Their guest making a ruckus was unexpected, but nobody let it bother them overlong.
They set up the camp as usual, and knew that as long as they kept the pace up tomorrow they’d still make it to the village which was their goal about the same day as originally expected, just later in the evening rather than midday.
There was plenty left to discover from all the recent capstones, and even the more distant group of travelers who they’d all gotten to know better over the course of the journey were getting involved.
The [Guild] mostly shared the Skills they did not have a clue about, since any information gleaned was just as important for themselves at that point, the ones that already fit right into their toolbox were safely tucked away as part of their Class’ true path.
One of their guest-travelers for example shared that he had a common, evolved Class called [Seasonal Trader] who happened to share a Skill with Elin, who had gotten [Cultural Dabbler] mere days ago when she found herself unexpectedly face to face with Van Vicci.
What she learned was that the Skill would help her to connect to subcultures emotionally and feel a hint of what they felt about their various trade or craft's quirks. It was a Skill that took a lot of practice to get the full use of, no feelings were more complicated than those based in culture after all.
The man, who was called Stefan, had grown up in Salcret but spent plenty of time in Dormata as well, it seemed he was living sort of like Redd’s sons had been before their switch to permanent city life.
Oscar was so close to being in that same position with a bunch of Skills to figure out, he could feel it like a physical sensation almost.
Livia’s surety of his path was encouraging, she knew him surprisingly well considering how they had not even been friends for a year yet, but obviously it was still not easy to just make such a final decision.
Oscar found himself with a ton of things on his mind, with a whole future to finally decide on… It was no easier after having waited so long. He’d expected some trepidation from having to finally lock in, but not this sort of outright fear of every choice being a mistake.
Thankfully Harold was the perfect spoiler to distract him. “Wow, I can’t believe dad got your birthday wrong, hah. So like him, he was such a dolt some times, remember I was always calling him out on it? But hey now that you mention it, I do remember he was not at home on the day you came, uh. So, yeah,”
Oscar had just told Harold the details of what he’d woken up to, and this was a happy moment, but if anything could bring the mood down it was certainly the mention of the mother Oscar had never known.
Thankfully Albert was there, making complaining noises. “Gaah, what kind of stupid, thorny flower hides beneath loose soil, purposely in hiding!? And where the applebloom is that sodding [Herbalist] when you need him, I bet he would love to get his hands on it, probably to make some tincture that somehow, unintuitively softens your stool,”
Twi. Albert followed the words by removing the socks from his foot to rub spit on his pricked toe with vigor.
Oscar couldn’t help but chuckle at this fellow who was the oldest of all the younger lads, but who was also clearly the most sheltered. That earned him a glare from the suffering [Brewer], but it also suddenly reminded him of something the Sprites had given Oscar for his own foot when that predatory plant had gotten a hold of him. “Here, why don’t you try this?”
He pulled out a salve they’d provided him in a little tin that seemed made of the same strangely strong metal as his new weapon, and the fragrance coming off the mixture was dubious to say the least. Albert gave it eyes that indicated his clear suspicion, so Oscar finally explained the part of his week where his own foot had gotten hurt by a carnivorous, toxic plant and how this exact salve had been a big help.
And like a bee to a flower–or a Joey to a turkey–which was a correct expression Livia insisted was forgotten by time; Alfred showed up to watch what Oscar had brought forth closely, as closely as they’d ever seen him study an herb on their travels; which was actually too closely.
Oscar let go of the tin and let the two concocters wrestle each other over the damn thing, if that was where things were headed.
Instead they both just shared it perfectly in between them, before simultaneously dipping a finger in the salve and having a taste each, immediately discussing potential ingredients; none of which Oscar had heard of, but he knew enough to know they were wrong.
In the end there was only one real question they wanted to know; Is it magic?
After inhaling one final time, Alfred concluded: “For certain magical,”
Albert looked excited to use it all of a sudden, but Oscar stopped that eagerness in its tracks with a hand on the handle of his sword. “If you’re wasteful with it over a tiny booboo, I’ll be giving you a real wound to worry over,”
He said the words with a genuine smile, but Albert was certain he meant it and so immediately slowed his roll.
As they both got busy trying to figure out what kind of mixture could have such a fast and adequate effect on completely different poisonous plants; Livia showed up to see how Oscar was doing in his deliberations, and despite the pressure he felt exuding from her mere presence which reminded him so of his conundrum–he was still glad to have her there, he’d been getting nowhere on his own.
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Livia realized how clumsily she’d approached the situation this morning, and so ended up spending the day in consultation with Elin, reconsidering her approach.
When she approached Oscar this time, rather than like she was approaching someone to deliver the news of getting into their favorite college–she was treating him closer to a skittish fawn.
“Hey Oscar, how are you doing, are we getting anywhere yet?” When Oscar’s bottom lip turned down and he only solemnly shook his head, he reminded her of a sad toddler and she almost burst out laughing, but she held it down and kept the same tone. “Oh, I see. I understand I came on a little strong earlier, what do you say we just go over the details of the [Quests] I had for you?” Oscar looked up with a hopeful glint at that.
“You know, we actually got lucky, despite traveling today we didn’t leave the range of wherever these tasks can be done, I’m pretty sure the System would have removed them otherwise,”
Oscar could only agree with that assessment, really. The [Trader] one was obviously not going anywhere, not until they started selling their stuff, but the two others had objectives that seemed they could be anywhere.
