The village looked new. There was a wooden palisade wall around it and a wooden watch tower. There was a guard at the gate. I felt the guard uniform was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I had already used Spectral Cloak to subtly change some of my facial features and lighten my hair.
“Good day to you,” I greeted, and then I realised these were the first words to another person that I had spoken in two months. I almost teared up. Civilisation at long last. Even if this was the smallest and newest village ever, it contained people.
“Welcome,” was the gruff reply. “We need to record some details. Name, please. Where are you coming from, and what are you carting?”
“Sure,” I replied. Do I use my real name? What is the likelihood he has Truth Sensing or similar? “The name is Marvin Omma, and I was dumped by a wandering Trial about a day and a half away. Where am I?”
The guard’s face showed some sympathy. “This is Pyrewatch, a village administered by Duke Lewis Al’dross, of Aldrossford.”
“Right,” I said, the uniform clicking in my mind, “So I am still in the Al’verren Kingdom then.” That was bad and good. The Al’dross are right out near the edge of the kingdom, but I thought he was a Baron.
“No, sir, you are not in the kingdom. The Duke has split from the kingdom, and this is now an independent Al’rashian territory.”
My heart sank at that news. No, no, no. I am in the territory of another mad Al’rashian dictator with visions of establishing a kingdom, and here I am carrying the Raiment of an ancient Al’rashian Monarch.
I kept all that from my face, “Right, well, we will leave the politics to those with the Noble Class. Where can I get a good meal or three and a soft bed for the night?”
“The only place is the Roasting Rabbit. They have a few bunks available. I will need to have a look in your wagon if you don’t mind.”
He would do that even if I did mind. I showed him the wagon and told him about the people whose gear it was.
“If you want to report the deaths to the next of kin, that is free here in Al’Dross, but the nearest place to do that would be Aldrossford, which is a week's travel back in the direction you came from.”
“Thanks, Sarge. I will get to it in due course. It has been two months, so a few more weeks will not make much of a difference.” I wasn’t actually planning to get around to it. My plan was to get a good meal or three, lay low, sell some unremarkable stuff to lighten my load and get out of here into the wilds. Plus, there was probably a bounty out on me, and as soon as I used my Adventure Society ID it would locate me for any interested bounty hunters and the Immortals. I hadn't set foot in an Adventure Society building for over two years now.
The Roasting Rabbit was a brick building and the only two-story building in the village. It was across the road from the lake, and there was a large open square next to it, which had stalls set up as a market.
I emptied all the valuables from the wagon, and a kid took it and the horses around to the stables.
“Afternoon,” was the cheery greeting from the bar, “I am called Mags. What can I get you?” The ground floor was a bar and kitchen with seating and a few tables dedicated to games of chance.
“Marvin,” I said, “I need a room for a couple of days and meals, thanks,” Mags was a homely woman.
“I'm glad to be of service. Room 2 is up the stairs on the right, and two meals a day are served at the standard rate. Are you here to challenge the Trial?”
“Ha,” I laughed, “Not likely. I have had enough of Trials. How far away is it?”
“It is right there,” she said, pointing at the lake through the window.
“What, you mean the lake?” She nodded. “Unusual,” I said. “What kind of trial is it?”
“A Trial of endurance,” she said.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Endurance, I don’t think I have heard of that before. Is there something you have to fight?”
“No. You just have to endure.” She looked at me. “It is called the Burning Lake.”
I winced.
She laughed, “Yeah, that reaction is common. It is obvious what you have to endure. Olaf in town did it and sang its praises. He is our local blacksmith. He never said what he got, but part of it was definitely Fire Resistance.”
“Not for me,” I said. “I just got out of a nightmare. I am not going back into one. I will have an ale, though.”
Mags poured me the drink, and I started pumping her for local gossip.
“Here,” she said, “You had better read these.”
