“Well it’s not like we’re short of money.”
The boys were standing over the main communal table, everyone had emptied their inventories of coins and they were a huge pile stacked neatly on the table. Teddy had been perplexed by the raccoons, squirrels, mice, rabbits and even one small monkey who had been bringing James’ collection in for the last few minutes.
“At least they don’t make a mess, how do you even know what you’ve got stored if they take it away? And where are they taking it to?!”
James shrugged.
“No idea where it goes, but I just kinda know. I don’t know how I know what I have but I just know. Soon as I think of it it’s here not long after.”
They looked again at the giant pile of coins.
“You know we’re rich right? We don’t pay rent because they wont let us pay rent. We have no outgoings and we punch coins out of monsters.”
“It’s very tempting, we don’t need to save anything, if this was a video game we wouldn’t hesitate right? Let’s just spend the lot. If we need more money we go out and hunt monsters.”
James thought about it and nodded, Teddy drew a normal sword from a small rift and separated the pile in half, then each half in half again.
It was very early in the morning and the girls were just getting out of bed. Lucy needed to get back to the academy as she hadn’t been cleared off campus and was still a student, the events of the day before had just meant she naturally ended up back at the villa. Just as she was rummaging in the cold box while Kyra grabbed a hot drink a messenger appeared with Gerald.
“Excuse us master Mitchell.” Gerald said, pointedly looking at Teddy with his drawn sword used to separate coins on the fine wooden table. “A messenger has appeared from the academy.” He stepped aside to let the man through.
“A message on behalf of the deputy principal of the academy. Mrs Mitchel your presence is required back at the academy, the faculty wished me to let you know you should invite your husband and family to attend, you must be back no later than midday.” He gave a short bow, nodded at Gerald then made his way out.
“I’ve taken the liberty of preparing a carriage, naturally whenever you attend the academy since your graduations, your nae been fit to be mounted, hopefully one of yae will be in a fit enough state to drive the carriage back while the rest of you convalesce.”
James opened his mouth and raised a finger in indignation before he thought about it and ceded the point. Gerald gave a short nod and left them as well.
“Maybe they’re running a lessons learnt session after yesterday?” Teddy said. He scooped his money into a rift.
Kyra took out a pocket mirror and her pile vanished, Lucy formed a rune circle in the air and brought it down to the top of the table over her money pile. They all stood and looked at James waiting.
“Well come on, I don’t want to do it if you’re all watching.”
“We’re not going anywhere till we find out what’s coming for your money.” Lucy said.
James shrugged, having the wisdom to know what battles not to fight. He looked around, not even he knew what would be turning up. They all heard the rustling outside and Teddy went and opened a window to see what it was. He was almost knocked off his feet as hundreds of black birds started flying through the small window, they all swooped and picked up a coin each before disappearing out the open back doors.
“Bloody hell J, are they trying to kill me?!”
The rest were all having a good laugh at Teddy who was sprawled over a small table in his rush to back off from the birds. They gathered the few things they wanted that weren’t already in their inventories and headed out to the carriage and took it out on the road.
At the academy annex they were greeted by the gatekeeper and directed to attend the main building in the small receiving room. This wasn’t exactly what the Mitchell’s were expecting, thinking that all the participants of yesterdays epic battle would be in the training grounds to report on successes and failures of the formations. When they got to the office they found the director of the adventure society and the annex deputy principal waiting for them.
“Thankyou for coming so quickly.” The Deputy principal started. “The Director of the adventure society wanted to have a word with Mrs Mitchel…” he then saw Kyra standing there next to her sister-in-law and looked at Lucy. “To Lucy.” He then stepped to the side to let through the elderly elf.
“Mrs Mitchell, the society executive committee convened last night to talk about the strategic elements of the magical anomaly. We all agreed in the end that your participation in the event was critical in its conclusion. We make a habit that we do not take behaviour before joining the society into consideration. However in your case we must recognise your achievement.”
She pulled a box from a dimensional space and handed it to Lucy.
“As this has not entered the society records yet as loot from the event and as such it will not be missed, it was a hot debate but it was agreed that this was the correct level of thanks for your involvement.”
Lucy slid back the top of the box and saw the awakening stone inside, she touched one finger to it and shared the description with the other Mitchells.
Item: [Awakening Stone of the Avatar] (unranked, epic)
An awakening stone filled with the character of companionship. (consumable, awakening stone).
Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.
Effect: Awakens an essence ability.
This would be Lucy’s second awakening stone that was of the highest rarity.
“Is this the stone from the gold rank manifestation?” Lucy asked.
The Directors eyes glinted as she smiled.
“I don’t know what you’re on about, as I said, no such stone entered the societies records.” She nodded to the deputy director and went out of one of the rear doors to the receiving room.
“Gods damn Lu, thats awesome! Can you save the city more often, we’d save a bunch of money in awakening stones.” Teddy said.
The academy deputy principal frowned at him.
