Chapter 3: Reflection and Bonds
“What the hell happened to him, Grim?!” Vetman’s face was in a state of pure frustration and emotion.
“I sat down in front of him and asked him a question and he started seizing up before passing out on the floor of the cart. He did seem rather shaken up after the battle, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.” Grim spoke in his usual aged and gravelly tone, slightly shaken from both the battle and the collapse of the mage he’d just met.
“Dammit, let’s bring him to the shop and get him in a bed so he can get his strength back, we can’t be entirely sure what’s going on with him so it may be wise to have a healer look at him as well.” Vetman says whilst rubbing his face to alleviate his nerves slightly.
“Sounds good boss, I’ll get his head something to rest on and a blanket from my travel pack until then.” Grim spoke before stepping back up and inside of the cart, rummaging through the travel pack he always packs camping supplies in, and pulls out two blankets. He moves slowly past the twins and towards the unnamed mage that had saved all of their lives, delicately lifting his head and placing a blanket underneath it and sprawling the other atop of his body before taking a seat in front of his comrades.
“What do you both make of him?” He asks plainly, wanting to address the elephant in the room, the mage had not uttered a word whilst casting such powerful magic, and on top of that his disposition after the fight only made him an evermore mysterious character to come into contact with.
Reeves spoke first, his armor gleaning a small crest unique to the individual guards, “I’m not sure what to make of it Grim, I just know that the way he used his magic is something only spoken of in stories. We’re all aware the significance of such a thing, how interested the nobility might be in-”
Grim waves his hand, cutting Reeves off before he can finish his statement, “That would be unacceptable and unthinkable. The man just saved our lives and you’re thinking about turning him into the nobility?!” He forces his anger to not break out into a yell, quelling it just enough to be as though someone is “yelling” at a game whilst trying not to wake their parents in the other room.
Reeves raises his hands up placatingly after having a small realization due to Grim’s small outburst, “Relax Grim, nothing like that, I was just trying to illustrate how big of a deal this is, we’ll have to question him further once he awakens from his nap.”
Just then, the group of men felt the cart roll to a stop before Vetman poked his head in from the front of the cart and spoke, “We’re here, go ahead and unload our friend there in the spare bedroom up stairs and we’ll open up shop as we wait for him to wake.”
“Sure thing boss.” Grim stated, glancing over at Reeves and his brother Rhein before giving them a nod and moving to lift the unconscious mage over his shoulder. Grim didn’t need to put in much effort in order to do so and followed the twins out of the cart and into the shop with a sign hung up reading: Vetman’s Goods.
It was a large shop within the interior of the city of Kalia, with two stories, fine woodworking and woodcarving inlaying detail into the building’s colorful pastel color pallet. It sits in between a large Smithy and a decadent tavern amongst many other finely constructed buildings along the expectedly expertly paved roads leading towards the noble district from the entrance and path they had taken to arrive.
Grim laid the mage down in the bed as Vetman had instructed, looking at him and contemplating the circumstances that the man had found himself in before taking a seat and using a fine stone to sharpen his sword due to the moderate damage it had taken along the blade during the battle.
[David POV]
My eyes slowly opened, feeling puffy and strained as I did so, before being met with a ceiling of wood construction. I contemplate where I could be for a moment before raising my head up and scanning the room. To the left side of my bed sat in a chair with his head and arms sprawled out on the table in front of him, the middle aged man I had spoken to before falling unconscious.
“Looks like he’s fallen asleep.” I mutter to myself quietly before recalling all of the events that had gone on in the last 24 hours of my life.
My heart drops as that recollection cements the idea that what I’ve just experienced was indeed real. I lay my head back down on the pillow and let out an exasperated sigh before being interrupted out of my thoughts by what appeared to be a game-like notification in the bottom right of my vision. I instinctively open it.
Name: David Bramberry
Level: 5
Class: Archmage - You are the bearer of magical knowledge and utility in this world, as a result you are able to comprehend the arcane script with relative ease.
