Storage (10/30)
4 g 13s 18 c
Grifith and I had made it back to Silface and just finished turning in the quest and selling all the drops. I was in the process of admiring just how much money we made on our 11-day adventure even split two ways when I was approached by Bran.
“So,” he started, “I heard you killed a couple of hordes in the Dark Forest. How about coming up to the second-floor office and we can have a bit of a talk about what all happened during your trip.”
I agreed and asked about Grifith.
“Oh, he’ll be getting his promotion test too. I still need to go out and examine his skills before I can give him the official Silver Rank though. How do you think he’d fare against some Lizardmen?” Bran gave me a knowing grin.
“I think he'd do fine in a one on one, or even a three on one of the melee fighters. But I don't think he’d deal well with the ranged fighters. He reacted quickly enough when we had to deal with the wolves, but a Wolf flying at you is a lot different than an arrow or a fireball.” I was honest and gave some more praise about us dealing with finding the Wolves, emphasizing how he dealt with the faster ones.
“Pause. We can get into more detail upstairs. We’re going upstairs.”
He led the way and I followed. We went up the stairs and for the first time, I went through the doorway leading to the Silver Rank floor. I felt both honored and nervous. But I forgot it was the middle of the day, and most people were already out working on their chosen jobs.
The floor had a similar layout as the Copper Rank floor, but the whole place was just nicer. The chairs were all tucked in under the table, the bar had rows of mugs that were actively being cleaned by an older gentleman in a bartender's vest with the classic white rag. Though this one didn’t have any stains on it.
And the job board.
The job board looked properly organized by type of quest and then further broken down by recommended party size, including a section for solo adventurers. There were basic kill quests, including going to the Dark Forest and dealing with a horde of Skeletons, since it was getting to the time of year where they spawn en masse and tend to go on rampages through villages nearby, or possibly make it all the way to Silface.
Bran brought me to a room off to the side that wasn’t in the layout of the first floor. I wondered how it was being supported structurally, but gave up when I felt some strange enchantment as I walked through the doorway.
The room looked to be a standard office, extremely similar to Paris’s office at the Enchanter’s Guild. Bran went around the oversized desk and sat in a chair that I was sure held a high ranked physical support enchantment to be able to take the weight of Bran and his thick white and gold armor. I wasn’t sure if the colors were just for show, but the metal itself was thick enough that I questioned if he had a super strength skill to be able to just carry it.
He took out a small crystal and sent some mana through it. “Now, tell me everything. Try not to leave any details out.”
A recording device? But who would he be sending a recording of our interview to?
Despite my curiosity, I held back my questions. Now wasn’t the time. I spent the next 3 hours telling Bran every detail, starting from our swift journey, including finding the Hobgoblin village, finding the Killer Kobolds and Giant Slimes, dealing with the hordes of Skeletons, and ending on our stay in Wolf territory and how we killed a Troll and a small army of Orcs.
Bran asked a few questions regarding my skill usage and why I chose to use Exploding Bolts at times over Mana Bolts, times when I opted not to use Arcane Explosion, and a few other tactical choice questions.
“Last line of questions. If you had to do this whole quest over again, knowing what you know now, what choices would you have changed, and how would you have dealt with the challenges you faced in hindsight?”
This feels like I'm back in school. I get why he’s doing this, but I still feel like a child in the principal's office again.
“For the Hobgoblins, I think I should have set up a similar Trap Barrier that I used to take out the Skeleton horde and Orc army around as much of the village as I could. It would have provided a longer mental strain, but I think we could have gotten more passive kills that way.
For the Killer Kobolds and Giant Slimes, I think I would have gone a bit further and spent more time going south along the river bank. We probably would have found another Kobold settlement and taken more monsters out that way as well. We had enough rations to last us for another week, so I think we should have gone further.
For the Skeletons, I think we should have taken out the smaller groups that we saw on our way to reach the Dark Forest River. I don’t think the hordes that we had to deal with later would have been as big if we had killed more individual groups.
