Damien and the rest of Team Seven wandered the Ignis-Attuned portion of the Forest of Harmony for several hours, none of them finding anything amiss, or even seeing any other teams. It was slightly disturbing, given the fact that they’d gotten into a fight within the first hour of arriving, but Damien wasn’t complaining. He didn’t want to be fighting the entire time. Still, someone else was doing enough complaining for the both of them.
“I can’t believe I didn’t even get to kill anything! I mean, seriously, couldn’t I have come out to kill that last group? It would’ve been a synch!”
Maybe, but then all the XP would go to me. That’s not exactly fair to everyone else.
“Sure, but I still want to run around and kill something! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve fought.”
Next time, okay buddy?
“Yeah, yeah. But you better mean it this time!”
Hey, just because you’re a reliable combatant doesn’t mean I want to use you as a crutch. You deserve better than that.
“… that’s an odd way to show respect, but I appreciate the fact that you don’t want to just use me. Even if I think you really should let me out more often.”
Damien chuckled as he pulled away from his thoughts, looking out at the wide vista of fiery grass dotted with blazing trees that Jaime had led them to. He was the only person in their team with a proper navigation Skill, something called Exploration, which certainly had something to do with the fact that his Class revolved around Archery.
Damien wasn’t sure how to ask about other people’s Classes in a way that wasn’t both rude and rather naive. He also didn’t want to bring too much attention to himself, considering his rather rare Shade Hunter Class. Still, it would be nice to get to know some of the others in his team, though Jaime and Kora seemed rather reclusive for rather different reasons. The former due to his general attitude and the latter because… well, Damien wasn’t entirely sure what Kora’s deal was, but given her general attitude towards her grenades, he wouldn’t be surprised if she had some kind of ‘code of honor’ that she felt the devices were besmirching.
Well, that wasn’t Damien’s concern. One of the first lessons that he’d learned from Corbyn was that honor might have its place, but the middle of a fight was not one of them. As they settled near one of the larger trees, Cyrus began to gather stones to make a campfire, finding plenty of good kindling to start a spark. Damien had initially thought it unnecessary, but quickly had his mind changed when it turned out that the Ignis-Attuned landscape didn’t produce nearly as much heat or light as he had initially thought they would. It was still there, but barely noticeable. Like the touch of a passing strand of hair against your skin.
Eventually, everyone pitched in, with Kora and Leon setting up various tents, the former glaring at the latter with ill-hidden jealousy as his own popped up with the literal press of a button. Still, the Tidekin simply sighed as she continued to set up hers and Cyrus’ tents, hammering in the stakes with steady beats.
Damien himself started taking out various things that would help with the preparation of their dinner. Though Damien didn’t have the Cooking Skill, that wasn’t all that unusual, as one needed the Chef Class to acquire it. Eventually, Cyrus noticed what he was doing and quickly began helping him out, bringing out a pot to place everything into, along with a bunch of spices and even some base to begin a broth.
“Guess we’re having stew tonight,” Damien noted with a chuckle. Cyrus politely laughed along with him, adding in various powdered spices while the Traveler continued to gently stir the mixture in the large pot the Hearthborn man had brought with him. “I’ll be honest: I wasn’t expecting anyone to have brought this much stuff for the first Trial.”
“I like to be prepared,” Cyrus said with a light laugh, softly running a hand through his dark dreads, as though it were a tic. “And, well… let’s just say that when you’ve been on communal rations and water for almost two whole months, literally anything else will taste fucking divine.”
Damien was taken slightly aback at the Hearthborn’s use of the swear, which he quickly noticed and laughed off. “Sorry, sorry. Whenever I think back to those days in the clergy, I tend to get a little… heated.”
“You were a clergyman?” Damien asked. He’d thought that it might be the case, give his general manner of dress, but he hadn’t wanted to assume too much based solely on appearance.
