“He’s late, Master,” Lucas said as they looked down the empty streets, “We have to get going now or we’ll never catch up to the rest of the caravan.”
“Wait a minute longer,” the old man ordered, “I just know it’ll be worth it.”
“If you say so,” Lucas sighed, before a shout drew his attention, his eyes going wide as the Mage ran towards them.
He looked completely different from the previous day when he’d just been wearing simple travelling robes and carrying a short staff. Now he was dressed in a fine black and grey robe, intricate stitching in the hems reflecting the early morning light, showing that they were enchantment runes, and complex ones at that. Not only that, but his short staff had been replaced by a full-length branch of black wood that was carved into a wicked looking hand at one end, which in turn grasped a large purple gemstone.
Lucas instinctively used one of his Merchant Abilities on the three rings on the waving hand, seeing that they were each a decently sized storage ring, the other hand also having three rings, which boosted stamina, physical defence, and mana regeneration respectively. The young merchant almost passed out at the sight of so much enchanted gear, his mind reeling at the thought of someone like that travelling with them.
“Hello, sorry I’m late,” Brian panted slightly as he clambered into the back of the wagon, “Got a bit caught up at a shop.”
“Well, no wonder you couldn’t pay us much,” Gustus laughed as he elbowed Lucas in the side, the young man ordering the horses forwards instinctively, still in shock, “If you were planning on buying all that, it must have taken most of your funds.”
“Uhm…something like that,” Brian chuckled, “I also helped out around the shop for some of it.”
“I see, well hopefully you’ll be just as helpful to us on this journey,” Gustus chuckled, “Wake up Lucas, you’re likely to steer us into a building if you don’t pay attention!”
“R-right, sorry Master!” the young man barked as he shook his head, seeming to come back to his senses, “We’re going to have to go a bit faster than usual to catch up to the rest of the caravan, if that’s okay with you, Sir Mage?”
“Don’t mind me,” Brian smiled back at the pair, “I’m pretty used to rough rides. And just call me Brian, I’m getting a little sick of all this “Sir Mage” stuff.”
“Right you are, Brian!” Gustus laughed, “Well, let’s get a move on, boy!”
------
Brian hummed quietly to himself as he sat in the back of the cart. It had taken them most of the morning to catch up to the rest of the caravan, but now they were travelling at a far easier pace than before. Brian had been expecting some bumps, but he hadn’t realised that the wagon he was in didn’t have anything like suspension, so the ride was even rougher than he had thought it would be. His aching backside was a testament to that as well.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, Sir Ma-I mean Brian,” Lucas suddenly said, “What is your specialty in Magic?”
“Specialty? You mean like my Class?” Brian asked, the young man immediately shaking his head frantically.
“N-no! I would never be so rude as to ask that!” Lucas sputtered, “I was just curious as you whether you used a particular element or type of Spell.”
“I suppose you could say that,” Brian chuckled, “And don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything. I suppose you could call me something of a generalist. I have points in all of my base Abilities and several Tiers above them for each.”
“I-I see,” Lucas nodded, “I appreciate the answer.”
“Not a problem,” Brian hummed as he settled back against the sacks of flour in the back of the cart, getting as comfortable as he could, “So, tell me about yourselves?”
“Us?” Lucas blinked, glancing back at Brian as he nodded, “There’s not much to tell. We’re both Merchants by Job and trade and have put most of our Skill Points into the Abilities for our Job Trees.”
“I can understand that,” Brian nodded, “But if you don’t fight that much, you can’t have too high levels, can you?”
“Not at all,” Gustus laughed, “You can get Experience Points for using your Job or your Class, can’t you? I mean, I’m level twenty-four, but that’s only because I’m old as sin and just as dirty!”
“M-Master, you shouldn’t say that about yourself!” Lucas gasped, the old man just continuing to laugh.
“You can get Experience Points for both?” Brian muttered, opening his Status Screen and looking over it in surprise.
Name: Brian Andrews
Level: 3
Class: Dark Mage
Job: Scribe
Skill Points: 30
Titles: [Holder of Forbidden Knowledge]
“Huh, so you do,” he nodded as he checked his Experience Points, seeing he was already at sixty-seven out of four hundred, “So the required amount doubles each level? That’s going to take a while to level up just by fighting. But then that means I gained over two hundred points just from eight hours of working as a Scribe?”
“That’s pretty normal,” Gustus hummed, “Best way to level up early on is to use your job to its maximum capacity, but after about level ten, the amount of Experience Points just isn’t enough to get you much more than a level every year or so. From fifteen, you’re lucky to get a level every three or so years, and from twenty, well, just doing your Job will take you about ten years a level.”
