While they waited for Ograch to finish preparing, Talwarg turned to Liv. After asking Liv to describe the situation in her homeland, he sighed deeply and looked troubled.
“I had hoped that somewhere would be safe from those damn gaunts. Rival tribes and monsters I can deal with, but the gaunts are relentless. Tell me, do you know of any places that might be free of them?”
Liv shook her head. “Nothing aside from rumors and stories. I’ve heard people talk about the kingdoms to the far south having held out as well as some of the island kingdoms, but I have my doubts. No one has seen these places firsthand and we haven’t met any travelers that weren’t from other villages in my homeland.”
“I understand. Thank you for the information, I will pass it on to the shamans. They are always eager for information about the gaunts.” Talwarg stood, making it clear that this meeting was over. After saying their farewells, they walked back toward the cave, finding a prepared Ograch ready to go.
“Ready?” Lanek asked, to which Ograch nodded.
While they traveled back toward the city, Lanek asked about their levels and classes and shared his in turn. It turns out that Ograch was on the cusp of level 20 as a Scout with a level 8 Hunter subclass while Liv was a level 19 Spearman with a level 10 Scout subclass. Lanek was currently at level 30 for his Soulbinder class with Shinobi and Ranger sitting at level 4.
“I’m curious, you guys know I don’t know much about the System, so maybe you can fill me in on some stuff?” Ograch nodded and waved for him to continue. “So, when do classes evolve normally? I know Soulbinder is not a normal class, so I’m not asking about that.”
“That’s easy, classes that only require a certain level to evolve do so at lvl 20. It doesn’t matter if they are your main class or subclasses. Also, when your class evolves, you will start over from level 1, which is what happened to your Shinobi class when it evolved from Rogue. You don’t lose any stat points or anything and it is much harder to level up, but it is very much worth it for the increased bonuses you will get when you do level up.” Liv explained.
Ograch nodded along, before jumping in. “It’s pretty much the same for us, aside from the race evolution at levels 10, 25, and 50. There might be more, but Talwarg is the highest level our tribe has ever had, so we have no real idea if there is more out there. Also, I have a question for the two of you. Is it normal for humans to have more than one subclass?”
“No, we get one at level 10 and any further subclasses are extremely rare, usually being the result of doing something that gets the System or a higher power to reward you or due to a title. Lanek is just really lucky. How did you get your second subclass anyway?” Liv asked, turning to Lanek.
“The System said I got it just for reaching level 25.”
“It could be part of your Soulbinder class then.”
“Yeah, I really need to get more information about the class, but I doubt it will be that easy. It was apparently a long lost class even when Caelis was still alive, so information isn’t likely to be readily available or even reliable. I wish I could just ask someone, but I don’t exactly have the ability to just summon a Primordial for a chat.”
“Excuse me, I must be losing my hearing. Did you just fucking say Primordial?” Liv said while Ograch’s mouth simply hung open at his words.
“Uh, yeah. I thought you already knew, Ograch? Talwarg said your shamans could see my class and that it took a higher power to make it an option.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I knew that part, but no one knew a Primordial gave it to you. Our shamans couldn’t see your class’ description or abilities, just the name and rarity. I don’t think you know just how shocking this is, Lanek. The Primordials went silent long ago.” Ograch explained.
Liv nodded. “It took a while for people to notice. See, the Primordials never had as many followers as the gods, but followers of the Primordials had unique classes. Once people noticed that those classes were no longer showing up as options, they tried to contact the Primordials through their emissaries. However, a Primordial only ever had a single emissary that they used to speak to the rest of the world and every single one of those emissaries were gone. Their homes were just empty and no one knew how long they had been gone since the emissaries were essentially hermits.”
Lanek’s companions went silent at that, trying to come to terms with what he had revealed. For his part, Lanek was happy to let the silence continue, he had a lot to think about. Why did the Primordial reach out to me? It had to be more than me simply trying to release Kazuma. At least the Void just seemed bored, but I have no idea if I can trust that it doesn’t have ulterior motives.
As they reached the city and began walking along the outside of the southern wall, Ograch spoke up. “Which Primordial was it?”
“Eldros, the Primordial of the Wild.”
“Seriously? He was notorious for being distant even when the Primordials were still interacting with the rest of the world. I wouldn’t have guessed that he would be the one to take a direct hand in anything. I wonder if other Primordials are active again?” Liv said thoughtfully.
“I have no idea, my only interactions with Eldros were very brief and one-sided.”
“That’s not surprising, it would be odd if a godlike being had just wanted to chat with you.” Ograch said with a harsh laugh.
At this point, silence reigned once more. This was not due to the conversation but because neither Lanek nor Ograch had ever been to this side of the city. As they walked, they saw that the southern wall was not breached like the northern one had been. After some time, they finally found another gate to the city. This didn’t really come as a surprise, they had expected there to be other gates, they just had never actually seen one.
The terrain to the south of the city was a mixture of gentle hills and plains rather than the forest that surrounded the city on all other sides. Lanek actually wondered if this had actually been the most used gate as there were still remnants of a road stretching out as far as he could see to the south.
They moved past the open gate as quickly as possible to avoid attracting attention, despite all of them wanting to scout the area out. Their desire to scout was dampened quite a bit when they started to hear noises from the top of the wall. It was an odd combination of skittering and clicking. It was clear that whatever was making the noise was watching them, but they never saw the source of the sounds.
When they finally reached the eastern edge of the city and passed into the forest, they all breathed a sigh of relief as whatever had been making those sounds had not followed them the entire way. However, they didn’t allow themselves to relax too much as this was very much unexplored territory.
Once they found the road that led to Laethon, they picked up the pace. The road itself was paved and was in surprisingly good shape, but it was overgrown in places. Lanek, Ograch, and Liv walked through the day, looking for any signs of life while Kazuma and Sanguineus ranged through the woods to the north and south.
The journey was surprisingly peaceful as their two animal companions managed to warn them so they could avoid roving gaunt bands. Surprisingly, they didn’t run into any goblins, bugbears, or other feral creatures or monsters. Although, with the number of gaunt bands roaming about, those creatures could have been driven out or exterminated by now.
The group slowed as night began to fall and they approached the first village that Caelis had mentioned as a resting spot between the two cities. Observing the village from the forest, they could see no movement. The only things that had seemed to survive the centuries were a pair of stone buildings whose wooden roof and door had long since rotted away.
As they made to approach the ruins to take refuge in one of the structures for the night, Sanguineus whined softly. At the same time, [Threat Detection] and [Etheric Presence] both began to trigger as the sun set fully. A dense fog began to roll out from the remains of the village while [Threat Detection] began to get more insistent. When Lanek turned to tell his companions, he found Ograch looking at him in concern.
“It’s so quiet. What happened to the gaunts?”
Lanek stopped, realizing that the ever-present shrieks that served to remind them that the gaunts ruled these woods had stopped. Completely.