When Zalia woke, she didn't really know what to do with herself. She had the whole morning and a bit of the afternoon to kill but nothing much to do until then. Deciding she may as well test out one of her theories about how to level her Escape ability, she found a new length of rope that she bought for a few coppers. She asked a passerby to tie her wrists together and using the ability, found it would let her slip free of the bonds. It struck her as a very situational ability but one that was very powerful in the right circumstances. She just hadn’t quite found herself in the right circumstances for it very often. It was both a good and a bad thing, since being in the position that she needed to escape was not a good thing even with the ability but she wasn't able to level it so far without. This would allow her to level it slowly at the least but she didn't feel like finding or paying someone to tie her up constantly. She would probably go back to that enchanter in Alston at some point to see if she could enchant the rope to do it itself.
Walking aimlessly around the town Zalia stumbled across another herbalist's shop. She quickly went inside and looked around at the wide array of herbs and spices hanging from strings or arrayed on shelves, in jars or otherwise. She used her flora identification on as many as she could, getting a single level for her troubles bringing it to Tin 13. Most of the herbs and spices looked like they were for cooking or other simple uses like nice scents. She did see a bunch of Dodge-vine there, recognising the wiry vine-like plant. She went up to the wizened old man behind the counter,
“Hey, I have an offer that is a little unconventional,” Zalia said.
“Well go on then, I’ve not got all day,” the man said, absolutely looking like he had all day.
“I have a herbalist class and one of my abilities allows me to stop the drying and ageing of a plant or herb that has been harvested. I would like to level it up and wondered if you had any herbs you wanted to keep for a bit longer,” Zalia said.
As soon as Zalia mentioned she had a herbalist class the man's irritable attitude changed, at the mention of her ability the man even visibly perked up some of his grouchy body language fading away.
“Well my, my I would absolutely be interested in such an ability,” the man responded.
“I’m not looking for anything more than just levelling my skill, so don't worry about payment or such,” Zalia said, “shall I get started?”
The man slowly led her to a whole array of different herbs, even bringing her into a smaller room out the back with some rarer bronze ranked herbs. Zalia used stasis on all the ones the man pointed out,
Congratulations! Stasis has gained four levels reaching Tin 13.
Congratulations! Herbalist class has gained four levels reaching Tin 13.
The short hour of work, a lot of it waiting for mana to regenerate, quickly gained her a good amount of levels bringing stasis to level with her other abilities of the Herbalist class, all of them now at the thirteenth or fourteenth level.
Zalia found the man had Bitterbalm and stocked up on it buying a silver worth. She also found another herb that interested her while she was there. The man had quite a lot of it and she did remember seeing it about the place within the city growing up some older walls but had passed it off as a normal plant. Apparently, the herb was used in rituals to provide a physical aspect to any ritual performed. It was only Tin rank so the effect was not major but if Zalia picked it herself she knew it would be enhanced. The way her instinctual knowledge from herbal magic felt was that mixed with something like Dodge-vine it could create a dome shield not unlike what Protection of the Wilds did, as an example. The feeling she got from it was one of physical presence, where Dodge-vine gave her a feeling of protectiveness or protection. Zalia wasn't sure about the Bitterbalm, the only time she had used it in a ritual was with the Dodge-vine and her ability didn't yet give her the instinctual knowledge of Iron rank herbs.
Zalia made her way back to the armourer after having finished up at the herbalists and walking around a bit more. She collected a bunch of the new herb that the herbalist had called Leaves of physical manifestation, after seeing the name of the little window description she thought it too much of a mouthful she renamed it to Manifest. She entered Gurden’s shop and sat down still inspecting the herb, moving it around in her hand,
Manifest (Potent) - Tin rank
It had become potent when she had collected it off the side of a building as she had expected it to, due to her harvester rank. Stocking up on a whole bunch of it the skill had ranked up,
Congratulations! Harvester has reached Tin 14.
It wasn't long before Gurden walked out noticing her sitting there,
“Fuck, I didn't notice you in here at all. Here for the armour I assume?” he asked.
“Mmhmm,” Zalia said, getting up and putting away the herb.
She gave the man a radiant smile,
“Lets see what you’ve got me shall we?” She asked.
