— Keira —

After returning to Aleka and Emrik’s home, the rest of the day passed in a bizarre mixture of busy and boring that Keir had grown used to in the military. When there were things to do It was a rapid whirlwind of activity that was inevitably followed by long stretches of boring downtime.

It reminded Keir of a common expression among the armed forces of her homeland. “The tides wait for no one. Soldiers don’t have that same luxury.”

Using the little air elemental’s truly impressive abilities as a messenger Keir acted as something of a communications relay. When not doing that she’d taken on the task of dealing with the courier service that was transporting Aleka’s and Emrik’s things to the wagon yard to free up the pair to focus on packing.

Throughout the day, as Keir helped them get ready for their move, a clear difference between the two became obvious. With the possible exception of their work tools and supplies that were both more or less equally heavy and unwieldy, Aleka and Emrik had very different approaches to their belongings.

Aleka had some things that were clearly more dwarven in style, but most of what she brought out was made from some combination of leather, sailcloth, whale bone, and driftwood. Metal, while well crafted and no less artistically decorated, was used sparsely and always had a practical use. Most of her things also either collapsed into self contained bundles or were made to fit into gaps in the larger bundles.

Emrik by contrast took a very dwarven approach. For the most part Keir didn’t actually see much of their possessions. They were almost all packed away in sturdy wooden boxes but judging from the weight there was little if any consideration given to their portability when Emrik had chosen them.

Actual contents aside it was just as clear they had very different amounts of experience and skill in packing. Aleka finished with her own packing not long after midday and after she started helping Emrik, the rate that boxes were brought out almost tripled.

That rate only slowed marginally a few hours later when Emrik stepped out to go meet with their suppliers to arrange for their materials to be delivered to Still-Leaf Village instead of the smithy.

It wasn’t long after Emrik had left, while Keir was overseeing the pair of ogres loading boxes into their backpack like carrying frames, when the elemental returned with a small bundle of papers.

Rather than a bundle of letters explaining problems or possible delays that would need to be smoothed over, when Keir opened the bundle she found a note from Antheia and a small stack of papers with a familiar spiral rune pattern.

The note, Keir’s limited knowledge on the subject, and simple logic all indicated it wasn’t a sustainable long term solution.

A new enchantment couldn’t be activated until the current one ran its course. At which point they would have a gradually shrinking window in which to activate it before the little elemental’s nonrefillable innate mana pool emptied and ejected it back into the elemental planes.

Seeing that, Keir retrieved the first enchanted piece of paper from where she’d stowed it in her armor. Most of the spiral had crumbled away, leaving only a single band around the final rune. It was hard to say exactly how much time remained before the last of the page crumbled to nothing. Without being certain of that Keir would have to either check it frequently or rely on the barely noticeable feeling of mana draining from her pool ending.

While Keir was finishing that, the ogres had gathered their loads and departed so she was again left with nothing to do so she simply continued thinking about the elemental issue.

She wanted to ask the elemental if it was even interested in a more permanent bond but even if it hadn’t already darted off to continue its role as a messenger, Complex discussions were best saved until Antheia could translate for them.

Instead she focused on trying to think of a solution from her end just in case it was needed and she could actually find one.

Keir wasn’t a summoner and doubted any future permutation of her class would have much if any overlap. Even if it did it seemed more likely she would be able to call forth fragments of the dead shed while they crossed the veil. Perhaps she could eventually call upon denizens of the Sanguine Sea.

That thought made Keir think of a certain egg sized ruby or more specifically the tide pools formed in her soulscape by the passive skill it granted her. With a thought she called up the details of the skill.

“Tide Pool: This skill allows access to a tide pool on the coast of the Sanguine Sea that refreshes with the turning of the tide that can be used by your other skills. Advancement along your path may lead to more and larger pools. Requirement for summoning/familiar skills”

Keir was tempted to jump up in excitement or something equally ruinous to her dignity but settled for a large grin. If not for the caveats that came with her solution she might not have bothered trying to suppress a more demonstrative reaction.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Unlike class skills, path skills were not unlocked by leveling up. Well that wasn’t entirely true. One of the ways to acquire a new path skill was when advancing in tier which did require reaching level fifty. Fortunately it wasn’t the only way, though the others were either less certain or otherwise limited.

As with acquiring “Tide Pool” certain path milestones awarded opportunities to gain skills but there was always a very limited pool to choose from. She’d never heard of someone being offered more than four choices and even that was rare.

Some system quests awarded skills but they were always either fixed or random. There was never a choice.

Theoretically Keir could gain a relevant skill from either method but it was a gamble with rather long odds.

A more controllable if no more reliable method was hoping to find another Abyssal Blood Ruby or other item that would grant a skill within her soulscape, or as a reward for a challenge found within it.

More in interest of being thorough than out of any expectation that she would be nearing her tier increase threshold. While such a potentially powerful path would increase her leveling speed at lower tiers considerably, She’d only fought a few relatively weak foes. The large shalemaw worm they’d chased off would have gotten her close if not there if they’d killed it.

