Current Quests
Justice For Courbefy: Find justice for the victims of the corrupt mayor of Courbefy. Use…
Chosen Of Knowledge: Escort Hugh on his journey to becoming a fully awakened iron…
Wine tour: Vineyard wants you to try the different wines in the Megève area.
Chosen Of Hero: Enter the chosen of hero into a tournament to gain notoriety.
Dave stared in disbelief at the piece of paper in front of him. Just running over the possibilities and synergies in his mind. He finished his beer and gestured at Studer for another. He was looking at a summary of Johan’s abilities. All of them. Johan was a fully awakened iron ranker now and Dave couldn’t quite credit the abilities he’d gotten. They were just… too perfect. He’d checked. Most of those awakening stones should have given him something like… Well, Dave didn’t know but it shouldn’t have been this good.
They’d gone outside next to the firepit and given Johan his essences. Farm essence went first and it gave him a cleave ability; Farmer Reaps The Field. Dave had looked it up. It actually was useful for farm work in that whatever you hit, other nearby targets would get the same version of the same blow. It’d help you cut wheat easily in the same way it’d damage adjacent enemies by the sword. Dave had figured that it was just luck that this farm essence ability also had a combat use. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
They’d given Johan the sword essence next. He got Sword Of The People. This ability was so rare that Dave couldn’t even look it up. Only its name was on file in the Adventure Society records. The sword itself didn’t look remarkable at all. Just a standard, if well made, knightly sword. Pomel, handle, crossguard and blade. All there without decoration. Just perfectly sized and balanced in Johan’s hands.
The sword had ‘keen edge’ in its description. Dave had clicked on ‘more details’ in his UI and gotten the impression that ‘keen edge’ meant ‘this sword is sharp and will remain sharp. When Johan had tested it out, they’d found it meant ‘sharper than any bloody sword has any right to be’. Dave shuddered as he remembered Johan testing it out on the leg of ham and the gentle but firm cut going through the bone with no noticeable extra resistance.
It also said something about being able to deliver smites. After a bit of reading Dave had found out that meant that the weapon could deliver magical damage with its hits. Usually some kind of force damage but elemental damage was also common enough. At the time, Dave had wondered if the smites would be impactful. He shouldn’t have, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.
So they’d moved on and given him the shield essence. Shield Of The People. The defensive match of the sword with the same scarce details. Name of the ability was on record but nothing else. It had the same lack of decoration as well. Just a heater shield without heraldry, an off-white canvas over the wooden shield braced with steel. It had fit perfectly on Johan’s arm, of course.
Then Dave had looked at the shield’s magical properties and wowed. If the shield takes a blow while the user is actively defending an ally, it confers a buff to the user that makes them take less damage and the buff was stackable. Dave hadn’t done any serious calculations but the fact that the buff was stackable was huge. So long as Johan took damage on the shield, he’d take progressively less damage in any fight. His mother had started tearing up when she heard that. She was glad that her little boy would be safer.
Dave had worried that he’d set false expectations. That the percentage of damage negated would be so small as to make the ability negligible in most fights. He needn’t have been but he wasn’t yet in the flow of things yet. Even now, he still couldn’t believe that Johan’s abilities had turned out so… so good.
So, Johan had taken his hero confluence essence and lain down on a metal grate over the fire pit while purging. While he was doing that, everyone else was staring at the new ability Tome was displaying and trying to figure out if he could even die in battle anymore.
Johan’s new ability, Hero’s Spirit, activated when the essence user would normally die but just, sort of, as best they could tell, stop it? Kinda? Keep them on life support? The Magic society sourced text noted ‘more research needed’. It was clear that Immortality was a much more favoured ability because of its superior practicality; adventurer almost dead, Immortality activates, adventurer back to full health. But, this one… well, it seemed that Johan would, short of complete bodily destruction, would just stay as living, not-dead tissue until someone got around to healing him. Immortality was better for winning a duel, of course, but did have the weakness that you could simply be killed twice. With this, you could just wait in limbo, so to speak, and get healed when the danger had passed.
This seemed a potent combination with Johan’s other abilities. When his hero essence had attached to his recovery stat he’d gotten the human racial Protagonist’s Health which had doubled his hitpoints. So, double hit points, a shield that percent-lessens damage and even if you manage to hack through that long enough to kill him before he kills you, Hero’s Spirit would kick in and he’d just hang out, feeling rough until someone got around to healing him. Which he could do himself with a health potion if he had to.
His mum cried two types of tears at that one. She cried sad tears thinking of her boy, lying on a battlefield somewhere, sitting painfully in between life and death with a bunch of weapons sticking in him but she cried happy tears knowing that he’d survive it.
