As clichés go, the day of a hero’s departure should be wet, rainy, and miserable. It should reflect the inner mood of the heroes who are finally leaving behind their loved ones and heading toward danger.
Except, the cliché didn’t hold.
The day was perfectly clear with not a single cloud in sight. And Rowan wasn’t leaving behind everyone he cared about. They were coming with him.
In fact, the road looked beautiful. It was like they were about to set off on a huge stretch of clay tile. Rowan was willing to bet reasonably large amounts of money that the baron had improved the roads at some point during his stay. It made practical sense, easing the transport of goods and information between recovering settlements. But it also made it so that his journey was going to be far smoother than it should be.
Before they could set off, however, they had to pay the parent tax. More specifically, Olivia had to pay the parent tax.
This was made even worse by the fact that she wasn’t the only one leaving for the frontier. With Camilla going with them, the baron and baroness reenacted a scene straight from a soap opera. There were tears, flowers, and grand gestures that Olivia looked absolutely sick of it as she stood to the side, forgotten for the moment.
The rest of the hero party were standing by their rides, firmly outside of the privacy magic bubble someone had thought to conjure so the baron couple could be spared some dignity.
“You think she’s going to ignite due to sheer anger?” Rowan asked, watching Olivia grow progressively more red in the face. Honestly, it was kind of impressive the way she managed to change color like that.
“I’m more worried about whether or not she’s going to try to take out her own parents. I mean, we haven’t even received our land deeds yet,” Marcus said with a lopsided grin.
“Well, I think this is really sweet. They’ve obviously been together for years, and they still care about each other. The two of you are just mean, and Olivia is too embarrassed to be properly appreciative,” Milena said that a bit louder than strictly necessary, making Olivia’s head snap in their direction.
Olivia glanced between her parents and her party, before shrugging and marching over.
“What are you lot arguing over now? Can I really not leave you for five minutes?” Olivia demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Honestly, the effect was a bit ruined by how adorable she looked, dressed in something that wasn’t battle fatigues.
“We’re being good. Just waiting for your mother at the moment,” Marcus said.
“Well, you need not wait any further.” Camilla’s voice floated over. Somehow, without anyone noticing, Lady Sutton had ended up in the carriage they would be using.
“How?” Marcus asked in breathy awe.
Camilla just smirked, and Rowan realized in that very moment that he had absolutely zero clue of what the baroness’ class was. He knew Kayden used swords but he’d never seen so much as a single indicator of what Camilla was all about.
“If I asked very nicely, would you tell me your class?” Rowan asked before his brain-to-mouth filter could catch up.
“Rowan! You can’t just ask my mother something like that!”
“Is it really that big a deal?”
“Yes and no,” Camilla supplied, looking amused. “Don’t worry, though, I won’t take offense. At least I won’t if all of you are inside this carriage within the next five minutes.”
With just one final pause for the baron to hug his daughter and quietly threaten Rowan with bodily harm if he hurt her, they finally rolled out of town.
—
The last time that Rowan traveled in the carriage, he had essentially no time or mood to enjoy the scenery. There was training, both physical and mental, and the fact that he had been summoned to the middle of a divine meeting and then literally dropped into a new plane of existence.
Not easy things to get over.
Now, though, there was extremely little to do. He could run after the carriage, but it was more mindless fun than exercise that could improve his stats. Unless he decided to do the whole trip by foot, Rowan was pretty sure that he wouldn’t even break a sweat.
He hoped to find solace in his companions, but that was a no-go too. Everyone knew what they were getting into and were busy preparing.
Olivia had some kind of traveling alchemy kit she was tinkering away with. Her mother was lost in a pile of scrolls that looked very serious and official. Milena had an old, leather-bound book in hand, and Rowan didn’t want to think about what had gotten flayed for her to have reading privileges. Even Marcus was distracted, summoning and then tinkering with his protection aura. Rowan was pretty sure he was trying to make it as efficient as possible, since it occasionally grew so thin that it flickered out completely.
