1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.7 Stole and virtue
Kafana thanked Faispeu, and set out a picnic blanket under some trees near a pond of singing frogs.
Kafana: {When you’re finished there, we’re in the petting zoo near the entrance, eating a late lunch under the trees. Keep an eye on the time.}
Bulgaria: {Don’t expect Wellington until the last moment. They’re talking higher dimensional geometry. The only words I recognise are ‘cell’ and ‘hull’, and I’m pretty sure I don’t understand what they mean in this context. Tomsk and I will be joining as soon as we tactfully can.}
Bungo: “Kafana, here are the two items you wanted.”
She accepted them from him and looked at their descriptions:
Ceremonial Stole (EPIC)(UNIQUE)
+100% to aura effects during Ceremonies
Attracts the attention of deities while worn
+10 to all negotiation skills during Ceremonies
If target breaks an agreement made during the Ceremony, they will suffer a curse.
This blue silk scarf was won from Arachne by the Moradan Priest, Kshoon the Cursebreaker
DURABILITY 100000/100000
Empress Wei's Broach of Virtuosity (EPIC)(UNIQUE)
+8 to skills
Bad luck will fall upon people who spread harmful rumours about you that are untrue, equal to the malice of the spreader.
???
"Empress Wei was virtuous and seen to be virtuous, and so confounded her accusers."
DURABILITY 100000/100000
The broach was a beautifully crafted flying creature with a long tail curled into a circle, done in gold and black. It probably didn’t match any of her clothing, but she didn’t care. She was about to pin it onto the bardic cloak Alderney had made for her, but then hesitated. What if someone stole it, like earlier in the plaza?
Kafana: “Kino, you’ve had lots of experience here. What did rich people in Divine Mountain do to stop muggers knocking them out and stealing all the items they are wearing?” She started laying out some food and invited Kino to join in the meal.
Kino: “Adventurers usually soul bonded their most precious item, and were so bad-ass that few would dare attempt to pick-pocket them. Some organised gangs of PKers specialised in stunning victims so they could rob them, but mostly people of level 60 or higher were just plain fast enough or scary enough to not have to worry about theft.”
Kino: “Nobles wouldn’t usually walk about with multiple legendary and epic items, like your party does. But when going out beyond the area they controlled, they’d take guards or an escort of hangers-on eager to prove their worth. Much like in arlife, really. It’s the cost of having nice stuff.”
Kafana: “So wear spiky threatening armour, give up my privacy, or stick to having just one or two nice items that I can wear all the time, and don’t take the rest out near crowds?”
Kino: “Basically yes. Or be anonymous and keep your head down. Which you’d find rather difficult, given your tendency to burst into song.” Kino smiled gently to remove the sting from her words.
Kafana: “I don’t like any of those options. Bungo, you’re a Womble, and the best lateral thinker I know. Find me another option!”
Bungo: “You mean that?”
Kafana: “Sure. Your father was an idiot for not seeing the value in you. I admit, it took me a while to appreciate it, but I’ve come to realise that half our best ideas come from throw away comments that you’ve made.”
Bungo burst into tears, alarming her, but then he hugged her and thanked her over and over again. She patted him on the back, bemused. Had he been that starved of sincere compliments his entire life? Perhaps he had. She felt a renewed anger against his father and did her best not to rant. It was a demon only Bungo could face. But perhaps there were things she could do to help him in other ways.
Kafana: “There’s no rush though. In the meantime, I’ll just keep everything in my stash. I’m trying to avoid standing out too much.”
Kino’s face froze. Bungo’s jaw dropped open.
Kino said cautiously: “How’s that approach working out for you?”
Bungo: “I watched the live stream as you stalked through a crowd containing pretty much every adventurer in Torello and they all flinched back to let you pass. You then threatened whole guilds with devastation.”
Kafana said, grumpily: “I said I was trying. I didn’t claim to have succeeded. It’s a work in progress.”
Bungo had to hold two hands over his mouth. Kino was polite enough to at least turn her back.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Kafana: “Oh go ahead, laugh it up. Do you know one pervert wanted me to change into a swimsuit for a selfie with him, and kept using the phrase ‘Kraken-chan’? Kino, you have a million people watching you every month. Do things like that happen to you? What do you do about it?”