HP: 500
Mana: 2500
Attribute Points Remaining: 50
Attribute List:
Int: 100
Willpower: 75
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 25
Charisma: 30
Skills:
Fire Bolt Lv. 2
Telekinesis Lv. 2
Mana Circulation Lv. 2
Active Effects:
Blessing of Greater Experience - Gained experience is 3x its normal value.
Blessing of Greater Attributes - The highest 3 attributes are increased by 1.25x.
Blessing of the Goddess Aurie - You have been blessed by the Goddess Aurie, resulting in the ability to speak the common human languages within the world of Naemira.
Blessing of Innate Understanding - You have been blessed with the innate understanding of fire bolt, lightning bolt, Frost bolt, Mark and Recall, Greater Healing, Physical Enhancement, and telekinesis.
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Item Box Inventory:
I look at the 50 points that I can allocate as well as the new skills that have shown up after the battle with the bandits. It looks like I’m receiving skills based on usage, but I can’t be entirely sure about anything with having no experience with this system. Thinking that, I decide that before allocating my attribute points I will have to see what kind of information I can get about the attributes themselves. The other thing catching my eyes is the new presence of numbers showing my pool of both mana and health points. I think about where my stats line up in the grand scheme of things for a moment, considering whether I might have an absurdly low amount of health and a normal amount of mana, or a normal amount of health and absurd amount of mana. I give up on the thought, seeing as it’s not particularly useful right now.
I hear some rubbing of clothes and weight shift on top of a wooden surface and glance over at the man who is now grumbling awake with a large yawn and a belch and scrunch my nose a bit before our gazes slowly meet each other. What ensues is a nearly 30 seconds long awkward staring contest before he breaks the silence with raised brows.
“I’m glad you’ve found yourself awake, mage. I know you’re probably confused about where you are or what happened so let’s start with introductions and work our way from there hey?” His voice comes out earnestly and smoothly despite the gravel underlying every inflection and sound.
I nod at him and he continues, “I am Grim, the head of Mr. Vetman’s guard. I’ve been enrolled in Mr. Vetman’s service since near the creation of his company. We grew up together as kids though the paths we took couldn’t have been more different as you can see. Since I’ve always been the one with a knack for getting into physical conflict, I took towards the simple yet honorable work of a guard whilst he had always been very quick witted and charismatic and along with his parent’s work as merchants followed their path. We separated for quite some time before he let me know that he was starting up his own company and asked me to help him out. The rest is pretty much history up until our meeting together.” He speaks in earnest once more, complimenting his words with his hands in kind and gesturing towards me after he completes his statement.
I smile slightly at the display before speaking, “I am David sir.” I say quietly, my voice not quite mustering the confidence from within me to speak any louder or more extensively.
“Pleasure to meet you David, I’m glad that we may be acquainted with each other…” He looks around for a moment and seems to be getting his bearings.
“Now, I’m sorry to ask this of you, but how much do you remember from the events that lead to you waking up in this bed?” He drags the chair he recently occupied for lodging and moves it next to the bed before taking a seat and resting a hand on my shoulder.
“Well, almost everything actually.” I say grimly, a frown visible on my face as my eyes break contact with his and look instinctively downwards towards the comforter over my legs as a much toned down state of shock radiates within me slightly.
“I see.” He looks serious and his face takes a somber shape, looking away from me before resting his eyes back on mine.
“I’m deeply sorry that you’re finding yourself weighed down so heavily. But truly you saved all of our lives, I get to see my wife and daughter again because of what you did.” His grip on my shoulder tightens slightly and I look up at him as his eyes begin to well up. “I would like for you to meet my family when you’re feeling up for it, I hope doing so might ease your mind that what you did was right.”
I look into his reddenning and welled up eyes as his grip becomes almost uncomfortably tight, thoughts racing through my mind as time seems to slow and I break eye contact only momentarily before returning and speaking, “I’d be honored to meet your family Mr. Grim.”
