It might have been from the adrenaline and everything finally starting to fade away after the harrowing night that he’d experienced, but as he made his way back to the inn room he had, Leo began to feel heavy and sluggish. It felt off, and unnatural, like he recognized the beginning stages of a cold before it really got going. As he stepped into his inn room, he decided to see whether or not it would reflect on his stat window.
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: E (0/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (0/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
E
Intuition: D- (0/10)
Status
Health 100% Mana 100% - Earth Toxicity 15%
Will: E- (8/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage
Luck: D (0/10)
What he saw when he pulled up his stat window gave him pause. He hadn’t seen anything about earth toxicity or any of the elements for that matter. He tried to think of where it might have come from. His first thought was the slash across his back from the darkling’s claws during the fight, but he figured that he would have felt it immediately if that were the case. After a while, he managed to come up with this toxicity being a result of the Stoneskin potion.
He supposed that consequence free magic potions were wishful thinking on his part, but given what he’d seen of magic so far - from Axilya’s metal manipulation and to the recent display of pyromancy from Rize, neither of them had said anything about toxicity, so maybe it was specific to the potions he made and other things that he mixed together. He’d have to ask Zumra about it later, since he wasn’t in the best state to think too deeply about it, tired as he was. He didn’t feel great, but he also didn’t think it was actively killing him given that his health was still full.
He sank into his bed and fell asleep almost immediately. As he expected, when he woke up next, it was well into the afternoon. He felt a lot better getting up and when he checked his status again to monitor the Earth toxicity, he found that it had faded away while he was sleeping. He guessed that lower numbers were better when it came to negative statuses, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. He got some food that he could eat while on the run and booked it to Sir Verakith’s estate. As much as he wanted to, he’d have to visit Zumra’s shop later to ask about the toxicity in potions, though maybe Rize would be able to tell him.
He found the rush from his inn room to Sir Verakith’s home much easier than before, which he could probably blame on his recently raised Fortitude. That really gave him the idea of focusing on it going forward, but he knew he’d only been barely able to consider himself ‘fit’ before he was brought here. Would his stats improve over time without putting Karma into them? There was so much about this place he didn’t know, he was kind of surprised that he hadn’t done anything to accidentally get him killed yet, and all that tutorial he went through did was put him in contact with someone who kind of knew what she was doing, and he considered himself lucky he didn’t part ways with her immediately after getting out.
He’d have to put together another list of questions that he wanted to ask her, the mysterious figures he’d seen in the woods looking into the darklings being near the top of the list. Before he could really get into which questions to ask, however, he reached Sir Verakith’s home, and found Rize standing at a distance away, watching someone who stood in front of the door and occasionally knocking very loudly. He was dressed in a long, stylish black coat, and also sported wavy black hair that fell down to his shoulders.
Keeping his eye on this man as he walked up to Rize, Leo asked. “Did he get here before you?”
“Indeed he did.” Rize answered. “And he’s been banging on Sir Verakith’s door for a while. I for one did not fancy another scolding by association, so I elected to stay back.”
Leo chuckled and cleared his throat, knowing very well that it was his knocking that got them yelled at by the knight the previous day. A sudden shift in movement drew his attention back to the man at Sir Verakith’s door, as he ran his hands through his hair, let out an audible groan, and turned before swiftly walking off.
He noticed the two of them standing there. He had to, but he paid them no mind as he walked by. Leo managed to get a look at his face, he was young, maybe around Leo’s age. At least he looked as much. Leo himself couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing and why he was so frustrated over the lack of response from Sir Verakith, but not nearly enough to ask. As he passed by, Leo shrugged and said “Damn, Keanu, where’s the fire?” He said it at an even tone, at a volume where realistically only Rize should have been able to hear him, but the man stopped mid-step, turning his head to look back at the two of them with a blank expression.
Maybe I should just stop speaking out loud. Leo thought. The last thing he wanted at this moment was to get into a fight with someone outside of Sir Verakith’s house. However, what he actually said completely shattered Leo’s expectations. “Reeves?
It took Leo a moment to put two and two together. This guy recognized the joke he’d been making. “Y-yeah. Holy shit. You kind of look like him from a distance but-”
“Are you from Earth?” He asked, taking the words right out of Leo’s mouth before he could say them himself. The grin that appeared on Leo's face must have answered the question for him, because the man’s shoulders slumped and he let out a deep breath, as if the moment forced him to relax. “I didn’t think they’d send anyone from earth out here. It’s-” He paused, clearing his throat before continuing on. “-disfavored. It could easily become dangerous for anyone new to the Labors.”
“You sound like you’ve been here a while.” Leo noted, deciding to appraise him.
Warning! This user has a skill that hides parts of their statistics from prying eyes.
Name:
Layne Blackburn
Title
Second Life Swordsman
Class
Soul Sunderer
Element
Aether
Total Rank
D+
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There were a lot of interesting things about what Leo saw, the fact that he had a skill to hide his stats among them. The thing that drew his attention the most, though, was the fact that his element was Aether. Leo had been appraising people who at least looked human around him, and most of them had no element to them whatsoever.
“I have, it’s been…” Layne said, trailing off as if he was trying to remember how long it had been. Leo understood, he had a hard time comprehending that he’d only been here a few days. “A little over a year, give or take. My name’s Layne, by the way.”
“Leo.” He replied, pointing a thumb back at Rize. “That’s Rize if you were wondering. And yeah I’m new, very new, and I’ve already seen some crazy shit. Which is why we’re here at the moment, among other things. What about you?”
