Oscar had followed Kalle for most of the first day, but when the [Esperlock] made it clear that he planned to keep going, for another day and probably even some more, was when Oscar sensed trouble brewing and went to return.
Had he followed any further he would have been in trouble of his own, and so there was no way he could follow any further, not with Kalle neglecting to explain further and setting such a brutal pace.
By that point Oscar had already missed his lunch and supper both, and with neither him nor Kalle carrying provisions–it was clear where things were headed–way past challenging and straight into dangerous. Thinking back, not bringing proper provisions had been foolish, but with Kalle not mentioning it Oscar had assumed none were needed.
And Kalle agreed with that sentiment fully.
When Oscar returned to the others on the second day since him and Kalle left to go train, he did so early in the morning; going immediately to wake Livia and Harold, who happened to still, and already be up respectively.
It took just a few short minutes for the [Business Guild Master] to grasp the full situation, despite her groggy state, and so they hurriedly went to collect blankets and apples to bring for the rescue mission.
Liam and Ella were worried sick, but neither of them had the fortitude to run out there heedlessly any longer, despite their lifetime of levels.
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Kalle was exposing himself to the friction of the waterfall for hours at a time. Then when he needed rest he’d go to hide from the bite of the wind in the lee of a tree.
He had no food, and he had been doing this since he arrived late yesterday.
But Kalle found it hard to complain, because he had discovered something amazing. Just like with Harold gaining such an insane rate of recovery, and not to mention magic energy, because of always being surrounded by such massive forests bursting with nature affinity; likewise when Kalle was at his lowest point and truly feared for his life and even his choices, when his mind went through an emotional spiral, egged on by thoughts of how he was never going to get close to Harold’s magic prowess; someone younger but who had been granted a tier 9 Aspiration Spell… He felt a surge from his Class.
Earlier had been bad, with Kalle himself feeling stuck with the Class he had been granted. He was realising now how he had been letting his insecurities fester. How he’d been starting to unconsciously feel that him with this Class; maybe it was not a combination that could ever compete.
That was when he had suddenly felt himself gaining access to a new quality of energy and looked up to notice how his distress had had an effect on the surrounding energies which had made him choose this glade, with its high level water affinity, in the first place.
Now, for the first time, he could truly feel how his Class was empowering him, and the feeling was like he was getting closer and closer to the deep truths of his chosen vocation with every minute he endured. The feeling was addicting.
But as he reached a breaking point and was forced to leave the waterfall for a final time–was when he realised he might well have pushed his luck too far.
His clothes were torn off since yesterday, and now his skin was feeling like a sliver-thin protection, which it was. And that was only the spots where he was lucky enough not to have had the water start to mix with his blood.
His mind was feeling fuzzy, but the source of power was still there. He desperately chose a direction, one he was sure looked just like the path he had taken when he first came upon this place.
He was stumbling from tree to tree to hide from the wind while he got a chance to dry up, it made for a pathetic sight with his broken clothes and skin.
If only he had done this closer to home, if only home wasn't so far away.
If only he had thought to bring some food, for afterward. He could no longer recall the reasons he did not, he only felt sure they were many.
He had no idea how much time had passed since he left the waterfall.
At least he was in a forest, and he was no longer feeling so cold. His stumbling happened to bring him to a bush with berries, and he recognised the red colour even in his delirious state.
He ate them all but it was like throwing pebbles down the void of a well. No sound was heard at the bottom.
When he went to get up he found he couldn't make it all the way, he leaned against the rough bark of a tree, the texture tremendously painful. When he pushed off tiredly and tried to keep finding his way home was when he finally went down. I fucked up again.
When did anybody feel the weakest?
It was when–when they were too cold to feel it–and injured.
Far from home–starving–and hopeless.
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When the fellowship found Kalle he was in quite the state. If it weren't for Mossy unexpectedly showing up to guide them part of the way, before disappearing again, it would have been likely that they arrived too late.
They immediately wrapped him in blankets despite the fact it woke him up and made him hiss weakly with pain. They were clean enough, and he needed to warm up immediately.
They carried him on a makeshift stretcher, swaddled, while Harold cast his [Regenerating Form], and with an apple resting in front of his face, for him to nibble on whenever he woke up.
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It reminded Kalle a bit of being carried home as a child after having been out on the town for a drunken revelry in Dormata.
