I woke up feeling completely fine.
Groggy, I didn’t even open my eyes at first. For a moment, I didn’t remember anything of what had happened to me over the last week. I just luxuriated in the surprisingly comfortable bed that I found myself in. I couldn’t tell how long I lay in bed, but after a while, I gradually opened my eyes. I was greeted by a room adorned with plain wooden paneled walls and a similarly wood floor illuminated by an open window.
I didn’t recognize the room that I was in.
Turning my head in confusion for a second, still half asleep, I jolted when I suddenly remembered everything. I sat bolt upright with a rush of adrenaline, making my head swim.
That’s right. Grey and Azarus said they were going to put me under and brand me.
They said they were going to put it on the back of my left shoulder, so I tried to feel around back there with my right hand. Someone must have put my shirt back on me after they’d finished, I noticed. I thought I might be able to feel something under my fingers, but it was slight. Whatever they had done afterward must have healed it enough to not feel like a raised scar.
Looking around, I guessed they, or rather Azarus, moved me to a different room after they’d finished. It was a much smaller room than the one that Grey had, I could tell. Maybe about half of the size, it only had a bed, a small dresser, and a desk and chair in it. Glancing out the window that I could see from my bed, I could tell that this room must be on the second floor of the house.
Swinging my legs off the side of the bed, I decided to go looking for either of them to ask how the procedure had gone. As I stood up, I grimaced. Either the adrenaline from earlier or the amount I’d slept in the last twenty-four hours had given me a slight headache.
Opening the door to the room, I stepped out. Glancing around, I could see that there was another door across from me that presumably led to another bedroom, and a door to the right. Maybe it was another washroom. On my left was the staircase down to the bottom floor.
As I moved down the stairs, I thought that I could hear something coming from the back of the house. Once I got to the bottom I headed in that direction. As I got closer, I could tell that what I had been hearing was the sounds of someone eating. I stepped through the open doorway at the back of the house into what could only be the kitchen.
The kitchen was a bit sparse, honestly. It didn’t seem like it had been built with being a kitchen in mind. There were a few tables, presumably for food preparation, a large cupboard, and a small table. There was also a wood-burning cast iron stove with a small chimney that led through the roof. The kitchen also had a few windows along the far wall and a door that led to the outside.
Grey was sitting at the table eating a bowl of something.
As I stepped through, Grey looked up at me and gave me a slight smile and a nod.
“Ah,” He said to me. “I thought that I heard you shuffling about. How are you feeling?”
“Fine, I suppose. So, the whole branding thing went well, I guess?”
“Well enough, well enough. Once we had finished and healed the mark, Azarus moved you to his guest room. He wished for me to tell you that the room is yours, for the foreseeable future.”
I walked over to the table and sat down on one of the chairs.
I looked around the somewhat sparse kitchen. “So, where is he anyway?”
“Hmm?” Grey made an inquisitive noise, a spoon of what looked like oatmeal halfway to his mouth.
“Azarus,” I said. “Is he out back or something?”
“Ah,” Grey said with a grimace, setting down his spoon to answer me. “He’s stepped out. He had some unpleasant business he had to attend to.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Anything relevant to the whole, I dunno, situation?”
“Yes, very relevant. You see, when one considers dwarven society,” Grey said, adopting a lecturing tone. “Messrs Finly and Luca overstepped their authority, bringing you to Azarus first. What they should have done is take you to Magnus instead. It’s understandable why they did so, as they wished to avoid his potential wrath at his inadvertent purchasing of an older Unawoken slave.”
“And that’s bad? Being Unawoken, I mean? Why would he be pissed at them, anyway? He was the one that did it.”
“Bad, in the sense that an Unawoken slave would not be as productive as one with a full Status. In a sense, through their wish to avoid angering him, they may well have saved your life. Magnus may well have simply ordered you…disposed of, shall we say.” Grey said with a distasteful look on his face. “As for why he would be wroth with them, well. Let us just say that Magnus is not well known for logical thought.”
We sat in silence for a few moments before Grey continued.
“Since Messrs Finly and Luca essentially went over Magnus’s head taking you to Azarus, Azarus needs to register you into his legal, ah, ownership shall we say. As a noble, Azarus is the only other dwarf in this settlement legally allowed to own a slave. He needs to settle with his cousin for having finagled a slave out from under him, and so he went to visit Magnus. He’s settled on a somewhat believable fiction to explain how you came to ‘belong’ to him.”
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“Which is?”
“Simply that he needs a house slave to assist him in his work. Well,” Grey said, forcing a smile onto his face. “Enough of that for now! Are you by chance hungry? There’s still some porridge left in the pan if you’d like some.”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I think I’d like that.”
……………………………………...
Grey and I were still eating when we heard the front door open and someone wearing large boots stomp in.
Looking up, Grey said. “That must be Azarus. Azarus! We’re in the kitchen!”
We heard the stomping stop for a moment before reorienting in our direction after shutting the door. In moments, Azarus appeared in the kitchen doorway with a huge scowl on his face.
“And how did it go?” Grey said, unfazed.
Taking a moment to take a huge breath, hold it, and then let it out, Azarus seemed to calm down.
“All gods piss on that shite,” Azarus replied, still frowning. “But it went fine. He didn’t give a rat’s arse about one lowly human slave, but it’s better than him making trouble later. I stopped by the admin building too on the way home to have a little conversation with the bean counters from last night.”