Frankly, Rowan wished Marcus would try the opposite, especially considering his mana regeneration. It’d be a much nicer world if he could constantly provide them with the magical equivalent of plate armor. Unfortunately, that idea was shot down as soon as Rowan brought it up. Marcus’ mana was high but not infinite. And doing something like that had a ridiculous mana cost that even he could not easily pay and definitely not for long.
All of that meant that Rowan was well and truly bored.
“Tell me, hero, when was the last time you just sat and did nothing?”
Rowan jerked in surprise and found Camilla staring at him.
“Um, I don’t know.” He tried to think of a time sitting still and nothing came to mind. Even back on Earth, there was constantly something to do. Homework. Watching countless TV shows he was behind on. Playing video games. Just messing with his phone.
True and actual relaxation and quiet?
Those were incompatible with Rowan’s vocabulary. Or his ingrained behavior, really. As much as he liked being lazy sometimes, that was just a response to a long string of stressful days.
“You haven’t,” Camilla said. Rowan met her eyes and realized that the baroness was looking at him, or maybe into him would have been a better descriptor. He felt like she was staring beyond his outer shell and into the inner parts of himself. But there was nowhere for him to hide. Sandwiched against the door and Marcus on the other side, Rowan was sitting opposite to Olivia and Camilla, who enjoyed the much more comfortable circumstances of only having two people on their half of the carriage.
“It’s been a while,” Rowan admitted.
“I see,” Camilla said and began to pack up some of the documents she had been poring over. “Tell me, Rowan, how much have you done with card fusion so far?”
Rowan was learning just how quick conversations moved with the baroness. “Well, we’ve done some of it, both to improve some of the cards we had and to avoid ending up with thousands of common scrap.”
“You made new cards?”
“Some. I don’t really enjoy how it’s completely random what card you get,” Rowan complained, genuinely upset by the way that mechanic of the system worked. There were thousands, if not millions of cards that the fuses could get. Most of which were entirely useless. “Eventually figured it was just better to upgrade to higher tiers and wait. Better for future trades.”
“Ah, but you still have some, yes? Common cards or at least scraps of them?”
“Yeah?”
“Because I really don’t think anyone’s shown you how to use it properly. We’ll get to that in a second. My daughter also mentioned you’re looking for some new spear cards. Mostly to replace your common class card?”
“Kind of. I have Empowered Thrust in my cardholder at the moment.”
“Do you mind if I take a look?” Camilla asked, but it was really more of a demand by the way she put out her hand.
Shrugging, Rowan complied. It wasn’t like he had much reason to hide the card away. Unless Camilla was secretly a [Spearman], she couldn’t use the card anyways. Truth be told, Rowan should have fused the card. It was the only common card in his cardholder and he had dozens of different uncommon and rare options. But, for some odd reason, he kept it.
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“Okay, I see what we’re working with here. Before we start, I suggest you take a close look at your card. Remember how using it felt. Read through its description. It’ll all be very important,” Camilla said.
Confused but unwilling to go against the mother of the girl currently eying him from the corner of her eye, Rowan did just that.
Empowered Thrust (Common) (Active)
Empower the thust of your spear using mana, increasing its destructive potential.
It wasn’t a complicated card. Rowan could remember the joy he felt when he first received it at his true beginnings as a hero. And it had served him more than well.
With those memories was the feeling of how mana would move inside of him when using Empowered Thrust. It would swirl around his chest, flow into his arms, and leap onto the spear. Rowan grabbed the spear next to him and tried to follow the same pattern without the card equipped. The mana was surprisingly obedient for the first two steps, but when he tried to pour it into the spear, there was only a shower of sparks.
Rowan couldn’t help it. He scowled.
He knew he now had a stronger, higher-tier card. But the fact that he missed his old one didn’t go away. It was just the way he was with things he liked. He clung to them and hoarded them until he was forced to give them up or they broke apart completely.
“I see that look in your eyes. What would you do if I told you that you can try and salvage that card from just languishing in your cardholder?” Camilla asked, and he saw the other three pairs of eyes in the carriage widened.
