Dalen frowned as he saw the rest of the elders enter the main tent and take their seats. The order’s leadership had been gathered again to discuss their next steps and Melisia insisted that the both of them should be involved.
He wasn’t thrilled to be here but if it meant he could learn more about their plans He wouldn’t turn it down. Even more surprising however was the sudden entrance of Commander Hurius. He looked furious, his anger was almost a physical thing and Dalen could feel it before the man had even entered the tent.
Hurius had made his allegiance quite clear over the last couple of days since he and the survivors of the camp were taken in by the order. Dalen didn’t blame him at all. The order had ruthlessly ambushed the commander’s men. There weren’t that many casualties according to Melisia but apparently shortly after she left them to find the order, they were quickly attacked again by another horde of demons that had come through the tear.
It was in that battle that Hurius had lost the majority of his men. Now he had barely enough man to travel safely back to Farninghold normally but not nearly enough to do so if there were still demons roaming the forests.
Dalen hadn’t realized how lucky they were to make it to the orders camp. They had come across several packs of the things but with Leo, Nyx, and the rest of the order’s capture team they were able to make it through.
From the stories he had heard from some of the survivors of the empire’s second ambush, it was an absolute slaughter. They were attacked by dozens of variants called kuroxet bonedrinkers. One of the soldiers said a scratch from their claws turned his friend's bones to jelly in an instant and with each kill the bonedrinkers grew larger and more aggressive. Dalen couldn’t help but shiver at the thought. He was just glad none of those ones appeared at the camp, he didn’t think even Leo would have done well against those things.
Hurius took a seat with a word and glared at the dozen elders seated around a large circular table. Leo and Melisia were seated to either side of Dalen carefully watching the elders as they awaited Elder Jaliete to begin the meeting.
Dalen had been mainly concentrating on looking over his status after getting his class evolution but he found it extremely hard to concentrate with all the damned staring. Every other person in the bloody room kept looking at him, it was fucking freak, to say the least. Dalen was just about sick of it, “Can these people stop fucking staring at me or what?”
What happened next was even weirder every single one of the people staring at him paled and their gaze immediately shifted to stare straight at the ground.
“Wha- What the f-” An elbow to the ribs stopped him and Dalen turned to see Leo smirking at him, then he raised an eyebrow at Melisia. She nodded and set up a quick silencing array around the three of them.
“Leave it, Dalen, I know it's disconcerting but having them on our side even temporarily is not a bad thing. Even if you don’t like it, we may be able to use their reverence to Kal to our advantage.”
“Yeah well I didn’t expect them to hear me, bloody high perception,” Dalen muttered, “Fine I’ll stop telling them all to get stuffed but I hope they read my lips and know I want to get a move on and start finally doing something. Melisia I thought you said the order was gathering at the bank or whatever?”
Melisia nodded, “As far as I know Dalen that is correct but Elder Jaliete has not yet confirmed her plans for this cell,” she turned back to the elders, “I’m going to drop the array now. No need to sow more distrust between us and the elders. I believe we are about to begin.”
Dalen looked back to the elders as well and saw that she was right. The Elder Jaliete had arrived and was now standing directly opposite Dalen, she did not look pleased to see the silencing array in place. A moment later the array dropped and the sounds of the tent came back to them.
Elder Jaliete raised an eyebrow at Melisia before she began, “Now that we are ready, let us begin. As you are all aware, word has been sent for the order to gather at The Vault. We will of course be joining them but we are by far the furthest a field and traveling overland will take far too long.”
One of the other elders, a middle-aged man with stark white hair spoke up, “Are you implying that we should use the fractured path?” All the guards and a few of the elders looked concerned at the idea. Dalen looked at Melisia to see her frown slightly. Well that’s not a good sign.
“Yes. We were to inspect its boundaries before we found the slayer. Of course, because He was found our plans must change but, we have all seen what came through the tear Nyx and the rest of the retrieval team described. Checking on the integrity of the firmament is still a priority, it may even help us moving forward in regards to securing his return.”
“Is that wise? If what came through were truly the outsiders we were warned of, the fractured path could be compromised already. We could be walking right into a horde of those things.”
Dalen listened but kept a careful eye on the rest of the room. Everyone was on edge but none more so than Commander Hurius. Dalen saw the outburst coming a mile away.
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“What foolishness is this! The empire must be warned of what has occurred!” Hurius spat, “This pointless fixation on a broken child is ridiculous-” The room went awfully quiet, even the commander in the middle of his rave noticed.
Half the guards looked ready to tear the man’s head off and the elders weren’t much better.
