XP (2450) -> XP (1200)
Level (7) -> Level (8)
Warrior (3) -> Warrior (4)
HP (72) -> HP (84)
Statistic increase available!
Wise (8/-1) -> Wise (10/+0)
Priest ability penalties decreased!
XP required for Warrior (5) = 2500
Level up available!
Adam awoke to the sounds of soft melodies that rang through the inn. The words were as sweet as apple pie, and equally as filling. They held a familiar tone to them, as though he had grown up with such melodies. It was only then he realised that he had grown up with them, though it wasn’t he that had grown up with them, but rather, the being that was Adam before he took control. He slipped into his day clothes and then into his armour before stepping down towards the inn main room.
In the corner of the room was a half-elf woman, whose natural beauty was marred by terrible scars that littered her face and neck, with a burn that covered the other side of her face, sitting in the corner as she sang. The woman was of high-elf descent, for her hair was sun-kissed blonde and her eyes were of ocean blues, though her features did hold a different colour than most other high-elves due to the human blood within her. Her singing was like that of an opera, using her voice as a musical instrument as the elves tended to do.
She wore the typical attire of the elves, silk and leather, the combination of which provided some protection, though nowhere near as well as something like heavy chain or breastplate. They did not hold any runes of magic, though they could have easily been hidden. The enchanting of clothes to provide magical properties had long been the domain of elves, though a few humans had replicated such abilities with some success.
The song was something familiar to his half-fey ears, which twitched as he listened to the intentions behind the words. They weren’t quite words, more like sounds that held great meaning, which some words often failed to accomplish, especially the words of politicians. The song was about adventure and great loss, or at the very least that’s what he felt the song to be, and Adam just melted against his seat as the words overtook him.
“Hey, what are you doing elf-boy?” called a husky voice.
Adam sat up, his eyes snapping to the voice. It was a woman with red hair, dark eyes, and a body that was both thick with muscle and curves.
“I’m not doing anything,” Adam said, trying to hide his defensiveness.
“That’s my point,” she said as she raised her eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to perform?”
Paul placed down his mug and sighed. “He’s with me,” he said as he licked the foam off of his lips.
“Oh, one of yours? I thought he was with the other one.” Her eyes flashed to the half elf across the room who was still singing. “What do you want to order?” she asked.
“Uh,” Adam’s eyes fell to Paul’s food, which was what a typical breakfast had looked like back at the guild. “What Paul is having, and an apple pie, please.”
The woman pulled back for a moment, throwing a suspicious glance about him.
“Don’t mind him,” Paul said. “He’s just polite.”
“I can see that. I don’t particularly like polite folk, they’re always hiding one thing or another.”
“I’m not hiding,” Adam paused for a moment to think, “much.”
“There we go,” the woman said with a smile. “That’s what I like to hear. Too many people tell me they have nothing to hide, but you, I believe you aren’t hiding much. Everyone hides something, ain’t nothing wrong with that, but I just need to know if you’re an honest fellow.” With that she was gone, disappearing into the kitchen.
“Had a good night?” Paul asked.
“Yes I did,” Adam said with a small smile on his face. He had levelled up and finally reduced the penalties for having a negative score for his Priest class. He could have levelled up again, and it would have been a good idea, but he was almost half way to levelling to fifth level in Warrior and decided the benefits of the level to be worth it. He had enough Mana that he didn’t need to worry about tapping out right away, though he would need to stop blowing all his abilities in the first few moments of a fight.
“What are you thinking about?” Paul asked as he sipped on his ale.
“Life,” Adam replied. “Life and my place in the world.”
“Sounds complicated.” Paul smirked. “You should probably think about that sort of thing once you’re a steel boy rather than an iron boy.”
Adam nodded. “I’m just… just a little lost.”
“Well let’s not make you a lost boy,” Paul said as he drank his ale. “You’re a promising recruit for us and we need the prestige.” Paul laughed, though the laugh seemed to be rather sad. “If you need any sort of help, you can always come to the guild. We’re always happy to help our fellows.”
Adam nodded. “I know,” he said. “Isn’t that why we’re both here heading to the Iyr? To help me?”
“I’m doing this off of my own accord,” Paul said. “Though if it helps you, it’s all the better.”
Adam smiled. “Thank you,” he said.
Paul just smiled in return.
Adam thought about his rapid advancement in the guild and how he had managed to take out Robert, who apparently was of similar strength to a herbearvore considering how much experience he had attained. He was sure the herbearvore was stronger and such, but a herbearvore did not have skin of plate mail. It had taken him a great effort, especially considering the man could attack twice as much as he could, meaning he was at least a fifth level Warrior, but he didn’t have the same sort of abilities Adam had it appeared. Was that the case for every other person in the world, or was it just that some people had access to every ability that the classes provided, where as most just had the basic abilities provided by the class. Did everyone have a class, or was it just a specific role? He wondered for a long while about such a thought.