Then shit had got weird. Dave nodded to Studer and took a gulp of his new beer thinking about it. The essences had gone in, they’d cleaned him up and started on the awakening stones. Dave knew he had that ability, Bringer Of Change but was once again shocked by it. He’d looked at it again to check. ‘Awakening stones that you apply to yourself or you apply for others are more likely to have rare, powerful and synergistic effects.’
Sam believed in it completely and Dave was beginning to think she was right. He thought the power of her abilities had partially come from the fact that she has essences that were so easily conceptualised as marital. One of them was literally the concept of death, for Goodness sake. Not to mention that her abilities made sense. She takes an awakening stone of the hand, she gets an ability with hands coming out of the ground. She takes a flesh stone, she gets a flesh golem. Simple, right? Sure, Dave had noticed an abundance of good abilities from mostly common stones but here? With Johan? He had common essences with common stones and for the love of all things sacred, one of the bloody essences was farm. It should not have worked this well. But, it did. And the only explanation was Bringer Of Change.
The first awakening stone, Dave had overruled Johan’s enthusiasm and offered an awakening stone of speed, at first. A solid choice for any combat-based build. Dave was still trying to behave sensibly at this point. Johan had snatched it up with a, “That sounds swell!” and taken it. An awakening stone of speed had, according to the magic society, a high chance of awakening an ability with the sword essence. Instead, it violated probability and attached to his shield essence to give the ability to rush to an ally and take a blow on his shield.
The success had buoyed Johan who selected an awakening stone of plants. He'd really been listening to Sam who was telling him to ‘tell a story about you’.
“I’ve spent my whole life here on this grass farm and grass is a plant. I feel like this stone and me will be fine together,” he’d said and given Dave one of his winning smiles.
Dave performed the ritual and Johan has gotten Blossoms In The Wind.
Ability: Blossoms In The Wind
Essence: Sword
Rank: Iron 0
0% to iron 1
Awakening Stone: Plant
Type: Special attack
Tags: buff, damage, reactive, smite.
Cost: Low mana
Cooldown: none
Description
After you dodge an attack, you may quickly attempt this special attack for low mana. If the attack hits, you gain a stack of Wind Blossom which increases your speed. This buff stacks up to 5 times. This buff can be consumed for smite attacks.
Detailed Information
After describing it to them, Dave frantically flipped through pages in Tome, trying not to alarm the Schmidts. This ability was normally awakened by the rare awakening stone of spring, sometimes the uncommon awakening stone of flowers, but the literature expressed that awakening this ability with a stone of plants was theoretical. Sam was grinning at him proudly and in this moment, Dave remembered what Hero had told him. ‘You’re going to make a line of heroes like this world has never seen’.
Dave felt he might be onto the mechanism of Hero’s prediction about, then. Dave kept a poker face and cautiously handed Johan the next awakening stone he requested.
“Ahh, I think I’ll take a foot stone,” Johan had said. “A man’s got to take care of his feet,” and that was all the logic he needed.
Ability: Tough As Old Boots
Essence: Farm
Rank: Iron 0
0% to iron 1
Awakening Stone: Foot
Type: Special ability
Tags: resistance.
Cost: none
Cooldown: none
Description
You are resistant to poison, disease and affliction effects.
Detailed Information
“Good one, Johan!” cheered Sam in excitement, egging him on, beaming like a lighthouse with her joy in the moment. “Try another!”
Johan did. An awakening stone of the grazer. On the basis that they farmed grazers in the fields that weren’t being used for grass. Predictions of the Magic Society be damned. He wasn’t getting the ability to talk to livestock or summon a herding dog. No, his ability was...
Ability: Strong As A Grazer
Essence: Farm
Rank: Iron 0
0% to iron 1
Awakening Stone: Grazer
Type: Special ability
Tags: Attribute bonus.
Cost: none
Cooldown: none
Description
You are mightily strong and your power is greatly enhanced.
Detailed Information
“That’s my boy!” Noah had cheered gruffly from the sidelines.
It didn’t end. Johan selecting stones with wholesome positivity and it all just… worked.
An awakening stone of the bird…
“You know it’s so nice the way they sing in the morning,”
An awakening stone of the cat…
“Remember old moggie?”
An awakening stone of the sheep…
“My dad and I help out the Weibels every year with their lambing.”
An awakening stone of the net…
“I do like fishing.”
An awakening stone of the dog.
“Hey, Rover! Who’s a good boy!? Yeah? You are? Yeah. I’ll take a stone of the dog.”
He even let Heather chime in who thought to take an awakening stone of hair, because she liked doing his hair, and one of the fork, because he uses a big fork and she uses a small fork. She soon got the giggles and her mother had to tell her to calm down. Dave couldn’t believe it. Even those unlikely awakening stones produced amazing abilities.
