When Marc came to, the rain had stopped. He saw as the canopy overhead passed by on its own, and a quick look around told him that he was being carried on a wheelbarrow. The Sack Man was carrying it behind him, leaving Marc to look at the space disappearing behind. Then, the bolts of pain rang across his torso, and attempting to return from the twisted position resulted in more.
Marc smiled despite the pain. He lived.
It seemed the others didn’t know that he was awake just yet. They were probably nice given he wasn’t left behind, but there was something he wanted to do first. He thought back to the System he was still waiting for, and after a brief period of concentration, a tablet appeared in front of him once more.
MENU
> NOTIFICATIONS
> CHARACTER DETAIL
> INVENTORY
> BOONS
> REQUIREMENTS
> ACTIVE EFFECTS
> MISCELLANEOUS
Marc clicked the notifications, figuring that anything truly important would be there.
NOTIFICATIONS:
3min ago: You have recovered from {INCAPACITATED}. Gained status {WOUNDED}.
3hr ago: You have wandered far and wide. You gain 1 instance of {Sightseeker}.
1d ago: You have recovered from {SUMMONING SICKNESS}.
1d ago: System loading complete. Settings available.
1d ago: Repeated use of {Survivalist} has increased its potency.
2d ago: You have recovered from {DAZZLED}
2d ago: You have been healed. You have recovered from {DYING}. Gained status {INCAPACITATED}.
2d ago: You sustained a vital injury. Gained status {DYING}.
2d ago: You have gained a Class Boon. {ESTRANGE}
2d ago: Experience is at 100%. You have reached level 5. {INFO}
2d ago: Experience is at 100%. You have reached level 4. {INFO}
2d ago: Experience is at 100%. You have reached level 3. {INFO}
2d ago: Experience is at 100%. You have reached level 2. {INFO}
2d ago: You have slain Tailed Gargantula. Experience gained. Additional Experience granted for defeating a high-level foe. Additional Experience granted for defeating a high-echelon foe.
2d ago: An item in your possession has been destroyed.
Well, that certainly gave some insight as to what had happened over the previous 2 days. “Four Levels isn’t bad” he muttered under his breath, before realizing that there were other people around to hear him. Thankfully they didn’t, and Marc tapped on the Info buttons by the level ups, before going to the Character Details.
LEVEL 2:
RSL - 18 + 1
FCS - 15 + 1
MGT - 14 + 1
FNS - 10 + 1
LCK - 6 + 0
LEVEL 3:
RSL - 19 + 2
FCS - 16 + 1
MGT - 15 + 1
FNS - 11 + 0
LCK - 6 + 0
LEVEL 4:
RSL - 21 + 1
FCS - 17 + 0
MGT - 16 + 1
FNS - 11 + 0
LCK - 6 + 0
LEVEL 5:
RSL - 22 + 1
FCS - 17 + 2
MGT - 17 + 0
FNS - 11 + 1
LCK - 6 + 0
BOON GAINED:
ESTRANGE
Activated by suffering [Melee] damage
Forces the activating object away, reducing damage taken by up to [5%]
[5%] chance to negate all damage.
After use, cannot be activated again for [1 Minute]
Effect improves with Resilience.
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NAME: Marcus H. Green
RACE: Outsider
CLASS: Wanderer
LEVEL: 5/50 (21%)
ECHELON: 1
HEALTH: Critical
ABILITIES:
RSL - 23
FCS - 19
MGT - 17 (+2)
FNS - 12
LCK - 6
ACTIVE EFFECTS:
[WOUNDED] (Mortal)
Halves time until death while {DYING}
Removed automatically when healed above 90%.
He looked at the new Boon, Estrange. It helped him to not get hit as much, and he could only imagine that it would be useful for throwing people off balance at the least. Hopefully he didn’t need to use it against another giant spider anytime soon.
The levels he gained were nice. 4 at once was a shock, but given that it was high level, and high “echelon”, whatever that meant, did explain it. In most games Marc had played, the amount of experience gained was relative to the action performed. The more difficult, the faster you leveled up.
“Hey, Barry. I think he's up.” Marc heard a female voice from behind him. The wheelbarrow stopped where it was and the Sack Man walked around to look at him.
The Sack Man, now known as Barry, looked. . . Young. College age at most, with no facial hair at all. He was pale, with blue eyes, light brown hair, and a few freckles. He had an excited grin on his face, as the other three joined him.
The Hunter was next, hood down. She was probably closer to Marc's age, and had a thin scar across her right cheek. Her eyes were brown, but there was a solid ring of green right around the pupil. Her hair was darker brown than Marc's, and she was far more tanned than any of her companions.
Then was the unconscious man, whose face he could actually look at without the mask on. While Barry and the Hunter would fit in at Marc's high school, he would stand out. He was tall, easily above 6 feet, but lithe as a swimmer. His unblemished skin was a mixture of light gray and purple, and his face was thin and angular, coming to pointed ears. His gray eyes were almost unnaturally light, and his pupils were pinpoints even in the shade. Even his bone white hair made him more. . . Off. He looked entirely alien to anyone Marc had ever seen.
Lastly was the person who must have been the Knight, and the owner of the voice. Without her armor, he didn't recognize her, but the other three were obvious enough. She was taller than all except the alien, but was far more normal in appearance. Pale skin, red hair, green eyes, but with a number of scars across her face. She looked down on Marc as if she was judging him, and had a sheathed weapon in her hand, ready to be drawn.
The alien spoke up, in an equally unusual accent, “You’re awake. Good to see. Thanks for not letting me die.” Each sentence was short and simple.
Marc looked at him, stuttering, “Y-yeah. Uh, where am I? A-and who are you all?”
