Redd and Ronia were both coming to meet them when they exited the rainbow, but the one running in the lead was actually Lena, their [Weaver] turned innkeeper.
She came to stop in a huff, then spoke fast: “I can’t believe you all look fine, what happened in there, why were you gone for so long?” When she saw they were all smiling she continued. “You levelled, didn’t you, should we go too–it’s not too late is it?”
But the rainbow was indeed gone. “Damn it, so this was all another missed opportunity, and I missed it for the sake of resting, what’s wrong with me!?”
With them all looking like they’d returned from Alice’s wonderland, having escaped with treasure, Livia could see the appeal. They caught up with the others and went back to camp, filling Lena in on the way; telling her all about their challenges. They only omitted the extent of Van Vicci’s, or ‘the Rainbow Spirit’s’ power.
Oscar finished by telling her of the feast. “So, the whole week was annoying, challenging and a real riot a lot of the time, but the highlight was probably the Rainbow Spirit telling us the story of its origin and inviting us back once we’re also approaching level 30–you can tag along then for sure Lena, and hear the story! But it’s best saved for when you’re invited,”
Lena had been enjoying the tale of their week of experiencing a Spirit’s realm, and couldn’t believe so much had happened in so little time; but having the details of the finale remain a secret doused her enthusiasm and reignited her desire to go now; but of the rainbow there was no sign.
Even Ronia was looking like she felt left out, but hearing you could go several times helped make it seem less exclusive so they quickly allowed the group to get their first true sleep in ages.
Redd had been standing quiet the whole time in the background.
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Waking up the next morning, Roldy and Hyde were still full on celebrating, they had both ended up having amazing times at the Valley. Even if Harold spent the first days going through a workout from hell, he'd recovered with his characteristic swiftness.
Algernon glared at the two. He had also enjoyed his days, and learned of many things between the trees and the stars.
But somehow the two made him feel like he’d been missing out, like he’d been getting led around the nose with not much to show for it.
He landed on Oscar to signal his distancing from the [Druid]. These brutes are likely to think I’m avoiding all Humans unless I stick with someone, this guy is gonna irritate that stupid [Druid] the most I'm sure, maybe he’ll even lash out at that horny, dumb wolf!
They were having breakfast, and that huge Human, [Farmer] Redd was still looking perplexed, when he suddenly spoke up. “I hear I encouraged you all to go meet the Spirit, but I hope you made your own decisions in the end and did not trust to my advice blindly; I’m not at all sure I can stand by it.”
Everyone who had gone looked up in surprise, remembering Redd’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm was not hard. Ronia was the one to explain further. “He does not remember that morning, only having the dream of the childhood memory, and even that faded quickly; as dreams do.”
Livia did not know quite what to make of that, but the Valley had not been dangerous in the end so they let it go and kept munching.
Sten was the one most disturbed at what it implied; that something could be so strong as to pluck a memory from a level 40 person like that, possibly even manipulate them into saying things?
Algernon barely cared. He glared at Harold again, and then looked at the boy he was perched on; who was much more mild tempered, despite being kin to the haughty [Druid]. Now this guy is a lot smaller, it’s true. The bloody [Druid] is growing every week. But he’s younger too, and could probably be moulded much better. If I heard them right, he’s about to become magical like the others soon too.
Algernon muttered to himself: “Pfft, compared to that guy Oscar’s practically smart. Oscar could do well. I could probably make him a tactician if he knows how to take orders, hmm.”
Harold suddenly erupted from across their campfire, looking right at him and laughing. “No way, is that how you talk?”
Algernon looked at the [Druid] with wide eyes, then he remembered. The mossy bastard had levelled, even reached a capstone.
Now Roldy turned to Livia. “It’s my new Skill, [Voice of Reason]. I wasn’t using it before, I’ve barely been able to think straight since I got it, you won’t believe what Algernon sounds like,”
It seemed the Skill was used to help the [Druid] understand any voice that had enough reasoning supporting it. But could it help him understand anything communicating in sounds, or was it tied to affinity or something else?
