Choosing Violence (Part 1)

Eana and Idris walked out into the still deserted streets of Irondale. Momentarily away from the exciting prospect of learning real warrior skills, Eana felt suddenly vulnerable. What if Tomme, raw from his dressing down by Conrad, was out here waiting for her?

“This is it, Eana,” Idris was saying, “I’ve been thinking about it forever but I didn’t think I’d actually come out here. Especially with how dad feels.”

Hope of new skills and becoming stronger having suddenly been replaced by anxiety, Eana answered, “Is it really a good idea though?”

Idris scowled at her, “How did it feel last night being chased by those hive monsters?”

She scowled back at the question, “You know how it felt.”

Idris nodded, “That’s exactly why this is a good idea. I don’t want you to ever feel that way ever again. And I don’t want to feel the… I don’t want people like Tomme to be able to push me around.”

“Adventurers?” Eana asked.

“Anybody,” Idris said.

Eana sat down on the steps up to the Inn. She could see the pain he was trying to hide behind his determined expression. Like her, Idris was never very good at hiding his feelings when pressed.

“It’s just so humiliating,” idris burst out suddenly, “I was so sure I could take Tomme and he just dismantled me. In front of everybody, even Conrad!”

“Conrad didn’t care,” Eana said, “He still wants you on his team.”

Idris gave a half hearted smile, “I know. I justs don’t want him or anybody to see me like that.”

“I’m sorry, Idris,” Eana said.

He squinted at her confusedly, “For what? Not like I wanted you to come fight him with me.”

“What if it was my fault though,” Eana said, “Back in the woods, Tomme said I’m bad luck and I’m starting to feel like maybe he’s right. And if we become Warriors we’re going to have to do more dangerous stuff in order to progress.”

“Comes with the territory,” Idris agreed.

“But what if bringing me along that path with you just makes things worse for both of us?”

An anxious knot in the pit of her stomach began replacing the excited determination she had felt at doing something to learn to protect herself.

“I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

He gave her a small smile, “Don’t have to worry about me. That won’t happen.”

“It already did!” she said, “Just inside! Just now! If I hadn’t been here you wouldn’t have had all that happen to you. Exactly like Tomme said…”

Idris stared at her a moment before coming to sit next to her. Together they looked out over the town square. The sun was low and the sky brightening, but the buildings still cast long shadows and the early risers of the town had begun going about their business. Some few of them passing them and going up the stairs to the inn.

“That’s true,” Idris said, slowly.

Eana looked up, surprised. She had expected him to immediately disagree with anything coming from Tomme.

He continued, “If you hadn’t been there, I might not have gotten into that disagreement and, well, you know.”

He felt at his side and winced.

“I could heal it,” she offered, but Idris waved her away.

“Conrad’s right, I deserve to feel this. And because I got beaten, I got to learn what it means to go up against somebody better than me. Maybe not stronger, but better,” he said, “And while I can take that little silver lining out of there, the truth of the matter is, I was the one who started that fight, Eana.”

He leaned forward and turned his head to face her, “Yeah you were there, but you weren’t the one pushing things forward. Chaos’s crooked path, you think I didn’t notice how hard you were trying to wriggle away and get Chrys away and us out of there?”

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That was surprising. Eana actually had thought Idris didn’t notice her trying to control the situation.

“It was all me in there,” Idris continued, “So don’t you go listening to people like Tomme shouting whatever dumb things come to his mind. You were there but so were a dozen others. And so was I.”

It felt like a fog that had been obscuring her vision suddenly cleared. The immediate change from feeling so certain that she was cursed, bad luck, broken somehow to seeing how her brother saw it - just one part of a complicated unfolding of events - happened so quickly it was shocking to her she could have seen it any other way.

The epiphany must have shown on her face because Idris smiled and mussed her hair, “Still think becoming a Warrior is a bad idea?”

“It’s going to take a lot of XP,” she said.

“How much do you have?” Idris asked, and she could hear in his voice that he thought she might be lacking.

“Almost 900,” Eana said after a quick check of her stats.

“You’re kidding,” Idris said. She just shook her head.

“What level are you?” he asked.

