The Collins farm was already buzzing with activity before the sun came up. The adventurers ate breakfast with the family and offered a few coins for the kindness. The morning was pleasantly warm. The seasons seemed to be unable to make up their mind if summer was coming or going. The leaves had already started to turn colors in the woods to the north but further south was another matter.
It was when they paused their journey for lunch that Brivaria decided to speak to the group as a whole. She’d spent the night thinking about things and decided that her friends should know about what happened the previous night if they were going to travel with her. That was assuming the demon wasn’t correct and they didn’t know or suspect some things anyway.
“So, by the way, I have a demon inside me,” she said when the previous conversation died down. The other two just stared at her in silence.
“Is this the metaphorical demon tempting you to do bad things or the literal kind?” Kseniya asked after swallowing a piece of meat. Nyx said nothing.
“Both? Let me explain…” Brivaria began and started recounting her story since the incident. She’d already told Kseniya most of the details as she knew them at the time so the lamia was less surprised overall. Nyx’s eyes just grew larger and more round. The catfolk girl knew some of the details by osmosis but only some.
“If it can see what your class and skill advancements are then it’s definitely part of you,” Kseniya pondered aloud once Brivaria was done explaining. “I did not hear any such voice during the battle but I was very far away, you know? What about you, Nyx?”
“I heard Brivaria talking but I wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying. My ears are good but they’re not lephori good or anything,” Nyx explained.
“So this demon of yours may not be something we can see or interact with. Interesting. Has it done anything besides appear and speak?” the lamia asked. She was taking a far more methodical, almost clinical approach with her questions.
“Not yet. Last night was the first time I saw it even appear. I don’t know what else it can do,” Brivaria admitted.
“If all it can do is look at System screens and talk then that’s okay, right?” Nyx was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. “Besides, we owe that demon our lives too. If it hadn’t helped you divert the magic then we might have all died. That doesn’t mean it’s a good demon but if it had wanted us all dead then all it had to do was nothing.”
“Saving our lives might have been a byproduct of saving the little angel and thus its own life. If it can see her System messages then it’s a part of her meaning if she dies then it dies. I would not count on it to do us any favors, you know?” Kseniya’s words made the angel stop and think.
“That’s not entirely true either. Demons can’t die in the normal sense. Like angels, their bodies are just projections from their home plane. When we die, we are simply sent back to Heaven with a severe penalty for our failing. It’s the same for demons. It’s unlikely the demon inside of me would die if I did, though…” the angel trailed off. She wasn’t certain what would happen to her if she died. It wasn’t something she liked thinking about. The possibility of real, true death was frightening. She put it out of her mind.
“I see,” Kseniya said then shrugged. “There is no point worrying about what may be. Let us visit a church in Barton. Perhaps a divination of one sort or another could tell us more. I am glad you told us, little angel.”
“Me too. I also think your demon is right.” Nyx’s words got drew confused and amused looks from Brivaria and Kseniya respectively. “Get your skills. Who cares what the monster thinks? You already chose the spooky class the demon suggested so go with it. Get the best, spookiest skills it has to offer and put them to use. I want to see them!”
Kseniya snorted with amusement and the discussion turned to Brivaria’s mysterious class. For all that she’d told her two friends, she’d not told them what it was. The class still excited the angel with its possibilities but now it was all tainted by being related to the demon. Nyx would probably get answers about the mysterious class before long but the angel would hold onto that secret for the moment.
Lunch was finished and Brivaria went to retrieve Trixie’s bowls. The dog had eaten, drank some water, gone exploring, come back, and eaten a little more. The golden sunchaser was a curious, adventurous pooch who noticed Brivaria coming for her bowls and immediately zoomed over for one last drink of water for the road. Brivaria pet the dog’s immaculate fur and scritched her between the ears.
“Thanks for last night,” she whispered. Trixie wuffed and Brivaria gave the dog just a little more attention before collecting the bowls so they could resume their trip to Barton.
The angel finally opened her System and started looking through the class skills of Apprentice Shaper of Flesh. The core skill, Flesh Sculpting, was very strong as a core ability or so the angel felt. Skill names were often imprecise and skill descriptions lacking all kinds of details. This meant that, while the System ultimately governed a person’s abilities, there was an amount of non-System personal growth and experience that mattered. It also meant that looking at abilities required a sense for what the ability was trying to do as much as what the description spelled out explicitly.
