18. Charismatic
It’s hard to describe what it’s like to be one person, and then five, and then one again. It wasn’t like I’d lived five days back to back. It wasn’t like I’d seen the world from five pairs of eyes at the same time. It was like yesterday was a normal day, except much more eventful as different events had happened. And they weren’t exactly in order of occurrence, but of importance.
My memories as Hail were mostly of boredom and … disenchantment. But they weren’t that important, so it seemed like they were beneath my memories of myself as Hagi the Acolyte or Hagi the Archer. The most significant event of the entire day was when Acolyte me messed up and let the dwarven [Sapper] I was partying with die, which had earned me significant recrimination and broken up the party I’d been grinding with. This had happened just before I’d logged out, but because it was so important, it seemed like it had happened before I’d realized that most of the members of
And I’d never corrected them.
The two me’s that had spent the eight hours dancing were the least significant of the memories, even with the memorization practices they’d done when they took their breaks. At the same time, they were probably the most important. After I had begun to review the information that Marquise Peori had sent me in detail, I had realized just what a dusty cobweb Yuikonese politics were, and how little I’d known about them.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to trick my mind into absorbing the information like I had with the DSS, but the two copies of me had spent about a third of their time together discussing the various matters of court. You know, aside from the succession.
Boring, but important.
The strange thing is, I had expected one of the copies to be dominant. Instead, each of us had felt like the original. Even though we were Hail, Hagi, blond Hail, Hail with a hat, and Hail with a robe, none of us had felt like a copy.
I checked the time. I had been asleep for nine hours. That’s longer than I usually slept, but it wasn’t the twelve hour worst case scenario that I had planned for. I had a few hours to get ready. I spent most of them reviewing my notes that the dancing Hails had made, then I dressed in the outfit the guild and I had decided upon together.
I had decided that black, blue, and silver would be the colors of House Jeoran, and those were the colors I wore. The suit was crafted by a Traveler, and it looked like suits from earth, with a silver button-up shirt and a black coat. I wore a blue cravat, and using [Illusion Magic,] I recreated the stripes running down my arms and wrapping around my forearms, like that of my [Golem Crafter’s Coat].
I wore three broaches of silver and sapphire, silver cuff links, black leather belt with a silver buckle, pants to match the coat, and shoes that would be comfortable to dance in. The shoes were the only piece of the ensemble that did not increase my Charisma, and they didn’t match the rest of the outfit either, but I used magic to make them look like polished black boots. Around my wrists I wore a timepiece. Each wrist, because each timepiece gave me +3 charisma. I just hid one of them. Again, with magic.
It was strange, gearing entirely for Charisma at the expense of everything else. None of the items had any other stats except for the blade that I would wear to the ball, [Blade of Eclipse]. Even that I only wore because it provided me Charisma in addition to the Dexterity and Spell Damage, stats which changed according to my current level. Well, and because as a noble I was allowed to go armed to such an event, and given my adventuring status it was somewhat expected of me.
Altogether, the outfit gave me +48 Charisma. With the naturally high Charisma of the [Lord] class, including the boosts I got from being an Earl and having [Royal Blood], I had a base of 70 charisma, for a total of 118. However, I decided that wasn’t enough. One of the perks of the Placeholder class was that it gained free Stat points which could be assigned however I wished, although I had yet to determine how I had gotten the first 26 of them. I suspect it had something to do with [Spellblade] being reset. I hadn’t spent any of them yet, but I did so now, putting ten of them into Charisma.
I was surprised when my Charisma increased not by ten points, but by forty-five.
“<
<
I nodded along with the explanation, pleased that finally I had something which would answer my questions. I was also most certainly pleased with the way my free points were worth much more than they had initially appeared. I didn’t regret spending ten of them like this, I would need a high Charisma for my goals in the future. But I would hoard the remaining points until I was higher level and more certain how to spend them. “<
<
“<
I took one more look at my Status screens as [Lord] before logging in to Zhesa City.
Name
Hail Jeoran
Level
25
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
30
Health
9750/9750
Dexterity
54
Mana
13500/13500
Vitality
39
Energy
540/540
Endurance
27
Experience
10553/11500
Intelligence
54
Age
15
Wisdom
36
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Charisma
153
Class
Lord
Armor
0
Rank
Earl
Attack Power
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84
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Critical Damage
2.11
Veteran of Mooncrest Manor
Spell Power
12
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Weapon Damage Rating
C-
I had logged out in the Guild Hall, which is where I returned. Tarisha greeted me at the door to the room which had been dedicated to my use previously, and again upon my return. I hugged her, as even if she was profiting from our relationship it was good to see her again.
