Luna squirmed around in her chair a bit. “Is anyone besides you two here right now? I really do not want someone to listen in.”
Michelle turned to look at Peter. “Is the Captain still asleep in his room?”
Peter nodded. “Yes, he has not left it since he went to sleep late last night.” Peter moved to the door and locked it. “I can guarantee that nobody other than us three in this room can listen to what is being said.”
Luna knew that was the best assurance she could expect and she deflated a little in her chair. “After killing the first group of bandits I had another dream memory. In it I saw a small part of a lecture, in which it was explained that we, Sylvan, would gain some of the power of the creatures we kill. They talked about giving the bodies and Mana back to the land, or something like that. I used the Class Tablet to check my status after we had secured the base and I had several things waiting for me. Apparently I am starting to develop physical traits now. When I use mana my eyes will glow a little. I also have some kind of magical roots skill that helps me with resting while outside.”
Michelle interrupted her. “Show me.”
Luna understood what he wanted and activated Windwalk. Michelle stepped closer and peered into Luna’s face. “Yes, they do glow a little now. You better not use any Skills that require mana outside. You could explain it with some magic class Skill or something, but it is rare enough to raise eyebrows. Your eyes have also changed color, right? You should find a mirror and look at yourself. But that does not explain your level yet, what else?”
“I got another Skill called Nature’s Bounty. When I kill a sentient being or monster I will gain a portion of their total experience for myself. That is the Skill that matches the lecture from the dream.” Luna explained.
Michelle stepped forward instantly, both hands resting on Luna’s shoulders he shouted in her face. “You did get what? That is absolutely unheard off. Nobody gets a part of an enemy's experience. Everyone only levels by doing things in their class’ domain or for special noteworthy achievements, which are also part of their class’ domain. Imagine the chaos if all you had to do was kill someone. How big is the part you get?”
Luna was beginning to feel a little scared right now. She had not considered the implications of the Skill. But it was true, if everyone would gain experience from killing people, the most scrupulous would immediately start to make people vanish to level up. She could basically just go out into the countryside and kill people, by just killing some old farmers who had earned experience all their life she could level up several times.
She looked at Michelle. “Just 1%. What do I do now?”
Michelle and Peter were looking really concerned right now. Shaking his head Michelle replied. “1% isn’t that much, but who says it will stay at that? I have no idea what to do with you if I am being honest. I mean you can still pass as human right now, but how long will that last? I had hoped for subtle things, like some change in hair color, which could be hidden by coloring it and wearing a hooded cloak all the time. But if the eyes are anything to go by, the physical traits won’t be easy to hide. I don’t really know what I was expecting. I have to think about this.”
Michelle turned and left, taking the Class Tablet with him. Peter was still there and he took Luna’s backpack and waved for her to follow. “Let me bring you to your room, there you can have a nice hot bath to relax. We will figure something out, don’t you worry. I can see that you are a bit scared, but there is no need. I will also bring you a mirror so you can have a look at yourself. Please be careful with it, they are expensive and we only have two of them around.”
Luna followed Peter and he led her back to the same room she had occupied last time. The familiar surroundings calmed Luna down a bit and the hot bath worked wonders for her anxiety. There was time to figure things out and as long as she did not level up and gain new Skills, her physical traits would not change either.
When the water had cooled down, Luna got back into her room and found fresh clothes waiting for her. She blushed at the thought of Peter sneaking in to bring her clothes while she was splashing about naked in the next room. After she got dressed she remembered that she needed to see her glowing eyes in action and walked over to the mirror now standing next to the bed.
She stepped in front of it and waved at herself. She grinned at her waving mirror image. Gone was the girl Luna remembered from the last time she had seen her face. No more remaining baby fat, instead a strong jawline and high cheekbones, pointy nose and large eyes. Her raven black hair, no longer braided and tied up in a bun at the back of her head, was flowing down over her shoulders.
