It was midday, and Nova, Alistar, and I had taken the road to Veinforge.
The village was situated south of Crabriver. We took the inner route amid the Murk mountains and walked on the river's left bank; we would cross when the river grew shallower.
The verdant path at the sides of the stream was chock-full of crabs, and in the river, different kinds of fishes swam uncaring of becoming food for crabs.
Murk mountains were known for their low heights, so much so that they could be easily climbed by Gnolls, even with their short legs and heavy gait.
Still, even at that time of the day, the mountains barely cast a shadow over the river, allowing for the verdant path to be always in bloom.
Launching my Tracing around, I noticed that some Zap-trouts were starting to appear among the already bustling armies of fishes. They were not uncommon, but the closer we got to Little Bush, the more common they became.
To get to Veinforge, we would have to traverse all the way across the gulley and follow the stream's right branch, the left one heading instead inside to the forest.
This part of the river was overlooked by two heights that traced it throughout almost its whole length, and it wasn't unusual to find Gnolls patrols on top of them.
When that was so, traversing Crab Valley became more of a race than anything else.
However, Gnolls or not, today was my day.
I felt amazing.
Nothing could beat me out of shape after yesterday.
Harlow had woken up with me; she was almost unwilling to let go of me.
We had breakfast, and then we saluted with the promise of having more encounters back at Murkstall. She would come to visit much more often.
"There they are," said Alistar, bringing me out of my day-dreaming. His hand pointed upwards.
Atop the right side of the valley's wall stood a patrol of Gnolls.
"Did they see us?" he turned toward me for confirmation.
I could see the Gnolls try to fake a lack of interest toward us.
"They did. So, get ready to bolt, they have arbalests, and we don't. By the way, where's yours, Star?"
"Right here, do you want to do the honor?"
"No, let's leave. I'm not confident enough to take them all on, not by myself, and not without my bow."
We continued on; there was still a lot of ground to cover. We ran; I was ahead of the other, while Nova was second, and Alistar close third.
I might have grown, but Alistar had grown, as well, again.
As I tracked and traced him, I could see the image of his supposed future movements superimpose on him, only to then disappear as his body and the images met.
> Alistar Migs Soldier Level 22 (13587/22000), Fisher Level 29 (7896/29000)
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> Health: 100%
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> Stamina: 98%
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> Agility: Low
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> Constitution: High
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> Strength: Low-Intermediate
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> Focus: Very-Low
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> Perception: Low-Intermediate
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> Willpower: Intermediate
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> Strengths: Constitution
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> Weaknesses: Unbalanced stats
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> Class Skills: Duress (Constitution), Brandish Spear (Strength), Luck of the Draw (Fortune)
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> Sub-Class Skills: Fisher Fortitude (Constitution), Follow the Flow (Perception), A waiting business (Willpower)
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> Race: Kobold
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> Sex: Male
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> Height: 195 cm
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> Weight: 103 kg
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> Age: 18
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> Origins: Murkstall
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> Family: Potts Migs, Gudri Migs
In a little more than a couple of months, he had grown two centimeters, he was only eighteen, and although there was a limit even for them, it wasn't unheard of for Kobolds to grow way beyond normalcy. Also, he somehow felt as if he belonged to the Flow now... odd, probably something new, tied to my higher Trace level.
Still, if he kept growing like that, he might as well reach the four meters or even more.
"How did you even train in both your Class and Sub-Class at the same time?"
"Being Tracked doesn't feel really good," Alistar said. "Anyway, it's because of my nature as a tank. I taunt them with my Fisher Skill, and then I hunt them down." He shrugged, "I get the credit for both then."
"Really?" Nova shouted, "Isn't that, like, cheating?"
I laughed, "Kinda."
However, when arrows started falling by our feet, we knew it was time to stop with the jokes and get on with the running.
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We had long since left the patrol behind.
Gnolls were resilient, yes, but they were by no means fast. With those stubby legs and undulating gait of theirs, they would never be able to keep up with us. But when we would start running low on Stamina, they would instead have more than enough to keep up the chase.
It was why they kept expanding their territory no matter how many times they were pushed back.
Sometimes when I was younger, I wondered why no one would hunt them down to extinction, but then I understood that it was a game of balance. Both the people of the nearby villages and Sundoor kept them alive and expanding for the experience they provided.
It was tragic, and yet the same could be said for us.
The Gnoll's primary searching material to level up were Humans.
Meaning that if they had the means to, they would hunt us down, just as we would.