Kino shrugged: “I shoot them. It is all good experience points. This ban on player killing of yours is rather inconvenient.”
She added: “But generally people ignore me. I’m not the center of attention, just a spectator. There will always be rude people out there. You can’t change society. All you can control is how you react. Meditation helps. I do it when I’m travelling. If I stay too long in one place, I go stir crazy. By the way, this is my last day in Torello. Tomorrow I’m heading south, to see what there is to see.”
Bungo: “You taught the monks to meditate. But the only times I see you do it is when you’re short on mana. Have you ever tried doing it just to relax and ground yourself?”
She was about to say “I never get time” when Alderney appeared and dragged her off to see the horned rabbits she’d persuaded to eat carrots out of her hands. Alderney spoke excitedly to her in direct chat.
Alderney: {I had my tiara do a search. Kalos was a dragonette in Divine Mountain. A special one. I really really want to be able to tame by the time the egg hatches. My taming attunements are lousy but this scarf gives a massive bonus to taming newborns that were carried in it before hatching.}
Kafana: {Wonderful! I’ll make as much time available for you as possible, to read up on taming dragonettes. Wellington has Bibliomancy, his vessel might help. I can try to develop some food or songs that will help. Ask Harlequin too. And maybe you can do it as a group performance with others lending you their attunements?}
They carried on making plans as they gave a token carrot to the bunny and fussed it.
[Title gained “Tamer”.]
[Skill “Taming” acquired.]
[Skill “Taming” has reached level 1 - You may acquire reputation with simple creatures.]
*ding* [Your reputation with simple creatures has increased by 5.]
When they returned, Tomsk and Bulgaria had arrived and were already tucking in. Bungo was handing them items.
To Tomsk he gave a magnificent battle banner, showing a golden dragon with outstretched wings, soaring across a red background. Tomsk accepted it respectfully and carefully rolled it up before storing it. Along with it, in the same colours, was barding for a very large horse. He asked Alderney what materials she’d need to make him a really good set of matching armour. Alderney’s eyes lit up, and she started sketching, food forgotten.
To Bulgaria he gave a whole variety of small items, once Bulgaria had asked Kino to look away. Gloves like those Carlo wore. A mask. A book. A block of ink. A box full of pens, seals and other writing stuff. And a ring that looked disgustingly like a cockroach. Kafana assumed that these must have been personal items carried by members of The Immortals for their own use, rather than stuff brought over to be auctioned. Who’d want a ring like that?
Alderney: “Am I the only one who chose a weapon?”
Bungo: “Yes. Feel the blood drip from your hands, as you prowl among us peaceful pacifists.”
Tomsk: “I thought you kept back some bows?”
Bungo: “Well, yeah, but those are for the monks, not for me. They don’t count. The main thing I kept for myself was a cool new shield. I also picked some alchemy stuff, and some metal samples that I hope can be combined with my skills as a Seer to let us divine valuable mineral deposits.”
Kino: “That’s amazing. The pick of legendary weapons from Divine Mountain, and none of you want them? You’re just going to auction them all off?”
Kafana: “Well, I plan to give some of them to friends, and Wellington is probably going to study them for their rune diagrams. But yeah. Quite a few of those weapons are designed to do permanent harm. Instead of putting them up for open auction, I’d rather use the nastier ones to pay my taxes to Torello and let Lelio sit on them.”
Tomsk: “While we wait for Wellington, we should allocate stats.”
Bulgaria spoke to her in private chat: {Kafana, I think we’re likely to be dealing with a lot of nobles soon. If you wouldn’t mind, could you boost your CHA as much as possible?}
Wellington turned up just as Kafana finished clearing away the picnic, and they updated the shared document with their new unmodified stats:
(STATS) CHA INT MAG STR DEX CON
Bungo 1 69 250 30 100 150
Tomsk 48 1 1 300 100 150
Alderney 1 100 1 1 397 100
Kafana 150 150 99 1 100 100
Wellington 50 349 50 1 50 100
Bulgaria 100 100 100 100 100 100
Bungo passed a wand, a turban, a belt and a broach to Wellington, then they set off. At the entrance to the Zoo, Kino turned to face them and gave a formal bow.
Kino: “Omobono will meet you at the Vecci camp. Wombles, it has been an honour to meet you all.”
And with that she faded from view, before their very eyes.