Will fished a half-full cigarette pack out of his pocket and extracted one with his mouth. “Spark,” he muttered, and a flame alighted on his finger that he used to light the cigarette. He then shook the flame out.
“One for me?” Bee asked.
“Oh, sure.” Will took out another cigarette, lit it against the first, and handed it over to her. “Never thought you’d take up smoking.”
“Yeah, it was just after you died. The smell reminded me of you.” She puffed on her cigarette. It tasted sweeter than she’d expected, and with a more herbal undertone. “These aren’t bad, actually. Where do you get them?”
“I make ‘em myself,” Will answered proudly after a long drag on his own. “They’re my biggest money maker, actually. Since I use my Alchemist skills to make them, they’re actually good for you, too. Has essentially the same effect as a healing potion, just a lot weaker. I call them ‘happy puffs’.” He took out the pack and indicated a small symbol stamped on the wax paper, a flaming pipe with a circle around it, and a smaller symbol in the top left corner of it that held Will’s Profession symbol. “This is my maker’s mark.”
“That’s pretty cool. I thought Alchemists would only be able to make potions and stuff.”
“Nah, I can make all sorts. Potions, throwing phials, oils, poisons, elixirs, poultices, ointments, dry goods like this. I’m working on making bombs too, but it’s still in the prototype stages.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, returning to what we were talking about…” He hesitated for a moment, sucking on his lips. “I hope you’ll indulge me a bit of a roundabout explanation.”
“Sure.”
“Something that happens when you get to Nifala is that you start to forget about your previous life. It fades away bit by bit, becomes indistinct. Things you thought were important just go away. I still remember my mother’s smile, but I don’t have any idea what her name was. That kind of thing.
“I’ve forgotten a lot of things, Bee. People I knew, places I’ve been. Only one thing stayed crystal clear, and it was you. The whole time I’ve been here, your memory’s been nagging at me. I eventually realized that the reason I was able to keep my focus and drive to move forward was because I might get to see you again.
“But I also knew how unlikely that was. I mean, you could have died some untimely death like me. But more than likely, it would happen, what, fifty years from now, something like that? We would have spent our whole lives apart by then. And even assuming that you died early, the chances of your soul getting pulled to Nifala are very low—there’s less than ten million people here, you know. On top of that, the chances of you washing up at the right Shore of Awakening, where I’d be able to come get you, would be low as well. There are eight of them here, and they’re scattered all across the world.
“And even then, if all those things were to coincide, you’d probably get snatched up by slavers without me knowing. They’d run you dry in the mines or the sawmills or the foundries, and maybe you’d die your second death without the two of us ever being aware of the other’s existence.
“So I made a choice. Based on purely selfish motives, I decided I would get you here whatever it took. So I signed a contract with Nix. Four of them, actually. One to kill you. One to get you brought to Nifala. One deferred contract with Unger, for him to give you the letter. And a last contract to have you wash up at the southwest Shore of Awakening.”
He paused to suck on his cigarette and exhale a long stream of smoke while he gazed up at the gray sky. “I’ve had a long time to think things over. Everything I did wrong the first time around. The one I regretted the most was not telling you how much I love you.”
He looked over at her with a shaky smile. For the first time Bee could remember, there was uncertainty in his black eyes. “So that’s the last thing I want to say. I love you. It’s why I brought you here. That, and because I genuinely think you could enjoy your life here. Whatever you decide to do after this, I want you to know that.”
He loves me.
HE LOVES ME?
Bee had forgotten about her own cigarette. It had almost burned down to her fingers, and she gave it a few final puffs before stomping it out underfoot. “You’re so stupid,” she said, shaking her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“You could have done this the whole time? Seriously?”
“I mean…”
“I haven’t exactly been living it up for the past five years, Will. I kept hoping you’d miraculously rise out of the grave or something. In my dreams, you were still alive.”
“I guess I… assumed you would have moved on by now? Found someone? I was worried I’d be breaking something up.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. There were a few guys over the past few years, but nothing that lasted. They just reminded me of what I was missing.”
Will cleared his throat. “So… am I getting this right? You’re not mad at me for bringing you here, you’re mad at me for not bringing you sooner?”
Bee nodded gravely, arms crossed. “Asshole.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Geez, uh… I had stuff planned, but this is not the reaction I was expecting.” He rubbed at the back of his head. “For the record, it’s not like I could have done this at any time. It took me a while before I even learned that it might be possible. Then I had to level up and get enough resources that bagging a demon would actually be feasible. Then I had to actually find a suitable demon—most of them wouldn’t agree to a plan like this in the first place. They’re a bit lazy. And, well, I hope you can appreciate the fact that it was quite a moral conundrum for me.”
“And now he’s making excuses!” She tried to sound stern, but Bee couldn’t help cracking a smile. “I’m not actually mad, you know. I’m grateful. I don’t know all the rules of this place yet, but I know you’re the only one who could have pulled something like this off. And the fact that you did it for me makes me really happy.”
