The party was spectacular given the circumstances. They had quickly cleaned the kitchens, and had set up a feast on the prep tables. When Will joined them, he was greeted with cheering and calls to come sit and eat. A barrel of mead that Emerys had been hoarding was tapped and everyone was soon draining mugs in honor of everything they could think of. An excited toast went up when Will announced that they had a hot bath awaiting them.
Will managed to slip away for a few minutes to enchant the pipes to provide hot water. The problem was Will had to improvise the enchantment using the flame sword enchantment. Moreover, he needed a proper set of inscriptionists tools. While he could and did lay enchantments into the spirits of the pipes, they would wear off after a day unless properly anchored.
But he couldn’t put it off for long, and soon the group was clamoring for him to announce his new class. And so Will stood upon a table, wobbling slightly from the drink, and paused dramatically. Will threw out an arm toward the gathered people and spoke.
“My good people! Many choices were laid before me when I went to choose my class. Six in fact.” a chorus of oohs rose until Emerys called for him to get on with it.
“My first choice was Magus of Frostfire, a powerful class wielding frostfire. I did not choose this class. My second choice…” Will was booed until he gave up and told them his class.
“I am the exalted Script Lord, you may all bow before me.”
“What does it do!?” one of the followers yelled.
“It enhances my inscriptions okay!” Will yelled back, finally breaking from his pompous attitude as he rejoined the party. Except that was only a part of what it did. Sure Script Lord was based around inscription, but it had more of a focus on spirit inscription than the Inscription Dedicate class. Instead Script Lord was all about inscription within the aura, which was what Will had been experimenting with. Its main ability was to create a domain. Domains were like auras, but better. If Will activated his ice aura he could inscribe his aura to turn it into an ice domain. It would then be colder and have more secondary effects. The best part was that because he could create the script for the domain from the ground up, it was incredibly flexible.
Will wished he had paid more attention to programming. He had basic familiarity with a few programming languages, but he felt the knowledge would be incredibly useful here. He could maintain a permanent cold domain around him, but then program it to only affect those who were determined to be hostile. And that was only to start. With the ability to save enchantments using the system and recreate them at a moment’s notice, he could have a massive suite of domains that were suited to every situation.
But the fun didn’t end there, because the class had aspects similar to noble classes, giving boosts and abilities related to social interactions. Additionally, because it utilized the aura so heavily, it gave an excellent boost to concept control that increased with every level. All in all, Will was excited about where this class would lead.
The night finished up as everyone got their turn at the baths and everyone crashed in their tent set up in the great hall. They weren’t quite ready to sleep in the rooms, not until they had been thoroughly cleaned.
The next morning started slow as people slowly got over their hangovers, and Will finally realized that constitution gave less hangover resistance than he thought it should. However, after breakfast and a surprisingly good tea made by one of the followers, everyone finally had themselves together. The rest of the day was spent sweeping the fortress for any remaining undead, and cleaning the place. They discovered a mine below the castle that seemed rich in a kind of crystal useful in enchanting. It was also fairly valuable as a semi-precious stone, which meant that it adorned a lot of enchanted items owned by the rich and wealthy. The mine was likely the reason for the castle being built here, as it would have brought in a huge amount of money had the place not been overrun. The mine was big, enough to fund the place for decades if not centuries.
When they were all done, Will found a tower and set up the alchemy equipment inside. When Amalise saw, she rolled her eyes so hard it made her large hat flop, but then she just left. Will just told himself he was doing important work for people everywhere. The problem was that Will really didn’t know a thing about alchemy. With his time needing to be devoted to his other training, he really didn’t have time for alchemy either. And so with great reluctance, Will locked the door to the alchemy room for the time being.
Will then set to work. He claimed the penthouse suite by virtue of having control of the System Relay Node. It gave him more than enough space to work. His concept control had gained a nice boost from his class, and it allowed him far greater ability to call upon his wind and earth concepts. He was even able to impose a bit of order on his heat and cold concepts, though they continued to resist him.