This grew far more difficult the more skills a class offered at the outset. For Apprentice Shaper of Flesh, there were dozens upon dozens of skills. There were so many that Brivaria’s eyes steadily grew wider and wider as she looked through them all. This class had more skills than any class she’d had access to up to this point. Before the incident, she’d had access to some very high level classes with an enormous variety of skills but many high level classes were a gestalt of concepts and abilities. It made sense for those to have a wide variety of options. This was something else. Suddenly her single skill point represented a massive obstacle. It took two hours of sorting and sifting before she had it narrowed down to six skills and, even then, she wasn’t sure what to pick.
Alternative Form (Passive)
Your natural state is designated your primary form. You may designate a held form as a secondary form. You may change between primary and secondary forms at greatly reduced time and mana cost. Transformation time and cost scale with presence, number of alternate forms scales with spirit.
Exotic Form Specialist (Passive)
The transformation time and mana cost of your transformation abilities is reduced proportionally to how different the desired result is your from your natural state. Scales automatically with level.
Flesh Optimization (Passive)
Your form is automatically improved with multipurpose organs, redundant organs, and other enhancements which make it more difficult to injure and more health-efficient to heal. Scales automatically with level.
Flesh Restoration (Passive)
Your form will be restored to its natural state over time without the expenditure of health. Mana may be reserved to improve restoration capabilities. Speed and efficacy scale with arcane.
Mimicry of the Flesh (Active)
You may assume the form of one creature you can see or have seen. Transformation time and cost scale with presence.
Natural Weapons (Passive)
Gain the ability to form strengthened claws, spikes, fangs, stingers, and other appendages. These appendages function as weapons for all relevant purposes. Strength and durability scale with arcane, transformation time and cost scale with presence.
They were all good and they all held something the angel wanted. Alternative Form and Exotic Form Specialist offered much needed cost reductions. She’d learned quickly after experimenting with Lesser Shapeshifting how expensive fast changes could be. If she wanted to use any of this in a combat scenario then she’d absolutely need to be able to shift quickly and cheaply.
Flesh Optimization and Flesh Restoration were useful at keeping the angel in one piece. She’d barely survived against the demon’s spear by shifting organs within her own body. It had been a sickening, painful experience but it had absolutely saved her life. Her low health meant it was unlikely she could restore a punctured heart in time to avoid death.
She was leery of Flesh Restoration because she knew the System had many flavors of regeneration, swift healing, and rapid recovery. They were all different with their own upsides and downsides. The cheaper something seemed to be, the less effective it was. The winged girl knew she was better off waiting for a stronger combat recovery skill but she’d keep this one on the table regardless.
Mimicry was exciting because one of the more challenging aspects while working with Lesser Shapeshifting was simply getting things correct. Being able to wholesale copy the form of another creature would immediately give her some insight on how to perform the sculpting and shapeshifting herself. It would be vastly easier to change between forms if she could simply use the System to gain a perfect understanding of what the end product should be.
Finally, Natural Weapons were appealing because it would give her class an immediate, offensive combat application. That they were treated as weapons meant she could infuse them with magic and having magical durability baked into the skill allowed them to potentially be on par with enchanted weaponry given enough levels. They would probably never best something created by a master artificer and enchanter working together but her thin sword was not suited to every battle. That was part of why she still carried Rory’s mace in her inventory.
She was just narrowing her choices down to the final two when Nyx spoke up.
“I can see the city!” Nyx said with a cheer. Sure enough, the forest cleared in the far distance and they could see buildings.
“I’m going to check it out from above,” Brivaria said with a grin, extending her wings and flapping them to rise into the air.
“Unfair!” Nyx called out as Brivaria flew into the sky.
The angel left her friends and the trees behind as she climbed toward the clouds. Her gaze swept across the countryside taking it all in. What the angel had been told about Barton did not prepare her at all for what she saw. She’d been told it was a small city because Velk was a remote territory. What the winged girl saw from the sky was anything but small.
Buildings, houses and otherwise, sprawled out in every direction from the city center. They were made from both wood and stone rather than the customary wood of every other settlement and town the angel had visited. The city had no wall to shield it from the forest but it had something else which dominated Brivaria’s vision—a castle.
The castle was positively enormous. It boasted tall walls which surrounded a central keep that had to have been four or five times the size of any other building in the city. Houses encircled the massive structure like clusters of tiny, multi-colored mushrooms around a mighty tree. They spread from the castle to the river and even appeared on the other side.
The river, Brivaria realized, had to be the Aulene River. It ran east-to-west in Velk and curved southward at this point. It was like the Lake Harrowing but where she could see the distant shores of the lake, the river seemed to stretch forever in both directions. From the winged girl’s vantage point high up in the sky Brivaria could even see boats moving along the river, likely carrying people and cargo to and from the city.