Seeing herself like this, she could not avoid comparing herself to other girls of her age and realized that she was pretty big. Tall for her age, thick arms and legs, strong muscles in all the right places. Only her bust was lacking a bit compared to the other girls, but that did not bother her much, as it would only be in the way most of the time anyway. She activated Windwalk and watched with fascination as her now deep green eyes got an unearthly glow, highlighting the little flecks of gold in them. She suddenly froze, as she remembered seeing those eyes once before. It were the same glowing eyes her mother had when she hid a young Luna 12 years ago.
Shuddering Luna disabled the Skill and her eyes returned back to normal within a second. Taking a deep breath she processed the revelation. If her mother had the same eyes, that meant she had been a Sylvan too. Which begged the question, where had her mother come from exactly? She needed more answers from Michelle.
Luna went back to their hybrid meeting-dinner room and found Michelle talking with another person she did not know.
[Parrot]
Level 56, Human
“Ah Luna, perfect timing. Let me introduce you to Captain Fred Parrot. We refer to him as ‘the Captain’, because he is traveling all over the sea along the coast of the human kingdoms. Although he prefers to be called Parrot. If you want to hear some stories about sea monsters, he is your man!”
Luna walked closer inspecting the curious person. Half his face was covered by a bushy brown beard, even the eyebrows were frazzled and bushy, but she could see no actual hair on the top of his head. He was wearing a weird hat with 3 corners and some kind of headscarf under it. Luna was now openly staring at the man. This must be the weirdest human she had ever seen before. He was wearing an eclectic mixture of clothes, starting with a deep blue overcoat, a white shirt underneath with some kind of frills at the end of the arms, which were sticking out from the coat sleeves. Over this white shirt was a black leather vest. Loose black pants ended in huge nearly knee-high boots.
While Luna was staring at Parrot, he was looking at her with the same intensity. “Hey Michelle, where did you find this one? Can I borrow her for the expedition?”
Luna finally caught herself. “Hi! I am Luna, nice to meet you Parrot.”
“Yeah yeah, I saw your name already. You know how it is, Skills and such. What do you say, wanna to join me on the next expedition? The king is finally coughing up the money to pay for supplies, so we are all set to go. All eight ships.”
Luna was visibly confused and Michelle jumped in. “She has no idea what you’re talking about. Luna, Parrot is the only sea-faring Pathfinder we still have. According to him there is an untouched continent on the far side of the eastern sea and he has managed to talk the kings into financing the expedition and what astounds me even more, he has found settlers who want to join him. Oh and don’t mention that the other kings are also paying for this, ok? That is our little secret.”
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“Oh, that is what you meant a few weeks back when you said that you did not want to mess with the king ‘now that we need his money’.” Luna said.
“Yes, we needed the king, useless as he might be otherwise. Now girly, you know what this is about.” Parrot took up where he was interrupted. “I need more Pathfinder on the trip, but nobody has any to spare. Michelle told me you might be interested in going on a little adventure. How about it?”
Luna was not really sure what to think about this. “What do you mean little adventure? And what do you mean by ‘land on the other side of the eastern sea’? Do you know how insane that sounds? How long would it even take to sail there? Not to mention that I have never been on a river boat in my life, not to speak of a seagoing ship.”
“Aye, slow down. Ok, granted ‘little adventure’ might be too small to describe it. How about going on the biggest and baddest adventure of your life? How does that sound? Aye, there is land on the other side. Took us nearly 6 weeks to get there the last time, but we found it alright. And I can get us there again. We put down the anchor in a small bay and traveled inland for a day, there was nothing there. Just wild animals, untouched wilderness. The absolute dream for any real Pathfinder. Do Istill sound insane to you?” Parrot countered Luna’s outburst, which made her shut up quickly.
Luna looked at Michelle who just shrugged his shoulders. “Your decision Luna, but I believe him when he says he found land. He has been running all over the kingdom for the past three years to find enough people to finance the expedition and enough people willing to settle there. I don’t see him doing that without good reason. It is the perfect solution for your dilemma. He agreed to not ask what problems you are running away from, he literally does not care. He said his group of settlers is half misfits and half religious knobheads, so a Pathfinder with some trouble isn’t the worst of it anyway.”