“I’m really glad you’ll do that. I find ” He looks down for a moment as his eyes begin to dry and a smile begins to form on his face.
“Now if anyone’s told me anything helpful about this, it’s that it’s best not to dwell on it. Let’s head down stairs and talk to Vetman about what we can do to compensate you for your efforts in saving our lives, that’s the least we could do given what you’ve done for us.” He explains calmly and concisely, before pointing to the door on the opposite side of the room from us.
We exited the stairwell into a medium sized room that was fully outfitted with all of the typical fixtures of a shop, display cases and shelves of miscellaneous products of various sorts marked and displayed with prices that were entirely divorced from scale, though as one of my blessings states, I am able to understand the letters just fine. Manning the counter near the front door stood Vetman buttering up a customer with seeming great effectiveness as shortly after the man was walking out of the door with product in hand and money in Vetman’s.
Mr. Vetman notices us walking towards him from the stairwell at the back of the room and his eyes light up momentarily before taking a more somber look and approaches with ill disguised haste. Mr. Vetman was a tall, rather skinny man with dark features, slightly wrinkled olive toned skin, and dark brown hair with grey streaks currently being held up in a bun of sorts. His brows furrowed and the lines around his forehead and eyes made themselves especially known as we got within comfortable talking distance, the awkward silence as we approached to do so was evident to all of us.
“I’m very glad to see you in good health Mr. Mage, I hope you were able to find some comfort inside of the guest room upstairs.” He speaks first with a distinct air of gratitude and genuine concern in his voice.
Both of the men look towards me as the await my response, “Thank you Mr. Vetman, the bed was quite comfortable and I’m definitely feeling quite a bit better than I was after the s-situation that…” I trail off as my mind begins to think back once more and my face unknowingly becomes one a mix of sadness and frustration.
“It’s o-okay, mage. You don’t have to trouble yourself with thinking about it now that you’re here. The city definitely has its problems, but no one is going to come to attack in broad daylight, nor are night attacks even likely in this area considering the patrol presence.” He starts not quite frantically, before seemingly entering into a ramble that’s as much directed at himself as it is at me.
“S-sorry. I’m shaken up by the whole thing too, we’ve never found ourselves in that bad of a way before.” He looks down grimly before continuing, “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Grayes Vetman, the owner of Vetman’s Goods, the merchant company I founded alongside Grim 25 years ago. I do hope that you will allow me to help you in any way I possibly can, for the service you have done for all of us is one of continued life, the most valuable gift anyone could give.” He speaks earnestly and emotionally, his voice straining slightly before he finishes his introduction with a rigid and swift bow not lifting until he hears my response.
“I’m glad to meet you but please raise your head!” I frantically spit out having never had anyone seriously bow in such a way before me.
He lifts his head with a slight look of relief and gratitude, “I am David Mr. Vetman, it’s a pleasure to meet you and thank you so much for your hospitality in my stay here.”
“My hospitality is only natural considering your deeds. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do at least this much. Now, if I was a betting man, I’d bet that you’re hungry right about now.” He says with a smile now overtaking his formerly more serious expression.
“I’d have to say that I’m glad I wasn’t betting against you Mr. Vetman.” I offer my concession and finally feel a smile start to dawn on me.
“Well, luckily enough for us, I know of one of the best restaurants in the city and that’s where we will be dining.” He smiles brightly after this declaration, and Grim seems to have a smile forming on his face as well.
“David, you’re going to love this place, it’s usually used as a meeting location for us with extremely high value business partners and other sorts, as he said it’s really some of the best in the city of Karalia and I’d even argue in the whole of the Kingdom of Entarra.” He gives me a smack on the back and after some discussion back and forth between Vetman and Grim about some merchant business or other, Vetman leads us out of the front door and into a carriage waiting outside.