Kal followed Melisia, and Dalen deeper into the camp to a large staging area clearly prepared for this speech. Kal cringed a bit at the thought, he had always avoided any religious gathering. They always felt like they were trying too hard to impress the holiness of whichever god they happened to be preaching. Something about their holier-than thou mindset pissed him off. The three of them stood near the front left of the gathering crowd. There were a fair amount of soldiers that were off-duty but they were vastly outnumbered by the camp followers. Kal supposed he could understand that he had heard early on when had first failed to ascend that many people who unlocked less-than-ideal classes chose to follow one of the gods. Following a god often guided a person's class evolutions to be more in line with whatever that god’s ideal was. Most soldiers followed Dhinir the god of conquest, hoping to gain more powerful warrior variants. After a few minutes of waiting the crowd quieted, and two men stepped out of a large tent flanked by a squad of imperial guards.
One was a middle-aged man in red and gold robes who held a large scroll that was decorated with gold filigree. The other was a man wearing similar plate mail to the imperial guard but he also had several badges attached to the breast of the cuirass. Kal assumed it denoted the rank of the man, so he was probably Commander Hurius. The man seemed to sneer at the crowd as they approached the center of the staging area. Kal already didn't like these two, he turned and would have walked off if he didn't catch the look from Melisia. She eyed him evenly. Damn her perception, Kal would need to think about the way he behaved more carefully. Since if Melisia could tell his mood he was sure anyone with similar perception points would too. Trying to stay level-headed Kal turned back to the two men, hey maybe they weren't pricks. He should probably give them a chance. He didn't bother Identifying the two men but he did try it on the scroll since Identify normally worked on items even if they had a high rarity.
Word of Dhinir [Epic]
Inscribed in this scroll is the holy word of Dhinir.
Well that was obvious, It was likely there was more to the description but his Identify wouldn’t give him anything more precise. Shrugging Kal started listening to the beginning of the speech.
The priest stepped forward, with an irritating smirk. “I come before you my faithful soldiers of Dhinir. Today we begin our march, not to conquest but to the purification of our dear nation.”
He unrolled the scroll with a flourish. “But first I must spread the word of our father of war, and protector.” Many of the camp followers threw themselves to their knees and pressed their faces into the ground. The soldiers simply lowered their heads. “Loyal followers of Dhinir. The firmament is in turmoil due to the actions of the betrayer, and today you walk as a man should. Towards the enemy, to battle, and to victory. Though our victory is assured the betrayer and his schemes have left their mark on our realm. His actions have brought the scourge of demonkind against us again. But the solution is simple. Purge the cultists of the betrayer from our land. I have faith in you loyal followers of Dhinir, so I will grant you our lord's blessing. May you seek the victory our lord desires.” As the words faded into the silence many of the camp followers cheered, and the soldiers nearby shouted. “For Dhinir and the Emperor!” And as they did, a flash of red-gold light washed over all of the people present. Kal felt his chest vibrate, and suddenly he was pissed.
But this wasn't the normal kind of anger he felt when in an argument, it was revulsion. A deep part of him was disgusted by the energy that tried to flow through him. Kal knew that if he accepted the blessing it would likely be equivalent to a title. But it didn’t feel right to Kal. Starting his journey with power from another entity felt like it would dilute what he had already achieved. Besides he had no interest in following the word of some god he barely knew about. The feeling in his chest intensified but he felt the red-gold energy dissipate moving to those around him. As the energy left Kal felt a lot calmer but still felt annoyed. Now that it had passed, Kal realized how strange and sudden his anger was. Why did it piss him off so much? A blessing might be exactly what he needed to ascend. But when Kal looked back at the priest, all thoughts of making the wrong choice vanished. The priest was staring daggers at Kal and with a scowl he whispered something to the commander.
