Chapter 29

When they made it back to the recovery room, they were all surprised to find Miriana sitting on one of the couches scratching Grok behind one of his big ears. The garg had grown so much over the last month that to say he was the size of a large dog was pushing it. While the statement was mostly true. Grok was starting to spend more and more time squatting on his hindlegs with his forepaws off the ground.

His quadrupedal giant was shifting to be more gorilla like than dog like. His arms had grown so much longer, they outpaced his hindlegs and now drooped too low to allow a smooth running motion. Despite his rapid growth, Grok clearly still saw himself as the loveable lap creature he was when Riakon first found him, evident by his current position half draped across Miriana’s lap while she gave him a scratch.

“Grok! What are you doing? You need to be careful, you are crushing that poor woman.”

The garg turned his face towards Riakon and let his eyelids flutter as the feeling of Miriana’s ministrations must have been too delicious for the garg to care about propriety.

“Oh no Grok is becoming a teenager.” Roden said through a small laugh.

“You boys leave him alone. He is being such a good boy, keeping me company while I waited for you.” Miriana gave the men a once over, scrutinizing them for wounds and bruises as she worked her way out from under Grok’s bulk. “It doesn’t look like you boys took very many hits out there.”

“No way, they were a cake walk, cacaw.”

“Yeah they were a lot weaker than I expected.” Roden said scratching his head.

“Well next time you can take the bear by yourself.” a hint of indignation peppered Riakon’s tone as he spoke.

“You’re the one who wanted to throw them out of the ring, cacaw.”

“Yeah, well it worked.”

Miriana rolled her eyes at the brotherly squabble, and turned to Roden, “So what is your plan now that the fight is over?”

Roden shrank under her gaze, “Oh ummmm, I kind of figured we’d go to the Golden Dew to celebrate our win.”

Her eyebrow went up, “The Golden Dew.”

Her motherly tone must have hit a subconscious cord in the character of Roden as he felt himself begin to sweat. “Yeah… is there something wrong with the Golden Dew?”

“No, that place is actually quite nice. Good on you boys for choosing a higher end tavern, instead of slumming it in one of those dockside scum pits.”

“What about you my Lady?”

Roden shot Riakon a death glare out of Miriana’s sight, as if to say “Do not invite my fucking mother!”

Miriana was one step ahead, “No no, I wouldn’t want to intrude on your celebration. A mother knows when to let their little one fly free, and you boys deserve a night out. You’ve been cooped up at home for too long. I don’t expect I’ll see you boys for dinner then.”

Even though she was being incredibly accommodating, Roden still felt a pang of guilt at ditching her. “Yeah we will probably eat at the Golden Dew.”

“Okay well, I will be off then and leave you to your celebration. You boys did well today, but I expect tomorrow will be a bit tougher when you meet up with those mages.”

She gave Roden a hug, and moved to the door. “I’ll be here tomorrow to watch you boys. Be sure to put on a show.” with that she slipped out the door.

“Did she say mages, cacaw?”

Riakon looked at his brother nodding, “She did.”

“She must have seen the pairings for tomorrow.”

“So we have a team of mages for our fight tomorrow. Should be easy, cacaw.”

A wicked grin spread on Riakon’s toothy maw. “Oh yes, I will definitely be throwing them around.”

Roden had a bad feeling growing in his gut. “Unless they do to us what I did to the boar and his rider.” Images of being blasted by fireballs and lightning bolts raced through Roden’s mind.

“Speak for yourself, they have to catch me first, cacaw.”

Roden’s eyes narrowed on the shifty birdman.

Riakon gazed at his recently acquired dragon brand “I don’t think their fire and lightning will bother me either.”

“Fuck you guys.” Roden joked, “I mean if yall hang me out to dry, you’ll just have to deal with my mother when we get back in here.”

Riakon looked at Errrkkkk and they both shuddered. “Fair enough.”

“Yeah yeah, we’ll protect the squishy caster, cacaw.”

The walk from the arena to the Golden Dew had become a familiar one at this point in their journey. They entered their favorite establishment through the VIP entrance, taking the mezzanine all the way to their usual booth in the roped off section. They spared no expense in their food and drink. Riakon even managed to finagle another bottle of Dragonblood Fallow out of the bartender.

When it arrived at their table Roden was asked if they wanted their tab for the evening to come out of his donations account, which surprised all three men. Roden had forgotten about that conversation with the stage manager. When the sommelier told them the amount he had racked up their jaws dropped. Not only was it enough to cover the wine, but it would probably cover their bill for that night as well.

Unfortunately for Roden, this meant that for the rest of the night his friends ribbed him to go up and play some songs. As much as Roden loved the spotlight, playing music and singing was still a foreign experience.