“Are you ready to leave after breakfast?” Paul asked, breaking his train of thought.
“Yes, I’m ready to continue.”
“Enjoy the breakfast, this will be the last town we visit until we head to Jurot.”
“I should have ordered another pie,” Adam said with a small smile on his face.
Soon the woman returned with the food, a hearty breakfast of porridge, fruit, as well as an apple pie. Adam ate the food a little quicker than usual, just so they could get on the move quickly. The music accompanying his ears also allowed him to eat quicker, as though he was battling his food. He did take his time with the apple pie though, which was delicious. It was a different pie to last night, for the apples were a deep and dark crimson, as though fresh blood, and the jam within it was more like a sweet strawberry jam. Adam recalled how much he used to fight about which kind of jam to buy, he was partial to strawberry, and everyone else had other preferences, which of course were the wrong preferences.
With that done, Adam dropped down four gold pieces onto the counter. “Is this enough for the room and board?” he asked, unsure of how much he had to pay. He hadn’t been told and it didn’t seem like the woman was going to tell him.
“You’ve already paid,” the woman said as her eyes darted to Paul, “but we do accept tips.”
“Then consider it a tip for such a good service. Charles said that elves were good tippers, I hope this is enough to keep that stereotype alive.”
“Thank you for the gold,” the woman said as she took each coin separately and then placed them away beneath the counter, writing something down.
CURRENCY
25 Gold
14 Silver
18 Copper
2x Obsidian Disks (10G each)
1x Black Onyx (50G)
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Adam,” he said.
“A pleasure to meet you, I’m Sher,” she said as she smiled at him. “You’re always welcome around our inn,” she said. Then she froze for a moment, in thought. “Were you the boy that beat Alten and Robert?”
Adam flushed and nodded.
“Ah,” she said.
He had no idea what that had meant, but she smiled all the same and then went to serve the other patrons.
Adam looked aside to see the half-elf woman was still singing, with a few of the patrons dropping down copper coins onto a large scarf she had placed down onto the ground. One even dropped a silver piece, which caused the woman to smile as she sang at him for a moment, before the patron returned to his food.
Adam walked over and dropped down a single gold piece.
CURRENCY
24 Gold
14 Silver
18 Copper
2x Obsidian Disks (10G each)
1x Black Onyx (50G)
The woman stopped singing right away, her eyes falling to Adam for the first time, or at least it was the first time he had noticed, and she smiled.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Blessed be the stars to grace me with your presence, dearest cousin of mine,” she said in the melodic tones of elven.
“Only if they bless you as well, dearest cousin of mine, for yours is a sight most decent,” Adam replied, trying to keep with the elven language conventions as expected of those who wished to be seen as decent folk.
“If it would so please you, where are you heading to with sword of steel and chain so glittering?”
“I seek the men of the Iyr, for there is some sorrowful business I would need to attend to. If you would be so kind to bless such intentions,” Adam said, having not expected that she’d talk to him. His British tendencies caused him to panic. It was as though he was on a bus and someone had greeted him. What was he to do? He couldn’t just ignore her, she was the only half-elf he had seen since arriving here and it wouldn’t be a good idea to be rude.
“Ah, the men of the mountains?” she said in basic, finally.
“Indeed, those are the ones,” Adam replied in basic, not wanting to be so pretentious as to continue in elven, even if his Britishness screamed for it.
“A sorrowful business?”
“A friend of mine has recently passed, and I am off to deliver his body back to his people.”
“Ah, the rite of return.” The half-elf woman bowed her head. “May I accompany you?”
“Uh… I am not alone, and I would need to speak with Paul, my travelling companion, about it. He is leading me.”
“I will speak with him,” she said.
With that she leapt up from her sitting position and she lifted up her scarf, her body moving in such a way as though she was a river flowing through bends, as she twisted the scarf and tied up where the coins had gathered before wrapping it around herself, finally slipping her long cloak over herself to hide her body.
PERCEPTION
D20 + WISE = 7 (7)
FAILURE!
He hadn’t managed to see what sort of weapons or equipment she possessed on her, or the type of body she had, which could have at least conveyed a little about how she fought. Adam wasn’t entirely certain she was defenceless, she was still partly an elf after all.
With that she extended a hand up to her heart. “Lazina,” she said.
“Adam,” he said as he extended a hand up to his heart, the typical elven gesture of greeting one another.
With that she waited at him expectantly, staring up at him with her bright blue eyes. Adam stared back at her for a few moments, before finally realising what he was meant to do.
“Right,” Adam said, turning to see if Paul was about. Seeing that he wasn’t around he stepped out to lead her outside.