Azarus smirked a little. “Long story short, they understand how things are.” He nodded in my direction. “Even got you registered proper. Don’t need to worry about some uppity stickman coming by to pound on the door about an unregistered slave.”
Azarus walked over to the table and slumped into the last chair available with a sigh.
Grey cleared his throat. “Well,” He started. “Since we’re all here, it’s a perfect time to consider our next moves.”
I looked between the two of them for a moment. “And that is?”
Azarus straightened up in his chair. “Gettin’ you some levels, I reckon. Which will be a mite difficult if we try and go about it the usual way, so we’ll have to be careful.”
“What’s the usual way?” I asked. “No, wait, let me guess. Killing monsters or something?”
Grey quirked an eyebrow my way. “Indeed. I’m surprised to hear you say that, Nathan. Does your world perchance have some knowledge of the System after all?”
“Ah, no actually,” I said, somewhat awkwardly.
How the hell are you supposed to explain the concept of video games to a fantasy wizard and a dwarf?
“It just fits in with similar, ah, stories from back home.”
“Very well,” Grey said somewhat confusedly. “But you are essentially correct. The primary method that the system grants to advance in level is by killing monsters.”
“Okay,” I said, leaning forwards. “But how does that work? I mean, why does killing something give you XP?”
“XP?” Grey muttered to himself. “No, never mind. To answer your question, let us return to the topic of souls. Through the experience of life, a soul accumulates Aether, the energy of the soul. At the moment of death, as that soul begins to transition into whatever comes afterward, the Aether that the soul has accumulated is dispersed. As a refinement tool, the System collects the Aether that the soul disperses, refines it, and adds it to your own.”
Grey paused for a moment.
“However,” He continued slowly. “Because I know that you will ask. This does mean that the act of killing another sapient being, such as a human or a dwarf, will disperse the Aether that they have accumulated over their life. However, thankfully, this Aether is largely inaccessible. The refinement that the System introduces is extremely personalized, and thus means that the Aether that another user of the System disperses is incompatible with someone else’s.”
“Can’t imagine the fuckin’ mess there would be if people could just go around killing each other and get a bunch of levels,” Azarus grumbled.
“Oh indeed,” Grey agreed, nodding. “As it is, you can only absorb a fraction of the amount of Aether dispersed by another sapient. As such, the primary way to level is to go out and cull the monster population, which are themselves large amounts of unrefined Aether solidified around a physical proto-soul. Monsters cannot possess a Status or be Awoken after all, even if they can be assessed in a manner as if they did.”
I tilted my head a bit in thought. “Okay,” I said consideringly. “What about animals then? Do they have souls that accumulate Aether as well? Can killing them give you levels?”
Grey nodded. “They do, yes. However, not as much as a monster. Consider a simple sliding scale if you would.” He said, holding up his hands parallel to each other with a large space between them.
“On the far end,” He said, wiggling his right hand. “You have the sapient races, such as humans or dwarves, which do not release much refinable Aether upon death. In the middle,” He continued, moving his right hand closer to his left. “You have wildlife, which only releases a small amount of refinable Aether. It’s not considered an efficient method of advancement, however, nor is it an environmentally sustainable one.”
Grey paused to reach for a glass of water next to his bowl of porridge and take a sip.
Setting it down and putting his hands back up, Grey continued his explanation. “Finally, we have monsters.” He said, wiggling his left hand. “They release a large amount of unrefined Aether upon death, depending upon the Aether density of the environment they form in. As monsters are largely composed of Aether, their physical form disperses as well. They leave only one thing behind, which is the physical proto-soul composed of solidified Aether they’re formed around. These are colloquially referred to as monster Cores.”
“For you though,” Azarus picked up. “Getting you out to kill monsters is going to be a bit of a problem. Legally, you’re a slave. You can’t be going off on your own or the flatfoots will catch you, beat you black and blue, and carry you back here. Now, I can take you with me into the forest, but I can’t go out often. I haven’t been going out much meself, to be honest. Magnus doesn’t want me to, so he’s instructed his guards to only let me leave town twice a month. The fucker.”
“Presumably, this is to make sure he can keep a better eye on me.” Grey piped in. “But in reality…”
“It’s because the little shite is jealous I’m higher level than he is,” Azarus told me. “So, he’s trying to get ahead with an excuse like that. He can’t bar me from going out at all, or he’d get in legal trouble. What with me bein’ another noble and all. He doesn’t have the authority of his father to do that. As it is, I can only go out to the forest about twice a month. It’s not much, and even then this area isn’t much use to me. The Aether density around here doesn’t produce beasties strong enough to help. But it would work for you, so I’ll try to take you with me when I can.”
“In the meanwhile,” Grey picked up. “We’ll introduce you to the second method of advancement. Professions.”
“It’s safer to get started with,” Azarus said. “But it’s much slower-”
“In fact, you only refine as much as one-seventh of the amount of Aether from crafting a similarly leveled item as you would from slaying a monster. That amount grows to two-sevenths of the Aether you would gain with a second profession.” Grey cut in enthusiastically.
“Aye,” Azarus said exasperatedly. “Two sevenths then, ‘cause you should always take two professions. Between me and Grey, we’ve got four of the seven professions, so you have some good choices. We’d be able to teach you decently in them. I’m a Smith and an Engineer, myself.”
“And I am an Enchanter and an Alchemist, as well,” Grey said cheerfully. “All that’s left is for you to choose what you wish to learn.”