Halfway into my morning ablutions, I realized the perfect Skill for Snowy. I was half tempted to rush into my workroom immediately, but I managed to finish shaving first. Just as I was about to open the secret door to descend into my secret laboratory, I realized this would leave me running late. Grumbling under my breath, I closed the door, stomped downstairs, and let Sir Wincome know that I would be slightly delayed. Once that was done, I stomped back up the stairs and into my workroom.
In the far corner of the room was a waist-high safe with a simple non-locking door latch. It was made of thick cast iron with refractory bricks inside and outside, the purpose wasn't to repel thieves but instead any chance of fire. My initial thinking was that if someone made it into my basement, they would have already found my secret. Having them steal my Skill Dictionary was a lesser concern.
Slowly swinging open the heavily weighted door, I checked the paper and books inside. The top shelf held my last two soul contracts, a communication scroll for emergencies so I could contact my parents and six worn leather-bound books. On the bottom shelf were two books wrapped in new goat hide leather. One of the books on the bottom was my observations and suppositions about the Skills I've seen since I've started my business. The other book was far less interesting overall but necessary. It was a listing of my finances, my customers, income and costs, and so on. I'm sure that someone could use that for blackmail or any of the other games the nobles like to play, but I was not interested.
With a sigh, I realized I was a low noble, and it was inevitable someone would want to play those games with me eventually. I was less than excited with the grim realization. Despite the dreadful thoughts, I still smiled as I reached for the six slim books. Carefully checking their order, I put the first two on the top back in the safe. Those two were dedicated to crafting Skills. Everything from [Alchemy] to [Weaving] that the Skill Trainers had, an overview was in those two books. It was possible to get full guides to any of the crafts, or at least any that we had gathered information on. Still, I had no interest in going that in-depth on any of the crafting Skills. At least, not yet. One day I hoped to be able to consider myself on par with an apprentice or further with all of my crafting Skills. As it was, I barely reached beyond apprentice on [Alchemy] and then only since I needed it for my disguise.
Almost reverently, I set the next four books on my workbench. These books were not nearly as well organized as the first two. The others had been carefully arranged by the crafting Skill. Then they named each of the sub-Skills, which would work with the craft and then went into further detail about the art. These four were haphazardly organized at best and were devoted to combat-related Skills. The only consistent organization I could find were mentions of where the author had managed to learn of the Skill. It was likely as much a travel log as it was a Skill listing. One day I planned to organize them as well as the other two, but for now, I only needed the raw information.
Flipping through the books, I carefully checked each page to see if it was the start of a Skill's description. It wasn't until the third book in the stack, and halfway through it that I found what I was looking for. I poured over the description and the story of the drunk sailor who had earned the Skill. When I was done, I smiled since it would be perfect for Snowy. Even the potential downsides of the Skill were fine.
Almost cackling, I bundled up my books and returned them to the safe. Grabbing a pair of wooden table legs that I had carved but never used, I sawed off two lengths of roughly palm-width. Cutting the two columns of wood lengthwise, I chiseled out a notch in the center of the four bits of wood. Grabbing some long strips of leather, some tanner's glue, and some thin twine, I chucked my prizes into a small cloth bag and returned to my room above.
The entire walk to the fortress, I was anticipating Snowy earning the Skill and how it would be one more way she was better than the tribe that had tormented her. It wasn't until Sir Wincome stepped away from me that I realized how distracted I had been and that I hadn't noticed him.
In befuddlement, I looked around the courtyard at the guardsmen who were waiting while two wagons were loaded down with food and gear. It was easy to tell the veterans of a season from the green recruits. Boredom or excitement, it was clear. I could understand that well enough. While they weren't elites, they had at least one season under their belts and knew what was coming. The recruits still had fanciful bard's tales floating through their skulls. Shaking my head, I looked for Snowy, and when I didn't find her, I continued into the fortress. Snagging the first page that I walked by, I instructed him to direct me to the Baroness. It was amazing how a ten-year-old was able to mix annoyance, indignation, and fright all at once, but he managed.