Every other ability was one that, on another adventurer’s power set, would be in contention for the most desirable abilities to have but on Johan, they were just another brick in the wall. Dave subtly double checked again, here and now in the pub that yes, statistically speaking, at least one of the stones Johan took should have awakened an industrial or workman’s type of ability but time after time, an amazing combat ability came forth.
The craziest were Inspiring Hero and Threads Of Fate from his hero essence:
Ability: Inspiring Hero
Essence: Hero
Rank: Iron 0
0% to iron 1
Awakening Stone: Hair
Type: Special ability
Tags: aura, buff, self.
Cost: none
Cooldown: none
Description
Aura. Double the effect of the aura of allies who are within this aura.
Detailed Information
Ability: Threads Of Fate
Essence: Hero
Rank: Iron 0
0% to iron 1
Awakening Stone: Thread
Type: Special ability
Tags: Activated, buff, reverse execution, self.
Cost: none
Cooldown: none
Description
The threads of fate spin in your favour to create heroic moments with inverse probability. A mad, one-in-a-million idea will work nine times out of ten. Probability increases as health, mana and stamina decrease.
Detailed Information
Dave couldn’t believe them. He took two gulps of beer and looked at them in his UI again. They were real. Actual abilities that Johan had gotten with common essences. ‘You’re going to make a line of heroes like this world has never seen’ echoed once again in his mind. And, Dave felt like he’d started that line with a large, permanent marker. Or whatever. Even Johan’s human essence gifts had turned out pretty damn good. Sam had asked him to tell a story about himself and Johan had accidentally told the universe that he was useful, friendly and an unstoppable melee beast. Dave looked over his ability summary again, draining his glass.
* Racial essence gifts
* Adventurer’s Tools (power) - conjure basic, non-magical objects.
* Friendly Stranger (spirit) - language adaptation, benevolent aura, cannot mask ID or tracking effects.
* Slow Motion Scene (speed) - slow down your perception of time for low mana and stamina per second.
* Protagonist’s Health (recovery) - double your hit points.
* Sword (speed)
* Sword Of The People - summon a magical sword that can consume stacking buffs to smite.
* Aura Of Retribution (trap) - curses enemies with vulnerability who hit allies in aura.
* Blossoms In The Wind (plant) - attack after dodging and gain up to 5 Wind Blossom buffs that increase speed. Smite consumes.
* Kingfisher’s Riposte (bird) - attack after a parry and gain up to 5 Kingfisher’s Riposte buffs that increase recovery. Smite consumes.
* The Power Of Friendship (heart) - allies can spend mana to give up to 5 Friendship buffs. Smite Consumes.
* Shield (spirit)
* Shield Of The People - summon a shield that increases defence when hit.
* Another’s Burdens (delivery) - take curses, diseases, poisons and afflictions onto self.
* Shield Ally (speed) - cross distance to an ally and take a blow intended for them.
* Ram’s Charge (sheep) - make a charging shield-bash.
* Cat Swats The Mage (cat) - a quick shield bash to interrupt a magic ability usage and gain up to five Mage Swatter buffs that increase spirit. Smite consumes.
* Farm (power)
* Farmer Reaps The Field - strikes propagate weakly into adjacent targets.
* Hold Your Heidels! (net) - hurl a conjured net at an enemy to restrain them.
* Tough As Old Boots (foot) - resistance to poison, disease and afflictions.
* Ardent Friend (dog) - all buff effects on you are doubled in effect.
* Strong As A Grazer (grazer) - you have extra levels in power.
* Hero (recovery)
* Hero’s Spirit - remain at zero health for some time without dying.
* Threads Of Fate (thread) - a favourable improbable event occurs.
* Inspiring Hero (hair) - double the effect of the allies auras within this aura.
* Boss Music (ear) - music plays in the presence of more powerful enemies.
* Connoisseur (fork) - consumed items are doubly powerful and their cooldown halved.
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Dave couldn’t believe the results. At the end of it, awakened as an iron ranker, Johan’s was chuffed, his parents were chuffed and Dave was trying to keep it together while he watched Johan’s icon appear as a party member in his HUD and Hero’s and Dominion’s quests completed in his UI.
Current Quests
Justice For Courbefy: Find justice for the victims of the corrupt mayor of Courbefy. Use…
Chosen Of Knowledge: Escort Hugh on his journey to becoming a fully awakened iron…
Healer’s Materials: Gain Healer’s favour by donating alchemy ingredients to the church…
Wine tour: Vineyard wants you to try the different wines in the Megève area.
Acquire Follower: Dominion wants you to gain another follower.