Will also spent a day working on his domains, though he quickly realized he needed to be far better with inscription to make use of this power. He could do simple effects with his domains, but he had far to little understanding to do anything complex. He thought maybe the guild would have a trainer, but realized that it was unlikely. He would ask though, as it was nearly a week since he had been to the adventurers guild in Martel, and it was time for his next check in for training. He needed a new bracelet as well as his half melted one had continued to fail. Which meant that a trip to Stinburough was in the cards soon. Fortunately, Stinburough was only a day away, but Will would have to figure out how to deal with his face.
Will assumed that bounty fliers were still making the rounds, and without a way to disguise himself he would be pegged from a mile away. Of course he could do the whole shadow in the night thing, but that would require that he stay hidden all the time and completely ignore the city he was visiting. But Will had some ideas. Alchemist Savil had posessed a large stockpile of already created potions for various purposes.
One was a simple hair dye that would turn his white hair into a carrot red. Not the most appealing color in Will’s opinion, but certainly far from his distinctive white. The other potion was a clever concoction that when rubbed on the face made it difficult for people to remember your features. It just played with people’s sight a bit making it difficult to focus properly. Hopefully, he would be seen only as the man with the orange hair, and nothing else.
Of course, it wouldn’t stop the most dedicated bounty hunters, but it would keep every person in the city from trying to stab him.
Unfortunately, Koma couldn’t come, much to his dismay. Will wasn’t willing to risk people seeing Koma even in his smaller size. He did try to coax Koma to change color using his bond transformation perk, but the one time they managed it, it reminded him of Zeus, his german shepherd. Zeus should have been four by now.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
With all that done Will got ready to set out. Amalise and two followers were coming with him while Emerys was good to his word that he would be taking a break. It had to be close to noon and Emerys was still sawing logs. The trip took them eight and a half hours, and night was falling as they finally entered the gates of Stinburough. They made their way to the adventurers guild where they found rooms for the night, and Will surreptitiously signed in. They ate and drank, and then went to bed.
The next morning as Will was getting ready for breakfast, a knock came at the door. Will opened it to find a guild receptionist waiting. She informed him that he had been requested in the guild master’s office. Will just sighed and let himself be led away. Breakfast would have to wait. When he arrived however, he was surprised to find Lord Atherton sitting behind the desk looking worn and none too pleased.
“Sit, Mr. Thompson.” It made Will feel like he was back in elementary school.
“Mr. Thompson, you are far from my favorite person at the moment. Your carelessness has caused me a great deal of hardship over the past week. Baron Agenhal has been named chairman of the oversight committee, with his goons filling the rest of the spots. I can’t get anything through him without bribing him in gold. We may have to pull out of Frostfell entirely. So please, Mr. Thompson, give me an explanation of why you acted so irresponsibly.” Will was taken aback by the speech. Though he did smile slightly at the thought of the guild pulling out of Frostfell. Baron Agenhal just lost most of his shipping business due to the giant somnite pillar, and the guild pulling out of Frostfell would be a double whammy.
“I was drugged. Concept enhancement potion in my food. It got so bad that my suppression bracelet started to burn my wrist. It’s failing now by the way. I will need a new one.” Will just watched as a stunned Lord Atherton lowered his head into his hands.
“That fool of a man. That Fool of a man! And I am a fool too for not seeing it sooner.” Lord Atherton tried rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Still, you covered Baron Agenhal’s tracks for him quite well.”
“Thats not my fault!”
“I know thats not your fault, Will.” Lord Atherton sighed. “But that means that the guild will need to leave Frostfell for at least a few years. We cannot have people poisoning our guild members.”
Lord Atherton manifested a silver bracelet that looked identical to Will’s before he had melted it. He passed it over to Will who switched them out without a word.
“What are you doing here though?” Will asked. “I thought you had business in frostfell.”
“I could ask the same of you O bounty bearer.” Lord Atherton smirked slightly. “I was back in Brythorne for a break from all the problems in Frostfell when I was informed you had arrived. I can move very quickly when I want to. What about you? What brings you to Stinburough of all places?”