We tromped through the fortress for a bit, the young boy stopping multiple times to consult with others before our meander suddenly took a more direct route. To my surprise, we stopped outside the family wing. One of the two elite guards on station left to get Snowy while the page made a quick retreat now that I was no longer his responsibility. I had to wait for ten minutes or so. Eventually, Snowy joined me, the two guards conspicuously standing guard where they could watch me.
"Can I help you, Mr. Still?" Alexis said, her voice the very model of propriety.
I was confused for a moment, but Alexis gave me an exaggerated look with her eyes towards the two men, and I was clued into why she was acting so stuffy. Not why she was doing it, but that she had a reason at least.
"Baroness, I wanted to be sure that you brought your glyphed greatsword with you to the culling. I have found something important, and I am sure that it would be useful to you," I said, trying hard to match her speech. Snowy, a woman who spent most of her life training with the barbarous Northmen, was better at acting prim and proper than I was.
Snowy smirked at my attempt, trying and failing to hold to a neutral look before she continued.
"Very good. I have something I must discuss with my father before we leave, but…uh…" Snowy said before her noble act faded. "I need to talk to you later," she said, dropping any attempt at using flowery language.
Nodding that I understood the friendly dismissal, I stepped back and performed my best tight bow, then turned and walked away. It was only after I had left that I remembered that I was supposed to rise from the bow and wait for dismissal. Shrugging, I continued to the mustering hall. I had already screwed up, there was little I could do about it now. I would have to find someone to help me earn [Etiquette] if I could. Since Snowy was obviously being trained, I should find out if her trainer would assist me as well. It was still annoying to me that you could find dance trainers, etiquette trainers, and any other number willing to train the nobles. Still, the Guilds had a stranglehold on the crafting Skills and the exclusive right to produce those crafts.
Eventually, Alexis stepped into the mustering hall and into her waiting carriage. Twenty minutes later, her carriage was loaded, and the troop started to move through the city. We walked along for a few hours while other travelers dodged off the road and watched us as we passed.
"Joshua. Could I talk to you for a second?" Alexis called for me from her carriage as I marched along with the men.
The tone of Snowy's voice worried me. There was something in her voice. Part excitement, part worry.
It was a bit awkward to climb into the carriage while we continued to roll down the road, but I managed.
Snowy seemed to be trying to find how to say what she wanted. She mastered herself, then folded both hands into her lap.
"Josh, have you checked my Skills?" she said with a concerned look.
Blinking at the question, I shook my head but mentally brought Snowy's skills to mind. Her concern was palpable, sometime last night, she earned a Skill point! At my distracted look, she nodded, then continued when she had my focus.
"Yes. Sometime after I…expressed my anger…the world awarded me a Skill point. I wanted to ask your advice," Snowy began while giving me a stony look. Though she then gave me a haunted look, "Are you sure I can get [Swordmanship]? Should I use my point? Do you think I can get [Swordmanship] with it?"
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The last question was the most painful to hear her ask. The chief of the Blood Snow tribe should be castrated for that question alone. If she had only demonstrated a tenth of the competence she held with a sword, she would be able to use it to gain [Swordmanship]. Still, it would be a terrible waste. Once she activated her point, she would be forced to make a selection. The selection process was too distracting to hold off. As I understood it, it was like having a weight pressing on your mind.
"Snowy, I expect you will learn [Swordmanship] on this trip, and I know you can earn another combat Skill as well. Using your skill point for [Swordmanship] would be a waste. My advice? Find out what things you need to do as Baroness, whatever you dislike and where you have no real talent, and use it for that. You will need that Skill when your father retires, and while it won't grow quickly or maybe at all, it will still be helpful," I said.