The angel couldn’t even count the number of houses and buildings. Her mind reeled with the idea that this was a “small” city. What were big ones like? She could scarcely conceive of how many people lived in this one. How did they even fit in such a place? She’d been taught what cities were while being trained for Zlithian intervention but but it was one thing to know, conceptually, what they were and another thing to see it in person.
It took every bit of restraint and willpower the angel possessed not to fly off toward the city and look at it from different angles in the air. She couldn’t leave Trixie and her friends but her heart ached to fly and see all there was to see. She was practically glowing when she alighted on the road alongside her team.
“The city is huge. It’s so much bigger than Keaton. You could fit 10 Keatons in there and have room for more,” she was talking fast and with enthusiasm.
“Whoa. Wait, how big is a Keaton?” Nyx asked, having never seen the other town.
“About twice the size of a Pemburne? Maybe not quite twice but it’s bit bigger,” the angel clarified. Nyx immediately started mentally calculating sizes. If two Pemburnes were equal to one Keaton then that meant…
“It’s twenty times the size of your little town,” Kseniya said with delight. Brivaria’s joy was infectious. The angel’s wings were fluttering with excitement which was a thing to see when they were full size. Even Trixie was excited and panting happily though the dog had no idea what they were all excited about.
“Twenty times…” Nyx whispered quietly, trying to comprehend what 20 Pemburnes would even look like.
“And that is a small city,” Kseniya clarified. “I have been to the cities past the western mountains. Some of them, particularly the ones on the coast, make even this one look tiny. The world is a big, big place. Velk and even all of Flynnette is just a small part of it, you know?”
Brivaria held her tongue. Zlithia was a large world by the multiverse’s standards but it was one world in a sea of many. The angel had never truly comprehended what that meant. She had no true reference for size or scale beyond the necessary information transmitted to her to fulfill her role. Now having been on the planet for a time, she felt as though she were finally coming to terms with what the numbers she’d memorized meant. It was at once overwhelming and awe-inspiring.
The road leading up to the city gradually grew smoother and better maintained. Buildings turned from agricultural to residential. The flow of traffic both on foot and by wagon or horse grew. While there was no grand wall encircling the city proper, there were highly noticeable guard towers and checkpoints those heading toward the city were expected to pass by or through. As with most cities, it was a requirement for those entering to check in with the local watch, inform the city of their purpose, and be informed of any relevant local laws or other matters that might affect their stay.
“Are these two with you?” the guard asked Brivaria. He wore the same green and brown uniform that Brivaria had come to associate with all city guards in the region of Velk. That’s where the similarity to the previous towns ended, however. Barton’s guards were the opposite of Pemburne’s extremely casual, almost lackadaisical group. The man in front of them now was far more disciplined and projected his authority in both his body language and voice. He didn’t flinch even once as Trixie came over to give him a curious sniff.
“Yes. This is the adventuring team, Divine Blessing. We have business with the guild in the city,” the angel answered. She wondered if it was some kind of skill that caused the guard to pick her out of the three to address his questions toward or if he’d just pick one of them at random.
“Understood,” the man nodded deferentially to the angel and then smiled before promptly launching into an introductory speech.
“While I’m sure you do not need to be told, I am required to inform all those entering the city that the illustrious Count Bartholomew Dancarlo will be arriving within the month to participate in the Hunt for the Golden Hind. In preparation for the count’s arrival, we have restricted travel to the western forest and the penalties for all city disturbances have been tripled.” He turned to look at Nyx and Kseniya as he continued.
“We ask that all visitors be on their best behavior and do their utmost to resolve any disputes in an amicable and non-violent manner. Also be aware that the use of combat skills within city limits is strictly prohibited. All that said, welcome to Barton and please enjoy your stay.” With those words he stepped out of the way. Trixie gave the man a happy wuff. She was always on her best behavior after all.
“Thank you, we will,” Nyx said with a grin. The catfolk girl was undeterred by the welcome speech. Kseniya looked slightly confused. It wasn’t until they’d walked or slithered far enough down the street to be out of earshot of the guards even with high awareness and aural skills that the lamia spoke.
“That was… peculiar, you know? I’m used to being questioned upon entering most cities. Name, occupation, and all that. So many things I am used to were simply not done. For such a great event as the visiting of a Velkan count, I am surprised they are not more thorough,” the snake woman pondered aloud.
“Maybe Silas’ story reached Barton somehow?” Brivaria ventured.
“Or maybe they have us all on record at the adventurers guild so they can just check our registration there if they need more information?” Nyx suggested. Brivaria immediately decided the cat’s idea was far more practical.
“Oh, yes that would make sense,” Kseniya admitted. “I suppose it is different being registered as an adventurer. I am not used to it, you know? It is nice not being questioned exhaustively.”