Paul was indeed outside, chatting with little Jimmy. He ruffled the boy’s hair before he noticed Adam, then flipping Jimmy a silver piece and shooed the boy away with a hand.
“Who is your friend?” Paul asked.
“This is Lazina,” he said and then motioned to Paul. “Lazina, this is Paul, the Vice-Master of Red Oak guild.”
“A pleasure,” Lazina said as she raised her hand.
Paul took it into his hand, brushing the back of her head with his free hand, as one would do as a gentleman. “Is all mine,” Paul said as he flashed a smile in return. “How may we be of assistance.”
“I have heard that you are heading to the Iyr, I would like to accompany you if I may.”
“Do you have business within the Iyr?” Paul asked.
“I do, yes.” Lazina bowed her head.
“Well then, we would be delighted with your company. Your voice was a wonderful addition to my breakfast meal, I hope that I could hear a little more of it during our travels?”
“If that is the price of accompanying you.” Lazina smiled. The way she smiled was truly beautiful, it was a real elven smile, that was to say, Adam found it rather difficult to see what intentions lay behind such a smile.
“Then, shall we?” Paul said, turning to face Adam.
Adam shrugged. “If we’re all ready?” Adam asked, spying Lazina as she nodded.
“Good,” Paul said. “It will take us six days or so to arrive at the Iyr, depending on what could plague us on the journey. The last few days become more dangerous until we finally arrive at the Iyr.”
Adam threw a look to Paul. He had mentioned that the travel would have been quicker, but then he looked to Lazina. He wondered if Paul was going to take the typical route around in order to not show Lazina any short cuts to the Iyr.
“Before we leave,” Paul said, “I would like to buy a few bottles of wine, one of which we could share throughout the journey.” He led them around to a large building with a small entrance. He knocked twice on the door and then waited as a thin woman appeared, with short black hair and bushy brows.
“Oh!” she said as she hugged Paul and then kissed his cheeks. “It is you, Paul! I had heard you were in town.”
“I wouldn’t miss a visit to you, Bellia,” Paul said with a chuckle.
“The usual?”
“And a half.”
Bellia spied the half elves, squinting at them suspiciously, before she then left, returning almost an instant later with a small box. Paul slipped her a black onyx, which Adam recalled to be worth about fifty gold, and she was gone.
“Well then,” Paul said as he forced the box into a much smaller bag that swallowed it whole, “with that sorted, shall we?”
Paul led the group, the cart behind him, and then the pair of half-elves behind that. They made their way out, with Paul slipping the guards two gold pieces before they eventually left.
“Oh,” Adam said as they were a little ways away from the town now, following along the road. “We didn’t pay the gate fee when we entered.”
“I paid it on the way out,” Paul said. “I sometimes don’t pay for a while, but I’ll pay eventually.”
“Is that true with every town?”
“Every nearby town, and any town with a guild usually allows me to enter freely. I still pay my dues though, so don’t think too poorly of me.” Paul chuckled.
“The privilege of a Vice-Master,” Lazina said.
“I see you aren’t an adventurer,” Paul noted.
“No, no. I am merely a traveller,” she replied. “Adventuring does not agree with my lifestyle.”
“A travelling bard?”
Lazina nodded her head in response.
“I know a great many half-elves who make their way as such,” Paul said. “I have a few friends that do so, even now. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Ikarus of the White?”
HISTORY
D20 + 7 = 16 (9)
SUCCESS!
Adam had, or rather, whoever Adam was, had. Ikarus of the White was a famous bard who had often performed for the various Kings of the land, going from one court to the next. Apparently he had been an unofficial member of a steel ranked party in order to slay a blue dragon in the far east in the deserts of Kazdian a few years ago.
“I know of him,” Lazina replied a little too enthusiastically, before catching herself. “I am a fan of his works, especially Born Without.”
“I had the chance of accompanying him once,” Paul said, recalling another time. “This was to Diaz, when he wrote, what was its name again?” he said, cocking his head in thought.
“Blue and White?”
“No, no. The other one, the one that starts with the screaming.”
“Ivory?”
“That’s it, Ivory.” Paul nodded. “The man’s a genius, though he was a little grating. He would often wake up in the middle of the night to perform and wake us from our shifts. I remember once he had summoned a banshee with his singing, and that was quite the night. It was lucky he was also great at using magic. I believe he had access to the third gate at the time, or was it fourth?”
“I have heard he was eccentric,” Lazina smiled. “I am distant cousins with him, from my father’s side.”
“Oh?”
“My father’s second cousin is Ikarus’ mother.”
“Small world,” Paul said. “I see musical talent is in the family.”
Lazina smiled. Then she turned to Adam. “What of you? Do you know of your feyline?”
