”You know, I’ve almost tempted you in the past with Sean,” Madam Madrid began with no preamble, stopping Roge short as he came out from the back. “He’s using the pay for his retirement fund, when he’s too old to go out killing monsters.”
“I…” Roge stuttered, his scales heating up at his embarrassment. “I don’t… I’m not going to now.”
“Oh I know son,” Madam Madrid drawled out, giving the dragon an eye roll. “You had valid reasons before as you do now. But once you go on adventures with that tiger, you might find that he’s not disagreeable to an advance. Get to know him a bit. If you have needs, one of my other night boys can help you in that regard. They’ve always been free for you, son, as you’ve gone above and beyond for this store.”
“Thank you…” he mumbled, shaking the anxiety away so he could ask his question. “It okay if we go to the Guild now…?” At her smile and nod he smiled back before rushing out the front of the store, missing Madam Madrid’s parting words.
“Oh those boys’ll be the death of me…”
~---~
Roge was able to show off his movement with the vines on the way to the Guild building, Marge and Hops very interested for different reasons while Sean laughed at some of the moves Roge needed to not run into anything. They caught a few glances doing so, though not much as other adventuring parties got up to a lot more on the streets before.
They finally got to the building after Roge had agreed to stay on the ground, the dragon looking up at the massive, ornate structure. Many different designs with different parties battling various monsters. One such monster was even a feral dragon, the fire looking almost alive in the sculpture with the way it had been painted. Once inside the main lobby, Sean took them to a table next to the food and drink bar, giving Roge an assessing look. “So, what skills do you have lined up for your new class?”
Right down to business it is, Roge thought, bringing up the Skill Tree for everyone to see.
Draconic Magic Skill Tree
Rank 1 -
Obtained: Draconic Accelerated Growth, Draconic Magic Plant Destruction, Draconic Magic Plant Creation
Available:
Defense (Choose 2): Leaf Armor, Plant Infection (Defense), Vine Wall, Root In Place
Mobility (Choose 1): Plant Infection (Mobility), Nature Walk
Utility (Choose 3): Nature Senses, Familiar (Plant), Plant Infection (Utility), Flower Sentries
Hops whistled as he looked over the list, even bringing up the descriptions for most of them. “Pretty nice options to choose and all Skills? Now I see why Madam Madrid had suggested we get you signed up.”
“You know any you want to take?” Sean asked, only glancing over the skills before looking over to the dragon.
“Well I’m tempted to take all but the Flower Sentries in Utility. It would be a nice thing to drop against an enemy, but the others look too versatile to give up. Mobility I’m looking at Nature Walk due to all the tings I can do with my grappling vine, and I have no idea what I want from the Defense options.” Sean nodded at this, none of the three giving any disagreements to what he said.
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“Leaf Armor is a must,” Marge stated, tapping her hoof fingers on the table with audible clacks. “A light armor that is tied to a Skill is always preferred over any kind of normal armor. You have not near enough money to get enchanted armor, and even then you’ll get extra abilities for it as you Rank up.” Roge looked a bit shocked at the deer, not expecting her to sound so sensible despite only knowing her for under an hour.
“Vine Wall would be a good option too,” Sean chimes in, grinning at Roge’s look. “Could potentially be used to lock up enemies or funnel then into a specific path.”
“All reasonable suggestions,” Hops pipes up, still looking over the Skill descriptions. “Also can make you a good lookout, which we sorely need. Too many times we’ve been ambushed on the road, and having the trees tell us, metaphorically speaking, where they are would be very helpful.”
Roge nodded at all this, waiting for the go ahead from Sean before selecting the Skills mentioned. He immediately activated the Familiar (Plant) Skill, feeling a large chunk of his Magic flow out of him and coalesce into a ball on the table. It takes a few moments to decide on a form, stems and branches appearing out of the ball before settling on a familiar sight. Green scales glisten in the light of the Guild Hall, the small dragon flapping its wings a couple of times before it scampered up onto Roge’s shoulders. It was the size of a large cat, giving off a faint tree smell as it wrapped its tail around Roge’s neck.
“Well that’s something,” Hops commented, peering intensely at the draconic familiar. “Never seen a Plant Familiar take on the shape of anything other than a plant.” Roge frowned at this comment, looking worriedly at his Familiar as it settled down to take a nap.
“Nothing to worry about too much,” Sean commented, giving Roge a reassuring smile. “You won’t be the first with an exotic Familiar and you won’t be the last. You look at his Status yet?” Roge takes the moment to pull that up, frowning at the description that explained nothing he couldn’t already assume.
Unnamed Plant Familiar Rank 1
Abilities: Draconic Accelerated Growth (1), Draconic Breath (1)
Status: Healthy (20/20)
“That’s it?” he grumbled, dismissing the window with a sigh. “It has the same Skill I have to grow plants faster, just in Ability form at least. Could help me with growing plants, but not much else.”
“We’ll see,” Marge murmured as she waved down a passing server. “For now let’s catch you up on what we’ve been doing over some drinks.” Roge agreed with the others’ nods at that decision, pulling out one of his packs of magic cigarettes and lighting one up for himself.
“Oh dude, you trying to kill yourself with that?” Marge objected, giving the smoke a disgusted look.
“Nope,” he stated, handing her the box to Inspect. “Made these last week to help Madam Madrid sell more. And maybe get a raise. Mostly, though, to see if I could.” Sean chuckled at that, placing his drink order first as Marge sat frozen looking at the pack. Hops knew her usual order and Roge ordered himself a wine, the other three all ordering some kind of ale. “So what kind of Quest did you all so the past few weeks? I hope not all of them are that long.”
“Nope. This one was a bit of a cluster fuck with finding a particularly speedy wolf that had threatened the town over,” Sean reported, shaking Marge’s shoulder to get her out of her stupor. “You know…” The tiger stopped himself, taking a deep breath as Roge shrunk in on himself. “Usually the Quests take an afternoon a couple times a week. Not too stressful.” He gave Roge an apologetic smile, the dragon nodding before snatching the pack of cigarettes back.
“Reasonable. Just means I can’t work certain days with Madam Madrid,” Roge stated somewhat blandly, refocusing on the familiar on his shoulders. “What to name you..”
“Pot,” the healer added unhelpfully, even this world knowing cannabis by that name. “Otherwise I got nothing.” Roge could tell Sean had to restrain himself from shaking her again, chuckling softly at the frustration on the tiger’s face.
“I think you should go with Courage,” Hops suggested, Roge puffing on the cigarette as he thought the name over.
“I like it,” he eventually mumbled, noting the notification of the name update. “So what’s the first step to sign up?” Roge asked, frowning as he looked at the long lines to the various counters. “I assume we’re starting me up as a support role? Or do they not sign up via function?”
Sean grimaced at that, shaking his head. “You need a baseline success in each category and have one step above that for at least one role to sign up. Testing you today, I see no problem with that, as the vines should do enough damage to get offensive, the leaf armor and mobility might even make you good at defense, you have several mobility options, and utility is where you’ll shine. Having a familiar means that you can see through its eyes, and you have the extra perception Skill.”
Roge nodded at this, feeling a bit of trepidation creeping in at the expectations. “If you think I can do it, then let’s see how I do…”