As we traveled, my mind wandered, yet the thought I kept navigating back to was related to what had happened the previous day, especially the previous night. When I wandered into that dangerous state of mind, I had to push myself back to focus on the task ahead.
Weirdly, Nova had yet to make any sort of allusions to us for what had happened between Harlow and me; and how she, coming to wake me up, noticed us peacefully sleeping together.
When I asked about it, she just said that "It was natural."
I hoped it wasn't some sort of ploy to push me into accepting whatever decision she took when she found someone she liked. Especially since we were going to get this Faruq dude, her juvenile crush.
Veinforge would soon be at our right, and in fact, we got there sooner than I expected.
Although the trip was short, it was made even more so as I kept returning to and playing with the previous day's memories.
Veinforge was a mining village. Meaning that it was entirely built inside the face of a mountain; yes, I had to admit that calling the little mound the term mountain could have been a little excessive. However, the fact that it extended much more below ground than in height meant that there was a lot to explore and ores to mine.
It wasn't unheard of to find copper veins that had already been contaminated by Flow and thus primarily used for building SunBronze. Although finding outright Titanium, a natural material that did not need to be forged but that the City bought for a good amount of crowns, was much harder.
However, finding the main components for MoonSteel was much easier, giving the inherent underground qualities; then again, LunarTungsten was something else entirely. At least for our layman's knowledge, there were no known veins to be discovered in Sundoor's region. All we had, they had, since we could not afford to buy it, it all came from the nearby trades with other regions.
Anyway, Veinforge’s entrance was guarded.
"Being so close to Gnolls' territory has its ups and downs."
Ups being that people would have more chances at fighting Gnolls while at the same time having few chances of being under Sundoor's radar, downs because they would have way too many chances of fighting Gnolls. They most probably raided the village twice a year.
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Their defense system seemed rather strong, maybe even a bit too strong, I noticed.
It wasn't wise to show too much of something around these parts, whether riches, power, or even population. If they got Sundoor's attention, they would be forced to become their vassals, which meant paying for protection while sharing and opening their internal markets.
That was as far as I knew, but it was sure that there would be more downs than ups.
Veinforge defense was constituted by two rock towers built on the sides of the entrance, directly integrated with the mountain, and a large spiked trench.
At Murkstal, we had our natural defenses. In contrast, Veinforge had indeed built a proper one. Given their location, it was the least they could do.
The trench had only an access point that pointed directly in front of the village's entrance, which was in turn defended by a heavy steel gate.
"Who are you?" Shouted one of the sentries when he saw us.
"Envoys from Murkstall!" Alistar shouted back.
"Murkstall!? Wait there!"
"He seemed confused; that's a good sign."
"Why would it be?" Nova asked, "Doesn't that just mean that he's as dumb as they come?"
Alistar and I chuckled, "It might be, but at least that tells us that our situation has not been shared as much as we thought it would."
"Told you, Faruq is a nice guy. Although, I don't understand how he had the freedom to get all the way to Murkstall without anyone asking questions," said Alistar.
"You say that because he's the mayor's son? I believe that comes with a few perks, one of them probably being discretion."
"Might be," Alistar shrugged. Something about it seemed to bother him.
"You can proceed!" Shouted one of the guards.
We passed over the strip of land barely wide enough to accommodate the passage of one Flow-cart, and the gates opened for us.
"Wow, darkness and Flow-fire. I already like this place," I exclaimed.
Seeing it like this, the village seemed more a dungeon than a place where people lived.
The walls were covered in chemically prepared Flow torches. The rest was based in darkness.
The village itself was one massive cavern. Tall at least a hundred meters, and wide at least ten times that.
It was more a hollow mountain than a mine.
The air was stale, but the atmosphere was one of focused effort and happiness. The housing and workspace were built directly inside the rock walls and scooped out of the mountain walls. At the village's center was a wide zone where their poor farm field and the free dwelling space were located.
They could grow their farm through solar panels that had been mounted on tall poles that hovered on the crops. We had a few of those too, and they were costly pieces of clock-tech to make and needed quite a few Crystals to work.
Their need for Crystals must have been really high given their solar panels and continuous Flow-torches' chemicals productions. If they did not live by the side of an outrageous source of little Crystals like Crab-river, they would not have been able to sustain their economy.
At Murkstall, we could have sustained on crabs alone, but feeding only on those was entirely not feasible, especially during the first few years we suffered from the plague. Villagers that came fishing by our side of the river wanted to burn us alive on sight.
If it hadn’t been for my extremely hard counter defense of three years prior, one of the villages closest to us would have already put Murkstall on fire.