“You look fancy,” she informed me.
“So do you,” I commented, eyeing her scarlet dress and ruby earrings. Being that she was approaching level 200 (she was currently 194), just one of those earrings probably gave her more Charisma than my entire outfit. It wouldn’t matter, however, as once we entered the dance everyone would have their level restricted down to a maximum of thirty. This was, apparently, the solution that the administrators had come up with in order to prevent another slaying like that of my grandfather by Nial Kingslayer.
“It’s not proper Yuikonese fashion,” I commented. “Either of us.”
“Does it matter?” she asked seriously.
“Not really,” I admitted. “I mean, they’ll probably comment on it, but I’m pretty sure that with my current charisma score it will set a new trend among the younger nobles which will annoy their parents and grandparents for months.”
Tarisha chuckled, and I linked her elbow in mine as we made our way outside, practicing once more for when she would accompany me into the ball as my plus one.
As planned, a carriage waited for me outside. Not as planned, there was also an honor guard of the higher level members of
I sighed, but I doubted that I could get them to disperse. Our party was sixty strong, with the Travelers riding their various mounts in their various suits of gear and armor. I stayed inside the carriage. We drew attention as we went, and I wanted none of it.
It was almost a parade.
I hate parades.
The guards at Peori’s gate prevented the others from passing, but I passed along my invitation and was waved through without issue.
Marquise Peori’s city estate was not quite as large or lavish as my uncle Storm’s, but it was large and lavish. Rather than a statuary of disfigured elvish statues in his front yard, two rows of pear trees lined the road. They looked ripe for the picking, and if I were younger I would have been plotting how to escape my minder’s attentions for long enough to climb one of the trees.
Yeah, I could just see myself doing that, with Beckah finding me up there, my clothes disheveled and my face and hands covered in pear juice. I chuckled as I imagined her response. I wondered what had happened to Beckah, and I resolved to investigate the matter once more.
In Yuikon, it was a practice of re-introducing young men and women to the court when they came of age as men and women of noble blood. It was, in fact, for this very reason which Marquise Peori was throwing this ball in the first place, as my political activities wouldn’t carry the same weight without the social niceties that went with it. I disliked it, but I needed to have a debut.
Storm had denounced it as in bad taste to hold a party while the throne was empty and the nation in unrest over the succession, and he wasn’t wrong to do so. It had, however, been months since my grandfather’s murder. The mourning period was over. If it were not for the assassinations of my uncles, the nation would be back to normal by now. It was the deadlock between Storm, Auroras, and the church which refused to crown a fratricidal king -- or to put the Gray Man on the throne, for that matter, although I’m not certain how many actually know that my Great-Uncle Auroras holds the position as the most feared avatar of death among us Natives – which prevented the nation from moving on.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t the only Native with noble blood who had turned fifteen over the last few months. A cousin of Marquise Peori had reached that milestone as well. Normally she wouldn’t be important enough for Peori to go to such expense for her sake, but it gave him an excuse to host the event I required to be more politically useful to him. Five other young nobles had crawled into the event, and we were all to be introduced in two hours. With Tarisha as my escort, I had arrived early and were shown into a waiting room with the other two beautillions. They noticed when I came into the room with Tarisha, one of them looking up from a book that he was using to pass the time. The other was wringing his hands nervously. They, apparently, had not brought an escort for themselves. Or else their escorts were waiting in another room.
“<
<
“What’s that, Lord Hail?” Tarisha asked.
“<
<
I glanced at the screen that popped up, but it looked find to me.
Find Beckah!
Earl Hail Jeoran is concerned for the fate of his former nurse and caretaker, Beckah. Beckah is a key figure in many of his formative memories. It has not been all that long since he last saw her, objectively, but to him it likely seems like a very long time indeed. Investigate her fate and inform Lord Hail of your investigations and research. Perhaps the former staff of Zhesa Castle could shed some light into the matter?
