Berik managed to dodge just in time to avoid Thurnal’s hammer. Even though the dwarf was half his height, he brought a tremendous force to the blow. Berik felt the air split as Thurnal sent the hammer down in a powerful arc. But there was no time to recover. Thurnal’s attack had turned from a blocked swing to a hammer strike aiming for his legs.
He jumped backwards, toward a short sword lying on one of the many tables shoved in the back of the ballroom. He grabbed it and unsheathed the blade in one swift motion. He leaped at Thurnal and swung his sword in a devastating arc, trying to keep the dwarf at a distance. Thurnal’s arms were powerful but short. Berik was going to have to use his superior reach if he was going to win.
Berik wasn’t trying to kill Thurnal. He knew this was just some kind of a test. That’s what it was, right? A test of his battle abilities? Still, he expected his blade to clang against the dwarf’s protective armor, but Thurnal had already rolled out of the way. The dwarf was wearing full armor and still he was as quick as a rabbit!
Berik pressed the offensive, wasting no time. He wasn’t going to let Thurnal bring the fight back into his favor. From his experience as a town guard, he knew if the fight went to the ground, he had to keep it there. But no matter how hard or how quickly he attacked, Berik couldn’t get a blow to connect. Thurnal somehow blocked or parried each strike with his heavy hammer.
“Ye ready to yield?” Thurnal asked.
“No way!” Berik saw an opening in the dwarf’s otherwise flawless defense. He plunged the sword down, but he heard Rosemary shout some strange words. A sudden mysterious force seized his weapon and kept it in its place midair.
“What the..?” Berik tried to move his sword, but it was frozen in midair. Try as he might, he could not get it to budge. He stopped attempting to move the immobile blade and find another weapon but a small dagger pressed itself against his throat.
“Stand down,” Key said from behind him. All the chipperness had vanished from her voice, leaving behind only a deadly, serious tone.
Berik grimaced and held up his hands. Thurnal stood, ready with his hammer and a smile. Even Rosemary had a grin on her face.
“I yield,” Berik said.
Rosemary gave a flick of her wrist. The motion sent his borrowed sword clattering to the floor. Key lowered her knife. Thurnal put his hammer back in his belt.
“Sorry about the surprise attack, kid. But we wanted to see how you responded in a crisis,” Coach Beardenbeard said.
“Completely understandable,” Berik said, his heart still pounding in his chest. A little forewarning might have been good. Or at least a chance to arm himself before he got jumped!
Key stood in front of him with an embarrassed look on her face. “Sorry about that! Did I nick you?”
Berik rubbed his throat. “Nope.”
The elf let out a breath of relief. “Whew! Good! But I had to do it. Sneak attacks are a [Rogue]’s specialty. Even though I don’t like them very much.”
“Oh, quit your whining. It’s not all about finding traps and picking locks. A lot of the time, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty,” Rosemary said.
“Easy for you to say!” Key fluttered and flapped her hands like she was casting a magic spell. “All you have to do is twitch your fingers and you can move stuff from across the room! No dirty hands involved!”
Rosemary shrugged. “What can I say? Get on my level.”
“But then I’d be a [Mage] and I couldn’t be on this team anymore! We’ve already got two!” Key said.
“And that would be a real pity,” Rosemary said with a smirk.
“So, um…did I pass?” Berik asked, ignoring the bickering. He picked up the sword and returned it to the table he had taken it from.
Everyone went silent, as though they were communicating telepathically. Finally, Coach Beardenbeard clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We’re gonna need to run a test,” he said.
“A test?” Panic shot through Berik’s heart. “Was I supposed to study?”
Key gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s not that kind of test. But don’t worry! You did really good!”
“Don’t tell him that!” Rosemary hissed.
“Why not? He did do really good!” Key protested.
“I think you mean to say, “He did very well.” Rosemary said.
Key just grinned and gave a stage whisper to Berik. “She’s not just a [Mage] but a master of grammar too!”