In his human mind, he knew he didn’t know how to play an instrument, but his half-elf self definitely knew how to play, and was at least average at the endeavor. As they prodded him he scoured his mind for a song he knew well enough to sing, but then he realized something. Up to this point he was relying on his human memory to pick songs he knew in his real life.

He felt like an idiot. “Why the fuck haven’t I been using the real Roden’s repertoire.” he thought to himself. He thought long and hard to drum up all the songs Roden learned over his life prior to him taking over. He wasn’t surprised to find they shared the same interests and there were songs he was actually quite excited to remember.

In some ways, he was a little embarrassed how much Elton John had made its way into his setlist. That was quickly swept away by the memories of playing all those songs from Disney movies for his mother. He found solace that no one listening to him would know the songs came from children’s films. Fortunately, he had a song that fell into both categories and he settled on that song for the night.

When it came time for him to step onto the stage he was a fair bit drunker than he intended to be for his performance. The lights came down and he stood on the stage alone except for the crystal microphone. He went to place his fingers on the strings and to his horror he had no idea where they belonged.

His mind was horribly fuzzy and he couldn’t remember a single note. He began to sweat profusely as he attempted to recall the song. His hazy mind was not doing him any justice. If only he could sober up, he thought. It was then he remembered he could do just that.

He set his instrument down gently then looked across the room towards his friends and vanished from the stage. He reappeared far behind the crowd, just passed the rope that separated the main floor from the VIP section.

Roden ran up to Riakon, “Riakon!” He snapped his fingers at the inebriated dragonkin. “Woah, where did? You’re suppo…” Roden cut him off,

“Yeah I know, but I’m too drunk to perform so I need you to sober me up.” Riakon slapped him, not too hard, but just enough to rouse a person. Roden was caught off guard, but realized his mistake.

“No mate, I meant your Faith Healing.”

“Oh! Well just say that.” Riakon placed a hand on Roden’s arm purging the alcohol from his blood with his magic.

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Roden shouted “Thanks!” as he teleported back to the stage.

“Sorry about that folks. Had to sober up a bit.” He tried his best to make it sheepish, yet nonchalant.

He knew he needed to bring it now that he made everybody wait, so he rolled into his song. The notes fluttered as he played them. It wasn’t a complex rhyme, which spoke to just how drunk he must have been. The crowd seemed unimpressed by the first few chords. Then he started to sing,

“There’s a calm_____ sur-ren - der to the rush_____ of day,___

When the heat_____ of the roll-ing world____ can be turned__ a– way.__”

His mind was clear and he found himself truly getting pulled into the song. He had to allow himself to be possessed by the spirit of the song. He was caught up in the melody as he neared his personal favorite part.

“It’s e – nough__ for this rest – less wor-rior just to be____ with you._____ And

Can you feel__ the love___ tonight?___ It is where__ we are______”

As he sang out his eyes were closed, so he could feel the music and throw himself into it. Whenever he sang about love it inevitably brought him thoughts of his wife, Joy. He missed her so much and he felt like he was nowhere closer to getting back to her. He started to get choked up and despite his sober mind, the song and his playing went to shit.

When he opened his eyes the crowd was just staring back at him. No one was dancing, most just had a look of confusion on their face, which to him came across as “what the fuck am I watching right now?!”

Roden had resigned himself to cut his losses and exit the stage. However, as he bent down to pick up his things, he felt heavy footsteps climb the stage. To Roden’s complete surprise instead of their being a burly security guard coming with a long hook, he saw Riakon, clear eyed and resolute.

“Riakon, what are you doing?!” Roden whispered to him.

“Do you remember the other song you sang from that play?”

Roden was dumbfounded, “What are you talking about?”

“The song! You sang it the night we met. It’s from the same musical right?”

Roden thought long and hard. He couldn’t believe what Riakon was suggesting.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I love that song.”

Roden figured he had nothing to lose so he started playing, and sang the intro,

“Wee– ee – ee – e – he – he – ee– ee– e – ee- um –um –buway.____

O-Wim - o - wee, o - wim - o - wee, o wim - o - wee, o - wim - o - wee, o”

To Roden’s utter shock Riakon actually started singing,

“In the jun___ gle, the might - ty jun___ gle, the li - on___ sleeps__ to-night._”

Riakon’s singing voice was a spectacle all to its own. It wasn’t overly high as the song was usually done. He sang slow and steady. He let the bass resonate through his voice. His song was like a warm blanket over the cold crowd. It never brought the crowd to dance, but they listened. All of their attention was fixed on Riakon as he belted out the lyrics.