“Mrs Mitchell; Lucy. We would like to invite you to a bespoke graduation ceremony today, we recognise that you may want to be included in a larger ceremony but a unique situation has occurred and you would be welcome to join.”
Lucy looked shocked, she hadn’t been expecting a graduation today, she hadn’t even been told that she had passed the assessment, the events since exiting the cave had pushed the assessment from her mind. She looked at the others and they all nodded in agreement.
“Well yes, please, that would be very nice.” A rune circle appeared next to her the perfect size to push the box with the awakening stone in through and they followed the deputy principal.
They weren’t taken down to the academy annex marshalling yard as they were expecting but through to the large receiving room. In there they found what James would later describe as what looked like the entire cast of The Last Samurai. There were several generations of people in the hall all dressed in formal Gis with all the accoutrements. Suddenly they all felt very under dressed.
A blur of black and gold came towards them and stopped before bowing in front of them, Wanyeng was dressed in his best Gi with a set of ornamental swords at his hip and grinning from ear to ear.
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“Mitchells! I am so glad you are here, I thought they were going to have me graduate alone!”
The Mitchells looked stunned, no one expected Wanyeng to graduate anytime soon.
“Congratulations Daisho!” James exclaimed.
Wanyeng frowned and looked at him quizzically.
“Mitchell James, your translation power is slipping, I do not know what this Daisho is that you speak of.”
James bowed to the little boy.
“There was a race of honourable warriors from our world who fought as your clan does. The matched swords of daito and shoto.” He pointed to each on Wanyeng’s belt. “Means long and short swords but also translate into big and little. A bronze rank in such a small body. Truly a Daisho.”
Wanyeng smiled.
“Daisho is a good word.”
Vincent Trenslow came over to join the newcomers.
“Well, cadet Lucy I never got to tell you officially but congratulations, you passed what happened to be one of the most gruelling field assessments ever conducted in Greenstone that I am aware of.”
He stuck his arm out and they shook hands.
“It’s good to see the rest of you here to support, you’ll finally be a fully adventurer family team. Lucy, Wanyeng, if you would be so good to make your way to the stage, we’ll begin.”
“Oh is Sylvyn not joining us?” Lucy said, hiding a smile with one hand.
Vincent shook his head and walked away to take his place with the officials on the stage. Lucy and Wanyeng took their seats on the stage and the ceremony began. The deputy principal stepped forward first.
“Thankyou all for coming, an unusual ceremony for us today, those who graduate in smaller numbers will usually stay at the academy until we have enough to form a presenting class. The academy has been in constant contact with the Wanyeng family to talk about such a young adventurer graduating. The prevailing wisdom was a young person should have the time to mature and cement their sense of self before having the responsibilities of a full time adventurer thrust upon them. Young master Wanyeng has been with us for four years and has shown the highest examples of personal fortitude and strength of character. He has never shirked his duties or complained about his position. Many of his tutors have been pushing for his graduation to start providing the world with one more very capable adventurer. With his ascendancy to bronze rank we are happy to say we have taught him everything we can, his character is strong and will hold him in good stead for his trials to come.”
Vincent stepped forward with the badge and tell-tale Remore academy annex ribbon. An elder man wearing an ancient wooden scabbard sword stepped forward with him. The old man addressed Wanyeng who had risen to bow low in front of him.
“Little Wanyeng. Every clan member who has joined the society of adventurers does so in the knowledge they bring our name greater by spilling our blood on the ground for innocents. You must understand that you must remain humble, take no reward beyond what is due to you. Your greatest achievement can only be to live a full life in service to the innocent, father more warriors and continue the honour of service. Do you accept these premise?”
“I do.”
The old man drew the ancient blade and Wanyeng pulled his sleeve back and put his hand out palm up. The blade shimmered with some kind of magic.
“With this cut, let it be known that you will spill blood in the name of the family of Wanyeng, have you chosen a name for yourself?”
“I have, I will be known as Daishō.”
James went stiff in the crowd and Teddy patted his arm. The old man slowly drew the blade in a shallow cut on Daishō’s hand, he didn’t flinch, leaving his hand relaxed until blood dribbled either side of his hand to the floor. The old man wrapped his hand in a silk bandage. He tied it shut, a ceremonial tradition as Daishō’s bronze rank healing would have shut such a small wound by now, Vincent stepped forward and presented his society badge and ribbon, Daishō accepted it with his bandaged hand and bowed low. Vincent returned the bow and Daishō sat down.
Vincent remained centre stage.
“It is my great pleasure to complete the set. Cadet Lucy Mitchell will be joining her husband and family as an incredibly capable adventuring team whom I’m sure will go on to have some truly unique adventures. She is one of the most well-read magical theorists I have seen from the academy annex here and is a credit to their teaching.”
He handed Lucy her badge and shook her hand. They all filed off the stage and started to mingle. To their astonishment there was no alcohol served, in deference to Daishō not being able to drink. He was welcome to throw himself in front of monsters but society at large would frown on him drinking. They stayed until the late afternoon then the party broke up, they pestered Daishō into agreeing to take them on some bronze rank contracts and said they’d have him over to the villa soon.
