Gwenvair turned away again and sped to her mother’s, coming to her mother’s audience chamber quickly, even a bit abruptly. She arrived and waited her turn patiently, but struggled to do so. Soon, the audiences came to an end, the last having finished their petition and Gwenvair stepped forward.

“First in Line for Matriarch seeks audience on the dungeons, Matriarch.”

Her mother nodded regally, “We will discuss this tomo… will you be able to discuss this tomorrow? The audience is at an end for today.”

Gwenvair blinked. Right… Pretenses… when can I come… tomorrow? Afternoon? Probably.

“I believe I can seek you out tomorrow afternoon.”

The Matriarch nodded her head softly, accepting the appointment, “Then tomorrow afternoon. Let us end the audience for today.”

Gwenvair bowed deeply, remaining in place until her mother had passed her. She waited for a few moments more when the Matriarch called out to her.

“Come, walk with me, First in Line.”

Gwenvair fell in a step behind her and nodded with head down, “Yes, Matriarch.”

They walked silently for a moment, Gwenvair appropriately waiting for the Matriarch to initiate. They walked silently for a time until her mot… the Matriarch spoke.

“First in Line, how was your day.”

“It went well. We went to the beginner’s dungeon. The eccentric trained me well today.”

The Matriarch stuttered, freezing slightly before continuing her walk, asking nonchalantly, “You learned something well?”

“Yes. Yes I did, Matriarch.”

The Matriarch breathed heavily but this time was able to continue without interrupting her walk. She did fall silent, however, and simply walked back to her room directly. As soon as they entered the room and closed the door behind them, the Matriarch disappeared and her mother immediately turned to her, looking on in avid anticipation. Gwenvair smiled brilliantly to see her mother’s anticipation but replied with a meaningless gesture while signing unobtrusively with her off hand near her waist.

“Today was an enjoyable practice at the beginner’s dungeon, mother.”

Her mother quirked an eyebrow and immediately began roving her eye across her. Her mother quickly noticed her sign and struggled to keep her composure as she immediately turned to her bed.

“Then you did well with the eccentric?’

“Yes, mother. We fought the goblins the entire morning. It was fruitful.”

Her mother reached the bedside table and reached in to retrieve her obscure. She immediately grabbed it and walked back to Gwenvair.

“There were no major issues? A simple day?”

Gwenvair smiled, “Quite simple. He alternated between all of his apprentices and I, sharing his expertise freely.”

Her mother had returned to her by that point and reached out a hand, the obscure in her hand as she brought her palm up between them.

“That is excellent. I am quite pleased with the training the eccent… Tell me!”

Her mother immediately trailed off the farce of a conversation they were having once she had initiated the obscure. It enveloped them both and her agitation immediately came to the fore. Gwenvair struggled to hide her joy.

“He taught me growth skills!”

Her mother’s breathing came to a halt, “He taught you…”

Gwenvair nodded, “My magery is now a growth skill! My wind bolt is a growth skill!”

“Impossible! Impossible… that…. No! We… the clans were told it was nothing… a rumor!”

Gwenvair grimaced, hiding her anger, “Or a lie.”

Her mother almost turned away but immediately stopped when the obscure began to struggle in maintaining their privacy. Instead, her mother began to stand in place but could hardly control her overt agitation.

“How!”

“The sword skill of the knight job is a growth skill.”

“Yes, we know this!”

Gwenvair nodded, “All growth skills are not truly growth skills. All skills are actually growth skills. They … can be growth skills. There is a skill attached to growth skills, such as the knight’s sword skill, which makes it a growth skill. He called it a ‘char’ skill, although I do not understand its meaning or name. However, the purpose of the char skill seems to be two fold. Any skill it is attached to is available to all jobs once it is gained.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“That’s why…!” her mother quickly interjected and Gwenvair nodded quickly in agreement.

“That’s why all nobles have the sword skill if they have grown the knight job.

“That…”

Gwenvair nodded but pressed on, interrupting her mother, “But, of more importance, once the skill has gained perfection, or it becomes level one, as he says, the char skill associated with it can be moved to any other skill!”

Her mother froze at that, her breath coming in heavy pants, “Any skill!”

Gwenvair nodded, “Any skill! And we have a char skill that has been… perfected: swords.”

Her mother stared at her, “Then I can change my swords growth skill to… another skill!”

“Yes, mother. And it seems our training is… quite effective. He said my sword skill has excelled. It is at level twelve, although… I am not certain I understand its power or what that means. He seemed to believe it had grown by a significant amount. However, all my other skills are locked at zero and cannot grow without this char skill attached. So, I could make my shield skill a growth skill… or my wind bolt spell!”

Her mother stepped forward, grasping hands with Gwenvair with her free hand, “Even your wind bolt!?”

Gwenvair smiled, “Yes, my wind bolt is now a growth skill!”