“Why?” Eana asked slowly, “Does it matter?”

“Humor me,” he said.

“You first, how much XP do you have?”

Idris was silent a moment before answering, “Almost 1800.”

“That’s a ton! No wonder Dad has you hanging onto it. You could probably spec into every skill Conrad shows us today if you want!” Eana said, impressed.

“Maybe. But I don’t have any other skills. I’ve never invested XP into anything other than Radiance. All the XP I have is from mining my whole life. But doing the same labor over and over doesn’t grant much and I almost never get quests that I can do without upsetting Dad,” Idris said, “So, I have to know what level you are.”

Eana’s Assess skill was proficiency level five and could do the quick math on whoever she used it on to get a general sense of how powerful - or at least how skilled - they were. For herself she could just check her own internal sense of progression, her interface, and know the result at a glance.

But like most people, she liked counting up the proficiency levels of each of her skills, which capping out at five, and then dividing the result by five to verify what her interface would have told her at a glance.

Eana’s level, even for somebody much older and experienced, was pretty high.

“Seven,” she said.

Idris’s jaw dropped. How could he not know this? She had been spec’ing into her healing class with Gendra’s help for two years now.

“Right. No more doubts now. I’m becoming a warrior. This is embarrassing,” Idris said.

“You’ve just been saving your XP is all,” Eana said.

“When you take all the XP you’ve used to grow as far as you have, Eana, you’ve probably spent more than I have now and you still have 900 banked,” Idris said, frustrated, “I knew it. I knew that learning skills opened up opportunities to take on more tasks and earn more XP. But Dad has me just hanging onto everything, stagnating.”

“But most people don’t get much further than me. Some not even as far,” Eana said.

“Maybe but you’ve got a mentor,” Idris said, “You’ll keep going. And now, I’ve got the chance to learn with Conrad and even join the Seekers.”

He leaned back into the stairs of the inn and stared determinedly out at the streets.

Maybe his doubts were gone but Eana’s weren’t. Conrad had made a good point about her spending XP on Warrior skills when she was a dedicated Healer.

XP might be plentiful, but it was simultaneously hard to come by. You could grind at something, like Idris and her father, and make slow progress over time but very few people ever got truly powerful.

This was self evident - all they had to do was look around at the people of Irondale and their own family to see it. Even Gendra, who had to be pushing 70 years old, was only level 9. The greatest rewards seemed to come only with the greatest risks.

Still, she couldn’t help but look back at the 250XP reward for the now failed Hunted No Longer quest and think that even that was ridiculous. Surely the adventurers that frequently ran the dungeon weren’t taking on risks that were, to them, as dangerous as that quest was to Eana.

And that seemed to be the only kind of quest that ever cropped up for her - ridiculously high reward for even more ridiculously high risk.

“What kind of quests have you had to turn down ‘cause of dad?” she asked, suddenly curious what other people got when natural quests cropped up.

Idris snorted, “This. Literally accepting Conrad’s offer to become a warrior.”

“Think you would have said yes if it wasn’t for the quest?” Eana asked.

“I don’t know how I managed to say no for so long. Oh wait yes I do. Dad.”

They both giggled.

“What else?” Eana asked.

“Got one to discover skills for woodcraft once,” he looked thoughtful and his eyes glazed in the far off way that said he was looking over his own interface, “I’ve actually been working on one for a while, little by little. It’s ongoing. Have to bring all kinds of odds and ends to a place up near the mountains where the rocks get all shimmery.”

“Really?” Eana said, puzzled.

“Yeah. Strange but I get a little XP for everything I bring,” Idris said, shrugging

“What’s the reward? Did you finish it?”

“Nah, not yet. Like I said it’s ongoing.”

“What about this one?” she said, gesturing back toward the Inn where Conrad was still finishing breakfast.

Idris nodded, “Seems so. And the reward is just what Conrad said he would do. Help us out with learning to be Warriors.”

“Oh,” Eana said, “I mean, it’s really great what he’s doing for us but like… you kinda want that extra reward, you know?”

Idris laughed, “I’m trying to be satisfied with what I’m getting.”

Just behind them somebody yawned.