"Disturbing," Andras said, his sword embedded in Eli's head. Eli felt nothing, the two-handed cleaver-like sword, passing harmlessly through one side of his head out the other. Whatever fascination or horror everyone else felt at the revelation of his status, didn't apply to the large warrior. Andras had sliced through his head several times now. Eli tried to ignore the blade and the large warrior. He stared at the desk where the lone clerk and a small nervous man conversed.
"Apologies Windborn," Leandra's voice was low as she pulled against Andras' arm, her face red, her efforts unable to budge the large man. Diamedes and Delle sat across from Eli, still pale and mostly silent. Occasionally Diamedes would mumble something unintelligible which Eli took as evidence that he was working it through.
The rest of the applicants scurried as far away as they could, creating an expanse of space around the five of them. Windborn, there's that word again. Could be their word for players. Sounds like they don't see too many of them. Eli considered ways to test what being Windborn meant, did it give him any leverage?
"Here's an idea," Eli broke the awkward silence between them, "You all give me your tiles, so I can go up first. Then, when I get accepted into the Guild, I'll recommend you." He smiled. "I get to go up faster, you get my recommendation. What do you think?"
Eli held his hand out as he waited to see what the others would do.
Diamedes went first, quickly handing over his tile. Delle fetched hers from somewhere on her person, it was warm when she placed it in his hand.
"How bold, as an adventurer should be," Delle said, having recovered from her momentary bout of speechlessness. "To think, a Windborn, and one named Legend, it's so theatrical... Wait." she fanned herself. "Are we auditioning for roles in your adventures? Who should I be?"
She took several poses, acting out characters in quick succession: a serious woman, a drunken mess, an empty-headed floozy. She abandoned them and returned to her natural pose. "I know. I'll be the colorful eccentric that goes along for the adventure, the one no one expects much from, but that adds a narrative flair to everything. The dramatist; when things look dark, her eloquence will inspire everyone to greatness!"
Andras rolled his eyes as Delle settled back into her chair. He thumped his and Leandra's tile down on Eli's hand, "Don't forget us."
Eli nodded and quickly memorized the tiles. He needn't have bothered. Shortly afterward a guild officer approached their group.
"I was told there is a... Windborn here," a man, spectacled, looked between the groups, eyes landing on the large warrior in expectation.
Andras laughed and promptly brought his sword down through Eli's head, holding it there while the officer's eyes went wide before he took an involuntary step back. Eli shook his head at antics and set the tiles down.
"If you would be so kind your Highness," the man bowed stiffly and led Eli out of the room. As Eli left he heard Andras yell, "Don't forget us!"
****
Joining the guild was easy. Though he was assured that being an Artificer would have gained him entry, he was certain being Windborn helped expedite the process. He'd gotten the pitch, the tour, and eventually his first guild badge. He flipped the copper badge over in his hand, the symbol of the guild, a leaf set in a wreath of blades against a tower. He pinned it to his shirt; inside the guild headquarters, they required all members to wear their badges.
He'd even remembered to put a friendly word in for Leandra, Andras, Diamedes, and Delle though he did not know if it would do anything.
He stood in front of the Quest board; dark-paneled walls, brass hooks, small parchment cards. He struggled to read the cards hanging on the topmost row. He couldn't reach them. The cards had a badge icon representing the minimum badge requirement. He scanned for copper icons and found them grouped together to one side. He slipped between two others, looking at the board.
How many of these can I take at once? Find the missing herb satchel, retrieve ten Moonleaf fronds, kill twenty Smoke Hares, harvest one Nightlily; his eyes scanned over the cards before he moved to pick one up. A hand blurred, snatching the card he was going for.
Eli looked up at the man. He wore a black robe with fat white trim and a large-brimmed hat. He had a prominent mole over his lip that dominated his otherwise plain face.
"Harvest one Nightlily." The man read the card aloud, his voice nasal. "This might do."
Eli turned back to the board and reached for another card. Another blur. The man snatched the second card before he could reach it.
"Or this one, it's so hard to choose," he murmured.
Frustrated, Eli reached with both hands to two different cards, trying to grab two at once. His fingers closed over space. He turned to the man who was smiling and holding four cards now.
"It's so hard to choose, don't you think? I've been at it so long I've gotten hungry..." The man smiled as he looked at Eli, "I wish I could take a break for a decent meal, but I find myself scarce of funds. I fear I shall have to complete a quest first."
"And how much does a decent meal cost?" Eli asked, his lips tightening with every word.
"Silver at least." The man replied, before going back to looking at the board.
"That's more than the reward on most of these quests!"
The man only smiled and resumed looking at the cards in his hands.
Eli turned back towards the board and studied the cards. Most of the rewards were in coppers, but they gave experience too. So that's the scam. He's counting on people that need experience enough that they will pay him to go away.
"I had a decent meal this morning. Best I've ever had if I'm being honest." Eli replied.
Eli reached for another card. The man's hands blurred again, leaving Eli grasping at nothing. Knock.