Elder Jaliete simply glared at the man, “Speak carefully Commander Hurius. As for warning the empire, you are of course welcome to leave and make your way back to Farninghold with whoever will follow you. Your presence here is for your own benefit, not ours,” she turned back to the rest of the room before continuing, “In response to your comment Elder Hedrik. Yes, there is a risk of that, but I believe that only increases the need for us to find out. If the fractured path is safe enough to travel, we will arrive at the vault in six months instead of twelve. If it is not, knowing that fact will be important for our future decisions.”
There were some unhappy faces amongst the elders but most of them agreed with the decision. Dalen was content to just let the meeting play out. Sure whatever the fractured path was sounded dangerous but if it meant getting a move on finding Kal sooner he was all for it. That's when he noticed the eyes on him again, this time however it was the rest of the elders. Seriously? Why are they looking at me? Do they seriously want my input?
Elder Jaliete looked unconcerned, her face completely neutral as she watched the room. Dalen looked at Melisia and she nodded, Well shit. I didn’t sign up for this.
“Look, if it means finding Kal faster I’m in. But I also agree with Commander Hurius, the empire should be warned,” Dalen’s first priority was finding Kal but he knew his friend would want to warn everyone if he was here. Or at least his family. They still seemed to be listening so Dalen continued, he already knew what to say to make it happen, “Any effort to ensure his family is left alone and safe, would be a good first step to winning Kal over.”
His words had an immediate effect. Eyes all around the room lit up, especially the undecided elders. Elder Jaliete looked unsurprised, “If that is what it takes for us all to be content with moving towards the fracture path then fine. Commander Hurius, I will supply you with an escort back to Farninghold. I suggest you treat them with respect,” her gaze bore into the man but he simply nodded and left the tent.
“If that is all, this meeting is over. We leave at dawn.”
The elders all left to return to their tents, leaving Dalen, Leo, and Melisia alone with a few guards.
Melisia had been holding back a smile ever since Dalen had spoken and only now had let it show, “You did well. I know you hated every moment of it but having so many of the elders wanting your input is a good sign.”
“Yeah, well you’re right. I hated it. Why are they like that? I thought the elders would at least act superior, but they were nearly as bad as the rest of them, ” Dalen grumbled.
Leo chuckled, “It reminded me of watching the camp followers whenever the prophet spoke,” a smirk Dalen immediately hated spread across Leo’s face ”Oh that’s perfect. Dalen the prophet of Kalum.” At that very moment, another guard stepped into the tent with an audible gasp, his eyes wide as he looked at Dalen.
Horror rose up in Dalen as the man’s gaze fell to the ground and he spun leaving the tent faster than he entered, “Fuuuck, Leo, what have you done?! He better of had high enough perception to know you were fucking joking,” he groaned.
Leo continued to grin.
“Enough you two,” she didn’t smirk but Dalen could hear it in her voice, “Dalen did you make your choice?”
Dalen smiled then, the creepy guards forgotten, “Yeah, I did. I went with the obvious choice, it was hard to pass up.” He opened up his status again and read the description of his new class for about the twentieth time.
Alchemist of the Wrathful [Epic]
Cure the innocent with the marvels of your creations and annihilate those that oppose you with chaos given form. The Alchemist of Wrathful uses potent distillations of the anger and hate of both the innocent and the guilty against their foes. May your enemies know the wrath they inspire. +5 Intellect, Perception, Vitality +3 Free Points.
Create Brew [Common] -> Alchemical Expertise [Uncommon]
Ferment Ingredient [Common] -> Harvest Essence [Uncommon]
Ironically, evolving his class into Alchemist of the Wrathful had forced him to relearn much of what he knew about alchemy. Normally Dalen would have to go through the process of grinding up a specific herb then boil it or maybe ferment it using his old skill before making a potion manually.
That was still the case in a way but the ingredients involved had changed quite a bit. He could still do it with the old method but to take full advantage of his class he had to use Harvest Essence. He hadn’t had enough time to really practice it yet having finally come to the decision this morning, but a few trial runs had given him an idea of its potential.
The main difference was that he could influence the effect of a potion by adding in essence. Getting that essence was both convenient and strange. Dalen could hold a herb in his hand and in less than a minute fully extract all the alchemical potential from the herb and store it in a vial or dump it straight into his cauldron.
That was the convenient part, the strange part was that it didn’t need to be an herb. He could use his own essence, well at least his anger. He tried a few times to do as the class description implied and harvest his anger and add it to a potion. It didn’t work, not at first. After failing for a few tries he tried other emotions, worry, grief, and happiness. None of them worked and it was starting to piss him off, then of course that was the exact moment it worked wasn’t it.
And what did he learn from that experience? That making healing potions while annoyed wasn’t a good idea. The damned thing exploded and took his cauldron with it.
“Well, how is it going?” Melisia asked.
Dalen frowned, “Great, but don’t suppose you have a spare cauldron anywhere?”