The commander glanced toward Kal before speaking. "Thank you lord prophet. eighth battalion, Prepare to embark! We have some cultists to destroy." The crowd dispersed quickly returning to their duties and began deconstructing the camp. Kal turned to Melisia and Dalen. Melisia was frowning at him and Dalen was smirking, shaking his head.
"God's Kal, can you ever stay out of trouble? We've been here an hour and you have already pissed off a priest and probably annoyed the commander."
Chagrined Kal looked between each of them "What? I didn't want the blessing I didn't know it would piss off mister high an-"
Melisia cut him off. "Come with me, it seems we have some things we need to discuss.” She seemed irritated and Kal didn’t know why. Was it because he annoyed the priest? Kal doubted it. Then what?
Dalen shrugged, “Come on Kal, you’ve got an angry Melisia to deal with.”
Kal and Dalen followed Melisia back to the tent. Dalen stopped at the entrance flap and smirked. “I’m going to see if I can find that horse she promised. Gooood Luuck. ”
Great friend you are…Kal thought as he stepped inside the tent to find Melisia with her arms crossed.
“What the hell do you mean you rejected a blessing!” Melisia shouted. Before Kal could get a word in she continued. “You told me you didn’t pay respects to any of the gods.” she seethed.
“Which one gave you a blessing? It better not be Dhoerin!”
Kal tried to jump in “What? I don-”
Melisia interrupted and started to pace around the tent “Don’t lie to me Kalum. It’s impossible for an unascended to resist a blessing, especially one given by a prophet.”
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“I’m not lying! Why the hell would I do that? I’m not interested in following the whims of a god!” Kal almost screamed, finally getting a chance to speak. “It pissed me off so I refused it and that's it!”
Melisia stopped her pacing, “You just refused. As simple as that?” Her expression was still irritated but Kal could spot the underlying curiosity. “If that is the case we must begin divining your core immediately.” Her eyes widened. “Yes, we start right now we can begin with-” A large figure suddenly stepped into the tent. Kal recognized him immediately.
Commander Hurius frowned at Melisia. Flanked by two imperial guards from the staging area, the commander was pretty damn imposing. “Your experiments with the man may begin tonight.”
Melisia frowned but it quickly evened out into a neutral expression. "Of course commander. I should begin preparing to embark anyway."
The commander turned to Kal, ignoring Melisia's expression. Kal knew this man was the commander of the eighth battalion, but was he that fair above Melisia that he could just simply boss her around like that? What level was he? "So, you're the broken man." The command grunted. Yeah…. both are definitely pricks. "You have severely angered the prophet by refusing Dhinir's blessing. Tell me, which god is so above the Conqueror that you would refuse such a gift?"
"Quotz, my lord," Kal lied. Judging by Melisia's reaction he thought it was probably best that he kept not having a blessing to himself. Something about Hurius and the prophet rubbed Kal the wrong way. Melisia's expression remained neutral after Kal's response. Well, at least she didn't disapprove.
The commander scowled slightly, "I see, disappointing. I see now why perhaps Melisia was so interested in you." The commander turned to leave but stopped at the door. "Tanaruhn, I detect a sound manipulation array. Remove it.” The commander then left the tent with his guards. Melisia immediately waved a hand and a few strands of mana flew around the room and something Kal hadn’t noticed before appeared and began to collapse. It was a small dome that encompassed
most of the interior of the tent. Before Kal could speak, Melisia spoke up.
“It remains to be seen that lying to the commander like you did was wise. But for the record, I approve.” She sighed, her tone grave. “He is an intense man, with little patience for those weaker than him. But it takes men like him to lead the armies of the empire.”
“What level even is he? He can’t be higher than you.” Kal replied.
Melisia laughed warily, “I’m sorry to tell Kal, I’m definitely not the strongest person in the camp.” She turned to face him evenly. “Command Huruis is over level one hundred.”
