Chapter 45 Building.
“Time is a fickle thing.” Isaac commented while he reclined on the roof of the Safeharbor Adventurers’ Guild. Edward and Lenny were sparring a dozen feet away. The clang of metal on metal echoed off the stone roof.
Lenna rolled her eyes. The chair she had brought along sat upright unlike Isaac’s shadow beach chair, her armored form barely fit between the armrests but she didn’t seem to mind. “You are far too young to be talking like that.” She chastised him. The last few days had gone by in a slow blur. Edward had decided to teach Lenny under the condition that he could also make use of the fact that Lenny didn’t actually exist on any legal documents. That wasn’t to say that Edward had any grand plans involving an off the books rogue but it paid to have friends in low places from time to time. At Edward’s level, people were the best tools one could have in their toolbelt. Any other tools could be purchased without so much as a second thought.
Isaac ignored her and continued. “Days pass by faster and faster until a time comes when they go slower than ever.” He continued his nonsensical wisdom. The pair still hadn’t had an opportunity to chat with Marie about potentially training Lenny but that wasn’t exactly surprising. The only time when they would get to see her would be when they went to Sera’s for tea and that was still a few weeks away. The V’Nova Wexler bank account had also gotten both an influx and a few large deductions of coins. Between the magic items and drider silk treatment they would have gone bankrupt. It was a good thing they also got paid by the duke for all of their hard work. Now, however, the duo lacked a proper objective.
“It’s all in your head.” Lenna replied. “Every day goes by at the same speed.” She stated the obvious. She raised her eyebrow in surprise as she watched Lenny parry a blow from Edward. The lad had been getting better and better. They were watching him improve in real time. This wasn’t the first training session, not even counting the ones without Edward, for the young rogue but Lenna had no doubt that he was now stronger than his brother. ‘Some people just need a good teacher and reason to push themselves.’ She thought to herself.
“Maybe if you’re a rob-” Isaac winced. “Never mind.” He watched Lenny turn a parry into a perfect counter attack while fainting with his second sword. Edward had to step back to avoid the strike. Edward could have still blocked it with ease but he was scaling down his own speed to match the rogue. The fact that Lenny had made the Blade Master take a step back was still impressive for someone so low leveled. “That was a good one.” He thought aloud.
Lenna nodded. “Agreed.” She replied. “We should find something constructive to do.” She told her mate. “We’ve rested long enough.”
Isaac knew she was right. He sighed as he rose to his feet. He leaned back into a long stretch. He bent backwards far enough that he needed to use the shadows of his chair to keep himself from falling over. “Yeah.” He agreed with a grunt while in the deepest part of his stretch. He straightened back up. “Do you have anything in mind?”
Lenna shook her head and stood up as well. “Bounties?” She questioned.
Isaac shrugged. “Nothing better to do.” He agreed and then turned to face the pair still engaged in an exchange of blades a dozen feet from them. “Keep up the good work.” He told Lenny. “Don’t hurt yourself old man.” He added for Edward.
Edward turned his head to look at Isaac with a scowl. His speed almost doubled as his feet locked in place. He locked eyes with Isaac while parrying, blocking, and counter attacking Lenny’s paired swords. “I’m not that old.” He told Isaac evenly. “Your girlfriend over there is ancient history if I’m considered old.”
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“Both are true.” Isaac agreed with a shit eating grin.
It was Lenna’s turn to scowl at him. “Being called an ancient warrior is one thing.” She warned him. “Being called ancient history is something else entirely.”
“I’m going to go see what Alice has for us.” Isaac escaped and quickly appeared a few floors below the rest of the group.
Edward’s speed slowed back down as he returned his full focus to Lenny. “Your boss is a pain in my ass.” He told the rogue.
Lenny laughed even though he was out of breath. “You’re tellin’ me.” He agreed before tossing Lenna a quick glance.
“Oh no, I agree.” Lenna replied to his silent inquiry. “But I’m the only one allowed to say that.” She told the boys without a hint of any emotion in her voice. She turned and started striding towards the door that led back into the building.
Lenny and Edward were silent as they sparred until they were both completely sure that Lenna had left. “Lenard, explain to me why you didn’t make a break for it once they gave you those swords?” Edward questioned.
“Uh,” Lenny began between deep panting breaths. “I owe them, a lot.” He replied. “Like, a lot, a lot.”
Edward shook his head. “You have my sympathy.” He told his trainee.
Lenny chuckled and backed away so he could catch his breath. “You have, mine, as well, teach.”
—
“I have good news and bad news.” Isaac told Lenna once she had finally joined him in front of Alice’s desk. “They are kind of the same thing so you are getting them both together.”
“Alright.” Lenna replied. She was ready to get back to work but with the way Isaac was talking it was bound to be hunting-
“Spiders.” Isaac finished the thought that was running through her head. “A phase-widow was spotted. There was a lower level party that lost a member to one yesterday. We’ve been mostly focusing on the one side of the tunnels so we’ve sort of created a difficulty gradient. There are still some normal cave spiders in a few locations but it’s estimated that a little over half of the population is jumping-spiders. Now there are phase-widows. It’ll be good money but, well, it’s more spiders.” Isaac shrugged.
“Anything else?” Lenna questioned.
“Not close by.” Alice cut in. “A dusk ranger dropped by earlier and informed us of a few other problems.”
“Dusk ranger?” Isaac questioned.
“Think of them like scouts that have magic specialized in stealth and monster tracking. They will occasionally handle the problems themselves but they get paid for information so mostly they are just an early warning system.” Alice explained.
“What are the other problems?” Lenna questioned.
“Pecurke, falling and raising shadows, shadow-wolves, basilisks, and snakes have all been on the move. There seems to be a rather large area that they are avoiding.” Alice explained. “The Ori-Masa are causing an ecological nightmare and sending the monsters into a panic. Most of them are still outside of our local threat area so there aren’t any bounties on them yet.”
“Nothing to wipe out the Ori-Masa?” Isaac questioned.
Alice shook her head. “No, they haven’t pushed into our territory since the attack you ended.” She explained. “The odd part is the fact that their territory is right up against the mushroom kingdom but apparently they aren’t causing each other any problems.”
“Something is definitely up with that.” Isaac added. “I wonder if their mushroomancer is in cahoots with the mushroom king or whatever he’s called.”
“In the other direction, there have been more bandits than usual between Sapphirestone and us. I have a few bounties for them.” Alice added. “None of this is day trip stuff though. Unless you guys want to take a job or two in town?” Alice questioned brightly.
“No.” Isaac replied firmly. “Not unless it’s something like ‘read a book on the roof so it looks guarded’ or something.”
Alice laughed. “If I find one of those I’ll get my own badge and take the bounty.” She joked. “So are you guys really going back to spider hunting?”
“I would prefer to hunt a spider with two eyes and two arms.” Isaac replied. “To piss off her uncle, just so I’m being clear.” Isaac frowned in thought. “Speaking of, he’s been oddly quiet since the failed assassination attempt.”
“I don’t think he’ll stay that way for long.” Lenna warned. “I can feel his anger from here. It’s been building. I am just afraid of how he is planning to relieve it.”