Coach Beardenbeard coughed to get everyone’s attention. “It seems like I got a bit ahead of myself. I must have been excited to see how you fight. Anyway, I need to ask a couple of questions now that we got your physical out of the way.” He returned to his chair behind the table.
“Sure!” Berik sat in the chair in front of the table.
“Right. So, first things first. How old are you?” Coach Beardenbeard asked.
“Twenty-three,” Berik said.
“Twenty-three. That’s fully grown? For a human?” the blonde dwarf asked.
“Yes, sir.” Berik beamed, like he had done something more than just survive a certain number of years.
“That’s good. Right, so in the event of your untimely demise, what would all your worldly possessions go to? Your kids?” Beardenbeard asked.
Berik’s eyes went wide. “Um. No, sir. I don’t have any children. I’m not married either. I guess all my stuff would go to my mother.”
Beardenbeard nodded. “So all your property would go to your mother. Good kid! I knew I liked you. Do you have any ailments that might keep you from adventuring? Any old injuries? A bad back? Wonky knee?”
Berik shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Any phobias?” Beardenbeard continued.
“No, sir.”
The coach ran a hand along his mustache. “Excellent. And do you have any past convictions in the past ten years?”
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“No, sir. I would have been thirteen.”
Coach Beardenbeard shrugged, never losing his trademark smile. “Truth be told, I don’t know how humans age! I had to be certain. Those aren’t my questions, by the way. They’re official League rules.”
Berik held up his hands. “Hey, I understand. You gotta jump through the hoops in order to do your job by the book. I get it.”
“Good. Well, that’s all the questions I have. How about you three?” He looked over at Key, Thurnal, and Rosemary.
“Nothing from me,” Rosemary said and returned to her book.
Key jumped up. “What’s your favorite color?”
The question caught Berik off guard. “Um…red, I guess.”
Key stroked his chin as though he said something deep and insightful. “I see, I see.”
Thurnal gave him a thumbs-up. “Ye passed in my book.”
Berik couldn’t help but smile. “So, am I in?”
“Not yet, kid.” Coach Beardenbeard stood and pulled out a scroll from his pocket. “We gotta run the actual test.”
“Another test? For what?” Berik asked.
“For your stats.”
Beardenbeard unscrolled the parchment and pointed at the young man. “Don’t worry. This won’t hurt a bit. Just sit there and be snug as a bug in a rug while the magic does its thing.”
An intricate rune of blue light appeared in the air above Berik and then slowly dropped to the floor. The electrified smell of magic filled the air. The arcane sigil crept back up to hover over his head and then it traveled back down. It left behind a tingling sensation along Berik’s skin. He didn’t think the spell would hurt him, but he kept as still as he could just in case.
Finally, the glowing pattern returned to rest overhead and then vanished. Coach Beardenbeard let out a delighted sound and peered at the scroll.
“Well, looky here. We’ve got a tough one,” the coach exclaimed.
Berik finally rose to his feet. “What? What do you see? What did the spell do?”
Coach Beardenbeard held the scroll so that Berik could see it. “We got your stats. And I like what I see!”
What was once a blank scroll was now covered in tables, charts, and numbers. Berik couldn’t make heads or tails of all the terms but he felt he understood the words in the biggest font.
CHARACTER
* NAME: Berik Bauer (Human)
* CLASS: [Fighter]
* HIT POINTS: 18
* ARMOR RATING: 10
* LEVEL: 1
* XP: 0/300
BASE SCORES
* MIGHT 15
* AGILITY 12
* VITALITY 10
* INTELLECT 8
* ESSENCE 14
* PRESENCE 13
PROFICIENCIES
Simple weapons
Martial weapons
Light armor
Medium armor
Heavy armor
Shields
SKILLS
Muscle
Insight
“Your Might stat is pretty good! That’s very important for a [Fighter]. You’ll be using that a lot!” Coach Beardenbeard exclaimed. “And your Agility ain’t half bad, either. Your Vitality is decent. I can work with a 12.”