Finding the adventurers guild in Barton proved to be both far easier and far more difficult than it had been in previous towns visited. Brivaria found the people they met on the street to be extremely helpful. They would immediately drop what they were doing to answer her questions and were unusually helpful at assisting the group in locating the guild. Unfortunately there were so many streets and so many people that moving through the city on foot or tail was challenging.
Trixie also proved to be a handful. The dog was normally well-behaved but she was also very social. She wanted to go up to everyone she met and introduce herself. There were so many people and so much activity that the golden sunchaser was constantly enticed by new sounds and smells. Brivaria giggled at the dog’s curiosity.
“I know there’s so many people here but we don’t have time to say hello to them all.” She pet Trixie when the group paused to figure out where they were for the third time. Trixie protested her inability to go make all the friends with a low whine. “We’ll make plenty of new friends later and you can sniff all the things then, okay?”
Trixie licked Brivaria’s face and the matter was settled. The group resumed their walk through the city. It was only when they finally arrived at the adventurers guild did Kseniya lament not taking a carriage or something from the city entrance.
To say Barton’s guild was different from the rest would be a gross understatement. For one thing, both Keaton’s guild and Pemburne’s guild could fit neatly inside Barton’s with room to spare. It wasn’t simply a common room with a handful of offices and storage rooms though all of those were present. There were multiple levels of rooms for meetings, discussions, and contract negotiations. There were several outdoor courtyard areas for sparring and skill testing complete with safety wards preventing skills from damaging the building or the city beyond. One of the outdoor areas was even occupied by an instructor giving combat lessons.
“Whoa, this is unfair. I’ve always heard that other guilds were bigger than ours but this is ridiculous,” Nyx said while staring up at a handful of chalk boards with areas, times, and names. There were even posted schedules of what would be happening in each area at given times.
“It is impressive, I suppose. It is nothing compared to the mage guilds of home,” Kseniya said with a prideful sniff. The lamia was the least impressed of the three but Brivaria saw even the snake woman eying the classes being taught.
The entrance of the three newcomers had not gone unnoticed even though they’d been immediately drawn to the grandeur of the main hall and all of its many, many displays. People spoke in whispers and pointed fingers toward the angel and her companions. Brivaria noticed a couple people discretely looking at her and others focusing on Kseniya. An angel, a lamia, and a catfolk girl were probably an uncommon sight even for a guild as large as this one. Most of the people Brivaria saw in Barton were human. Even the lephori, which had been prominent in the other towns, were comparatively rarer in Barton.
“Welcome to the Barton adventurers guild,” the woman behind the front desk said as they approached. She was human with dark hair pulled back into a bun and a small cloth pin attached to her blouse that read “Pam.”
“Thank you. The adventuring team, Divine Blessing, took an extermination request and would like to claim the reward at this guild. We have confirmation of the request completion here.” Brivaria produced a note from farmer Collins and proffered it to Pam. The receptionist gave the angel a quizzical look but took the note.
“I see. Let me confirm the request and then I’ll need someone to sign off on it.” She looked past Brivaria to Kseniya. All eyes turned to the lamia and she shrugged.
“Sure, I can do that,” the snake woman said after a slightly awkward moment.
Brivaria was confused about why the lamia was being asked to sign rather than her. Brivaria was ostensibly named the team captain. She should be the one doing this, the angel felt. Then again, she wasn’t sure how good or bad her handwriting was. Maybe that was something for her to work on.
As part of learning about Zlithia, Brivaria learned to speak and read the most common language, Milavasan. It was an old language developed by a race that had long since disappeared from the planet. Many languages and dialects around the world descended from Milavasan. Somehow the ancient race had been able to spread its language to distant corners of the planet. Nations that never had any prior contact with one another met only to find they had very similar spoken and written language. It wasn’t entirely universal across the whole planet but it was the most widely used language by a significant margin.
They were given their payment for the request and left the guild. Brivaria was tempted to go meet some of the other adventurers but they’d spent a lot more time walking across the city to reach the guild than any of them expected. The group really needed to find an inn to stay at before it got dark.
“Brivaria, have you been here before?” Nyx asked out of the blue. The cat girl had been quiet for a while, Brivaria realized. She hadn’t said anything since they entered the guild until this very moment.
“No, this is my first time visiting the city. We were talking about it a few hours ago,” she reminded Nyx. The winged girl was caught off-guard by the question.
“That’s what I thought,” Nyx replied. “Something funny is going on. I was listening to the people talking around us. They weren’t talking about me or Kseniya, mostly. They were talking about you. Everyone was asking some variation of ‘what’s she doing here?’ You wouldn’t happen to know of another blonde, white-winged angel here in Velk would you?”