“Oh yeah,” Cyrus said, sprinkling in a little salt to add some sharpness to the stew. “Used to be a time in my life where I wanted nothing else. Now that I’ve had some distance from it all… well, I think that if Silva could see what has become of her worshipers, she would be extremely fucking upset.”
Damien just gave him a nod of understanding, seeing that this wasn’t a wholly pleasant topic for him to think on. He pulled out the ladle he’d been using to stir the mixture, tasting it and finding the sensation surprisingly pleasant. Slightly gamey, but well balanced with the spices and herbs that Cyrus had put in.
He proffered the ladle for Cyrus to give it a taste as well. The man promptly did so, his eyes rising in thought as he rummaged around in his ring for something. Surprisingly, he pulled out a bunch of freshly crushed pepper and lightly sprinkled it into the mix, allowing it to mix with the broth and absorb into the meat through that method.
“Huh. Guess you really like food,” Damien noted.
“I do. Truth be told, if I did not have a passion for healing and plants in general, I would have rather been a Chef than what I am now.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I know, Cy,” Kora said, slumping down onto a log near the fire, watching the pot boil and roil with activity. “You talk about it every chance you get.”
“Says the one who often benefits from my interest in the art,” Cyrus said without heat, as though this exchange had happened a thousand times and would persist for thousands more.
Kora confirmed that suspicion with a short bark of a laugh. “I never said I do not appreciate it. Just wish you would talk about other things.”
“But what could possibly be more interesting than the perfect blend of spices?”
“I do not know. Magic? Or Runes?”
Kora seemed to latch onto that last question, something in it sparking her memory as she turned to Damien with a hard expression. Then, she did something that the Traveler had not expected at all.
“I’m… sorry for my hasty reaction earlier,” the Tidekin woman said, bowing her head slightly towards him. Damien, caught up in the sheer shock of the moment, didn’t stop Kora as she continued. “I had a very specific and very strict upbringing about what was… right. And I don’t have much experience with other cultures outside of my own. So, on behalf of House Deepwave, I humbly offer my deepest apologies.”
“Uh… apology accepted, but I don’t think it’s too big a deal.”
“No, I…” Kora seemed to struggle with something for a few moments before she continued, face slightly strained with effort. “I made hasty judgments without attempting to even understand your perspective, and that was wrong of me. I… I… damnit, now I’m not sure what to say.”
A few seconds of awkward silence passed between them before, rather abruptly, Leon joined the three of them by the fire, eying the boiling pot before shrugging and making an idle comment. “You ask how the things work. At least that way you’ll be a bit more prepared for the next time he asks you to use ‘em.”
Kora glanced at Leon briefly, as though this bit of wisdom was a surprise coming from the laid-back Mechanic. To be fair, the human was rarely in a position to be the voice of reason or someone who gave advice, but he did have his own kind of knowledge that occasionally showed itself.
“Um…” Kora muttered, not quite sure how to continue with that rather blatant statement on Leon’s part. Still, she quickly got over her fear and asked Damien the question. “How do they work? Also, why did you bring them with you?”
“That’s a bit of a long story,” Damien said, pulling out an inert, incomplete Runic Grenade. Like many of his other Grenades, it was long and tubular, almost like the hilt of something that had been sawed off and hollowed out. He hadn’t quite decided which one to make this one into, but he would probably make it an Ignis one, considering the fact that they had used five earlier that day. “But the short version is that I take Mana out of Crystals and use that as fuel for reactions shaped by Runic structures.”
Kora just looked slightly confused at Damien’s explanation before Cyrus quickly jumped in.
“The squiggles make magic go boom.”
The Tidekin suddenly nodded in understanding, to which the Traveler just sighed. Sure, not everyone understood the exact mechanics of what he could make, but it hadn’t been that complicated, right? Right?
Damien let that train of thought die off as he went on with his explanation, unable to stem the tide of his passion. “Yes, but that’s just one of several options! I’ve got Grenades in eight favorite flavors!”