Beardenbeard made a motion with his hand and a copy of the scroll materialized in Berik’s hands. And as soon as he touched it, the scroll disappeared.
“Where..? What..?” Berik asked, completely confused.
“That’s your very own character sheet! You can pull it up whenever you want. Just command it to appear and it’ll pop up right in front of your eyes,” Coach Beardenbeard said. “And only your eyes, I might add. Send it away when you’re all done.”
“Where does it go when I dismiss it?” Berik asked.
Beardenbeard frowned. “The ether? I have no idea. You’ll have to ask Rosemary for more details.”
Berik summoned his character sheet and squinted at everything written on it. “What do all those terms mean?”
Beardenbeard sat back down. “Well, some of them are pretty self-explanatory. Might is just what it sounds like. It’s your strength. Your physical force. Agility is how graceful and acrobatic you are. Also, it factors into ranged weapons like bows and such. And your Vitality is how healthy you are. How much damage you can take before you finally drop. And how easily you’re poisoned.”
“Oh.” Berik didn’t feel like he had a 10 in Vitality. His head still pounded from the wild night before. But he hadn’t gotten sick, so there was that.
A shrill peal of laughter made him wince. Rosemary clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from giggling, but she couldn’t help it. “Oh, wow! An 8 in Intellect? Are you sure he’s bright enough to be in this party? I mean, an 8. Come on!”
Coach Beardenbeard’s face grew hard and stony with a look that Berik had never seen on the normally jolly dwarf. “He ain’t tryin out to be a [Mage].”
“Right, but such a low score?” Rosemary said.
“Intellect ain’t the same as your general, everyday intelligence,” Coach Beardenbeard said. “You could have a high Intellect and be as dumb as a post.”
Rosemary just bit back her tittering.
“And, you, missy. You don’t have room to criticize. You have a 7 in Might, so don’t go throwin stones while you’re livin in a big ol glass mansion,” Coach Beardenbeard said. “Ten laps around the ballroom. Go.”
“Laps? [Mages] don’t do laps,” Rosemary said.
“They sure do now. Go on. Git!” Beardenbeard shouted and blew into the whistle dangling around his neck.
The diminutive gnome hopped out of her chair and began running around the beautiful, elegant ballroom. Soon enough, she was huffing and puffing, never losing the redness of embarrassment. Or was it just from the exertion?
Coach Beardenbeard turned to Berik. “Like I said. Don’t mind her none. Oftentimes, those who are the prickliest have been hurt the worst. Just give her some time.”
As wise as his words sounded, it didn’t stop him from shouting at the running gnome. “C’mon, now! Pick up the pace or I’ll add ten more!”
“So what do the rest of the numbers mean?” Berik asked.
“Well, you’ve got your Intellect, like I explained,” Coach Beardenbead said. “It’s your ability to learn spells if you’re a class that can do that. It helps you use those spells, retain new information, and such. Logic. Investigation. Stuff like that.”
“I guess Rosemary has to be really smart to be a [Mage],” Berik said.
“Hey, everyone is smart in their own way,” Key piped up.
“That they are.” Coach Beardenbeard continued the explanation. “Next is Essence. That one is trickier to define. It’s a sum total of your spirit, your emotional resilience. Some might call it your faith, if you’re the type to be a follower of a religion.”
“Essence is my highest stat,” Thurnal added.
“And lastly, you got Presence. That one’s even harder to define than Essence. It’s like…how strong your personality is. How convincing you can be. How easily you get along with others. But also how scary you can be when you ain’t tryin to play nice. Leaders tend to have a really high Presence.” He tugged on his mustache and grinned. “And Presence is your second-highest score. You might just be a party leader soon enough.”
“So it’s official? I’m in?” Berik asked.
Everyone, except Rosemary, smiled and nodded at him. “Yes, son, you are. Welcome to the Dawnport Dragons,” Coach Beardenbeard said. “Tomorrow, you’ll meet the rest of the party and I’ll go over some basics of adventuring in the Dungeon League. Be sure to pay attention! All that information can save your life!”