Roden played the melody and would provide the background vocals when they would enhance Riakon’s own. It was safe to say no one in the building was expecting this from the large dragonkin.

The song wasn’t a long one and Riakon brought it to a close by trailing off on his final note. He had done something rarely seen. They had done something rarely seen. They had taken a crowd of dancing people and brought their party to an abrupt halt. Then as Roden had lost them, Riakon came in and turned the vibe to one of relaxation and calm. The crowd gave a polite and steady applause like one would expect to hear at a jazz club. Roden had an idea.

“Hey Riakon, do you remember the other song I sang that first night?”

He thought for a moment and leaned away from the crystal microphone, “The one about the moon?”

“Yeah that one.”

“Some of it, yeah.”

“Bet, follow my lead and jump in when you think you have it.”

Roden could tell the crowd was warmed up from his earlier debacle. He strummed a few notes and rolled into his song.

“Oh fly me to the moon___ and let me play a-mong the stars._____”

Riakon stepped up to the mic,

“let me see what spring___ is like on Ju - pi - ter and Mars._____”

They played their way through the song with Roden taking the majority and Riakon either taking small parts for himself or joining Roden in harmony. Having never performed together meant their teamwork wasn’t seamless, but it was an endearing sight to watch two grown men experiment musically on stage.

Roden ended the song with an abrupt note. This time the applause was full and lively. Roden grabbed Riakon’s wrist and held it up. They took a bow in tandem and waved to the crowd.

When they got back to the table Roden started grilling Riakon,

“Dude! What was that?”

“That was me, saving your ass.” he punctuated each statement by pointing at Roden then himself.

Roden narrowed his eyes at his friend, “Yeah and thank you for that, but how?”

“How what?”

“Mainly, how did you know that song?”

Riakon looked puzzled, “What do you mean? It's a popular song.”

Now it was Roden’s turn to look puzzled. “It is?”

“Yes, of course. It's from that one play, King something or other.”

“The Lion King?”

“No, that’s not it. I don’t remember, I saw it a few times when I was younger. The songs stuck with me and you just sang it, so it was fresh.”

Roden was incredibly confused, and the more he thought about it the more his head began to hurt. He let the subject drop.

“As thanks for saving you, you can help me get my buzz back.” he said signaling the waitress over.

“What?” Roden said dumbly.

“I had to sober myself up to do all of that, so I am starting over.”

They ordered more drinks and started their celebration anew. Errrkkkk, however, did not last long as his sobriety was not renewed. Within a few rounds, Errrkkkk was sleeping soundly on the table. After a few more rounds they decided to call it a night and the two bandmates carried their friend off to bed.

In the morning, Roden was pleasantly surprised to find he had leveled up. He wondered how he hadn’t noticed it the night before, but reasoned that perhaps he had gained just enough experience points from his performance with Riakon to push him over the edge. He decided on breakfast before dealing with his level up and strolled into the main sitting room.

He walked in on a strange sight. Errrkkkk was perched on the balcony railing. A balcony Roden didn’t even know existed. He had assumed the room didn’t have a balcony with it being in a demiplane outside of their plane, except there it was with sky and all.

Riakon was seated on the couch as was typical when he didn’t drink too heavily the night before.

“What’s up with Errrkkkk?”

“Oh him? He got up late, so he’s doing his advancement now.”

“Advancement?”

Riakon looked at him as if he was a complete idiot. “Yeah, you know, like when you meditate to consolidate your magic.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“Roden, you mean to tell me with all that meditating you do, you’re not consolidating the levels of magic you absorb? What are you doing then?”

Roden wasn’t sure if he was more confused or concerned.

“Ummmmm well, I meditate and then I go to my headspace.”

A knowing look came over Riakon, “Exactly, and then you pick your spells or your ability thresholds are met when you’ve absorbed enough magic.”

“Ability thresholds?”

“Roden, who the hell was your teacher? Master Rolen would be so disappointed.”

Roden rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah, I get that. Explain these advancements.”

Riakon let out an exasperated sigh, “Well for you and I, the advancements are simple. We meditate and our God gives us spells and abilities. Not much to it. Sometimes, I can consolidate my magic reserves into my body to give me a boost to my strength or constitution, but…”

Roden cut him off, “You keep saying consolidate magic. What does that mean?”

“I’m talking about the magic you absorb.”

“I absorb magic?” Roden felt like he was scratching at the walls of his predicament. He felt as though he should know all of these things by the way Riakon was talking.

“Geez Roden, did you get hit on the head? Of course you absorb magic. How else are you able to be an adventurer?”

Roden laughed weakly, “So wait, all adventurers absorb magic?”

“Yeah, how do you think fighters get so strong or the barbarians are so thick skinned?”