And finally for the Wolves, I think our strategy was sound, given how many we were able to exterminate with such a low-cost strategy. We could have gone further into the forest, maybe tried getting closer to where we thought the den was, but the location we chose was based on how late it was, and we initially planned on going further the next day, at least until we were confronted with the Troll and Orc army. After that point, I believe we made the right call in retreating the next morning.”
I feel that was a pretty good analysis of our performance. Should I have said something about working together more though? I feel like we worked as a team plenty during the Kobold and Slime portion of the raid to excuse not dealing with monsters the basic way while with the Wolves.
“What would you do differently if you had to do this quest again right now, leaving tomorrow morning to deal with the same monsters by yourself?”
Oof.
“I would have used my mana more efficiently, making sure to stock up on at least twice as many potions as I left with last time. I would also have used my Barrier Magic a lot more during the Wolf portion of the quest. I feel that I was too exposed and I should have covered our backs more, even with cheap, minimalistic barriers, as that would have bought time in case of an ambush from behind. I would also like to see if there are any dark vision enchanted items so that I wouldn't have to broadcast my location to all monsters in the forest.”
Bran nodded along encouragingly as I spoke. He seemed to want me to pass, so it made me more comfortable being self-criticizing.
“Do you feel you used potions effectively during your quest?”
No, I hardly used any!
“Yes. I was only minorly wounded once, and my regeneration made the scrape on my hand disappear in minutes, so I didn't need any health potions. I ran low on mana twice during my venture, and while I could have used a mana potion, my partner for the quest was fine pausing for a break for me to regenerate so I didn't have to waste what could have been a lifesaving potion in a future encounter. I only used stamina potions during our travels to ensure that I had the physical resources needed to run away in case of emergency.”
He seemed happy with that answer.
“Finally, how would you rate your partner’s execution of his role as a melee combatant?”
“He was excellent. He handled most of his battles on his own, though I assisted him when necessary. We traded pointers on how each of us could improve. And what I believe most important, we both made it back alive with no lasting injuries.”
Bran fiddled with the crystal again and set it down in a drawer.
“Very good. I think that was an excellent analysis. Moving forward as a Silver Rank adventurer, you will occasionally be asked to give detailed analysis of your quests. This is just one example of how that will go. Other quests will follow different lines of questioning, but it’s mostly used to force adventurers to really think about what they do and how they work. The more honest you are on your evaluation, the easier it will be to improve. Although it sounds like you’re already looking to improve. What advice did you receive from Grifith?”
“He suggested that I be more mindful of how I spend my mana. It’s a limited resource when in an extended battle, and I need to work on spending it more wisely.”
Bran nodded along. “Sage words. I hope you take it to heart. How do you think you could work on being better about mana spending?”
I smiled and told him more details about the Arc I've been using. He asked to see it, so I obliged and cast a 100-point Mana Bolt. Then I split it into 10 parts and formed the arc behind me.
“I’ve been practicing my control, and I can even do some tricks while maintaining it.” I started having the bolts do figure eights and loopty loops in a large circle above us. “It takes a bit of a mental toll on me, but as I practice and my mental passive levels, it becomes easier and I can handle more projectiles at once. I started with only being able to do 5 non-empowered bolts at a time. But as you can see now, I'm up to 10 empowered bolts at once.”
Bran looked extremely impressed. “I see. That’s good practice, but make sure you don’t lose control, especially out in the city. If someone gets hurt, there will be serious consequences.”
“Absolutely. I’d only practice this in safe spaces. I figure the guild hall is one of them, no?”
“Yes, it is, but still keep it to a minimum.” I nodded my agreement. “Now then. I think I owe you something, no?”
Bran opened a drawer to his desk and pulled out a Silver Rank guilt tag.
Stolen story; please report.