Chosen Of Hero: Travel north to Lake Auvernier, find the chosen of Hero and recruit…
Johan couldn’t stop talking about the perfectly sized and balanced sword and shield he could conjure. His mother couldn’t stop gushing over how glad she was that he’d gotten so many defensive abilities and his dad was just damn proud of his son becoming the guardian type adventurer that Johan had always dreamt of being.
Dave still felt like he was in crazy town. Looking at his summary sheet of Johan's abilities, he felt that just looking at them one by one was the wrong way to do it. His abilities fed into each other. Dave sat in the pub, staring at the sheet and just pondering the new abilities. The first one Dave had noticed was the way Johan fed off Dave’s own aura.
Johan’s Inspiring Hero ability doubled the effect of friendly auras. Many friendly auras, like Dave’s Aura Of The Magister were buffs. Johan’s Ardent Friend ability doubled the effect of all buffs. So, Johan, just by existing, would double the effect of everyone’s buff auras on everyone else and quadruple the effect on himself. Dave’s Aura Of The Magister buffed allies equipped items. Whatever weapons and armour Johan wielded around Dave would have all of their properties quadrupled. With that ability interaction alone it’d be insane not to adventure together.
Other synergies were immediately apparent in Johan’s set. Another’s Burdens allowed him to take curses, diseases, poisons and afflictions onto himself. Tough As Old Boots gave him resistance to those effects. Dave had checked several times already and had checked again just now in disbelief. Another’s Burdens functioned as a kind of re-cast or re-application of the ability he was removing so it’d take an affliction, or whatever, off from an ally and apply it to himself which he’d then resist and thus, negate the ability with Tough As Old Boots. He basically had a cleanse ability at a fraction of the mana cost of conventional cleanse abilities with no cooldown.
Dave was currently marvelling at how his racial essence gift Protagonist’s Health meshed with Shield Of The People, Boss Music, Connoisseur and Hero’s Spirit. He had an enormous amount of hit points, which would drag out the fight. Because the fight got dragged out, he’d have time to take a lot of hits on his shield which would quickly stack up to about-halve incoming damage. Most fights this long would be fights against powerful enemies that would activate Boss Music, which had a secondary effect of dropping recovery items from enemies that died during the music. So, the fight’s already going long, he’s taking less damage as it goes on because of his shield and now he’s getting some health recovery from the odd minion he kills while he’s also drinking health potions twice as often as everyone else that heal him for twice as much.
Lastly, even if all that isn’t enough and his enemies finally get through and they take him down, Hero’s Spirit would kick in and he’d just hang around at zero hit points until the end of the battle or, more likely, until he’s healed by allies. Which he would be because everyone’s going to notice how much blood, sweat and tears it took to take him down, how much damage the rest of his ability set dished out on the way down and hell, this kid is worth a few good heals to make your enemies cry as you force them to do it again.
And, that damage. Sacred Gods and blasphemy but his buffs and smite mechanics were… interesting. Interesting and mean. Blossoms In The Wind, Kingfisher’s Riposte, Cat Swats The Mage and, of course, The Power Of Friendship. Just on their own they created an interesting choice for Johan to make in battle. The buffs, when at five stacks, enhanced his attributes to next-rank levels comparable to how Strong As A Grazer enhanced his power attribute. So, if he was expecting to be in a longer fight, he was better off just keeping the buffs and being an over-enhanced engine of destruction. But, on the other hand, those smites were mean. Like, cleave-through-your-shield-and-cut-you kind of mean. Be-somewhere-else-today kind of mean. Basically, if Johan built up a few buff stacks, he could discharge them with damage on the level usually reserved for those who’d absorbed the potent essence. With full stacks Dave wouldn’t be surprised if he could one-shot an enemy out of the battle.
Dave drained his beer again. It was unfair. Somehow. He stood up and went to go find Sam so he could complain about it to her. Dave had handed in Healer’s quest yesterday and gotten permission for him and his party to do public healing in the Megève area. He’d gotten another quest from the shrine for healer’s permission in this area immediately. Sam had laughed, handed over another lot of the same alchemy ingredients and Dave had turned the quest in again. The last he’d seen Sam she’d told him she was going to go out and heal people.
Dave put on his magic, warmth-producing scarf and stepped outside the inn. Hugh wasn’t around either. He was most upset with Dave and Sam the previous day when they’d returned with the news that they’d found the chosen of Hero and loaded him full of magic rocks. Hugh felt left out and also muttered darkly when Dave had hinted at the fact that he’d missed it because he’d given himself mana sickness. Hugh’s dark emotional downswing shifted into full positivity when Dave showed him Johan’s abilities. Like Dave, Hugh couldn’t believe all these abilities were stuck inside one, blond farm boy from the rural tri-lakes area of Francalbia. It was positively mythic.