The first was a book on classes and how to get them, including advanced classes. Some of my choices were listed, although Seeker wasn’t. This was banned information in the kingdom. Well, the Al’verran kingdom, anyway. I guess Duke Al’dross had different thoughts on the matter. I did know some of this. Information is there for those who want to find it. Thieves and Rogues sneak in and out of the kingdom, and there is talk. It was strange to see it laid out on paper in a plain, factual way. There was a lot more here than I had heard before. Maybe I could have got better advice.
The second piece of paper was a document written by a Cullen of Al’drossford, who was apparently a crystal-ranked adventurer. Crystal! They were the highest rank. I had a lowly, barely used copper rank token in my storage. It was one up from a newbie. After surviving the Trial, it may be upgraded to iron if I go to an Adventure Society to update it. Those quests I completed, as well as the Trial quest, will all count.
This Cullen doesn't mince his words, and he definitely has it out for the Al’verren King. The document was entitled “You Were Born Stupid, and You are doing it all wrong!” The first half of the essay rants against the Al’Verren kingdom and the restrictions of the classes and information in the kingdom. He has one hell of a grudge. I wonder if he is the one influencing Al’Dross to split from the Al’verrens. I hope they have an answer for the Al’verren Immortals. Good luck to them. I am not sticking around.
Once Cullen gets past his rant, he has some good things to say about how to do it right. How to level to get strong. I disagree with him when he says Trials are there to help you get stronger. Trials are definitely there to kill you and cheat you on your rewards. You get stronger by saying, “fuck you” to the trial and surviving anyway.
His other insights on trials and surviving in the wild are good. I steel myself because I realise that by taking the Seeker Class, I am almost certainly destined to go out in the wilds, away from the safe zones. That might be my intuition flaring, but it is going to be a big part of my life. I will need to go out there to find my bond.
I will need to make some mental adjustments. I have mostly operated in cities. After all, that is where the coin is. However, I have realised from the Trial, the Land of the Undying Lord, that there is a lot of coin to be made in Trials as well—not in the small, permanent trials but in the large wandering trials. My Storage is chock full of gold coins, weapons and skill and ability stones. The Trial might have been horrifying, but I came out rich.
If I am going to move on from stealing from Nobles and start stealing from Trials, then I am going to need a team—a strong team I can rely on. That is going to take some time to find, and I am not going to find it here in this tiny village. The best place to look for such a team is by delving into permanent trials and building trust. The biggest permanent trial close by is Al’drossford itself. I still want to avoid Al’rashians, so I need to find out about other independent places.
I guess I have a lot of skill stones for when I find the right team members. Maybe I will keep some of them, especially the ability stones. It is not like anybody around here has the coin for them anyway.
“Hey, Mags. Does anybody around here want to buy a wagon and a couple of horses?”
“I am pretty sure old Edrei from the general store was planning to get one next time he went to Slyhill.”
“Slyhill?” I asked,
“It is a town about three days away. It has a small permanent Trial. The Academy that trains Adventurers is there.”
Slyhill might be worth a visit. “I’ll talk to him, thanks.”
The tavern started to fill with the evening crowd, and I had their signature dish for dinner. I sat at the bar and just enjoyed the company. Being around people again was great. I had switched my armour out for normal clothes. The same outfit my Copy Image used by coincidence. I sat and enjoyed the banter and relaxed atmosphere and drank ale.
Then I went to sleep in an actual bed with a mattress. It was bliss.
The trouble was me. I was not used to sleeping more than an hour at a time, but with the bed, I made it to two hours.
I got up and went for a walk. I sat by the lake edge and thought some more. My solo days are definitely over. I am not doing that again. I need strong people with me. I’m not too fussed about roles, but they need to be survivors. That will take time. My Seekers Intuition might help.
I also need to take a page from that Cullen madman and get stronger. Right in front of me is a Trial. It's not a nice Trial, but none of them are. My Intuition is telling me there is something for me in this Trial. It is not a strong feeling. I don’t have to do it. The madman Cullen is right about seizing opportunities to grow; this is not a fighting trial, which is good.
I stand up. If I want a strong team, I will need to be strong.