“You’ll need to bring this to one of the receptionists to get it all situated, but as of now, I can officially call you a Silver Rank Adventurer. Congratulations, Claff!”
He reached out and shook my hand, breaking it in the process.
“Oops! Sorry about that. Here, drink this.” He got up and walked around the desk to hand me a potion.
“I’ll accept it, but I won't drink it.” I grabbed it with my good hand and stored the red potion. “It doesn’t hurt all that much, and it’s training for my Regeneration skill.”
“Hardcore. I can appreciate that. Hell, I used to do something similar when I first started adventuring. I needed to level a skill, but I had to get hurt first to get it to level.” He started chuckling. “I even had a pair of Goblins and a Slime beating me up to get my practice in. Oh, those were some interesting days.”
I cast a barrier on my back as he went to pat it. It shattered as he touched it, then his hand continued on to smack my back, sending me flying forward. That only seemed to make him laugh.
“You said your Barrier Magic improved, but I guess not, eh? Just how the hell did one of those hold back a damned Troll?”
Was he challenging me?
“Care to find out? Hell, I'll wager half a gold that you can’t break my strongest Barrier in under 5 blows.”
This had Bran bent at the belly laughing. I thought the desk would break from the way he was slapping it.
“Oh, it’s been a while since someone has dared to test me like that. Alright, I accept your challenge. But I'll make it 3 hits, not 5. And when I win, you’ll do a quest of my choice for me for free.”
I shook his hand with my newly repaired hand, just to have it broken again.
Bran led me outside the city gates and picked the pace up to a jog. I followed him easily for the first hour, but started breathing a little harder in the second hour. We made it to his selected location at the end of the third hour. I was starting to suspect he only wanted to tire me out to prevent me from making the barrier as strong as I could.
He stopped 5 miles into a clearing that seemed to go on for another 30 miles before going back to trees.
“Alright, take a few minutes to catch your breath. Let me know when you're ready, and I'll begin attacking this barrier of yours.”
I immediately cast a barrier and put 900 points of mana into it. Bran looked at it with curiosity, but held off attacking for now. I leaned forward, placing my hands on my knees as I caught my breath. I waited 2 minutes until I could breathe normally again, then drank 2 of the 5 regular strength mana potions I had in my storage. That gave me another 100 points that I immediately put into the barrier, bringing it up to and even thousand. I rested for another 8 minutes then put 170 points of mana into the barrier.
That left me with 6 points of mana. I spent a little concentration to darken the Barrier, that way he had a clear target and couldn’t use visibility as an excuse for not winning. I doubt he would resort to cheap tricks, but I did it anyway since it cost no mana.
I turned to Bran and gave him a thumbs up. He walked up to the Barrier and examined it for a solid minute, though he never touched it.
“That’s one hell of an impressive barrier. I see what you mean by it improving. The last one you showed me was nothing compared to this. I think I might have to eat my own words with how much mana is stored in there.”
“I theoretically could charge it further by adding the various draining effects and allowing it to absorb my health and stamina resources too, but since I would never resort to that during battle, I refuse to do it here.”
Bran nodded approvingly.
“So, think you can do it in 3 hits, or do you want to go back to my originally proposed 5?”
Bran smiled at me. “I’m a man of my word. I said 3, so I'll do 3. You might want to back up a bit though. It’ll be kicking up some dust pretty soon.”
“I'll just be over here then.” I said, then sprinted about a mile further into the clearing.
When I stopped, I formed a barrier with 5 mana in it, making sure it wrapped all around me.
When I was ready, I yelled out to Bran, “READY!”
The following seconds were a blast. Literally.
I should have covered my feet.
The shockwave destroyed the land halfway between where I set the barrier up and where I currently was. The dirt and rocks pelted my personal barrier for a few seconds after the shockwave passed.
Another couple of seconds passed.
The second shockwave felt stronger than the first, blasting my barrier with more debris. Rocks as large as my fist were slammed into an inch of my face before being stopped. The rain of dirt that fell in the following 5 seconds was truly impressive. The dirt now went up to the middle of my shins, at least outside the barrier.