So today Hugh had left in the morning to visit the Schmidts and introduce himself as the last party member who was sick yesterday. Sick from adventuring too hard, no doubt, don’t worry about it, don’t mention it. Or, ask for details. Everything’s fine now.
That left Dave to… well, if he was perfectly honest, he was avoiding talking to Johan’s sword instructor. He’d heard of her from the Schmidts, of course. Silver rank, ex-gladiator elf who’d retired to the humble farm life and trained Johan since he could walk.
“Hey, you!”
Dave turned around and saw a very pretty elf maiden in a hovering carriage. A very silver rank elf maiden.
Fuck!
“Did you give my student a bunch of essences?”
Fuck!
“Ahh, yeah. That seems likely,” admitted Dave, wincing and rubbing the back of his head.
“Get in,” said the elf with a tone and a presence that brooked no argument.
Dave hid behind his Disguise-given blessing as the silver ranked presence bore down on him the entire ride. It was, he reflected, not so bad once you got used to it. It was rather like that feeling of being a week out from handing in your PhD thesis while you’re still processing some of the data. Once you could put that feeling of raw vulnerability aside, the carriage ride wasn’t so bad. All things considered.
Greenwood had the magical, mature beauty that all silver rankers shared. Although her hands were gloved and her body covered in a cloak, her pale face had bright green eyes that seemed to cut into whatever they focused on, accentuated by strong cheekbones all framed with honey blonde hair that was pulled behind her head with simple braids and ribbons. The open topped carriage she was steering hovered in the air except for a single large wheel behind it that was connected to a tiller and seemed to also be the source of the vehicle's propulsion. Dave kind of wanted to study it.
During the ride, Dave didn’t know to where, Greenwood tried to grill him but between her constantly slipping off his Blessing Of Disguise and Dave being accustomed to the soul-crushing experience of academic peer review, he didn’t break down under her questioning and steadily told the evasive truths of his origin story.
Where was he from? He understands that you call it Ahitereiria. What was his job? Something like an alchemist. How did he get here? He wasn’t quite sure but a monk of Knowledge said it was a bit like a teleportation accident. Why couldn’t he be more clear? Well, coming from where he does and all that, he’s not sure how much certain gods and diamond rankers would like him to say so, he’s erring on the safe side. You understand, of course.
“How’d I do?” asked Dave.
“Not bad,” said Greenwood. She was giving an impish smile that Dave was learning seemed to be something of a default setting for her. Dave briefly wondered how she and Sam would get along. “You’re being honest but the nervousness shows through. I’m pretty sure you’ve got more to tell. How are you doing that dodge with your aura?”
“It’s a racial,” said Dave.
“Really? Feels organic.”
“Yeah, it’s an aura camouflage ability.”
“Yep, you did it again just there. Honesty but with too much nervousness. You’re definitely using honesty to hide something.”
“Fuck.”
“Awwh, baby!” said Greenwood, in a sing-song, mocking voice. She switched back to her usual, clear tone. “I reckon you’d get past a bronze ranker. Even one with good aura control but not a silver.” She shook her head. “The rank difference is just too much.”
“Okay. I suppose I ought to thank you for not prying,” said Dave.
“Don’t count your monsters till they manifest,” said Greenwood with a savage grin. “Those were the questions to get a feel for you. Now, I’m asking about Johan and I’d better like what I hear.”
“My body is ready!” Greenwood looked at Dave flatly. “…It’s a joke where I’m from. I’m using it to display false bravado.”
“Ahh, good!” said Greenwood happily, light dancing once more in her eyes. “Honesty already!”
Greenwood went through an interview’s worth of questions about Dave’s plans for Johan: Why did you come here? Quest ability. Why Johan, specifically? He fit the quest. What quest? Find the chosen of Hero. The what of who? The chosen of Hero, yes. And that’s all you want with him? Gods, no. We desperately need a front line guardian and bruiser in the party. What makes you think that’s his ability set? Look at this summary. Are these actually his real abilities? Yes. That’s why I was drinking. So you just happened to get a quest from Hero and also just happened to suddenly need a guardian and bruiser and when you awakened Johan he just happened to exactly fit that description? Correct and yes, I should buy a lotto ticket what with how all this is coming together.
There was silence for a couple of minutes as the frosty hills rolled by and Greenwood digested the information Dave had given her.
“Actual Hero? A manifestation?”
“Kind of. I had a chat with the local priest-in-charge at Megève. She channelled him for a bit and said, and I quote, ‘You’re going to make a line of heroes like this world has never seen’.”
Dave felt a thousand disapproving eyes looking at his soul as Greenwood scrutinised him for a moment before the pressure lifted.
“Huh!” she said, suddenly lightening up and sitting back in her seat. “I knew he’d do something amazing with his life but I didn’t think it’d be like this. Gods abound…” She shook her head and sighed but then gathered her wits and clapped her hands together with her impish grin returning. “Doesn’t matter! Johan’s teamed up with a non-aristocrat who has a looting power and, you said he gets an equal share?”