You learned the skill: Perception
Perception has increased by 1.
The man frowned when he noticed the smile that spread across Eli's face.
"Yes, I'm feeling quite energized." Eli turned to the man and smiled, before quickly turning back to the board.
Eli's hand darted out to grab a card; his eyes followed the blur of the hustler's hands. Eli reached again and again, trying to watch what the man was doing. Each time Eli's hand closed on nothing. The man was fast. Knock.
Perception has increased by 1.
Eli continued. Reach. Miss. Reach Miss. Reach. Miss. His breath quickened, sweat formed. Eli glanced at the man. His jaw was set, his eyes focused on the board. Eli looked back to the board and noticed that there were no fewer cards on it than when they started.
He's fast enough to pick up cards and return them with the other hand at the same time. Eli tried again, this time with two hands reaching out for different cards with each hand. Reach. Reach. Miss. Miss. He kept at it. One minute. Sweat dripped from his scalp, getting in his eyes. Reach. Miss. Reach. Miss. Two minutes. Knock.
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Perception increased by 1.
You learned the skill: Sleight of Hand
Sleight of Hand increased by 1.
"This is fun," He managed between panting breaths. Reach. Reach. Miss. Miss. Three minutes. Four. Miss. Miss.
His finger touched a card, just barely, but he definitely felt it. Knock.
You learned the skill: Intimidate
Intimidate increased by 1.
Eli laughed. He was earning more skill from this than he would likely earn from many copper quests. Reach. Reach. Miss. Miss. Pant. Reach. Miss. Eli could barely make out the man's hands as he deftly rehung a card and reached for another. Knock.
Perception increased by 1.
Five minutes. Reach. Reach. Eli was lagging. He set his jaw and redoubled his efforts. Reach. Reach. Miss. Touch a card. Miss. Touched a card. Missed.
Eli reached out. This time he came away from the board with a card in his hand. Panting, Eli turned to look at the hustler. The hustler stood there, looking back at him, breathing quickly, drenched in sweat, with an inscrutable expression on his face. Without a word, he turned and walked away. Eli watched him for a moment, then looked down at the quest card in his hand; deliver a missive for Jocelin. Breathing heavily, but feeling elated, he turned back to the board and returned the quest.
He took a minute to read the others. Mount 10 power stones; that sounds like an Artificer quest. Upon inspection, Eli found a gear depicted in the card's corner. Once he knew what he was looking for, he quickly scanned the board and picked up all the copper Artificer quests.
The line to checkout quests was mercifully shorter than the line to register and before long he reached over and dropped the quests cards onto the counter.
"I'll take these," Eli said, "But I don't know how it's supposed to work."
"How it's supposed to work," the woman behind the counter blew a strand of coppery hair out of her face, "is, you're supposed to work hard, be recognized, get promoted, and be able to take off for the festival when you ask two weeks in advance."
She picked up the quests and thumbed through them. Artificer quests, all of them. She looked over at the Guild member, then down, seeing he was a child. He wore his new copper badge. She did a double-take at the badge. She'd never seen a copper badge like it. Most were solid shields with the guild symbol stamped on. In his, the guild symbol was molded and etched with fine details.
"Sorry, it's been a bad day," she apologized, then thumbed through the stack once again. "Let me check with my superior about these quests. It'll only take a moment."
While he waited, he read back through his notification, confirming he had missed nothing. When she returned, a much older woman joined her. Where the first woman looked disgruntled, this new arrival looked serious.
"We haven't had an Artificer willing to work on low-level quests in a long time." She said, her stark white blouse tied with black ribbon, her hair pulled back such that her face seemed tighter.
"We will pay a bonus for completing multiple of these," she said as she slid the two quest cards over.
Eli reviewed them; one for removing power stones and one for mounting power stones. The reward for each was two silver and one hundred experience.
"What kind of bonus?" he asked.
"For every ten quests completed we'll pay an additional 25 silver."
"35." he countered.
The woman looked down at the boy, his vibrant green eyes, the stubborn set to his jaw.
"27, and that's the best I can do."
Knock.
Haggling has increased by 1.
Eli smiled.
****
Eli looked down at a work table covered in broken and worn-out gear. As the man who dropped off the scrap had explained it, each of these items had an embedded power stone. Eli's job was to remove the stone and set it into better equipment. Eli looked at the far wall where newer equipment hung or sat shelved.
He picked up a rusted blade and focused on it. After a moment, the blade's details presented themselves.
Rusted Sword of Sweeping Strikes
[B]
One-Handed Sword
Physical Damage: 4-9
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Requires: 8 Body, 8 Mind
12-76 copper
Eli examined the sword. It was a rusted sword. He turned it this way and that, looking for where a "power stone" might be located. He saw nothing. He felt for panels, or indentations, or anything that seemed unusual, but after a thorough examination, he concluded it was just what it looked like and no more. It was a dull, rusted sword.
He was about to return it to the table and pick up another when he sensed something. It wasn't anything tangible he could readily identify, no he just felt like the sword had a secret. He inclined his head, trying to understand the sensation.