Objectives: Discover the fate of Beckah and return with the information to Hail Jeoran
Rewards: Reputation with Hail Jeoran
Gold
Reputation
This quest may be assigned to any Traveler with [Mark of Karma] by speaking the Quest Title in conversation.
“<
Tarisha was looking at me with concern. “Hail, can you access the abilities of your throne anywhere now?”
“What?” I asked, looking confused.
“Just now. You don’t usually do that except when you’re near your throne. Is it a habit that you picked up on your, ahem, walkabout?”
“I suppose it is,” I admitted. I considered how much I wanted to tell her. “Tarisha, it’s not just spending time alone. I have new abilities now. You know, weird ones, that Travelers don’t have. Native abilities that I didn’t know I had before now. I’m not certain if that makes me more of a special NPC or less.”
“Can you still form and join parties, destroy and form new dungeons and lairs, and basically rewrite the context of an entire nation with a sweep of a hand?” Tarisha inquired.
“I don’t know what you mean about the last one,” I said. “But the Administrators didn’t take anything from me. They only added new things. Except it’s more like they unlocked things that I’ve always had, I just didn’t know I could do them myself because my hands were too small to fit into the gloves needed to touch them.”
“And splitting yourself into five copies of yourself is one of those abilities,” she said. “That is what you meant last night?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “It’s strange. I’m trying to think of how to describe it and I keep coming up short.”
“I don’t think that’s something I can help you with,” Tarisha admitted. “I can only be one person. Will you be splitting yourself tonight?”
“Yes. I’m expecting the party to start splitting as soon as the Travelers who purchased invitations arrive, and I’ve already asked the system to put a copy of me in each of the first five instances. Depending on how many instances are created, I might spend part of the night moving through them with the System’s help in order to mingle with more of the Travelers.”
I was midway through my explanation when Tarisha’s hands burst into motion. She pulled up her messaging system and began sending messages with a frantic fury.
“I didn’t say you could share that, Tarisha,” I said calmly, and she froze.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her face flushing and filled with shame. “I was--”
“Don’t tell people that I can split myself,” I said. “Unless you have already?”
“No,” she said. “I wasn’t certain what you meant last night, and I wanted to confirm it. Even then, Hail, I wouldn’t have shared it with your enemies.”
“But you would have with my allies?” I questioned.
“No,” she insisted. “But I would have given them advice with this information in mind. That is what I was trying to do just now. I was about to inform the representatives of your allied guilds that it would be better for their representatives to the ball to arrive earlier than later in the evening. I know how it looked, but I swear that was the extent of my message.”
“<
<
Most of the information I scanned through I promptly forgot, as it was irrelevant to the question I had been asking, but the fact that I had just known it assured me that Tarisha hadn’t broken my trust. I was my regular self again.
“I would have been very angry if you had lied to me, Tarisha. I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you more,” I said.
“You went through my logs?” she asked. “Can you do that now?”
“I’m not certain what I can do anymore, Tarisha. I honestly don’t know what my limits are. I guess we’ll find out together, won’t we?” I said, smiling.
She wasn’t. Smiling, that is.
“Are you upset?” I asked, confused.
“I guess I wasn’t expecting this,” she admitted. “I thought they were planning on limiting your growth indefinitely. Maybe they are. Maybe they’re not planning on releasing you into the ocean, just throwing you from an aquarium into a swimming pool. I’m not upset, Lord Hail. I’m worried about how these changes will affect you.”
“I’m not,” I declared. “You have no idea how much of a relief it is to finally be able to get answers when I ask questions, Tarisha. And as for splitting myself, it’s really no big deal. I’m still me even when I’m five people. I doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference.”
“They’re going to notice tonight,” Tarisha predicted. “At least some of the Travelers who attend will be streaming, and it’s likely they’ll be instanced separately. Your ability to jump instances and copy yourself will almost certainly be noticed by this time tomorrow. I mean next week.”
I shrugged. “I figured as much when I planned it, Tarisha. But I’d rather not confirm their suspicions, or have you confirm it for me.”
“This information, Hail, it would be valuable right now, if I could share it,” Tarisha said.
“Tarisha, I trust you. In fact, I’m feeling quite guilty for doubting you earlier and checking through your messages. But I have to ask, how much is my trust worth?”
She nodded. “More than an early scoop. Very well, Lord Hail. As you wish. I’ll not say a word.”