The hunter replied, “I'm Helen, Ranger. That's Nico, our Sapper, and the noble steed pulling your carriage is our Pyromancer, Barry. The Blood Knight here is a Daughter of Fray.” Helen looked skyward before turning back to him continuing, “We’re about a half day's journey from Grand Vale, so we'll be there by sundown.”
Marc knew the name of where he was going. Shame he didn't know what it meant, “What-what state is that in? Or country?” Helen closed her eyes in a look of exasperation. “Not my fault I don’t know where I am” Marc thought.
Nico and Barry looked at each other and the Fray person’s eyes narrowed, before Barry interjected, “We’re in the Sage Lands, if that helps? Just west of the Six Hills, bit southwest of Fray territory.”
It did not help. Though knowing that apparently this knight had territory (or one of her parents did) was good information to have for later.
Then, the knight spoke, “You aren’t human. What are you?”
The other three turned to her in confusion, but her focus never shifted from Marc. Their eyes met, and it felt exactly like when Marc was young and had done something wrong he really didn’t want to admit to. Even back then, he didn’t have the willpower to resist fessing up for too long.
“Apparently I’m an, uh, outsider? Not entirely sure what that means but. . .” The others stared at him as Marc trailed off. It was like he had grown a second head. “What did I say?”
Fray looked at him with disdain. “I told you he wasn’t human. Lets do this quick, I have a Banishing-”
Barry looked at her, “What? Angels are Outsiders too. He could be-”
“Angels announce themselves, Barry. What if he’s a demon?”
“He helped us, and he’s been knocked out for the last day!”
“And we don’t know if he’s planning something. Can you prove he doesn’t mean harm?”
“Nico, Helen?”
Nico had stepped closer, and was fishing through a bag at Barry’s prompting. He turned to the knight. “Fray, let us do this. We can banish him after if we need.” He then said an unlistenable garble of words, and Marc’s wheelbarrow was grabbed by newly formed, and quickly hardening mud.
The other two stepped back and seemed to be continuing their argument, though far quieter. At the very least, they weren’t trying to overpower the other’s words.
Helen calmly took out a dagger, and walked over to Marc. Noticing his concern, she crouched down and said, “I'm testing your blood. We’ll know exactly what kind of outsider you are soon..” She cut into Marc's shoulder, which stung way more than it looked like it should. Like the knife was pre-soaked in lemon juice. His blood started pooling up, but she wasn’t doing anything with it just yet.
Nico opened a bag and raised his hand over it, when a small leather bundle popped out. He unrolled it, revealing a number of simple metal tools and bottles. They didn't look any more complex than butter knives, but given the magic Marc had seen in his last waking hour, he could only guess what they did. He handed three to Helen, who brought them over to Marc again.
She turned to the two embedded party members, “Alright Fray, Barry, if the first one burns, he's a demon. Solar Silver hurts all fiends except one small group, which number two checks, and then number three double checks if he's an angel”.
She smacked the fancy metal butterknife on Marc’s face and held it there. It felt warm for metal, but not burning. “Well, I'm not a demon” he said. The second was an exceedingly pale metal, and looked like it came straight from a refrigerator. He pulled a way a bit at the sudden cold, but let it sit against him for long enough to know he was certainly not a Demon. The third, seemingly some kind of wood, hit his face and had similar effects, namely, nothing. “Or an angel.”
At this point, Helen took a piece of paper and pushed it against his shoulder, allowing the blood to soak in and stain it. When the blood began moving in the paper, Marc's eyes went wide. It took on a shape, an empty ring with wisping spirals reaching in towards the center.
“Alright, that's. . .the Esoteric symbol I think, right Nico?”
“I think so. Its not any that I recognize, so not Profane.”
Fray spoke from several feet away, “What is an Esoteric Outsider doing here?”
Barry asked, “Does it matter? And what even is an Esoteric Outsider?”
They all looked to Marc as he tried to shrug, but the now solid mud prevented movement. “You all have a better guess than I. Last thing I remember was visiting my sister's house for dinner and getting back home past midnight. I don’t even know what an Outsider is.”
Helen and Nico started speaking to each other in a quick back and forth, backs turned to the other three.
“So are you thinking. . ?”
“Helen, they're fake. Like Psychics”
“Well he's not part of the Dominion.”
“Surely there's more than those options”
“Nicolas, I'm a skeptic too, but just because they're stories doesn't mean they're fake”
“And just because they're popular doesn't mean they're real. He could be. . .” Nico trailed off.
Barry and Fray were wondering what they were saying, telling each other that they should learn the language too. Marc asked them what they meant, before being told they were speaking Elvish, that neither of the other two knew. It also connected some dots: Nico was an Elf.
“They're talking the same language as before though?” It sounded the same to Marc. He figured that other languages would still sound different, even with his Outsider boon. The two speaking said other language heard what was being discussed, and looked at the three. Helen nodded towards Nico, who sighed.
He once more said the not-words that seemed to signify a spell. The mud grabbing his wheelbarrow became liquid once more and let go of him. Helen, then, walked up to him and handcuffed him to said wheelbarrow.
“Here’s the compromise. We can’t prove anything, but if we get back to Grand Vale, the Slayer’s Society has more information. I have a friend there that knows a whole lot more about the Esoteric than we do, and can do a ritual. In return, Fray, don’t kill Guy until we get there, yeah?”
When the two remaining members agreed, Barry walked around to the handles and picked them up. Fray pulled out a rusty coin, and looked to Helen for approval. When she got it, she tossed it onto Marc’s chest, which he barely felt. When he didn’t react, she shrugged, and Helen walked to the front of the group. She’d be following behind the party, watching Marc for the rest of the journey.