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And there was no guarantee that their getting a chance at two Classes–both of which Oscar had been considering all winter–would repeat itself wherever, after all. And that just adds to the pressure.
Thankfully Livia did not stop talking, and even shared the details for Oscar to see. It worked by touch, just like with the glamor hiding Oscar’s sword; you could make System messages visible by sharing permission this way, something they had never considered trying before obtaining the weapon.
[Rare Quest Available: Ride out and bring your master her shield; it appears to be misplaced. Reward: Access to Class, Squire. Hidden Objective Available. Reward: Hidden]
[Rare Quest Available: Seek the path that has been lost for millenia; where nobody alive knows what remains in hiding. Reward: Access to Class, Explorer. Hidden Objective Available. Reward: Hidden]
[Rare Quest Available: Bring the season’s efforts of your Guild to market and negotiate a personal deal on the side. Reward: Access to Class, Guild Trader. Hidden Objective Available. Reward: Hidden]
Putting it like this, Oscar was even more drawn to the [Quests] than when they’d been abstract ideas. This made it so real it was more surprising you could not touch it, with the way it floated in your vision.
The third one was out of the question though, over the course of the day Oscar had bought into Livia’s arguments on that point more and more. They had enough hands dealing with economics for now.
The [Explorer] one really drew the eye though, such mystery.
But Livia had great timing, interrupting Oscar’s trail of thoughts before the seeds of exploration could quite bloom.
“I could tell how much pressure my words put on you, and I regret it Oscar, you looked like you were having such fun, seeing your Enticer-Skills. But you heard how our guest adventurer reacted to waking up, right? Obviously it’s a serious choice too, way too serious maybe, to be feeling any sort of security around at only sixteen,”
Oscar nodded at this, pleased that his struggle was at least being seen. It took some of the weight off.
“So, you see, I know I’m a stranger here, even now. But I’ve been considering Class options as long as you have; I was reading stories of it for years, at breakneck speed too,”
It was an idea that was hard to wrap your head around, for someone not used to anything more than ten pages unless it was a common campfire story someone decided to write down, or a legend.
“My choice isn’t about forcing you into a box, this is where your idea of knights is getting in the way I think. The System is older than your knights, it doesn’t have that fixed idea in its head, not only at least, so you can trust that my vision of the Class isn’t just some fancy,”
Oscar could see how that made sense, this whole thing about Livia having a special connection to the System was not the easiest thing to learn the limitations of, even their [Guild] master who was experiencing it first hand needed to stop and figure things out at times.
“All that to explain–knights were not some one-note Class swinging swords in magic armor and from the backs of magic steeds; I know you don’t have access to that stuff, and can’t live up to it yet, or know how to in the future even. That’s not the point, at all." She was looking at him so seriously that he could not help but return the sentiment.
"Knights were often found working in organizations, just like [Guilds], in fact they had ones of their own. But mostly they were organized in warrior [Orders]. But they had knights to do everything, the trading, the conducting of sieges, the organizing of armies, even navies–it was a leadership Class, but also a Class that set an example and did what nobody else could, often in foreign lands.”
Oscar certainly liked the sound of that, and it was true that he had not truly considered Livia’s vision of the Class more closely; after all, he knew since childhood what knights were.
“[Squire] in particular is a path like Brunner was talking about, one that is all but guaranteed to give you a Class evolution at your very first capstone. That might seem like you’re postponing your true Class while also limiting your choices; but that’s far from the whole picture. You’d rather be empowering your future Class, letting your actual use of magic guide it, and making sure that the Skills you get are really useful to you. The idea being to just let go of finding a Class to work both now and in the future, consider what you can gain here and now foremost, yeah?”
Oscar finally worked up the will to respond, but he held off for just a few seconds since Livia was tilting her head in that way which she did not want to be reminded of, whenever she was listening to Mr Beard. “I hear you, and it does sound like it's a great Class for me," He still looked hesitant. "That [Quest] sounds hard though, with so little to go on. Can we really take the risk of having to delay further? We don’t know how easy finding other [Quests] will be in case we fail after all,”
But Livia was not having it. “Let’s take the chance, we’ve been delaying our [Quests] already because of everything that’s happened, if we delay further we’ll pass the point where we could have easily fit in another one to learn something more, missing a cooldown due to lack of opportunity is even more damaging than wasting it but learning something,”
When Oscar finally took the chance and accepted the [Quest] to become a [Squire] it was with some fear still remaining, but also a genuine sense of relief. This did not feel wrong, far from it.
He was feeling like he’d finally taken a genuine step towards the Class of his own that had not left his mind for one second since waking this morning. Barely at all for the past six months even.
“Okay, do you feel anything like a location, or some other hint? The System seems to already consider the shield mine somehow,”
He did. And for once with taking these risks, things were actually looking optimistic.
He sensed a tugging in… Was it his sense of balance? He could not tell, but it had appeared with the [Quest], so there was no doubting the two were associated. It was definitely tugging in a direction; Straight the way they were headed.
Oscar wasted no time packing up and heading out alone, with Algernon having been bribed into performing some scouting.
He was no less eager than Harold or Sten had been when finally heading out to push through their bottlenecks.
His journey on a true path of his own was finally starting.