Roden had to admit he had a very good point. “So even Errrkkkk absorbs magic?”

“Yeah he does, it’s just focused on his body and he has all that special training to convert it into chi.”

Roden’s head was hurting something fierce at his revelation. He winced in pain, but pushed through it to get at the rest of what Riakon knew. “Did you get an advancement recently?”

Riakon nodded, “Yeah I did mine when I woke up. Finally had enough magic to generate a paladin aura.”

Roden’s mind was racing with all of the implications. What did it all mean? He thought to himself. His attention was ripped away when his body started tingling and letting off a faint glow.

“Ha! Looks like you have an advancement waiting for you too. Best get to it before we get our day going.”

“Last question, how long do your advancements take?”

“Oh yours and mine are instant a perk of having our abilities granted by the Gods. Everyone else’s takes time. Errrkkkk usually only takes fifteen minutes or so, but he was awfully hungover when he started so I’m sure he will take longer.

Roden skipped grabbing breakfast and went straight to the shower to start his advancement as Riakon had called it. He sat on the floor of the shower, the hot water beating down on him and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes and saw his grove. He was happy to see everything was as he left it. The large tree on the far end, the fire burning in the middle, and the path behind him. The fire was burning particularly vigorously that day and drew his attention.

He approached the flame and examined its contents. He saw his holy symbol as he had before, but he felt there was no spell to be had, he reached out anyway and was surprised to find it was a Domain ability. The ability flowed into him, and revealed itself to be an ability called Flashpoint.

It built upon his other Fire Domain gifts. It required an enemy to be suffering from his Blaze ability to enter his Moment of Ignition area of effect. When that happened Roden would be able to use the power from his cloak to cause a flashpoint explosion at that enemy’s location.

He instinctively knew it would be a powerful attack. He was a bit annoyed it cost him his defensive ability in the process, but he realized he could use his Moment of Ignition twice now before needing to rest.

His conversation with Riakon had him seeing things differently here. He had thought of this place as his character creation zone, but that can’t really be the case if all adventurers experience something similar when they advanced their abilities.

He realized the rest was all about regaining magic reserves and not some arbitrary game mechanic. He must have reached a point where he was able to retain enough magic to use the ability again without needing to replenish his reserves.

When he really thought about it, the way the world worked started making more and more sense. The magic for his spells came from the Magisphere, even he had written that much when he built this world. He had built much of the world based on how magic would permeate the world, but never solidified the method for how the people in the world interacted with that internal magic. He had never gone that far because no one he played with would ever need to know that.

Now it was clear to him his domain abilities came from his own magic reserves, which made the fact that he had two Domains a bit out of place. Did that mean his reserves were twice and large as a typical cleric? What the hell was going on with this world? He railed at no one in particular.

Then he eyed his tree, the one that represented his Elvan magic and that opened a whole new line of questions about internal magic and how it came about that he really didn’t want to delve into until he knew more about how things worked.

He was a little disappointed to see his Elvan magic didn’t have anything new for him, but figured it needed more time to build up its reserves. He shook his head at the thought that he was becoming a set of magical batteries. Or would it be more accurate to compare himself to a capacitor?

He was doing it again.

He left the tree and set off toward his Adventure Domain path. His holy symbol was floating there as expected. It never failed to remind him of that scene from Harry Potter when Dumbledore first appears on Privet Drive.

He grasped his holy symbol within the light absorbing his new Adventure Domain ability. By this point, Roden had stopped trying to guess what his Adventure Domain would bring his way. It was truly a wildcard in his repertoire. He held out hope that his abilities would make fighting at a distance a more viable tactic. His new ability did nothing of the sort.

He gained the ability Adventurer's Aegis. He wasn’t mad at the prospect of some kind of shield, but as he analyzed the ability he grew giddy at his new power. On the surface, it let him construct a shield. Considering the fights he had recently a shield would have been incredibly helpful.

He took a moment to be annoyed with himself for not thinking about using a shield sooner. This ability produced a shield that had some additional benefits to keep him safe behind its protection. He really wished he had this ability when Seven sent him through that wall.

His next order of business was to pick his new spell. He was pleasantly surprised to find there were Common tier spell wisps floating not far from his starting point. He jumped at the chance to add a ranged Common spell to his arsenal.

He found the spell he was looking for straight out of the Adventure and Antics handbook. He absorbed the baby sized spell. To his horror, he felt the spell be pulled towards his Adventure Domain. He cursed his luck. Whatever method was used to decide which way his spells went was his newest source of irritation.

Then the spell revealed itself to him and all irritation washed away. He shouted as the name of the spell and its effects flooded his mind. He felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Fucking eye beams!”