As Jayce opens the door he hears a loud thump and some muted cursing before seeing a dwarf run over-enthusiastically. Hugnol sticks his hand out while yelling,
“Hello there, good to meet ya. I’m Hugnol Earthforged from the kingdom of Stonerock.”
Hugnol is a typical dwarf, at least from what little Jayce knows about them. About 1.20 meters, thick, long beard and hair on his head just as long. He speaks in a slightly gruff voice and is clearly excited to be here. Jayce shakes his hand and is almost brought to his knees from the strength of Hugnol’s grip.
With a big wince Jayce replies, “Hey Hugnol, I’m Jayce. Quite a handshake you’ve got there.”
“Was it not good? Sorry bout tha’. Not how we greet people back home but I’ve been practicing trying to make it right.” Hugnol says sheepishly.
“It’s alright, just used a lot of force. Handshakes are meant to be firm but not overbearing. Grip the hand without crushing it. What is the greeting back home?”
“Can I try again? Back home we headbutt each other to see who’s got the harder head.”
“Sure,” they shake hands much more comfortably that time and Jayce continues with a laugh, “Much better. Thanks for not killing me, I don’t think that would go over well here.”
“No worries,” Hugnol replies, also laughing. “Want to drop your stuff and come to lunch with a friend and me? The hall will be open by now.”
“Yea let’s head down. Who is your friend?”
“Adina, a dryad from Eleneo.”
They head down to the dining hall where Adina is already waiting for them. The descriptions of dryads do not do them justice. She is made of what looks like thick vines twisting around themselves with bright blue eyes. It creates an almost mystical look that stands out quite a bit. Jayce goes to introduce himself when Hugnol quickly whispers,
“Dryads do not do physical contact, bow instead”
He bows instead of offering his hand as he says, “Hey Adina, I’m Jayce, Hugnol’s roommate.”
Smiling brightly at the bow, Adina replies, “Hi Jayce, nice to meet you. Thank you for understanding and respecting my customs.”
“No problem, give the credit to Hugnol here,” Jayce said while laughing, “He told me right as I was about to mess it up.”
“Thank you both then. I’m starving so let’s get food and then talk. Very curious to learn who the academy would put with the first non-humans to attend.”
After grabbing lunch and a table, Adina jumps right to the questions and asks, “So, what aptitudes do you have? I’m really curious to see how the common ones are different from back home.”
Jayce rubs his head as he replies, “Well I’m about as far from common as they come. I’m a combination Space/Void user.”
Both Hugnol and Adina’s jaws drop. “WHAT?!?” they yell at the same time. Adina continues, “Those are two of, if not the most, rarest aptitudes to exist. Our kingdom has a single Space user and no void users…”
“Yeah, I definitely have my work cut out to figure out how to make them work together but everyone I’ve spoken to is hopeful it can turn into a powerful combination. What about you two, what are your aptitudes?” Jayce asks.
They glance at each other before Adina replies, “I also have one rare element but I am a combination Nature/Soul user. Most dryads have Nature but Soul is pretty unique even for us. There are only a few other users with it back in Eleneo. I was only allowed to come here because even we recognize Resco as one of the best academies in the world.”
Hugnol then jumps in and says, “It seems fate has brought us all here together. I also have a rare element, or at least variation, as a Hard Light/Wood user. One of the only dwarfs in the kingdom to not have a Metal or Stone element, they weren’t sure what to do with me. Especially once I started to show my knowledge and physical abilities, they decided to send me here in the hope that Resco can help me reach the heights.”
“Fate probably has something to do with it,” Jayce replies, “The rest is on the academy I believe. I had a meeting with the headmaster before coming to the room and he mentioned that you two would make good party members for me without giving away your elements. We have a perfect healer/support in Adina, one of the theorized best tanking combinations, and I have a combination of utility and combat skills. All we are missing is someone to sneak and help do damage and it's a perfect party. I’m assuming you are both also interested in delving since he brought you up?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
After seeing nods from both of them Jayce continues, “I’ll be honest I’m interested in getting to know you both better and potentially partying. From this first meeting, I think we could work well together and our aptitudes complement each other very well. What do you guys think?”
“I’m open to it, we have to choose our projected parties the first week anyways so will be nice to get a bit more time to know you guys before that,” Adina says.
“I’m interested as well,” Hugnol says, “I was very worried about getting stuck with the worst of the class since no one wanted to party with a dwarf.”
“Let’s plan on that then and we can confirm next week.”
They move on to talk about less serious topics for the rest of lunch before Jayce excuses himself to go unpack. He heads back up to his room and takes a second to look around a bit more since the last time was just a quick in and out. They have a common room and a shared bathroom along with two separate bedrooms. He takes a peek at one, sees it is the unoccupied one, and goes in to put his stuff away. Inside he has a twin-sized bed, a desk to work at, and a small window with a pretty sad view of the next building. He puts his clothes away and puts the few other things he brought on the desk before sitting with the rare elements book. A quick refresher on the elements Adina and Hugnol had might be a good idea.