“I see,” Brian nodded, filing that information away in his head, “Thanks for telling me.”
“Not a problem,” Gustus chuckled, “Now, how about you use that storyteller Ability of yours to tell us a story to pass the time? Just sitting in silence can weigh on the mind, you know?”
“Oh, sure,” Brian smiled, “How about a simple fairytale from my home for starters? There once was a cottage in the woods in which lived three bears…”
------
“Such imagination!” Gustus laughed, “A cat in boots and a hat using a sword? And it fought to save a princess? Quite the tale you tell, my friend!”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“It’s just what I remember from my youth,” Brian chuckled along, “I may have had to take some liberties here and there as I don’t remember the stories exactly, but I know them well enough to manage.”
“Well, I would say you tell them excellently,” Gustus hummed, “You sure you’re not a Bard Class after all?”
“Nope, definitely a Mage,” Brian replied, “Says it on my Status Screen and everything.”
“Fair enough, still good stories,” the old man nodded, looking up at the darkening sky, “Hmmm, we’ll be settling down to camp soon enough, hopefully we can reach the nearest waystation before it gets too dark.”
“Yeah,” Brian nodded, looking past the two men at the trail of wagons in front of them, before a shout went up, quickly travelling down the line until it reached them, “What was that about?”
“Road’s blocked,” Gustus growled, “Guess we won’t be making it to that waystation after all. Damn, I hate sleeping on the ground.”
“What’s it blocked by?” Brian asked, “Maybe I could do something about it?”
“I highly doubt it,” Lucas sighed, “That shout means there are soldiers up ahead, so there’s probably a monster migration or something happening. We could be stuck here for a few days until they all pass and it’s safe again.”
“A monster migration?” Brian asked, quickly recalling something he’d read in one of the books at the library about the local monsters, “Judging by the time of year, it’s probably a herd of Shinka.”
“Probably,” Gustus nodded, “Damn things. Twice as big as a wagon, and half as smart as a rock, they’ll charge at anything their size or smaller. Which includes us.”
“Don’t they only travel in small herds of five to ten, though?” Brian muttered, “That doesn’t seem like a lot, couldn’t the soldiers just take them out?”
“If we had a whole battalion to sacrifice, sure,” Gustus huffed, “But the kingdom would prefer not to send troops out this far just to save a few Merchants a couple of days travel. No, we’re going to have to wait them out, and hope they don’t decide to settle for the week.”
“Or…” Brian hummed, making the two men look back at him, “I could go kill them?”
“You? Kill at least half a dozen Shinka?” Gustus guffawed, “I’d like to see that! If you’re going to go, try to keep their hides intact, they’re valuable as all hell!”
“Sure thing,” Brian smiled as he hopped off the wagon, stretching his stiff legs for a bit before he started to jog towards the front of the line, which was already moving off the road.
It didn’t take him long to reach the front of the caravan where the soldiers were standing, six of them sitting or standing around, a small camp set up just to the side of the road and simple wooden barricade built across it. Brian barely paused as he jogged past, ignoring the startled shouts of the soldiers and continuing on. Another few minutes later, and he spotted his first Shinka, noting that the drawing in the book he had read did not do the beast justice.
It was about the size of an elephant, with a long boar-like head and massive tusks. Its body was also covered in thick brown hair, matted with bits of twig and mud. The most interesting feature, however, was its long cat-like tail, which, according to the book Brian had read, was prehensile. All this didn’t really matter to Brian, as he also knew that the beast was supposed to have almost comically bad eyesight, often not noticing things less than half its size until they were within a few meters of it. Crouching low to the ground, Brian approached the first beast, closing his eyes for a moment as he began to feel out its mana.
Like with when he’d sensed the mana of the thugs back in Blackleaf, the massive form lit up in his new sense, but this time Brian didn’t simply try to draw that mana away from it. Instead, he continued to focus, slowly identifying the way the mana naturally flowed through the creature, like blood pumping through blood vessels. It took him almost ten minutes of careful searching and examination before he felt he had a good enough understanding of the Shinka’s mana system to estimate exactly where its heart was, feeling the way the mana pulsed in a particular area on the left side of its chest. Reaching out, Brian focused on that point, spreading the effect slightly outwards to ensure he got the entire heart, and used one of his Abilities.
The Shinka shuddered, looking around in confusion for a moment, before it suddenly toppled onto its side, Brian watching as the mana inside it slowly dissipated into the air around it. It didn’t take long for a second Shinka to notice that one of their watchmen had fallen over, rumbling over with heavy footfalls that made the ground shiver under Brian’s feet. This one took him far less time to “scan”, already having a good idea of its anatomy, so less than a minute later, it also collapsed.
