Vulk had now been traveling with his three old companions for two weeks now and during this time he gathered a fair bit of information from Prince Seff and Nima. While simply keeping his distance from his former elf companion.
Vulk unlike four years ago was not looking for random information, instead he asked about the continent, its people, and some questions he had about the goblin system. The continent known as Istreth named after the god of creation. Currently they were in the edges beast planes ruled by the beast men.
The reason a high elf like Soora was in charge of such a place was due to the great distance between the capital of the beast planes and their small settlements. Unfortunately even after much discussion Vulk could not find out what part of the continent he lived in.
Gobins were much too common all around the continent, even more so a group of F rank goblins lead by one E rank, and not having explored very far from the cave he once lived in Vulk couldn’t name any identifiable features.
The people of Istreth were also quite varied from beast men of all kinds to dwarves and elves. The most common race however were the humans. Prince Seff had warned Vulk many times to be wary of humans as they considered anything that wasn’t human an affront to their god and hunted it down. That didn’t mean all humans were this way but a majority of them were and keeping his distance might be for the better.
Finally he got a bit of information about the system, the one thing that he didn’t ask about before the stars next to the skills. The answer came fast and a very simple way, the stars represented the rank of the skill. And when a skill reached level ten it would have the chance to go up a rank. The highest rank skill would be five stars.
“Vulk were almost there so before we reach our destination let’s talk.”
They had been traveling by horse, so for them to have some privacy while they spoke Vulk slowed down his horse for a bit taking enough distance from Nima and Iefyr.
“Vulk you should speak with Iefyr, he used to be the one closest to you.”
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“Seff you couldn't have ask for something a bit harder? Like slaying a dragon?”
Vulk’s words were dripping with sarcasm, the betrayal had hurt him yes, but Vulk reason to avoid Iefyr went deeper than simple hurt feelings. Vulk understood Iefyr’s way of thinking, to Iefyr this was nothing more than a task and everything else was simply irrelevant.
If Soora would only ask Iefyr would happily kill all three of them, in the end thinking of someone like that as a companion much less a friend was simply too hard.
“Ha… you know he has his own issues and reasons on why he is the way he is. Have you ever heard of how an elf fight?”
Vulk shook his head he had seen Iefyr fight before but he always seemed reluctant off by a bit. “It’s simple the common elf uses a bow and wind magic and if they're good enough they can also use earth and water magic to synthesize wood magic.”
Vulk nodded in understanding Iefyr had always fought with a large tower shield and cast magic from behind but when things really got tough he would use a sword along with his tower shield.
“It seems like you get it, simply put he’s terrible at magic. As an elf he’s an embarrassment to his kind, or at least that’s the way he sees it. Even his fellow elves seem to look down on him, which is why he’s so devoted to elven law but even more so to Lady Enkas who doesn’t discriminate against him.”
Vulk could understand what was being said but a story like that meant little to him.
“Seff i get what you're trying to say, everyone has their own problems but he’s not the only one who’s suffered, I’m a goblin born from a horned rabbit, being on the bottom of elven society has to be better than the bottom of goblin society. Being used as bait to lure in prey, never eating my fill, and eating only a small amount of bugs every couple of days.
That was my life after i went back to my village. If he could have said something at least given me a decent weapon or trained me a bit in combat to compensate for the fact that he knew i would get nothing then i might have not cared that he didn’t tell me anything. But the facts were that he knew and let me go on thinking that my life had changed for the better.”
Seff could only sigh, Vulk had a point and he knew it. The conditions of an F rank goblin were terrible and being at the bottom of the F ranks was even worse, so he would not be moved by an elf who went through a bit of discrimination.
“In fact from what i know even you and Nima went through similar things. If not a prince would not be out here in the edges of the beast planes were monster, ghosts, and humans attack every so often. Yet, Seff, you still provided me with some support.”
Seff closed his eyes and thought about what to say next, after a couple of minutes he let out a sigh and looked at Vulk.
“Yes you’re right. I’m in a similar situation, as a beast man i should look closer to a wolf than a human but my mother is human and therefor i’m closer to a human than a beast man the only saving grace for me is the fact that i’m under the war god’s system. While Nima is from a fallen aristocratic family who were branded traitors and sold off. And you're right we all have our issues, but please as a favor to me at least talk to him.”
Saying that Seff road ahead and caught up to the other two leaving Vulk behind to think about what he had been told.