Nature: One of the most common elements for dryads, Nature is very useful in many aspects of life. Anything to do with growing or healing and you can find a Nature user involved.
Common Paths:
* Agriculture: Nature users make some of the best agriculturists. Whether that’s farming, botany, or private growing, Nature users can make the highest quality the fastest.
* Delver/Explorer: Both delving parties and exploring parties would love to have a Nature user along for the ride. They have some of the highest quality healing magic as well as the ability to grow food or cleanse water when needed.
* Healer: For those not interested in adventure, a city healer uses their healing ability for those not in the wilds. From curing common illnesses to helping curb outbreaks of pandemics, Nature users can help with it all.
Important Note:
Outside of the dryad culture Nature is seen as a rare element, hence why it is in this book.
Everyone has heard stories about how incredible the healing of a high-level Nature user. At lower levels they aren’t quite as good as Life users but once they get to the point that they can encourage a body to return to its natural state they can heal more injuries with less studying required.
Soul: On par with Starlight, Soul is one of those elements seen only a couple of times per year. As of this writing, there are 14 Soul users within Hilzarya and only Lomba has as many. Allowing users to detect truth from lies, the ability to make people confront parts of themself, and the ability to help heal a soul that has been damaged make Soul users pivotal to any administration.
Common Paths:
* Administrator/Judge: The ability to detect truth from lies makes Soul users ideal candidates for positions that must be able to discern that. Judges and administrators within government are two such roles; being able to find out if someone was guilty or preventing spies from making it in are pivotal.
* Therapist: Together with Mind users, Soul users make some of the best therapists. People typically go to therapy when they have something they need to work through and Soul users can force them to realize it as well as help them confront it.
Important Note:
Soul can be very dangerous to sentient races when used. Sometimes we hide things from ourselves because they are damaging and when a Soul user makes those things come to light it can drastically change a person.
Seeming like a good complement to Nature outside of combat, Jayce is slightly unsure of how useful it would be inside a dungeon. While some dungeons do have sentient races, most do not contain them. Maybe there are some uses not written down due to the warning that Resco can teach. On to Hugnol’s elements:
Hard Light: One of the best reinforcing elements around, Hard Light allows for lots of trickery. Hard Light is exactly what it sounds like, light that is hard. It is still weightless and easy to see but when you put it inside equipment it turns standard equipment into some of the best you can buy. It can turn relatively light materials into competitors of steel and stone with the agility of leather.
Common Paths:
* Reinforcer: Filling a unique crafting role among all that exist is not easy yet reinforcers do it. Hard Light is the only element typically used for it making it extremely uncommon. Blacksmiths/Leatherworkers that work with reinforcers typically make the most desired equipment around.
* Constructionist: Working on a construction site can be made much easier with a Hard Light user. Rather than worrying about framing and placement you instead have a see-through hard shell to support the materials and make matching placements easy.
* Delver/Explorer: Being able to make shields from a distance as well as reinforce your own and your party's armor/weapons make Hard Light users incredibly versatile on a team. Primarily fulfilling the role of a tank, they can also be damage dealers or support.
Important Note:
Notorious for how difficult it is to learn to wield properly. Beware of adding Hard Light users to your party without knowing they are competent.
Based on what Hugnol was saying about the dwarven kingdom recognizing him for his skills, hopefully, the skill usage won’t be an issue. Besides, any party member of his will be pushed to their limit by him and the school both. Having a tank that can perform with the best of them while also making the party safer and doing more damage sounds almost too good to be true. Jayce looks for a Wood entry but can’t find it. I guess I’ll head to the library and look at one of the common books, he thinks to himself before doing just that.
Once at the library he quickly finds a book that explains it:
Wood: An element that commonly puts people on an artistic path, Wood is known for being light and beautiful once designed. Decoration, function, and ease of movement can all be combined into one.
Common Paths:
* Woodworker: In what may come as no surprise, Wood users make good woodworkers. The ability to easily shape and strengthen wood allows them to make aesthetically pleasing and durable objects.
* Architect: Wood users make the inclusion of wood much more reliable and quick in designing buildings. Having stronger and lighter building materials that are also better for the environment is very nice for a city.
* Explorer: Being able to provide shelters for your party, as well as create light armor that can be nearly as good as iron is a godsend for explorers. Traveling as much as they do in heavy armor is absolutely brutal and replacing it with wood is hardly ever an issue.
What a lucky combination! Wood already provides light and fairly durable armor, but when combined with Hard Light it will make some of the best around. There are probably some interesting applications when combined with Adina’s Nature aptitude as well. The potential party is shaping up to have a lot of work to do in finding all the ways their elements can play together, but it seems like it could turn out quite powerful.