In fact, her stomach was buzzing with excitement. “I didn’t leave many regrets behind,” she continued. “I got to say goodbye to my mom before I died. Other than that, I didn’t have much going on. So to be here, it feels right.”
She offered out her hand, and Will took it. He was a little cold. “For the record, I love you too.”
She leaned her head on his bony shoulder, fingers intertwined with his, and they sat in silence. Even though the sky was dreary and the tree leaves were a dull, ugly off-shade of green, they were the most beautiful colors she had seen in a long time.
They sat like that until it started to get dark, then Will urged them to get a move on before nightfall. When they let go of each other’s hands, Bee noticed that he was missing his pinky finger on his right hand.
“What happened there?” Bee asked, thumbing the stump. “A fight?”
“Something like that,” Will said. “You won’t find many people here who are all in one piece.”
“I see. Did it hurt?”
Will nodded with a little smile. “Yeah. It hurt.”
Bee studied his face. “You’re different from how you used to be,” she said. He still looked drawn and tired, the way he always had, but there was a fresh vitality behind all that. “You never used to smile or laugh. And you never called me Bee before. You always called me ‘Beatrice’ like a weirdo.”
“I guess I’ve learned to become less emotionally constipated. And this place has been stimulating for me. It’s given me an outlet to channel my energy into, always something to keep striving towards.” He nodded towards her. “You’re different, too.”
“In what way?”
“More somber. More quiet. You were always the loudest person in the room.”
“I guess we developed in opposite directions, then.”
“I guess so.” He lit up another cigarette, puffed on it, and offered it to Bee. “I know today must have been pretty tiring, but there’s one more thing I want to talk with you about before we go inside.”
She took a long drag. “What’s that?”
“It’s about your build. I’ve got some options for you, and it’s best if we decide sooner rather than later.”
“‘Build’ as in what am I going to pick when I start leveling up?”
“Exactly.”
“You’ve thought about it?”
“Yeah, I’ve put some planning into it. It’s easy to mess up your build since all choices are permanent and information is pretty limited. You can fuck things up as early as the Tower, with Unger not being the most helpful guide. The Concord used to have descriptions for all the abilities and everything, but the demons removed those when they took over. Just to mess with people, I guess.
“On the other hand, that means that since you’ve got a prime start, we’ll be able to set you up with a nice build as long as we keep picking reasonable options.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bee said, handing the cigarette back. “What are my options?”
“For build paths, there are two big ones you want to think about right now. One is just a standard Laborer build. It’s pretty straightforward. Each Profession levels up by engaging in and making progress with the activity associated with that Profession. Take me, for example. I level up by creating increasingly advanced and powerful concoctions and generally learning about alchemy.
“Laborers make excellent fighters because they’re the only Profession that directly levels from engaging in combat. Anything that counts as heavy physical work falls under a Laborer’s purview, and fighting fits squarely into that.
“You’re also the only Profession that was given a purely offensive ability—Strike. It’s nothing fancy, it’s just a skill that lets you hit something really hard, but the fact that it just works by itself and scales well with physical attributes makes it pretty damn good.
“Beyond that, the rest of the picks are pretty fluid. You just take some decent skills and passives that help with offense and defense. I guess I should ask, but you don’t really mind doing that kind of stuff, right? Fighting, getting close and personal.”
“Bro, I was made for that shit,” Bee said with a grin. “I can’t think of anything more ‘me’. But you already knew that.”
Will nodded. “I did. Just happy to know you haven’t changed that much.”
“Okay, so that’s the first option. What’s the second one?”
“Well, the other build is a little more involved. It’s called a brute build, and it tends to be pretty strong, but you have to build into it correctly. It involves something called a divine vow.”
“Which is…?”
“A divine vow is like the holy version of a demonic contract. You make a promise with the goddess to impose a permanent limitation on yourself, and get some sort of benefit in return.”
“I thought the goddess was dead.”
“She is… probably. But divine vows still work. They’re probably handled by the Concord system itself.”
“Do you have one?”
“I do. So does Mongrel. It helps really squeeze all the value you can out of your build, so there’s no reason not to take one. Pretty much everyone who knows what they’re doing has a divine vow. Getting creative with it is one of the main ways you can get ahead of the curve.”
“So how does it go? The one for the brute thing, or whatever.”
Will cleared his throat. “Well, basically, for the penalty you agree to give up all your AP crystals, present and future. That means no skills. In return, you ask for a whole heap of attribute points. You’re sacrificing the versatility of having skills for pure physical stats. The good thing is that you don’t actually lose out on much, because you can always just put your upgrade points into passives and advancements instead of skills. So it’s a pretty tidy way of getting a huge benefit.”
“Is that why you made me take all passives at the start?”
“Precisely. To keep your build options open, so that you can choose whatever you like.” He finished off the happy puff. “Well, what I’ve outlined for you is the basis of the standard brute build. But I’ve come up with a variation of my own that I think would work better.”
Bee nodded along. “Okay. I probably won’t understand what you’re talking about, but hit me with it anyway.”