“Of course. With your tone, I’m gathering that a lot of people don’t share?”
“Nobles who get looting powers take a ‘my powers my loot’ attitude when they can get away with it.”
“Good thing they’re a bunch of dime-a-dozen damage hogs then?”
Greenwood grinned wickedly at Dave.
“Well, with that settled, it sounds like you need him alive, and he needs you alive. That’s a good basis for a working relationship that’ll earn him all the money he can send home to his needy parents.”
“Money didn’t seem a motivating factor for him or his parents?” ventured Dave.
“Hmm? Oh, no. Not like that but also yes,” said Greenwood gesturing around. “See, this place is fucked when the monster surge hits.”
“I’m sorry?” said Dave.
“Look around, Booker,” said Greenwood. “See all the wide, open spaces and breathe the fresh country air. What does that mean for a monster surge?”
“... healthy monsters?” asked Dave. “Sorry, I think I’ve never experienced a monster surge the way you have.”
“Oh, yes. Ahitereiria. Bubble cities and all that.”
“I can honestly say I’d never seen a monster until after the accident.”
“Really? How? Nevermind. The point is, we’re miles away from anything and that includes shelters. Monster surge shelters.”
“Oh! It takes them too long to get to shelters. The outlying farms,” said Dave, feeling it all click into place in his head. “They need closer shelters. That’s why they need money!” Greenwood was nodding along. “Wait, why don’t you do it?”
“Oh, I do!” said Greenwood in complete agreement with Dave’s sentiment. “But honestly, I might have made the problem worse. Because of me the area is considered a bit safe so a lot of people have moved in over the last twenty years. Or, let their family live on the farm instead of in town. But, when this big, delayed monster surge hits, I’m just not going to be able to be in enough places at once.” Greenwood shrugged. “Can’t do it. Each family is going to need a shelter in their homestead that they can hide in until I can escort them into town and the town is going to need some walls.”
“And, that all costs money,” said Dave grimly. “Hey, you’re a silver ranker! Don’t you have money? Look at this fancy cart!”
“I was a gladiator with a drug problem,” said Greenwood flatly. “I’m iron rank money-stable, silver rank broke.”
“Gladiator with a drug problem?” said Dave, taken aback.
“My tragic backstory,” said Greenwood, waving her hand dismissively.
“Don’t ask?” inquired Dave.
“As a girl, I went to the Ayer Wick Academy For Gifted Duellists on a scholarship. The rich kids didn’t like me breaking down their styles, finding the weaknesses and telling the other scholarship students so they wrote to their daddies who wrote to the school who wrote me up for my coin-in-hand duelling at the local bars, which all the students do, but they wrote me up as though it was brawling and kicked me out.”
“Oh, that sucks,” agreed Dave. “Legacy students are the worst.”
“I’m glad you agree! Anyway, I’m out of the academy, in need of coins so I do what I do to get coins: duel for prize money. Then,I find out that now I have more time to watch the other fighters and I can use my ability set to find their weaknesses before my fight with them even begins.”
“Your ability set?”
“Hand, eye, balance and mystic confluence,” said Greenwood, smiling pleasantly. “I’m good at picking the right moment, the right angle and knowing how to use it. My abilities just help me trick my opponents into making mistakes and taking advantage when they do.”
“Ahh, technical fighter. Love it!”
“Such kind words. So, I’m good at prize fighting and I end up in the gladiator colosseums and get addicted to combat drugs while building a name for myself. They don’t test for them on the rural circuit, you see?”
“Addicted by the time you were with the pros? So you had to time your drug usage so you were clean for the fights?”
“It’s true that my story isn’t original, Booker, but it’s almost hurtful how predictable you find me. And, we were getting along so well.”
“My apologies, Greenwood. Please, I’d like to hear you tell me.”
“No, you’ve got it,” laughed Greenwood. “A pretty good summary of ten years of my life. Eventually, I started losing, lost all my money gambling on myself and had to start over.” She shrugged. “I got clean, made a comeback, and prayed to the good gods that I’d be in the debt of any who’d help me in a title run for the championship trophy. Warrior answered. I made the run, got the trophy and then Warrior cashed in the debt.” She grinned at Dave. “What do you reckon it was?”
“Epic title defences?”
“No, I’d still be in the capital and have money if it was that!”
“Still be in.. You’re not here on purp-… Oh!? Warrior told you to come here?”
“That’s it! My prize from Warrior was retirement to a quiet little farm to train the next generation. And, that’s exactly what I did.”
“...You should definitely write an autobiography,” said Dave.
Greenwood just flashed her impish smile.
