The skills that he found would absolutely make what he wanted to do viable. Before he discussed them in depth, Hayumi seemed to read the room and decided to take her leave, with Kazato following after, but only to wait in the actual storefront of Zumra’s shop for all of them to visit Sir Verakith together.
With those two gone, Leo felt a bit more comfortable sharing the skills he had access to with Layne, Rize, and Axilya.
Skill: Replicate
Create an item that you have previously created using materials of a similar element. Final product will be lowered one rank due to Replication.
Skill: Inoculation
Ignore Toxicity gained from items created with the Combine skill.
Skill: Soul Harvest
By using Mana, automatically create Aether materials from slain creatures when you use the Auto-Loot skill.
Those three skills solved most of the problems he had with making mimicry abilities - he wouldn’t have to acquire hyper-specific materials to make things that he’s already made, he didn’t have to worry about toxicity from his own creations, and he could make Aether materials.
He could see things coming together, and the others helped him decide the order in which he could pick up the skills. Starting with Replicate.
“With that worked out, Leo, what are you going to do about Hayumi?” Layne asked.
“Hell if I know. She did come on pretty strong. I didn’t even get to ask before she left, but I don’t even know what she wants me for.” While he answered, Leo went back to putting Karma into his Intuition skill to raise it up, putting in the final A-Rank Karma to bring it up to D+ with 4/10. He then used a B-Rank Karma to increase it to 8/10, and the only C rank he had to bring it to C-.
Almost immediately, he got another notification.
You have obtained Total Rank D-
Mana Increased!
Skills Upgraded!
New Skill Available!
“Well, plenty of people want Mixers for how easily they can make things out of what you give them, but those are usually guilds with a bunch of people contributing.” Axilya chimed in. “Zumra’s gotten dozens, maybe hundreds of those kinds of requests. He’s only started getting the request to be someone’s personal mixer pretty recently, though.”
“It’s not too uncommon for high ranking Laborers to invest in lower ranks. Getting their hooks in early…” Layne said. “It’s something I’ve heard about, and doesn’t always end particularly well.”
“Hayumi already doesn’t have the best first impression, but Kazato seems alright.” Axilya said. “She told me that Hayumi’s letting her grow into her own as a Sword Saint while teaching her magic.”
“She’s learning magic from Hayumi?” Leo asked. Thinking back, Leo did see her slinging spells, or rather one spell in particular to summon the floating swords.
“Kazato will grow into a spectacular swordsman.” Layne commented, but quickly added. “-I think. I could tell from looking at her that she’s not slacking on her swordsmanship despite learning magic. And people who can work outside the bounds of their class will almost always excel, if they can make it to higher ranks.”
That last statement caused a silence to fall across the room for several seconds. While it did, Leo took the Inoculation Skill, then put the last four B-Rank Karma he had into Fortitude and Reflex respectively, giving him D- with 2/10 in Fortitude by putting three in, and 8/10 in Reflex but no rank increase. Still, it seemed like enough to bring him to yet another rank up.
You have obtained Total Rank D
Mana Increased!
Skills Upgraded!
New Skill Available!
He planned to do some testing with Intuition, but in the meantime he could even out the rest of his stats when he received more Karma. For the moment, he simply took Soul Harvest.
“In any case, she doesn’t seem the type to be manipulated, and I don’t think she’s being blackmailed either. All things considered, I don’t even think Kazato knows what Hayumi will want from her once she gets to a decent rank.” Layne said.
“Well, maybe I’ll just ask her.” Leo said. “Hayumi, I mean. She seemed forthcoming enough in admitting her mistakes to win me over, so maybe she’ll actually want to let me know what I’m in for.” He shrugged. “Either way, I think I’m healthy enough to make the walk to Sir Verakith’s.” At that, he shifted to start getting out of bed. “I just raised my Fortitude so I’m feeling better than ever.”
Layne stood up from his seat and shifted back to give Leo space. “I’ll take your word for it, just remember to pace yourself.”
They moved down to the main storefront, filled with customers browsing and making purchases, to Leo’s surprise. He spotted Kazato in the corner examining something, but he knew she was only waiting for them. While the others went to fetch her, Leo made his way to the counter where Zumra worked. “Ah, young Leonell, it pleases me to see you up and in good health.” The elf greeted warmly once he spotted Leo.
“Ah, right. Thanks for letting me rest in your room.” Leo replied. “Didn’t think this place would be so busy. Hasn’t it only been a little over a day?”
“That it has, I had the good fortune of being able to maintain my shop in the attack. I happen to sell a few things that would help the people of Normouth whose homes might have been damaged, among other things. Apologies for not also attending to you at your bedside, but you seemed to have a number of well-wishers already.”
“Good on you for getting the business. Do you need help again? The store’s pretty much full.”
“I appreciate the concern. I have a number of resources of this particular type stocked up, so I shouldn’t need any additional creations made. I suspect you are going out, so I’ll ask that you pay no mind to the…mess outside. Business started back up so quickly I haven’t had the time to clean.”
“Yeah sure.” Leo had no idea what he meant, but quickly found out once he bade Zumra farewell and made his way past the crowd of customers to leave the store with everyone waiting at the exit. Once he did see what Zumra meant, Leo could only blink in surprise. The surrounding buildings were covered in scorch marks, the cobblestones had cracks and sizable chunks blown away, and a few trees in the area were missing sizable limbs and large patches of leaves. “He really went all out here, huh.”