“What’s the catch?” Rowan asked.
“Well, if the process fails, the card will be either ruined or destroyed. One shot at improvement or completely losing your card. I can explain how it would work and what to do, but you’ll need to decide whether you want to do it on your own."
He mulled that over for a second. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“Splendid! Now, you have to understand one thing first. Class cards are special. The system operated on the assumption that you’d only get one, and that it’s special to your class in one way or another. Do you know why class cards don’t evolve or disappear when you rank up?”
“Because no other cards do that?” Rowan offered.
Camilla laughed gently. “Yes and no. The main reason, as far as we can tell, is to give us room to experiment and find our own individual path. You see, unlike other cards, class cards don’t need to be fused with only their own copies. So long as you can find compatible cards, you can use them to upgrade your class cards. But there’s no guarantee you’ll be happy with the fusion.”
“So I could end up with a useless card regardless?”
“Of course. It’s a science. What do you hope to upgrade your card to? What cards are you feeding into the upgrade? How do each of those cards interact with your class card? All of these are things that will impact success.”
“There’s another problem,” Rowan interrupted. “I don’t have any other spear cards.”
“And we will fix that. How many common scrap pieces do you have?”
“A couple hundred?” Rowan pulled out a small sack that he had been using to carry the card shards. “Maybe more.”
“One thousand, two hundred and thirteen,” Olivia said.
For a moment, Camilla looked proud of her daughter. “Okay, take out eight of them. Put your hand in contact with the piece, and then focus not just on the idea of starting up a fusion, but also about how it feels to wield a spear.”
Rowan followed the instructions and found a new system prompt greeting him.
Eight scrap pieces required, initiate fusion with [Spear] as the designated preferred trait?
Y/N
--
Emanation Spear (Common, Active)
Ignite an orb of mana on the tip of your spear, illuminating the space around it.
“It is possible to pay a gratuitous fee to the system for the sake of narrowing down the results of your fusion attempts,” Camilla explained. “However, the results are not fully guaranteed and you’re using many more scrap pieces for each fusion.”
“That doesn’t matter! This is incredible!” Rowan exclaimed in excitement, a radiant smile on his face. If that sort of thing worked at every tier, then the possibilities were nearly limitless.
“Oh, I’m afraid that very much matters.” Camilla stared at the card that Rowan had just created even though its back was turned to her. “You focused on the idea of spear and got a card that just lights up the top of your spear. Let’s do another experiment. Try adding another variable. Try thinking about dealing damage.”
Sixteen scrap pieces required, initiate fusion with [Spear] and [Damage] as the designated preferred traits?
--
Cruel Spear (Common, Passive)
Your attacks with a spear deal more persistent damage, which resists healing and treatments by a minor amount.
“Sixteen,” Rowan muttered, quickly seeing where things were going.
“Yes and you got only a moderately useful card. A passive one. Now, if you wanted to specify that the skill should be active, it would be another doubling in cost. If you want to specify it should use mana, another doubling of the cost, so on and so forth. So long as you know the exact card you want and what characteristics to focus on, you’ll be able to get it. It just won’t be cheap or easy.”
“At least it’s not entirely random,” Rowan said, refusing to give up.
“And you’d be right. A second bonus is that you have enough card scraps to test things out for yourself. So let’s try fusing another eight spear cards. Do whatever attributes you think would be useful.”
A couple minutes later, Rowan found his enthusiasm considerably dampened. When he tried getting more specific with his fusion requirements, it began to burn through scrap at a rate of thirty-two or even sixty-four scraps at once. And the results were still a bit more average than he hoped.
Cruel Spear (Common, Passive) x3
Your attacks with a spear deal more persistent damage which resists healing and treatments by a minor amount.
Mana Infusion (Common, Active) x4
Infuse your weapon with mana, and then deal a much more devastating blow.
Piercing Spear (Common, Active) x2
Imbue your spear with mana, allowing it to achieve much greater penetrative power.