Kal was lost in thought as he was sent away to find Dalen. Over level one hundred, that was insane. He alone could probably wipe out most of Farninghold. Kal was starting to release how separated from the real world he was, until recently he had thought anyone over level fifty was a powerhouse. Apparently, there were dozens of soldiers all around him that were that high, and any of the Imperial guards were at the bare minimum level of sixty. It really put his frailty into perspective, he was truly an ant among giants. In a fair fight, any of the serfs here could probably beat him to a pulp. He had to remember that moving forward. His goal would be to fix whatever was wrong with him and prove that he was worth something.
Kal arrived where Melisia had said the quartermaster was, the place was swarming with camp followers organizing supplies. He found Dalen pretty quickly after he heard laughter towards the edge of the area. Dalen was trying and failing to walk two horses back toward the tent, and a few of the soldiers nearby were enjoying his struggles. When Dalen spotted Kal he shouted. “Hey Kal, give me a hand would ya? You know horses right?” Kal chuckled. At least until it was clear he wouldn’t ascend naturally Kal had grown up pretty well off during his father’s rise to prominence in Farninghold. So he had naturally been taught how to deal with and ride horses.
Horses were one of very few animals that didn’t grow stronger on their own. They were tied to the growth of their bond partner or stablemaster, meaning they only leveled when performing as instructed by their master. It was very similar to how Serfs leveled, it was inherently linked to whoever the Serf chose to work for. Most animals on the other hand developed much like humans did, but they didn’t have classes. Instead, animals simply started out as their base species and evolved into more powerful variants as they grew in level. Deciding to assist his friend who abandoned him to Melisia’s scorn, Kal moved in and took one of the reins from Dalen. The two of them began walking back towards the tent so Dalen could load up his brewing supplies. Kal realized that in the past few years, he hadn’t really learned much about his friends' class. He knew he was a tavern keeper but Dalen’s various brews seemed more like potions the more Kal thought about.
“I was just thinking about the class variants that I’m aware of and I realized I didn’t know much about your class.”
Dalen laughed, “Ha! Five years I’ve known you Kal, and it took you this long to ask about your best pal’s class. What do you want to know?’
“Yeah sorry, I was probably being a prick. But what I wanted to know was. Are your brews normal for a Tavern Keeper class?”
“Oh definitely not.” he chuckled. “It might surprise you that Tavern Keeper is actually an uncommon class. It is a variant of the craftsmen class, and I have kept my level this low for a reason.”
“What? Why would you do that!?” Kal didn’t understand why anyone would stay weak if they could choose not to be.
Dalen chuckled, “Well, I’ll tell you Kal. Accomplishments.” His friend seemed awfully happy with himself for such a crap answer.
“What the hell do you mean, Dalen? What accomplishments?”
Dalen raised an eyebrow, “If you would stop butting in I’ll tell you Kal. This is something you would have learned once you ascended, but an ascendant's accomplishments affect their future class and skill evolutions dramatically as they level. For every title I gain or item I craft, my future evolution is pushed slightly in a particular direction.”
“So that's why your brews tend to have healing effects on top of tasting like toasted ghoul dung?”
“I'll ignore that, but yes I’m dabbling in alchemy hoping to move my class in that direction before I reach my class evolution.”
“But how are you preventing yourself from leveling higher? Doesn’t brewing grant you experience?”
Dalen smiled, “Ha! That’s where I have been tricky. You’re right in that brewing does grant me experience, but the bulk of the experience I gain by actually serving those brews. And for that, I have a trick. Alchemy doesn’t grant me experience yet, and when I add some of what I have crafted with alchemy to a brew that brew no longer qualifies for experience. Something about it being tainted or whatever.”
Kal smiled for his friend. It really sounded like Dalen had found a bit of an exploit, Kal just hoped that his friend would get the class that he wanted when he finally decided to evolve his class.
After Dalen had gathered up all his brewing and or alchemy supplies Kal wasn’t sure now, they waited for the rest of the battalion to move out. The journey would be long for Kal but tonight his path would begin.