Not knowing the local area as well as entranced by equal parts with the beauty and existential dread of a silver ranker’s presence, Dave only knew where he was when he saw the Schmidt farmhouse ahead of the carriage.
Rover ran out to greet the carriage with a series of happy barks and Heather followed quickly after, calling for Rover to stop through her giggles. Rover got a quick pat from Greenwood before running beside the cart, panting happily, and Heather climbed inside to have a serious seven-year-old-girl-talk with Greenwood.
“Will you come to my birthday party next month?” asked Heather seriously. “Mum says I can have a party and I should invite my friends.”
“Then I will definitely be there, Heather. Since we’re friends,” smirked Greenwood.
They both continued making birthday plans, one more playfully than the other, as Dave marvelled at the idyllic farm once more. The reasonably large, yet humble house, the barn, the pile of firewood stacked neatly next to the barn, two dairy animals and a small flock of chickens. It was all there. The grazers with their scales, horns and two heads made the picture somewhat different than what a person from Dave’s reality would find normal but if you took the step to accept two-headed, devil-lizard-oxen as normal then it still worked.
Greenwood stepped from her carriage, politely excused herself from Sarah and approached Johan, who’d come out onto the porch in greeting. What followed was a terse conversation where Greenwood berated Johan for taking essences without even inviting her around to see it and then congratulated him on getting a full essence set and iron awakening for such a good deal.
After the tongue-lashing Greenwood, whose given name was apparently ‘Ljuset’, as Noah called her, pulled out a practice sword from her pocket and demanded a training session with his new abilities. This delighted Johan to no end who was soon enthusiastically showing off his new moves. Noah came out to watch and Dave asked where Hugh was.
“He seemed a - ahhh - a bit nervous,” said Noah.
“He’s been off for a few weeks now,” said Dave. “The monastery he was at was raided by Builder cultists. He’s the only survivor and he’s having a hard time processing that.”
“Oh, caught up in all that business was he?” said Noah in the neutral, dumbfounded tone of a country person trying to fit far off events into their world. “Well, Lena took him to feed the poddy calves to calm him down a bit.”
Feeding adorable, orphaned calves. Yeah, Dave nodded, that sounded like the kind of activity that Hugh needed. Dave chatted with Noah for a while and promised he’d keep Johan out of trouble, especially political trouble, as much as he could while they watched Greenwood immediately find exploits in his defence that his new abilities accidentally opened up. Things like subconsciously turning his head to cast Another’s Burdens or that Ram’s Charge, despite being a shield-first charge, could still get him impaled on his opponent’s weapon if he wasn’t careful.
Greenwood called Dave over.
“Let’s see what you can do,” she said with a savage grin, throwing him a practice sword.
“Nothing, is what I can do,” said Dave, baffled. “Perhaps I should have said before now that my only training is in unarmed combat?”
“We’ll see,” said Greenwood, and rushed him. She cracked Dave on the right side of the head before he could react.
“The fuck?” said Dave, looking at her in disbelief.
“Sword up, Dave! She is a good teacher,” called Johan, who was practising his balance on a specific thrust that Greenwood has recommended for him coming out of his quick-move abilities.
Dave hesitantly raised his practice sword to Greenwood who got a dark look in her eyes and casually knocked his sword aside and knocked the wooden point into Dave’s neck hard enough to knock him over leaving him coughing and dry heaving on the ground.
“First lesson is to keep your enemy on point!” called Greenwood with savage happiness.
Still holding his throat, Dave got to his feet and looked reproachfully at the silver ranker.
“In the future could you teach me before hitting -” was as far as Dave got before she came at him again with a flurry of slashing blows.
“Your - enemy - will - not - wait - for - you!” she shouted, striking at Dave, who backed up while parrying as best he could with every blow, finishing with a hit to the fingers which made Dave howl with pain and drop the sword.
“Pick up your weapon and face me like a man!” taunted the grinning Greenwood.
Dave straightened his back, looked at her and curled his upper lip in disgust.
“Fuck no!”
Greenwood moved so quickly that she effectively teleported to in front of him, slammed her practice sword into his ribs and picked his chin up with her swordpoint.
“What did you say?” she said dangerously, the full strength of her silver ranked presence pressing down on Dave making him feel like he was five-years-old again, giving his first classroom presentation.
Dave grit his teeth and let the raw feeling suffuse his whole body as he accepted the pressure on his soul and trembling from head to toe, met Greenwood’s gaze.
“I said fuck no and your fancy, silver rank ears heard me perfectly fine,” said Dave, his voice wavering but his tone harsh. “No, if you want to be a horrible bitch and hurt me for fun I’m going to make you do it as honest torture.”