“We conquered Deep Woods Fortress and are holding up there for now. It was infested with undead, but we managed to clear them out.”
“Really? I know of multiple adventuring parties that have tried and failed to clear that dungeon.”
“There were some traps that were frankly unfair which we had to bypass. There was a revenant lord in control of the dungeon, and he made things as bad as he could.” Lord Atherton nodded.
“Very well. Good job. I hope that the fortress serves you well. Maybe if you make enough of a name for yourself I can get you the deed to the place. But don’t worry that anyone is going to come for it in the short term. Possession is nine tenths of the law and all that, and conquerors' rights go a long way in these circumstances.” Lord Atherton stood. “We have a concept trainer here, and I hope you will take advantage of his services. Otherwise have a good day.”
After saying his farewells, Will left for breakfast. He had a busy day ahead of him. Before speaking to the concept trainer, he wanted to talk to the blacksmith.
…
“I’m not making that.” the blacksmith said, gesturing to the drawing Will had made. “I don’t do falchions. They are cowardly weapons for use against unarmored opponents.”
“It isn’t a falchion, it’s a katana, and they are very well regarded where I come from.” Will said a bit peeved.
“It’s foolish, is what it is. You take a coward's weapon and take away the hand guard to make it horribly unbalanced and less safe to use. If I gave this to one of our swordsmen out there, any raw recruit would be able to run circles around him. And that would be simply due to the fact that nobody is stupid enough to not wear armor in a fight.” The blacksmith glared at Will. “So unless you plan to go out slaughtering civilians, this isn’t what you want.”
“Couldn’t you just cut through the armor?” Will asked, his question slowing as the blacksmith’s expression darkened further.
“Cut through armor? Are you stupid? A steel blade cannot cut steel armor. Not without destroying both, and that is if you have the strength. You would need at least a blade made of mythril at least, if not orichalcum to survive tearing through steel armor. And you would still need tier two strength to do it. Otherwise, what would be the point of armor? Worse, you want to cut through the armor, when there is a far better way.”
“Oh?” Will said a bit on guard.
“Yes, a new kind of blade that has come out of the west. It is a variant of the longsword, but much better in my opinion.” The man went to a long box behind him and pulled out a sword.
“A rapier?” Will asked.
“Oh so you have heard of them!” The blacksmith said. He placed the rapier on the counter between them. It was long, longer than any longsword Will had seen, and had the iconic basket hilt. The blade was thicker than Will had expected, as wide as his thumb near the hilt. “If you want to penetrate armor, this is your best bet. It won’t go through a steel plate, but you will find cloth, leather, and chain mail to be of little hindrance. It is also accurate enough to be able to find the gaps in armor without half swording.”
The blade was beautiful, Will could admit that. But he couldn’t just let go of some of his childhood dreams of katana wielding samurai. The blacksmith could see his hesitation. He went over to a barrel of finished blades and pulled out a falchion blade and wound a couple pieces of wood around the hilt with a piece of cord.
“For the record, I did not make this blade. I am just doing maintenance on it, but it should be good enough for our purposes.” The blacksmith finished the makeshift hilt and moved to an open area of the shop. “If I have my guess, this is how people in your homeland used your katana.”
He then went into a series of graceful swings. They weren’t exactly how the katana masters Will had seen online had moved, but it was surprisingly close. The blacksmith saw Will’s surprise and grinned.
“Did I get close to the mark? That was a series of drills for the mace I adapted slightly. It focuses on large graceful movements because the weapon is too heavy and tiring to be moved effectively in any other way. It doesn’t matter that it and the rapier are the same weight because the center of balance is so far away.” The blacksmith softened at Will’s defeated look. “If your katana is historical or something, I can make one. But you have to promise me you won’t fight with it.”
Will nodded and picked up the rapier. It fit well into one hand and had impressive reach. Will quickly realized that this blade was heavier than what he could have managed before coming to this world. The blacksmith gestured to a wooden training dummy that had been set up in the shop. Will went up to it and thrust the blade clean through the dummy and out the other side.
“I’ll take it.”