“Alright, I will consider it seriously. Parrot, are you staying here so I can ask more questions? I know nothing of the sea and you will have to fill some holes for me if you want me to join this expedition of yours.”
Parrot downed another glass of amber liquid and started pouring another one. “Sure, as long as there is whiskey to be had I have no reason to leave.”
Michelle excused himself soon after, clearly bored by hearing the same stories all over again. Parrot told Luna of his love for the sea and how he had been traveling the ocean all his life. He had drawn the most accurate maps of the coastline around the Human kingdom and even traveled further south along the coastline until the Elves had explained to the overly curious human that he should turn around his ship, or they would sink it, with him and his crew stuffed into the hold.
That had ended his exploration into the south and he had turned towards exploring the ocean east of the human lands. Further and further they dared sailing the ship outwards, until just a few years ago, after nearly 6 weeks of traveling east, they had seen a bird in the sky. And birds mean land nearby, so they kept course and a day later land came into sight on the horizon. They followed this new coastline carefully until they found a bay to anchor in.
Along the coast they had not seen a single sign of people. No fishing boats, no small villages, nothing. They spent five days in the bay hunting for animals and filling up their fresh water supplies. The one day trip inland led to no discoveries either. A few unknown predators had surprised them and they even lost a crew member who got gored by a giant boar after failing to stop it with his spear. But that was everything he knew about the place. Nobody had ever set foot on the land before him and there was no map of it either.
Luna could not deny being intrigued. The idea of exploring a place with untouched nature was exciting and appealed very much to her Pathfinder side. But on the other hand it would mean leaving without any idea if and when she might return. She would not be able to travel back to see her parents in Creek Springs again. It was a decision she could not make lightly and on a whim.
She had dinner with Parrot and afterwards they split up. Luna got some of her gear and went to the archery range, deciding that she needed a little workout in the evening to clear her head. The lack of vision was no problem for her and she kept going for a long time, even after true night had fallen. The repetitive action had helped calm down, concentrate and look at her options from all sides.
She could simply stay here and maybe she would be able to convince Michelle to let her get out and do more missions. She could just quit the Pathfinder and leave, but where would she go from here? Going back to Creek Springs was out of the question, as was any other place with daily human contact, which was basically everywhere. She still had to get some answers from Michelle about what he really knew about Sylvans and their origins.
Luna packed up and went back to her room. She dropped her clothes next to the bed and snuggled into the comfy blanket. The thoughts about her future kept her awake for a while, but in the end she calmed herself down enough that the sweet sleep took her.
When Luna woke up she still felt dead tired. For the last three nights she had slept in the open and always woke up fresh and relaxed from a perfect night’s sleep. Now she had a really comfortable bed and she woke up still exhausted? That did not make sense to her. She stumbled to the bathroom and splashed some water in her face. She collected the clothes from the floor and while putting them on she realized the obvious answer. She had slept inside a house, her Young Roots trait was not working.
Now it was too late for that epiphany, but the next night she would have to find a new place to sleep. No way she was going to waste so much daylight by just sleeping longer and then still waking up tired. She shuffled down the hallway towards breakfast and nearly collided with Parrot at the door. He looked as tired as she felt and they just nodded in greeting.
Breakfast was everything Luna had hoped for. Crispy bacon, fresh bread, eggs and lots of hot tea. The mind numbing blanket of sleepy exhaustion slowly lifted and she got back to planning. When Peter entered a few minutes later to check on them, she decided to find out where Michelle was.
“Michelle is currently in the city. It is nearly noon, so I expect he will be back soon. The news that we found the bandit base should cause some ruckus, so I cannot be sure. Want me to tell him that you were looking for him?” Peter said to her.
“Yes please, I have some things I need to ask him. And I also need to discuss the offer from Parrot.” She replied while vaguely pointing in the latter's direction.
After that Luna rose and wandered over to the library. A few minutes of searching led her to a small section solely dedicated to the sea. Luna got a small glimpse of it at Middingfurt, but the bay area was not broad enough for the ocean to stretch to the horizon, so it did not convey the enormous size of it.