Her mother stared at her, eyes fluttering with pride and jealousy, obviously struggling with her own emotions but she held her daughter’s future prominent, “You… the heroes!”

Gwenvair grinned even greater, “The heroes!”

The two fell silent for a moment and Gwenvair’s triumphant grinned turned to humor and joy as she stepped forward to hug her mother, “I can ask him for you. He would be more than willing to help.”

Her mother quickly stepped back shaking her head but Gwenvair held up her hand, “I am queen, how can I be unconcerned with family.”

Her mother smiled softly, simultaneously grateful and sad, “You have another family now.”

“And yet he would be more than willing to do this for you. He thought nothing of teaching this to me… and the others! They did not understand, of course, but… they learned.”

Her mother remained conflicted for a while before she nodded excitedly, “I… then… please.”

Gwenvair hugged her and nodded before quickly moving on to another important point, discussing the bow and arrow, as Joe called it. As powerful as it was, the news paled in comparison to the knowledge of growth skills and soon they returned in excitement as they considered how they could begin using growth skills for their clan. They spoke for quite some time until Gwenvair finally quieted with a sigh.

She pulled back slightly, “I think I must return now.”

“Go. Go! Go now!”

Gwenvair laughed looked up at her, smiling, “He will help.”

The two quieted at that, her mother pondering as she replied, “He will. He is so strange. So easy to help.”

Gwenvair smiled, “I’m uncertain I want to begrudge him that.”

Her mother barked in laughter at that but quickly ended their conversation as well as muffling the obscure, “Go. Go. He will be waiting, as will your sister.”

Gwenvair’s face bubbled in a brilliant smile as she turned to go, “I love you, mother. I’ll go.”

Her mother watched her leave, joyful for her daughter’s astronomical luck, only for the Matriarch to step to the fore and breathe deeply, thoughtful as she pondered the clan’s future.

* * *

Gunlan Galgandar fidgeted in his room, the complete ease with which his mother had defended against the tide left him deeply concerned with his plans. When the city killer had arrived, his fear had immediately turned to how well the city would survive. However, the eccentric proved formidable, much more so than he thought possible, and now his fear was in how close his mother and his older sister were to the eccentric.

His worry had left him distraught and without any recourse, so he found himself often alone in his room, accepting the reports of his various spies, and fretting endlessly over how he could resolve the issue of the eccentric. Each day only deepened his fear and worry, without any true resolution and each report from his spies only showed how closely his mother and sister were tied to the eccentric. As his mind spiraled, he was brought out of his thoughts by a knock on his door. He almost dismissed it, but realized it was time for his spymaster to report.

“Come in!”

His spymaster entered, head bowed and shuffling forward, “News, milord.”

“Yes,” Gunlan barked impatiently.

“Little new to report, but for a rumor, milord. Only a rumor.”

Gunlan frowned at his spymaster’s nervous pause, “And? Out with it!”

“Your sister, the First in Line… she is to … the eccentric has accepted her as his Queen and she has…”

Gunlan erupted to his feet, rage, fear, and utter despair warring across his face, “What!”

His scream devolved into inarticulate curses as he turned from his seat and began destroying his room and furniture. His rage lasted for quite some time, long into the night, and while he was lost in it, the spymaster wisely escaped the room, removing himself as a target of his ire.

* * *

Joe rested in his bath alone, finding the quiet solitude invigorating. His mind drifted without thought for a time until he finally sighed and sat up, turning back to present. Time to get some work done. Joe washed himself carefully before settling back in to enjoy the warm waters while he took a look at his gains for the day. He hadn’t gained anything with his dark priest job, but he did look like he’d unlocked the dark Loki chaplain as well as dark Loki faithful. Finally, he had another job, dark believer, which made sense once Joe looked at it. The believer opened up all the various gods’ and goddesses’ priest lines so the dark believer would open up options for that as well. And when he opened up his available jobs tab, he saw exactly that, with the believer job and each god specific job colored a dark grey. Interesting…

Joe didn’t think much beyond that and turned to his skills instead. He looked at the jobs he’d leveled, excited to see what was available before grimacing in complete disappointment. Prodigy, the upgrade in the duelist line of combat jobs, inherited all its previous classes, just as all previous ones did as well, which made it quite powerful since it basically packed all the skills of the previous seven jobs, but what he gained was otherwise worthless. He gained the ability to dual wield maces, which seemed like a very very bad idea to him. Then three garbled skills afterward. In fact, the duelist line of jobs was turning into a pretty significant disappointment except in the ability to wield all weapons in just about any variation he could think of and since each job inherited the previous, he gained their skills in weapons as well. The duelist line of jobs had so far skills in sword, axe, hammer, and mace as well as dual wielding all of them. That gave him a lot of versatility in wielding a variety weapons, but he still did not have spears or even the staff, which really bothered Joe.