Thankfully, a few of my arrows had discouraged many of them, especially given the fact that I made Cyclopses out of more than a few family men. It had been one of the toughest years, if not the toughest one I had ever lived, but I was glad when the opposing village mayor came to speak to us to deliver his apologies and the certainty that it would never happen again.
Plague transmitted only with touch after all, not by indirect contact. It was not the damn flu.
In the distance, I could see tunnels that were illuminated by fewer Flow-torches. It was clear that those were the mining zones and some other districts of the village.
There were many villagers, I could guess at least more than a hundred, and those were the ones not working and outside of their houses or workshops.
If we considered those, the population might account for thrice or four times that number, which was more than Murkstall was at its prime, even though we had much more space than Veinforge, and our farm fields were extremely more abundant.
The inhabitants ranged from regular, to more than a few Shade-cursed, to a few Flow-blessed. There seemed to be a couple of Kobolds' families and green-scaled ones, fishers, surely.
There were no traces of Half-Elves like momma Jane around, but that was normal. There were few of those. Most were fugitives, deserters, or people that had been exiled from their homelands because of their nature.
A tubby man with a round face and long golden mustache came at us with a speeded gait and a radiant smile on his face; following close behind was a young man. It was Faruq, the Flow-blessed we had saved from the slave traders.
Turning toward Nova, I saw what Alistar was talking about.
A carefully hidden smile slightly crept up on her lips as if she was failing to hide it, and her eyes shone just a little more than usual.
She had indeed fallen for the guy, and I was damn mad about it.
So much so that without even thinking, I Tracked and Traced him. I could see him arc a questioning brow at that; I wouldn't have even cared if he stumbled and fell for the surprise.
This was my sister we were talking about!
> Faruq Jameel, Soldier Level 25 (6817/25000), Runner Level 29 (27789/29000)
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> Health: 100%
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> Stamina: 97%
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> Agility: Moderate
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> Constitution: Intermedaite
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> Strength: Intermediate
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> Focus: Intermediate
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> Perception: Low-Intermediate
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> Willpower: Low-Intermediate
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> Strengths: Agility, Strength, Focus
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> Weaknesses: None
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> Class Skills: Metal Flow Body (Con), Slash (Strength), Beautiful Star (Fortune)
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> Sub-Class Skills: Dash (Agility), True Stamina (Con), True Grit (Focus)
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> Race: Human
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> Sex: Male
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> Height: 184 cm
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> Weight: 75 kg
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> Age: 18
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> Origins: Unknown, Veinforge
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> Family: Jamal Jameel, Lindia Rover-Jameel, Aaadil Jameel, Amir Jameel
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>
He felt like Flow; who would have guessed!? If that wasn't enough, I couldn't believe what his collection of Skills were.
Metal Flow Body was a rare and massively overpowered transformation Skill. Slash was common, and so were the Star Skills like the one he had, although I had never heard of a Beautiful Star Skill. However, the combination of Dash and True Stamina was famous, and True Grit was an envied Skill in which it could boost all other Skills for a period of time; and it was damn rare to boot.
This young man was a Moon fucking walker dream of perfection. And I had to keep him away from Nova? How in the Abyss was I gonna do that?
I started pinching the bridge of my nose for the frustration.
"Loke?" A couple of voices called.
Faruq and his father had already reached us and started talking to us while my calculations took over me.
"Sorry, I spaced out. I'm still recovering, you know."
"Yeah, right," Nova murmured.
"Anyway, I'm Loke Nightfold, defender of Murkstall. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, mayor Jamal." Then I nodded an acknowledgment to a confused and excited Faruq.
The mayor was indeed surprised by the fact that I knew his name; I appeared under the Tracing's Family information. I could switch the details about the family of a Traced at will. If I so desired, I could have thought about Faruq's father, and he would show up as first on the list.
He laughed out loud, "It's a pleasure finally meeting my son and Murkstall's saviors! And it is a pleasure understanding that my name is known even outside of this little mountain!" saying, so he kept on laughing.
"But where are my manners. Please, come, let me offer you something to drink!"
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The mayor's house.
I did not dare Trace the mayor, not to spook him, but I could feel he was a man of poor physical skills but damn good social abilities.
His house was big, rich in tools to ease lifestyle, and most importantly, it showed off the importance he gave to his family.
The house was full of paintings of his three sons and wife. A wife that had not long since died and which love seemed to still reflect in her son’s tracing screen.