“I have some business with the knight here.” Layne answered. He didn’t seem willing to go into detail, but before Leo could decide if he wanted to press, the sound of a door opening and groan drew all of their attention to Sir Verakith, squinting as his eyes settled on the three of them.
“What do you want? Surely you two haven’t completed a quest already.”
“We have.” Rize answered. “But that’s not the entire reason we’re here. We found something we think you should know about.”
The knight gave her a blank stare for a few seconds before he sighed. “Fine. Whatever. What about you?” He said, looking at Layne. “Were you the one banging on my door earlier?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Sir Verakith.” Layne said. “I’ve come to learn a specific technique from you, and I know that you don’t usually teach it, so I’ve had something specially prepared for you.”
Sir Verakith brought a hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Another one. Fine, come on. Stop standing around outside my house and get in here.”
He had them come inside, and to the knight’s credit, he had cleaned up quite a bit in the time that Leo and Rize hadn’t seen him. Sitting in the same space they had last time, Sir Verakith gave them the floor to speak first, leaving Layne’s request for later. With that, they went into detail about their quest and what they found, focusing primarily on the massive amount of Darklings gathering in the nearby woods at night. Leo left out his sighting of the kitsune and the conversation he had with the mysterious, likely S ranked laborer, since the Darklings and the potential for the destruction they could cause took precedence. They also talked about their flight from the group of darklings chasing them and their fight, which was where Leo had to reveal to Layne that he was a Mixer, if he didn’t already know.
Occasionally, Leo would glance over toward Layne, while they were explaining, and his face was set. He didn’t seem to have a strong reaction, and it made Leo wonder exactly what he’d been dealing with after being a laborer for a year. At one point, he seemed lost in thought, almost like he’d pieced something together after hearing about the darklings.
Once they finished, Sir Verakith leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep sigh before taking a swig of something from a nearby bottle. “Yeah, that’s a problem. I’ve got people I can let know about it before they sneak up on us, but I should probably head out now. Good job for completing the quest and all, but I probably won’t be able to start training you until tomorrow at the earliest.” With that out of the way, he looked toward Layne. “What about you? You seem like you know what you’re doing, just looking at you, so you must be here for something serious.”
“Yes.” Layne answered. “I know that you’ve rarely taught this to anyone, and that this request is going to seem a little strange, but I’d like to learn the final form of the Stormcloud Saber Art. I’ve learned from others, bits and pieces, but my knowledge of the Collapsing Storm Dance is incomplete. You are the only one in all of Heom who could teach me.”
As Layne spoke, Leo noticed Rize’s ears twitch at the name ‘Stormcloud Saber Art’. It certainly sounded fancy to Leo, and he did want to know a bit more, it sounded cool as hell to him, but given that he was only there to learn how to use a sword properly to begin with, anything like that was likely going to be way over his head.
Sir Verakith, who’d been silent for several seconds, finally spoke up. “You two. I’ll take what you said to the city’s guard, but I’m gonna need you to get out. This isn’t something I prefer to discuss with company.”
Rize looked like she wanted to protest, but decided against it. “Very well. I suppose we’ll start coming later for our training. Shall we get going, Leo?”
“Right.” Leo stood with Rize, though he glanced back at Layne. “We should keep in touch though. I don’t know if you need any potions or anything, but I hang around another Mixer’s shop pretty frequently. The name’s Zumra’s Mixes. The shopkeep will have to do until I can get something like a friend’s list.”
“You can get a phone from the shop.” Layne answered, which made Leo’s eyes widen. “The cheapest models will go for a few hundred credits. I can give you my number later.”
With that, they left, before Leo started asking more questions than any of them had time for. Since they had some time left in the day, Leo and Rize decided that he’d start the basics of learning magic for the few hours they had. While they were heading to his inn room, he checked the shop to find a fair number of phones and many other communication devices.
He supposed he should have expected that, from when he looked at the cars earlier. He supposed he’d been put off from looking at anything even remotely modern when cars went for hundreds of thousands or even millions of credits.
Whatever the case, he’d still have to sell potions for a bit longer in order to afford anything, but he could rack up a good amount of credits while learning both magic and swordplay, he might be able to survive the next time he actually went on a quest.
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: E (0/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (0/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
E
Intuition: D- (0/10)
Status
Health 100% Mana 100%
Will: E- (8/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage
Luck: D (0/10)
Skill: Combine
Mix different raw materials into a new item. You choose the shape of the form. Final form is affected by rank and element of materials.
Store Combine results into a mental guidebook that grows based on Intellect rank.
Skill: Auto-Loot (Mixer)
Automatically separates mixable materials from slain creatures. If the [Storage] skill is active, automatically places loot into storage space.
Skill: Appraise (Mixer)
Look at a creature or material and gain information on them. Information includes: Rank, Element, Class, Statuses, Titles. May have difficulty appraising creatures of higher rank, or creatures hidden by another skill or effect. Skill affect boosted by Intuition Rank.
Skill: Storage (Mixer)
Creates an inter-dimensional storage space that only you can access. Storage increases with Total Rank
Storage
Animated Bone (E-Rank, Dark)
Basic Short Sword,
Large Shell (E-Rank, Water)
Basic Shield
Drowned Heart (C-Rank, Water)
Sigil of the Drowned
Scorched bone (E-Rank, Fire)
Blooming Oovina 3x (E-rank, Aether)
Petrified Bone (E-Rank, Earth)
Moonlit Blooming Oovina 2x (D-rank, Aether)
Deepgold Coin (E-Rank, Metal)
Soul Husk (C-Rank, Aether)
Darkling Stone Heart 2x (D-rank, Earth)
Darkling claws 10x (D-rank, Dark)