"What are you hiding?" he asked. From the sword, Eli watched as barely perceptible thin lines of blue mist seeped from its surface. The thin lines coalesced into larger threads that coiled together around the sword before separating and forming an apparition of the sword hovering in front of him. The blue misty image was of a pristine idealized version of the sword. Centered on the guard in the phantom blade was a square red stone. Surrounding the stone, a thin yellow aura isolated it from the blue blade.
Curious, Eli reached out his other hand and touched the phantom blade. His hand passed through the blade and where it did, the mist dissipated, returning a moment later to reform. He tried the same with the power stone, but found he could grasp it. It felt solid. He pulled it out of the phantom blade, blue mist trailing behind it before the mist pulled back into the sword image, leaving an empty square setting.
When he focused on the red stone in his hand, the phantom sword blew away in the wind.
Sweeping Strike
A short-range attack that targets everyone in a conal area directly in front of you.
Mana Cost: 5
Cast Time: 1.00 sec
Attack Speed: 70% of base
Attack Damage: (125%-195%) of base
35 - 90 copper
Eli flipped the small square stone over in his hand. Faceted, polished, opaque, the stone shone red with green mineral veins running through it. Curious, he focused back on the rusted sword.
Rusted Sword
[B]
One-Handed Sword
Physical Damage: 4-9
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Requires: 8 Body, 8 Mind
10-23 copper
The power stone by itself is worth more than the previous sword was? Eli walked over to the wall of new equipment and selected a thin fencing sword.
Rapier
[M]
One-Handed Sword
Physical Damage: 9-12
Critical Strike Chance: 6.00%
Requires: 8 Body, 11 Mind
33-67 copper
Holding the new blade aloft, he tried to sense its secrets. The blue mist formed as before, a little quicker this time, the phantom blade appearing in the air. He walked around the blade to find the setting. It was in the pommel, but was triangular, not square. He put the blade back and found another, that one had a round setting, on his third blade he found one with a square setting.
He slipped the power stone into place and let it go. It stayed hovering, surrounded in pale yellow. He looked back at the sword in hand, allowing the image to dissipate, and with it the power stone. Knock.
Bronze Sword of Sweeping Strikes
[B]
One-Handed Sword
Physical Damage: 6-14
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Requires 14 Body, 14 Mind
2-5 silver
Eli noted the dramatic increase in price. No wonder they will give me a bonus for every ten quests. He reviewed his log.
Appraise increased by 1.
You have learned the skill: Artificing
Artificing increased by 1.
You earned 55 experience creating: Bronze Sword of Sweeping Strikes.
1 mana exhausted from successfully creating: Bronze Sword of Sweeping Strikes.
Eli set the sword on the clean table, the first of his completed works. Doing some quick calculation, he determined that if he repeated that process forty-nine more times, he would get the bonus. He frowned. There was no challenge in it, nothing to learn, no skill. It was crafting in name only. There was nothing distinctive about his work versus another with the same skill. Where was the creativity, the art of it? Disappointed, he looked at the table full of scrap and got to work.
****
Eli felt as though he'd spent the entire day inside the guild's crafting area, swapping power stones in and out of gear. Manna exhaustion, he learned, temporarily reduced his available mana. He'd started the day with over fifty mana and now was down to half that. He wouldn't recover the exhausted mana until he slept. Worse, the condition created a kind of exhaustion that left him feeling mentally lethargic.
When he turned in the completed quests, he'd received enough experience to level twice. Combined with the level he earned while artificing, he'd earned three levels for the day's work. Is that slow or fast? He shook his head as his steps echoed off the stone walls of the Guild's headquarters. Rest first, then choose your path progression.
He stepped into a crowd that had gathered at the entrance. Forty-eight silver, ninety-one copper; that was the balance displayed on his inventory interface. It isn't right. By his calculations, he was two silver over what he should have had and he couldn't figure out where the extra silver had come from. He stepped through the crowd of murmuring guild members, his small body a boon for ducking and dodging as he shoved through to the outside. Why are all these people crowding around here?
A foot blurred out, tripping him as he stepped free of the crowd. Stumbling, he glimpsed briefly who it was but... Crack. His skull impacted against something hard, and he crumbled to the cobblestone. His hands felt the warm stones as he scrambled to right himself. A drop, dark red, fell and splashed against the back of his hand. He felt his head, his nose, sure that it had injured him in the impact.
He looked up, the glaring sun obscured behind a shaded figure. Armored. That's what I ran into. His blood-stained hand came up to block the sun as he moved to see what he'd crashed against.
Tall, with mismatched armor, slick with blood and viscera; the warrior stood motionless. Eli tried to understand what he was seeing; intestines, and strips of hide, and bits of flesh bound tightly over the shoulder of the figure, a bloody sash with dozens of dripping lines trailing behind to a grotesque pile of animal corpses that was pierced through with dozens of weapons of every kind.
Flies buzzed around him as Eli struggled to his feet, covering his mouth with his hand, his stomach sour.