When the returning group, with Livia at the helm, was a day out from Salcret was when they were met with a surprising sight.
"Headwoman Tyresa, what are you doing out here?" Harold recognised her first.
The elderly woman was not alone–far from it–more than a dozen other townsfolk were right on her tail. Including some quite high level [Hunters] and other hard labour Classes like [Hammerer] and [Forester].
Even the Captain had turned out for them.
"Esper Kalle, it seems you young people tend to forget at times, but we take care of our own here in Salcret. Your Liam came into town and told us you were in trouble, so here we are,"
Harold had been the only one to address them after their sudden appearance, but Tyresa directed the words at Kalle regardless. That the town leadership knew the specifics of Kalle's Class was news to the group, but the man himself was too delirious to note the fact.
There was some muttering over the situation turning out to be a bit of a time waste, but they did relax Livia explained the situation as a Caster training exercise gone wrong, and assured the mob that she would have a stern talk with Kalle about his Class and safe training practices later on when he was back in a state to retain the words.
The mob assured her they would be doing the same.
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Kalle had really messed himself up, the brave idiot.
Livia knew why he'd done it, in a sense, but there was still such a thing as taking it too far.
Then again Livia had been pushing the 'We can reach a new pinnacle and save Humanity!'-bit a touch too far lately, maybe.
But she had had the same thing done to her damn it, and it wasn't always so easy not sharing the burden. One scary thing to consider though was if her Skill [Wondrous Ambition] might have inspired the behavior. She still needed to figure that one out.
Now Kalle was down with a fever, and both Harold and Oscar were looking demoralized, sitting by his bedside. He was young enough and had a strong enough Class that he was going to be fine, but the emotional mood was helping so it wasn't like Livia was about to tell them that.
Her own Class, well, that she was still ironing out the kinks of.
She still had a couple of her Skills left to figure out. [Basic Bookkeeping] was kinda obvious, but Livia was working on trying to upgrade that one soon. And [Pitch Perfect] was something she could put to better use the more she got to know about the various talents around town. A few had already caught her eye as potential future guild members, but she could tell it was going to be a tough sell.
Salcret was just too damn cozy, and the world out there filled with too much lurking danger. We just need to make it seem worth it, thank god for levels.
Now, [Extended Halls] was already working at full power, but there was only so much it could do with a run down house originally meant for a small family to live in.
Once they built their real stronghold was when the Skill would show its true worth. Low level dimensional Skills were not that rare, even places like the Salcret orchard had one, but upgrading it was a different matter, and Livia had her unfair advantage in that regard. In the time all her lore was from, a mere couple hundred years into the future–such things were no longer considered so enigmatic.
[Nurture Talent] was a Skill to help her sense if there was anything missing in terms of motivation or resources for her [Guild] members. While it was still up to them to actually find a path to walk, a leadership Class was meant to help them fulfill any missing potential, but they were doing a solid job thus far. Ignoring the taking it slightly too far at times.
Harold had apparently been given a tier 9 Spell as his Aspirant Spell for the [Druid] Class, indicating he was beyond fit for the lifestyle in terms of affinity.
Despite Kalle starting out 3 full levels ahead, they were both now level 6 and so the older boy was naturally feeling the heat in terms of competitiveness, even feeling pushed into a sense of inadequacy, which wasn't all bad; he was an [Esperlock] after all, if it was one thing he needed to get good at quick it was handling his emotions.
But it was clear he needed more attention and support than Livia or anyone else had been providing to this point.
[Play the Host] and [Conflict De-escalation] were both superficially self-explanatory, and would likely need them to get the [Guild] properly established before coming into their full strength, so those she left on hold for a bit.
But the rest of Livia's Skills were proving a tougher nut to crack.
She had an inkling about all of them, and even the Domain Skill was familiar, even if it wasn't something she had expected to see so early in a civic leadership Class. The true enigma was her Passive [Master of the Merit Exchange]. Similarly named Skills she knew of were all the kind that added extra rewards for those aiding a taskmaster of some kind, but without establishing an actual Sect-style Merit Exchange she had no idea how to get it to work.
She decided in the end to avoid going the way of Kalle and Harold, she knew there were plenty of areas to work on even outside of her Class, so certain things would need to wait for their time. There was really no reason for concern.
All in all Livia felt like they were right on track.