It seemed nobody had any experience with a translation Skill to share, although such things were known to exist for plenty of Classes. To Harold it seemed likely that the Skill was working in conjunction with [Bond of the Forest], which might limit or improve the Skill.
They still had so much to learn, it brought to mind once more how they were heading somewhere where a Caster might finally be able to find a teacher.
Livia smiled at the laughing Roldy, but was more than a little curious what the animal might decide to talk about after so long. With a hint of suspicion creeping in, she asked Roldy to translate. “Why, what did he even say, you can understand every word now?” Livia enjoyed magical animals like anyone would, but the feathered beast was probably near the bottom of her list of the ones they'd met. He had not made much of an impression by always flying after Harold, wanting a go at their honey.
Harold was still chuckling. “He’s saying how Oscar’s smarter than me, and how maybe he can make him a tactician,”
Oscar looked pleased at the sudden compliment, but Livia turned sceptical eyes to the beast, who she had long suspected held Roldy in low regard. “Uh-huh, and what exactly makes you so smart, Mr Owl. Aren’t you like 2 years old, tops?”
Algernon erected his feather’s in affront, then decided that if they could truly understand him now then certainly the lot of them had earned a piece of his mind.
He went on a tirade, beginning with his treatment whilst riding the bumpy carts after being exhausted by chasing the sika, nevermind that he had been too shy to get close to the bloody aura he sensed around the horses ridden by Redd and his smoother riders.
Then how he expected much greater rewards from his contribution to the delays at the Rift battle–and then how he was taking the boy for some proper tutoring in the arts of tactics.
The effect would have probably been a lot stronger, as his eloquent wording deserved, if his piping voice wasn’t being translated by a constantly floundering Harold who could not stop laughing.
Livia was looking far from impressed after he was done. “I don’t know why you think you’re so smart Algernon, Harold told me what you did when he found you, command ants? What’s so smart about that, I’ve seen mushrooms who can do that much back home, and they’re not even magic.” Well, seen on the internet, but that counts. The Amazon's craazy.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
And now the owl was looking at her like she was crazy… How the hell would a mushroom ever be able to do that?
Livia told him how it infects them and makes them act suicidal day’s after, to a point where it can then feed on them–and clearly Algernon did not think she was less insane after explaining. In fact now he was looking at her like she’d told him she invented said mushroom.
“Anyway, I’ll believe you know tactics when I see it, and Oscar’s becoming a [Squire] anyway, I don’t even know how to get a tactician Class in the first place. Now, chess?”
She challenged the cocky owl to a few games, and to her chagrin he was actually a tough opponent, forcing her into long pauses despite just learning the game. She was far from a brilliant player herself, but at least she had been taught in her childhood–at the library actually–and even played a tournament.
Did not win it, sure. But for fuck’s sake it, she was not about to lose to a two year old bird.
Oscar looked on, happily settled into a position of being fought over. He’d found it strange how the owl had taken a sudden interest in him, but now it seemed clear he felt he had something to teach; Oscar was all for it. He’d eyed Hyde with a jealous eye more than once after all. Although the little guy seems to think he’d be the one calling the shots. Hah. We’ll see about that.
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Having returned to the valley they had a long road ahead of them, and even though the people who stayed behind were well rested–they’d had a hard time building up more provisions than they consumed. This led to the decision of spending a day hunting before they got a move on, which was especially well-received news for all the people who had reached their capstones and had Skills left to figure out.
Kalle was the most enthusiastic; he’d finally earned himself a ritual-focused Skill–and he still had getting a familiar of his own on his mind after the events with the Rift, especially now that it seemed even Oscar was getting something like one before him–the actual [Esperlock], sigh.