“What did you call me?” asked Greenwood, radiating anger and slapping him about with the practice weapon. Dave made no attempt to defend and stood up. It hurt to breathe.
“I called you a bitch because I’m angry and I should be,” said Dave, leaning into the physical and emotional pain her presence was causing. “You are hurting me for fun and I’m not going to help you disguise it as a lesson.”
“Good enough to think you can take away my student but can’t take a single lesson and now you insult me, hey?” she snapped.
“Yeah, sure,” said Dave flatly and turned to Johan. “I’ll be in town when you’re ready to go. Say goodbye to your parents for me.”
Dave took a healing potion and began walking towards the road. Greenwood was suddenly in front of him, practise sword level at his chest.
“Pick up your sword,” she said with her dark look on her face again.
Dave took a deep breath through his trembling body.
“As I said, Greenwood, if you want to torture me I am going to make you do it in front of Johan, and Heather over there, without the pretense of a ‘lesson’.”
“Don’t be a coward, I was just testing you,” said Greenwood. “To see if you’re cut out to be an adventurer. Look At you; walking away. How can I let Johan go with you? You’re going to fail.”
“No you weren’t testing,” said Dave, walking around her. “Greenwood, you’ve lived a tough life and honestly? I thought you were better than this. Hurting people because you can. It’s low. It’s immature. With your backstory? The way you talk about it? I expected more compassion. Well, I was wrong and I’m not having it. Good day, Madam.”
He left the farm.
Dave was deep in concentration arranging his team’s travelling plans to leave Forel when five iron rankers walked into the inn. This didn’t immediately attract his attention until Tzu bumped him on the shoulder. By that time, all five were already walking from their quick chat with Studer towards Dave.
“We’re going to need you to come with us,” said the one in front. Dave noticed the leonid of the group looming hungrily in the background.
“What’s this about?” asked Dave, intimidated.
“Lady Geller wants to talk with you. We’re your…” the flaxen haired elf grinned, “honour guard.”
Dave immediately used Stop And Think to freak out and panic in the privacy of his own stopped time. In this extended moment he had no quickened heartbeat to feel but he knew it’d come when the ability ended. He used the time to wait, to plan, until his panicked thoughts stopped chasing each other around his head. Maybe he could figure something out? Dave let time return.
“There’s got to be some mistake. I’m not an acquaintance of Lady Geller,” said Dave, finally feeling his heart pounding in his chest.
“Dave Booker?” said a woman with auburn hair and pointed face. “Aspiring detective-adventurer? Last seen heading north from Megève, reported a Builder cultist cell in a disused astral space and travelling across Lake Leman?” she smiled. “Brown of hair, light of eyes, human and exactly your height? I don’t think your detective career is promising if you can’t figure this one out.”
“Yeah, but I’m still not acquainted with Lady Geller,” insisted Dave.
“Well, she thinks you are,” growled a celestial with silver hair. “Now are you coming on your feet or off them?”
“Good line,” remarked Dave while thinking quickly. “I guess I’m coming. Just let me pack my things and pen a letter to the Remore bubble.”
“The… excuse me?” said the leading elf.
“Wait, you know all that about me and not my teleportation accident?” asked Dave, frightened but still incredulous.
The ‘honour guard’ all looked at each other.
“Actually, no,” said their elf leader.
“I guess I’ll tell you about it on the way to Lady Geller,” said Dave. “Short version is, I was living in what you call Ahitereiria until last month when a kind of teleportation accident sent me to the forest outside Megève.”
“Right, slap the other leg, stranger,” said the celestial sarcastically.
“No, Grastrottir,” said the leonid defensively, “I’ve heard of cities of glass in Ahitereiria.”
“You ever met someone from them?” retorted the celestial.
“No,” the leonid shrugged and turned to Dave who was in the middle of writing a letter to Noah and Lena Schmidt, “Hey, you! Why have I never met an Ahitereirian before?”
“You probably have and didn’t realise it,” said Dave. “We look just like everyone else, we just come from somewhere strange.”
The leonid looked smugly at the celestial who sulked. Dave finished writing his letter and was using Pauper’s Paper Production to make a box when Sam walked in. He looked at her, she looked at him and his company.
“How long to reach Lady Geller, then?” asked Dave loudly.
Sam walked out.
“Well, without needing to constantly stop and ask who’s seen you to track you down?” said the elf. “About a week?”
“Why are you shouting?” asked the leonid, flattening his ears.
“Sorry, I thought you’d drifted over there while I was writing. I’ll just pop upstairs and get my things,” said Dave. “Come on,” he added lightly when it seemed like they intended to accompany him whether he liked it or not.
Dave handed over the package he’d just made to Studer, walked upstairs to the room he’d rented, retrieved some notes he’d left in there and left peacefully with the people who’d been sent to abduct him.