My honest confidence in her eventual Skill seemed to bolster Snowy's flagging mood. Before she could ask me another question, I leaned forward with a smile and asked, "Where is your sword? I've got a surprise for you!"
The question, and my playful mood, were a distraction from Snowy's worries, and shortly her footman had pulled her sword from the luggage on the roof. Awkwardly, it was threaded through the window as we continued to roll along until it was lying across Snowy's knees. The look she had for her weapon was a bitter mix of pride, anger, and curiosity. Her fingers lingered over the metal, running over the glyphs, even while she frowned. I watched respectfully without interruption until Snowy seemed to draw herself out of whatever memories plagued her.
Once I had Snowy's focus, I gave her an impish smile and pulled the wood, leather, string, and glue from my bag. As each item was presented, my hand waving under them like a showman at a fair, I watched her hold back a laugh. She also gave me a look of exasperated confusion at the strange collection of items.
Her confusion grew as I began to operate on her weapon. A third of the way down the blade from the handle, I placed two pieces of wood. Each palm width bit of wood had their grooved inner surface fitted to the edge, then blade and wood were smeared with the tanner's glue. Snowy kept throwing me looks as I worked, but I ignored them. Wrapping the leather strips around the blade and wood, I was careful to tuck the ends into the new handle that I had created a third of the way up the sword. The result was then tied tightly with the twine to hold it until the glue dried. I repeated the process a bit further than halfway down the length of the blade while Snowy silently watched in exasperation.
Finally, I was done, the weapon had two new handles with slowly drying glue. The glue set relatively quickly, but it would still be a few hours yet. The rune on the little glue pot only warmed it enough to keep it slightly tacky. There were more expensive jars that could keep the glue usable for decades through some magical process, but mine only kept it warm.
"Do you mind letting me know why you ruined my blade?" Snowy asked with an amused look.
"Nope!" I said as I began to crawl out of the carriage.
Before I could fully exit, Snowy grabbed my arm and glared at me. The sudden contact surprised me and reminding me of the way her hair had smelled and the way she felt as I hugged her when she cried the night before. She quickly released my arm, her face reddening slightly, but she still gave me a look saying she wanted to understand my actions.
"Trust me. When that's dry, we will do a bit of training," I said.
Snowy searched my face for something, then nodded and let me leave the carriage.
The next few hours were an agonizing wait. I was just as excited as Snowy, and I wanted to see what she could do with my impromptu modification. Finally, the Captain called for the troop to halt, and we pulled into a farmers field. The Captain sent one of the men to compensate the farmer for our use of the field. It was a symbolic act more than anything since it was the Baron's field, and it was fallow. The other soldiers moved to set up tents both for themselves and the Baroness. I was not assigned a duty, and I realized that I was being given some of the same courtesy as the Baroness. I wasn't expecting to take orders from the Captain and dig ditches. It was still a pleasant surprise that they treated me as they did Snowy.
We had made decent time on the trip. We reached half the distance as a troop that we had in Mason's wagon. Still, that was blisteringly fast, considering that more than a hundred men were following the two food wagons.
After the tents were set and a thin gruel was served by the quartermaster, I approached the Captain to test Snowy's newly modified weapon.
"Captain, I need the help of three of your men to help the Baroness with training," I said.
To my continuing surprise, the Captain didn't argue with me and just selected three men to help me. It was the work of a few minutes to find a part of the field outside of the camp proper where the footing was clear. Inviting Snowy over, I tried to avoid chuckling as I watched her try to carry her weapon in its modified form without drawing attention. I quickly ended that by taking it from her and unwinding the twine to leave the two slightly lumpy handles available.
More than one person had noticed my efforts, and Snowy was working hard to develop a Skill to kill me with only a look. The cleared training area was slowly drawing attention and an audience. Handing the weapon to Snowy, I then smiled and called over one of the three men to spar with the Baroness.
"Alright, Alexis. I want you to only use the modified handles, please," I said.