“Not really,” Adam replied. “My mother was too busy teaching me about magic and some of the histories of the land than to teach me about my feyline.”
“A shame,” Lazina frowned. An elven sadness took her and she remained silent.
“I heard that my great grandfather was a tutor to then King,” Paul said. “He taught the King how to use a blade, my mother used to harp on about it to put my father into his place. From his side I have some distant relation to Ippsik royalty, a direct descendant of Ipchik, the first King, and he would often use that against her in order to get her to be quiet. Mother usually won the argument, but that’s how that always goes.”
HISTORY
D20 + 7 = 8 (1)
FAILURE!
Adam had no idea who Ipchik was, thought the name was familiar. He assumed it to be of a land many hundreds of miles away, beyond the surrounding countries.
“You never know,” Paul said with a chuckle. “That kind of thing sometimes gets lost throughout time. You might end up being the heir of a throne long lost.”
Adam hoped that Paul hadn’t raised an event flag for him, for Adam had no intentions of being bogged down by such a destiny. He wanted to explore every single land he could, once he was of an appropriate level and had enough gold to do so. Yet, he still had time, he didn’t need to rush such a thing. He had only experienced a few days in this world, and there was much to learn yet.
They continued to travel for a long while, Lazina still taken by the elven sadness, which was a sadness that elves sometimes experienced. It came and went fleetingly, and it depended on the elf. Even Adam had yet to experience such a sadness even though he had just lost his first friend. He wondered if perhaps he was immune to such effects.
Paul then moved them onto a dirt track, no longer following the stone road ahead, but instead veering off towards a forest. There were quite a few villages that made their homes inside a forest, usually deep within after large threats had been dealt with, keeping their area safe with their various warriors.
“Smoke,” Paul said as he motioned ahead.
PERCEPTION
D20 + WISE = 20 (20)
SUCCESS!
Adam squinted and saw the trail of smoke high in the air, far in the distance. The group had been travelling for some time, taking a few minutes here or there to rest up and feed the mule, but now it was approaching the end of the day.
“Probably the village, but be wary either way.” Paul didn’t make a motion to his blade, but Adam assumed that the man was always ready to fight.
Lazina didn’t seem tense either, for she continued with her light steps, seemingly out of the elven sadness. Adam wondered if she truly had gone through a bout of elven sadness, or if she just wanted to withdraw from the conversation. It was the cynic in him that had brought such a thought forward, but he shook his head to snap himself out of it.
They stopped at Paul’s indication and waited.
PERCEPTION
D20 + WISE = 9 (9)
FAILURE!
Adam had not seen how the villagers had surrounded them. There were six of them, four with bows trained on them, and two with spears. Each villager was pale skinned, with short dark hair and dark eyes, wearing furs and leathers around their bodies.
“Paul,” one said, nodding her head at him. She was tall and thin, and her spear was long and made of some kind of wood, with a bone spearhead.
“Good to see you’re all in good health,” Paul replied as the warriors relaxed.
The woman glanced passed to the cart. “Heading to the Iyr?” she asked.
“That’s right. We’re hoping to stay the night.”
“You’re always welcome here,” she said as a grin widened on her face, “especially your coin.”
CURRENCY
23 Gold
14 Silver
18 Copper
2x Obsidian Disks (10G each)
1x Black Onyx (50G)
Paul chuckled as the warriors guided them towards the village, who took the coins from each person. The woman paused when Adam handed her a gold, but nodded her head before she then guided them along.
There were large fences about the village, with a great many gaps between each plank so they could see out. Their village was on raised ground, only by about half a metre or so, but there was a long ditch around the walls where planks had been placed, rope pinning them to the fences so they could be raised up if need be. The holes went down about a half metre too.
The huts were made of mud and wood, though there was a stone building in the middle. The people were all pale skinned with dark hair and dark eyes, though there were a handful of people that sported ginger hair. The Britishness within Adam spurred at the sight, but he kept down such thoughts.
The woman whistled as they approached the centre of the village, where there were already a pair that were sitting and eating. One of them was a heavily armoured man, and the other was-
“Alten,” Adam said, unable to stop the word from escaping his lips.
Alten’s head snapped backwards in surprise as he heard the voice, now familiar with it. He stood up, bowl in hand. Robert remained sitting, eating at his food.
“Hal-” Alten winced at the look within Adam’s eyes. “Adam? What are you doing here?”
“We’re on business,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
“I am on my own business.”
“Well, if Omir doesn’t come on the weekend twice,” Paul said with a chuckle.
“You know them?” Lazina asked.
“I am familiar with both,” Adam said. “I had the pleasure of bringing to them the might of stars and burying them within the void.”
“Oh.” Lazina smirked.