I couldn’t help but doubt about it before I understood that what I was feeling was not just doubt but envy about the depth of Faruq’s love for his mother. My grandfather’s name had long since disappeared from my own tracing… I forced myself to focus on the moment. Was I thinking too much about it?
Maybe I had to find myself a Trace teacher.
While of the mayor’s sons, only Faruq remained, the other two had willingly chosen to join the war. It was easy for them to do so, given their Flow-blessed looks.
"Crabs and fish are indeed good. My grandfather died at one hundred and two years of age because of the way he ate. However, varying our diet is important. Also, we are expanding, I don't know how long this mountain can contain us, but to do so, we need to support this growth with the right amount of food," he said.
Although I was not an expert in trading or bartering, his intentions were pretty clear to us. The man wanted his village to expand and needed more food to do that, food that we had aplenty.
This meeting would just be the baseline of our exchanges.
Mine was only a formal greeting and a check for the good faith of the villager's intentions; the accords would have to be formalized and talked of at lengths by the two mayors and their entourages.
Once the topic related to the commercial exchanges was over, we started talking about why we had really come here.
"Faruq, I believe it's time for you to speak for yourselves, say what you wanted to say," he said, inviting his son to speak up.
"Yes, father." Faruq cleared his throat, then planted his eyes in mine.
"Ever since I saw you fight that Advanced Class Rogue, Mister Loke, and then heading back, witnessed what you were capable of accomplishing with only a bow and an arrow, I decided that I had finally found something I had long waited for…"
I curled my brows, "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that I've always wanted to fight alongside a man of might! A man that could lead me, lead us all, to great heights! And I believe that man to be you, Loke. I want to follow you, and wherever your command will lead me!" He said, euphoric as he shot up from his seat.
He's crazy…
Or at least that was what I wanted to say. But I couldn't say that instead, I said, "I don't understand…"
"Loke, the man, is asking to join our party," said Alistar, sitting by my side as he finished his drink, slightly spicy radish juice. Ugh!
"Are we a party?
"We will be, won’t we? Aren't we shooting to become delvers?" Said Nova.
I could hear a low and surprised "Oooh" from the mayor; nods and a happy cackle then followed it.
"I believe you might really make it!" Said the mayor, "Look at you, a mighty hunter, now known throughout the lands and feared even by the Sunguard, a true and thorough healer, yes the voices have reached our ears too, a giant protector, and my boy!" he added, giving a sonorous pat on his son's shoulders, "The most promising warrior of Veinforge!"
"He'll become a war machine, like his brothers!" he kept up with the patting, "He'll be the most valorous warrior in the lands!"
"Second most," said Alistar showing the mayor his empty glass, "I'm going to be The Alistar, The Red Star."
He shamelessly coughed, ignoring our silence, and interrupting that soliloquy, then shaking the empty glass; he added, "May I have another glass of radish juice, please."
"S-sure," said the mayor, a little spaced out.
But Faruq had an entirely other reaction, one I did not expect, "I'm fine with second-most," he said, locking eyes with Alistar and smiling.
Alistar nodded back, "I'll allow it.”
Then I understood it, pinching the bridge of my nose.
It was official. I was surrounded by idiots.
Nova got up from her seat slowly, "You might not know this yet, but I have you know that I've made my decision," she said, "I'm going to become the one and only Champion of the Sun!"
"What!?" I was really taken aback this time.
"What, what?" Nova asked back, "I've healed who I wanted to heal; isn’t it about time I became who I want to be? I could not become a mage? Alright, I can accept it, but I can become a Champion of the Sun! It's not written anywhere that a Rogue cannot!"
"But where did that even come from!?" I shouted back, hysterical. "You shouldn't even be allowed to fight another sapient until you are at least…like thirty-four!"
"What!? You can't tell me what to do!"
"I can! I'm your big brother, and if I say you don't fight, then yo-"
Our bickering was interrupted by both father and son's thunderous laughter, and soon later, Alistar joined them too.
We had given spectacle and now deserved to be laughed at.
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Before we left, I gave the mayor a white metal star with the symbol of Murkstal. A house in the middle of two mountain peaks.
He was meant to show it to our mayor when they managed to meet; I would give the white star in case I acknowledged the good intentions of the man I met.
Then as we left the house and I gave my apologies to the mayor for the spectacle, and he waved me a "no need," Faruq that had disappeared a few minutes prior came back with a big bag on his shoulders.
"So," said Faruq, "where are we going?"
That was when I realized it and hit my forehead with the wrong hand, the metal one.
Oh, for Sun's sake… he's coming with us...