[Ritual Summoning] was all he had to go on, but he felt well-prepared to start testing it out. He approached one of the travellers that he had seen with paints before, and after purchasing some he went out to work on his ritual circles.
He did not get much in terms of a result, but he started working out which of the symbols were useful for this part of a Spell.
Rather than start off with something meant to break the barriers between dimensions, he figured he could summon something smaller that was present on Elderwood already; a Glowthorn bush.
It was an infamous plant that could poison you to bring your chances of hiding to nil. Its poison was known to make your blood glow through your skin, slowly spreading until your whole body was infected–making it easy work for enemies to find you. It was a common refrain in scary stories told to little boys who might think to run and hide in the woods whenever they were in trouble; but the plant was real, not to mention it was Daemonic in origin.
Kalle had identified symbols for both summoning a magic object through his studies of the Mantis’ patterns, and even how to target something Daemonic; it made a Glowthorn the perfect thing to attempt to summon, with the plan of reaching for a true familiar eventually.
Not to mention it could maybe help out Harold with his older Skill as well, since the [Druid] had yet to find a magic thornbush to work with his original Tier 10 Skill [Voidthorn’s Grasp]. That could be a nice present actually.
He returned to camp, still needing to figure out more pieces to the puzzle of his ritual circle, but after that first day he had plenty of ideas to work through, and he was happy with having decided on his potential targets, since his measurements made it clear the target was small enough for Kalle to use his own magic pool to power the summoning.
Others also tried their Skills out, Kalle was the target of a [Ray of Disarray] from the [Chaos Druid]’s new repertoire, but his very first Skill [Fort of the Mind] saved him from the brunt of its effects. It turned out to affect both balance and hearing by inflicting a tinnitus-like sound, Kalle said he might have vomited if not for his protections; so nobody else was too keen on getting hit to determine the strength closer.
[Emotional Materials] turned out to be a way to charge Kalle's other Spells into an object. They tried it with a stake and then hit a tree with it charged by his [Wailing Bolt]–which had, in fact, upgraded to [Mercurial Wailing Bolt], but they had no idea how to figure out what it did for now. By all indications it seemed to still be working the same. Still can't believe a tree can look so depressed.
Harold tried out his [Plantation Cousins] on some of the grass that was all around, but all it did was give him a sense of how far the fields of grass stretched. Hm, maybe it could work to show me a connection between other similar plants, if I use it on something better?
Livia’s new [Mark of Worth] turned out to be a sort of spying-Skill, it showed her a valuable Skill belonging to whoever she aimed her new ability at. The only question was what it was evaluating. The Tier of the Skill it was showing her was all over the place, displaying [Combine Assault] for Redd, one of his higher Tiers which had been upgraded to boot, a bit of a secret weapon in fact–but only Harold’s Tier 5 [Ruptured Earth], and Alfred's Tier 2 [Bloodhound's Muzzle].
They had a lot to figure out, but for once they felt like they had plenty of time to do it, with nothing but clear forests and larger animal trails to follow ahead.
They ate well from what they hunted that evening, even if they failed to bring down anything larger than an orange turkey-sized ostrich-looking thing. Livia was a bit freaked out by it, but it tasted good so she ignored the strange coloration.
When they finally got going towards Dormata it was a bit more than three days until they expected to arrive at a village, but that was as far from the front of Oscar’s mind as everything else that was not his forthcoming birthday and Class.
Only one question remained. Which Class.
That night he got a surprise even greater than when he’d sprung his birthday on the [Guild]; one from beyond the grave.
It turns out his father Ronald was not as good at keeping track of young baby’s birthdays as he’d always claimed. No wonder he kept getting even Harold’s wrong, but always acted so sure of mine.
Oscar was greeted by the customary morning message from the System as he woke, that most young boys got on their waking up an hour after the others on their birthday as they were allowed to sleep in:
[Class Aspirant detected. Lay-About. Expedited Sleep. Yes/No?]
No.
The real search for a Class was on.