My words caused more than a few stifled laughs. At the muffled sounds, Snowy looked around at the watching men, then leaned in close to me and said, "I will get you for this," before she moved forward to engage her first opponent.
Holding her weapon in an awkward two-handed widespread grip, Snowy tried to stab with the unwieldy creation. The 'fight' consisted of the veteran casually blocking Snowy's few close calls, while gently tapping her with a wooden practice sword. I would typically be concerned when training with live steel. In this case, Snowy was so hampered by the odd grip that the guard was easily avoiding any danger. The saving grace was that Snowy was able to keep moving and attacking at full speed while the guard slowed down as the fight continued.
After twenty minutes, the guard - whose name evaded me at the moment - tapped out. Before Private Smith stepped up, I pulled Snowy away to talk to her for a moment. Dropping my voice so that others wouldn't hear me, I tried to explain while she gave me a frustrated look.
"Snowy, one second," I said, reaching out for her weapon. There was a moment where she resisted releasing her weapon, but she eventually did. Turning the weapon over, so the handle was forward; I gave it back to her as she gave me a further look of disgust.
"I'm not teasing you, Snowy. I promise you. I'm not Grey Arm," at the mention of her former mentor she froze, but then nodded and took the weapon from me.
Grabbing her shoulder for a second, I captured her gaze and explained, "That's not a sword Snowy. It's just a lump of metal you are using as a weapon. [Swordmanship] won't work with that piece of junk. But you can still use it as a weapon," I said, then let her approach Private Smith for her next match.
This match went better, even if it was even odder for her to be attacking with the handle. Private Smith was using a wooden sword and shield, which was serving him less well than the last guard's single sword. Snowy would try to snag the lip of the shield with the handle, would block with the blade as if the weapon was a staff, and generally try odd attacks that Smith wasn't prepared to handle. Few of them did more than press against his shield, but they were clearly not something he had trained for.
At one point, Snowy was pressed in close, Smith's sword unable to reach easily around the end of her sword while the Baroness hampered his movements. Snowy had wrapped the handle over the lip of Smith's shield and pulled it downward with her greater strength. She had begun to use the weapon more as a tool to leverage the Private's shield and weaponry out of her way so that she could use her size and weight to control the fight. There was a moment, a second where the Private dipped his defense further down so that he could pull his sword up and over to attack at Snowy, a moment that she timed perfectly. Folding her shoulder along her weapon, her body very literally leaning on the blade to hold the shield down, she grabbed the bottom of the guard's shield. She then pulled it away from him. This tilted the top of his shield toward him, and with a shove, Snowy slammed Private Smith's own shield into his brow.
The strike was not exactly proper for training. Alexis didn't need to put nearly the force into it she had, but I had been watching her Skill list, and it was the moment when she gained the Skill I had been hoping for.
Improvised Weaponry - Tier 1: 16
If you can wield it, it is a weapon.
Passive Effect:
+5% Manual Dexterity.
Lesser: Innate Understanding of the Balance of Held Items.
Major: Innate Understanding of Defense with Held Items.
Major: Innate Understanding of Offense with Held Items.
After that, the fight became almost a game for the now smiling Snowy. The laughter stopped. Instead, they watched the odd way she used her weapon. At some points, Snowy literally led Private Smith around in a circle using her weapon. She would hook and drag his shield in front of him in an almost casual move. To really drive home the absurdity, the next practice bout was versus Private Stine, his pike, and Snowy with a camp stool.
While it was a far more difficult fight, Stine didn't have [Pikemanship] while Snowy was using a combat Skill. Snowy managed with a deft flourish of the legs of the stool to capture the blade of Stine's pike, and then disarm him using her [Monstrous Strength]. The combination of her strength and her new Skill was something an unskilled warrior couldn't match. Even in the short fight, Snowy had managed to level the skill.
Snowy's confident smile after she won was brighter than the campfire.