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“Part of why I wasn’t worried when he elected to defend his shop by himself.” Axilya noted, as they began the walk to Sir Verakith’s. “He didn’t last very long, but he did try his luck as the kind of Laborer that went out and killed things, like us. He might not fight every day, but he’s had nearly a decade to build up his shop to have a solution handy.”
He didn’t know if she intended to, but Axilya did give Leo some hope with that statement. If he managed to survive long enough to build up even a portion of the resources Zumra must have had on hand. Enough for him to not run out of bombs like he did against the darklings, or maybe enough to make more powerful items like whatever Zumra used right in front of his shop. He just needed to get there.
For the moment, he decided to get out of his own head and look around. He could see traces of the siege, marks of destruction across the city made by both the rampaging horde of darklings, and the people defending the city from them. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would go back to normal overnight, but spirits were up. The city’s people walked the streets, more often in a cheery or neutral mood than not, and the sound of hammers falling and other construction echoed through the city as people sought to repair the damage from the conflict.
Observing all of this, Leo finally glanced toward Kazato. “I’m not expecting you to tell me everything just because I asked, but since you’re working with Hayumi, do you even know what her goal for you is?”
“I’m not privy to the details.” Kazato replied with a shrug. “In the long term I think she wants to make a full guild, but that’s more speculation on my end. From what she’s told me, though, I know whatever she’ll want me to do with her has to do with her homeland. Which isn’t on Heom.”
“Her homeland…” Layne muttered, glancing down as if in deep thought.
Leo noticed the motion and glanced over just in time to see Layne’s eyes widen in surprise, as if he’d realized something, but decided to keep it to himself as he brought up his deadpan face once more. Leo held back a comment on it, opting to continue the conversation with Kazato instead. “So nothing concrete - er, solid? I gotta say as much as she wants me to work for her, keeping me in the dark about it is not doing her any favors.”
Kazato sighed, and Leo couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t exactly her job to sing her boss’s praises. “I know. I also opposed the whole ‘leaving the city to the darklings’ thing when she told me about it, but by the time I would have had the chance to say anything, we’d heard about the Eldritch Titan so there wasn’t much of a chance of keeping a solid force here anyway. In any case, she’s very crafty and doesn’t tend to make the same mistake twice. Do not mention that I said this to her, but I think not being able to deal with the matriarch by herself finally got it into her head that she can’t solely rely on her own plans and her own judgment. So I think she’ll want to listen to your input and not cook up any more crazy schemes like that any time soon.”
“Finally?” Leo questioned.
“She’s been doing this Laborer thing for a while - she’d have to be since very few people would ever start around A or B-rank, but I think she tried to exploit the system to get a better reward and nearly ended up losing Normouth over it. I don’t think it was out of malice or apathy for the people here, though.” Kazato said, crossing her arms. “If anything she seems…impatient? As if she’s rushing for something, trying to get stronger. I really do think this latest fiasco will cool her head, though.”
“Gotcha.” Having seen what a decently-ranked Mixer could do with a notable amount of stocked up resources, Leo understood the feeling of wanting to get stronger. “Thanks for that. It definitely helps me gather my thoughts about her offer.”
“No problem. Like I said though, don’t mention any of that to her, cause she’ll know you learned about it from me. She likes to tease. If you do start working for her, you’ll probably be the focus of it just from being new, but I don’t need any more reasons for her to shift it back to me.”
“Is it that bad?”
“...No. It probably isn’t. It’s her way of showing affection, I think. I’m just not good at dealing with it.”
He’d have to keep that in mind. “Noted. Changing the subject - she’s teaching you magic, right?” Leo asked, and continued on at Kazato’s nod. “Think she’d do the same for me? No offense, Rize.”
“None taken. She’s probably one of the better teachers you could ask for, given her rank. She’d also be able to teach you more than fire magic. Perhaps I should ask her for some guidance as well, since she’s also interested in me.”
“Getting so many new students will do wonders for her ego.” Kazato said.
“How about you, Layne?” Leo joked. “I know you’ve got that sword art and everything, can you even use magic?”
“I’ll pass.” Lanye replied. “I’d rather focus on learning another sword art.”
Leo shrugged, letting the matter drop, though Layne spoke of it like a sword art was something he could pick up a manual for at a local bookstore. Maybe Sir Verakith might have another for him to learn, or a direction to point him in. Leo couldn’t deny his interest, but given the fact that he hadn’t picked up the sword for a full month yet, somehow magic felt more accessible to him since he’d managed to learn a couple of exceedingly minor spells.
In short order, the party managed to reach Sir Verakith’s home without any issues.
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
Equalizer
Fortitude: D- (2/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (8/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
D
Intuition: C- (0/10)
Status
Health 100% Mana 100%
Will: E (0/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage, Replicate, Inoculation, Soul Harvest
Luck: D (5/10)
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 effect boosted by Intuition Rank.
Skill: Storage (Mixer)
Creates an inter-dimensional storage space that only you can access. Storage increases with Total Rank
Skill: Replicate
Create an item that you have previously created using materials of a similar element. Final product will be lowered one rank due to Replication.
Skill: Inoculation
Ignore Toxicity gained from items created with the Combine skill.
Skill: Soul Harvest
By using Mana, automatically create Aether materials from slain creatures when you use the Auto-Loot skill.