Then, he started pulling out examples of each. One of the Aqua Grenades that he had handed out earlier, along with one each for Fulgur, Ventus, Terra, Lignum, Ferrum, Ignis and Umbra, which he quickly began explaining in quick succession.
“Ignis is one that I have the a lot of because it’s relatively easy to configure the Mana in a way that’d make it explode rapidly, and as you can probably guess, it’s mostly used as an incendiary version of Grenades. It’s probably not going to be much help to us right now, but we’ve got it in the bag if we come across some kind of Lignum or Ferrum Attuned monster that we don’t want to deal with.
“After that, we’ve got Fulgur to shock and stun people, Ventus for concussive force and an explosion of cuts, Terra for reshaping bits of a battlefield to our advantage, Lignum to root people in place or spear sharpened roots up at them, and Ferrum for shrapnel explosives if we really want to put the hurt on someone. Then we’ve got Aqua, which is pretty situational but really effective against Ignis-Attuned creatures, and Umbra, which I have the most of and basically act as a smoke screen.”
The other stared at the sheer variety of his grenades in sheer awe. Even Jaime, who, at some point, had come over to the campfire after smelling the delectable scents of dinner, stared at his spread with interest, though he was not quite so awed as Cyrus or Kora. Leon had already seen his selection of explosives, and though he was impressed with them, he had largely grown used to his friend’s somewhat concerning obsession with the things.
“Wait, so… you only have eight types?” Kora asked, clearly noting the two missing Affinities from Damien’s spread. The Traveler simply nodded at the question, going on to explain the lack of the other two Affinities.
“I don’t really like Pravum as an Affinity that much for a number of reasons. But what made me not consider using it in a Grenade is because… well, I’ve already seen what it can do, and it’s… both unpredictable and disturbing. I’ve only ever made a single Pravum Granade, and I would prefer to keep it that way.”
The seriousness in his voice brought the mood of the whole display down several degrees. Damien hadn’t wanted to, but he really couldn’t help it. Pravum just felt odd to him in ways that he couldn’t comprehend. Like a phobia.
“Still, I think you can all guess why I don’t have Lux Grenades here,” he said, trying to get the conversation back on track to a somewhat happy tone. Jaime noticed this, and immediately pitched in.
“Incompatability?”
“Yup,” Damien admitted. “I mean, it makes sense since Lux is quite literally my natural opposite. My doesn’t really like channeling it, even though a proxy like a Mana Crystal.”
Cyrus nodded, the explanation making sense to the Lignum caster. “I appreciate you telling us about such a boon. Still, why did you not use them earlier? We could have avoided both fights rather easily.”
“I mean, yeah, I could have,” Damien admitted without shame, swiping all of his grenades back into his Inventory ring with a practiced swipe of his hand. “But that would make things a bit too easy. Sure, I like my explosives as much as any Adventurer would, but there’s times to use ‘em, and times where you really don’t have to.
“Although it was nice to see that the effects of my grenades aren’t drastically effected by a landscape’s Affinity, so that was an upside to using those here.”
The others just chuckled at Damien’s change in topic, the Traveler quickly standing up and dusting off his pants and some parts of his leather armor, which he had yet to doff. “Well, I’m gonna go set some stuff up. I should be back by the time the stew is done.”
Then, he went off to the outskirts of their camp, taking a few things out of his Inventory ring and setting them up in the long, burning grass that surrounded them.
“Uh… what’s he doing?” Jaime asked, somewhat confused at Damien’s suddenly departure. He then turned to Leon, who seemed to have a bit of a history with the man.
Leon simply shrugged, smelling the mixture before him before answering Jaime’s question. “He’s setting up some booby traps for anything or anyone that gets too curious in the night.”
Everyone looked at Leon in concern before the tawny skinned man laughed it off. “Relax! They’re just alarms and needle spikes. … I think.”
His hesitant admittance to that last part did not inspire confidence.