If anything, Rowan was learning how strong class cards were. Empowered Thrust was equal to the three spear cards combined. And instead of taking up three slots in his deck, the class card only took one.
“And now, it’s time to upgrade your class card,” Camilla said from the side.
For a few tense moments, Rowan didn’t want to upgrade his class card. It twinkled in the sun as he held it in front of him. A second hand joined his and when he looked up, Rowan saw Olivia with a small but supportive smile.
Do you want to fuse [Class] Empowered Thrust (Common, Active) with the following cards:
Cruel Spear (Common, Passive) x3
Mana Infusion (Common, Active) x4
Piercing Spear (Common, Active) x2
Y/N
Rowan hit the yes button, and like always, the phenomenon of fusing even the lowest tier of cards took his breath away. White transitioned to green as light erupted from the fusion and let out his breath when the card appeared intact instead of destroyed.
And like Empowered Thrust, the new class card was simple and straight to the point. Honestly, the system was almost too straightforward with the class card descriptions.
[Class] Essential Thrust (Uncommon, Active)
Imbue skill and mana into your spear, improving its damage output and its destructive potential.
“Congratulations," Camilla said. “Now you have an important decision to make. Do you risk everything for a chance to get a rare class card? Or do you stop here? You have enough scrap cards, but if you fail, then the class card is gone forever.”
Rowan thought about it and then tucked the card into his cardholder. “I’ll stop.”
—
Over the next two and a half weeks, Rowan found ways to distract himself and even fell into a pleasant routine. He’d chat with his party members in the morning, learn various lessons about the cards from Camilla, and then round off the day with some quick training to keep his skills sharp.
He’d even managed to sneak a couple of quiet moments alone with Olivia whenever they stopped. Though every time he came back to the carriage, he always found Camilla eyeing their way.
And then they were finally drawing close enough to the town to see signs of destruction.
Ironically, he could almost track the path that the demons had taken. To the left of the town was a swamp of black puddles that released their stench into the air. Either no one had bothered to do anything about the issue, or the puddles were so deadly that they couldn’t be cleaned. Rowan had a suspicion it was the former.
The town itself was proof of that. At some point, it had been a sprawling, almost magnificent thing. The walls towered into the sky, wrought out of some grey-black stone that sparkled under the sunlight like a beacon. But half of the walls were now missing and anyone could see the buildings within the town in only slightly better repair.
At least that was the case for the outer sections of the town.
As the group entered the town, Rowan realized that there was more to Rest’s Remorse than met the eye. Unlike the baron’s village, someone had built the town with purpose. All the homes were laid in a grid and the streets met sharp, straight angles. There were grates at intervals along the road, which Rowan assumed to mean some kind of a sewer system. It was obvious that the city was a love child of some obsessive engineer, and that they’d gone all out during the planning stage.
The inner sections of the town were mostly intact, with a rare bit of damage here and there. Fighting had definitely happened within the town but it seemed that the defenders had mostly kept the demons to the outer parts. In fact, houses past a certain point were still in pristine condition.
As they wound their way through the streets towards the ruler’s residence that towered over the rest of the town, Rowan was starting to feel cautiously optimistic. And then he saw the welcoming party.
In front of the carriage was a host of mercenaries. Or the most irregular army that Rowan had ever seen. The men wore an array of different armors, some blue and others red. It was definitely good metal, just not standardized. And at the head of the group was a giant, his hand already on his sword.
“Troublemakers,” Camilla sighed when she saw the sight. She gently stepped out before the carriage even fully stopped. She held her head high as she faced down the mercenaries. “What, exactly, is happening here?”
The lead mercenary scoffed. “I’ll tell you what’s happening. What’s happening is that you seem to think you’ll just come around and chase me out of my brand-new home. Well, lady, that’s just not how things are done around here.”
Even without his speech, the way the mercenary spat the word ‘lady’ clued Rowan into the trouble they were facing. It wasn’t going to be easy settling into Rest’s Remorse.