The third shockwave felt even more imposing than the first two combined. A series of rocks the size of my head rained down upon the land around me. I now understood why Bran brought me out so far away from the city.
So, this is the power of a Gold Rank Guild Master. I truly feel awed. To think I called this guy ‘homie’. I might just have to start being more respectful from here on out. I doubt my barrier survived that.
Yet, I still felt the mental strain of the barrier being in existence. I dropped the shield around me and ran to where I cast the test dummy.
When I finally reached the edge of the crater, I saw my barrier still standing, only now it was about 30 feet up from the center of destruction, with a small angle of protected land behind it.
Bran was in the middle of the crater looking up. He seemed happy, despite having lost the bet.
“Claff, you truly are impressive. I thought that last one was surely going to do it, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll have your money in your hands when we get back to the guild. You might want to step back for a moment so I can jump out of here.”
“I’ll make you some stairs, don't worry.” I did so after drinking a third mana potion and spending that and everything I had regenerated in doing so. I made sure to darken them so he could see them.
“Yet again, you impress me. You still had more to give. You held back, yet I still lost. I might have to drag you on a Gold Rank quest soon, if only to use your Barriers. It won't be for a while though, so don't worry too much.”
He talked as he climbed. I tried to estimate his weight based on how much damage the barrier took, but when I realized I had yet to get a measure for how much weight caused damage, I stopped trying. I’ll consider that line of thought more later.
As he finished climbing, I examined the test barrier. It had taken significant damage, but it probably could have taken a fourth hit, even with the consecutive blows growing stronger. Possibly a fifth, but I'm glad I don't have to take that wager.
I dismissed the Barrier and we went back to Silface. I downed a stamina potion before we left, and I picked up the pace a little. Bran followed along, keeping a respectful distance, but always close behind.
It took us half the time to get back as it did to get there, but I suspect Bran was trying to keep a more respectful pace so I didn't get lost. We slowed down a good bit as we approached the guards at the gate, and they waved us through when they realized who Bran was.
We got back to the guild hall and when we reached the second-floor office, Bran pulled out a bag and tossed it to me. I snatched it out of the air and put it all in storage. It turned out to be 25 silver coins extra, so I took the bag out and added 25 silver to it before tossing it back to him. He raised an eyebrow, but accepted it and put it back in a drawer.
“That was the first time I've lost a contest of strength in quite a while. Hell, I even earned 3% of a level in two of my skills for doing that. I haven’t gotten that much growth in a while, not from something as mundane as a practice test against a barrier. Hell, you deserve the extra 25 I gave you. Not many would have returned extra payment the way you just did.”
“The deal was 50 silver, so that’s what I took. If we had agreed on 75, I would have gladly taken 75. I take what I am owed, nothing more, nothing less. This isn’t exactly a tipped position.”
Bran laughed and we talked a bit more before I went to reception to get my Silver Tag officiated.
There were a few lines now that it wasn’t the middle of the day. I went to the shortest line and waited for my turn, Silver Plate in hand, Copper Plate around my neck. I got a few looks for wearing the copper, but they seemed placated once they saw the silver.
I reached the front of the line and was introduced to my new receptionist.
“Hi! I’m Juke. How can I help you? It looks like you’re our newest Silver Rank, no?”
Is the guild reception run by one family of 26 identical twins with the first letter changed or something? This guy looks exactly like Luke and Duke! He sounds like them too!
“Yes! I just finished my promotion quest this morning. Bran gave me this and said I need to take it to reception for it to be official.” I showed the Silver tag Bran had given me.
“Yes yes, just hand it over, along with your copper tag, and I'll get you situated. It’ll take a few minutes, so if you want to take a seat, I'll come get you when I'm done.”
I went to the bar and asked for water.
“Would you like ice with that, sir?” the older looking bartender asked me.
