Sy just stood up and left, leaving me and Raven stood in the equivalent of his living room with Mal and Magenta just staring at us, Mal gave a quack as if he was inviting us to sit down. I didn’t, choosing to stay standing, Raven remained by the opening at the front, she was on guard, I could tell she wasn’t at ease being here, the question was why.
“Sorry about that,” Sy said as he returned to the room, “Now where were we?”
“I was just telling you that I wanted to find a way back home.”
“That’s right,” Sy said, sitting back in his stool. There was an awkward silence that filled the air when he didn't say anything else. I looked at him blankly, still not knowing what the next steps were.
“What’s the plan then?” I asked, choosing to take the lead. “Fidget said you would help us, it wasn’t easy finding you and I was hoping she would be right, I mean you seem like a nice guy.”
“What did I say just a short moment ago? You should never assume, if I am going to train you, you need to start listening to what I tell you.”
"You're going to train me?”
“Well that’s why Fidget will have sent you here. That is what I do after all, never trained a Guardian before though, well Iv’e trained people who have gone on to be Guardians but you know what I mean.”
“Actually I don’t,” I said. “Fidget didn’t tell me anything other than I needed to find you.” I started doubting myself, had Fidget said that Sy would train me, it certainly is something that would be helpful.
“What has she sent me,” Sy muttered under his breathe, “Right well lets start at the basics, I can only imagine there is a lot of stuff to get through so lets start with what you already know about this world.”
“Well when I landed here, killed some fire ants and came across a legendary item, it was like an orb and it let me choose what class I wanted to be.”
“Shit, straight away? Right of the bat you were able to choose your class?” Sy said, becoming instantly more animated, almost excited. “What were your options? I can’t see your class you see, not at the moment anyway but we will get onto that later, have you already picked it?”
I tried to remember all of the options, I couldn’t though, I reeled off what I could remember. “A Paladin, A Necromancer, A Berserker.”
Sy raised his hand, the colour draining from his face. “Sorry to interrupt but please tell me you did not pick the necromancer class? There are certain types of magic that just should not be touched. Necromancy is one of them,”
“There’s more? Don’t worry I didn’t pick that, it didn’t read well and I didn’t like the look of stealing other peoples or creatures life essences.”
“Well that is at least one positive,” Sy said, looking at your frame, your size, your kind of skinny, not much muscle to you, you're not the tallest.”
“I’m six foot,” I said defectively, Sy himself looking like he must be about five foot four.
“Let me guess, you went for something like a rogue didn’t you, that would have been perfect for you.” He looked across at Raven who wasn’t paying attention, looking out into the open as if she was on the lookout for something. “Either that or some kind of cleric, did you say Paladin was an option? That could kind of work for you.” Sy picked up a nearby cup and started taking a drink from it.
“I picked the berserker class.”
Sy spat whatever he was drinking across the room, some of it splashing onto me.
“You picked a berserker.” he said, a slight grin on his face.
“What’s funny about that?” I couldn’t help but notice Raven glancing over, she was also grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
“It’s not the class I would have thought someone with your capabilities would have gone for and it isn’t the easiest class to master, but the situation could be worse.” He paused on his thoughts for a moment and took another sip of his drink. “Come to think about it, the situation is pretty dire. Did Fidget say if she was with any of the other Guardians?”
“She didn’t no, she said she was alone, she seemed pretty beat up when I spoke to her.”
“And did she know about your friend here?”
That seemed an odd question to ask, given Sy’s initial hostilities towards Raven when awe first got here. “Yeah,” I lied, I didn’t know why but it seemed like the right thing to do in these circumstances.
“Can you communicate with her? I’ve got a few things that I would like to ask her?”
“I don’t think so, she normally rings me, I wouldn’t know how to make contact with her.” I said, my head was starting to spin with all the quick fire questions that Sy was firing at me but I understood why he needed to ask them.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“That makes sense, given you are a berserker you will only get access to mana if you unlock the right sub class, but again that is for a conversation for another time, form projection is a skill that can be unlocked but not for you, not in your current form.”
I couldn’t tell if Sy was talking to me or just talking out loud to himself, I was desperately trying to remember everything he was saying as he was saying it.
“So I guess my job now is to get you ready for the big old world that are beyond the boundaries of my oasis. So class aside, have you been able to unlock your skill tree? That might of taken some doing since you got here, but with your berserker class activated early I am guessing this gave you a nice little strength boost to help you along your way.”
“Well I guess it did, after unlocking my class I tried fighting these fire ants over and over again, it kind of worked for one level but then the more I farmed the less impact it made to my over all level.”
“Yeah that kind of happens, I guess it is one of the gods ways of stopping folk from becoming too OP, you know what that means don’t you?”
“Over powered?” I had played enough video games to realise that it was like I was living in my own version of a RPG.