They were standing in the back room, Zalia fully equipped with her new armour. She had two leather bracers with small metal plates riveted into the material, covering each of her forearms, the pieces each edged in the same metal. She also had two greaves and cuisses each with riveted metal plates and similarly edged in metal. Lastly she had a sleeveless leather cuirass covering her torso, the piece shaped in a way that allowed for good mobility, sacrificing a little defence for it but worth it to Zalia in the end. The cuirass was also edged with the same metal, a few plates riveted into the leather. The metal was a carbon steel, dark in colour with a matte finish. The armour was hardened but still flexible, designed for the highest flexibility in being able to shoot comfortably. It wasn't anything super fancy, no designs or expensive materials used in its make but she liked it a lot. With her dark, enchanted cloak and bow in hand she looked quite the part of a mediaeval hunter,
“Niiiiice,” Zalia said, giving a whistle as she looked at a piece of steel polished to a reflective surface, showing her image.
“It does look quite sturdy, if I do say so myself,” Gurden said with some pride in his voice.
Zalia handed over the seven gold and fifty silver agreed price, leaving her at fifty silver and ninety copper now.
“Now, I’ve got to go stop some people from murdering each other, thank you for your work Gurden, it's quite something,” Zalia said.
“You staying around in town long?” Gurden asked.
“Settling isn’t how I roll my friend,” Zalia said with a smile, “I’ll probably be out and travelling once more when I’m done with this job. Heading further out west, I'm going to try to find the Morning’s Shade.”
“Figured as much, Morning’s Shade hey? You do strike me as the type. Well, good luck in your journey hunter, I hope my armour saves your life at least once,” he replied.
“I’m certain it will but if it doesn't, at least I’ll look good as I die,” she said.
Zalia left, making her way back to the town square that she had been at the day before.
Zalia found a relatively large group of people amassed in the square, many wearing different pieces of armour and holding various weapons. She saw everything from Tin to Bronze rank people, the large majority being Tin. It was possibly the most Tin rank people she had seen since coming to this world. Thinking about the people she had seen in the army back north with Alara, those had all been quite high ranked compared to this lot, mostly at the Iron rank. If these deserters were actually from an army like she had seen they were probably much stronger, she just hoped they didn't have the numbers advantage. If they did this would likely go very, very poorly.
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She made her way to the man she had spoken to the day before,
“Quite the turn out hey, think this will work?” she asked.
“I sure hope so, it's more than I expected but not as many as I’d hoped for,” he answered, looking a little apprehensive.
“I didn't introduce myself yesterday, I’m Zalia, may I ask your name oh great war party leader?” Zalia asked, letting a little sarcasm into her voice.
“Tristan, good to meet you Zalia,” he said, giving a small wry smile.
The man was quite tall, holding a large double bladed axe and wearing some good sturdy leather armour. It wasn't reinforced with metal like Zalia's but it had definitely seen some battle considering the marks on it. He was also quite well built, handling the weapon and weight of the armour with ease.
“What do you do with your time for the most part, if I may ask?” Zalia asked.
“Baker,” he said.
“Baker,” Zalia said, doubtfully, looking him up and down.
“Baker,” he confirmed.
“Where is your bakery?” she asked.
“Maybe I’ll show you after we’re done with this,” he said, turning away to the rest of the people.
“Alright! Let’s get this thing started then shall we? I have been told by the guard that the damn deserters are camped up northwards in a small forested area, some of those guards will be joining us today,” he started, nodding towards a few people Zalia guessed were the guards, “we’re going to go ask them, real nicely, to come back with us to face trial. If they refuse then we’ll just have to convince them, in a much less nice manner.”
A couple people gave a few cheers but there was an obvious tension to the situation. These were not fighters or warriors, all of those were off fighting a war. These were bakers and farmers, more used to the tools of life than those of death. She decided then that she would do what she could to keep these people alive, they were obviously a desperate population trying to stop a situation they were clearly not built for.
Tristan began leading the people out of the town, leaving via a gate on the north east side, the same one she had entered through. Zalia was a little bit concerned for the strength of the human race as a whole so far. Not only was the infighting she saw already equal to what she knew from back home but these people were very weak, very few higher than bronze rank. The silver ranked creature she had stolen the venom from could probably smash through this group of people without much harm coming to itself, the goblins of the mountains up north wouldn't have an issue with the group and could probably melt them away in mere seconds with their combined ritual lava magic. As they began travelling northwards from the town, Zalia found Tristan once more and told him she would scout ahead. With the slight stealth magic from her cape and her already vast experience living in the wild and hunting, she was most likely their best chance at finding them quickly without being ambushed by some creature.
They travelled for a few hours before it started getting a little dark. Having moved back and forwards between scouting and Tristan a few times, she knew they were close where they were trying to get. They were taking a short break to rest, hydrate and eat a small meal. It was at this point that she found some tracks belonging to a human sized creature heading off into the distance, towards where they were trying to get. Zalia didn't remember any other of the villagers doing any scouting and they sure as hell weren’t her tracks. She quickly followed then, vanishing off into the darkness.