“I would love some, thank you.” He poured the water from a barrel off to the right and waved his hand over the mug. A wave of mist emanated from the mug, indicating he had cast ice magic in it.
“I gotta admit, that’s a neat trick. Must be nice never having to deal with anything being too hot.”
He smiled and agreed. “I hate the heat, which is why I chose Ice Magic as one of my active skills. It helps more than you’d think. For example, during the summer, this room never gets above 73 degrees. I have Fire Magic for extremely similar purposes. During the winter, it never gets below 65. I like a nice cool room temperature, and all my coworkers seem to love it as well. I can also use a bit of offensive magic, in case any adventurer forgets where they are and gets too rowdy. Overall, I'm pretty comfortable.”
Weird that he's telling me his skills right off the bat, but I guess most people here would know of those two, if they’ve been here long enough.
“That’s quite the complementary set of magic you have. I’d guess Wind Magic as the third, to evenly distribute the temperature, and ensure the air around here never gets stale?”
“You would guess correctly. Most people don’t understand, but it seems you do. I see you are also a caster, judging by your robes and rings. You obviously don’t have Earth or Light Magic, since you have the rings for those two. I don’t see any singed hair, or burns on your cuffs, do not Fire Magic either. You seem to understand at least the principles of Wind Magic, so that's a possibility. Hmm…” The bartender seemed deep in thought, trying to guess what magic I have.
“I’m going to guess you have wind, water, or possibly dark magic. How’d I do?” he smiled as he made his guesses.
I cast a Mana Bolt in my right hand and let it dance for a few seconds before un-casting it. Then I cast a Barrier behind me, making sure that it was tinted as dark as it could be. Finally, I downed the rest of my drink, then stored the mug in my storage skill.
“Not even close. Bummer. Better luck next time. Can I get that mug back though?” He seemed genuinely concerned I would leave with it. I quickly brought it back out and was about to ask for a refill when Juke came over to get me. I waved farewell to my new friend and headed to the booths.
“I see you met Nico. He’s a cool guy.” Juke laughed at his own pun. I could tell I'd like the guy already.
Juke handed me my new Silver Guild tag. “So, as I'm sure you were warned with your last tag, if you lose it, you have to pay for a new one. The Silver Rank tags are going to cost you 5 silver for the first replacement, then 10 silver for every one after that. So, unless you want to spend a fortune just on tags, I'd suggest keeping it in that storage skill of yours.”
I felt shocked he knew my skills. But he droned on, appearing to recite a script.
“Yes, I know your skills. As I was the one who originated your Silver Tag, I am now your designated receptionist. I keep track of what skills you have, including levels and achievements. I don’t need updates when your skills level outside of annual checkups. These checkups are just so we have your information in case of an emergency such as a horde coming to attack the city and we need your assistance with dealing with it. Now that you are a Silver Rank adventurer, helping in a crisis will be mandatory. How you help will be up to you so long as it is determined that you are making a positive difference. If you are noted as slacking off in any way, you will be fined based on your earnings in the last year, and you will be assigned a mandatory position in case of future emergencies. If you so desire, we can assign you a position now to avoid the hassle of dealing with figuring out what you can do in the future.”
“I’ll risk helping how I think is best.”
“Understood. I checked your file, and you appear to be disturbingly new to already be a Silver Rank, but I also saw you already have an achievement and have completed an E rank and a D rank dungeon, both essentially solo. I’ll look through what quests we have available and see if we have any good quests to help diversify you a bit, but that won’t be until next time you come in. As for now, I’d suggest taking the rest of the day off. I know Bran can be a lot, especially when he’s in a good mood. And you seemed to have put him in a great mood. I’ll need details about that later. But for now, go relax and enjoy the rest of your day.”
I couldn’t even get another word in before he was already shooing me away. I put my new guild tag on and left for Half Moon Inn. It was going to be a glorious night with a warm meal and a comfortable bed.