They were headed back to the villa in the carriage. The day had been pleasant and the food had been excellent, the clan members were a bit stiff and formal but polite enough. They all came to the same idea at the same time on the way home, when they got near the villa they knocked on the carriage front at the same time that Teddy steered onto the path that lead into the city, towards the Schooner for a drink.
The next morning they all woke up slightly worse for wear around the communal table where they had all fallen asleep. James rustled slightly as a sandwich wrapper fell off him as he stood. The schooner did amazing sandwiches. Kyra was already up and about and spread a selection of breakfast bites in front of them on the table.
“Quick quick quick, everyone eat up, no training this morning. We’re going shopping!”
They made their way to the adventure society in Greenstone. The market was only accessible to qualified adventurers. They ignored all the trade stalls as much as they wanted to peruse they knew thats not what they were there for. They went through to the auction at the back for awakening stones. Lucy had been given one for her help in the magic anomaly but they still had plenty to grab.
Teddy needed two Dark, one Dimension and one Void power awakened. Kyra needed just the one Life power awakened. James had to get a stone for his confluence essence Animagus and Lucy had Vision, Mind and Illusion gaps so needed two more stones in addition to the one she had been gifted. They spent a long time at the auction weighing up the different stones they might go for before it started. They spoke to a lot of seasoned adventurers that were around gleaning gems of advice. There were a lot of stones on offer after the previous weeks activity. There was not a lot of competition in the crowd either.
Teddy walked away with two expensive stones of the Reaper, a unique stone that was a throwback to a competition that happened a while ago, they had gone slightly out of favour after some people had started turning up dead in connection to the reapers competition. Also two common stones of The Call which were known for summoning powers, the fact that they were common opened up the potential selection of powers they could be, Lucy’s gifted stone was the highest rarity of the Avatar meaning that it was almost dead certain to be a summon.
Kyra went for a stone of The Mist, hoping for an area effect healing power. James saw an opportunity to maybe give him a ranged attack, choosing a stone of The Ranger which normally gave archer-type powers, the magic society attendant was very excited by James’ niche essences and thought it should give him a ranged power that tied in with his existing theme. Lucy got an awakening stone of Midnight and one of The Chamber.
They went around collecting the materials needed for re-summoning Lucky and Koda at bronze rank then headed home. The villa was far enough outside the city that the clash of auras from many people wouldn’t effect the rituals required for summoning the familiars. Lucy coached them through the bronze rank rituals as her knowledge was comfortably beyond that. James went first, when Koda re-emerged from the ritual circle he was considerably taller and darker. Now the height of most men and wider, he was a young adult bear rather than the large cub he had been. James had, of course, been sharing his interface for the others to see.
Ability: [Koda] (Bear)
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina, extreme health.
Cool-down: None
Current rank: Bronze 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Koda the junior bear is summoned to serve the summoner. When absorbed will significantly increase the strength of the summoner.
Effect (bronze): Koda is larger and stronger with a much higher damage against enemies of a lower rank. When absorbed he will now aid the summoner in deflecting 20% of incoming physical damage.
“Wow, his strength is going to be insane. And a 20% damage negation? That seems like cheating.” Teddy said.
James was just recovering and had a hand in the thick fur of Koda to steady himself. He smiled and stroked the bear before absorbing him. James got markedly bigger, surprising even himself, he thickened all over and his hair grew a little darker, thicker and more of it. He released Koda and the bear rolled over for a tummy rub. James didn’t quite shrink to the size he was before.
Kyra went next, Lucky went to the centre of the summoning circle and laid down, a little whimper as he knew the ritual was going to be taxing for Kyra. After the light show was complete a much bigger golden lab bounded out of the circle at Kyra, before she had a chance to move he smashed into her and absorbed, the ritual had heavily taxed her and now she suddenly felt like someone had stabbed her with a handful of adrenaline needles. She could see in her interface and feel that her health was rapidly climbing back to normal. She released him and he sat and gave his paw.
Ability: [Lucky] (Life)
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina, extreme health.
Cool-down: None
Current rank: Bronze 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Lucky the puppy is summoned as a familiar. When absorbed effects the look of the summoners hair. Will cause a moderate ongoing healing boost. When deployed from the user will produce a low ongoing healing effect in a small area of effect.
Effect (bronze): Lucky is now a young dog, his healing effects are increased as is his area of effect. His healing effects against ranks lower than him are greatly increased.
There was no massive change to Lucky but everything about him was slightly bigger and better which was very welcome. James perked up having him around, still recovering from his ritual.
Once they’d all settled from giving fuss to both Koda and Lucky and sent them outside to play they sat around the table with a cup each of the local tea.
Teddy sipped his tea and nibbled a biscuit then placed them in front of him on the dark wood table.
“Ok, awakening stones, who wants to go first?”