A few hundred metres later, Zalia ran into one of the guards moving off still, looking quite suspicious,
“Hey!” Zalia hissed towards the man.
He spun around quickly, half drawing his sword before seeing her.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked, still whispering.
The man looked around Zalia, she put her hand onto the hilt of her dagger behind her back, seeing the man looked ready to spring into action.,
“You shouldn’t have come after me alone, foolish girl,” the man said.
He drew his sword and charged at her. Zalia quickly drew her dagger, getting ready for a fight. The man came swinging, Zalia backstepping a few times to avoid getting hit. On a particularly wild swing, she used the metal plate on her bracer to smash the back of the blade as it whistled past her, pushing the man off balance. She quickly stepped close in towards him to get inside the reach of his sword. To her surprise the man immediately dropped the weapon and instead punched her in the head. He made a grab for the dagger, the two of them wrestling for the weapon as Zalia took them to the floor, still struggling. She landed on top, having the upper hand and pushing the dagger towards his head as they struggled on. With a final effort, the man pushed the dagger to the side, the weapon impaling into his shoulder rather than his face. What the man couldn't have known though, was that Zalia had put a tiny bit of the silver rank creature's venom on the blade in preparation for the fight to come. She quickly slammed her hands over his mouth as the weapon made impact into his body, watching in horror as the venom spread through his body, skin and flesh withering slowly as the man writhed on the ground, his screams muffled by her hands. The man was only Tin rank but the effect of the venom was still startling, eating away his body with lethal speed and efficiency. Before long, nothing was left but a withered corpse that looked like it had been dead for more like ten years then ten seconds. She got up and stood above the body for a moment, slightly shocked at the whole encounter. She guessed the man was probably going to warn the deserters and set up an ambush, or maybe they already had one set up and he would have told them that they were coming.
_________________________________________________________________________
Tristan looked around for the new lady in town, not finding her near any of the small fires they had set up. He shook his head,
“That woman is more a creature of the wilds than anything else,” he thought.
He got up, stretching his back before walking to the edge of the small camp. He wasn't feeling too good about this whole thing. He had been a part of the army that these deserters had come from, he knew they were of quite a high rank. These people around him weren't fighters, he could see that with the experience he had as a warrior. Despite his insistence at being a baker, he really had been in the army most of his life. He heard the sound of metal and leather scraping against the ground to his left and looked that way. To his shock he saw a dark shape in the last remaining light of the day as the sun set. The cloaked figure was dragging what looked like an emaciated body behind it as it approached him. He put his hand to his axe before finally recognising the figure as Zalia as she got closer. She dumped the body at his feet,
“That one was a traitor,” she said.
“Traitor?” Tristan thought.
He looked down at the body and recognised the clothes and equipment as belonging to Harold, one of the guards who had come with them.
“W.. what happened to him?” he asked.
Zalia just looked at him blankly,
“He tried to warn the deserters we were coming, I saw his tracks leading from camp. I found him and he tried to kill me,” she said, pointing at the body with the sword and sheath she held in her hand, “now he’s dead and I’m not, figure out the rest.”
_________________________________________________________________________
Tristan just stood there staring at her as she finished explaining,
“Not my fault the venom was so damn strong,” Zalia thought.
Sighing, Zalia turned away from the man, not wanting to see the look in his eyes as he looked at her a little differently than before. She felt bad for the misery the man had gone through before meeting his end but it was more the method she felt bad for, not the result. He was going to betray his whole town and people, probably just for gold and would have gotten a lot of good people killed. Despite all she tried to tell herself that she wasn't so affected by having killed the man, her hands had started shaking. She went and sat down at a fire, ignoring the stares of the other villagers as she got a small cup of water to drink. It wasn't long before Tristan came and sat next to her,
“It isn't easy, I do understand,” the man said to her.
“I'll be fine Tristan, I did all I could do in the moment,” she replied.
“Still, I understand better than most,” he said.
She bumped her shoulder into his,
“Just a baker hey,” she said.
“Of course, I’m talking about the trauma of burning a loaf of bread,” he said, slowly shaking his head.
She smiled at that, feeling some of the tension and adrenaline of the fight fade away slowly.
“We’re going to have to seriously re-plan our approach now,” she said, looking at the man, watching the light of the fire flicker over his face as he stared into its depths.
“That we will,” he said, looking over at her, “that we will..”