Parrot’s tale had been intriguing, but also scary. Several weeks on the ocean with no land in sight? That was hard to comprehend. Luna found a book dedicated to the eastern ocean, animals living in and around and the exploration of it. Going by the introduction the book had been written well before the human kingdom split up, but the sea was not changing much, so it should still be mostly accurate.
Luna leaned back in her chair and got to reading, maybe a few interesting tidbits could be picked up. She barely got through the first five chapters when the door opened and Michelle stepped in. He dragged a chair over and sat down.
“I see you are looking into the ocean. Don’t let Parrot see you reading one of those old things, he hates the scholars, who only sit on land and never dare travel out of sight of land, with a passion. Peter told me you were looking for me?” He said to Luna.
“Yes, I need to know more about Sylvans. I have no idea where I would even start looking in this library and I am quite sure that there would be no mention of them anywhere. Where do they come from? Are there others?” Luan said to him.
Michelle shrugged. “I don’t know much. Just that they exist and are strong fighters, they presumably helped fight against monsters and delved into dungeons to rid the lands of the menace. Sadly that is all I know about the topic. I know the world is a lot bigger than just the human kingdoms and that many different races live outside our borders. Where they came from or where they might have gone? Your guess is as good as mine.”
Luna sighed. She had half expected that no easy answers would be forthcoming. Her origin stayed a mystery. “The other topic is the proposal to leave with Parrot. Why are you suggesting it? It feels like you are trying to get rid of me. Oh and did you organize someone to go find Joan and the base?”
“Yes, we have people on the way to Joan. I have marked it on the map and a detachment of the army will go there and see if they can use the base for a training camp of some sort. Your other question is more delicate to answer. I have concerns about what your ability and race might be doing to you and what that could mean for everyone around you. I know you were raised like a normal human girl, but your race is manifesting in ways I cannot predict. Your newest Skill is scary, as it means you could kill your way to power, quite literally.”
Luna interrupted him angrily. “Now that is horse shit and you know it. I joined the Guild and just did a mission to protect people from criminals. For what reason do you suspect I could be capable of something like that?”
“Whoa, easy Luna.” Michelle tried to calm her down. “I am not saying you are some soulless monster, but you are the person with the biggest potential for growth I have ever seen. This Skill would allow you to race ahead of anyone, if you had enough opportunities to kill people. At some point someone would get suspicious of your rapid growth and if it ever came out what you are capable of, many people would be interested in you, your race and that Skill. Want to hear the worst possible scenario?”
Of course Luna wanted to know the reasons why Michelle was trying to get rid of her. He had some serious explaining to do if he wanted her to believe it was for her own good. She nodded.
“Ok. Imagine that for some reason a magical society working for a powerful person, could be a king, could just be a rich merchant with ambition, learned about your rapid growth and wanted to find out more. You would, of course, refuse to speak to them. Powerful people do not like being denied, so they send someone to capture you. Do you get the idea or do you want me to go on about how they will try to use you to create their own little pet army of Sylvans?”
While Michelle was explaining his biggest fear, Luna had started to grip her chair and turned white in the face. She had never thought about what other people might give to have her ability and how ruthless powerful people would go about obtaining it. The idea of being imprisoned somewhere and being subjected to experiments made a shiver run down her spine.
“Alright, I get it.” Luna replied meekly. “So you want me to leave for my own good, but also because you want to protect the kingdom of the possibility that they might succeed?”
Michelle nodded. “Yes. Your welfare is important to me, but the possibility of someone succeeding in capturing you would really mean problems. Not only would we have to try to get you back, but they might even succeed in creating new Sylvans for their own private army. I think you still do not understand what the ability really means. Think about it this way. Find 100 farmers with levels 25 in two classes, for a total of 50. Kill them all and you would have enough Experience to jump up to level 50 yourself. You turn hard earned experience from a Crafting class into Experience for your Combat class.”
Luna’s eyes went wide. “That would mean a king could just kill his own population to boost his fighting force!”
Michelle nodded. “Exactly. You staying here is a potential threat to the fragile balance between the kingdoms and the balance in human society itself.”