This continued for the next twenty minutes, six more of the beasts approaching, and then promptly collapsing, one by one. After the eighth, Brian forced his awareness out as far as he could, actually surprising himself as he managed to feel the faint glow of mana from the caravan and soldiers a good distance away. Not feeling anything larger than a rabbit particularly close, he opened his eyes and stood, stretching out his legs from where he’d been crouching for over half an hour, before jogging back.
“Oi!” one of the soldiers shouted as he drew near, “What the hell was that about? You mad or something, Mage? If those things went after you, you’d be flattened in an instant!”
“The Shinka are all dead,” Brian said plainly as the soldiers all paused, looking at him in confusion for a moment.
“You mean…you killed them, Sir Mage?” one of the soldiers, probably a lieutenant or captain judging by his fancier armour, asked, “But we didn’t see any magic?”
“My magic is very subtle,” Brian shrugged, “You can go check if you want, but they’re still my kills, so I get first pick of the resources.”
“I…well…I suppose you do,” the man muttered, before turning to look at two of the soldiers wearing leather armour, probably scouts of some sort, “Alright, Barnes, Trent, you two go and check if he’s right and he got all of them. I want a report in ten minutes!”
“Yes, Captain!” the two called as they darted off in the direction of the corpses.
“Do you mind if I go inform the caravan so long?” Brian asked the captain, “I’m sure they’ll want to collect the materials from the beasts as soon as possible.”
“Huh? Oh, yes,” the captain nodded, “Just make sure they don’t come until we’ve confirmed that all of the Shinka are dead.”
“Of course,” Brian smiled, jogging back towards the circle of wagons that was quickly turning into a camp.
“And he’s back!” Gustus called loudly as Brian entered the ring of wagons, several tents already having been set up as a large communal fire was being built in the centre of the ring, “Give up? Too many for you to handle?”
“Nope, they’re all dead,” Brian hummed as he joined the old man, who was standing with several other older men and women, who Brian assumed were the other head Merchants in the caravan.
“What? All of them?” a portly man gasped, “How many?”
“Eight, by my count,” Brian replied, “I didn’t feel anything else more dangerous than a rabbit or ten out there after I finished off the last one, so I’m pretty sure there’s nothing else dangerous around. Just have to wait for the soldiers to report back on it and we can go harvest them.”
“Eight Shinka?” a tall wizened looking woman snorted, “All by yourself? But we saw no magic being cast. There should have been at least a few explosions!”
“Maybe he told them all a boring enough tale they fell asleep,” Gustus chuckled, patting Brian on the shoulder, “He’s quite the storyteller, this one, wouldn’t surprise me if he could do that!”
“Nope, just a basic magic Ability,” Brian chuckled along, “I probably could have done it faster if I had wanted to, but I was trying something special.”
“Something special?” the youngest man of the group asked, “What does that mean?”
“Do you know what a heart attack is?” Brian asked, the five staring at him blankly, “I stopped their hearts from beating, and they died.”
“Stopped their hearts?” the last member of the group, a middle-aged woman, gasped, stepping back, “Does that mean you’re a Necromancer?! I’ve only ever heard of them having such an Ability!”
“No, I’m not a Necromancer,” Brian sighed, seeing the way the four others were slowly backing away from him, “I promise. I just have really good control of my Abilities, so I can target specific areas with Status Effects.”
“Status Effects?” the group said as one, the old woman narrowing her eyes at Brian, “So, you’re that kind of Mage, huh? Interesting. Don’t see many of your kind in these lands.”
“What do you mean by that?” the middle-aged woman asked, “He has to be a Necromancer!”
“He’s not, trust me,” the older woman spat, silencing the younger one, “If he really was, he would have led the Shinka over to us to kill us all and use the bodies to make more minions. The fact that we’re still alive either says that he’s very stupid, very kind-hearted, or not a Necromancer at all.”
“It’s the third one, maybe a little of the second as well,” Brian chuckled, “Thank you for not exposing my Class, though.”
“It would be rude to do so,” the older woman huffed, “And I’ve been around long enough to learn proper manners. Anyway, come see me later, boy, I may have something of use to you to trade.”
“Really?” Brian asked, watching as the older woman walked off, before looking back at Gustus who seemed to be about to explode with laughter, “What?”
“Madam Tiffany seems to have taken a liking to you,” the old man laughed loudly, “May the gods protect you, boy!”