“The more you kill of the same creature, the less it will have on your growth, this place like variety, defeating new enemies will help you level quicker but that might not necessarily be a good thing, after all knowledge is power, and knowledge takes time.” Magenta, gave a loud quack like she was agreeing with what Sy had to say, it was easy enough to tell the difference between the two ducks. She had a a darker orange crest on her chest in the shape of a half moon. Where as Mal’s was a full circle in the centre of his crest.
“That makes sense,” I said, “Raven showed me how to farm some Spore Spitters, the same thing happened that when I was fighting the fire ants, it became a real grind if you know what I mean but I was able to progress a little.”
“Spore spitters eh, you need to be carful with those things, fire ants, they will just leave you with irritated skin where they bite you, the bigger ones may even have a bite strong enough to pierce your skin but Spore Spitters, the spore they can produce can leave a Nast taste in your mouth and lung burn too.”
“I figured that out the hard way, luckily Raven had a potion that helped ease the pain.”
“It’s a good job too, if left too long lung burn can start to effect your breathing which can quite quickly cause you to stop breathing entirely if not treated. What colours did you see?”
“The spore spitters? Blue, Pink, Orange, Green and Red, I think?” I tried to cycle back through come to think of it, I kind of wished I had kept a log.
“They are all common types, there’s a couple of really rare ones out there, one with a black flower onto of its head, a bit like a Venus fly trap, there is another that is meant to be huge about four to five times the size of your usual spore spitter, that one has a ginormous flower on its back and is more deadly than the rest. I imagine it is a higher level, imagine the experience you would get for beating that, I’ve never actually come across it though, only ever heard whispers of its existence. My advice to you if you ever crossed paths with it, especially at this stage. Run.”
I was grateful for the advice, it was clear that Sy knew his stuff. "Thanks,” I said, “I will certainly bear that in mind. As I was saying, I farmed the spore spitters to help me get a little bit stronger and then I realised I had unlocked my skill tree.”
“You have unlocked your skill tree already,” Sy raised his eyebrows, seemingly impressed. “That’s pretty impressive, especially without any guidance. So how long have you been here, three weeks? A month?”
“Actually I got here a couple of days ago, or at least I think so. The days seem to last longer here than back home, but the sun has set once since I was brought here.”
“And you already have your skill tree? Now that is impressive, well if there is a sign that I am to make a Guardian out of you then this is it. Now if you have the berserker class, let me just see if I remember it all right.” He stopped as if he was accessing his own menu like I had access to.
“Can I just ask, I have this kind of menu, I can access, I can see it as if it surround me, but no one else can. Do you have this.”
“I do, it takes some getting used to but you soon will. “Now as I was saying the berserker skill tree, let me get this up on my notes. Swordzerker Frenzy, Axecraze Torrent and Hammerheart Guard. That right?”
“It is,”
“Where have you put your skill points so far?” Sy asked, if you get your menu up it should tell you at the side.
I did as he asked and cycled through my menu just to double check rather than trying to go off memory. “So I have five points added to the swordzerker frenzy tree and one added to Hammerheart Guard, I figured adding a point to the Hammerheart tree would help with the heath regeneration.”
“I like what you did there,”
“Yeah I assigned the fifth skill point to the first slot when we defeated a boss. More out of curiosity as to what the next slot would do.” I realised that with everything that had happened I hadn’t actually read up on what the next skill was.”
“Wait up, did you say you defeated a boss?” Sy’s jaw dropped and if he wasn’t already sitting down I think he would have fallen over backwards.
“Yes, I got given a side quest to help Raven, one of the missions was to infiltrate a terror camp.”
“You infiltrated a terror camp,” Sy murmered, “and survived, without any training other than farming some fire ants and spore spitters you were able to sneak into a terror camp and get what you needed.”
“Not really,” I said, I felt sheepish, “We beat all the terrors, that’s what triggered the boss battle.” I raised my hand to the back of my head and rubbed it.
“Good gods! You defeated all of the terrors and a boss, well if I wasn’t convinced before that you had what it takes to become a Guardian, then I am now! Hell I’m actually kind of excited to train you to see how far you can actually go, this is incredible.”
Sy stood, he was practically vibrating he was that excited, “I cannot wait to see what we can do with you, but as I said you have a lot to learn, as well as you have done getting this far, you have been lucky as hell that you are still alive. My job now is to make sure that moving forward, luck doesn’t have to play a part in your over all progression.”
Sy moved to leave the home while talking, stepping past me and walking beyond Raven who looked curious herself, in a sulky pre-teen kind of way. He stopped at the top of the waterfall that pored down into the lagoon below, where a tranquil oasis awaited us. “Can you taste that air, there is always something fresh about it, kinda zingy. It is why I set up camp here, keeps me away from all the fighting, that isn’t the life for me, not anymore. But training fighters who can help change the world, I am down with that.” He turned, looking over his shoulder at me. “And your training is about to start right now, the winds are changing Silas. Fidget believes in you and that is good enough for me, with what you have shown so far, with the right aptitude and training, we just might pull this off. You just might be able to save this world.”
“No pressure then,” I said.