing.”
Harald looked back at his team. They could hear from this distance with their advance hearing without trouble. They all nodded their assent. He turned back to Jorgen “We can. What is the pay?”
“10 Gold for the core and since this is an urgent request 10 more for the job. If you bring back materials it could double depending on what you leave intact. It is near Cosum village.”
“We will head out now then. See you when we get back.”
As they headed out the Forest rangers relaxed. There was no way they could have done more. They just hoped that unseen bowman was ok. Everyone sat down except the leader who continued to report on the job they had completed when they stumbled across the Chimera and nearly died.
Vera one of the women of the group noticed a man come in the guild. Even sweaty and disheveled with a beard he was the handsomest looking man she had ever seen.
“You are staring.” Whispered the other woman of the group. “Though I can see why. Quit looking at the elf or you will make him uncomfortable.” She said with a smile.
“He isn’t an Elf. Loot at the ears and he isn’t thin. He is built like a… well just built!” She responded just as quietly.
“Half Elf then. No way he is that good looking and full human.”
They both watched him from the corner of their eye as he went up to the receptionist Electra who was batting her eyes at him. “Can she be any more obvious?’ Vera said.
“Can you? Let’s go get something to eat.”
“You go. I don’t have a boyfriend in the group and I want to watch the show.”
The leader showed back up then and everyone except Vera headed out to eat.