They hadn’t though and the other creatures were at or below her own tier.

Even so for the first time in what felt like a very long time she pulled up her status.

Name: Keira

Race: Abyssal Wight (Elf)

Class: Death Knight of the Sanguine Sea

Title: Viper’s Bane (Quest Reward) Death Knight (Blessing of Mortis)

Level: 38 (+15)

Tier: 3

Affinity: Steel (innate) Death (Undead Race) Toxin (Viper’s Bane) Blood (Death Knight)

Skills: Class Skills (Warrior’s Path Lvl 10, Tide Carver’s Stance Lvl 6 (+2), Blood Thorns Lvl 4 (+1) Serrated Strike Lvl 3 (+1), Blood Surge Lvl 2, Aspect of Phlegethon Lvl 3 (+2), Crushing Current Strike Lvl 2 (+1), Abyssal Aura Lvl 2 (+1) Rending Current Lvl 1 (+1) Crimson Brine Armor Lvl 1 (+1) )

Passive Skills (Tide Pool Lvl 1 (+1))

General Skills (Bushcraft Lvl 5, Inspection Lvl 6, Survival Lvl 3, Tactics Lvl 9, Temperature Resistance Lvl 3 (+2), Toxin Immunity Lvl 1, Weaponsmith Lvl 2)

Seeing her new level, Keir was floored. There was no way the fights she’d been in were enough to level her class up so many times; her skills yes her class no.

The stat gains that would have come along with it did at least explain why her startled reaction in the library had quite so thoroughly destroyed her chair.

She felt a little foolish, even if she would have argued it was understandable if anyone had asked, when she finally remembered a scrap of an old lesson that likely explained what was going on. She was used to being a pure combat class that only gained experience from fighting and even more so killing enemies.

Her new class was still partially a combat class and did gain experience in the same way. It was also a settlement leader class and that meant she grew with the community she led.

Since the last time she’d checked her status she’d reclaimed the quarry and the, admittedly greatly diminished, lumber mill. She’d also just recently acquired the services of a skilled blacksmith and engineer to help rebuild. That also wasn’t counting any progress the village had made in her absence that may or may not have also granted her class progression.

Unexpectedly, it seemed that reaching Tier Four may be the more likely solution.

With a potential solution and a partial answer to the mystery of her level, Keir’s focus soon turned to her new skills.

She didn’t know how long she had before the next fire needed to be put out so she focused on the first new skill and its details flowed into her mind.

“Rending Current Lvl 1: Charge forward in a raging current of sea water filled with razor sharp blades formed from blood and salt. Until brought to a halt by an obstacle or the limits of the skill the current continues to flow in your wake. Cooldown 36 seconds”

With how focused her Tide carver class had been on charging into enemy lines and as the name implied carving through their ranks, Keir was wondering when she’d gain a charge skill in her current class to go with the strikes.

More than happy with that skill she focused on the next.

“Crimson Brine Armor Lvl 1: Call upon the bloody brine of the Sanguine Sea’s crushing depths to coat and reinforce your flesh and armor. For the duration you bear the weight and cold of the deep sea. Cooldown 1 hour”

Mentally Keir placed that skill in the same box as Aspect of Phlegethon. It could be extremely powerful but if used carelessly it could likely do as much harm as good, if not more.

Though she did see that with each use of Aspect of Phlegethon she’d also increased the level of her Temperature Resistance skill. As she’d had some idea of the skill’s effect she hadn’t bothered to examine it earlier but she was curious how close it was to mitigating some of the damage that filling her blood with magic fire caused.

“Temperature Resistance: You are more resistant to damaging temperatures. You can withstand thirty percent higher or lower temperatures before experiencing hypothermia or hyperthermia. You negate thirty percent of non magical damage caused by extreme temperatures.”

Keir was disappointed but not surprised. From what she knew of such skills it was only when they evolved at level ten into an immunity skill that they began protecting from magic effects like her Toxin Immunity.

Having done all she could within the system Keir let her status fade from her mind and returned to waiting for something to do.

After several more problems she either helped solve or passed on messages to other members of the village in the city who could do so, and a few more piles of boxes it was at last time to head towards the wagon yard where the other undead and the wagons they’d purchased could be found.

Just before setting off Aleka and Emrik had gone inside to change for the journey. When they emerged Aleka was dressed in salt crusted leather armor dyed to blend into dense jungle vegetation and had a hefty war maul resting against her shoulder.

Emrik on the other hand was dressed in a slightly thicker and more armor like dwarven traveling outfit and carried an impressively over engineered dwarven repeating crossbow.

Both of them were also carrying thick winter cloaks.

Keir smiled, seeing they seemed well prepared, and said “Are you ready to leave the city and make for Still-Leaf Village?”

When they confirmed they were indeed ready Keir set off into the street before almost immediately and slightly sheepishly requested they lead the way, garnering a few good natured chuckles.